| Sappho ~ Frankie Cosmos |

"Do you wanna go out to eat or should we order something?" Maki-san asks as I attempt to bury myself into the mattress.

I have my face in my hands because... oh my God, this is too much embarrassment. First, she ate me out like that, sending me reeling into outer space, then watched me orgasm, and now she also has to see me hungry. This is beyond unfair.

Maki-san giggles. I can't blame her. I am laughable. This gorgeous woman has me under her thumb and she's laughing at me and... no, Niji, that's not sexy.

I feel her weight over me but I refuse to budge. "What?" She asks, taking my hands off my face and nuzzling into me. I could get used to this.

"Why are you hiding your face, baby?" She asks. It sends multiple shivers up my thighs and I have to hide my face somewhere again. Maki-san has my hands in an iron grip. When I look up at her, she's only smirking at me, challenging me to try to get out of her hold. Why is she always challenging me?

"We have to eat," she tells me, placing a chaste kiss on my right cheek. "What do you want to eat?"

You. "We can have the cookies I gave to you in the morning."

"Perfect. I'll go, get them. Top shelf?"

I nod and she leaves my side. I hear her rummaging through my disorderly shelf and then a soft thud on my study table. It feels weird to call anything in this room mine when I've only been here for a week.

"Oh, what a treasure!" I hear Maki-san and realize what the thud was.

I jump up on the bed to look at her turning a pack of Marlboro in her hand, like examining an artifact. "I didn't know you smoke," she says, flipping the pack open and counting the cigarettes inside. There are seven. I know because I smoked the other three during the day.

"I mean, we just met today. And I don't know a single person who goes about with a 'look at me, I'm a smoker' sign around their neck."

"Well, I don't know a single person like you, so..." Maki-san bends toward me and gives me a slow, wet kiss on the lips. If I was in my right mind, I would have called that a red flag. But I'm not. It's impossible to be in your right mind in front of Maki Zenin.

"I thought the dorm rooms have smoke detectors," she says, pulling out the pack of cookies this time.

"Yeah," I sit back down when I feel ensured that she isn't judging me for my addictions. "But the ones on this floor don't. Or they do but... the detectors don't work. And nobody has complained because apparently, everybody on this floor smokes."

"Wow! Under my sister's nose? Ballsy!"

I look at her with questioning eyes, the most obvious question on my mind and she smiles.

"Don't worry. I wouldn't tell on you. Do you mind if I bum one off you?" She asks

Oh! "Yeah, of course. But we'll have to... umm... switch the lights off and stand really close to the window."

I get off the bed to switch the light off and Maki-san opens up the window. She carefully displaces my plants from the window pane to the table. I put down a cup in front of us. I can't see her face but I'm sure she's confused.

"Ashtray," I tell her and she hums.

I bring a lighter hidden in my makeup bag and light our cigarettes. I hear the sizzle in Maki-san's breath before I see the smoke being blown out of my room in puffs. I do the same. Sizzle, then blow out.

I hear the screech of my chair's legs across the floor and turn toward it.

"We can sit down, right?" She asks.

"Sure, go ahead."

Only moments later, I feel a hand crippling around my waist. I barely have time to gasp as Maki-san pulls me to her lap. She nuzzles into my neck and I can smell her smoker breath.

She says, "it felt unfair that I was sitting while you had to stand."

I'm painfully aware of my boobs being free of the constraints of my bra as Maki-san's chest pressed into my side. I'm sure I saw my underwear flung somewhere on the floor but I couldn't care any less.

With her sharp nose against my cheek, one hand supporting my back, and another casually resting on the window pane with the cigarette between her fingers, Maki-san feels like what a goddess must feel.

She's my first and I've heard, usually from my straight friends, that you shouldn't base your concept of sex on your first time. They have no idea what they're missing out on.

"God, you're gorgeous," she whispers against the skin just under my ear. At this point, I'm not sure if she's still trying to make me feel better or if she actually means it.

"Th- thanks," I say, ashing the cigarette in the cup.

"And you're pretty cute too," Maki-san continues. She has dropped the butt of her cigarette into the cup and has both arms around me. "You almost got all my hair out back there."

My cheeks heat up when I realize what she's talking about. It was another piece of advice from a straight friend. "I'm sorry, I didn't... mean to hurt you."

She chuckles. "Oh no, no, I liked it. You should keep it in mind for the next time."

"Next time?" I say it as sarcastically as I can. "Do you say that to all the girls?"

I hear Maki-san sigh and immediately want to take my words back.

"Yes, I do," she says, "but I never mean it."

We sit there like that for some time, her fingertips pressed into the skin of my thigh and our breaths mingling. We sloppily kiss for what feels like an eternity and I feel her hands moving toward the places that I now know she likes best. Her mouth moves from mine and she places a wet kiss on my neck. It sends jolts of electricity across my skin.

But our time is cut short by a rattling coming from the darker side of the room. It makes me jump up from Maki-san's lap and she giggles. "It's just my phone, baby," she assures me before walking over to where she had dropped her fanny pack.

I hear her click her tongue as the phone's screen illuminates her face. I take a place on the chair she just vacated and look at her.

"I told you I'll return it to you soon," she says on the phone. I'm guessing it's Maki-san's sister. I want to ask her why they aren't close. I want to ask her about her family and dreams and what she likes to eat on days she doesn't feel like eating. But it's too soon for that, right?

"What? That motherfucker!" She continues. "Well, tell him to get me dinner. Otherwise, he can forget about it. Well, if he's so efficient, why doesn't he do it himself?"

I can vaguely make out her silhouette in the light coming from outside. She's running her fingers through her hair and then, putting her hand on her hips. She turns from one side to another and then back, before hanging up on Mai senpai.

"Baby." She comes up to me and I immediately stand up like magnets being attracted to each other. "I have to go. My sister... she's being a bitch. And there's this other douchebag." She sighs. "I'll see you tomorrow?"

"Sure," I tell her.

I think she's about to leave but she stands there for another moment. Like she's expecting something. I step on my toes and peck her cheek. I don't think she was expecting this.

I hear her stifling a giggle. "Thanks for that."

I feel the warmth of her body leaving my vicinity before I hear her collecting her stuff. From the table, the bed, and the floor. She looks both ways when she opens the door as if she's about to cross a busy road and then disappears.

-------------------------------------

I don't see her the next day. I don't see her all week.

Absolutely nothing happens all week.

Except for getting tons of new followers on Instagram and quite a few DM requests. Mostly from dudes, so I deny them.

I sit in class on Friday, the professor talks about the human digestive system, and I'm constantly refreshing the University's dance club page. There are supposed to be two updates. An application form to the club and a list of people being invited to join the club.

I have no expectations but it wouldn't feel too bad to be invited. I think my performance at the freshers' ceremony went... well. I wasn't there to see the other dance performances but...

"Gushiken-san." I hear the professor call out my name and look up from my phone. Shit!

"Care to read out what I've written on the board?" She asks. There are words and arrows on the whiteboard, written in blue, and some of them have been just rubbed off.

Ieiri sensei looks exhausted. She perpetually looks like that. She has straight, jet-black hair and often twirls a strand between her fingertips. This is my third class with her. I can't recall her calling anybody else's name out like this. My throat goes dry.

"Umm..." I read what's written on the board. I actually know this. "It's the reaction that converts inactive trypsinogen to active trypsin in the presence of enterokinase."

"Do you know what happens afterward? I was just talking about it to the rest of the class while you were on your phone." She has a hand on her waist and sounds... cross.

I look away, ashamed. I'm not sure if it's for not paying attention or getting caught. But again, I know the answer. "Trypsin then goes on to... activate the inactive enzyme... chymotrypsinogen into chymotrypsin which... umm... hydrolyzes proteins."

Ieiri sensei stares at me for a moment before speaking. "Just because you know the lesson beforehand, doesn't mean that you can be on your phone. What am I being paid for? Talking to the wall?"

Her words sound angry but her tone is still flat. Tired. Like she doesn't care.

"Somebody's on her period." I hear a random dude whisper behind me and turn to glare at him.

"I'm sorry, sensei." I turn back to the professor and apologize. When she resumes the class, I open up my notebook and start taking notes.

The dance club page doesn't update for the rest of the day and neither is there a sign of Maki-san. After class hours, I find myself wandering into the Fine Arts block, the Katsushika Block. I don't know what I'm hoping to find here.

I mean, she did tell me that she forgets the names of the girls she sleeps with. So, why am I expecting to be treated differently? Just because she said she wanted to see me the next day? I mean, isn't that just... fuckboy jargon?

"Oh, umm... Niji-san?" I hear somebody say my name but they aren't calling me. I stop in my tracks but I'm not sure if I should turn back.

"Niji-chan!" A different voice calls me.

I turn. It's the boys from the breakfast place. Yuuji-san and... Mekumi-san?

"It's us," the pink-haired boy rushes toward me with the other one tailing closely behind. "Yuuji and Megumi."

Megumi-san, right!

"What are you doing here?" Yuuji-san asks. "Did you come here, looking for Maki-san?"

"Huh?" I freeze. "Umm... no! No, I was just passing. I'm going out Gate Two to get some food."

"Woah!" Yuuji-san is excited for no reason. "Would you mind if we join you?"

"She's probably going with her friends," Megumi-san whispers.

"No, I was going alone," I say before he can continue. "I'd love to have company."

We take three seats at the counter of Tasokare hotel, the diner nearest to Gate Two and popular for its curry katsudon. We, however, order coffee and grilled cheese sandwiches.

"What were you guys doing at the Fine Arts block?" I ask, trying to deflect the attention from me. These boys look super into each other so I'm not worried about being hit on. I just don't like it when people ask me a lot of questions.

"I had a seminar about the rise of EDM in Hall Five," Megumi-san whispers again. Right! He's a Music major. He promptly gets back to his phone, like he has embarrassed himself enough by talking about his last activity.

"And I was just waiting for Megumi to finish his seminar so we can go back home together. I have volleyball practice later so I wanted to shower and nap before that," Yuuji-san adds.

"It probably sounds like we were planning on napping together, but that's not the case," Megumi-san quickly adds. He's hilarious.

I turn to Yuuji-san. He's obviously easier to speak to. "I'm sorry you had to change your plans for me."

"That's not a problem. It's always nice to hang out with friends."

"She doesn't know us enough for us to be her friends." Megumi-san doesn't even look up from his phone anymore.

"We can always change that." Yuuji-san thumps his fist on the counter like a child.

Our coffee and sandwiches arrive and Yuuji-san tells me all about his life. His parents, his grandfather's passing, how he met Megumi-san during an earthquake that destroyed his countryside school and how he came to Tokyo for high school, being friends with Maki-san, Panda-san, and Toge-san, their other friend Nobara-san who passed away at a mall fire, and then starting college with a sports scholarship and being the ace of the volleyball club.

He orders a plate of chicken wings as I turn to Megumi-san to enlighten me about his life. "Yuuji covered most of it," is all he adds.

"What about the time before you guys met each other?" I realize I like it better when I'm asking the questions. "What about your relationship with... Maki-san? Have you always been close?"

"No," he says. "I didn't know her - or the fact that we were related - before Gojo-san introduced her to me."

"Gojo-san as in... the coach of the volleyball club?" It's weird how everyone is connected.

He nods. "He sort of... adopted me after my father died. Well, not legally. But... he took me under his wing is what I'm trying to say."

"I see."

The chicken wings arrive and Yuuji-san offers them to us. Megumi-san takes one while I refuse with a polite shake of my head.

"Have you spoken to Maki-san since she came back?" Yuuji-san suddenly asks, his mouth full of food. Since she came back?

"No." I try to sound as cool as possible. "Where... umm... where has she been? When did she come back?"

"She was running some errands for Gojo-san," Megumi-san quickly answers before Yuuji-san can.

"Running errands for a week?" I chuckle nervously. "You guys sound like you're all in the Yakuza or something."

Before I can ask any further questions, the bell at the diner's door rings and I look up toward the person who enters. She is tall and lean, wearing a dark blue denim jacket over a white t-shirt and a pair of dark blue jeans. Her glasses are resting on the bridge of her sharp nose and her hair is wet and brushed back.

I wait as her eyes wander about the inside of the diner, looking from one face to another until she turns to where we are sitting. Her eyes... sparkle? Maybe I'm just imagining it.

"Niji, hi!" She calls out, walking toward me.

She remembers my name.

Maki-san walks toward us with her hands in the pockets of her jacket. She takes them out as she reaches me, places one around my shoulders, and kisses me on the cheek. "I missed you," she whispers, raising all the hair on my arms.

"How did you know I was here?" I ask but I think I already know the answer.

She cocks her head toward Megumi-san's direction, confirming my suspicion. "Why didn't you call or text? You had my number," she asks and my jaw drops.

"You didn't remember you had my number?"

I shake my head.

"There's a small party at my place. Do you want to come?" Maki-san asks with a chuckle.

What do you think about Gojo being the volleyball club coach? I had a big laugh when I thought about it. I will be introducing the other JJK characters soon. Leave a comment about what role you think Nanami will be playing here.

A/n: If you liked this chapter, please consider leaving a vote and commenting about what you liked or what you'd like to see in the next chapters.