Unplanned Intimacy; Yumary

Black-Haired Girl

Mary walked to her academy with her head down low, hands buried in the pockets of her hoodie. Her eyes were puffy from all the crying, and she still tasted the weird flavor in her mouth that appeared every time she woke up from a nap.

She took a deep breath before entering her classroom, the shiny tag that read "house pet" dangling on her neck on display for everyone to see.

All the teasing, bullying, and subtle abuse that was directed to house pets affected Mary a lot, but today, she didn't care enough to listen to those comments. She simply sat down at the back of the classroom and hunched down, trying to avoid the stares of her fellow classmates.

Her eyes traveled towards the front right corner of the classroom where Yumeko Jabami sat. many glued her eyes to her black hair in utter disbelief. "I'm going to marry her in three years".

The school bell, which signaled the time for lunch annoyingly interrupted Mary's self-deprecating thoughts. Her original plan was to stay in the classroom the entire break with nothing but her mind as company, but her hunger disagreed with that idea.

Mary dragged her feet towards the cafeteria, where she sat herself down on an empty table and quickly gobbled up her food.

As she was biting into her rice, to her dismay, her eyes met the Yumeko Jabami's dark brown ones. "mary!" Yumeko squealed excitedly, sitting down on the chair opposite of her.

"I haven't heard from you at all. You haven't been answering my calls. Anyways, you don't look the best. are you feeling well?" she inquired with a twinge of worriedness in her voice. "Y-Yumeko..." the blonde started, anxiously bouncing her foot and looking at her shoes. "You- you've read your life plan, haven't you?"

Yumeko leaned back on her chair and a curious smile crept along her face. "So that's what you look so worried about."

mary was surprised at how casual Yumeko's voice was. it was as if she had asked her for a coffee. "I've read it. I don't see why you're so troubled."

"You don't- what?!" 

"My, don't be so apprehensive. It doesn't look good on you. the Thing is, we can't really do anything about it. We'll just have to listen to the student council. I'm sure we'll find a way to pay off our debt somehow."

Yumeko gazed into mary's hazel eyes, her smile hadn't faded. "I recall it saying we should start a relationship at the age of sixteen. that's our age."

a giggle escaped Yumeko's lips before mary could say anything.

-

"Girlfriend? What do you mean girlfriend? You're not making a damn bit of sense!" Mary exclaimed, taken aback.

"I mean, we'll have to follow the life plan until we can pay off our debt. It's better to start now to avoid getting in trouble with the student council."

Mary's lips parted like she was going to argue but stopped herself. She merely sat there with a blank gaze, a clear look of disbelief and confusion plastered across her face.

"i- I suppose,"  she stammered.

Mary let out a sigh of relief when the bell rang, signaling that lunch break was over. She still wasn't really sure what she was feeling. As she walked down the wide hallways of her school, her head was filled with the black-haired girl who she had just spoken to.

Mary has tried to act like she absolutely opposed the idea of having a romantic relationship with Yumeko, but was that really the case? or was she just against having her life planned out by the student council, who she hated?

She had always found herself wanting to stick to Yumeko, even when she doesn't express it. It was the bliss of being in her presence that mary craved. The butterflies she gets when their skin meets, the ecstasy of chatting for hours on end with her about stupid, unimportant things. It was at that moment with Yumeko that her problems faded away into oblivion and her mind was clouded with felicity of the present. It was that feeling, that state of mind, that kept her running back to her.

"is it really just platonic?" was the question Mary always asked herself.

Before she could drown deeper into the quicksand that is her thoughts, she found herself in front of her classroom.

The final bell rang, and she quickly rushed out the school's gates to avoid the usual group of people that would torment her for being a house pet. Just another Monday for Mary Saotome, honestly.