Tsukiko-chan & Taiyou-kun

Chapter 13

"Did he... force himself on you?" Yui barely whispered, but Tsukiko heard her question clearly.

"No... he never did anything like that." Tsukiko closed her eyes, but fighting back the tears. "We were... he finished drying my hair and we started talking about Taiyou-kun and soccer. Then Kobayashi-kun said he liked me and leaned to kiss me... and I kissed him back..."

"That's a relief. If he had done anything..." Yui shook her head to dismiss the idea. "Why did you kiss him?"

"I don't know. I was sad and angry at Taiyou-kun. And at myself too. When Kobayashi-kun said he liked me...I don't know... I think my old feelings for him just came back..."

"Do you still like him?"

"I don't know... I don't think so..." Tsukiko thought about the kiss. It was good, I think. But I don't wanna do that to him again. The one I wanna kiss is... The image of Taiyou-kun appeared on her mind and she blushed. "I like someone else..."

"Taiyou," Yui said, and it wasn't a question.

Tsukiko went quiet for a second. Then she chuckled. "Guess I'll never manage to hide anything from you... Yeah. I like Taiyou-kun," she said with a smile, the emotion for finally admitting filling her with happiness. But then she felt the tears again. "I like him and I kissed another boy and almost had..."

The girl couldn't stop the tears this time. She covered her face with both hands and let it all out. Before she realized, Yui had stood up and raced across the bedroom to hug her.

"You did nothing wrong," she said in low but a firm voice.

Despite those words of comfort, the girl cry even more. "But I—"

"You did nothing wrong," Yui said again, hugging her friend tighter. "You didn't cheat on Taiyou or anything."

"But I... my first time... almost... with someone else than the boy I like..."

"That doesn't mean anything. You're not a slut because of this." Yui pulled Tsukiko's hand and forced the girl to look in her eyes. "It's not like you didn't have no feeling for Kobayashi either. Listen to me, Tsukiko. You're not a bad person because of this."

The girl cried even louder and hugged Yui with all her strength.

It took a while for the tears to stop. Tsukiko cleaned her face and sniffled her nose a few times before meeting Yui's eyes.

"What happened after you kissed him?" Yui asked.

"We... started taking our clothes. I had no idea why I was doing that." Tsukiko barely heard herself. But when the remembered what happened next, she almost smiled. "You should've seen Aki-chan' face when she entered the room. She was talking on the phone, but when she looked at us, she opened and closed her mouth, barely forming words. Then she left with her face all red. After that, Kobayashi-kun was embarrassed and I said I had to go."

"Then you met Taiyou-kun in the hallway here." Yui finished and Tsukiko nodded. "You two apologized to each other, right? Doesn't that mean Taiyou-kun let all this behind?"

"I didn't tell him what I did. How could I? After that I cry in his arms, I fainted because of the fever. He called Rin-nee and took care of me until dad arrived. After everything, how could I say to Taiyou-kun what I had done?"

"Tsukiko, I'll say this as many times as I take for you to understand. You're not a bad person. Forgive yourself, because Taiyou already has. He wants to put everything behind."

"But that's just because he doesn't know what I did!"

"You idiot! It's because he loves you."

Tsukiko grew silent as Yui's words echoed in her bedroom.