Shirayuki had said everything she needed to say.
She wanted to face Treve head-on.
But Treve's reaction was a little strange.
Her face was terribly red. She sat on the chair with her head lowered, pressing her hands against her legs, completely motionless. Especially after the waiter brought over the large cup with two straws, Treve lowered her chin until it almost touched her chest.
Her ears flickered rapidly, and her tail kept twisting restlessly.
Was she struggling with the decision?
Perhaps this was not something Treve could decide easily. Nase Hideto had asked Treve to hide her strength, so running seriously with Shirayuki would go against her trainer's instructions.
On one side was a friend.
On the other side was her trainer.
For Treve, it must be difficult to choose.
Shirayuki understood. She had once been caught in a similar dilemma. When Mejiro Dober had gone to Chiya and asked him to defeat Shirayuki, he had fallen into painful conflict too.
But Shirayuki was not an unreasonable person. After realizing Treve's difficulty, she stood up, walked to Treve's side, and took her hand.
"It's okay. You don't have to agree. Your own feelings are the most important."
A fair and honest contest was only a private agreement between uma musume. Normally, races were full of schemes and mind games. Even if she and Treve did not hide anything from each other, the other runners would still interfere with the race.
Shirayuki had already prepared herself to be refused.
Treve looked at the phone.
Then her face turned even redder.
"Je réfléchis."
She said it softly, and the translation appeared on the phone.
[I'll think about it.]
Treve was hesitating.
That meant there was still room to discuss it.
Shirayuki held Treve's hand and showed her the prettiest smile she had ever given.
"I'll wait for you."
Treve's eyes trembled slightly, and she gave a tiny nod.
With the serious topic finished, the two began drinking coffee.
Shirayuki had not expected that her random order would turn out to be a couple's coffee, but Treve did not seem to dislike it. Her face remained faintly red as her eyes moved back and forth between Shirayuki's nose and lips. She kept swallowing coffee, and also swallowing nervously.
Her heart was pounding nonstop.
After that, the two wandered around the area for a while longer. During that time, Treve kept holding Shirayuki's hand. Even when the crowd was no longer packed around them, she still wanted to hold onto her.
A feeling different from friendship had begun to grow inside Treve toward Shirayuki.
That night, after the two returned to Tracen, Shirayuki once again told Treve that she would wait for her answer.
She needed to confirm the gap between them as quickly as possible, then arrange the next stage of training. There were still two months until the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe. She still had one final chance to push herself.
Whether she lacked speed or strength, everything would be decided by these two months.
Treve promised Shirayuki that she would think about it seriously.
She also needed to prepare herself mentally.
After that, the two parted ways.
The next day, Treve's friends surrounded her completely, excitedly asking how things had progressed.
The moment she remembered Shirayuki's intense words, Treve's face immediately flushed.
Shirayuki had said she had been watching her secretly, that she was not satisfied, and that she wanted the two of them to reveal their true selves to each other.
That was different from bathing together.
Bathing together was just helping each other wash. At most, it involved touching tails.
But showing each other everything was different.
And surely it would not stop at just looking.
It meant handing her whole self over without hiding anything.
After going back last night, Treve had specifically searched up things related to that topic, and the results had opened her eyes.
She discovered all kinds of embarrassing information that made her face burn. People taking intimate poses, serving one another, and expressing affection in ways she had never imagined before.
After watching for a while, Treve's pure heart received an enormous shock.
It felt as if the door to a new world had been unlocked, and she had discovered the strange beauty of human movement.
In only a few hours, Treve grew up.
Forcing herself to endure the embarrassment, she kept watching until the end. Her body felt hot, so she went into the bathroom and took a shower to calm herself down.
Remembering the things she had seen, Treve lifted her hand and hesitantly touched herself.
The faint sensation made her let out a soft sound.
It was a feeling she had never experienced before.
Nervousness, excitement, embarrassment, and novelty all overlapped together, making her unable to resist trying again.
A wave seemed to strike her mind. Treve covered her mouth, and a strange breath echoed softly in the bathroom. She wanted to stop, but her fingers did not listen.
Was this what Shirayuki wanted to do?
Treve imagined Shirayuki in front of her, and in an instant, her body went weak as though she had been struck by electricity. Her feet tensed, and her toes curled tightly.
Once her imagination began, she could no longer stop it.
Treve's thoughts drifted further and further.
Just then, someone knocked on the dorm room door, and a classmate's voice came from outside. Only then did Treve snap back to reality and hurriedly put her clothes on.
That night, she dreamed of Shirayuki.
It was also in a bathroom.
And the content of the dream was similar to what she had seen earlier, except the people in it had become her and Shirayuki.
It was the most intense night Treve had ever experienced.
When she woke up in the morning, her clothes were damp. It was the first time she had dirtied them outside of training.
Enduring the shame that made her want to crawl into a crack in the floor, she washed them clean.
Being reminded by her friends now, Treve thought of it again and covered her face.
Seeing her flushed cheeks, the others showed expressions of disbelief.
"No way…"
"Our innocent little princess has awakened?"
"What exactly did you and Shirayuki do?"
The girls instantly entered gossip mode.
"I just went shopping with Shirayuki and ate something…"
"That's it?"
"Nothing else?"
"Nothing else. That's all."
They showed disappointed expressions.
That was not exciting at all!
They had been hoping that the Japanese girl would do something shocking.
If nothing special had happened, why was Treve making that expression?
She looked as though she had climbed the staircase to adulthood.
"Did you kiss?"
"No! Of course not! Shirayuki and I are… are…"
Treve's voice gradually weakened.
There had been kissing.
But it was in a dream.
And the place they kissed was not the lips, but a little lower…
Hearing her answer, the girls became completely disappointed.
When it came to romance, Treve was still a child.
Too inexperienced.
She could not even manage the most basic things.
One classmate kindly reminded her, "Treve, you'd better move quickly. Otherwise, someone else might get there first. I've seen Shirayuki spending a lot of time with that little filly lately."
"Little filly? Who?" Treve asked.
"The small one with black hair and the blue rose hat."
"I know her. Rice Shower, right? She's very cute. She feels soft when you pat her."
"That's right, her. Shirayuki has been with her a lot recently. I don't know what they're doing."
Treve narrowed her eyes.
That girl, like Shirayuki, was also a student from Japan Tracen. She had spent far more time with Shirayuki than Treve had.
Thinking of this, Treve felt something strange in her chest.
She slapped the table and stood up, saying to the others, "I just remembered something. I'm leaving first!"
With that, she left the classroom.