On a large grass field, with loud whistles and shouts as a background, many soldiers clad in army green military uniforms were doing exercises and practicing.
"Why are you slowing down? Haven't you all eaten yet?!" A male instructor crossed his hands, looking at five or six female soldiers currently on the ground, doing several sets of push-ups for punishment. He scolded them ruthlessly, "I always remind you that after you join the army, there will be no differential treatment for you as a woman! On the battlefield, your beauty will be of no use! When you're ambushed by enemies, what are you trying to do with those pretty faces? Seducing the enemy's soldier to spare your life? Or being a princess who needs a prince charming to save her ass?!"
The male instructor's fury eventually spread to the sole soldier who still stood up with a straight back, "Keiko! For God's sake, you're the team leader! Is this how you lead your team; by spoiling them like teenage girls?! Using cosmetics is prohibited when soldiers are on active duty. You know this rule as well, right? So, what are you trying to pull off here by turning a blind eye to their disciplinary violation? You're not being a good leader by indulging their whims. This is the army, not a school club!"
"You also go down with them, do it ten times more!" The male instructor pointed to the ground and ordered.
"Yes!" she answered loudly, then took a step forward, fell flat on the ground, braced on the ground, and started doing push-ups.
"Team leader..." Right next to her, the female soldier who was doing push-ups turned her head. Her face was full of guilt, and she was about to cry.
"Are you still having time to cry?! Quickly continue!" She deliberately shouted in a fierce tone.
At the end of the day, she was punished by doing more than 500 push-ups, causing her body to ache all over, and she couldn't even hold her body straight. Her arms were all swollen, and she couldn't even bend them.
In the dormitory, her subordinates boiled water and dipped the towel inside it before compressing the swollen part of Keiko's arm while sobbing profusely.
"T-team leader… t-team leader, this is all my fault… I'm the one who got you implicated… I've wronged you…"
"It's okay, at least your next vacation is still saved. Your mother's health hasn't been good recently. You need to accompany her more often," said Keiko softly.
The female soldier felt more guilty when she saw Keiko wasn't even angry at her teammates and her, "But leader, it's your vacation that's gone."
"I don't want a vacation; I don't have any family to spend my time with anyway... It's no fun to go out," Keiko said these saddening words lightly, still with a gentle smile adorning her face.
"Team Leader..." All of her subordinates felt their hearts wrench, looking distressed.
"Okay, I need to go to bed earlier, I've been tired all day," said Keiko, and she went to her bed.
At night, she was lying in bed listening to her comrades talking about their parents, friends, and sweethearts, and somehow her heart suddenly felt empty.
Her childhood was nothing but lonely. She grew up in the compound only with her adoptive father.
Her adoptive father was busy every day in order to support the family. Even when he returned home, he would not give her a good look and was very strict with her. Except for practicing, they had no common topics.
Fortunately, there were many children around her age in the compound that she had a good relationship with and who could play together with her.
But as everyone grew up, each had their own studies and their own social circle, and so the small circle of childhood playmates also gradually grew apart.
There was a little girl, one year younger than Keiko, who had the closest relationship with her and always followed her like a duckling following a hen since they were very young. If she didn't remember it wrongly, her nickname was Yaya.
Yaya was both very beautiful and very smart. She even won first place in the Mathematical Olympiad in elementary school.
But, when she was in front of Keiko, she always acted silly and cute and always called her "Big Sis Keiko" and "Big Sis Keiko" affectionately, which warmed Keiko's heart.
She didn't know when it started, but this little girl somehow successfully squirmed her way into Keiko's heart. Keiko found that she became more and more caring about the girl.
They were in the same school from elementary school to high school. When going to and from school, Keiko would always find her unconsciously and accompany her to and from school.
Yaya always said that she felt very safe walking with Big Sis Keiko. If any bad person dared to bully her, Big Sis Keiko would definitely drive them away.
In Yaya's mind, Big Sis Keiko was the most powerful martial arts master in the world and her own bodyguard. When she was a child, she liked to sit on a small bench and watch Keiko practicing martial arts. Even when she was already fifteen or sixteen years old, she still did it the same. It wasn't strange that it had become a habit by now.
Yaya's mother, Aunt Pei, had loved Keiko since she was a child. Especially when she saw Keiko often left alone by her father, but instead of throwing tantrums or crying, she still perseveringly practiced the martial art that her father taught her without complaining.
This was Keiko, precocious and very sensible from a very young age, and this also drew Aunt Pei's sympathy and affection toward her, and eventually, she treated Keiko like her own daughter.
She always cooked a warm and delicious meal for Keiko. When she bought new clothes for Yaya, she never forgot to buy one for Keiko too. When someone mentioned how great their mother's cooking was and how much they missed it, Keiko always thought of Aunt Pei's cooking. That was how much Aunt Pei's presence weighed in her heart.
Yaya's father was a formidable soldier and the person Keiko admired the most. She rarely saw him at home throughout the year, but whenever he returned, he always came with fanfare, escorted in a big jeep with a large group of brothers, wearing a straight military uniform, especially handsome.
It was because of her admiration of Yaya's father that Keiko eventually chose to become a soldier when he graduated from high school.
Sometimes, Keiko felt it rather strange that when she tried to remember the man who was her adoptive father, she could only recall a vague figure of a middle-aged man with a sign of the vicissitudes of life on his full of stubble face, and it gradually became more unclear as the time passed by.
On the other hand, her impression of Yaya's family in her mind was always very fresh. No matter how much time passed, she could see their smiles and hear their voices vividly as if it was just yesterday.
At the age of 18, Keiko was about to take the college entrance examination, and Yaya was in her second year of high school. Aunt Pei and her husband bought a new house and decided to move out of the compound and live in the new house. Yaya would go through the transfer procedures and go to a better high school near their new residence.
In the face of the abrupt and inevitable separation from Yaya, Keiko finally recognized and embraced her sexual preferences as a homosexual, a lesbian, and a woman who loved another woman.
It was summer in early May, and the weather suddenly became hot.
Yaya, together with her parents, was cleaning up this dilapidated little home that they had lived in for more than ten years. Keiko went to help, and together with Yaya, they cleaned up the little girl's room.
The two did not talk much, except for simple conversations such as "pass that to me" and "where I should put this". But Keiko's movement was getting slower and slower while her eyes were locked on Yaya's figure, and her heart started throbbing in pain.
The little girl who followed her back then has grown up into a big girl. She was so beautiful, gentle, lovely, generous, intelligent, and considerate.
However, she was about to leave her life, and Keiko had no idea whether they would meet each other again in the future or not. Having such a thought, Keiko felt like a knife was gouging out her heart, and the pain was dripping with blood.
Suddenly, she really wanted to take little Yaya into her arms and kiss her.
This thought that Keiko had thought up several times and was forcibly suppressed, was now sprouting wildly like weeds in her heart.
She didn't want to endure it anymore and she didn't want to run away from her love for Yaya.
Stepping over the messy items, she walked to Yaya's side. The little girl was wearing a white t-shirt, which was soaked in sweat and became so wet that Keiko could see through her sexy figure even from a distance.
Her hair was tied in a ponytail, revealing her beautiful and delicious white nape.
Keiko swallowed a big gulp as she saw the tempting sight.
Keiko sat down beside her and took her arm. The girl looked back at her and asked, with a smile, "Big Sis Keiko, what are you doing?"
The sun rays shone upon the side of the girl's face; the contrast between light and dark accentuated her breath-taking beauty.
After so many years, Keiko finally realized that Yaya seemed to have captivating blue-colored eyes and her facial features were a little mixed-race.
Maybe it's because Yaya's father himself looked a bit like a foreigner, and his daughter inherited these excellent facial features from him.
"Can you not go?"
Yaya looked at her with a smile but said nothing.
"I like you."
Yaya still didn't speak, and the smile on her face gradually faded.
"Girl, I want to be with you."
Keiko gathered up the courage to finish these three sentences.
Seeing that Yaya was still looking at her with a gentle expression, she couldn't help raising her hand to touch her cheek.
Suddenly, Yaya stood up and let go of her hand.
Keiko's heart seemed like being pummelled by a hammer, and her body was suddenly stiffened. Her hands and feet were numb as she heard a cold voice come from Yaya's mouth.
"Keiko, are you out of your mind? Is it really me that you like?"
"How could it not be you... Am I not confessing to you right now?"
"Heh!"
The other party sneered as if she had heard something so ridiculous.