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“I’ll never understand why you like this kinda stuff,” Chika said.
The corner of Riko’s lips twitched as she forced a smile. “It’s…just a hobby, ok?”
Chika picked up one of Riko’s kabedon comics by her thumb and forefinger and held it up to her face, as though she was examining a curious specimen. “Yeah, but…don’t you think it’s kind of silly?”
“Weeell…” Riko dragged out nervously, unsure of what to say in response. Or rather, she was holding herself back, because she wasn’t sure if she could stop if she got started.
“You just see it so much in manga and in movies now that it feels…ridiculous, y’know?”
“It’s the feeling of helplessness!” Riko scratched out. “And the possessiveness that the other person is showing. They desire you so much, and they can’t let you get away, so…”
“Huh…”
“Context is really important! To really make the scene poignant, oftentimes the person being trapped is about to leave for something else, or for someone else. And the other person feels like they can’t let them go no matter what, or they’ll lose them forever! They grab on to their wrist as they're about to leave, but there’s resistance; the other person tries to pull away, so then they have no choice but to trap them against the wall! The kabedon is an expression of the chaser’s longing, their desire, their desperation, their–”
Riko stopped, realizing she was getting louder and louder, and that she was getting carried away.
“Wow, I didn’t know you could get so worked up over this.”
She quickly turned away from Chika, who’s smirk was driving her crazy. Riko’s face was as scarlet as her hair, and she could feel her ears burning. This may be even more embarrassing than when Chika first discovered her secret obsession. At least then, Chika had been comforting, in assuring her that her hobby wasn’t anything she needed to hide. But as time went on, and Chika grew more and more interested in it, so began the endless teasing.
“Oh hey, this page is dog-eared,” Chika’s voice came from beside her.
Riko’s heart lurched, and she spun around to see Chika opening the comic. Riko knew exactly what that page was. She had marked it so she could come back and look at it whenever she liked, to savor it. The page depicted a girl being pinned to the wall, as per usual, but the way the girl was pinned was nothing like she had seen before.
She had her arms held behind her back by her captor, and her body was arched, so that only her shoulders really touched the wall, her pelvis was held close to her captor. The girl trapping her braced her other arm on the wall above the pinned girls head, which only intensified the sense of dominance she was exuding. And last of all, the wall trapper was leaning down to steal a kiss…
“Don’t look at that!” Riko screeched as she lunged for the book.
“Whoaa, that’s steamy! I wonder what–” Chika wasn’t able to finish her sentence before the comic was quickly snatched from her hands.
Riko threw the book under her bed, then threw herself on top of her bed, and covered herself in blankets.
“You can go home now, Chika-chan.”
“Aww, no! I’m sorry!” Chika hurried to apologize. “I wasn’t trying to make fun of you, I just saw the dog-eared page and got curious!” Chika sat on Riko’s bed and hugged the lump that was Riko underneath.
Riko only groaned and shook her head in response.
“Ok, from now on, I swear I won’t read any of them unless I have permission, ok?” The lump was silent. Chika laid her head on top of what she supposed was Riko’s shoulder.
“Please, forgive me?”
Chika was pushed away as Riko emerged from underneath the blankets. “You know I can’t stay mad at you,” Riko said with a sigh.
“I love yooou!” Chika shouted and hugged Riko again, without sheets of fabric between them, and they fell onto Riko’s bed haphazardly. “Even with your silly hobby.”
“Stoop!” Riko said, but her heart wasn’t in it. She mumbled out a quiet, “I love you too.”
They laid in bed for a while, arms and legs entangled, enjoying each other’s warmth. Riko wondered if Chika had fallen asleep with how uncharacteristically quiet she became, until she spoke again, breaking the silence.
“I really do want to understand though.” Chika shifted so she could look into Riko’s eyes.
“Hmm? Understand what?”
“Why you like kabedon so much.”
Riko exhaled, partly a sigh of defeat, and partly an amused laugh. “You don’t have to understand why. Just understand that I do.”
“No, but I feel like I’m close!” Chika suddenly sat up. “What you said about desperation made sense.”
“Oh…?” Riko slowly sat up as well.
“Yeah! Sometimes, when I listen to Guilty Kiss songs, I get all…tingly. The lyrics there are really desperate, too.”
Riko could feel the heat rising in her cheeks again. But besides her embarrassment was a small trace of excitement. If Chika could come to like the kabedon genre as well, then...she didn’t have to read alone and in secret anymore, or go to doujin events by herself, and they can reenact scenes too, which by itself contained a host of possibilities.
“Ok, so…what else do you want to know?” Riko voiced.
Chika closed her eyes and rocked as she thought. “Hmm, I think to really understand the appeal, I should experience it for myself!”
“….huh?” Riko said, taken aback.
“I want to feel what it’s like getting pinned against the wall!”
“No, I get that, but…” To be quite honest, Riko had hoped, even expected, that Chika would be more inclined towards doing the pinning, instead of being pinned.
“Oh! I have a great idea! You can pin me, Riko-chan!”
“Say what?” Riko sputtered. Riko groaned internally. This was ending up just like Guilty Kiss meetings, where Mari and Yoshiko always forced her into something embarrassing under the guise of getting into her role. She hated to admit it, but it usually worked.
“C’mon! We have a wall right here!” Chika scooted herself up against the wall to which Riko’s bed was pushed against.
“It doesn’t work if you do it yourself!”
“Ahhh, sorry.” Chika scooted forward, then held her arms out in an invitation. “Ok, push me.”
“I…can’t,” Riko said, blushing intensely. How could she do something so aggressive? What if she pushed too hard, and Chika hit her head?
“Don’t worry, I’ll watch my head,” Chika said, as though reading her mind.
Riko hesitantly placed her hands on Chika’s shoulders, backed her against the wall, then placed her palm next to Chika’s head.
Even she knew that she had done it too gently for it to count as a real kabedon.
“You have to put more force into it!” Chika said back.
“Okay, okay, let me try again.”
Unfortunately, they were interrupted by the voice of Riko’s mom, calling from the floor below. “Chika! Your mom is asking for you to come back!”
“Aww, we had such a good mood going,” Chika whined. Riko thought otherwise, but she didn’t say so out loud. She was, however, disappointed that Chika had to leave so soon. It might’ve been her one chance to show Chika the appeal of kabedon, and she had spoiled it with her own bashfulness.
“Let me try again, real quickly,” she said.
“Ahh, I can’t,” Chika said, rubbing the back of her head. “I promised Mito-nee that I’d help watch the counter tonight.”
“Chika!” Riko’s mom called again.
“Coming!” Chika shouted back, and slid off the bed. “That was fun though! Maybe some other time, Riko-chan.” Chika gave her a goofy grin, then turned to leave.
“Wait!” Riko said, and got up from the bed too. In her haste however, her foot caught on the edge of one of her blankets hanging off bed, and she tumbled forward with a shout.
“Waah–!” Chika cried out too, as Riko knocked into her and they both fell crashing into the ground.
When Chika opened her eyes, Riko was on top of her, and both her hands were by the sides of her head. Riko’s hair trailed down like curtains, obscuring the ceiling light overhead, and yet her eyes seemed to be gleaming. The warmth of each breath Riko took, Chika could feel tickling her face.
“Sorry, are you ok?”
Chika gulped. “Ah…yeah.”
Riko finally moved away, and Chika let out a breath she didn’t she was holding.
“Sorry, you can go, Chika-chan. I didn’t mean to hold you up.”
“It’s ok. Um, I’ll see you later!” Chika helped herself off the floor, and quietly left the bedroom.
Riko sank onto her bed again, sighing. The afternoon’s events more than exhausted her, and she wished she had tried a little harder at the kabedon earlier. But she put it out of her mind for now. There’ll be other opportunities.
Unbeknownst to her, Chika stood right outside, leaning against the wooden frame of the door. Her breathing was quick, and a shade of red was dusted on her cheeks. Chika fanned her face, trying to settle her heartbeat before heading downstairs. She absolutely could not let her mom see how worked up she was and wondering why. Or else, she might have to explain that it was because a certain redhead had just pinned her against the floor.
And worse, that she had enjoyed it all too much.