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"JIHAKU."
Translation: "Intimate Confession."Japanese Title: 「自白。」
Published: June 28th, 2013
Price: $2.99
Era: Present
Time Period: December, 2012
Editor: Lindsay York
Cover Photo: Chaoss
Paperback: Not Available
Blurb:
A large crowd of spectators await Reina and Aiko at the local cafe, where the “Couples’ Quiz Show" is going on that night. A Newlywed Game-style affair, Reina has only agreed to do it because she knows her wife really wants the prize: a romantic getaway for two. What she didn’t know, however, was that the opposing team would be the one couple she never wanted to go up against. Will Reina be able to follow her own advice by giving the "jihaku," or intimate confession, of her life? Or will her wife have to settle for a different kind of “romantic getaway?" Either way, Reina probably can’t win.
Excerpt:
The swivel chair screeched as Haruka scooted farther away from Reina. She doubted it was because of the smoke. “I wasn’t talking about that!” Haruka sounded so flustered that she was bound to fly away on the next draft. “I’m not sure how I’m supposed to forget that.”
Reina smirked as she watched her
cigarette smoke snake into the air. “It’s a rare woman who forgets being with
me…and wasn’t drunk at the time.”
“That’s a bit conceited.”
“Don’t I have a right to be
conceited?” Reina knew her prowess. There was a reason women rarely forgot
spending a night with her.
“I guess.”
Reina hopped up and deposited some
ashes into the ashtray. More laughter drifted through the wall – hysterical
laughter, by the sounds of it. God only
knows what Aiko is telling all of them. She decided she should change the
subject before Haruka clammed up and made the evening more uncomfortable. “So
you want to go to an onsen, eh?”
Haruka glanced over her shoulder.
“Why not? Don’t you?”
“Eh, I can take ‘em or leave ‘em.”
Aiko was the one who liked hot springs. If Reina wanted to get naked and sit in
a pool of scalding hot water, she would take a bath at home. More comfortable
than “natural” rocks and pebbles jamming into her ass while aunties stared at
her, waiting for her to stand up to see if she were male or not. “My wife is
the one who wanted to do this. We can’t afford vacations after our honeymoon.”
She hoped they wouldn’t have any financial emergencies in the coming year.
“We can’t either. We’ve never gone
on a vacation together.”
“Kawai
sou,” Reina lamented.
“I know. Three years together and no
romantic getaway. It’s depressing.”
Reina turned her head so she could
hide her rolling eyes. “At least your girlfriend has her own place, so you can
have some privacy.” Such an arrangement was a premium in Tokyo. Kaori probably
had a tiny one-room abode with thin walls, but it was better than living with
her parents when it came to sleepovers.
“I guess. But it’s not the same.
There’s no excitement or romance to it.”
Gag
me. Excitement Reina could understand, but romance was another ordeal.
“What you should do is take her out on a whim. There’s a gay restaurant down
the street from here that caters to that romance stuff.” Aiko may have dragged
her there once or twice.
“Those sorts of places are expensive…”
“Well you can’t really do anything
for free in this city.”
“I know.” Haruka spun around in the
chair, hand reaching out to catch herself on the desk. “It’s tiring because she
only has this one-person futon in her place and she’s always worried about the
neighbors hearing.” The moment she looked at Reina again, she returned to being
a strawberry. “I mean…I shouldn’t be sharing such things.”
Reina extinguished her cigarette.
“Take her to a love hotel then.”
The swivel chair screeched as Haruka
spun to gape at her. “What’s romantic about that?”
“Well, it would solve the being noisy
and small bed problem. There are romantically themed ones, but those are
expensive. Take her to a cheap one and go crazy.” Reina couldn’t believe she
was handing out such advice to the girlfriend of her coworker – let alone the
girlfriend she once took to a love hotel and bedded herself. “Sometimes mixing
up where you fuck prolongs your relationship.” Reina would know. She wanted to
do it everywhere.
Haruka opened her mouth to speak,
but bit back whatever words gathered in her throat. She seemed to chew on them
while she also chewed on Reina’s suggestion. “That’s your coworker you’re
talking about, you know.”
“Don’t remind me.”
The chair eked back and forth with
Haruka’s dandling knee. “She still doesn’t know that we…you know.”
“I believe the technical term is
‘fucked.’”
“Whatever.”
Reina waited for more laughter to die before
continuing. “That’s your problem then.”
“It would be your problem too if I
told her.”
True. If Kaori found out that Haruka
slept with a certain coworker while they were broken up, the office would turn
into one giant pit of tension. While not the same caliber of awkward as if
Reina herself slept with Kaori, it would still create a rift between them.
Seeing as how they worked in close proximity for nearly nine hours a day… fuck that.
“I hope we can win this sort of
game,” Haruka continued, her countenance falling. “We’re at a severe
disadvantage compared to you and Aiko-san.”
“How’s that?”
“Well, we’ve only been together
three years, and you’ve been with your wife for how long? Twenty years?”
“Maa,
it doesn’t make that much difference.” In truth, Reina worried about making
an ass of herself in front of those women. Odds were they were asking questions
like, “What is Aiko-san’s favorite
meal to cook?” which Reina would never be able to answer in a million years. Food? But it seemed like the exact sort
of question Haruka would know about her girlfriend. “The key to these sorts of
games is to go with your gut. You know more about your lover than you give
yourself credit for. You have to prepare yourself to go out there and give a
big jihaku.”
Haruka frowned. “Jihaku?”
“Yes. You have to give the most
truthful confession you can. To a bunch of strangers. Asking you all sorts of
personal questions.” Reina wondered if she unnerved her competition.
“See, you know so much more than I
do…”
Ain’t
that the truth.
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