Maria-sama ga Miteru:Volume3 Chapter6 2

Summer Greenhouse. Part 2.

It became summer vacation.

I went to school every day though, like usual, and spent time with Shiori.

Because the school dorms closed for most of August, Shiori lived in the cloister inside Lillian. Even though it was a long vacation, Shiori stayed in Tokyo instead of returning to her uncle's place at Nagasaki. I didn't know the specifics, and I didn't ask, but the Lillian Girls' Academy principal knew her guardian, her uncle, so the principal acted as a parent to Shiori while she stayed in Tokyo.

The day the library opened, I burrowed myself in the reading room and concentrated on finishing my homework. The exact time shifted depending on the day, but eventually, after helping the sisters out, Shiori would come and work on her homework, too.

We were serious. We didn't think anything would change by us doing our homework, but we assumed if our grades fell, people would oppose our relationship even more. So we sat together, and when we finished our homework, we read books together.

We were in an old greenhouse one day.

In the morning, Shiori had to attend supplementary swimming lessons, so I went to school when they were supposed to finish. I walked past a mass of girls with wet hair, and I realized the lesson must have ended earlier than expected.

Wanting to see Shiori, my pace quickened. Not just quickened, I began running.

Right as I took a right on the Maria-sama statue fork, I felt moist warmth touch my face and shoulders. –It was raining.

Passing by the library and running past the auditorium, I finally saw Shiori.

"Shiori!"

It began raining harder, so it wasn't a particularly romantic setting for a walk. It was bright and sunny when I left, so I didn't have any foldable umbrellas or anything. We looked for a place to wait out the rain. It was still noon, but it was like an evening shower.

We fled into the old greenhouse.

Parts of the glass exterior was broken, and there were holes in the floor, but it did a handsome job at protecting us from the rain. The warm, humid air was apparently comfortable to Shiori, who'd just finished swimming. Unfolding her arms, she smiled, "It's warm."

"It might rain soon, the teacher said, and we stopped. But it rained faster than the teacher expected."

Moving aside pots on the ledge, we sat down.

"There's no helping getting wet in the pool, but it would be tragic if the uniforms got wet, she said. I hope everyone got on the bus before it rained."

Shiori took a sports towel out from a vinyl bag and wiped rain from my hair. The scent of the pool that was soaked into the towel drifted in the air for a moment, but that vanished quickly.

"I'm fine, wipe your hair first."

The reason why I said that was because I didn't want her to know how I felt. When Shiori wiped my hair, my heart started beating so fast I didn't know what to do.

As told, Shiori gathered her hair, flipped it over her shoulder and patted it down with her towel. Watching her absorb the moisture out of her hair with her towel, I just sat there, not knowing what I should do, nor what I wanted to do.

Not knowing how I was feeling, Shiori yawned slightly, and then began drifting into sleep.

She must be tired.

Without waking her, I moved myself closer to her.

A violent rainstorm passes quickly.

Inside the greenhouse, locked in by rain, I felt Shiori, with no one stopping me. Just this instant, Shiori was all mine.

Why were we born in different bodies?

Why couldn't we fuse together to be one living being?

Feeling Shiori's long breaths, I absentmindedly grabbed a line of our hair and braided it together. But the hair, being of different color and texture, quickly separated the moment I let go. Bored, I even tried twisting the hair into ropes, but that didn't help.

For some reason, I became obstinate, and made a braided cord with our hair. Two lines of Shiori's hair, one line of mine. And finally, our hair became one.

"What are you doing?"

Shiori asked, with sleepy eyes.

"No, nothing. You can sleep some more, I'll wake you up when it stops raining."

"Okay."

Not satisfied with just hair, I slid my fingers in between Shiori's fingers. That tickles, giggled Shiori as she squirmed, but she didn't shake me off.

Please, rain, don't stop.

I close my eyes, too.

Please, rain, don't stop.

The darkness shielded us from everyone's sight. Shiori's palpitations, her warmth, and her breath were all that was certain.

I wanted to be like this forever.

I half-believed that time would honestly stop like this.

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