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“Mejiro, in the stretch. She deals…”
“Huh!” Ryan grunts as she whips her arm, hurling the ball forth to the plate. Like a bullet, it sails straight, straight, right into the upper left corner of the strike zone, slapping with a loud thump against the marked tarp. Ryan practically leaps off the mound and points at Ines. “Come on! That’s something! Come on!
Ines, holding the radar gun, pumps her fist. “One hundred thirty-two kilometers-per-hour! That’s a new record!”
“Yes!” Ryan throws her glove into the air and begins to prance around the pitcher’s mound, whispering “Yeah, uh-huh, let’s go, yuh-huh, oh yeah…!”
Ines can’t help but giggle at her. “And such good placement, too. I don’t think most would swing at something that high.”
“Uh-huh!” Ryan turns back to Ines, grinning. “It’s just one part of a set. I’ll throw ‘em a few changeups up there that break out of the zone first. Gets them complacent, not swinging. I’ll run up the count. They see this one coming, and they’re like, ‘aw, she thinks she can get me to chase with this one again?’ So they don’t swing. Boom.” Ryan spreads her fingers with a smirk. “Guaranteed punch out.”
“I know, Ryan,” Ines laughs. “You go over your pitching sequences with me just about every week.”
“Well-!” Ryan’s ears jolt upwards. “You’re a really good listener, what can I say?”
“It’s not like it’s a bad thing. I love listening to you talk about them.” Ines smiles warmly. “You always seem so much more confident when you do.”
“Heh…” A little flush creeps onto Ryan’s cheeks. She turns to retrieve her glove, hiding her face from Ines. “Thanks, Ines.”
“Hm? I didn’t quite hear that,” Ines says with a teasing lilt in her voice, creeping closer to Ryan while her back was turned. “Say again?”
Scoffing and with too much volume, Ryan says, “Y-you know good and well what I said! Stop messing around!” She snatches her glove and the bucket of balls before marching over to the plate to collect the balls she pitched. Ines laughs and follows her.
“So… is that all for today, Ryan?”
She nods as she tosses a ball into the bucket with a thunk. “Yeah, think so. Trainer wants me back at the dorms by nine o’clock to rest up for the race next week. Plus, they’d have my hide if I was out pitching for too long. They get super neurotic over the thought of me doing something to my arm and needing Tommy John…” She sighs. “I mean, I don’t blame them. It’s their whole job to worry about me.”
Ines hums and joins in on bucketing the balls. “I see. It’s good that they watch out for your health so closely. It’s something some trainers overlook in pursuit of performance.”
“True, true.” Thunk.
Thunk. “Are you excited for your race?”
“Yeah, sure.” Thunk. Thunk.
“Who will you be racing against?”
Thunk. “Uhm…I’m not actually sure.”
“Hm.” Thunk.
“Haha, yeah.”
Thunk. Thunk.
Thunk. “Are you alright, Ryan?”
She turns her head to Ines. “Huh? Of course! I mean, I just crushed my top speed on my fastball! I’m on cloud nine!”
“…Are you sure?”
Ryan stops, ball in hand. She rolls it over in her hand, settling her fingers on the seams and cycling through her grips. She stares off at the orange-stained sky past the empty bleachers. Ines could not see her face.
“You don’t have to answer-”
“I’m…” Ryan sighs. “I do want to. The truth is… I’m not really excited to race when you’re not there.” She looks down at the ground. “I just wish I could race against you again on the big stage.”
Ines frowns. “Ryan…”
“I-I don’t mean it’s your fault! It’s just… every race feels so much more colorless without you on the track. When I saw you, the bright pink flash flying down the track ahead of me, I felt like I could run forever… as long as I was chasing you.” She stiffens. “S-sorry, that’s a bit much to just put on you like that.”
“No, it’s alright, Ryan.” Ines says, standing from her crouch, shifting weight off her bad left leg. She had been cheating, standing on her own with the radar gun. Her crutch was leaned against the wall of the home team dugout.
“I think back to those years in the Twinkle Series too. Just about every night.” Ines looks out to the sunset with Ryan. “Those two and a half years… were probably the best of my life. Watching you win the Takarazuka Kinen… crossing the wire first at the Derby…” Her eyes shine in the sunlight.
“I wish I could go back. I wish I could race again with you too, Ryan.”
Ryan stands there, still looking off into the sky. Her chest moved with labored breaths, but not from exertion. Soon, her body started to shake.
“Ryan!?”
She wrenches her head away from the sunset and wraps Ines in a crushing hug, tearful eyes pressing into her shoulder. “I’m sorry, this is so sudden…”
“Hey, hey, Ryan. It’s alright.” Ines’s hand gently rubs Ryan’s back. “It’s okay. I can’t imagine having kept all that inside for so long.”
“When your leg got worse, I almost-” She sniffled. “I almost stopped racing too. It was just all too much, after the finals and everything. The Series was over, McQueen beat me again, and- and… and you weren’t there. What’s the point if you weren’t there?”
“Ryan, I’m always here. Never forget that. I know I can’t be on the track with you, but I’ll always be there. For you and with you.”
Ryan nods shakily and pulls back, hands still on Ines’s shoulders. “Yeah. Yeah, you’re right. I mean, you’re still here telling me how fast my heaters are,” Ryan says with a wobbly smile like a character-shaped popsicle left in the sun.
“I am! And even with this thing,” She says while patting her left leg, “I’ll still be there for stretches every morning and evening, and to go out to eat with you, to watch you pitch, to spot you on the bench, and to watch you race. I’ll be there.”
Ryan’s smile solidifies. “Yeah! You’re right. You’re right.” She pulls Ines back in and whispers into her shoulder, “I’ll always be there for you, too, Ines.”
“I know you will.”
They stand there for a while on home plate, one with each other in their embrace. Neither make an attempt to move, other than rocking slightly back and forth and pulling the other in further, as if there was a way one could pull the other beneath their skin. Ines, her chin on Ryan’s shoulder, looked out over the home dugout at the sunset, a beautiful smattering of pinks and yellows and oranges over the horizon. “Hey, Ryan,” she whispered.
“Hm?”
“Do you want to turn around a bit? The sunset is gorgeous.”
“Oh, um, sure.”
The two begin shuffling in a circle, turning their composite 180 degrees. With the rotation complete, the glory of the dusk sky meets Ryan’s eyes.
“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?”
“Yeah. Yeah, it is.”
Ines squeezes extra tight, then begins to let go. “I’d love to stay, but you need to rest. It’s been a long day.”
Ryan sighs. “You’re right.” Her arms drop from Ines’s back. “It’s almost eight-thirty. Don’t wanna be late.”
“Walk back together?”
“Hm? Don’t you have to study for that quiz tomorrow…?”
Ines smiles. “This is a bit more important, I think.”
One of Ryan’s ears twitch, and her tail swishes back and forth. “Appreciate it. A lot.”
“Never a problem, Ryan.”
————
“Oh, new volume?”
“Yup!” Ryan turns from her manga to grin at Ines, just about to settle into bed. It had been a few days since their moment at the ballpark. “The last one! I reread all twenty of the other volumes so I could read it right when it came out.”
“Wow…”
“And it’s so good so far. I think the next chapter is when they finally… they…” She presses the book to her face and squeals while kicking her feet. “Gah! So excited!”
Ines giggles at her. “Well, I’ll just leave you to it.” She turns the lamp on her side off and turns over in her bed. “Goodnight, Ryan.”
“Night-night!” She turns her attention back to the page, the cover of the final chapter. It was pure white except for the couple, backs turned but looking into each other’s eyes. Below them was the title: “Fin.” Ryan stifles another squeal, and turns the page.
The chapter opens right where the previous one left off. The man, a professional baseball player for the Orix Buffaloes, had just lost a grueling Japan Series and drove off to his childhood ballpark without a word to his friends and teammates. His agent, who had supported his endeavors and was a former player in the women’s league before it was shut down, followed him there on a gut feeling.
The first few pages are various shots of the ballpark and the memories it holds - the man’s first first catch in the outfield, first home run, first championship win. Ryan smiles as she flips through these memories that remind her so much of her own.
The man is there, bat in hand, facing down a ball machine set up on the mound. He smashes ball after ball over the close outfield fence, each with a loud crack that covers half the panel. His face is devoid of any emotion, and he continues until, from his right, a speech bubble appears. It’s her.
He turns towards her, the ball machine still sending pitches over the plate. She is leaned against the dugout wall, having been watching him from behind for almost ten minutes. Without another word, she walks over to the ball machine and switches it off.
She turns to him, and asks if he’s angry. He says no. She laughs. Why not, she says. He had every reason to be. He played the game of his life out there, and still had to go home.
He answers back, asking if she was angry. Angry over having to go home from playing the game she loved after putting her everything into the sport. Her face darkens, and she says of course. Those years in the league were the happiest of her life. Why would she not be angry?
Ryan glances at Ines, sleeping soundly, then back to the page.
The man drops his bat on the ground and admits it. Yes, he is angry. He lost. He trained his whole life to win the Japan Series, and he just could not do it. But he would never want to show his anger in front of her.
She laughs again, harder. She asks, why? Why bottle it up? Be open with me, she says. We are in the same boat. Let us be angry together, and maybe we can use that to make a better future. Bring back the women’s league. Win the Japan Series. Make the game we love ours again.
She stands on home plate and holds out her hand to him. We can do it together, she says.
He says, as agent and player?
I think we both know that’s not what I mean, she says.
She pulls him over onto the plate, his face centimeters from hers. He hesitates, and she closes the distance.
The final panel is a two-page spread, the two embracing on home plate while a beautiful sunset frames the backdrop. There are some other things there too, but Ryan can hardly focus on the imagery with the tomato-red blush rising on her face and the thoughts rushing through her mind. She slowly looks over to Ines, snoring softly across the room.
Everything.
She snaps the book shut, tosses it on the bedside, turns out the lamp, and buries her face in her pillow.
Everything I did with Ines that day…
She lets out a miniature yell into the muffling softness.
…was straight out of a romance manga…!!
—---
Ines yawns as she leans down to her other leg, feeling the stretch in her hamstrings. “So, was the final volume good?”
“Y-yup!” Ryan says far too loudly. “Just great, really! Amazing!”
“Ryan? Was it actually good?”
“Yes!! It was the best thing I’ve ever read in my life also I think I’m gonna be late to training so I gotta go bye!”
Ines’s head snaps up. “Huh?” But Ryan is already out the door. “How did she get dressed so fast…? She was still in her pajamas when we were doing our arms…”
—---
“Hey-y-y, Ryan!” Ines calls out over the training field. Ryan stands ramrod straight at the sound of her voice. “What are you thinking of for dinner tonight? There’s this new sushi place that opened up in Shinjuku, so we could-”
“Sorry Ines! Can’t talk right now, these, huh, exercises Trainer is making me do, whew, are really tiring me out!” Ines could not see well from across the field, but she thinks Ryan’s trainer is giving her a funny look. “And I don’t think I can make dinner tonight! Late training to prep for the race!” She dashes off down the track while her trainer sighs and puts their face in their hands.
“I thought they wanted her to rest for the race….?” She mutters.
—---
“Teacher,” Ines says, raising her hand. “May I use the restroom?” At his nod, she grabs her crutch, gets up from her desk, and walks out of the room. Down the hallway and around the bend, she hears a familiar voice. Her eyes narrow, and she starts creeping silently down the hall, using the wall instead of the crutch for support for less noise.
“Look, I just don’t know what to do! You’re, like, the best ever. Surely you can help me out a little. Please?”
“Why don’t you just talk to her?”
“I-I can’t do that! No way!”
“Then I can’t help you.” Just as Ines creeps around the corner, a white ear twitches. Oguri Cap turns her head. “Oh, hello Ines.”
A squeak sounds from in front of Oguri, and rapid footsteps disappear down the hall. Before Ines can round the corner, the person is already gone. She turns to Oguri with a stern look. “Who was that?”
She looked down the empty hallway, then back at Ines. “No one. I was talking to myself.” Her stomach growled. “Time for lunch. See you, Ines.” She turns and walks away, Ines’s eyes digging into her back all the way.
—----
“LMAO! That is so messy of her. You had better corner her or something.” Helios continues applying stickers to her face in front of the bathroom mirror.
Ines sighs. “I don’t know… What if I did something wrong? Did I weird her out at the ballpark or something?”
“Girl.” Helios turned to Ines with an expression so serious that it almost made her laugh. “Bestie. To the forever-esties. Don’t ever say that again. If that gymrat got the ick from you, it’s gonna be on. Sight.”
“Oh my gosh, stop it-”
“She’s gonna be cooked. On goddesses.”
“Stop!” Ines cannot help but laugh. “Please, don’t ‘cook’ Ryan. I like her un-cooked.”
“Whatevs…” Helios grumbles. “Look, I might just be yapping, but all I’m tryna say is: there has gotta be some reason she’s not vibing with you right now, and since you’re one of my BFFs, it’s defs her fault.” She glances at Ines. “She doesn’t know you’re, like, high-key down bad for her, right?”
“What does that mean again?”
“That you have a major crush on her.”
“I- no, there’s no way.”
Helios raises an eyebrow. “No cap?”
She hesitates. “Ninety-nine percent no cap.”
“One percent cap is still cap!”
“I’m done!” She pushes off the sinks, grabs her crutch, and marches toward the door. “I’m going to talk to her.”
“OMG, yas!” Helios cheers. “Update me, twin!”
With the encouragement of Helios at her back, she goes to confront her roommate in the one place she can’t run away.
—---
When Ines arrives at her dorm, the shower is running. Looking at the clock, she sees it is only six, a full hour earlier than she usually arrives back from her study sessions. A little smirk curls her lips. She probably thinks she’s safe right now, she thinks.
Her ear twitches at a sound from the shower. Very safe, apparently, if her singing ‘Umapyoi!’ is anything to go by.
She makes her way to her bed, setting her crutch in its usual position. There she waits, as Ryan showers and makes her way through seemingly the entire setlist, while Ines grows more frustrated as she goes on. Eventually, finally, the shower turns off and the sound of Ryan drying off comes through the door. Ines sits up, ready to see Ryan’s reaction to her being in what she thought was an empty room.
It was only then that Ines thought about what Ryan’s state of dress might be like when she was getting out of the shower and coming into an empty room, but it was already too late.
Ryan opened the bathroom door, letting steam roll into the room, and strolled inside wearing nothing but a towel around her waist. Ines immediately covers her eyes, but it did not stop her from getting a half-second eyeful of her roommate’s chiseled upper body, an image that would remain tattooed in her mind for the foreseeable future. Ryan, seeing Ines in the room, shrieks with utter terror and leaps backwards, feet slipping on the wet bathroom floor. She goes down in a heap, slipping and sliding in a desperate attempt to get up and close the door. Ines hops on her good leg over to the door and mercifully shuts it herself.
Ines hears Ryan breathing heavily from inside the bathroom. “I-Ines!? What’re you doing here so early?”
Slumping down against the wall, Ines laughs softly. “Well, I was coming to talk to you about your little stunts today.”
“Wha- Stunts? I don’t- I don’t do stunts.” Ryan says with paper-thin confidence. “I don’t do those.”
“Ryan,” Ines says in a voice sterner than she has ever used with Ryan. “I’m being serious. I want to talk about why you were avoiding me today.”
Ryan falls quiet behind the door. “Okay.” It was a defeated kind of sound. “Let me get dressed.”
After Ryan puts on her pajamas, a matching shirt and pants with a baseball pattern, she sits on her bed, opposite from Ines. She is unable to meet Ines’s gaze.
“Ryan?”
“Y-yeah?”
“I’m not mad at you. I’m just confused as to why you’ve been acting so strangely today. If it’s something you can’t say, it’s alright, but…” Ines sighs. “I just missed my best friend today. I would like her back, if that’s possible.”
“It’s possible!” Ryan says, nodding. “I-I’ll be normal tomorrow. Promise.”
“Thanks, but I would like to know why. Did I do something? Did-”
“No, Ines, no.” Ryan shakes her head vehemently. “No, no, no, this is me. Not you.”
“Well, that’s a relief.” She is glad to have her worries about herself off her back, but now her attention turns to Ryan. “If you can tell me what’s troubling you, please do. As your friend, I want to make sure you’re doing alright. Is your trainer working you too hard? Do you need any help with your classes? Are…” She swallows a lump in her throat. “Are you seeing someone…?”
“NO!!” Ryan nearly shouts, shooting up from the bed. Ines stares at her until she realizes herself and slaps her hand over her mouth. “I mean, uhm. No. Not seeing anybody.”
“Ryan, you don’t have to tell me everything, but please don’t lie.” Ines feels a little tightness in her chest.
“I’m not lying! I swear on my muscles! Every single one! My biceps, my triceps, my hammies, my erector spinae, everything!” She is sweating harder than she was after winning the Takarazuka Kinen.
“You’re sure?”
“Yes!”
Ines’s heart starts beating again. “Okay.”
“Ines, are you good?” Ryan moves closer. “You’re really pale. Do you need me to take you to the infirmary?”
“I’m alright.” Ines pretends to shrug off her concern the best she can. “It just seemed like you liked someone else. I was a bit surprised.”
“Well, I don’t. And…” As Ryan steps back, her face freezes. “Wait, what did you say?”
“What do you mean?”
Ryan’s eyebrow arches upwards. “Liked someone else?”
Ines blinks. “I-I meant…ah…” She snatches her crutch and stands up abruptly. “I need to go.”
“Ines!?”
“See you.” She goes for the door.
“Wait, wait, wait, Ines-”
“I’m going to move back home.”
“Ines, please wait-”
“I had better send my two weeks to Mr. Tokizawa. I liked that job, too…”
“Ines!”
“At least my sisters will be happy-”
“I like you, Ines!”
Ines freezes in the hallway. Ryan stands behind her with an expression of determination usually only seen before she races. Her eyes are sharp, and her mouth is set like stone. “So please…don’t run away.”
Slowly, Ines turns, and meets Ryan’s eyes, hard with conviction. When they find contact, Ryan continues. “I ran away, too. All day today, I didn’t want to see you because I didn’t know what to do when I saw you. I only just realized last night how much I…” She takes a deep breath. “Just how much I like you, Ines.”
Ines stares at her for a long moment. Ryan’s confidence begins to crumble, and she looks down at the ground. “Did I… I didn’t misread this whole thing, did I? Goddesses, that would be just. Embarrassing.” Every moment that Ines stays silent, Ryan retracts further into herself. “Please, just say something, Ines.”
Ines says nothing. But, she does start making some sounds that make Ryan’s head turn up very quickly. “Ines!?”
Ines is laughing while tears run down her face. Little giggles and sobs wrack her body. “I’m- I’m sorry, I’m not laughing at you. I promise.” She wipes her eyes and smiles with the warmth of a hundred suns at Ryan. “I’m just… really happy right now.”
A great big grin splits Ryan’s face, and she rushes forward to wrap her arms around Ines and lift her off the floor. Ines yelps at the strength of Ryan’s arms as she carries her back to the dorm. “Ryan! Ryan, my crutch!”
Ryan stops. “Yup. You’re right.” She slings Ines over her shoulder.
“Ryan, you tool!” Ines laughs as she beats on her back with her fists. Ryan giggles at her while picking up her crutch and marching right back down the hallway. After pushing the still-open door aside, she lays Ines on her bed with all the grace in the world, and sits at the foot of the bed, smiling like an idiot at her.
“So.”
“So.”
Ines smiles a tired smile. “Just last night, huh?”
“I- yeah, I guess?” Ryan scratched the back of her neck. “I definitely liked you before, but just didn’t realize it until that night at the ballpark.”
“But that was last weekend.”
“…yeah.”
“Last night was…” Ines realizes, and goes for the manga still sitting on Ryan’s bedside. “No way.”
“Wait, wait!” Ryan sighs in defeat as her book falls into Ines’s hands. She starts to flip through it.
“Oh, wow.”
“Please don’t make fun of me…”
“I would never. But I do understand how you would realize from such a spitting image of our little moment.”
“Humph.”
Ines smiles at her. “You’ve always wanted to be in a shoujo manga, and I guess you’re finally living your dream.”
“Sto-o-o-op.” Ryan hides her rosy face in her knees.
“Would you like to know how long I’ve liked you for?”
“Hm… wait, I wanna guess. Uhm, since that time I carried you across the river. Couple days after the Arima Kinen.”
Ines snorts. “Longer.”
“Oh, um. The Takarazuka Kinen.”
“Longer.”
Ryan begins to sweat. “The… Satsuki Sho…?”
“Longer.”
Ryan stares at her in combined horror and disbelief. “I give up.”
Ines hums and smiles dreamily. “The day I declared my rivalry to you.”
“You- you’re serious?”
“Uh-hum. It wasn’t like this though, back then. It was something like a puppy crush. Something I daydreamed about in my free time. Like, ‘oh, what if the great, big, strong Mejiro Ryan came to sweep me off my feet,’ but I wouldn’t dare make a move. My feelings weren’t strong enough then.” She smiles. “But then, it just never really went away. The more we raced, the stronger it got. Eventually, it became something really real.”
“I’m sorry I didn’t realize sooner.”
Ines snickers. “You don’t have to apologize, dear. I never told you. And besides, you didn’t know you liked me back then anyways.”
“Well, I definitely do now.” Ryan flashes one of her shining, winning smiles at her. “A lot. Like, a lo-o-o-ot. A lot a lot.”
“Heh…” Ines giggles and blushes. “Sweetie…”
“Woah.” Ryan balks. “Sweetie. Woah. That’s- woah.”
“Is that not okay?”
“Yes! I mean, no! Gah! It’s more than okay! It’s great, actually! I’m a really big fan of ‘sweetie!’” She flashes a pair of thumbs up.
“Alright then, sweetie. Where would you like to sleep tonight?”
“I, uhm.” Ryan looks between Ines’s side and her own bed. “I don’t think I’m ready yet. I-I’d love to, don’t get me wrong! But, I think I wanna go on a few dates and stuff first, y’know?”
“That’s perfectly fine, Ryan,” Ines says, closing her covers back up, yawning as she does. “Wow, I’m beat. A long day of chasing a big, strong fool around seriously tired me out.”
“I’m sorry…!”
“Oh, my body is so, so tired, I think I’m going to faint,” Ines dramatically says, holding a hand to her forehead. “The only way I can wake up again is… true love’s kiss.” She opens one eye to wink at Ryan, standing in the middle of their room and trying not to laugh. “Oh, I think I’m going under!” She closes her eyes with a loud exhale. “Goodbye, world.”
A soft pressure, like a feather, touches Ines’s lips. Her eyes fly open to see Ryan, kneeling by her bed, lips pressed to hers. Her eyes are squeezed shut, but somehow gently, as if using all her focus to create the perfect kiss. Ines hums in approval and closes her eyes again, resting her arms on Ryan’s back.
When she rises, Ryan is blushing wildly, but seems otherwise composed. “Do you think you’ll wake up now?” She whispers.
Ines smiles very widely. “I think I am quite cured, yes.”
——-
“That was fun,” Ines says as she walks with one arm around Ryan and the other with her crutch in the crowd leaving the opening game of the professional baseball season.
“Hell yeah it was!” Ryan is grinning ear to ear. She’s fully decked out in Yomiuri Giants gear, while Ines wears a visor with their insignia. “I can't believe we could get such good tickets! I thought everything for opening day was totally sold out.”
Ines laughs. “The Tokyo Dome is seriously impressive.”
“Isn’t it!? And we almost caught a home run, too! It only landed a few seats away.” She punches the glove she brought. “I’ll get it next time, mark my words.”
A grand smile stretches across Ines’s face. “I really love you, you know?”
Ryan’s eyebrows shoot upwards, a little stunned by the sudden declaration. “I- I love you too, Ines.” She looks at Ines with an expression of grand joy. “I wanna take you to every ball game I can. Spend all the time I can with you. Maybe we can go overseas! See Ohtani, or Yamamoto, or Suzuki play in person. See all the big leaguers out there play. Goddesses, what a dream. And to see it all with you? There’s no one else I’d like to do it with more.”
“Ryan, you flatterer.”
“I only speak the truth!” Ryan says with a toothy grin that softened after a moment. “And… I want to keep my promise to you, too. The one I made at the ballpark. I want to go do everything you want to do with you, too. I want to be there for you, always.” She punctuates her words with a kiss to Ines’s hand. “Sound cool?”
“Cooler than cool.” Ines’s eyes shine.
“Awesome.” Ryan smiles at her for a little longer, before she shoots her gaze forwards, to the approaching subway. “Now, then! How does sushi sound? Wanna hit the usual place?”
Ines hugs Ryan’s arm closer. “I’d love to.”