Vina Wibowo.

Sitting next to Yumi was another girl with an Asiatic appearance. But she looked quite different. For one she was noticeably taller. Not that she was anything more than average height, but that still let her have a full head over her tiny Japanese friend. Her skin was also a few shades darker (not hard given that Yumi's preference for staying inside left her on the pale side) and her eyes were a deep black.

As usual, she was dressed modestly. For bottoms, she had gone with a pair of loose palazzo pants. And on top, she had a thick henley shirt. Though it might be more accurate to say she was dressed warmly on that day, given that she, unlike most of the students, was still wearing a thick, woolen jacket inside. However, the conservative cut of her outfit was somewhat offset by the vibrant colors. It was a swirl of complementary warm and cool colors. Even her hijab was a lovely sky blue with a floral pattern of pink and white orchids along the edges.

But the two girls did have at least one thing in common. When they spotted their tall, blond friend they gave him a matched pair of wide smiles.

"Hi Vina," Mason said, smiling back at them.

"Mason," The Muslim girl said happily in her heavily accented sing-song voice. "It is so good to see you again!"

The Wibowo family moved from Jakarta just in time for Vina's sophomore year. And before even a month had passed she had quickly befriended Yumi and Mason. Though it technically started with the Japanese girl. When the Indonesian teen had first arrived stateside she had felt pretty lost and isolated. So she was very grateful to meet someone who had gone through the same experience, even if the specifics were pretty different. And after that, it hadn't been long before she befriended Mason too. Which was basically inevitable given how sweet and outgoing Vina was once she came out of her shell.

"It's good to see you too. I'm glad you're finally feeling better," Mason said as he set down his tray and took off his backpack.

"Me too! I actually felt better yesterday, but my father insisted I convalesce for an extra day," Vina explained chipperly. The poor girl had been sick with the flu for most of the last week. It was no surprise that Dr. Wibowo wanted to make sure his daughter was good and ready to head back to school. If nothing else it was very on-brand.

"Well either way I'm still glad to see you." And Mason really was. But he was slightly concerned when the Muslim girl pouted up at him. "What's wrong?"

"I want to give you a hug. But I am worried about getting you sick." That earned a chuckle from the tall teen. Vina was perhaps one of the most affectionate people he had ever met. Rare was the day that she didn't give him and Yumi at least one hug each.

"I'll take my chances," He said, offering his arms. Which earned an excited laugh from Vina. But she ultimately did take him up on his offer. She quickly scampered around the table, wrapped her arms around his midsection, and proceeded to squeeze with all her strength. Nice as she was it seemed that the Muslim girl could never give a hug that wasn't bone-crushing.

But that failed to distract from the feeling of her body pressed against his. Like Yumi, Vina never showed any skin (though they did have different reasons.) But the bodies they kept covered were very different. Where the Japanese girl was skinny and underdeveloped, his Indonesian friend had a voluptuous, hourglass figure underneath her clothes.

Mason had been very careful to never **** Vina's love of hugs and tried very hard to never let her feel exactly how his body tended to react. After all, he didn't want to make one of his closest friends uncomfortable. And he definitely didn't want to stop her from pressing her large, pillowy breasts against him.

But now that he had a larger dick that was faster to get hard he couldn't properly enjoy the moment. Both the innocent joy of hugging his friend. And the decidedly less innocent pleasure of holding a buxom girl in his arms.

"Can't breathe," Mason **** himself to say at the first few tingles in his crotch. Thankfully, it was an easy excuse to fall back on because it was actually true. And even more, thankfully Vina pulled back just in time to avoid feeling his cock press against her.

"Sorry," Vina said, pulling back with a massive smile. "I just really missed you."

After that, the two sat back down and started to dig into their unsurprisingly substandard meal. And the three started talking. It was a by now familiar dynamic. Vina was a perpetually peppy, eternally enthusiastic, masterful motor mouth. (Well she was now that she had a slightly stronger grasp on the English language.) So she did most of the talking. Mason, for his part, would interject when he could to make sure it remained a conversation and not a monologue. And Yumi would remain mostly quiet, content to simply listen until she had something she really wanted to say.

Today the topic quickly turned to the movies and shows Vina watched while she was sick. After all, she needed to report her opinions after she had asked the two of them for recommendations. But unusually Yumi actually did more talking than Mason.

Part of this was probably that the tiny girl was in a very good mood, likely for the obvious reason. But it was mostly because Mason was caught up in his own thoughts.

It started with him considering the two girls in front of him. It amazed him how two people could be so similar and so different.

Because in many ways Yumi and Vina were complete opposites. An introvert versus an extrovert. An atheist versus a devout believer. And a worrywart versus a carefree spirit.

But they also had so much in common that they were almost guaranteed to be friends. Some of it was just superficial. Such as both being immigrants from Asian countries. But there was more to it. For instance, it would be one thing if they both just enjoyed nerdy things, but they both enjoyed their fantasy high and their sci-fi hard. And so it was with almost everything they enjoyed. Their tastes overlapped more often than not.

And there was one other thing they had in common. A thing neither of them knew about.

It wasn't as endemic to his life, largely because they had only known each other for a few years, but many people (mostly Viv) assured him that Vina had a crush on him. And like with Yumi, Mason insisted she didn't. But now he wasn't as sure.

His arguments against his Muslim friend having a crush on him were basically the opposite of the ones he had for Yumi. His sister would argue that she was clearly smitten with him, and he would say that's just how Vina was, she had a big heart and wasn't scared to let people know when she cared about them. It seemed to him that if the Indonesian girl had a crush on him she would almost certainly tell him.

But now he had his Japanese girlfriend to act as a sort of love Rosetta Stone. And with that, he could clearly see the signs. Yes, Vina was an open book who was never shy about letting people know exactly what she liked about each of them. But with Mason, she seemed to like everything. And while she was always quick to hand out hugs, as he thought back on it he couldn't remember a time the curvy Muslim had hugged any other boy.

So now he felt pretty sure (he shuddered at the thought) Viv had been right. Mason felt so confident in the fact that he didn't think he would have to waste any silver on the secrets tab.

But just like Yumi, there was something in the way of trying to woo Vina. Well, something besides the fact that he already had a girlfriend. And while he knew for a fact that said girlfriend would have liked sharing him, he wasn't sure how the taller girl would react.

But that was something that Luxuria could probably help with. Just like it had helped assure him that he wasn't going to ruin his relationship with Yumi by asking her out.

The problem with Vina, on the other hand, was unfortunately her family. Well more specifically the male part of her family, Mrs. Wibowo was actually really cool. Actually, even that was too broad. After all, Vina actually had two older brothers, one who lived back in Jakarta and one going to school in Amsterdam. And while he had only met them once they seemed quite nice. Really it was just her dad.

Dr. Bagas Wibowo had instantly unsettled Mason the first time they met. Vina had invited him and Yumi over for a night of Magic the Gathering in celebration of the latest set coming out. Part of it was the fact the doctor was quite muscular and the air of a man who would be dangerous in a fight. But it was mostly the silent, **** glare he had inflicted on Mason every time they were in the same room. It was enough to make the then fifteen-year-old worry that Vina's dad was some sort of fundamentalist who hated the idea of his daughter making friends with an American boy.

But that notion was disabused when Mrs. Wibowo insisted on having his family over for dinner. There was a familiar tension in the air when they arrived. The one that manifested when his moms were meeting new people and had no idea how they would react to a lesbian couple. But the Wibowos seemed to sense this and quickly cleared the air. They were unconditionally in support of gay rights. In fact, their son Kusno was gay and went to school in Holland so he could more easily live as his authentic self.

And as the dinner went on it became clear that, though devout, Vina's parents were reasonable, kind, forward-thinking, and worldly. Which just left Mason all the more confused at what he had done to piss off her dad so much. At least until he had been pulled aside by her mom. She had apologized for her husband's behavior and assured him it wasn't anything personal. It was just that Dr. Wibowo instantly went into full-on Papa Bear mode whenever a boy came within five hundred meters of his little princess.

Which, while somewhat understandable, would also be a massive pain. One Mason really didn't want to deal with. Especially given the negative points he would start with for dating at least one other girl. And to make matters worse he genuinely did not think they would be able to date in secret. Nice as she was, Vina was a notorious blabbermouth.

But strangely that didn't really deter him. Sure he would have to first make sure Yumi was as okay with an open relationship as Lilith said. And sure he would have to either grind up a lot of silver (maybe even gold) or really work his persuasion skills to make a harem acceptable. But that didn't really bother him. He wanted Vina and was willing to put in whatever work was necessary to make that happen.

But he couldn't get too lost in his thoughts. Vina was more than happy to do most of the talking, but he was still expected to actually listen.

"And fire bending just doesn't seem that helpful," The Muslim girl said after having a one-woman debate about the pros and cons of The Legend of Korra. "I think I would much rather be able to fly. Also, airbenders can always keep themselves warm. Ugh, it is just my luck to spend the nice week sick and only come back to school when it becomes cold again." Her pout returned with a vengeance, earning a chuckle from each of her lunchmates. The Indonesian girl's childhood in the tropics left her unable to handle any temperature below 68 degrees. Something her friends couldn't help but find funny.

"Oh, and I would like to hang out tomorrow," Vina announced, flipping back to her cheery demeanor. "And it would be nice to do so somewhere other than my house. I feel I have spent more than enough time there."

"We can use my place," Yumi quickly offered. "But don't you want to hang out today?"

Mason raised a questioning eyebrow at his tiny girlfriend. Had she already forgotten about their date? Or did she just get cold feet? Or was she just that excited by the idea of her boyfriend having multiple girlfriends that she wanted to start before even telling him that? He honestly couldn't tell which it was when Yumi offered him an embarrassed, apologetic grimace.

Thankfully the Muslim teenager missed the meaningful looks her secretly dating friends exchanged. Her eyes closed when she let out a musical laugh.

"I very much would prefer that," Vina explained with a crooked grin. "But I already promised my mother I would go shopping with her. And that will take quite a lot of time."

"Sounds good to me," Mason said. And it certainly did. Not only because he had genuinely missed his foreign friend last week. But also because every minute spent together was another minute he could try and earn more silver. But he did have to throw a small bucket of cold water on the situation. "I did get roped into helping Principal Rosso with something, but I'll be free after that."

"Oh no," Vina's face blanched and brow knitted as she spoke. "She wasn't mad was she?"

"No," Mason assured her. "She just needs some help doing some help moving stuff to do some inventory stuff."

"Do you need help? I could help with the smaller things," The Indonesian girl quickly offered.

"It's alright. She said it wouldn't take long." Whether his vice-principal was telling the truth remained to be seen. But even if she was bold-facedly lying he didn't want to bother his friends.

" Well, I'm sure Yumi and I can find something to do in the meantime."

After that, the conversation turned into a debate about what to play Tomorrow. A debate that grew more and more heated until eventually the bell rang and lunch ended.