WEEK ONE: Monday (Yuzuru)

"Psst, Shino." Koike jabbed me in the shoulder.

I yelped as the paintbrush in my hand slipped, sending hot pink tempura paint skittering across the poster board on my desk. "Gah!! What?!"

I followed her pointed finger to the classroom door. Seryou Touji was leaning in the doorway, his dark hair falling in his eyes. He smiled, and my pulse stuttered.

"Oh."

Koike dodged my flailing paintbrush as I leapt up. I ignored her scowl and went to meet Seryou at the door.

"Hey," he said, eyeing my paint-spattered smock with a grin. "I was going to see if you wanted to eat lunch together, but it looks like you're busy."

"Seryou-kun!" a chorus of shrill voices cried out. I was nearly shoved into him by the cluster of girls that rushed around us at the door.

"Have you been asked out yet today?"

"I've been waiting months for my chance!"

"You're so handsome, please date me this week!"

Seryou held up his hands. "I'm sorry, I'm already seeing someone." He glanced at me amid their mews of disappointment, and I wasn't sure whether to feel relieved or annoyed.

"Next Monday, then? I'll be sure to find you first!"

"Actually, I..." He met my eyes again. "I don't think I'll be doing Mondays like that anymore."

I sucked in a breath.

"What does that mean?"

"No more Definite-Yes-Mondays? Seryou-kun!"

"I really like the person I'm seeing," he said simply, and I felt my cheeks get warm.

The girls shrieked. Some were delighted, others accused him of being cruel, but their noise faded into the background for me. His deep black eyes held mine, eclipsing everything else. I was paralyzed. It still felt too good to be true. Every girl in school was clamoring for his attention, yet he'd chosen me? I was clumsy, obnoxious, thick-headed, stubborn... not to mention, also a guy.

None of which seemed to stop him from gazing at me like I was the only person in the room.

My babbling female classmates peppered him with questions.

"Who is it?"

"Now you have to tell us!"

When he turned his attention back to them, the spell of his eyes was broken so that I was able to elbow them away. "It's me," I declared, just like last week when girls in the subway station had demanded the same information.

I received smacks on the shoulder and dirty looks.

"Shino-kun, butt out!"

"That's not funny! Leave Seryou-kun alone."

"Yeah, you're such a bully."

"I'm not the one harassing him right now." I grabbed Seryou's sleeve and dragged him over to my desk, which was draped in a glistening mess of poster board, glitter, and pink and purple paint. I didn't have a desk mate—no one could put up with me that well—so there was plenty of room to spread stuff out.

He eyed the chaos with curiosity. "What's this?"

"Homeroom decorations for the school festival next week."

"Ah. And the theme is what, Hello Kitty?"

"A beauty salon," I sighed, sticking the paintbrush back in a cup of water. My homeroom was, like, ninety percent girls. The three guys in our class were always overruled when it came to stuff like this.

Seryou snickered. "I have a hard time picturing you sitting here for two days giving manicures."

"I'm going to be at the dojo," I informed him, "covering the archery club demonstrations."

Seryou nodded understanding, his lips still quirked with amusement.

"But we're supposed to spend all our lunch periods this week working on the decorations, so..." I cast him an apologetic look. "I might not be able to eat with you."

"That's okay. Maybe I could help? I just..." he leaned into me, his breath hot against my ear, and his voice turned husky, "want to be near you."

I hadn't realized I was still holding his jacket cuff until he turned his wrist and slid his fingers between mine. I squeezed in response, his palm warm and solid in my hand. Man, that felt good. I was getting kind of tingly in my stomach.

"Shino—" Koike popped in front of us, and we sprang apart. P.D.A. at school was a definite no-no. Dating itself had to be very much an under-the-radar kind of thing. For two boys, I was pretty sure it was even more off limits.

I don't think we were fast enough to avoid her notice, though. She narrowed her eyes. "What are you guys doing?"

"Nothing," I said, reaching for the paintbrush. "Seryou wanted to help out."

"Yeah?" She looked Seryou up and down. "Why?"

I didn't like the starry-eyed awe that was forming on her face. I remembered that look from last week, when she'd boasted about dating him before. Wow, had it really only been a week? It felt like so much longer.

"My homeroom decorations are done," Seryou replied smoothly. "So I thought I'd see if Yuzuru-san could use a hand."

She batted her eyes at him, which made my jaw clench. "If that's the case, come help us hang these paper lanterns. You're the tallest guy in here."

I answered Seryou's questioning look with a shrug. Once Koike set her mind to something it was better not to argue. She led him to the ladder in the middle of the room and thrust a globe of purple paper into his hands, pointing at the ceiling. "It goes there."

He climbed the ladder obediently and I dipped the brush back into the paint, assessing the damage I'd done earlier and trying to decide the best way to cover it up. I couldn't help stealing glances at him, though. It was more than a little stunning to watch him stretching out those long, slender limbs in whatever direction the girls pointed, sometimes adjusting the same lantern repeatedly by mere millimeters before they were satisfied. He was a lot more patient than me. I would have told them to shove it, but he just complied with their every request with that easygoing smile.

I started painting again, keeping an eye on him as he carried the ladder around the room. Our classroom ceiling started to get so thick with pink and purple it looked like candy colored bubble wrap. Irritatingly, the girls had started to gather around him again, competing over who would hand him the next lantern to hang.

He reached down to take one from Akaike, our homeroom monitor, and I saw her deliberately caress his hand as she passed it to him. I threw my brush back into the cup of water and was stalking in their direction when a squabble between Akaike and Uchida broke out. They started wrestling over one of the lanterns, and in the process, Akaike took a step back and bumped the ladder.

The ladder shook. Seryou gave a shout and lost his balance.

Dismayed cries went up across the classroom as he started to fall. I charged forward and got there just in time for him to slam into me, knocking us both to the floor. Luckily we didn't hit any desks or chairs on the way down, but damn, that hurt. I think I bit my lip, because my tongue encountered the faint tang of blood.

"Are you okay?" I gasped. His hair was hanging down between our faces like a curtain, and for a second it felt like we'd shut the rest of the classroom out. It was just the two of us, him on top of me, our chests heaving with adrenaline. I became hyper aware of his weight pressed against me, the feel of his ribs expanding and contracting under my hands. One of his knees had dropped between my legs, so we were pretty much nestled against each other everywhere. A bolt of excitement scorched through my insides.

"Mm. You?" He was searching my face with worry.

Shit. I really, really wanted to kiss him. Being this close made the impulse unbearable. His soft, rosy lips were centimeters from mine and I wanted to taste them again so bad. I think I tilted my chin up a little, actually, and he drifted a bit closer, but we both snapped back to reality when someone grabbed his shoulder.

"Seryou-kun! Shino-kun! Are you guys all right?"

Seryou raised his head and tucked his hair behind one ear. It was like pulling back a theater curtain, revealing the hovering, anxious faces of our audience. He blinked around at them, but made no effort to move. When the moment had dragged on long enough that it was getting kind of awkward, I sighed dramatically. "I know I'm comfy and all, Seryou, but you gonna lie on me all day?"

He blushed a little and let the other students pull him up. They made a huge fuss, brushing off his jacket and straightening his tie, clucking their tongues at the spots of pink paint that had transferred from my smock to his uniform. One even tried running a hand through his hair, which I would have put an immediate stop to if there weren't a couple girls patting me down at the same time.

"Shino-kun, you're bleeding!"

Seryou shot me a distraught look, and I touched a finger to the corner of my bottom lip. It stung, and my finger came away coated in red.

There was a frantic call for tissues, but Koike snatched up a piece of bubblegum-pink crepe paper from a nearby desk and stuck it roughly against my mouth. I winced. "Ow, Koike-chan."

She rolled her eyes.

Sasaki tugged me sideways, as if to inspect my backside for injuries. I'm not sure what she thought she would see back there, but the look on Seryou's face made it worth it.  I allowed her to examine me a little longer than I normally would have. Jealousy was really cute on him, I decided. Plus, I kind of loved that he was actually jealous over me.

Eventually I lowered the wad of crepe paper from my mouth, shook Sasaki off of me and pulled Seryou away from his cooing admirers. "Enough, you guys."

They protested, and I positioned myself between them and Seryou with crossed arms. "Who here wants to be responsible for explaining to Watanabe-sensei that we broke the first year kid who came to help us with our class stuff?"

They mumbled and looked guilty, especially Akaike. She was usually really nice, and I would maybe have felt a little sorry for her if she hadn't been running her hands all over my boyfriend a second ago. I still can't believe he's really my boyfriend.

"Yeah, I thought so. Utsumi," I turned to my best friend and jerked a thumb in the direction of the ladder, "you finish hanging those. I have to make sure these crazy girls don't kill the underclassman."

I figured Utsumi would welcome the chance to be at the center of some feminine attention, so when he broke into a grin and headed for the ladder I wasn't surprised. I yanked Seryou back to my desk, realized it was still a mess, and pulled a chair from the desk in front of mine instead. "Sit. Are you sure you're all right?"

"I'm fine," he insisted, but sat where I'd told him to. "I should be asking you that. Your lip—"

"It's no big deal. Have you even eaten lunch yet? You came to eat with me, so I'm guessing not."

"It's okay, I'm not really that hungry."

"Where's your lunch?"

He pointed at his bag, which he had dropped under my desk. I rummaged through it until I found his bento box.

"It's really okay, Yuzuru-san, I—"

"Shut up." I thrust the plastic box into his hands. "Eat."

"But—"

"Eat it. Not one more word until you eat it."

He opened his mouth to protest again, and I slivered my eyes at him until he set the box on the desk and opened it. I waited until he'd taken his chopsticks out and put the first bite in his mouth before I went back to the glittery poster. I couldn't remember where I'd left off, mostly because I kind of didn't care. And because my heart was still beating too fast. That was close. Though, I wasn't sure whether I was thinking of Seryou's fall, or the fact that I'd almost made out with him in front of my entire class. Either one could have been bad. I rubbed my right elbow, because now that all the excitement had died down it was starting to ache a little.

Seryou gulped down his mouthful of rice, looking concerned. "Are you hurt? I landed on you really hard."

"It's just a bruise," I assured him. When his guilty expression didn't fade, I rolled up my sleeve and waggled my elbow at him. "See? No blood. Nothing broken." I flexed a couple times to prove it, and the wrinkles in his forehead relaxed a little. I flicked a finger in the direction of his lunch. "Eat."

He took a couple more bites, still watching me as I took up the paintbrush again. I decided the darker purple paint was probably the best option to hide the wayward streaks of pink, and bent over the poster board with renewed determination.

"Did you eat already?" he asked me.

"Yeah, Watanabe-sensei gave us permission to eat during fourth period so we could spend our lunch break on this stuff."

"Wow. None of my teachers would ever let us get away with that."

"Watanabe-sensei's pretty cool for an old guy." I swiped the brush carefully along the edges of the design, which spelled out "MAKEUP" in pudgy-looking English letters. There, that would work.

"You're pretty good at that," Seryou said after he'd swallowed again.

"Thanks." I set the brush back in its cup again and grimaced at the finished product. It was hideous, like a caffeinated unicorn had puked all over it in twinkly Lolita colors. My classmates would love it. "What's your class doing for the festival?"

"Carnival games. Ring tosses, a lucky spinning wheel, that kind of stuff. My group got put in charge of a ping pong ball game. Kind of boring." He looked up at me. "Can I come to the archery club booth with you instead?"

"Only if you can shoot better than yesterday," I chuckled.

"Hey, yesterday I was..."

Our eyes locked. I remembered those four arrows sunk into the dirt dune behind the target, and my breath got stuck in my chest.

"...upset," he murmured.

My throat started to close up. Yesterday he'd been a real mess.  Dumbass that I was, I hadn't had a clue that I was the cause.

"I'm sorry," I said quietly, and he shook his head.

"Don't be." He held my eyes until my breathing started to speed up. "Can I go home with you after school?"

"No."

His face fell, and I hurried to amend the answer. "I mean, I have to go to cram classes. I missed most of them last week, and term exams are coming up." He still looked disappointed, and I regarded him sternly. "Besides, if you want to do the archery booth with me next week, you have to go to club practice. An archer has to be able to focus no matter how upset they are."

He nodded reluctantly. "Then... can I call you tonight?"

"You better. I want to hear your voice before I go to bed."

Aw, crap. I hadn't meant it to come out sexy, but his lips parted and he was looking at my mouth with undisguised longing. The tip of his tongue flickered over his lower lip, leaving it a little wet. My stomach did a backflip. He was too fucking much, my heart couldn't take it. Screw the rest of the class, I had to kiss him before I spontaneously combusted.

I took a step toward him and the bell rang, signaling the end of lunch. He packed up his now-empty bento and stuffed it in his bag, completely unaware of the way his every movement made my chest ache. He touched my sore elbow lightly when he straightened up. "Talk to you tonight, then."

He headed for the door, then turned and took a few steps backward, waving at me. I couldn't do much but stare back in awe. He pivoted back around and disappeared into the hall.

"What was that?" Koike demanded in my ear.

I jumped. "Shit, Koike-chan, don't sneak up on people like that."

She whacked me across the head with her notebook. "I wasn't sneaking, you idiot. You were standing there gaping after Seryou like he's the hottest girl in school." She pointed at me, then at my desk. "You gonna clean that up before class starts?"

"Oh." I grabbed the poster from my desk and propped it against the wall so it could dry. Then I pulled the smock over my head and held it out to her.

She blinked with disdain. "I'm not your maid or your mommy, Shino. Put your own crap away."

"Okay," I replied. I looked around the room. Our classmates were shuffling around, stuffing streamers and balloons and paint supplies into cabinets. Utsumi was lugging the ladder into the hall. "Um, where...?"

"The art room, stupid," Koike snapped, pointing out the door. "Go rinse that thing and hang it up. Better hurry, you've only got like five minutes."

"Got it." I flashed her a grin and jogged out into the hallway. I tried to see if I could catch a glimpse of Seryou near the stairs, but he was nowhere in sight. He was probably already two floors down in his own homeroom. I ran down the hall with the dirty smock balled up in my hand and a goofy grin stretching my face. I was so happy.