St. Valentine
❤
~ Quivering Heart ~
The eerie knell of the ancient bell encased in the Silver Bell tower tolled seven o’clock. Evening sunlight flickered off its renown silver roof, the tower exuding a metallic light like a beacon of serenity. It signaled the daily mandatory curfew. Young, clumsy maidens chocked out strained “sayonaras” and departed briskly to the familiar location in which it was held. Many stumbled over each other, forming a confusion of ruffled black and white uniforms. The squirming mass of downed maidens elicited a soft chuckle from Itami Yumiko. She was the campus star; the perfect role model; the true “angel” of St. Valentine Academy. Cute underclassmen trembling for comfort in the unfamiliar environment of girls fawned over her. Astute upperclassmen seeking affection brushed affectionately past her in the halls. Always seeking and searching….Always.
“Always….” Yumiko breathed the word that had been burned into her mind over and over again. In this school limited strictly to only females, everyone seemed to be searching. Searching.
Searching for something. Searching…for what? ‘For love’. The girl bitterly reminded herself. She yanked her attention away from the now giggling pile of girls. A cool gust of wind caught her silky black hair, and she flipped it instinctively out of her face; running a slippery thread through two slender fingers. She had experienced this searching once. Once when she was nothing but an underclassmen. She - the blazing pure star of the Academy - had once succumbed to the weary, nagging searching. The beloved previous star of the Academy, Hayashi Kei, had ended it; not entirely, but briefly. It was all so frightening… ‘And all too sweet.’
Yumiko elegantly aided a fallen girl driven by impulse still wriggling on the ground in a desperate attempt to regain her footing. The girl’s shoulders trembled under the other girl’s large hands. Quivering and trembling… Shivering and shuddering… The subtle motion intoxicated Yumiko. She glided a loving hand through the silky mass of hair slipping from the girl’s head. It had been so long since she had held another girl. So long since she had felt another girl shiver under her hands. Before she could even delight herself with the guilty pleasure of the girl’s soft, porcelain skin sliding under her fingertips, the reverenced girl let her break from her brief “captivity”.
The timid student rose shakily to her feet. Rose-colored blush rushed into her face in a thick shade. Her delicate body trembled in anxiety. With a quick bow, she scurried off, leaving an ashamed Yumiko to stare forlornly an empty hand. ’She sensed it as well, eh? So clumsy, those underclassmen. They should be more weary. An Upperclassmen’s bittersweet trap is worse than her loving bite.’ Yumiko sighed heavily; a simple action regarded as taboo in the Academy. ‘Is it okay to feel alone on a day like this?’ The girl gracefully swept a dark tress of hair behind a gently sloping shoulder. Her feet began to move in the mechanical route leading to the main building with the thickly tiled roof in which the daily seven o’ clock curfew was always held. ‘It is more efficient to begin down the old route then linger any longer.’
Gentle fingers of wind tugged at her elegant uniform; caressing her picturesque face. She bore the striking resemblance of a true angel. An angel of exquisiteness and purity. It was often rumored among the students that she was an actual angel sent to grace their presence and protect them. No one could disagree with the rumor; no one could not unanimously think otherwise. Little did they know that this “angel”’s wings were decaying with each passing day in the Academy. But such was the life of an “angel” in a world full of searching and longing.
All around her trembling underclassmen shyly approached bold upperclassmen as they intermingled in their trek to the same building. Quiet confessions of love and love letters secretly scrawled at midnight in darkened dorms were being exchanged. Yumiko merely brushed past them. She ignored all the hugs, confessions, light kisses, and subtle rejections blossoming all around her. She’d already obtained those earlier today; everyone made sure they presented their letters or confessions to her right away before she’d get swarmed by students partaking in the same thing which usual occurred around midday. The crowd normally thinned around evening, yet even still, a few of the more timid souls approached after curfew with regretted confessions. Yumiko always loved those…Always. ‘Always’. The irritating word resonated throughout her mind once again, ringing in her skull. She absentmindedly switched directions to the cathedral rising out of the distance. The bell tower’s roof greeted her with a hazy glint of traitorous silver light. Although it was common for her to often skip curfew, it wasn’t like her. The girl would only skip it if she agreed to secretly meet with someone or just escape from the bustling world to flee to her secret haven; her thoughts.
