STARS

School was over. Kahono couldn’t wait for school to be over. It was the end of the week and she had already made plans what to do for the weekend. The last bell had just rung and the classroom filled with laughter and sighs of relief that one could finally go home and rest. Kahono was no different. The last two weeks were quite hectic with the start of the new year. Too many tests and too much homework and too little time for everything.

Minakouji Kahono was fifteen and like any other fifteen-year-old, she didn’t want to study all day long with little to no time for anything else. She liked going out with friends, talking about trivialities, going to the movies, eating delicious food and just have fun. She wouldn’t consider herself to be that beautiful but she was asked out by boys from different classes not once. She had slender body, long legs, was relatively tall, had long, reddish-brown hair with a single braid on the right side and unusually bluish-purple eyes. She had good grades and her favorite subject was geography. But if strategy was a subject, it would have topped any other on the list. She was good at thinking up strategies for games. One of her friends was a hardcore gamer and often asked her to help her with his strategy game which proved to be a welcomed challenge for Kahono. Sometimes they spent hours on the school rooftop after classes creating strategies together.

‘Finally over!’

Her friend Uchimiya Kurumi who was sitting right next to her stretched her arms up high and yawned continuously. Kurumi had black hair in braids and her eyes were dark-brown. She was cheerful, easy-going, could easily make friends with just about anyone and overall was the soul of every company. And as much as she had so many positive sides, she had twice as negative ones like being late for school almost every morning and every time she had an incredulously ridiculous reason for that; she was blunt and always said what she thought, most of the times she wasn’t even thinking, often putting her friends into awkward situations. She was noisy and nosy and wanted to know everything about a person, even his deep and darkest secrets. Her curiosity didn’t have boundaries and she had no worries about asking embarrassing questions.

Her family ran a bakery in the shopping district and there wasn’t a day when she didn’t mention about this and that bread and how delicious they were. She had a big sister, a year older and going to another school – Ririka and a little brother, Touya, who was only three. The family lived in a small apartment above the bakery.

‘I have no doubts that you slept during math,’ said Kozarai Yukari monotonously.She had middle-length curly blond hair and always squinted blue eyes, as if constantly being in a bad mood. She wasn’t but nevertheless people stood away from her or jerked out of her path whenever she was passing by.

Yukari’s family was well-off. They were very well-off.

Her mother was American, married into the Japanese family of Kozarai. She was a model and an actress, starring into many different American movies and now into local production. Her father owned practically almost every skyscraper in the city and a few dozen banks in other cities on the island. The school ran on finances from the Kozarai family. Yukari had an older brother but neither his name nor his occupation was ever mentioned by her to her friends. She lived in a fancy mansion in the city outskirts and was usually driven to school by a flashy black car every morning.

As a total opposite to Kurumi, Yukari was quiet, quite complicated by nature and talked less and only when necessary. She only seemed cold to those who didn’t know her well but Yukari was friendly and nice and cared about her friends. She was especially affectionate towards Kahono, whom she had known since middle school while with Kurumi she was often strict and gave off quite the menacing aura whenever the former was being inappropriate, indecent or as Kahono used to say acting Kurumi-like.

‘I didn’t sleep! I dozed off because it was so boring!’ Kurumi yelled.

‘It’s the same,’ Yukari said ’I can’t believe you cannot make the difference between dozing off and sleeping.’ She squinted eyes. ‘Where exactly did you say you crawled out from?’

‘AH?! There you go again, Yukarin! Kaho-chin, Yukarin’s being mean to me!’

‘Yes, yes,’ Kahono agreed with a smile to their usual routine.

‘Are you all ready to go?’

A girl stood by the door to their classroom, beaming a smile. Kahono smiled back. Toujou Mika. Kahono’s best friend from their childhood years. They’ve known each other literally like forever. Mika had short hair and blue eyes and tomboyish personality. Their school’s uniforms didn’t permit anything else than skirts for girls but Mika disliked being girlish and usually wore a pair of black shorts under hers. Their uniforms were dark-blue with black lines on the sleeves and consisted of a white shirt, a black necktie and navy-colored jackets and skirts with the logo of the school on the right side of the chest. The boys’ uniform had black trousers with blue lines on the sides, resembling army uniforms.

‘Ready, ready! Always!’ Kurumi saluted, standing for attention and marched towards the doors followed by Yukari, who was shaking head.

‘Did you finish work at the council?’ Kahono asked Mika as they headed down the stairs to the first floor.

‘Yeah.’

‘You went pretty late.’

’Yeah, senpai wanted me to help her with some documents.’

Mika was the vice-president of their Student Council but she did treasurer-work and helped with basically everything else around the school without even being asked. She was always happy to help and could hardly say no.

‘So, what do we do about tomorrow?’ Kurumi grinned, propping on the shoe cabinet while the others were putting their shoes on.

‘What’s that about tomorrow? Thought we going to the movies,’ Mika asked, fixing her socks.

’I mean after the movies, Mika-chin. Was thinking…’

‘Cake,’ said Kahono.

‘Lunch,’ said Mika.

‘Bakery!’

‘Restaurant,’ said Yukari.

They stared at her. Kahono raised finger ‘one of your family’s?’

‘Of course.’

‘Nah!’ Mika, Kahono and Kurumi bellowed together, shaking heads.

‘Why? It’s not like you haven’t come with me before.’ Yukari narrowed eyes, obviously discontented with their reaction.

‘Too expensive,’ noted Kurumi.

‘Too luxurious,’ said Mika.

‘And I feel too out-of-place,’ said Kahono as they were going out of the school building.

‘Yeah, I feel like I have to wear a dress,’ Mika added and puffed cheeks ’and I don’t wear dresses.’

’And you call yourself a girl, Mika-chin…’

‘Says the girl that most of the time acts like a boy.’

‘Did you just say I’m a boy?’

’No, I said that you act like one, Kurumi!’

‘I know you want us to come to your restaurant, Yukari-chan,’ Kahono said, walking next to her and ignoring the background noise that their two other friends were making. ‘Maybe…maybe some other time.’

‘I’m not offended. Not at all,’ Yukari said, throwing a narrowed-eyes look at the two girls, who continued bickering. ‘I’m sorry I still can’t fit into your lifestyle.’

’You are offended…’ Kahono smiled nervously. Her phone buzzed in her pocket and she took it out.‘Hum? You are still playing that game, Kahono?’

‘Oh…yeah, I am. I’m playing all kinds of games,’ Kahono smiled cheerfully and checked the notifications that were sent. ‘I just love STARS.’

‘Hum…really?’ Yukari asked, raising eyebrow.

‘You maybe think it’s childish but that’s because you don’t play yourself.’

‘Kazamori-san, wasn’t it?’

‘Eh?’ Kahono realized her cheeks have brightened red all of a sudden. ‘What…what about Kazamori-kun?’

‘Isn’t he the one who introduced you to that application?’

‘Yeah…because…because Kazamori-kun saw me being interested in the games he was playing in STARS and recommended it to me. He said I can find everything I want in there.’

‘Hum…really?’

‘W-What are you implying with that, Yukari-chan?’

‘Nothing in particular. It’s just that every time you speak of Kazamori-san, your eyes sparkle and your cheeks go red. Just wondering.’

‘W-Wondering? Wondering about what?’

‘What, what? What did we miss?’ Kurumi stood between the two girls, grinning from one to the other.

‘Nothing, Kurumi-chan.’

‘The way I see it…’ Mika caught Kahono’s arm and kept her close, looking devilishly ‘this looks like a Kazamori-kun sort of talk.’

‘Eh? Why do you think so, Mika-chan?’

‘Oh, Kahono, Kahono, don’t I know you already all too well? When you start mumbling like this, I sure know it’s about Kazamori Kanata, your high school crush.’

‘H-He’s not my— ’

‘Ha-ha, look at you getting all embarrassed! Ah! She’s running away! Get her, Kurumi!’

‘Aye, aye, ma’am! Uchimiya Kurumi is in pursuit!’

‘Stay away, Kurumi-chan! You’ve got that mischievous sparkle in the eye again!’