Yumi had a nice house.

  Suzume arrived bearing gifts (some soda and chips). It was the least she could do if she was going to receive some emotional relief in exchange. Though maybe what she needed was divine intervention at this point.

  [I'm not used to this. Not used to this at all.]

  Suzume knocked. It took about half a minute but soon, the door opened. Yumi stood on the other side, wearing... wearing...

  [Whoa.]

  Suzume's eyes ran up and down her body before she could stop them. Yumi had on a crop top that didn't even hide her whole chest and some baggy leggings that looked like she was gonna breakdance or something.

  [Underboob.]

  "... zume?"

  [That's... actually quite a lot of underboob.]

  "Suzume!"

  Suzume snapped out of it, blinking twice.

  "Oh, uh, hi." Suzume lifted her offerings. "I brought stuff."

  Yumi grinned.

  "Come in already."

  Yumi's place was cozy in that "I have my life together" kind of way that made Suzume feel like a gremlin by comparison. Actual furniture, lants that weren't dead, a kitchen that smelled like someone had been cooking real food in it recently.

  Suzume shuffled inside, clutching her soda and chips to her chest like a shield, and Yumi gestured vaguely toward the living room.

  "Make yourself comfortable. I'm almost done with dinner."

  "You didn't have to cook," Suzume said, even as her stomach growled at the smell wafting from the kitchen.

  "I was making it anyway. Cooking helps me get my mind off stuff." Yumi wandered back toward the stove, calling over her shoulder, "Sit! Relax! Your whole body's vibrating."

  Suzume sat.

  She did not relax.

  Instead, she found herself watching Yumi move around the kitchen, and that was, as it turned out, a terrible idea. Because Yumi moved... performatively. Like she knew she was being watched. Hips swinging as she walked, bending over at a perfect ninety-degree angle to pick something up, reaching up to grab plates from a high shelf in a way that made her crop top ride up even further.

  [Don't look at her butt. Don't look at her butt. Don't—]

  Suzume looked at her butt.

  "You say something?" Yumi asked, straightening up and looking back.

  "Nope. Nothing. Just, uh, appreciating your home decor."

  "My home decor is around you."

  ".... I have a wide field of vision."

  Yumi snorted, but mercifully didn't push it. A few minutes later, she emerged from the kitchen carrying two bowls of what looked like curry, setting one down in front of Suzume before dropping onto the couch beside her.

  Close beside her.

  Their knees were almost touching.

  "Alright," Yumi said, tucking one leg underneath herself and turning to face Suzume fully. "Spill. What's the crisis?"

  Suzume sighed, going over the speech she rehearsed on her way here.

  "Kasumi confessed to me," she finally managed, the words tumbling out in a rush. "Like, actually confessed. Said she likes me. Has liked me. And then she kissed me in the dungeon, and then she kissed my forehead in the hallway, and she held my hand and told me to think about what I want, and I don't know what I want because I've never wanted anything like this before and my brain just stops working whenever she's around and I—"

  "Breathe."

  Suzume breathed.

  "Okay," Yumi said slowly, a grin spreading across her face. "So Kasumi finally made her move. Good for her. But I'm not seeing the crisis here. You like her, right? You said you like her back?"

  "I did. I do. That's not the problem."

  "Then what's the problem?"

  Suzume's face was burning now, heat crawling up her neck and settling into her cheeks. She stared down at her untouched curry like it held all the answers.

  "It's not just Kasumi," she admitted quietly.

  Yumi raised an eyebrow.

  "Lately, I've been... different." Suzume's hands twisted in her lap. "Like... Women catch my eye more. I'll be walking down the street and suddenly I'm noticing things I never noticed before, and I can't stop, and it's distracting, and I don't know what's wrong with me."

  "You mean like my tits?" Yumi asked, casual as anything.

  Suzume choked on air.

  "I saw you staring when I opened the door," Yumi continued, utterly unperturbed. "And just now, in the kitchen? You were practically burning a hole through my leggings."

  "I wasn't—I didn't—"

  "Suzu. Your face is regularly red around me. Obviously, I've noticed."

  Suzume buried her face in her hands and made a sound that was somewhere between a groan and a whimper. Her whole body felt like it was on fire, embarrassment and something else mixing together until she couldn't tell them apart anymore.

  "I'm sorry," she mumbled through her fingers. "I don't know what's happening to me."

  "Mmm..." Yumi hummed. "Did you like kissing me?"

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  "WHAT!?"

  The question caught Suzume off guard. It was like being verbally slapped in the face. Yumi didn't even have a smirk on her face as she asked it. She was being completely serious.

  "N-No!"

  "No?"

  "I mean, yeah."

  "Yeah?"

  "UGH!" Suzume wanted to disappear. "Why are you even asking that?"

  "It's important," Yumi replied, nodding with wisdom.

  Suzume's eyes darted toward the hallway, then back to Yumi.

  "Don't say stuff like that so loud," she hissed. "What if Rei hears you?"

  "Rei's not here." Yumi picked up her curry bowl and took a casual bite, chewing slowly before swallowing. "We also broke up a couple of days ago, so even if she was here, it wouldn't really matter."

  Suzume's brain stalled.

  "WHAT!?"

  "Yeah." Another bite. Yumi said it the same way someone might mention the weather, or that they'd picked up milk from the convenience store. "It's been a weird week."

  "You—she—what happened!?"

  Yumi set her bowl down and leaned back against the couch, stretching her arms along the back of it in a way that made her crop top more distracting. Suzume forced her eyes to stay on Yumi's face. Mostly.

  "Rei thought I cheated on her," Yumi said.

  "Oh... Well..." Suzume looked away. "I guess, you actually did though, ri-"

  "Let me finish," Yumi said, strangely amused. "She thought I cheated on her... With Hikari."

  Suzume blinked.

  "Hikari? Our Hikari?"

  "The very same."

  "But... Why?"

  "You're not much of a social media gal, hehe. Here, look."

  She pulled out her phone, tapped a few times, and handed it over to Suzume.

  Suzume stared at the screen.

  Yumi's profile was filled with selfies, which wasn't surprising, but what was surprising was how many of them featured Hikari. Yumi and Hikari at a cafe, their heads close together. Yumi and Hikari at headquarters, Yumi's arm slung around Hikari's shoulders. Yumi and Hikari at what looked like a bar, both of them flushed and grinning.

  And then there was one where Yumi was kissing Hikari's cheek while Hikari smiled at the camera.

  Suzume blinked twice.

  "Before you ask, no, there's nothing going on there, we just hang out a lot," Yumi said, like that explained everything. "Though, I'd be lying if I said Hikari wasn't one of the top five hottest girls I know, but that's besides the point. Rei didn't love that."

  Suzume scrolled through a few more photos, her brain trying to recalibrate.

  "Then," Yumi continued, plucking her phone back from Suzume's hands, "one night I showed up smelling like another woman, and yeah. Long story short, we decided we work better as friends than partners."

  Suzume's scrolling finger froze in midair, even though the phone was already gone.

  Smelling like another woman.

  One night.

  The party. The kiss. Yumi going home after that, after Suzume had grabbed her by the collar and shoved her tongue down her throat in front of everyone.

  "Whoa," Suzume breathed. "You mean... You showed up smelling like me?"

  "Crazy, huh?" Yumi replied, and she still didn't look bothered. Not even a little. She picked her curry back up and took another bite like they were discussing the plot of a TV show and not the implosion of her relationship.

  Suzume's guilt hit her like a truck.

  "Yumi, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to—if I hadn't kissed you, then maybe—"

  "Suzu." Yumi held up a hand. "Stop. It's fine."

  "But—"

  "It isn't exactly my first time being dumped. And, it surely will not be the last. But, let's get back to what matters," she shifted a little, "maybe I should ask differently... Okay, here."

  She got closer, smirking a bit.

  Suzume inhaled slowly, preparing her nerves for whatever was coming.

  "Which kiss did you like better?"

  Suzume's brain crashed. Blue screen. Total system failure.

  "The one with Kasumi," Yumi clarified, as if Suzume needed help understanding the question and not help processing the fact that it had been asked at all, "or the one with me?"

  "I—that's—you can't just—"

  "It's a simple question, Suzu."

  It was not a simple question. It was the opposite of a simple question. Suzume opened her mouth to say something, anything, but all that came out was a strangled noise that sounded vaguely like a deflating balloon.

  Kasumi's kiss had been electric. Confident. The kind of kiss that said "I know what I want and it's you." It had short-circuited Suzume's brain in the best possible way, left her dizzy and breathless and wanting more.

  But Yumi's kiss, the one at the party, that had been different. Messy and drunk and fueled by something Suzume still couldn't name. She'd been the one to initiate it, grabbing Yumi's collar and pulling her in, and that part of it, the taking instead of being taken, had lit something up inside her that she didn't know how to put back.

  "I don't know," Suzume finally managed, her voice cracking. "They were both... I can't... I don't..."

  Yumi watched her flounder for a moment, head tilted, and then something clicked behind her eyes.

  "Oh," she said slowly. "Oh, I get it now."

  "Get what?"

  Yumi pointed at her.

  "You're touch-starved."

  Suzume flinched like she'd been slapped.

  "I'm not—"

  "Kiss-starved, then. Whatever you want to call it." Yumi leaned back. "You spent years not getting any of this, right? No dating, no kissing, no nothing. Just studying and working and then training to throw yourself into dungeons. And now suddenly you've got people actually interested in you, actually touching you, and your brain doesn't know how to handle it."

  Suzume's mouth opened and closed a few times.

  "That's... I mean... It's not like I was avoiding it on purpose, I just never had time, and no one ever seemed interested, and—"

  "Suzu. It's fine. I'm not judging you." Yumi's smirk softened into something gentler. "I'm just saying, this is new for you. All of it. The attention, the attraction, the whole 'oh no women are hot' awakening you're clearly going through right now."

  Suzume buried her face in her hands again.

  "... Maybe you're right."

  "I'm always right. It's one of my many charming qualities."

  They sat in silence for a moment, Suzume trying to reassemble the shattered pieces of her dignity while Yumi finished off her curry like this was a completely normal Tuesday evening conversation.

  Then something Yumi had said earlier filtered back through the chaos in Suzume's head.

  "Wait." She looked up. "You said 'people.' Multiple?"

  "Did I?"

  "What did you mean by that?"

  Yumi shrugged, setting her empty bowl on the coffee table.

  "I'd definitely make out with you again if you wanted to," she said, casual as anything. "No alcohol required this time."

  Suzume made another one of those dying animal noises.

  "You—but you just broke up with Rei—"

  "And? I'm not asking you to marry me, Suzu." Yumi stretched, her crop top riding up again, and Suzume's eyes dipped before she could stop them. "But that's not really the point right now."

  "Then what is the point?"

  Yumi turned to face her fully, and her expression shifted into something more serious.

  "The point is, I would advise you to tell Kasumi about this. All of it. The confusion, the not knowing what you want, the fact that you're only just now figuring out you like women." She held up a finger before Suzume could interrupt. "And you should absolutely not get into any relationships right now."

  "But Kasumi said—"

  "Kasumi can wait. If she actually likes you, she'll understand." Yumi poked Suzume's forehead gently. "You're only just now discovering your sexuality, dummy. You're volatile. You should be exploring that, not locking yourself down with the first person who confesses to you."

  Suzume sat with that for a moment, turning the words over in her head.

  "Exploring," she repeated slowly.

  "Yeah. Figure out what you actually want. Not what you think you should want, or what other people want from you. What you want." Yumi grinned. "And if part of that exploration involves making out with hot girls, well, that's just a bonus."

  Suzume groaned.

  "This is so stupidly complicated."

  "Love games often are."

  ---

  Suzume's apartment felt too quiet when she got home.

  She dropped her keys on the counter and stood there for a moment, staring at nothing, Yumi's words still rattling around in her skull.

  [Tell Kasumi. Don't get into a relationship. Explore.]

  It all made sense, logically.

  Yumi was probably right. Suzume was in no state to be making any kind of romantic decisions right now, not when her brain short-circuited every time an attractive woman so much as looked at her. She needed time. Space. Room to figure out what the hell was going on inside her own head.

  But the thought of having that conversation with Kasumi made her want to crawl under her bed and never come out.

  [Hey, so, I know you confessed to me and everything, but I'm actually having a sexuality crisis and also I might be attracted to literally every woman I meet, so can we maybe put a pin in this whole thing?]

  Yeah. That would go over great.

  Suzume flopped onto her couch and stared at the ceiling.

  Her phone buzzed. A news alert.

  She glanced at it out of habit, and then sat up straighter.

  BREAKING:

  Dungeon Instability Reported in Toshima Ward.

  One Player Confirmed Trapped.

  One player. Just one.

  Suzume stared at the notification for a long moment.

  She could call the team. Should call the team, probably. That was the responsible thing to do, the thing a proper Guild Master would do.

  But, at the same time, maybe a bit of time without them could do her some good.

  [... Probably shouldn't go completely alone, though.]

  She looked at her contacts. And, soon, she called up two people. Honoka and Takeo.

  [I need to clear my head.]