Starting from Their Seventeen Years Old

The sky outside the window had gone completely dark.

That afternoon Mrs. Yukinoshita had called to say something had come up at the company again, and she most likely wouldn't make it home tonight.

So Hiratsuka Shizuka had simply invited herself to stay over another night.

The three of them were gathered around the dinner table, cleared and tidied after they'd finished eating.

Several hands of UNO cards were spread across it.

Beside the deck sat a few empty teacups and a small saucer with a couple of leftover cookies.

Yukino lay off to one side, paws tucked beneath her.

She watched them through half-closed eyes, the tip of her tail flicking gently now and then.

"UNO!"

Hiratsuka Shizuka slapped her second-to-last card down on the table, a childish smugness in her voice.

Yukinoshita Shizuku glanced at the single card left in her hand.

Then she looked at the thick stack in her own, and her brow furrowed.

"You cheated, didn't you?"

"Cheated?"

Hiratsuka Shizuka's eyes went wide.

"How do you even cheat at UNO?"

"You shuffled the cards."

"You dealt them too. I never even touched the deck."

"And I came here on the spur of the moment."

"I didn't even bring a change of clothes. How could I possibly cheat?"

Hiratsuka Shizuka argued her case point by point.

"Then why do you win every single time?"

"Because I'm just that good."

Hiratsuka Shizuka's eyes curved into a grin.

"So? You give up?"

"No way!"

Yukinoshita Shizuku set her stack of cards down on the table.

"One more round."

"Again?"

Hiratsuka Shizuka checked the clock on the wall.

"It's already past ten. Aren't you tired?"

"I'm not tired!"

Yukinoshita Shizuku insisted stubbornly.

She'd been losing all night.

She never would have guessed that this delinquent troublemaker who just loafed around school all day...

was not only this good at poker, but a whiz at UNO too.

How could she possibly lose to someone like this, here of all places!?

Hiratsuka Shizuka paid no mind to a Yukinoshita Shizuku who was already seeing red.

She turned to Tsushima Kagami beside her.

"What about you, Kagami?"

Tsushima Kagami was leaning back against his chair.

He held his last few cards, eyes half-shut, looking like he might drop off at any second.

Hearing his name, he forced his eyes open and yawned.

"I don't really care."

"Can you even win in that state?"

Hiratsuka Shizuka asked with a smile.

"Win or lose, doesn't matter. It's the taking part that counts."

"As long as everyone's having fun."

With that, Tsushima Kagami glanced at the flushed, fuming Yukinoshita Shizuku across from him.

"You've got a great attitude."

Hiratsuka Shizuka shook her head, then looked at Yukinoshita Shizuku.

"So, one last round?"

"Fine."

Yukinoshita Shizuku began shuffling the cards.

Her technique wasn't exactly smooth, and a few cards kept slipping loose from her hands.

They dropped onto the tea table with soft clattering taps.

Watching from the side, Hiratsuka Shizuka couldn't hold back a laugh.

"Here, let me shuffle."

She reached out and took the cards, fingers flying.

The cards seemed to come alive in her hands.

She riffled through them a few times with a crisp shuffling sound, then cut and dealt with practiced ease.

Watching the way she shuffled, Tsushima Kagami marveled to himself with a smile.

No wonder she was the school's resident slacker. She might not pay much attention in class.

But when it came to card games like this, she was a total pro.

Most card games came down to more than just memory for tracking cards. They were about psychological warfare, controlling your emotions, and the strategy of what to play.

Yukinoshita Shizuku had never had friends to play games like this with before.

Today was her first time, and just grasping the rules was already an accomplishment.

Never mind going up against an old hand like Hiratsuka Shizuka.

Getting thoroughly trounced was only to be expected.

"What're you thinking about?"

Hiratsuka Shizuka's voice pulled him back from his thoughts.

"Nothing."

Tsushima Kagami took the cards dealt in front of him and looked them over.

A blue 3, a yellow Reverse, a green Draw Two, and a Wild card.

Not a bad hand.

"Let's get started."

Hiratsuka Shizuka flipped the top card onto the discard pile. A red 7.

"Red."

She looked at Yukinoshita Shizuku.

"Your turn."

Yukinoshita Shizuku studied her hand, then drew out a red 4 and laid it on top. "Red," she said.

Hiratsuka Shizuka glanced at her own cards and shook her head.

She drew one from the deck.

"No red?"

Yukinoshita Shizuku asked.

"No red."

Hiratsuka Shizuka sighed.

She added the drawn card to her hand.

"Go on."

On the very last round, Yukinoshita Shizuku finally won.

When she slapped her final card down on the table, the corners of her mouth curled up.

A smile with a hint of triumph crossed her face.

"See? I can win too."

"That was just luck."

Hiratsuka Shizuka said, unwilling to concede.

"That last Reverse card, if you hadn't drawn it—"

"But I did draw it!"

Yukinoshita Shizuku cut her off.

"Luck is part of skill too."

"That's what you said, isn't it, Koharu~"

The smile at the corners of Yukinoshita Shizuku's mouth turned even smugger.

Hiratsuka Shizuka opened her mouth to argue back, but in the end just shook her head.

"Fine, fine, you win."

She gathered the cards on the table together.

"I'm done playing. Time to bathe and get to bed."

Steam still lingered in the bathroom, a thin white mist fogging the mirror.

It slowly gathered into droplets that quickly slid down.

Yukinoshita Shizuku finished bathing first. Changed into her pajamas, she sat on the living room sofa toweling her hair dry.

When Hiratsuka Shizuka came out of the bathroom, she was wearing a pale blue set of pajamas.

They were Yukinoshita Shizuku's.

The two of them had similar figures, but maybe because Hiratsuka Shizuka loved sports.

Her chest and shoulders were a little broader and fuller.

So the pajamas looked a bit tight on her.

The sleeves came up short too, leaving a sliver of wrist exposed.

"Your clothes are a little small."

Hiratsuka Shizuka tugged at the hem, trying to stretch it a bit longer.

It didn't help much.

"It's because you're too big."

Yukinoshita Shizuku said without looking up.

"Big where?"

"Your shoulders are wider than mine."

Hiratsuka Shizuka glanced down at her own shoulders, then at Yukinoshita Shizuku's.

She nodded. "True."

"And my chest is a little bigger than yours too!"

At that Yukinoshita Shizuku finally raised her head and glared at the beaming Hiratsuka Shizuka.

"You're making that up. Our figures are practically the same!"

"Kagami, tell her I'm right!"

Just then Yukinoshita Shizuku spotted Tsushima Kagami, who had just come out from his bath.

Tsushima Kagami had overheard exactly what the two of them were arguing about.

After looking at Yukinoshita Shizuku and Hiratsuka Shizuka, he hesitated for a moment.

At that point Hiratsuka Shizuka simply undid her pajama top, revealing the camisole underneath.

She thrust out her chest toward Tsushima Kagami.

"Look, isn't mine bigger?"

Beside her, Yukinoshita Shizuku hurriedly stood up too.

Mimicking Hiratsuka Shizuka, she undid her own pajama top, revealing a thin-strapped tank beneath.

"They're clearly the same size!"

"Um…"

Tsushima Kagami thought it over.

How was he supposed to dodge a loaded question like this?

"Don't just stand there spacing out."

"Hurry up and answer."

Yukinoshita Shizuku pressed, brow furrowed.

"Right! Don't try to weasel out of it!"

Hiratsuka Shizuka chimed in.

"I understand now!"

Tsushima Kagami put on a serious face.

He walked over to the two of them.

He looked at the two chests puffed out before him.

"In that case, please lift up your shirts."

"Wh… what are you saying!?"

"Gross!"

"Go die!"

When Yukinoshita Shizuku and Hiratsuka Shizuka heard Tsushima Kagami suddenly come out with a line like that.

Both of them turned red and covered the chests they'd been thrusting out a moment ago with their hands.

Wearing looks of "I misjudged you," they eyed Tsushima Kagami with disgust.

So this was what it felt like to be on the receiving end of a disgusted look?

Kimoji!

Watching the two of them fix him with that rare garbage-tier glare of contempt.

Tsushima Kagami found his thoughts drifting to a certain manga, "Look at Your Panties with a Disgusted Face."

A shame there was only the disgust and no panties.

That was what ran through Tsushima Kagami's mind, but his face stayed perfectly earnest, his eyes gazing at the two of them with total sincerity.

"Freak."

"Weren't you two the ones who asked me to see whose was bigger?"

"How am I supposed to confirm which one's bigger without a proper look?"

Hearing him put it that way, the two of them deflated a little.

It really was their own fault.

"Th… that still doesn't mean we'd just show you outright!"

"Yeah, it's way too embarrassing!"

Yukinoshita Shizuku and Hiratsuka Shizuka said, faces still flushed.

"Fine then."

Tsushima Kagami sighed.

Then he slowly reached his hands out toward their chests.

There was a sharp "smack."

Tsushima Kagami felt a sudden sting in both hands.

"Why are you reaching out—thought you just wanted to look!"

They'd only just lowered their hands, thinking they'd wronged him and starting to feel bad, when out of nowhere Tsushima Kagami reached out to grab them…

to grab them there!

Well, it wasn't like it was totally off-limits, but…

But this really wasn't the right mood for it.

And with someone else in the room, no less.

So the two of them swatted Tsushima Kagami's hands away at the same time.

In an instant they had their pajamas back on properly.

"Honestly!"

"You won't let me look, won't let me touch!"

"Then how am I supposed to confirm anything!"

After all, even with the same measurements, different shapes could make them look different too.

It's not like I've ever seen what your shapes look like.

And even if I had, is telling someone that one is smaller than the other really something you can just say out loud?

Tsushima Kagami added to himself.

"I'm going to bed!"

With that, Tsushima Kagami put on a show of storming off in a huff, rubbing his hands as he hurried back to his own room.

That left Yukinoshita Shizuku and Hiratsuka Shizuka staring at each other, at a loss.

"That was kind of our fault, wasn't it?"

Hiratsuka Shizuka said guiltily.

Yukinoshita Shizuku nodded.

"You don't think that got Kagami upset, do you?"

Yukinoshita Shizuku thought about it.

"He wouldn't actually get angry over something like this."

Only then did Hiratsuka Shizuka breathe a sigh of relief.

Once they'd blow-dried their hair, the two of them went back to Yukinoshita Shizuku's room together.

Back in the room.

The two of them lay down on the bed.

Yukinoshita Shizuku lay on her side, facing Hiratsuka Shizuka.

One hand pillowed beneath her ear, her hair fanned out across the pillow.

Hiratsuka Shizuka lay on her back, hands resting on the blanket, eyes on the ceiling.

She looked completely relaxed, without a trace of the stiffness you'd expect from staying at someone else's home.

The two of them had been talking for a long while.

One topic flowing into the next.

Then Yukinoshita Shizuku suddenly asked a question that caught Hiratsuka Shizuka off guard.

"Koharu, how do you feel about Kagami?"

Hiratsuka Shizuka's fingers twitched slightly on the blanket.

She didn't answer right away, as if pondering some very deep question.

After a few seconds of silence, the corners of her mouth lifted a little.

"Just being by Kagami's side makes me feel happy."

"All my everyday worries and troubles, they just vanish."

The room fell quiet for a moment.

"Then…"

Yukinoshita Shizuku's voice paused.

"Does that count as liking someone?"

____

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