13. Tenkoku Nichi-Ei
Part Two: Sumire
The Education of Sumire Min is a previously unpublished novel by S. Jae-Jones. Chapters will be emailed to paying subscribers every Friday at 5PM EST. If you are not yet a subscriber and would like to read the rest of the book, as well as receive all sorts of behind-the-scenes access—including a Discord server—why not give it a try?
Inside the Kaburenjo, it was hot, claustrophobic, and stifling. Sumire had half a mind to turn back around, drag Corliss into the gardens with her, and finish what Little Snow had interrupted, but as soon as they stepped inside the theatre, they were accosted on all sides by people who had been searching for them “all evening”. Sumire felt the evidence of her brief tryst with Corliss all over her face: her scarlet cheeks, her sparkling eyes, her swollen lips, yet no one seemed to notice. But more than overlooking the physical marks of love on her face, she marveled that no one felt the need to shade their eyes at the improbable glow radiating from her skin, for it felt blinding, all-encompassing, and so very, very obvious.
But even more astonishing was the fact that no one noticed Sumire and Corliss’s fingers entwined beneath the long sleeves of her furisode, that no one marked their physical closeness to each other, how they matched forearm to shoulder, and how—despite their attendance on other partygoers—their focus was only for the other at the end of their fingertips. Their clasped hands was a declaration, the bravest one Sumire could muster, and yet not a single guest marked its significance.
Except one.