Episode 29: [Yuri Girlfriends] Our First Holiday Date.

November was already halfway gone.

The plaza in front of the station, where we’d arranged to meet, was touched with autumn wind — a faint chill in the air.
We’d said eleven o’clock. I’d arrived a little early, and stood pulling the collar of my trench coat closed around me, breathing out a small white cloud.
I was dressed exactly as instructed by her message yesterday.
A beige trench coat. A black long skirt reaching to the ankles.

I glanced down at my phone to check the time.

And then.

Drift.

Through the crowd, that sweet musk brushed past my nose without warning.

“Sorry to keep you, Maya.”

A low voice fell from behind me, and I caught my breath and turned.

“…!”

She’d been there all along, it seemed — smiling her unhurried smile, composure perfectly intact. And Hiyori was, almost blindingly, a dazzling girl.
A soft white off-shoulder knit.
The bold line of her collarbone and the delicate slope of her bare shoulders glittered like white porcelain in the autumn light.

Below: a contrasting black leather mini skirt.
From the thigh down she was covered by long boots, but the bare white skin between them was exposed defencelessly to the cold sky.

“Sorry, did you wait long?”
“No, not at all — aren’t you cold, dressed like that?”
“They say fashion is suffering, don’t they?”

Hiyori laughed and let her gaze travel over my outfit from top to bottom.

“You wore the long skirt properly. Good girl, Maya.”
“You’re the one who told me to.”
“I know. Today’s Maya, all covered up — I like it.”
“…I have no idea what that means.”

Hiyori nodded with evident satisfaction and looped her arm through mine.
The softness of her through the knit.
Our scents, mingling.

“Right, let’s go.”

◇◆◇◆◇

Hiyori dragged me around a fashion building connected directly to the station.
In an accessories shop she held earrings up against me without asking — “these would suit Maya” — and in a general goods store she made me try on ridiculous sunglasses.

“Next, a purikura booth! The new machines are insanely good at making you cute, you have to—”
“Don’t pull me like that—”

Shoved into a narrow game centre booth, I was posed as instructed.
The sticker photos that came out showed the two of us looking, by any measure, like close friends who got along well.
What on earth was Hiyori thinking, doing something this ordinary — something that looked so much like a normal date between normal girlfriends — at this late stage?

◇◆◇◆◇

As the sun began to tilt.
We had come to a large park along the seafront.

The sea wind was cold.

Before us, a giant Ferris wheel that commanded a view over the entire city turned slowly, its lights blinking in vivid colours.

“Last stop — let’s ride that.”
“A Ferris wheel? That’s very by-the-book.”
“By-the-book is the whole point. …Come on, let’s go.”

We bought tickets and climbed into a gondola.
The attendant closed the door, and we were shut inside together.

Slowly, we began to rise.

The faint mechanical hum rocking the gondola was the only sound in our sealed space.
Outside the window, the city’s lights reflected off the sea, spreading out like the contents of a jewellery box.

“…Beautiful.”
“Mm.”

I was absorbed in the night view when Hiyori, who had been sitting across from me, suddenly stood up.

“Whoops—”
“…Hiyori? You’ll fall if you don’t sit down.”

She crouched down, standing directly in front of me.

“Hey, Maya.”

Hiyori ignored my warning and looked down at me with those cat-like eyes of hers.

“Would you mind swapping seats?”
“Hm? …I don’t mind, but—”

In the narrow space I stood, about to move to the seat across — and Hiyori, now sitting where I’d been, caught my left hand and squeezed it.

“Oh, no no. Not that seat.”
“What?”
“Over here. …On top of me.”

As she said it, Hiyori patted her own thighs with a light pat, pat.

“Wh-what are you saying. It’s cramped, and I’ll be heavy—”
“It’s fine, it’s fine. …Come on, if you take too long we’ll have gone all the way round.”

Outmanoeuvred by that look that left no room for argument, I gave in and carefully moved to straddle Hiyori’s lap, facing her.
An unstable position.
Her face right in front of mine.

“Sitting here…? This feels very strange—”
“…So, I have a request.”

Hiyori pulled my waist firmly toward her and settled me over her right knee.
One of my legs slipping between Hiyori’s, directly straddling her thigh — a defencelessly exposed position.
Not the cushion of the seat but the springy resistance of Hiyori’s muscle and the hardness of bone pressing directly against me.
Hiyori’s slender arms wrapped around my back to hold me steady, pulling me close.

“…Can I come in too?”
“Sorry?”
“Isn’t it a bit cold? …So, um — inside your skirt.”

Hiyori’s fingers found the hem of my long skirt.

“—?!”

The moment I understood what she meant, heat flooded my face all at once.
A long skirt with generous fabric, covering all the way to the ankle.
For Hiyori to put her leg inside that meant—

“Th-that’s obviously not allowed!”
“Aww? But I’m cold. Let me in~”

Hiyori tugged at my skirt with the persistence of a sulking child.
In the end I couldn’t refuse her.

With trembling hands I lifted the hem of my own skirt and draped it over, wrapping Hiyori’s knee inside it with me.

Softly.
Our lower halves were swallowed together into one dark tent of fabric.

“…Mm, warm.”

Hiyori exhaled with satisfaction.
But warmth wasn’t the problem.

Separated from my underwear by nothing more than a single thin layer of stockings, the place between my legs had Hiyori’s thigh directly beneath it.
The sensation of bare smooth skin.

“H-Hiyori — your thigh is — it’s touching—”
“Hm? Well, we can’t warm each other up if we’re not pressed together, can we?”

Hiyori gave the knee she had me straddling a small, deliberate upward nudge. Once, twice.

“…Ah—”

Hiyori’s smooth thigh pushed up from below, relentless.
The leather of her mini skirt meant bare skin rubbing directly, clinging to the most sensitive part of me.
Hiyori’s body heat seemed to transmit itself straight through the fabric of my underwear.

Outside the window the night view still glittered.
But right now the only thing I could register was the hot, impossible sensation from inside the skirt.

“Ha. Maya’s face is so red. …I can almost hear your heartbeat.”

Hiyori stroked the back of my neck gently with her free hand.
Under the skirt, the knee kept moving, persistent and unhurried.

The Ferris wheel was still climbing toward the top.
We hadn’t even made it halfway round.

It’s cold — that was a lie.

Hiyori’s skin, which should have been cold, was absorbing my heat and turning, moment by moment, into something vivid and alive.
Deep inside my underwear, a slow warmth and dampness was beginning to spread.
Hiyori buried her face against my throat, and whispered in my ear in a voice sweet and melting.

“Hey, Maya. …It’s okay. You can press into me more.”