CHAPTER 2: SAILOR MARS & SAILOR VENUS
“SCORE!!! And the game has ended! Jyuban High School wins again!”
The crowd went wild as the sport commentator announced the winner of the day. The volleyball players of Jyuban High and the supporters cheered like mad and the opponent team—T.A. High left the court grudgingly. All the players gave their star player Minako Aino a high-five. Minako couldn’t help feeling proud of herself. She was lucky to be able to save the ball just in time before it hit the ground and make a shocking comeback to the opponent team.
In the middle of the crowd of spectators, she spotted Rei Hino Sailor Mars clapping her hand and smiling slightly as she seemed to pat the back of one of her classmates. Minako blushed. Rei actually has come over to see her watch the game. She felt so blissful and happy to see her that she just want to leap into the middle of the crowd and hug her, if it weren’t for the fact that she and her team members have to go on the platform to receive their medals and the trophy.
As you can guess, Minako has a crush on Rei ever since they first met. After being Sailor V all her life in her junior high and the incident of her having to kill her crush because he was possessed by one of the evils she had to fight, she couldn’t bring herself to love another guy. Admire from afar or like him as a friend, that would be fine, but never love. She was afraid that her powers could bring another tragic death to the one most dear to her.
That was until she had met Rei for the first time. Her beauty and her elegance stood out from the rest and she was the first person she caught sight of. During that time, she was claimed to be the Princess Serenity, and so she didn’t dare to be forthcoming with her feelings, but after the clear-up of mistaken identity and that Sailor Moon was the true Princess Serenity, she took a bold step in falling in love with Rei.
After the prize-giving ceremony, she quickly made her pace and caught with Rei just in time before she left the building. She grabbed her by the arm and squealed happily, “Konichiwa, Rei-chan!!”
“Hait, konichiwa,” Rei replied in her elegant way. “Great game today, Minako. Congratulations.”
“No sweat for a volleyball tensai like me,” Minako giggled. “So, are you going anywhere later?”
“Maybe. I have to go back to the temple to help my grandfather with the talisman and sacred scroll shop.”
“Work, work, work. Is that all you know how to do? Sooner or later you’re gonna get a serious nervous breakdown!” Minako asked with a bored look on her face. “Come on, Rei. Let’s go get ourselves a latte or something. I know a great place where they sell the tastiest strawberry cake and the richest latte ever!”
“But I have to go. My grandfather…” Rei’s words were cut short by Minako’s cheerful voice.
“That ojisan can wait, can’t he? Come on, come on! It’s my treat!”
Needless to say, Rei sweatdropped as she reluctantly let herself be dragged by Minako towards the coffee house she was raving about.
Rei and Minako were sitting together at the table in the coffee house bearing the sign ‘Coffee Lovely’ enjoying their latte and strawberry cake. Rei smiled as she took another bite from the cake.
“You’re right, Minako. This is really good.”
“See? I know my stuff around here! There’s nothing to fear when I’m around,” Minako smiled from ear to ear as she took a sip from her latte. She stole a look at Rei and realized that Rei looked even more beautiful when she smiled. She truly was the most beautiful among the Sailors and she truly was one of a kind. No one, not even a guy, could compare to her. Sure, maybe there are a few guys who were cute and all, but they weren’t her type anymore. Her type was the one was sitting in front of her right now.
“What? What are you looking at?” Rei asked in surprise as she realized that Minako was staring at her.
“Ie. Nothing, nothing much,” Minako said hurriedly. They were silent for a while before she started asking, “Rei-chan, do you do anything for fun during your free time around here?”
“Fun? Of course I have do things for fun,” Rei replied. “There’s Fobos and Deimos playing fetch with me using arrows, there’s meditation, which is a very calming way of dealing stress, there’s helping my grandfather selling things in the shop where I meet interesting people and…”
“Alright, alright, I get the point,” Minako said with a sweat drop. “In short, you’re living the life of a nun and consider those kinds of nun-like things as ‘fun’.”
“I wouldn’t call that the life of a nun, but if you put it that way…”
“I meant by going out and have fun,” Minako said. “Besides hanging out with us, don’t you go out and have a date or something, you know, with some cute guy?”
“I don’t trust men and I would never associate myself with dating any men as long as I live,” Rei immediately had that solemn look on her face.
“Don’t you ever at least like a guy or something?”
“No. Certainly not."
Minako fell silent for a moment. She had longed to be in Rei’s embrace and be by her side forever more and she had always told herself that one day she was going to tell Rei the truth about her feelings for her. Now that she admitted that she would never associate herself with another guy, would this be the right time to confess it? Would it be OK if she said it? She decided to try her luck.
“Annou, Rei-chan,” Minako voiced out hesitantly. “If that certain person has a crush on you, what would you say?”
“I would say that he is wasting his time and should be concentrating on more important issues,” Rei replied coldly.
“Well…if that person was a really close friend…and is a girl…?”
Rei stopped sipping her latte and looked at Minako weirdly, “Nani?”
“Well, I mean, if that person that really likes you and really have a crush on you is…well…me?”
Rei stared at Minako as if she had just announced that she was going to jump off from Mount Fuji or something. Minako decided that if she wasn’t going to tell her now, she would never have the chance again. She took a deep breath and blurted out, “You guessed it, Rei. I have the hicks for you. I like you a lot and I have always wished that you would be mine. I know you might be a straight, religious girl and wouldn’t want to associate with all these things, but I have to let you know. Seriously, it has been banging in my mind and I can’t get out of it. You are beautiful and smart and elegant and mysterious and…and everything! There is simply not enough time to be with you, not enough time at all…I just…well, the only thing I can say is…well…Suki-teo…”
The silence that hung between them was so thick you could cut it with a knife. Minako braced herself and prepared for the worst. She was sure that she was in for a sound scolding or such. She knew that a religious, scrupulous girl like Rei would never attempt to go for such an abnormal relationship such as this. She was sure that she was in for a rejection. She was ready to endure it.
Then, almost unexpectedly, Rei got up from her chair, looking quite uneasy and dazed, and muttered, “Sunimase, Minako, I’m running late. My grandfather might be waiting for me at home right now…I have to go…”
So saying, she went out of the coffee house and out into the streets towards the bus stop. Minako was dumbstruck. She didn’t expect this to happen. She was expecting a scolding or a yelling or a cold lecture on being against lesbianism or something, but she didn’t expect this kind of reaction. This was worse than a rejection; it was like becoming someone who was disgusted of her and not wanting to have anything to do with her. Nothing was worse than getting no answer from someone you have liked for almost over a year. Minako was devastated.
Leaving her unfinished latte and strawberry cake behind, she ran out of the coffee house too, tears brimming out of her eyes and falling with the wind on her face.
Rei sat silently in her bus as it took her down the road towards her home at Hikawa Temple. Her mind was disturbed by the sudden confession she got from Minako Aino. She was actually having a crush on her? When? How? Or more accurate: why?
Was it truly because she was beautiful and elegant and smart just like she said? Was it because she stood out from the rest? There were countless times where she heard rumours about all the other girls in her T.A. High admiring her and wanting to be like her. They didn’t know that she was a victim of negligence. They didn’t know that her mother passed away because of her irresponsible father neglecting her when she was sick and wasn’t there for her funeral. They have no idea that as soon as her mother passed away, her politician father dropped her at her grandfather’s home and immediately rushed off to another important meeting. They have no idea that she had grown up all on her own without the help of anyone and her irresponsibility of her father had made her despise men, except her grandfather, that is. All they knew that she was the perfect role model and the perfection of the whole high school. If they were to know about her past, they’d wish that they had never wanted to be like her at all.
So far, only the members of the Sailor Team have any idea about her past, and that includes Minako Aino. But then that didn’t stop her from being her friend and admiring her. She had an idea of Minako admiring her and wanting to be like her even when she knew about her painful past. But she didn’t think that she would actually have a crush on her and actually like her more than just a friend. She was disregarding everything that Rei is and actually wanting to be with her. She should’ve known her attitude by now that she wasn’t the type of person to approach easily. What was she thinking? Hasn’t she understood that she had faced enough pain already through her past? Hasn’t she understood that she wasn’t the type of person worthy for love, not even from the love of friendship? Was she even worth the love? What was she trying to prove?
With a heavy sigh, she got off at the bus stop that was about a few miles away from her Hikawa Temple and crossed the road to catch the next bus that went the opposite direction of her home.
Minako was lying on the bed looking very sad indeed. Not even Artemis could do anything to cheer her up. he just noticed that his mistress has suddenly come home with a pair of red sodden eyes and gave him the silent treatment all evening, and no matter how Artemis tried, she wouldn’t tell him what was wrong and he just didn’t know what to do.
“Mina-chan, your friend Rei-san is here!”
Minako immediately sat up. When she turned around, she seen Rei already standing at her bedroom door still clad in her T.A. High uniform. Artemis was looking back and forth from Rei to Minako and back again, trying to figure out what was going on between them. Rei and Minako were looking at each other in silence for about 2 minutes before Rei broke the silence.
“Artemis, would you mind leaving us alone for a few moments? We have something to talk about. Onegai.”
Artemis had no choice but to leave them alone. Rei closed the door behind him and locked it. She came in front of Minako and said in a demanding voice, “Look, I have been thinking on the way home and I just can’t get this question out of my head. Why would you want to love me?”
“A-re?” Minako was caught by surprise.
“Answer the question, Mina. Why do you want to love me? What am I worth to you?”
“Well…I can’t put everything in words and all, but…” Minako said hesitantly, her eyes not looking directly at her. “I believe that I like you because you’re elegant and everything. And most importantly, you don’t complain anything about your misfortune or any of what you lack.”
“Nani?”
“You have less than what a normal teenager should have. You don’t live the same life as we do and you don’t have what we have, yet you are happy with that and you don’t complain. You are already content with what you have and won’t ask for what you don’t have. That’s what I like about you. You are just so full of goodness, not like me who always complain about things I don’t have and don’t cherish what I’ve already have. You don’t have a mother and your father doesn’t seem like he existed anyway, but you’re able to live your life peacefully. I have both my parents to care for me, and yet I was still not satisfied. You don’t ask for what you don’t have or won’t get, and that’s what I admire in you…”
“Is that what you think?” Rei asked, her eyes close to tears as she advanced closer to Minako while spitting out words of suppressed anger. “Is that what you exactly think about me? Do you really think that I do not wish for the things I don’t have? I’m a human being! I do have wishes for things I don’t have! In truth, I have always envied all of you! In fact, I envied you the most! You have everything that I wished I had! You are always able to get out of your grief as if you simply fell down to the floor and got a scratch, yet I am still trying to cope with the fact that my life is just full of crap! What makes you think that I’m so perfect? What makes you think that I am such a wonderful Mary Sue? What makes you think that I am worth your…”
Rei couldn’t continue. She fell onto her knees and started sobbing like she had never sobbed before in her life. Minako stared at her in a leveled feeling of surprise. She had never seen Rei cry before—not that hard, that is. Tentatively, she reached out to Rei and took her face which was hidden in her palms and tilted her head to face hers. With a smile, she wiped the tears off her purple eyes.
“I may not know any exact words to make you see why I like you, but I know one thing’s for sure,” Minako said as she gazed deep into her eyes, “Aishiteru, Rei-chan.”
The two girls stared at each other for a full 5 minutes. Time seemed to stand still between them then as they both created an understanding and a deep connection together. Words need not to be said. They knew what exactly they wanted to do all along.
Soon, their lips met…
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