november yumary otp prompt challenge!

"as you wish"

Does every couple have that era where after they have their first kiss they just don't talk to each other? Yumeko always thought it was the opposite.

She'd seen in stories and movies that once the endgame couple finally shares their first kiss, once the fireworks explode and the orchestra swells, there was supposed to be some kind of shift. The couple couldn't be two feet apart or their hands were always locked. They both greeted and left each other with another groundbreaking kiss.

So where was that with her and Mary?

Not only had they not touched each other since their first kiss two weeks ago, but they've barely made eye contact. Why have they been the opposite of inseparable? This isn't supposed to happen.

So she texted Mary about it.

And got no reply. Nothing for two days.

Her single sentence was left on delivered. Sure, she would've been angry if it was on read, but Yumeko didn't even know if Mary had received the message. It's torture.

So one day after class, she decided to be direct. Mary seems to always like that.

"Talk to me," Yumeko leaned on the front of Mary's desk.

Hazel eyes traveled up to Yumeko's face and widened with surprise, maybe fear. "I have somewhere to be," the words rushed out of her mouth, like they'd be rehearsed, and she raced to get out of her chair.

"It will only take a minute," Yumeko only let a bit of her bitterness slip through her teeth. She grabbed onto Mary's hand just as she was about to leave.

Mary finally took a good look into Yumeko's eyes. There's no doubting she saw the hurt in them. It almost matched the apology in her own. "Fine," Mary said.

The classroom was empty now. Nobody would hear this but them. Nobody was there to distract or discourage them.

"Did I do something wrong?" Yumeko asked, her tone brutally honest.

Mary immediately shook her head: "No, you didn't. It's just me."

Yumeko took her hand: "Well, tell me about it. I'm sure I can help, and we can work through it. But avoiding me? Not answering my texts? That isn't going to help anything."

Mary's gaze was glued to the floor in shame. She sighed, "I know... I just don't even know how I'd tell you."

"Whatever's on your mind, I will help you. I promise," Yumeko squeezed her hand for support.

"We can't do this anymore."

Yumeko's blood ran cold. "What do you mean?" she said it knowing full well what Mary meant.

"I don't think this is a good idea, and we should stop before one of us gets hurt," Mary kept her eyes closed, as if her own words were a band-aid to rip off.

Yumeko was speechless despite the questions blowing up her mind.

Was the kiss too much?
Did she cause this?
How long has she thought this?

"Why?" Yumeko wasn't sure when her hand dropped back to her side, but now it was fidgeting with the hem of her skirt.

"I am not right for you," bullshit. "We're moving too fast, and I don't think this is the right timing."

Yumeko desperately missed her feisty and confident girlfriend of three months. It was like she was only talking to a mold of who that person was. The person who'd give her a look at they'd start laughing or blushing or both at the same time. The person who sparked a rebellion in her heart. The person who made Yumeko feel like a real, living, breathing, feeling person.

She bit back her tears, "What changed?"

It was probably the kiss.

"... The kiss."

Of course.

Yumeko nodded, subconsciously biting her bottom lip.

"I wanted- You're too good for me. You always check up on me, and you give me hugs when I'm mad. I've never felt the way I feel for you. I need to deserve you."

Yumeko took a shaky breath to ease the knife punctured in her heart. "You already do, Mary. If anything, I don't deserve you. You are my sunshine-" and she coughed to hide the crack in her voice. Mary's, now glossy, eyes pierced Yumeko's. "I want to make this work, and I think we can."

Mary cracked a solemn smile: "I want to, too," but before the hope in Yumeko's chest could rise any further, Mary grabbed her briefcase from off the ground: "But I can't."

Yumeko almost reached out for her. She almost called her name and chased her.

In a movie, she would've, but instead, she blinked away the tears blurring her visions and sighed, "As you wish."