—☾—

“Let’s see.” Liara fired her bow, striking the inner blue circle for six points. She looked indifferent about it, even though she agreed with Lotte on their usual bet on who would get the most points. 

Lotte would win most of the bets they made on their club activities. Especially when it came to pole fighting and archery to settle who would buy lunch for the day. Although Lotte tried to stay clear from doing bets during track—Liara would win there all the time. 

As Lotte was readying her bow in preparation to hit the golden circle in the centre for ten points, Liara suddenly spoke up, “The loser has to reveal their biggest secret to the winner!” 

“Huh?” Lotte fired and turned to Liara, who stood there with a wide, joyful grin as she took her friend off guard. 

Panic overwhelmed Lotte for a moment. She couldn’t tell Liara about her feelings, not yet.

“Hey, William Tell!” The trainer yelled. “You get 28 points for this but please pay more attention when you shoot!” The trainer huffed and threw her hat aggressively to the ground before she left.

“Practice was fun today, wasn’t it?” Liara asked as the two friends headed to their last class of the day with Lotte still trying to process the initial shock from before. She had almost lost the bet from being carelessly thrown off guard and had to confess her love to Liara. 

“You know that was dangerous what we just did? Shooting an arrow without looking? That was too irresponsible!”

“Well, you did it. I was just the support.” Liara laughed it off as Lotte struggled to suppress a chuckle.

Lotte would never show any sort of enthusiasm in any club activity or class, appearing to be a stoic and unapproachable person, but after she met Liara, it all changed. She was the sole reason Lotte could enjoy anything in school or the burden of expectations from her parents.

Ever since they first met by sheer coincidence Liara was there for her. 

“So,” Lotte sat down with Liara at the far end of the classroom, empty of any students or teachers, “what is the secret you plan on telling me?” 

“Hmm.” A dubious smile crept up on Liara’s face as she locked her eyes with Lotte and leaned on the table. “Do you mind telling me what you were reading today?” Liara pointed at Lotte’s paperback peeking out of her bag. The same one she was trying to read during the break. 

“‘The Epic of Gilgamesh,’” Liara read as she skimmed through Lotte’s book, not really paying any proper attention to its contents. “A poem? Didn’t know you were into poems nowadays.”

“You’re trying to change the topic, but to be precise, it’s an Epic Poem,” Lotte corrected her. “There’s a distinct difference between a normal poem and an ancient one. You know that. Stop pretending.” 

“Ok, ok,” Liara closed the book and shifted her chair closer to Lotte, whispering in her ear. “You should watch out when you bring it to school or read it at home. Books like these are a bit of a touchy subject.” 

“W-what do you mean?” Both of them were now whispering, although Lotte felt a bit flustered by how close Liara was. She should have noticed that she was making Lotte uncomfortable but came closer, anyway. 

“Did you know they call this Epica one of the first gay poems ever written?” 

Lotte choked, losing her breath at what Liara had just said. 

She tried to deny that idea, but as she went through her memories, she recalled some of the scenes and began to see the point her friend was making. Some of the scenes depicted how passionate and affectionate the two protagonists were. 

Gilgamesh once voiced that he loved his friend like he would love a wife; in another scene, they would cuddle with each other to stay warm during the night before fighting the terrifying monster Humbaba. 

“You are reading too much into it!” Lotte tried to make a counterargument but failed to keep her voice down.

Thankfully, no one else was around to hear her outburst.

“It was a different time back then. Experts claim that their love was like that between brothers. A love shared between friends. Gilgamesh even said that Enkidu was and would be his one and only friend, even after his death.” Lotte, much quieter now, tried to make a rebuttal, but she sounded almost desperate to prove a point. 

“Sounds about right.” Liara put the book back into Lotte’s bag, dropping the topic and speaking more casually. “Realistically speaking, it could also be a convenient interpretation for those who want to believe it a certain way. Same thing when someone reads an online novel and overanalyses all the released chapters and comes up with a conclusion they like the most. For instance, relationships between two characters.

“Besides,” Liara shrugged, “who can tell how it was back then? I can never convey history to the next generation as accurately as we wish it to be. Facts and details get lost or change over the course of time. Maybe we’re reading too much into it or we interpret things correctly without knowing it.” Liara winked at Lotte playfully, embarrassing her further. “Class is about to start. Better hide your book before our teacher gets wind of it.” 

Noticing the other students coming in one after another class was about to start, Lotte frantically tried to find where she had put her book before realising Liara already had put it back for her.

“Don’t forget to lend it to me sometime. You know I love history as much as you do,” Liara whispered into Lotte’s ear again and laughed, leaving her flustered in front of the other students. “Especially those where others like to interpret a deep relationship between the two main characters.”

Blithely, Lotte brushed her fists against Liara’s chest, complaining to her to stop always playing with her like that. They laughed, albeit one of them with a red face, not out of embarrassment, but joy.

“Alright, girls and boys,” the teacher announced his presence with a pang of his books on the table. “Let’s cease all laughter, especially the girls in the last row. Today we talk about what happened 16 years before June 1st and what kind of mistake it was on our society.” 

Lotte’s smile dropped. 

Again, like on any other day, the teachers of the school would pound their biased opinion into their students, recognising topics they hated as wrong so everybody else would hate them too. 

Lotte would listen and nod along, enduring it all while feeling awfully drained by it. 

Neither at home nor in school could she feel at ease. There was no place she would feel comfortable in. 

“Hey, want to play hangman?” Liara slid her open notebook over. “I’ll give you a hint. A person that makes you happy.” 

After a moment of pretending to be in deep thought, Lotte looked over at Liara. “Does it start with the letter ‘L’?” Lotte responded, with a hint of seriousness in her voice.

“Yes! Four letters left! It’s gonna take a while till something interesting happens. Let’s distract ourselves. Also, the secret I planned to tell you was,” Liara’s smile covered her whole face, and she leaned over to Lotte to whisper, “You are my best friend.”

Trying to contain a chuckle, Lotte smiled back at her. After all, she was the only person that made her happy when she was dispirited. 

Even if they were just friends, they were best friends. It was something she wouldn’t want to give up on as long as she lived.

Character Profiles

Name: Charlotte “Lotte” Mae 

Age: 16 ; Height: 173 cm ; Gender: Female

Friends: Liara Shepard 

A girl who is in love with her best friend but holds back on expressing her own feelings for fear of rejection. Loves her parents despite the fact they give her a hard time. 

Hobbies: Pole Fighting, Archery, History, Languages, Fantasy 

Likes: Grapes, Reading, Languages, Liara, stargazing, ancient history, Cereal with Fruit

Dislikes: Stress, club activities, her teachers

Ethnicity: Mother is from Oceania, the Solomon Islands and the father is Norwegian.