Ren'Ai Rensa: Hatsukoi Part 17

"Ha!" Michiko nearly dropped her pen. "That's a great way to put it. Things she does with her friends. How true. Nee, Ai-chan." She looked up. "You know that Reina has a few friends, right?"

Including you? "Of course I do. She's explained it to me."

"Really? That's good. I'm glad you understand her. She's had a couple girlfriends before who couldn't handle her need to f.u.c.k everyone."

"We're not in a relations.h.i.+p like that. Reina explained that to me as well."

Michiko made eye contact. "How practical of her." She put her pen down. "How do you feel about that?"

"Excuse me?"

"Reina's probably never gonna commit to you, or anyone for that matter. Asking her to be monogamous would be like asking her to kill herself. There aren't many girls out there who could handle that kind of relations.h.i.+p." Michiko grimaced. "No matter how good the s.e.x is."

Aiko wallowed in her memories of Reina, s.e.xual and kind. As the dates wore on, Aiko became more and more used to the feeling of having Reina on top of her and giving her joy. Could she do that with another person? Even another woman? Aiko wrung her hands together on top of the table and imagined one of the other women in furisode, a tall woman wearing orange, coming up to her and asking her out like Reina had a month before. Probably not. Her husky voice and dark features made Aiko dissolve inside yes, in all those places but other women were just that.

"I'm taking things as they come." She maintained a neutral expression. "True, this is my first time with another woman, but it's not my first in general and I like to think I know some things about relations.h.i.+ps." I know nothing.

Michiko put a finis.h.i.+ng touch on her napkin. "Would you sleep with another woman if granted the opportunity?"

Aiko swore the heat turned up in the restaurant. "I don't know. It would depend. That's like asking if I would sleep with another man."

"She's catching on." A haughty scoff. "What if it were me?"

Although she saw that response coming, Aiko said nothing.

"Saa, I would have s.e.x with you, Ai-chan." Michiko pushed the haggard napkin across the table. "I'm a lot more in tune with my partner than that dumba.s.s."

Initially Aiko had no idea how to respond besides staring at Michiko's body and determining if she was interested, of course and didn't notice the napkin now touching her hand. A breath stalled in Aiko's throat, and she picked up the napkin. The number 40 drifted above the number 300. "What's this?"

Michiko tapped her pen against her arm. "The top number is the amount of women I know Reina slept with last year alone. I'm sure it's more. The bottom number is how many times she and I have probably done it...this past week included."

Aiko said nothing.

"There will come a time when you'll see her with somebody else. Make sure you're ready, or leave her now."

"Osu, I'm back!" Just like that, Reina reappeared, her furisode a little wrinkled, but a sight for Aiko's weary eyes all the same. "What are you two talking about, eh?" She sat. "Planning a threesome?"

Aiko stared at the napkin in her hand, the numbers mocking her.

The lights exploded into a thousand fragments as Aiko wavered between rising climax and fretting over her real life worries. The first thing she and Reina did after saying goodbye to Michiko and sneaking into a love hotel was to finagle with the rented furisode. Aiko could now live knowing she had stripped a kimono off a woman with the intent to f.u.c.k her.

Every time Reina groaned, grunted, and mumbled, Aiko wondered how many other women had heard these same sounds. How many thought it charming? s.e.xy? Obnoxious? Forty other women last year alone. At least! Or so Michiko claimed. But why would she lie about that? Wasn't she just trying to protect Aiko?

Reina pressed their lips together, her fingers easing inside Aiko below. For a minute she concentrated on nothing else but the feeling of somebody not, not somebody, Reina stroking her while they fought for leverage.

She's so good at this because she's done it a thousand times. Literally, perhaps. Aiko was n.o.body special. Just another body beneath Reina Yamada, who always wanted somebody new alongside her old conquests. One day Aiko could become like Michiko, a good friend and bed partner, but nothing more. No, she's just jealous. She just wants Reina for herself. Not even Aiko truly believed that.

Soon her first o.r.g.a.s.m claimed her, and she couldn't think anymore. Reina was all around her, exploiting her. She fed off Aiko's s.e.xual energy and channeled it into her own, giving Aiko no longer than a ten-second reprieve before continuing to hump her as if no o.r.g.a.s.m ever occurred.

I'm just a toy to her. Aiko dug her nails into Reina's shoulder and felt her body tingle again. Only a matter of time before she dumps me for another girl.

Aiko convinced herself it didn't matter at the time, since Reina was with her now, and it was her she held in her arms as if she were the only other person in the world. In their last minutes together, Reina breathed into Aiko's ear that she was coming, and the high pitch bouncing around her brain as her lover slowed her thrusts was mesmerizing.

The last surprise was when Reina took a whole minute to cool off before rolling on top of Aiko again. Their kisses were lighter and their touches gentler against sensitive parts, but the intent was the same as before, and Aiko sank beneath that alluring spell.

She didn't think anymore; she just clung harder.

No matter how Reina looked at it, she was f.u.c.ked. If she went home and called Aiko to tell her she didn't feel well, she'd be out of things to do on a precious Sunday; if she went on with this scheme, she'd be in the most awkward situation since her uniform tore in middle school.

She had an entire half hour to contemplate her s.h.i.+tty options as she rode the train out to Aiko's local stop. Unlike Reina who lived in the northern Tokyo suburbs, Aiko's family staked a claim in the more affluent western neighborhoods. I'm dating a millionaire's daughter. That's what Reina told herself as she saw more stylish women and old aunties in expensive kimono get on and off at the western residential stations.

And when she reached Aiko's station, Reina hoped she would never find her friend waiting for her. I'll just have to go home and say there was no point. But the moment she pa.s.sed through the ticket gates, she saw Aiko standing at the single exit, waving her hand.

She babbled about her neighborhood as they walked down the streets toward her house. Reina saw nothing special about it, other than some of the houses were bigger than usual. She wanted to hold Aiko's hand but was denied every time she tried they were in Aiko's neighborhood, and she didn't want to risk any of the neighbors seeing them together inappropriately. This is why I hate anywhere that's not Ni-chome.

Relief washed over Reina when they reached Aiko's house and it turned out normal. Sure, it was a bit bigger, but at least it wasn't a veritable estate in the middle of the densest city in the world. Various balconies pointed in all sorts of directions on the second floor. Aiko pointed to one overlooking the side yard and proclaimed it as her bedroom before they went inside.

An older woman waited for them.

"Welcome!" Aiko's mother bowed her head and motioned to the genkan. Aiko stepped ahead and removed her shoes; Reina gawked at the spotless hallway. Her own house was in a constant state of disarray since her mother got a second job to help pay off the mortgage, and Michiko's house was old and cramped. Sometimes Reina forgot what a clean house looked like. This woman must do nothing all day but clean. Clean, clean, clean, and then hate herself.

Her manners surfaced in her brain like old relatives showing up after years of reprieve. "h.e.l.lo, ma'am, I am Reina Yamada. Pleasure to meet you." Reina included a lower head bow than the one Aiko's mother had given.

"Of course! I'm sorry. Do come in. I have tea ready in the living room."

Reina removed her boots and left them in the genkan. She followed Aiko into the adjacent living room and sat beside her at the large, low table in the middle of a s.p.a.cious reception and leisure area. Their TV is the size of my s.e.x drive. It huddled in the corner, overtaking an entire table and all the extra air around it.

"Ara, you don't have to sit like that." Aiko jabbed Reina's thigh while Junko went off to get sugar for the tea. "You look so formal."

Indeed, Reina's legs tingled a little from sitting on top of them, but she was determined to leave a good impression. "I'm fine," she insisted.

"If you say so." Aiko kicked her legs out to the side. Well no s.h.i.+t. It's her d.a.m.n house, she can sit it in it as casually as she wants.

Junko popped out and served the tea. Once they were settled, they sat and waited for the tea to cool, the silence enveloping them all.

The awkwardness came. First Junko pretended to find stirring her tea the most important thing ever; then Aiko coughed; finally, Reina fell off her numb legs and wished she were somewhere else, preferably in bed. This was why she never met the families of her friends.

"Mother," Aiko began, her high voice b.u.t.ting into the silence like a battering ram, "Reina's the one I went to go see on Friday for the Coming of Age ceremony. She wore a beautiful blue furisode."

"Is that so? Congratulations on turning twenty." Junko took a sip of her tea.

"Thank you." Reina's tea still smoldered with steam. "I'm glad Aiko came to see me on such an auspicious day." She swore she talked pure c.r.a.p.

"You must be a special person, to befriend Aiko so quickly." Junko tipped more tea into her cup and offered both her daughter and Reina more. When they both refused Reina hadn't even touched hers yet Junko put the teapot down and continued, "Then again, Aiko is such a sweet girl, she befriends everyone."

Reina's mouth remained straight and taut, but her eyes betrayed her irritation. Yeah, you're so sweet, Ai-chan. She withheld a triumphant smirk that would share all her experiences with "sweet" Aiko. "She was very easy to befriend." And easier to get in bed than I thought.

Before the silence could return, Junko looked right into Reina's eyes and asked, "So, Reina-san, both my daughter and my niece tell me that you're in show business? Same thing as my niece? That's how you met my daughter?"

"Yes. I'm a singer in a music group with s.h.i.+zuka. We're not very popular, though."

"Very interesting." Here came the nudge. "Do you go to university? s.h.i.+zuka takes some cla.s.ses, I think, but her mother is very worried about her education because of her job."

Anyone would think it was an innocent question. But for Reina, who was used to everyone sneaking in snide comments and plucking inappropriate answers from her, knew it was an opportunity for Junko to root out all the problems with her daughter's new friend. Yet Reina couldn't lie. "No, I'm not in university. My job is almost full-time, so it would be a problem." She didn't go into details, like how she needed the money to keep herself and her mother afloat, or how she had no interest in education after the drag that was high school.

Junko's eyebrows twitched, her ability to keep them from rising almost admirable. This woman has had decades to rein in her reactions. "I suppose that would be a small issue. You know, I keep telling Ai-chan that she should take it easy on the schooling." Junko turned her fake smile toward her daughter, who sat without a sound or cringe. "She really loves to study English, so she takes all these cla.s.ses about it and swears she'll study abroad. Can you imagine? Her sisters weren't so studious. They took my advice and stayed in as long as necessary to find their husbands." Junko wiped the table with a yellow dishrag. "So maybe it's best not to go to university."

Reina nodded out of courtesy, although her blood boiled she garnered Aiko's did too, from the way her toes curled beneath the table. What Aiko did with her life was her business, but Reina knew these kinds of mothers with s.h.i.+t "advice" well: her own mother used to be one of them, until she gave up ever changing Reina's s.e.xuality.

"Mother." Aiko's voice was a surprise after that sort of a.s.sertion. "I'm sure Reina would go to university if she could. She has to work to support herself and her mother."

"Oh? What about your father?"

Junko held a dagger between her teeth, and those words were the stab to Reina's chest. She practiced a moment of meditation so she wouldn't say something awful like, "That's none of your d.a.m.n business." Mi-chan would say it, but she would be so polite about it n.o.body would care. Instead, Reina said, "My father died a few years ago."

"Aw, kawai sou no yo!" Just what Reina wanted: fake sympathy. "Too young to be a widow, your mother is! Saa, sometimes that's the hand you're dealt in a bad game of cards. You should get married soon so you can take care of your mother."

Coming here was the worst idea ever. Reina folded her hands into fists beneath the table; bile washed through her throat and teased her tongue. She fought to maintain control, like Junko could.

Aiko pa.s.sed a covert hand over one of Reina's fists. Somehow, it soothed her. "Why don't we talk about something else, Mother."

"By the way..." As if Junko lived in her own world where she was the only one talking. "Do you know anything about this mysterious Ren Itou my daughter's dating? n.o.body will tell me anything, least of all my own daughter! It's worrisome!"

Reina turned her head and peered into Aiko's paling pores. "Mysterious boyfriend, huh?"

"Oh, you don't know him either? How vexing." Junko stirred more and more sugar into her tea. Maybe, if Reina was lucky, the meddling mother would go into a diabetic coma.

"Let's go upstairs." Aiko hopped onto her feet and tugged on Reina's stiff arm. "I want to show you my room."

Leaving their tea untouched, Aiko dragged Reina out of the living room. Protests rose from Junko and demanded they stay a little longer, but they clambered up the stairs and down a short hallway. They stumbled into Aiko's bedroom before Junko could follow them.

"I'm sorry." Aiko sealed her door shut. "My mother is such a gossip and has really outdated views."

Reina sniffed, her nostrils filling with the scent of "Aiko." Of course, she had buried her nose in various parts of Aiko before, from her hair, to her cleavage, and to her omanko, but her scent had yet to bombard her the way it did now. I could guess this was her bedroom blindfolded. Reina wondered what her own room smelled like in comparison. Cigarettes. She wanted one.

"Please sit down." Aiko pointed to her bed, the only level surface off the ground besides a half-bare desk on the other side of the room. "I'm sorry I don't have cus.h.i.+ons for the floor. I've been meaning to get some."

The comforter on Aiko's bed was plush and warm. Although Reina had been in many bedrooms before, it was her first time in one so...girly. Usually the bedrooms she saw were stark, like Michiko's, or "grown up," like some of the successful businesswomen she followed home from Ni-chome a time or two. Looking around Aiko's bedroom was like scouring a new world.

Beyond the bed in one corner were light pink drapes in front of the sliding gla.s.s door. On the other side of the room was the aforementioned desk and chair, topped with lights and pencils, all neatly arranged and freshly sharpened. The closet doors were closed and the walls adorned with pullouts from flower and puppy themed calendars. But the centerpiece of the room was the TV next to the bed, which was the same exact size as the one in Reina's living room.

"You have your own TV."

"Oh! Yes, but it's a hand-me-down from my siblings. It doesn't get reception, just plays videos."

When Reina looked below, she saw a VCR jammed against the wall. A meager collection of video tapes was stacked on top of it. "I see." Reina took her eyes off the TV. She couldn't imagine having her own. What would she do with it?

Aiko smoothed out a spot next to Reina. She sat and said, "I know it isn't much, but I used to share it with a sister. I could have a bigger room, but I'm too lazy to move my things."

A bigger one! This room was about the same size as Reina's, and she had the second biggest in her house. Such a large room, full of disgustingly cute pictures and saccharin sweet colors. She slumped further into Aiko's bed, her black sweater devoured.

She had to pull herself out.

The only place to direct her jump was where Aiko sat. Reina threw herself onto her lover and pulled her into a kiss, arms wrapping around her while hands fumbled for the bottom of her blouse. Locking herself in a kiss would keep Reina grounded.

Aiko entertained her tongue for two seconds before pus.h.i.+ng Reina away. "Dame yo," she scolded. "I can't lock my door, and my mother sometimes just walks in without knocking. We can't."

Reina sat back and dropped her mouth open. "Then what's the point being in here if we can't have s.e.x? I'm capable of not making any noise."

"Shh." Aiko looked to her door as if Junko were eavesdropping on the other side. "It's too risky. Please understand. We can do it later."

But I want you now. Being told no made Reina see Aiko as a sudden, unattainable commodity. Reina remembered how well Aiko's body melded beneath her own when they were properly alone. She wanted to run her hands along Aiko's skin and kiss her in places she had yet to experience. Still so much to expose her to.

"Maybe we could go out?" Aiko walked to her window and pulled away a curtain to peek outside. "It's raining." The clouds were dim when they first came into the house, but now light patters of rain fell on the roof. "And it's cold."

Reina shrugged when Aiko looked at her. What did she know? Her answer was s.e.x.

"I guess we could watch a movie. Do you like romance?"

Hate it. Reina didn't say no, however, to having a private viewing in Aiko's bedroom. She helped pull the comforter down to the floor so they could see the TV screen. After Aiko popped a tape in, she cuddled next to Reina on the floor, the comforter wrapped around and beneath them. Their little coc.o.o.n provided the perfect shelter for Reina to wrap her arm around Aiko and keep it hidden from barging mothers.

Their first date without having to pay for anything, and Reina couldn't even get a make-out. Covert kisses were the mere things allowed. The more Aiko denied her, the more Reina wanted her. I'm the mouse and she's the cat. She doubted Aiko even knew it.

The movie was droll and insipid, like every other romance movie featuring a man and a woman, but after a while Reina became accustomed to holding Aiko in her arms. "I know it's not exciting," Aiko said, "but I like this date. It's just what I need before I start cla.s.ses again tomorrow."

Reina watched the male lead kiss the female with a burning pa.s.sion that Aiko should experience. "Yeah. It's nice." But f.u.c.king you would be nicer.

Still, Aiko's contentment was almost enough to keep Reina's surging hormones at bay. Almost.

The first day of term was drizzly and below freezing, though no snow came. Aiko gazed out the window during her English Literature cla.s.s and wished it would snow. But it never snowed in Tokyo, it seemed, and definitely not on days anyone wanted it to snow.

Nana had to shake Aiko to get her attention when cla.s.s was over. They gathered their things and descended the steps in the lecture hall, a throng of other young women pus.h.i.+ng out the double doors or lining up to speak with the Canadian professor. Aiko had no desire to wait fifteen minutes in line just to ask for clarification on an idiom in their latest reading a.s.signment: why bother when she was now friends with native speakers like Michiko?

They ran into Tomoko in the hallway and decided to go to their usual restaurant for lunch. Well, Nana decided. Tomoko became crestfallen about something else, and Aiko was busy wondering if they would run into Reina at the restaurant again, even if the last time was an utter fluke.

Apparently their favorite restaurant was now a campus "thing," since women packed the place as if it were La Lune Cafe on Christmas. Nana negotiated for a small, intimate table along the wall made for two people. A server provided a third chair for Aiko to crawl into between "excuse me"s from every other person in the room wanting to get between her b.u.t.tocks and the person behind her.

"We should get a new restaurant." Nana flicked a nail against her gla.s.s of water. "This place is too crowded now."

Aiko admitted she didn't enjoy having the edge of the table stabbing her in the stomach, but she said nothing. She doubted anyone could hear her grumbling over the raucous laughter and shouts behind her. When the server had come and gone with their orders, she broke the silence at her tiny table with a strange question. "Nee, how would you feel if your lover had had s.e.x with lots of people before you?"

Both Nana and Tomoko recoiled, as if Aiko had asked them how many s.e.xual partners they had instead. "What kind of question is that?" Nana asked when she regained her bearings. "Who do you know like that?"

"I'm just wondering." Again, lies. Aiko supposed she had to get used to lying to everyone. "I have a friend who is seeing somebody our age who...had s.e.x with forty different women last year alone. Isn't that a bit much?"

A new chorus of worn "Ehhh!"s bounced between the ends of the table, mutual looks of disgust and disbelief accompanying. "Forty women in one year! Let alone one lifetime!" Nana's teeth razed her bottom lip. "Sounds like a s.e.x fiend."