Unplanned Intimacy; Yumary

For Her

Mary ran outside her door with her motorcycle keys in hand and tightly grasping Yumeko's ring with the other.

She hopped on the vehicle and swayed her hips side to side, and not forgetting to wear her helmet, she drove out of her neighborhood.

Mary had been to Yumeko's house a couple of times, so she was familiar with the directions. After all, most of the students at Hyakkaou Private Academy lived in the same luxurious complexes close to the academy. Which explains why most of them walk to school.

But as many turned to the left, she couldn't help but feel a wave of worry washing over her. Something about Yumeko being unhappy just felt- off. It's not like she didn't know all that has happened in Yumeko's past, it is a well-known fact to most of the students at the academy that she had lost both her parents and her sister was hospitalized- which means Yumeko lived alone.

But peculiarly, Yumeko had never shown signs of being troubled by her distressing past. She seemed far too focused on gambling to think about anything else. But was that really the case?

It was very difficult for mary to imagine Yumeko crying, though she is one of her closest friends. iI was unsettling in a way. Yumeko had always seemed put together in the terms of her personal life, but who knows what she was going through alone? She had just masked everything so well that no one seemed to notice that she was slowly getting swallowed by the voices in her head. She never appeared the type to be delicate, emotional type of person. little did everyone know, the poor numbskull was wretched and suffering in the depths of unhealed torment of the past.

Yumeko was alone all this time, who could she have gone to for support? "i could've been there for her," Mary thought, and a surge of guilt also struck her as she tightened the grip around the handlebar. how bad could've it gotten for Yumeko with her lack of a comfort person?

Before she knew it, Mary arrived at the large structure which was Yumeko's house. It had a European exterior with six pillars and pointy roofs, which hinted that the house was archaic and was most likely passed down for decades.

None of the light sources on the houses' front were on, which gave Mary a disorienting feeling. But she brushed away all the thoughts and slowly walked past the front yard, gripping Yumeko's ring tighter before ringing the bell.

After a short moment, a black-haired girl opened the door. it was Yumeko Jabami. but this Yumeko Jabami didn't look like the girl mary knew. Her eyes were puffy, and there was a clear look of sorrow plastered across her face. Mary had the sudden urge to cry as well.

"Mary, I didn't think you would actually come..." she stuttered, forcing a smile upon her face. "I- of course I did. oh Yumeko..." Mary gasped with soft eyes before pulling Yumeko into a tight, gracious hug. Yumeko was taken aback by mary's sudden move since she usually despised hugs. but she didn't complain. She just tightened the hug and rested her chin on mary's shoulder.

They finally pulled away. "Fuck, I needed that," Yumeko chuckled weakly, brushing off her tears before inviting mary inside her home.

She led the blonde to the left, where the dimly lit living room was. They leaned back against the couch with mary's arm wrapped around Yumeko. She didn't care about the awkward conversation they had earlier. Though she had no idea what Yumeko was going through, she knew that the one thing Yumeko needed is a support system, a hand to hold, a shoulder to lean on to. And Mary was convinced to be that person for her.

They sat there in complete silence, the sound of the ticking clock and their beating hearts was the only thing they could hear. The lack of noise wasn't the excruciating type of silence that Mary had experienced after the equally excruciating conversation with the student council president. It was a comforting, reassuring type of silence.

Yumeko felt secure for the first time after a long while. Though they barely spoke to each other, the simple presence of Mary made her feel safe. Feeling her arm wrap around her body as her head rested on her shoulder itself was enough for Yumeko to snap out of her distressed state. she felt the weight on her chest gradually fade away like a piece of paper in the wind. For a split-second, everything was okay. Everything was okay because she was with mary.