Chapter 139 – Unique hair

Sophia and Ari made up with each other by clearing up the misunderstanding the jaguar-girl had, and the two seemed to be becoming good friends. The duo had a great time chatting with each other while loosely watching over Anna and Maya training.

"S-Say..." After fidgeting and stealing some glances at the tiger for a while, Ari finally addressed her once the two took a break from watching the other girls.

"Hmm?" She only tilted her head in response.

"Your blonde hair... There are some different shades, yes, but I never saw anyone in the tiger family with hair or fur that wasn't a deep orange..."

"Yeah, the king also told me that I'm the only one like this. "

"Really? T-Then..."

"It's great, isn't it?"

"Eh?!" Ari looked shocked as she stared at her.

"I really like my hair color, and Maya loves it, too." She chose to have it, after all. "I couldn't be happier about it."

"E-Even though you're the only different one?"

"W-Well..." Sophia really didn't like the sound of that. "No, I don't mind having different hair. I don't think being unique is anything bad."

"I-Is that so?" The jaguar didn't know how to react. "Y-You see, I really dislike my black hair..."

"But why?!" She had heard about it before, but it still made no sense.

"I'm the only jaguar with black hair... and people keep looking at me because of that... I don't like getting so much attention."

"That's..." The tiger understood her pretty well. "I am sure they pay attention to you because they're jealous about it, though." According to Maya, the blonde has the same problem, but Sophia refuses to accept that, too, but that's apparently a different story.

"You don't have to flatter me. I know they stare at me simply because I'm an odd irregular..."

"..." The amount she could relate to her almost hurt. "E-Even though Anna loves your hair, too?"

"She only says that to make me feel better..." Ari sounded pretty sad at the same time.

"Wow, the princess was right. You actually don't listen to her at all when she mentions your hair."

"S-She talked about me with you?"

"Do you want to know what happened when I first saw you?" Sophia recalled the events from roughly two weeks ago. "I had no idea who you were, and the first thing I asked the princess was who the girl with the amazing hair was after seeing you. Afterward, Anna kept boasting about you and your awesome hair for around ten minutes. Actually, the two of us gushed so much about it that Maya got super jealous about me being this interested in another girl. Or the hair of her, you."

"W-What...?"

"I admit that I don't know her that well yet, but I don't think Anna can lie to make others feel better. She strikes me as stupidly honest."

"T-That's true."

"I think she was a lot more excited while talking about you compared to the stupid period when she wanted to marry me."

"R-Really...?" A slight blush appeared on Ari's face.

"I also agree with her. Well, I'll ignore our first impression..."

"T-Thank you."

"You seem really nice, and I'm happy I got to know you better. And I repeat myself, your hair is absolutely amazing. It's the second most stunning hair I've ever seen. Also, just so you know, I'm heavily biased towards the first place because it's the snow-white of Maya."

"..."

"From one girl with a unique trait to another, be proud of it." Sophia meant every word. "I know the curious gazes can be a bit intimidating, but everyone who thinks your hair looks bad is an idiot. If you ever feel uncomfortable, stick to the princess. I'm sure she has some nice words for those idiots. Maya looks out for me in the same way because I get intimidated by all those stares often enough, myself… Sure, our relationships might be different, but it's obvious how much she cares about you. Anyway, your hair is seriously amazing. Be proud of it, dammit!" Sophia ran out of motivational words.

"Urgh... I wanted to be mad at Anna for wanting to marry you for a while, but now I can't anymore."

"Huh?!" The tiger didn't expect this turn of events.

"I kinda doubted myself about something for a moment just now."

"W-Wait a moment." She didn't want to deal with that again.

"I hope Maya knows what she has."

"Haha, ask the princess how aggressive my cat got and how much she bullied her when Anna went after me."

"That stupid princess." Ari stifled a laugh.

"Ha, good..." Sophia seemed relieved. "I know it sounds terribly conceited, but I thought for a moment you tried to go after me just now."

"Ah, no, it was just a figure of speech. I don't plan to go after you."

"Phew, that's great. I didn't want it to become complicated again. I just want a friend without any extras..."

"That idea, I would like. I want to be your friend, too."

"Yay!" The blonde looked genuinely happy.

"Hehe. Again, thank you very much for all the kind words about my hair. Hearing that from you, someone who is in the same position, really gave me a lot to think about. I can't guarantee anything yet, but I'll try to be more confident."

"Good. I meant every word. By the way, if you didn't like it, why is it so long? People will see it even better that way, don't they?"

"Because I love long hair?" She only tilted her head. "I didn't want to suffer twice by the wrong color and wrong length."

"Fair enough. I'm a big fan of long hair, too. Maya does a lot for me in that regard. I grew mine out a little, but I currently can't be bothered with having it even longer because it becomes even more of a pain to deal with. My cat needs days to get hers in order, even with me helping her after a bath."

"That's the only downside." The jaguar nodded in understanding.

"Still… Your hair really does make me a little jealous. The glossy black together with the shimmering yellow and orange highlights…. Also, the pattern on top of it, how could anyone not love it?" While saying so, the tiger got closer to her to get a better look at the black hair.

"And I'm jealous of yours!" Ari played along and touched the tips of Sophia's blonde hair in return.

"Let's just agree to disagree!"

"I disagree!" She had a pretty playful side to her.

"That's good... Wait!" She got confused over the jaguar's answer.

"Ahaha…"

"Oh, you..." Sophia started to chuckle as well. She also went ahead to touch Ari's hair because she really liked it. While the two had a good laugh while enjoying each other's company and admiring the hair of the girl beside them, a minor incident happened.

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"Ahem." A certain cat-girl and princess suddenly stood next to the duo.

"A-Ah." Because Ari and Sophia were quite busy, they totally missed that the two finished their training and walked up to them. That the blonde and the black-haired girl seemed like they were heavily flirting to outsiders while playing with their hair wasn't overly helpful, either.

"My, don't you two have a good mood going on?" There were many emotions in Maya's voice. Friendliness wasn't one of them, though.

"Might I know what is going on here?" Anna, too, didn't overly like it and her eyes looked quite scary.

"Uhh..." The duo immediately let go of the other's hair and put some distance between them. "I-It isn't what it looks like!" The two tried to defuse the situation.

"Tell us, what does it look like?" Unfortunately, neither Maya nor the princess planned to let them out easily. Them being in perfect sync only made it much scarier.

"W-Well, we just, uhh..." Sophia stopped mid-sentence. She made up with the jaguar and held a motivational speech. Still, the extreme complimenting and playing around with the other's hair really was hard to explain. Especially with the tiger's communication skills, there's a high chance to only make it worse because they really did look quite flirty.

"Seems like being hated was just a pretense, huh?" Anna stood right next to the cat and looked just as disapproving.

"I-I really did think that she hates me!"

"It's true, A-Anna..." Ari tried to help. "I actually disliked her a lot, b-but it was all a misunderstanding, and we made up."

"You sure did." The two were still in sync.

"Urgh." So was the questioned duo.

"P-Princess, do you remember when we talked about Ari's hair when we went to look at our new mansion?" The blonde hoped she would understand this way.

"Of course, I do."

"I just wanted her to understand that her hair's great..."

"You were very thorough with that."

"Mh-hmm." The cat-girl was on the same wavelength.

"You, too, Ari... You never played with my hair like that!" There was a hint of jealousy in the voice of the princess.

"T-That!" Ari's cheeks turned a bit red, and she didn't know how to react. "I-I just wanted to get a better look at Sophia's hair because she's the same as me, someone who's unique! We just got a little playful and messed around a bit with our hair! I-I have absolutely no feelings for this tiger!"

"E-Exactly!" Sophia confirmed her claim. "I just want to be friends with her! Nothing else!"

"Really?"

"Yes!" The accused duo was getting desperate.

"W-We even talked about that after Sophia told me what happened between the two of you! I have no intention to marry her!"

"A-Ah." The princess didn't like the sudden reversal. "I kinda hoped this wouldn't come up here..." She got a little awkward. "D-Did Sophia change your mind about your hair... I really love it, too, but you never wanted to listen to me when it comes to that..."

"I'm sorry about that... She made me think about it. Sophia has unique hair, too, but she loves it. I'll try to be more confident…"

"Yes! Yes, yes, yes!" Anna was really happy about this, and her mood improved considerably.

"M-Maya...?" While the duo was making up, the other tiger faced her cat with a complicated expression.

"Yes?" She only smiled at her, or it at least looked like she was smiling. The look in her eyes didn't match at all, though.

"Nothing whatsoever happened, okay?"

"Is that so?"

"A-Ari!"

"Yes?" She was currently busy keeping the princess away from her hair when she looked over to the couple.

"How did I rank your hair earlier?!"

"It's the second most s-stunning you ever saw, but it can't beat the snow-white of Maya."

"I heavily disagree!"

"Shut up, princess!" Sophia couldn't deal with that right now. "See?! I have my priorities straight!"

"Have you?" Maya raised an eyebrow.

"Of course, I ha- Ahh..." She stopped for a moment. "Not exactly straight, but you know what I mean! Ari's great, and I'm super happy to have cleared up the misunderstanding and befriended her, but... But! That's all! I'm more than at full capacity when it comes to having more than friends. You're more than I need, want, and deserve!"

"Alright, fine..." The cat-girl didn't hate her reply. "For someone who has no previous experience, you sure know how to be flirty. Not a fan."

"It wasn't on purpose! D-Does it help when I say Ari started it?"

"It doesn't!" The jaguar was the one who retorted. "W-Well, it's true that I'm the one who started playing with your hair, but..."

"Ari?" Anna's expansion changed again.

"A-Ah…"

In the end, it took the duo another 30 minutes to get on the good side of their girls again. Ari was especially confused about why she had to defend herself so much in this situation as the princess seemed to be almost as angry as Maya. Still, she was in no position to ask questions right now.