“Hiya, K-chan,” Aria said as soon as I answered. “Whatcha up to?”

“Uh,” I scowled, every nerve in my body not already numbed by the cold on edge. “Walking home from work. What are you doing?”

“My toe nails!” Aria enthused. I was shivering pretty severely but tossed the idea of going into the house aside as soon as it popped into my head. I would rather turn into an ice cube than deal with getting dumped in the same house as Jun. Assuming I was going to be dumped. Which seemed a given at this point. Honestly, thinking about it kind of hurt my head, but did nothing to dim my resolution. I kind of wished she would just get it over with. The anticipation sucked worse than the deed, I imagined. “Sooo,” I could hear her blowing on her nails, “what’s up with this party thing Saturday?”

“Oh, it was Emi’s idea. Her parents are going to be out o- “I began.

“Oh my god! A party with no parents at Emi’s place?” Aria positively squealed over the phone. “This is going to be so amazing! Don’t you think?”

“Y-Yes?” I had no idea what to say. Weren’t we going to break up? I mean, she was mad at me and hadn’t called me at all since yesterday. She’d hung up before I could tell her I loved her and had been hanging out with Daishi at school. What the hell was going on? Oh, God, I thought, was Komari right? Had the point dropped off? Had we achieved parity once again in the relationship game? The notion both thrilled and horrified me.

“What should I wear?” Aria bubbled on. “I’m thinking I have a festive red and black strapless that would be amazing with the shoes I bought today! What do you think?”

“I-I think that would look really good on you,” I managed, my teeth beginning to chatter uncontrollably. “I-I-It’ll probably be cold, though.”

“Not inside, silly! I’ve got an amazing quilted parka I’ve been dying to try on! It’s fake mink and looks divine!”

“M-Mink are lovely,” I stared at my hands to make sure they weren’t becoming frostbitten. What the hell was I doing talking about carnivorous mammals when I was in real danger of freezing? The last thing I needed was to lose a finger two days before the party.

“So, are we going in the baths nude?” Aria tittered.

“I think s-so,” My teeth were now chattering uncontrollably, making it difficult to talk properly and the hand holding the phone now had a death grip, the muscles reluctant or unable to relax.

“No looking at the other girls, K-chan,” Aria scolded playfully. “I promise I’ve got plenty to keep you interested.”

“I-I-I b-b-bet-t-t y-you d-d-do,” I stammered at her. My imagination ran wild, causing a bizarre physical reaction where I was both freezing and flushed at the same time. All those times steam exploded from manga characters’ heads seemed not quite so far-fetched.

“Well, I know you’re cold, so Imma let you get home. I love you, K-chan! I’ll see you tomorrow!” Aria seemed to have finally noticed my chattering.

“I l-l-l-ove y-you t-t-oo,” I managed.

“You’d better! Mwah!” She hung up and I was left staring at the blank phone for a moment before I recovered enough to run for the door of my house, my mood dramatically shifting from sullen resignation to confused relief to sexual anticipation and excitement all in the space of a three-minute conversation. The power of relationships was not to be taken lightly, I decided as I slammed through the door and into the warmth of the entry hall.

“I see you apologized,” Mizuki smirked at me from across the table the next day, jabbing her chopsticks in my direction.

“Apologized?” Aria cocked her head to the side quizzically.

“You are a decent person for forgiving her, Aria-chan,” Mizuki nodded, her car door ears bouncing back and forth. “But I told her it would work out if she just bit the bullet and said she was sorry. You forget, Kasumi, I’ve known you forever. I know what you’re like.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” I demanded irritably. “What am I ‘like’?”

“You’re sullen and moody and never apologize properly, even when you know you’re wrong,” Mizuki blundered on like a yak through a closed road barrier.

“That is not true!” I exclaimed indignantly.

“Remember when we were 7 and that boy that used to live down the road called you skinny and dumped ramen on you and you beat him up?”

“No,” I lied. Of course I remembered him. He was a few years older than us and was a complete jackass. He used to walk to the bus stop with Mizuki and I and would incessantly pull my ponytail and grab my randoseru and drag me down by it.

“She beat him up?” Aria stared at Mizuki in awe.

“I bet he was mean to her!” Saki clenched her fists defiantly. “People shouldn’t be mean to other people and if they are you should stand up for yourself!”

“When boys are mean to girls at that age it means they like them,” Mizuki lectured. “Sometimes they’re mean to girls they like even into adulthood. Not my pigeon, of course, but some boys.”

“Could you please not use cutesy nicknames when I’m trying to eat?” I nearly lost my onigiri right then and there.

“That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard,” Emi snorted with derision. “Why would boys be mean to someone they like?”

“Maybe because they aren’t sure how to express their feelings adequately. They think by paying them attention, however destructive it may be, they are trying to show them,” Mizuki posited. There was so much wrong in that sentence I couldn’t even begin to dissect it properly.

“I wasn’t asking you,” Emi huffed. She jabbed her cherry tomato at Yuto. “Why are boys pains in the ass?”

“Huh?” Yuto’s mouth moved convulsively as he shoveled rice into his face, his eyes wide with confusion.

“Yeah, meatball,” I piled on. “Answer for the males of the species. Why do guys suck so bad?”

“I don’t suck!” Yuto protested, bits of rice tumbling from his lips to fall onto the desk.

“Ugh! Gross!” I gagged, moving as far from him as I could.

“That’s not what I heard,” Emi waggled her eyebrows suggestively and I felt my onigiri revolt and try to make its way back where it’d come from in a preternatural flight reflex. I choked it back down viciously, coughing and gagging again in the process. Mizuki’s face turned beat red all the way to the tips of her voluminous ears and for a moment I thought she might be having a stroke. They hadn’t…right? I prayed to whatever god happened to be listening for the gift of temporary, specific amnesia. I said a second silent prayer for them to stab my mind’s eye out while they were at it.

“That’s disgusting!” Mizuki finally managed after a long moment of silent horror, standing so suddenly her chair clattered back across the floor. “I am saving myself for marriage! You take that back!”

“Who said I was talking about you?” Emi smirked, a savage side of her she rarely showed bubbling up from the depths of her soul. Mizuki trembled in outrage, but her eyes had shifted to Yuto’s broad, dumb face, a hint of doubt creeping in. If anyone knew anything it’d be Emi. She was the Tottori equivalent of a news network.

“Who have you sucked, Yuto!?” Mizuki’s demure demeanor slipped off like a robe in a bathroom. My mouth dropped open in awe. Emi laughed so hard she dropped her chopsticks. Saki’s face looked like an Edvard Munch inspiration and the milk Aria was drinking shot out of her nose and onto the table in front of her as she struggled to bring her napkin up to stop it.

Every head in the classroom turned her way. Yuto would never live this humiliation down and it thrilled me to the core in a way that superseded even the revulsion brought on by the notion of him sucking anything.

“Huh?” Yuto glanced between Emi and Mizuki fearfully, the gist of the conversation plainly eluding him.

“I was just kidding!” Emi patted Mizuki’s hand, tears streaming down her face from laughing. “I would kill myself before I ever chose to listen to anything having to do with Yuto’s sex life. I’m sorry for making you mad, Mizuki!”

“Ah, ha ha ha,” Mizuki laughed half-heartedly, seemingly ignoring the decidedly backhand compliment she’d paid Yuto and the tension began to slowly dissipate. Aria was still giggling while cleaning up the table. I glanced over at Saki who was holding her own onigiri daintily in both hands and nibbling it like a chipmunk, eyes darting from Emi to Mizuki to Yuto and back fearfully. Mizuki retrieved her chair and sat back down, the very model of the proper Japanese ojou-sama, ignoring the low chorus of snickering rolling across the room.  “See, Kasumi, that’s how you should apologize. Regardless, I think it’s lovely you two are friends again.”

“Oh, yes!” Aria proclaimed happily, draping her arm over my shoulders, and pulling me tight in a hug. “We are wonderful friends! The best of friends! We are so very friendly even best friends look at us and say ‘Wow! Those two are really friendly!’ Right, K-chan?”

“Uhm…yep,” I nodded after a moment, keenly aware of the tips of her fingers brushing against the side of my breast through the fabric of my sweater.

“You could even say we’re such wonderful friends we need to keep our fingernails cut!” Aria giggled. I coughed and choked once again; certain lunch would be the death of me. Mizuki’s lips curled up in a bewildered smile. Saki’s face mirrored Mizuki’s confusion while Emi gaped wide-eyed at Aria.

“Th-That’s nice!” Mizuki finally declared, no clue whatsoever as to what was so nice about it.

“Lunch is really sliding off the rails,” Emi muttered with a pleased smile on her face, her inner anarchist relishing in the chaos.

“Yeah! It is!” Aria let her fingers linger on my breast for a moment longer teasingly before she returned to her lunch with another satisfied giggle. “But tell me, K-chan, why were you supposed to apologize?”

“Ah,” I mumbled slipping from shock and embarrassment to contrition in an instant. “You see, because I was kind of a jerk on the phone the other night.”

“Pfft,” Aria waved her hand dismissively. “Water under the bridge or over the dike or whatever.”

“Dike?” I scowled. What did she mean by that? Was she referring to an actual dike? She’d better be or I’m going to need to apologize again in a minute, I decided.

“So, we’re all looking forward to the party, right?” Emi jumped in hastily. “Ms. Harada is making lots of food for us and we’ll have the whole house to ourselves to party hard all night long!”

“No cauliflower, I assume,” I supplied, deciding it was definitely the flood control device and nothing else.

“Oh! I love cauliflower!” Yuto blurted out.

“If I was a teacher I would kick you out into the middle of the damn ocean so fast right now, Yuto,” Emi growled, eyes narrowing. “Seriously.”

“Pigeon, you need to stay out of things you don’t understand,” Mizuki warned him, plainly not over the mental images Emi had planted in her head. Yuto nodded and hung his head despondently.

“Oh! Emi senpai!” Saki raised her hand like she was trying to get the teacher’s attention. “What kind of food should I bring?”

“Salty, my dear Saki-chan!” Emi patted her shoulder, encouraging her to put her hand down gently. “As I said, I have the sweet, but I need chips and crackers and salted cashews and stuff as a counterpoint to the candy. Otherwise I’ll OD and end up stealing the neighbor’s dog and spend all night washing it again.”

“Again?” Aria hitched an eyebrow upward curiously.

“Don’t ask,” I mumbled, shaking my head.

“What kind of swimsuit should I bring?” Mizuki asked, finally managing to return to her previously discarded lunch.

“Eh? Swimsuit?” Emi blinked blankly at her. “For what?”

“The bath,” Mizuki prompted.

“No swimsuits allowed in the bath, Mizuki-san. Family rules,” Emi shook her head.

“Um!” Saki raised her hand once again, obviously some kind of autonomous reaction to being in school and asking questions. “What does that mean?”

“My dear, sweet Sakura,” Emi petted her head patiently before pulling her arm back down gently once more. “It means the bath at the Seto mansion is restricted to flesh only.”

“Y-y-y-you m-m-mean n-n-naked?” Saki asked, eyes wide in a mix of horror, interest and fear I found difficult to fully grasp.

“I mean just that, indeed,” Emi nodded wisely. “It can’t be helped, you know. The bath is fed from a natural hot spring on the property and clothes have a detrimental effect on it. It is the way it is.”

“Ah, I see,” Mizuki nodded. “Makes sense.”

“Think of it as a public bath. You go to a public bath, right?” Emi smiled warmly at her.

“Not really, no,” Saki muttered nervously.

“Well, this’ll be good practice for you, then,” Emi smirked.

“We’re all girls so it doesn’t matter, Saki-chan,” Mizuki smiled helpfully. I felt my eye twitch at the manga trope Mizuki had become. I scowled at her and strongly considered throwing my bento box at her.

“Yeah! We’re all girls so everything’s okie dokie,” Aria smirked. “I suppose that answers my question from last night, then.”

“I suppose so,” I nodded, more flattered than I should have probably been by Saki’s furtive glances at me and the deep blush spreading across her cheeks.