Work Text:
“Haaa…” I blow out a low sigh, watching as my breath drifts out in a mist before vanishing. Cold. But, despite it being cold, I’m here. After all...
Today’s a very special day. The most special in fact, probably more important than any of Kasumin’s 16 birthdays. Shocking, of course. I can understand your apprehension at continuing, but Kasumin has steeled herself, I no longer have the option of backing out. If Shizuko’s words come to fruition, the mere act I’m about to perform will secure a very important part of my future. And that’s why, on this bitterly cold day, I’m standing atop Nijigasaki, basking in the glory of the city. Not much to see really, but it’s not a bad view.
Ahem. Back to the topic at hand, I’m not, believe it or not, standing here because I enjoy the cold wind delivering constant smacks to my cute face. Oh don’t get me wrong. I really like the cold, actually. Why? Because it’s an excuse for winter fashion! The winter uniforms at Nijigasaki are really cute! And Kasumin recently bought this suuuuper cute wool jacket! Besides my face, the rest of me is nice and warm! The real issue here is what would I do if this wind dries out my skin? I’ll have to moisturize later. Oh, oops. Anyways, that important thing… Yes, the important endeavor that has plagued this poor Kasumin for months now.
Ding ding!
Speaking of which… I’m correct in my assumption that the text is from said endeavor informing me that she’s almost there. Well that gives the narratio― Er, Kasumin some time to explain just what’s happening!
That’s right, the super important endeavor, one only on par with world-ending events. Nay, it may prove even more important! Why, you may ask. How could that possibly be!? You’ll inquire. Well, not to blow everything you know out of the water but… today… Kasumin…! Kasumin is…! Kasumin’s giving her heart away! …………….. Somehow that sounded a bit more morbid than I meant. Of course not literally! Confession! A proclamation of Kasumin’s love! I can tell from the metaphorical crickets that you’re probably not impressed, but hear me out! It’s not like I’ve ever confessed to anyone before. And if this fails… what choice will Kasumin have but to crawl into a hole and never come out! I mean really, the cutest idol in the world having an unrequited first love!? What a bad joke!
But yes, what you’ve just heard is 100% true. Today, Kasumin will be confessing her love to the one and only girl she has fallen for.If you’re wondering why I’ve chosen now well… Kasumin is a second year. And she’s a third year now. Who knows where she’ll go after she graduates! What if Kasumin never sees her again!? So this is my only choice! It’s been a long time coming, anyways. Because I was never in denial! When I saw her performing on stage, I couldn’t believe it! Listen, this may sound conceited, but it’s hard fact: I know I’m cute☆! But her! Her!! I’ve never had my breath taken away until then. It’s almost not fair that she could be so beautiful! How is Kasumin supposed to compete with that!? Well, I still hold the spot for cutest… Do you see that!? Hesitation! I’m not supposed to be able to hesitate on cuteness! I’m an absolute authority on the subject! But truly, being realistic, it’s not really possible to describe her with simple words like “cute” or “beautiful.”
And Kasumin got to meet this person! Since our idol groups got to know each other, I’ve been speaking to her on the regular! And thanks to Kasumin’s carefully prepared plan to do poorly on tests, she’s even been tutoring me for a while now. And yes that’s the only reason my test scores aren’t up to scratch! Point being that I’ve gotten to know her pretty well by now. And that’s only made me fall harder for her! Which, even by Shizuko’s thoughts, is strange. After all, I’ve hardly considered my type at all, but she certainly isn’t the kind of person I’ve always imagined myself ending up with. Smart, athletic… Wait, she’s just perfect so of course she’s Kasumin’s type! After all, I am―
The sound of the door opening a few meters behind makes me jump. Got a little lost in my thoughts there but this is really it. I take a deep breath before turning around and sure enough she walks through the door. As if nature itself gasps at her appearance, a strong gust of wind picks that particular moment to grace us, blowing her silk smooth hair out to the side, making her attempt to block it. Thank you for this treat whatever gods may be out there. But blessed sights can’t last forever and nature or Buddha or whoever decides that a couple seconds is enough.
Umi recovers quickly and her eyes lock onto me. “Ah, there you are, Kasumi.” She closes the distance between us and apparently notices my staring because with a tilt of her head she asks, “Kasumi? Are you okay?”
“Eh? O-Oh, yeah!” Somehow seeing Umi in a different outfit from usual, even if that outfit is just her winter uniform and a cute blue jacket, just... Come on, who can blame me? “Just… That jacket… really suits you, Umi-senpai!”
I try my best to recover with a line but stumble out the gate. Come on, Kasumi! It’s a little hard to concentrate on smoothing things over when my heart’s threatening to beat out my chest. Why is it like this!? It doesn’t even get like this during performances! Is this the power of a first love!? What a horrifying power…
Umi gives a glance down at her outfit. “Oh, thank you. Honoka helped pick it out. I’m not very good at things like fashion.” She gives a small laugh but at the same time I feel my heart drop.
As far as I know, Umi doesn’t have a girlfriend. But, if she were to have one, wouldn’t it make sense for it to be Honoka? Or maybe Kotori? There’s definitely a lot of attractive girls in that group… Moreover, I’m not, well, exactly sure that Umi’s, you know, into girls. The only member of their group I confided in was Nozomi. I had to get info from somebody, alright!? And, well, she assured me that Umi is but what if she’s wrong? I guess that would make this confession slightly less painful, hearing that it’s because she’s not into girls in general and not just that she’s not into Kasumin. But that doesn’t mean Kasumin isn’t going to confess. Even if… Even if she’s not into girls… Even if she’s dating somebody else…! I steeled myself for this day!
“Umi-senpai!”
Umi jumps a little from my sudden outburst. Again, not the best start. “W-What’s wrong, Kasumi?”
A whole jumble of feelings wells up in my stomach, tumbling around, making me nauseous. Never really thought butterflies in the stomach could get this bad… But! “Umi-senpai, I…” Never give up, Kasumin! “I―!”
Just as I’m about to get it out, something passing through my vision gives me pause. A small white flake, lazily floating through the air. I don’t even have time to recover enough to look up before we’re surrounded by light snowfall.
“Snow?” Umi smiles as she reaches out to catch snowflakes. “It’s been so cold, I was wondering if we’d get snow this year. Beautiful.”
I almost blurt out a cheesy line like, ‘yes, you are’ or ‘but not as beautiful as you’ but manage to save myself by holding back. This isn’t a shitty shoujo manga, control yourself, Kasumi! That aside, it is very beautiful, especially the view of it from up here, watching the snow fall over the city. Yeah, yeah, I get it, mother nature. Can’t really prepare a better situation than this, can you? Nice to know even you recognize Kasumin’s efforts. A glance confirms Umi’s still smiling, blissfully unaware of the previous anxiety plaguing my heart. It doesn’t take much, much less than I expect, effort to stand straight. This draws Umi’s attention and I feel a smile creeping up, not some manufactured idol smile, but one born from hope and relief, an odd relief considering I haven’t said anything yet. But somehow, I just feel like…
“Umi-senpai.”
“Yes?”
For the second time today, I take in a deep breath. And I just… let it out, I guess.
“I like you, Umi-senpai. Please go out with Kasumin!” Somehow I don’t choke up on the words but for the first time in my life, I wish I hadn’t said Kasumin because a tiny part of me fears she’ll think it’s some kind of joke or something. And so, stupidly, I begin speaking again. “I-I’m serious! Even before, when I first saw you on stage… Kasumin thought you were amazing. There shouldn’t be anybody cuter than me! … Is what I thought but then Umi-senpai, um, flipped that upside down! And it made me really confused! And then Kasumin was super excited when our groups started working together and, and, I was really happy to get closer to you… And I was really happy when we could hang out outside of practice… All those times are very precious to Kasumin! And!”
I finally pause. That… wasn’t exactly how I imagined it going. Why was I rambling so much? Oh gods, if a confession alone didn’t put Umi off, that might have. Hell, she might just think of me as a new friend with absolutely no romantic inclination anyways! Somehow my one-sided rambling brought back the anxiety. I owe an apology to you, nature, you gave me a great chance and Kasumin might have just blown it. Daring a peek at Umi, I pray that’s not the case. As expected, she looks frozen, her mouth hanging open just slightly, a shade of pink dusting her cheeks. Well, she didn’t immediately deliver a, ‘I’m sorry but I don’t feel the same,’ so it could be worse. But the waiting might just be worse than an actual rejection. My heartbeat overpowers any other sound, filling my ears. I hope I’m not shaking or anything, but I could pass that off as being from the cold anyways. Oh gods, Umi’s giving me way too much time to just think. I don’t like thinking, it always lands me in the worst situations.
Just as I’m debating speaking up again, Umi starts giggling. I just blink and can’t do much else but stare at her as a light laugh is picked up by the wind, gracing the ears of others in this world. Let’s really think about this one. Laughing in response to a confession… Is Umi really that type of person!? My knowledge of love may be little aside from dramas and manga I’ve borrowed from Setsuna but… this can’t be a good sign!
“U-Um, Umi-senpai…” Something. I have to do something to salvage this! Wait, if she’s laughing does that already mean it’s too late!? Should I be running away in tears right about now? My brain’s so jumbled, I can’t even tell how to feel!
“Sorry, sorry.” I’d opened my mouth to say something, anything, but the second I hear her, my lips seal shut. “I just thought, explaining your confession was very Kasumi-like.” When my dumbfounded expression doesn’t shift, Umi’s face shifts to worry. “I-I’m sorry, I did not mean to insult you or anything… I just thought, um, well, um…”
The confession doesn’t make her panic but somehow this does. I’m not really sure what ‘this’ is still. Laughing at me? Of course now that she’s talked, I don’t think it was malicious or anything. But I still find myself frozen in place, not really sure what to say even if I could speak. Apparently Umi recovers before I can get my shit together because she takes a step closer. When she reaches out, I suck in a breath. And then I realize she’s just dusting snow off my hair.
“There we go.”
When I try to speak up all that comes out is, “Oh… Thank you…”
Umi’s hand slowly lowers from my head and she fixes me in place with her eyes. “Ah, right. I’m sorry, I didn’t answer you...” Instead of returning to her side, her hands catch one of mine on the way down. Despite the freezing temperature, her hands are warm.
I get the feeling she’s waiting for a response so I just nod. “Mm.”
It feels like a movie. Snow calmly falling around us, Umi’s hands grasping mine. Another gust of cold air slams against us but I don’t flinch. Umi’s hair blows out again but if she feels it, she doesn’t show. Her eyes are fixed on me, not even squinting or closing against the wind. My heart slams against my ribcage and I have to wonder if it might pop out. Umi’s lips part and a lump forms in my throat. Somehow, some way though, I hear it. I hear her voice over the roaring wind, over my erratic heartbeat.
“I like you, Kasumi.”
It’s like everything drops away. All sound, the roof of Nijigasaki, the entire city. Like it’s just the two of us standing there in that moment. My whole body feels light, almost like I’m floating. Is this what people mean when they say a weight got lifted off? My brain can’t even determine what feeling should be at the forefront because I feel happiness, relief, so many things flowing through me and it’s only once Umi’s face shifts to worry that I realize tears are dripping down my cheeks.
“K-Kasumi! What’s wrong!? Did I say something weird?” Umi’s panicking, but doesn’t release my hand.
“Umi… senpai…” I can’t hold myself back. It just kind of burst out in the form of a tackle hug. One moment Umi’s in front of me and the next she’s under me. I don’t even think about whether one of us might get hurt as I wrap her in the hug. Our jackets end up making a pretty good buffer as we hit the ground. “Umi-senpai!” Childish, embarrassing, I know! But I can’t help myself! Umi feels the same way!
Umi squirms under me but doesn’t try to push me off or anything. “Kasumi… It’s cold down here, you know?”
I jerk up, staring down at Umi. Then I grab her cheeks and pull, not particularly hard of course, but enough to get a funny look out of her. She tries to say something but it’s about impossible to make it out. I wanna laugh but I fake a pout instead. “You made me worry, Umi-senpai. I mean really, who laughs as their first response to a confession!?”
It takes Umi a second to process my words before she reaches up, lacing her hands together behind my neck. “I’m sorry, Kasumi. That wasn’t my intention…” She slowly begins to rise which is ironic because it might match the speed my brain slows to as it realizes what’s happening.
“Umi… senpai?”
“Don’t worry…” She whispers, inching closer, her breath hot on my face. “I’ll make it up to you. So ju―”
-
-
“That is not how that happened!” Umi draws all eyes to her. “Just what kind of character am I in your story?”
I roll my eyes, drawing a laugh from the rest of μ's who were clearly enraptured in the retelling of my confession. “Come on, Umi-senpai, it wasn’t that far off.”
“Much of it wasn’t but, for one, I didn’t kiss you like that. While you did tackle me, we didn’t kiss until later that day.” Everybody glances at me and I just give a shrug. “And secondly, you’re a second year now. You confessed to me in your first year, why even change that part?”
“To add stakes! Think about it, if you really were gonna graduate before I confessed to you, then it would mean my time was limited.” I think the story was going pretty well until her interruption, personally.
Umi sighs. “Well, you guys asked, so there it is. With a little embellishment, I suppose, but that’s the gist.”
“You were really head over heels for Umi-chan, huh, Kasumi-chan?”
I perk up at that. I can’t have them doubting my love so I wrap my arms around Umi’s arm. “Of course! Kasumin and Umi-senpai are completely in love!” Umi sighs again but I see that smile. “Besides! I swear, Nozomi-senpai, it really was like a movie! That part about the snow is true! It’s like a miracle happened!”
Umi laughs a bit at that. “I admit, it certainly did set the mood.”
“So romantic…” Kotori looks like her nose is about to burst blood out and apparently Nico understands because she pushes a tissue in her face before anything can happen. “That’s so cute, Umi-chan!”
As Umi starts getting poked at by each member in turn, Nozomi stands up and starts collects a few of the cups and plates from around the table. “Ah, Kasumin will help, Nozomi-senpai!” I scoop up the remaining dishes and walk to the apartment’s kitchen with her. It was nice of her to let everybody meet up in her apartment after all, I should do something.
After dumping the dishes in the sink, Nozomi stares back at the crowd all laughing at something, surely at Umi’s expense. “It’s nice seeing it so lively in here. I haven’t been able to see everybody as much since I graduated.” She laughs a bit at the end but the nostalgia in her eyes makes me think she’s looking a little farther off that just the living room.
So Kasumin nudges her, just a bit to get her attention. “By the way, I guess I never properly thanked you, Nozomi-senpai.”
“Oh?”
It’s my turn to glance at the others and I smile when Umi stands up to refute something from Honoka. “You encouraged me a bit more than I gave you credit for in that story.”
“Oh my, you speak so highly of me～”
Nozomi giggles. “It’s no problem. I only told ya because I really believed it would happen. After all, by the time you two got together, she talked about you all the time. Even if she didn’t know, I bet you were already filling up her mind by then.” That sends a warm feeling up my back and I can’t help but smile. “So, that being said, you better take care of our Umi. Though, I guess it might be a little late to say that, it looks like things are going great for ya.”
“Don’t worry, Nozomi-senpai! I’ll call you when it’s time for wedding dresses!” It’s half-joke and apparently has the intended effect as Nozomi starts laughing and I hear voices from the living room.
“Wedding dress?”
“You’re getting married, Umi-chan!? You’re still in high school!”
Umi turns towards us. “Kasumi! Nozomi!”
“Don’t you worry Umi-chan, I’m just securing your future～!”
Everybody laughs at that one and I turn to Nozomi who gives me a wink. “Really, thank you, Nozomi-senpai.” I dash back towards the living room where Umi's trying to calm everybody down and give her a hug from behind. “Umi-senpai～!”