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Inspired/influenced by the biggest masterpiece of our time, "Roommates", is an attempt at the genre of my own (though nowhere as good as Roommates). Takes place in an unnamed Scandinavian country; it's my first story and English isn't my mother language so it's probably pretty stiff.
Day one
Like many other places around the world, Japanese culture had become rather popular in the capital of my country, so a number of years ago, a two-day open-air Japanese culture festival had popped up to be held every spring, in one of the bigger parks close to the center of the city. As a closeted weaboo, it was only natural for me to go there. The first year I went alone, not having any friends at the time also into Japanese stuff. The festival was pretty typical, I assume, with Japanese food stalls, different games for the kids, and performances of martial arts, dances and so on. In contrast to “real” festivals in Japan, however, this was held during the day.
The stalls and performances were okay, but what really caught my surprise - and interest - was all the cosplay taking place, so I spent most of the two days looking at that. It was a real thrill to see my favorite characters being brought to life, but I was too shy to approach any of the cute girls walking around. Talking with someone one-on-one would have been okay, but they were always in groups with their friends, so I didn’t know how to join in, especially just when I was just wearing plain clothes.
So with nothing much happening, I skipped out going for the next couple of years. Entering university, I made a circle of fellow weeaboo friends and one of them suggested that we go to the festival that year. Figuring it would be better to go with someone else than alone, I agreed. Barely anything at the festival had changed, perhaps for some furries having showed up for some reason. After making our round to visit the stalls, we kept our eyes out for any cute girls to chat up. However, even though we could now act as wing-men for each other, we didn’t have much luck in getting to know any of the cosplayers. First of all, most of them seemed to still be teenagers, while we were in our early twenties, and once we did find someone our age, they had obviously gone to the festival to flirt with strangers. It probably didn’t help that we were not cosplaying ourselves, but we thought that that would be overdoing it.
The following year, my friend suggested we go again, and with nothing else to do, I agreed. An extraordinarily warm day for spring, I showed up earlier than planned, and wandered around while waiting for my friend. That’s when I saw her for the first time. In the midst of the sea of middle-aged people studying the exhibit of a Japanese garden, and the cosplayers with their big, complicated costumes, I caught a glimpse of a simple and traditional sailor school uniform. The pureness of its whiteness was glittering between the orange jumpsuits and pink fursuits. She seemed out of place, seemingly wandering around alone. I discreetly followed behind her, but my eagerness to talk to her faded when I saw her face. Oh, not that there was anything wrong with it, quite the opposite. She had long, dark brown hair that was tucked behind her ears, revealing a cute face, with small lips and soft eyes that darted nervously around, scanning her surroundings. No, the problem was that she seemed far too young for me, probably barely even a teenager yet. Even then, I still couldn’t keep my eyes off of her - I had always had a thing for those sailor uniforms, and she was so beautiful in hers. A white short-sleeved shirt, red ribbon on her chest, navy blue skirt that stopped mid-thigh, and black shoes and socks. It must have been the real thing.
She squeezed herself past a line of people waiting for a free tasting of sake, when my phone suddenly vibrated. My friend had texted me to say that he had made an error in his calendar, something about an aunt’s birthday in the other end of the country he had to go to, using up both days of the festival. I rolled my eyes at his forgetfulness, and put my phone back in my pocket to continue following my new object of admiration. Alas, she had disappeared in the crowd, and despite being taller than average, I couldn’t catch sight of her again. Oh well, she was way too young for me anyways, I thought. Being stood up, I considered going home, but now that I was here, I might as well look if the festival has anything new to offer this year.
After watching a few rounds of people duking it out in inflatable sumo suits while I munched down some melon bread, I got bored and decided to head back to my bike. The festival wasn’t that interesting anymore - my obsession with Japan was fading; I still do watch some animay now and then even today, but turning 24 years old, adult responsibilities and university was requiring most of my mental energy. I had also decided to spend my time exercising rather than binge-watching cartoons, as I wanted to get as far away from the stereotype of the neckbeard weeaboo as possible. Luckily, my parents had passed on their slim builds on to me, and I made sure to keep my hair kept short, in addition to using contact lenses instead of glasses.
I walked behind the main stage to head to my bike when I suddenly saw the girl again, standing alone in the shadow of the festival’s big stage screen. There wasn’t any performance on at the moment on the stage, and the small area behind it was surrounded by tall bushes, so we were pretty much alone in the narrow clearing - there was only a dad trying to feed his toddler some sweet bread on a bench nearby. She stood with her hands clasped behind her, still looking seemingly anxiously around. I slowly stepped closer - my bike was in that direction anyways - my eyes again fixed on her, on her slim, bare legs disappearing up under the skirt, on her dark hair glittering in a ray of sunlight, and her cute little nose. I then realized that she was now looking at me, having noticed my gaze.
Pretty uncomfortable at having been caught staring, I figured that it would be best to at least make some kind of comment, instead of creeping away in silence. Meeting her eyes, I tried to crack a smile, and said the first thing on my mind.
“Nice uniform, on your way to school?”
She giggled a little, nervously glancing down over her attire.
“No... not today.”
Her voice was soft and sweet, spurring me on to drop my plans of darting to my bike, instead stopping up to stand with my hands behind my back as well, facing the same direction as her. We both glanced sideways at each other, and I quickly thought of more small talk to justify stopping up besides her.
“Is it a real one?”
I lowered my eyes to her uniform. While the ribbon and collar made it a bit hard to judge, she barely seemed to have much of a chest under the shirt.
“Yeah… My dad got it for me, in Japan.”
“Oh really? Cool, I’ve actually been there, you know.”
As I hoped, that seemed to impress her, as her eyes widened slightly. I had backpacked around in Japan before entering university, just doing normal tourist stuff.
She kept looking at me, with a somewhat airy expression - she reminded me a bit of Luna Lovegood from Harry Potter, only with dark brown hair. After a few seconds of silence between us, I thought that I might as well get the cat out of the sack, and face my one concern about her.
“So um… How old are you?”
“Thirteen.”
She replied without any hesitation, and I quickly had to turn my face the other way to hide how I winced at realizing that she was about as young as I had guessed.
“You?”
I turned back to her, still with a somewhat crooked smile.
“Um… twenty-four”.
“Oh.”
I had expected my answer to end the conversation, by her being grossed out by a guy my age hitting her up, but she seemed completely unfazed. A few more seconds passed as I stood somewhat bewildered, until she glanced at me with a “What now?” expression on her face. I was about to excuse myself, but she was faster than me.
“What’s your name?”
“David… And yours?”
“Mika.”
Oh wow. Either she was deep in-character in a cosplay, or her parents had actually given her a Japanese name. She was definitely not Japanese, not even a halfu.
“Really? That’s pretty cool.”
“Thanks...So... do you wanna walk around, or something?”
We walked back around the stage and over towards the stalls again. I couldn’t think of much to say, shocked that this strange, beautiful girl had asked if I wanted to hang out like this. It was too hard to talk in the crowds around the stalls, so after picking up some sandwiches for lunch, we agreed on heading away from the festival area, instead going over to the other end of the park. It was much better to be away from the noisy festival, and I was happy to get a better look at Mika. She was very petite, and only tall enough to reach up to my chest.
“So your dad’s been in Japan? What did he do there?”
“Some kind of business trip. He’s like a consultant on all things Japanese. Oh, do you know that anime convention they hold over in the Culture Centre every winter? He actually started it.”
“Wow, really? Yeah, I’ve been to that con once, some years ago”.
That explains her Japanese name, I guess. Her dad must be a pretty big weeaboo as well. She continued talking about her dad, and how he had dragged her along to that convention as soon as she could walk, so she had pretty much grown up to be immersed in Japanese pop culture. We aimlessly made circles around the park, Mika still doing most of the talking, which she seemed to loosen up a bit. Apparently, she had been stood up as well, having agreed to meet with a cosplaying friend who was running late. I silently thanked both of our friends for bringing us together like this, even though I was just keeping Mika company for the sake of it. Surely she was only talking with me because she was still naive about what guys wanted from pretty girls like her, right?
After some time, Mika complained that her legs were getting tired, and I remembered there used to be a café in the corner of the park, where we could sit down and get some rest. We made our way over there, but it was closed down for the weekend, so instead we headed over to sit down by the edge of a pond next to the café.
Mika sat down with her legs bent to one side, kinda like The Little Mermaid, and I sat cross-legged close next to her. The hem of her skirt were still sitting at the middle of her thighs, her white legs glowing in the sun. We unpacked our sandwiches, and ate them while throwing chunks of the bread to ducks in the pond. Yes, I know it’s bad for them and for the water, but she liked the cute ducks, so what could I do?
“I kinda wanna cosplay too, actually. Maybe just a normal guy’s school uniform, they’re pretty cool.”
“Yeah, that would be cool. I made a presentation about cosplay at school, but nobody really cared. Even dressed up in a bunch of ‘em.”
Mika gazed down at the ducks gathered in front of us. It sounded like she were pretty alone with her interests; she lived with her mom in a smaller town outside the capital, and didn’t know anyone in her town that also liked anime. Her mom and dad were divorced, and her dad was traveling most of the time; it was only because he was home for the weekend at his apartment here in the capital that she could come to this festival, as she could then sleep there.
“Ow… My leg still hurts…” Mika frowned a bit and rubbed her calves.
“It probably doesn’t help to sit like that… Come here, I’ll give you a massage.”
I patted my lap, and she nervously obliged by stretching her legs out, putting one of them in my lap.
“It’s only this one..”
I immediately went to work, carefully rubbing my fingers up and down over her shin and calf. Mika leaned back, supporting herself on her elbows, looking at my hands. I ran my eyes up to her skirt again, but even with her legs spread slightly apart, they skirt still did its job of keeping everything covered.
“Thanks…. I guess I’m not used to all that walking.”
She spoke softly, watching the ducks compete to get the last crumbs of our sandwiches.
“Me neither. Well, these aren’t exactly hiking shoes either.”
I patted the black loafer sitting on her foot.
“No, but it’s part of the uniform. Ugh, that reminds me, it’s not the only problem I have with it… When I bike, the wind can often… you know… and on the way here, an old man commented on it, saying he could see my…”
She pointed to her skirt, glancing up at me with an embarrassed look.
“But he couldn’t have, because I’m wearing shorts underneath.”
“Oh, really?” I raised an eyebrow, looking back at her with a devilish smile. “That’s pretty clever. Can I see?”
Mika hesitated for a second, and then slowly pulled the front of her skirt up to her hips, revealing a pair of very short shorts, black and covering the upper part of her thighs.
“Wow, I’ve never thought about that,” I said, “You’re actually pretty smart, aren’t you?”
Mika smiled shyly and let the skirt fall down on her thighs again.
“I think my leg is okay now.”
She began to pull her leg back, but I immediately grabbed on to it with both hands, keeping it on my lap.
“It’s fine, better safe than sorry. Besides, you’ve got nice legs.”
Mika blushed a bit, but accepted having her lower leg in my lap for me to rub.
“Hey, do you… Have a boyfriend?” I tried to ask as nonchalantly as possible.
She looked shyly at me, her head tilted slightly down, causing some of her hair to fall down to her chin.
“No, but… I have had one… What about you?”
“Yeah, I’ve had a couple of girlfriends.”
I shrugged, and returned my attention to her smooth leg, my hand slowly sliding up and down over her skin. It would be so easy to push my fingers up under her skirt, but I thought that I better not rush things too much.
“Should we get up and see if it’s good to walk on again?”
I patted her leg before standing up, stretching my body. Man, I’m getting too old to sit on the ground. Mika nodded and I helped her up.
“Should we circle around the pond and then go back to the festival? Maybe your friend has arrived.”
Mika nodded and we walked back to the path of the café, but she started out on the trail leading out of the park.
“Wait wait, it’s this way.”
Instead of just pointing to the right path we were supposed to take, I took the opportunity to wrap my arm around her waist, rotating her to point in the right direction.
“Oh, r-right…”
She didn’t move right away, but kept to my side, not opposing my arm around her. I took this as a sign that I could leave it there, and I began leading her down the trail going around the pond, holding her body close against me. She felt very warm, even through our clothes, and she let me guide her way as we walked together.
One side of the pond was pretty overgrown, with large willow trees keeping a portion of the trail hidden in shadows. I stopped up in the middle of the trail, turning to Mika.
“There’s just one thing I wanna do before we head back,'' I said, my heart now pounding in my chest.
I had never been this direct with a girl before, but for some reason Mika seemed to accept me being completely in control. She looked up at me, also a bit flustered. I quickly leaned down and kissed her, and she immediately kissed back, much more than I had expected from a girl her age. I broke the kiss and looked down at her in surpise.
“Not your first kiss, I guess?”
Mika giggled lightly. “No… I told you, I’ve had a boyfriend before… but we didn’t do anything else, I only dated him for a week or so.”
I nodded and went back down to kiss her again, my arms wrapping around her slender body. She did not seem shy at all anymore, and we kissed deeply for what seemed for a long time. Her lips were softer and sweeter than anything else I had known; it was like her mouth sent pure pleasure into me. I slowly ran a hand down over her back, then over her behind before pausing at the bare skin of her thigh. I slowly broke the kiss, gazing down into her eyes.
“Hey, sweetie… You’re… gonna be here tomorrow too, right?”
Mika nodded slowly, looking questioningly up at me. I smiled reassuringly down to her, and whispered, “It’s not proper part of the uniform, so tomorrow…”
I slid my hand up under her skirt, and lightly tugged at the fabric of her shorts.
“I don’t want you to wear these… Okay?”
She gulped but nodded again, and I rewarded her with a smile and another kiss. Then, grabbing her hand, I lead her back to the festival. I didn’t really wanna stick around any longer, I sensed I better not overwhelm Mika in one day, and she probably had a friend to find.
“I gotta go home for today, but here’s my phone number… Text me tomorrow when you’re here again, alright?” Mika coded my number into her phone while I unlocked my bike. We looked at each other, and she genuinely seemed saddened that I was leaving already.
“See you tomorrow, sweetie”. I gave her one last hug to cheer her up, and couldn’t resist but kissing her again. She kissed back just as before, and I actually felt a little bad at how attention-starved she must have been. It was hard to let go, but I got up on my bike and set off, my stomach full of butterflies and my head full of confusion.
Surely, I shouldn’t get my hopes up of seeing her tomorrow; she most likely will go home and realize how crazy it was for her to make out with someone ten years her senior. Well, even then it was fun, and as I sped down the streets of the city, the blissful image of Mika in her school uniform standing nervously behind the stage remained on my mind.