“Hey, hey, did you hear?”

“About Aya…”

“What’s going on? She’s been gone for a whole week now!”

“I heard a rumour that she’s moving overseas…”

“What?! Tell me it’s not true!!”

“Noooo!!”

Wails of gloom were going around the elitist school, a depressive cloud setting into the atmosphere that was once bustling with overbearing confidence. Dark faces could be seen on many of the students with the absence of Aya’s presence.

Hikaru lied her head down on her desk, staring out at the window.

Do I have feelings for Aya…?

She sighed to herself, feeling frustration running across her mind.

“You okay, Hikaru?” Itsuo asked from the other side of Hikaru. “You’ve been looking down for a while now…”

Hikaru lifted her head off from the desk, then turned to the other side, away from the window, to smile at Itsuo.

“It’s nothing, Itsuo… Thank you for your concern…” Hikaru said.

“…”

Itsuo stared at Hikaru’s face, then sighed. “I know you’re upset about Aya, Hikaru… Everyone is… you don’t have to hide it…”

Hikaru stared down at her desk darkly.

“It’s not your fault that she left, Hikaru.” Itsuo said. “She was probably forced by her parents. The schools in America are better after all, especially for the heiress of a global banking institution.”

“You don’t understand…” Hikaru said, leaning back on her desk. “It’s all my fault that Aya left…”

“What do you mean?” Itsuo asked, but Hikaru didn’t respond.

He sighed, and continued eating his lunch in silence.

On the other side of the room, Fumiko was standing near the door of the classroom with Sana and some other girls.

Their conversations were interrupted when Kenzou and Mika approached the group.

“Is it true?” Kenzou said, breathing heavily from running over. He stared at Fumiko with serious eyes. “That Aya is… planning to move overseas?”

“It can’t be, right…?” Mika said with a shaky voice.

Fumiko nodded gravely. “I heard it from her head butler… that she’s thinking about it…”

“What do you mean thinking about it?” Kenzou said angrily.

“Well, she’s on a business trip with her family at the moment.” Fumiko said. “Her butler said she will be back in a month from last week, so maybe she will just be here to tie up some loose ends.”

“Ahh!” Mika cried, brushing her auburn red hair away from her face. “We have to convince her not to!”

“We all have to…” Kenzou said. “The school wouldn’t be the same without her…”

Eito, who was walking past the school hallway, turned into the room.

“We will do it together! For Aya!” Eito joined into the conversation. “I’ll personally make sure of it. As the eldest son of the Akaba family, I will use everything in my power to make her stay!”

Fumiko glared at Eito with a disgusted look as though she was looking at a bug, then sighed, shaking her head.

“Let’s hope she does stay…”

~x~

Sitting on Fumiko’s limousine, Hikaru was swaying from side to side politely as Fumiko belted out some tunes from the karaoke machine installed in her limo. Sana was doing the same, clapping as Fumiko finished singing.

“How was that, how was that?” Fumiko asked, excitedly, staring at both Hikaru and Sana.

“Amazing, as always!” Sana said.

“Very good!” Hikaru laughed. She hadn’t been laughing much recently, so it was good that Fumiko was there to cheer her up. Fumiko had become a lot nicer to her ever since the karaoke.

“Right?” Fumiko said with a self-pleased grin. “My parents keep telling me I should just become a singer, but I like the freedom of going out too much! Can you imagine it? Not being able to go out like a normal person?”

“Yeah, that would be really hard.” Hikaru said. “I wouldn’t be able to do it either.”

“But, I guess the good thing is that you can reach out to so many people.” Sana said. “There’s not many jobs that allow you to do that if you think about it.”

“Not for me.” Fumiko stated blandly. “Anyways, I hope you girls are excited to do some shopping!”

“Yay…” Sana raised her hand up in the air with a forced smile. “H-how long are we going to be shopping for today, Fumiko…?”

“Oh, it shouldn’t be too long…” Fumiko said, glancing down at the gold watch on her wrist. “Shops are going to be closing soon anyways, since we just finished school.”

“Really…?” Sana said with a relieved expression.

“Anyways, let’s play truth or dare!” Fumiko said cheerfully.

“How do you play that?” Hikaru asked.

“Y-you… you’ve never played truth or dare—Nevermind.” Fumiko shook her head. “Basically, we each take turns spinning a bottle, whoever it points to, the person that spun the bottle can ask truth or dare to that person. If that person says truth, then they can ask a question which the other person must answer truthfully. If they say dare, then the bottle spinner can dare the other to do something.”

“Oh, right…” Hikaru said. “That sounds simple.”

“You can’t choose the same one over and over again though!” Fumiko added, then placed an empty sparkling water bottle on the limousine table. “I’ll start first…”

Fumiko spun the bottle around and the trio stared at the bottle intently, until it stopped at Hikaru.

"Oh, I guess it's me then..." Hikaru laughed weakly.

“Okay, now I ask you truth or dare?” Fumiko glanced up at Hikaru with a childish smile.

“Um…”

Hikaru thought about it for a second. If I choose dare, she will probably make me do something embarrassing… I should choose truth then…

“Truth!” Hikaru exclaimed.

“Hm…” Fumiko placed a finger to her chin, thinking. “Do you have a crush on anyone?”

“F-Fumiko…” Sana said. “That’s kind of a tough question to ask…”

“I wanna hear!” Fumiko laughed. “I promise I won’t tell!”

“Uh…” Hikaru froze. “I don’t know…”

“What do you mean you don’t know?!” Fumiko said, surprised.

“How do you not know, Hikaru…?” Sana asked, laughing weakly.

“Well…” Hikaru thought about their question. She was trying to think whether there were any guys in the school she really liked.

Well… the closest guy I know is Itsuo… but that’s because I always walk to school and home with him… Hikaru was thinking. And I don’t think I see him in that way…

“Is there anyone you know that makes your heart race when you see them?” Fumiko asked, excitedly.

“My heart race…?” Hikaru said. The first person that came to her mind was Aya.

Well, I get pretty nervous when I’m around Aya… but she’s a girl… does that even count…? I guess my heart does go faster when I’m around her…

“I guess there’s someone like that…” Hikaru said slowly.

“Kyaaa!!” Fumiko moved closer towards Hikaru. “Do you get butterflies in your stomach when you’re with them??”

“What does that mean…?” Hikaru asked, confused.

“Like, whenever you’re with that person, your stomach starts to feel weird and you get really nervous!” Fumiko said.

“Kind of like something’s tickling your stomach.” Sana said.

“Is that what a crush feels like?” Hikaru asked.

Fumiko’s jaw dropped open, but she closed it, and smiled, trying to be patient with Hikaru.

“Yes, silly~!” Fumiko poked Hikaru’s forehead jokingly. “Come on, stop messing with me.”

Hikaru thought about how she felt when she was around Aya. “Yes…”

“Don’t tell me, don’t tell me!” Fumiko said, getting more animated. “Do you dream about them too?”

Hikaru’s shoulders jumped as though she was shocked. “Bu-but you can dream about anything, right…? You can’t control your dreams?”

“Nooo!” Fumiko said. “If you dream about them, then you’re definitely in love! Haven’t you ever had thoughts about the person, like wanting to hug them or kiss them?”

“If you do, then it’s a pretty clear sign…” Sana said. “I don’t think it can be anything else, really…”

Hikaru was trying to process what they were saying.

Could I really… with Aya…?

“Oh my god!!” Fumiko laughed, jumping back to her seat. “Hikaru does have someone she likes! I thought for a second that she wouldn’t have anyone like that! Tell me who it is!”

“He-hey Fumiko, you can only ask one truth question until it’s your turn…” Sana said. “It’s not even your turn to spin the bottle again yet…”

“Oh, right!” Fumiko said in a disappointed tone.

For the rest of the journey, luckily the bottle didn’t land on Hikaru again. Instead, she listened to embarrassing stories from both Fumiko and Sana, and laughed as she watched the two of them perform ridiculous acts for dares.

They arrived at their destination in what felt like a very short time.

Hikaru stepped out of the limousine, following Fumiko and Sana, and saw a box-shaped building made almost entirely of glass. It was the store that Aya had took her to before. She froze, seeing it, but Fumiko wrapped her arm around Hikaru’s dragging her in, along with Sana.

“Come on, let’s go in~!” Fumiko sang.

“Fumiko…! Hold on…!” Sana cried, trying to get her to slow down but it was no use.

When they entered the store, Hikaru noticed that there were other shoppers inside the store, unlike the time that she went with Aya, where the entire store had been cleaned out of other customers.

“Have you been here before?” Fumiko glanced at the expression on Hikaru’s face.

“Ye-yes…” Hikaru replied. “With Aya once…”

“Oh…” Fumiko said, her face turning sad hearing Aya’s name. But, then she glanced around, looking at the thousands of expensive-looking clothing hanged up around the store, and her face lit up. “Come on! We will buy some new clothes to cheer up!”

Darting around the store with an employee following them to hold the clothes that Fumiko selected, Hikaru’s eyes began spinning at the speed by which Fumiko was shopping.

“Here, try this! You too, Sana, this one looks really good!” Fumiko was saying as she pulled out an array of different types of outfits form the hangers. “Wow, this one is soo amazing!! I’m definitely getting this!! Let’s see here…”

“Fu-Fumiko… you’re going way too fast…!” Hikaru protested, panting.

“Oh, right! Sorry!” Fumiko said, then jabbed a finger at another staff dressed in a suit that was standing by. “You! Come here!”

The staff quickly strolled over at Fumiko’s command.

Fumiko turned to Hikaru, rummaging through a stack of clothing that she was holding onto. The other staff that was following them was already holding on to way too many clothes.

Fumiko pulled a white dress, seemingly to be made of transparent silk, but wasn’t actually see-through. She shoved the dress in Hikaru’s face, and pushed her towards the staff that had ran over to Fumiko.

“Try that on!” Fumiko told Hikaru, then turned to the staff. “Take her to the dressing room and make sure she gets treated perfectly! If I hear that she felt that she was even the slightest bit mistreated, I’m going to tell my dad, the president of JMC, to shut this store down!”

The staff’s face turned pale, then bowed, before politely ushering Hikaru away.

“P-please… don’t mind her…” Hikaru laughed nervously to the staff, as she followed him to the dressing room. Her face was pink with embarrassment. “S-she’s just joking…”

Once Hikaru was left alone in the dressing room, she went into one of the stalls, closing the door behind her with a sigh.

Catching sight of herself in the mirror, Hikaru stared at her reflection silently.

“I remember Aya taking me here…” Hikaru said to herself.

So, that time when Aya was helping me get dressed… Hikaru thought. She probably was just trying to see me naked…

Hikaru made a fatigued face, thinking of that.

What about all the other times?—Eek! That time we took a bath together?! The time we slept together! And that time at her limousine too!

Her face was turning more purple, the more she thought about it. It seemed so obvious to her now, but it didn’t seem that way at the time.

She shook her head, trying to forget about it, as she took her school uniform off.

When she was in her underwear, Hikaru was about to put on the dress, but then she glanced up, seeing her naked chest since she didn’t wear a bra.

Ahh! It’s so embarrassing! Hikaru blushed, staring at her reflection. My chest is so small compared to everyone else! E-even Sana has something there…! I really do look like a child compared to Aya!

Thinking of Aya, she started trying to estimate how big Aya’s chest was with her hands, making curves at the space in front of her own chest.

“Was it like this…?” Hikaru spoke to herself. “No… it was bigger, more like this…”

Damn it! My chest looks nothing like hers! Hikaru’s face reddened further, seeing her own estimation of Aya’s chest size. Hers wasn’t too overly big and it wasn’t small either… it was like the perfect size, like a model’s…

Hikaru started touching her own chest, wondering how much further she would have to grow to match Aya’s chest.

This kind of reminds me of that time at the bathroom in her house… Hikaru started thinking. When Aya was touching my chest…

Hikaru continued touching her own chest, caressing it softly with her hands.

That time, Aya’s fingers felt so smooth and gentle…

Hikaru closed her eyes, the sensation was starting to feel good.

When Aya was touching me, it kind of felt like this… but better…

As the sensation started to get better and better, Hikaru’s breathing was growing heavier.

She slowly slid one hand down her naked stomach, passing through her soft skin without thinking. Reaching down, she slipped her fingers underneath her underwear.

“...Aya…” Hikaru breathed to herself, her cheeks flushed and her eyes still closed.

Her breathing was growing heavier and heavier, and she felt her lower body tensing the more she touched herself.

The sensation was getting stronger and stronger, until…

“HIKARU!”

Fumiko’s voice boomed from outside the stall, and Hikaru jumped up as though she was electrified, quickly taking her hands away from herself.

Fumiko’s fist was banging on the door to the stall.

“Are you okay, Hikaru?! You’ve been in there for ages!!” Fumiko was shouting from outside the stall. “Do you need help? Let me come in!”

She started pulling at the door, but luckily Hikaru had locked it.

“Ah, Fumiko!!” Hikaru replied, her face completely red. “I-it’s fine! Please! I’ll come out now! Just give me a second!” She grabbed at the locked door, holding it in case Fumiko somehow managed to get through.

“Let me come in!” Fumiko yelled from outside. “How come you’re taking so long? Did I grab the wrong size? But that’s impossible, I was pretty certain about—”

“Fu-Fumiko!” Hikaru cried, embarrassed. “R-really! It’s fine! I’m almost done!”

Hikaru heard Fumiko stepping away from the door and sighing.

“Okay, if you say so, Hikaru.” She said.

Hikaru stood frozen still, listening to Fumiko’s footsteps as she walked away from the stall.

“That… that was close…” Hikaru breathed, still blushing crazily.

Then, she turned around to face herself in the mirror, staring at her own eyes.

“Jeez, Hikaru!” She cried. “What are you doing?!”