LOVELORN

53|Reforming & stolen choices

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ＮＡＹＡ'Ｓ ＰＯＶ

WHEN MAI invited me to her house on Tuesday, I naturally said yes. Usually, we hung out either as a group or just Caio, Mai, and I, but today, she'd invited just me.

Except for Zora, Mai was by far my closest friend. Her exuberance would overwhelm me if it was any other person, but I'd quickly grown fond of Mai. Something about her made me feel at ease. Few people had set roots in my heart, but Mai had. The only deep friendship I'd had before Mai was Zora, but I'd always had romantic feelings for Zora, with Mai it had always been platonic and I needed that. Someone who was a best friend and nothing more, save for that one time we kissed. We both pretend that didn't happen.

"Do you want some Castella?" Mai asked as she wandered into the kitchen with me trailing after her. "My mom made it on Sunday."

I nodded and she got a plate out and put the cake on it. She asked me if I wanted something to drink with it too, so I got to choose from her selection of teas. After that, we sat down on her living room couch. Mai sat criss-crossed, a plate with Castella cake on her lap.

I took a bite out of the cake and made a pleased sound. It was delicious. "Do you speak Japanese? I don't know if I've ever asked you."

"Mhm, I do. It would be an overstatement to say I'm fluent, but I speak enough to get by."

"Have you ever visited Japan?" I asked, curious.

"A few times. I don't have any close relatives left there but my mom has taken me a few times. It's always been important for her that I'm familiar with my culture. What about you, speak any...?"

"Hindi," I filled in the gap. "A little, but not enough, no. I've been to India a lot, though. We have a lot of relatives there. My cousin that you met, Adya, is the only one I'm close to, though. If I hadn't felt so alienated from my family my entire life, I'd like to think I'd be more in tune with my culture."

She hummed in understanding. "It can be difficult to feel connected to your culture when you've never lived there as well, I think."

I nodded in agreement, continuing to eat the Castella. Out of the corner of my eye, I caught Mai looking at me like she was aching to ask something. I raised my eyebrows and gave her a look to urge her to spit out whatever was on her mind.

"So," she grinned, dragging out the 'O'. "You and Zora. What's been going on?"

The question was inevitable, Mai was too curious to not ask. If anything, it surprised me she hadn't begged me to tell her yesterday. As much as I'd tried not to, I'd caught myself smiling in Zora's direction like a lovesick puppy one too many times after the weekend.

I'd told Zora that Mai knew that we had something going on and she'd told me she was fine with Mai knowing. I doubted that applied to everyone else, but we both trusted Mai.

"We might have had sex," I revealed, somewhat sheepishly.

Mai, being the dramatic woman she was, gasped, smacking a hand over her face. Patiently, I waited for her full-scale theatric performance to run its course, unable to hold back my laughter. Between all her gaping, gasping, and exaggerated blinking as I told the story, (or the general gist of it, she didn't need to know all the details) you'd have thought she was an aspiring actress. But alas, she wasn't.