Can girls and girls be happy together?

Kobayakawa Tomoyo’s question made Yuyu Izumi part her lips, yet no words came out, because she did not know how to answer.

After thinking for a moment, she finally continued,

"It depends on the person."

"Depends on the person?"

Kobayakawa Tomoyo tilted her head. She knew what the phrase meant, but she did not quite understand why Yuyu Izumi would say it at this moment.

"I think relationships between girls can’t be generalized. You can’t see one happy couple and assume that love between girls is always happy and beautiful. And you can’t see one failed couple and assume that no matter how beautiful the process is, the ending will definitely be imperfect.

"In the end, love between girls is the same as any other kind of love. There’s nothing lowly about it that requires bowing your head in shame, and there’s nothing especially noble about it worth bragging over.

"At the same time, like all love, it depends on the person. For one girl, a relationship between girls might feel beautiful. For another, it might be something she cannot understand or accept. That’s normal. Everyone thinks differently."

Yuyu Izumi spoke slowly, which was also a way of voicing her true thoughts. Even now, she still could not fully understand why her sister had chosen a girl as her lover.

Yet despite not understanding, Yuyu Izumi did not show rejection. Instead, she respected and blessed her sister’s thoughts and love.

Kobayakawa Tomoyo listened quietly to Yuyu Izumi’s thoughts. When her voice fell silent, Tomoyo looked toward the classroom door and pondered for a long time, as if thinking, or perhaps simply staring at the doorway in a daze.

Just when Yuyu Izumi thought the topic had already passed, Kobayakawa Tomoyo—who had been staring at the door in silence—suddenly asked,

"Then what about you, Yuyu? Would you want to have a relationship with another girl?"

"I..."

Yuyu Izumi scratched her hair. It felt strange. When she argued with her sister, her mouth could fire like a little machine gun, nonstop for ages. But now, facing Kobayakawa Tomoyo’s question, she found herself at a loss for words.

After a while, seeing that Yuyu Izumi still had not answered, Kobayakawa Tomoyo did not press her. She simply gave a gentle smile and said softly,

"When I think about it, this kind of question really isn’t something you can answer right away. Sorry for suddenly asking you something like that. You don’t have to take it to heart."

"I-it’s nothing."

Yuyu Izumi hurriedly said,

"It’s not that I dislike the question. But just like you said, I really don’t know how to answer. Let’s wait a bit. Maybe someday I’ll know how to respond."

"Then when you do know how to answer, can you tell me first?" Kobayakawa Tomoyo asked with a smile.

"Of course."

Yuyu Izumi nodded. She considered Kobayakawa Tomoyo her friend. If she figured out the answer to this kind of question, it made perfect sense to tell her first.

"Thank you."

"No, I should be thanking you. If you’d kept pressing me just now, I might have gotten flustered and made up some random answer to brush you off."

Yuyu Izumi laughed awkwardly.

"Yuyu, you’re so honest. Even if that were the case, you still told me in advance."

Kobayakawa Tomoyo smiled brightly, then continued,

"So... Yuyu, you have to figure out the answer to this question soon. And once you do, you must tell me immediately."

Faced with Kobayakawa Tomoyo emphasizing again and again that she should figure it out quickly and tell her right away, Yuyu Izumi felt a little surprised. It almost seemed as if Kobayakawa Tomoyo urgently needed to know the answer—like if she found out even a second too late, it would already be too late...

Yuyu Izumi was just about to ask why she was so eager to know the answer. Was there some hidden reason?

But at that very moment, the class bell rang at the "perfect" timing. The sharp ringing always made people jump unconsciously.

Kobayakawa Tomoyo stood up, picked up her schoolbag—which she had somehow already packed—and smiled at Yuyu Izumi.

"When the school was signing up for supplementary classes, I only registered for English. I didn’t sign up for the math session. I’m heading home now. For the next two hours of math tutoring, you’ll have to work hard on your own. Try to understand quadratic functions as soon as possible."

Although Yuyu Izumi really wanted to ask why Kobayakawa Tomoyo was so eager to know her answer, seeing her already standing with her bag ready to leave—and with the math teacher just pushing open the door—she could only nod.

"Mm... Tomoyo, be careful on your way home."

"Mm-hmm! I will~"

Kobayakawa Tomoyo replied with a bright smile.

After she left the classroom alone with her schoolbag, Yuyu Izumi sat in her seat, absentmindedly tapping her mechanical pencil against the desk. She barely absorbed a word of what the teacher was saying at the podium.

Her mind was filled with the question Kobayakawa Tomoyo had just asked her.

—Then what about you, Yuyu? Would you want to have a relationship with another girl?

"Why is she so desperate to know my answer? Could it be that she has a choice to face in her heart—a choice that needs a quick response—and she wants to make that decision after knowing how I feel about this question?"

As Yuyu Izumi muttered to herself, this possibility suddenly surfaced in her mind. But the moment she thought of it, she felt it was unlikely.

She knew Kobayakawa Tomoyo’s personality well. If Tomoyo really had some choice that required a swift answer, she probably wouldn’t keep it bottled up like this. She would find a chance to confide in her, and they would think together about what choice to make.

After turning it over in her mind again and again, Yuyu Izumi concluded that it was probably just one of Kobayakawa Tomoyo’s sudden whims.

After all, Tomoyo often had sudden whims. Just like in third grade of elementary school, when she suddenly wanted to become a wedding dress designer when she grew up. And in her third year of middle school, she suddenly wanted to become a photographer.

Basically, she would suddenly have an idea on a whim. After the initial burst of enthusiasm faded, she would gradually loosen her grip on it, then slowly give it up or forget about it altogether.

"The parabola is symmetrical about the y-axis and passes through the points (1, -2) and (-2, 0). Based on these conditions, find the equation of the parabola. Student Izumi, please answer this question."

While Yuyu Izumi was lost in her thoughts, the math teacher finished writing the problem on the blackboard, turned around after setting down the chalk, and immediately spotted her obvious distraction.

How could a math teacher known for being strict let a distracted student off the hook? Naturally, he called her up—and even chose the type of problem she was worst at.

The math teacher had a list detailing each student’s weak knowledge points and question types.

"Eh?"

Yuyu Izumi froze when she heard her name.

Because she didn’t know how to solve it...

She barely listened in math class. Even now, she did not know what "symmetrical about the y-axis" meant.

To put it bluntly, she did not even know the basic standard form of a quadratic function.

And so, Yuyu Izumi was punished by the math teacher with a comprehensive worksheet entirely made up of quadratic function problems.

Looking at the thick stack of exercises in front of her, Yuyu Izumi felt her head swell. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦

"This is so strange. I recognize every word, every number, every letter, every symbol. So why is it that once they’re put together into a function problem, I can’t understand a single thing?"

...

After leaving Harugamo Inn, Kotomi Izumi opened a ride-hailing app on her phone, confirmed her departure location, and then selected her destination.

She did not set the destination directly to Gion’s hanamachi. She had no desire to attract strange looks from passersby. Even though the geisha of Gion sold art, not their bodies, she was still a high school girl. Going to the hanamachi in broad daylight felt a little odd no matter how she thought about it.

After considering it for a while, Kotomi Izumi decided that a tempura restaurant located just outside the hanamachi would be the most appropriate choice. It was at most a five-minute walk from Gion—close enough that she could get there with a casual stroll.

There was another very important reason as well...

Kotomi Izumi was hungry.

To avoid the awkward situation of her stomach growling the moment she saw Ayani Kika, Kotomi Izumi decided to eat something first to fill her stomach before going to meet her.

After all, Little Kotomi had her pride. She did not want to be seen as a glutton.

After selecting the destination, she pressed confirm and waited in place for the assigned taxi to arrive.

Although it would have been more convenient to call Aunt Matsusaka and enjoy a private car on demand, Kotomi Izumi thought about it and gave up on the idea.

There was only one reason—if Aunt Matsusaka drove her to Gion, she would probably receive a call from her parents the moment she stepped out of the car.

As for the matter of her knowing Kyoto Gion’s number one oiran... Kotomi Izumi was not quite ready to let her family know about it yet.

"It’s better to just take a taxi myself..."

Kotomi Izumi shrugged and waited for the car to arrive.

A few minutes later, the taxi pulled up. The driver was a chatty middle-aged woman.

After exchanging a few simple words upon getting in, Kotomi Izumi put on her earphones, preparing to listen to music for the duration of the ride.

Seeing this, the driver politely fell silent and drove steadily.

More than twenty minutes later, the taxi slowly came to a stop in front of the tempura restaurant.

"Miss, we’ve arrived. Please pay the fare in the car. Thank you," the driver reminded her.

"Oh, okay."

Kotomi Izumi nodded and paid the fare through the app.

From the moment she got in until now, the driver had reminded her at least three times to pay in the car. Kotomi Izumi understood the reason.

She had once seen a post on a forum written by a taxi driver explaining just how unreasonable ride-hailing apps could be.

Simply put, drivers needed to remind passengers to complete payment before getting out.

If a passenger failed to pay before leaving the car, and still did not pay afterward, the app would deduct credit points from the passenger’s account—but it would not recover the fare for the driver. Worse still, the platform would still collect its commission from the driver without missing a cent.

If a taxi driver encountered such a situation even once, it meant not only making the trip for nothing, but also paying the platform out of pocket.

No wonder the first sentence most drivers said when picking up a ride-hailing order was, "Please pay in the car."

After paying and getting out, Kotomi Izumi walked straight into the tempura restaurant. She did not message Ayani Kika. She planned to contact her only after finishing her meal.

"Welcome. How many in your party?" the waitress asked promptly upon seeing a guest enter.

"One—"

Before Kotomi Izumi could finish speaking, a familiar girl’s voice came from a seat not far away.

"She’s with me."

???

A row of faint question marks seemed to appear above Kotomi Izumi’s head. At first she thought she had misheard. With the restaurant fairly busy at the moment, she could not immediately tell where the somewhat familiar voice had come from.

"All right."

To her surprise, the waitress nodded the very next second and said, "This lady has already reserved a seat for you. I’ll take you over."

"Huh?"

Still confused, Kotomi Izumi could only follow the waitress toward a relatively quiet window seat.

As she approached, she froze.

It was her?!

The waitress led Kotomi Izumi to a two-person window table arranged face-to-face. Ayani Kika was already seated there, smiling at her. When their eyes met, she greeted her with a faint smile.

"Good afternoon. Have a seat."

Kotomi Izumi tugged at the corner of her mouth, looking as though she had a lot to say. But standing there talking did not feel appropriate, and with the waitress still beside them, she could only sit down first.

Ayani Kika spoke slowly, "Could we have two menus? We’ll take a look first, thank you."

"Of course."

The waitress nodded with a professional smile, retrieved two menus from a nearby cabinet, and placed them on the table.

"Just let me know when you’re ready to order."

After speaking, she walked away—though not before sneaking a few extra glances at Kotomi Izumi and Ayani Kika.

Two stunning beauties sitting together made for quite a pleasing sight. Naturally, one would want to look a little longer.

Ayani Kika did not pick up her menu. Instead, she smiled and said to Kotomi Izumi,

"The default drink I selected is lemon water. If you don’t like it, you can order something else when we place the food order."

"I want iced Pepsi," Kotomi Izumi said faintly.

Ayani Kika flipped open the menu to the beverage page. After scanning it briefly, she chuckled softly.

"It looks like this place only has Coca-Cola, not Pepsi. By the way, aside from the name, do they taste different? I don’t really drink carbonated beverages, so I’m not too sure."

Kotomi Izumi pursed her lips, looking pitiful.

"Then I’ll just stick with lemon water."

"The lemon water here is warm. Drinking something warm to soothe your stomach feels nice—especially since you just woke up not long ago. Don’t start off with a carbonated drink. It might feel refreshing, but in the end it’s not good for your stomach."

"I’ll drink it anyway. In the end, I’m the one who enjoys it!"

Kotomi Izumi let out a small, tsundere huff. After puffing up for a moment, she suddenly realized something and looked at Ayani Kika in surprise.

"How did you know I just woke up not long ago? Wait, no—how did you know I wouldn’t go straight to Gion, but would come to this tempura restaurant first?!"

"Want to know?"

Ayani Kika smiled charmingly. Even without her geisha makeup, every glance and smile carried the grace of an oiran. Her slender finger curled slightly in a beckoning gesture.

"Lean your little ear closer, and I’ll tell you."

—

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