Nat rapidly switches her focus between Elise and Yuele at Kat’s Cafe the following weekend. Elise can only roll her eyes as this little hang-out was Nat’s idea. Nat insisted on meeting him before she gave Elise her stamp of approval. Yuele doesn’t mind but questions why Nat is doing all of this.
“Do you have a sister, Yuele?” Nat asks, teasing him. “You sorta look familiar. You remind me of our friend, Yuna. ”
Yuele tries his best to glare at Nat without Elise noticing. “No, but I do get that a lot,” He laughs.
“So like, did you guys do it yet?”
Elise, annoyed, kicks her friend’s leg under the table. “Oh my god! Is this an interrogation? You just can’t ask that!”
Yuele decides to play in Nat’s game. “What if we did? Does it make you jealous that I’m taking your best friend away from you?”
“She’s with me for life, bud. You’re just the third wheel that decided to tag along.”
“Yeah but the one who’ll replace you once you brake.”
“Where do you go to school, Yuele?” Nat scoffs, changing the subject completely on purpose.
“What if I told you that it doesn’t matter seeing we’re all graduating in a week,”
That phrase catches Ellise’s attention. It’s not that she hasn’t been, she just pauses on it. She’s sure she heard someone something similar.
“I’m going to take a piss,” Yuele excuses himself. “Don’t go deaf from the sound of your own voice.”
“Don’t go in the wrong bathroom,” Nat teases him even further.
Yuele flips Nat off before he enters the men’s.
“He’s a feisty one,” Nat says to Elise.
Elise with a smile a bit too wide replies, “I know right? He doesn’t take your shit. He’s a real man.”
Nat almost laughs, “If you say so. I still can’t believe you managed to bag someone that hot. Are you sure he’s not a model?”
“I wouldn’t doubt it.”
Nat gets an Instagram message from Yuele. “Dude, I thought you were on my side. What’s with the probing?”
“LOL. I’ll chill” She replies.
“So? What do you think? He’s good for me, right?”
“Maybe. I would still try to get to know him a little better before you go even further. I think you should take it slow this time.”
“It’s HARD!” Elise shouts. “I want to fuck him so bad. But you’re right, I have to take it slow. I actually really like him.”
“Do you love him?”
“It sure does feel like it.”
Nat giggles. “I have a good feeling about this one. He hasn’t done anything weird though, right?”
Elise shakes her head, “Aside from that one night where we were all over each other, no. I think he wants to take it slow too which is odd to say. I mean, he’s a guy. But he is Bi, so I don’t know.”
“You’re overthinking it, Elise.”
“Yeah, you’re right. It feels like-”
“You’ve been waiting for me your entire life?” Yuele interrupts and sits next to Elise again.
“As if,” Elise laughs. “I don’t need to feed your ego anymore.
Nat can’t help herself but laugh to herself as she watches the two lovers start to banter with one another. She’s sure now that she made the right choice to support Yuna or Yuele. She still isn’t sure what’s proper.
-
Yuele walks Elise home after, holding her hand. Elise’s mind focuses on how similar it feels to Yuna’s. Even inside the cafe, she caught him saying things just as Yuna would say them. Right now, she chalks it up to pure coincidence.
“Your friend is funny,” Yuele tells her right as they turn the corner to walk up to their apartment building. “Did I pass the test?”
“You aced it.” Elise circles back to a question Nat asked. “Hey, where do you live? You met up with us pretty quickly. Do you live nearby?”
Yuele nods calmly, he has prepared for these sorts of questions. “I wouldn’t say close. It’s a house near the park at Loyal Heights.”
“When are you letting me come over? I still need to make fun of your room, y’know?”
“I’ll have to find a day where it’ll just be the two of us then. I’ll rather not have my parents interrogate you how Nat did to me.”
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
Elise giggles. “Fair enough. Walk me to the elevator, it takes forever to come down and I’m not ready to leave you yet.”
“Don’t tell me you're the type to miss me after a minute of me leaving.”
“What if I am?”
“Then I’ll make it a point to keep you by my side forever one day.”
No matter how used to Yuele she gets, there are some things he says that make her blush. Embarrassed, she pushes the button to the elevator. “You say that like we’re going to get married one day.”
Yuele laughs and then notices the elevator is coming actually coming down on command. “Who knows? Maybe we’re just meant to be.”
The doors open and Yuele gently pushes Elise in. An idea pops into his head that’ll make this more romantic.
“No kiss?” Elise complains.
Yuele waits until the doors start to close before he stops them with his hands. He grabs Elise by the waist and goes in for her kiss, but only kisses her forehead. “I want to leave you wanting more.”
Elise bites down on her lips, hard. As the doors close, “It worked.”
Yuele’s smirk is turned into a sigh once the doors fully shut. He walks over to the front desk and asks, “Did they fix the elevators?”
“Early morning. Finally, am I right?”
“For once I wanted it to take its damn time.”
-
Elise’s parents are out on a date that Saturday night. They go on once a month to keep the marriage alive. Their philosophy is that even if they’re married and have a kid, they shouldn’t stop doing the things that made them fall in love with each other. Despite all the ups and down, this is what has held them together for 25 years. Elise doesn’t mind either. She used to use the night to go to a party or to invite a guy over, but lately, she just stays in her room to read or watch TV. She asked Yuele to stop by, but he hasn’t responded.
Instead, it’s another person she wants to hang out with that knocks on the door. Yuna walks straight to Elise’s room the second the door opens and doesn’t say a word. The brief look that Elise got tells her that Yuna’s in a bad mood.
“You okay?” She asks, shutting her room door.
Yuna’s pacing back and forth. “Not really. I just got in a fight with my mom. Can I chill here for a bit until she cools down?”
“Yeah,” Elise sits on her bed. “What about?”
“Oh y’know. She wants me to be someone I’m not. She’s pissed because a family friend was home when I got home and not dressed like she wants me to.”
“Your mom’s Japanese, right?” They’re strict and traditional, yeah?”
Yuna nods and sits next to Elise. “Yeah. She expects me to be quiet and respectful, something I’m clearly not,” Yuna giggles. “I don’t want to talk about it. What are you up to?”
“I was just reading.”
“From your collection?”
Elise grabs her iPad behind her and shows it to Yuna. “No, online like a regular person.”
“Mind if I join you? I’ll grab one from the shelf like a weirdo.”
Elise laughs and watches Yuna grab the first volume of one of the very first manga she bought. There isn’t a chair to sit on so Yuna opts to sit on the edge of the bed and the two begin to read in silence. They only occasionally talk to each other to talk about a panel that catches their eye. Elise slowly becomes unable to focus when she notices Yuna’s hair is tied up in a bun. The similarities to Yuele start to add up again. Looking at her side profile, they’re nearly identical.
It’s nearly midnight and Elise can’t stand the silence any longer. Yuna hasn’t been herself tonight but Elise passes it off as her being in a bad mood.
“Hey, do you speak Japanese? Have you been there?” Elise breaks the ice.
Yuna flops her back on the bed and looks up to look up at Elise. “When I was little we used to go visit my grandparents. I haven’t been back since they died. And I’m not like fluent, but I speak it. Do you? You’re a closeted weeb, so I bet.”
Elise laughs. “Besides the basic words, no. Hey, say something. I want to hear it.”
Yuna gets on her knees and bites her lips. Elise only reads manga and never watches anime so she wouldn’t know common phrases. It’s safe to say, “愛してる”
“What does that mean?”
Yuna smirks and it once again reminds Elise of Yuele. “It’s an industry secret.”
“Hater.”
“Don’t lose sleep over it.” Yuna gets up to get the next volume of the series.
“Y’know what’s my biggest gripe with the Japanese?”
Yuna pauses and gives Elise the side eye. “Are you about to say something racist?”
Elise laughs, “No. It’s just that in every slice-of-life romance manga I read, The MC is always a wimp who’s too dense to see that the main girl is into him. Even at the slight hint of sexual tension they always all pussy out. Then it just drags on for hundreds of chapters for no reason. I mean, where’s the MC who takes the initiative and isn’t a pussy for once?”
Yuna’s impulses take over. She walks over to Elise, exactly as Yuele does, with the exact same confidence. Elise has to rapidly blink in order to confirm they're not one and the same. Yuna pushes Elise down on the bed and gets on top of her and closes in on her lips but stops a few inches away. “Sort of like this?”
Elise is left stunned, clutching her iPad towards her chest. She gulps down the built-up knot in her throat, unsure what to say. She’s unsure of what’s even happening. But willing nonetheless.
Yuna gets up and laughs. “Just kidding!”
Elise feels her cheeks. They’re warm. “Yeah, just like that.”
Yuna looks away because she’s embarrassed by what she just did. She doesn’t regret it but hates how nervous it's making her feel. Yuele doesn’t have this problem. Yuele doesn’t have to fear being rejected. But this is the kind of stuff he did to make Elise fall for him. Yuna has to find the courage to do it too. She sits back down and reads the text message that beeps.
“You okay?” Elise asks a few minutes later. That interaction was embarrassing for both of them, she knows this but the silence has been too much. Yuna’s eyes haven’t left her phone screen since which has prompted Elise to ask.
“Hey,” Elise pauses and puts her phone away. “Can I stay over tonight?”
“Is it your mom?”
“Yeah.”
“Of course, Yunes.”
Yuna laughs, trying to forget the text message she just read. “You’re so easy to take advantage of”
“Not really. This is just how I am.”
Right, too nice for your own good.
“I should’ve read the fine pint.”
“It’s too small for anyone to read anyways.”
“What if I told you that’s exactly why I decided to be friends with you?”
Elise doesn’t say anything. She takes the five seconds before Yuna goes back to the bookshelf to really observe her face. The words she just said struck a chord that Elise just can’t shake. The way she talks, the way she has her hair up, the color of her hair, the way her eyes are, the off ways how she changes how she walks, and the way she sometimes acts. It’s all too familiar. It’s identical.
That night, Elise isn’t able to sleep. She stares at Yuna’s back the entire time. It’s the same.
Elise refuses to believe it.
The concert, the following day after, and the sudden change in Yuna’s behavior. It’s all been right there. Again, Elise refuses to believe it.
It can’t be.