WEEK ONE: Tuesday, Part 2 (Yuzuru)

"Shino, there are fifteen desks in this room. You've cleaned that one three times."

"Huh?" I looked over to see Koike scowling at me, her arms crossed.

"Seriously, what is with you?" She bent toward me, eyebrows drawn together like she was trying to read my mind. "You're even more of a space cadet than usual today. This new girl of yours must really be something."

I rolled my eyes and moved to the next desk. She'd been prying for information all day, especially after I skipped out on festival prep during lunch. I scrubbed the desktop half-heartedly, then tossed the cleaning wipe in the trash. "I'm done. Heading out, see you tomorrow."

"Shino!" she called in exasperation, but I'd already slung my bag over my shoulder and was out the door. Seryou would be waiting for me by the school gates. We were about to go on our first real date, and I wanted to be on time.

Just as I reached the courtyard, my phone rang. I pulled it out and put it to my ear. "Hey, I'm almost there—"

"Yuzu-nii!"

"Yuriko?" Why was my little sister calling me? She never did that. I stopped in the doorway, cold dread running down my spine. "Are you okay? Is something wrong with Mom?"

"We're fine, idiot, it's you who's in big trouble. Mom went to pay your cram school tuition today and they told her you hadn't been to class once last week and you're super far behind."

Crap.

"She's stuck at work late tonight but told me to call and tell you that if you skip class again you're dead."

Yuriko sounded way too happy delivering the message. She loved it when she got to boss me around. I put a hand to my forehead, groaning.

"Look, I have something really important today."

"Don't be such an ass, big brother. You know how hard Mom works to pay for those classes."

Guilt washed over me, because as much as I resented her tone I knew she was right. Mom had been working tons of overtime shifts since the start of the school year. She was so proud of me for getting into Houka, an elite school in the richest part of town. Never mind that I got in on an archery scholarship, and that was mostly because I'd gotten lucky. The year I was admitted was the first year the school had gone co-ed, and they were looking for boys to boost diversity on their athletic teams. Mom was just excited that my entrance exam scores had been high enough to qualify. From the moment my name showed up on the list of accepted students, she'd declared she would make certain I could attend cram school so I could pass university entrance exams on my first try. She didn't want me to have to spend a gap year studying like she did at my age.

But I hated cram school. A few subjects, like physics and English, I didn't mind so much, but the assignments were much more difficult than regular school classes. I'd had to retire from club activities this year because I couldn't keep up with the workload. That was pretty typical for most high school seniors, but I really missed archery. I tried to tell myself that if Mom was going to work so hard on my behalf, the least I could do was study just as hard to make it up to her. I'd been pretty disciplined up until last week. But then Seryou had come along, and he was the only thing I wanted to think about.

"You're going, right? You better go, Yuzu-nii, or I'll kill you myself."

"Yeah, yeah, I'm going. Geez." I hung up the phone and scruffed the back of my neck. This sucked. I kicked a rock angrily in front of me, all the way to the school gates.

Seryou was waiting in the same spot he'd been this morning. He was wearing his long coat, but his cheeks and ears were already pink from the cold. He smiled when he saw me, but I must have looked pissy because concern spread over his face.

"Hey, something wrong?"

I kicked the rock so that it skittered over the curb and into the gutter. "I got in trouble with my mom for skipping cram school last week. If I skip again—"

"You have class tonight?"

I nodded, fuming. He stepped up to me, until the mist from his breath touched my face. "Then of course you should be going. That's way more important."

"No, it's not," I snapped, and was irritated when he laughed a little.

"The classes won't wait for you. I will."

I met his eyes in surprise, a warm feeling spreading through my limbs in spite of my rotten mood. "Seryou—"

"Which school do you go to?"

"Nichinoken." It was a 40 minute train ride from our high school, even farther than my apartment. But Seryou only nodded thoughtfully.

"What time does class get out?"

"Usually nine, but I have an extra lesson on Tuesdays so tonight I have to be there until ten." By the time I got home it would be too late to even call him.

"Okay. I'll meet you there at ten."

Was he freaking serious? "That's stupid, it'll be way too late for us to go out then."

"We don't have to go out. I'll just ride the train home with you."

The hell he would. "No way. You'd have to come all the way back to Yamate and it would be almost midnight before you made it home."

"I don't mind."

Was he for real? "No," I said again. "It'll be too dark and cold, and past curfew. And you'd have to walk home alone from the station."

His lips curved. "Are you worried about me?"

I flushed, but the thoughts came tumbling out of my mouth anyway. "You're too pretty," I spluttered. "With all that long hair someone might mistake you for a girl and come after you."

Okay, that was absurd and I knew it. Seryou was way too tall and broad-shouldered to be mistaken for a woman, even in the dark. I don't even know why I said it, other than I hated the thought of him being tired and alone in the cold because of me, and if anything did happen to him I wouldn't be able to stand it. This was the point at which most guys would have punched me or cussed me out. But Seryou's smile only grew brighter, until I swear I could see golden sparkles floating around his face like the hero in a girly manga. He tilted his head.

"Okay, how about I keep you company on the way there? I'll head home once I see you off."

This guy was an expert boyfriend, all right. He was actually going to spend an hour and a half of his afternoon - not to mention the train fare - to ride halfway across town and back for no reason? "Why would you want to do that?" I demanded sullenly.

He raised an eyebrow as if the answer was obvious. "So I can stay with you longer."

The words sent goosebumps rippling along my arms. He'd said the exact same thing a week ago, when I'd asked why he was following me home. Back then I hadn't known how far out of his way it was, and he'd done it almost every day. But since he'd been willing to ride home with me all last week, was there any harm in letting him do it again today? I coughed, trying not to appear too affected. "I guess. If that's what you want."

I started crossing the street and he fell into step beside me. It definitely wasn't how I wanted to spend the afternoon with him, but at least we'd have a little time together outside of school, which was better than nothing.

I don't remember what we talked about on the way to the station, only that it took him less than five minutes to get me smiling again. Being around him felt too good for me to stay grumpy. We shuffled onto the northbound train and moved toward the back of the car. Since we were in our school uniforms we had to stand—one of Houka's off-campus behavior rules was that students had to yield seats to other passengers. We grabbed the overhead bar and kept talking as the train headed out.

At the next stop, a bunch more people got on. I stepped back and Seryou moved closer to me to make room. "Man, I hate the train this time of day," I complained, pulling my foot in with barely enough time to avoid getting my toes skewered by some lady's high heels.

"Mm. I don't think it's so bad," Seryou murmured. His voice was unexpectedly close to my ear.

I turned toward him and realized our noses were almost touching. He held my eyes steadily with his deep black ones, and when the train accelerated I swayed backward a little and felt his hand at my waist, steadying me. I couldn't help staring back, mesmerized by his unreal beauty and the way his soft lips parted when my attention fell to them. It was suddenly kind of hard to breathe.

He didn't take his hand away, and we stood there for what felt like an eternity with our faces angled toward each other. I could feel his chest rising and falling more rapidly, and the energy that was building between us in the middle of the jostling crowd was making my skin prickle.

"I want to kiss you," I said quietly.

His cheeks pinked up and his eyes flicked around the train car. "I don't think we're allowed to do that here."

"I know." The train was pulling into the next station, and I let inertia rock me into him as we came to a stop. I leaned over his shoulder until my mouth was by his ear. "It's not fair."

He released a shaky breath against the side of my neck. I slid my hand along the overhead bar until I could fold it over his. His fingers quickly meshed between mine. Even more people were cramming into the car, so that he and I were crushed together by the press of strangers on all sides. I ducked my face against his shoulder, as much for the closeness as to hide the giddy grin I couldn't control. He pulled me in tighter and his nose was in my hair, inhaling slow and deep.

"Seryou?"

"Hm?"

"Thanks for coming with me."

He made a short chuckling sound. "I wouldn't have missed this for anything. Let's ride this train every day."

I laughed into his shoulder.

At the next stop enough people got off that we probably could have stepped away from each other, but we didn't. We stayed like that, holding hands and holding each other, for a few more stops until the car had emptied so much there wasn't an excuse anymore. Seryou's thumb stroked my index finger for the briefest of moments before we disentangled our hands and resumed a normal buffer of personal space.

Then it was all shy glances and secret smiles between us as the train moved on. I swear, nothing in the world had ever made me feel so fucking happy.

"Yuzuru-san, can I call you tonight after your class gets out?"

"Don't. I'm so far behind with my assignments as it is that I'll probably have to pull a couple of all-nighters to get caught up."

"Oh, gotcha. I won't bother you then."

"It's not a bother," I corrected quickly. "It's just that once I hear your voice, I don't think I'll be able to concentrate on books after that." It's going to be hard enough to focus already.

He pressed his lips together like he was trying not to smile. "Okay."

We finally reached my stop, and he got off the train with me. I was expecting him to cross to the other side of the station to catch the one going back, but he followed me up the escalator instead.

"Where's your cram school from here?" he asked when we reached the top.

I pointed toward the station exit. "Across the street." I slowed my steps as much as I dared as we made our way out of the station, dreading the moment we'd have to go our separate ways. Stupid cram school. Stupid exams. Stupid me. If only I was smarter, I wouldn't have to spend time in a stuffy classroom instead of being with him.

"Yuzuru-san, wait up a sec."

Seryou had paused outside the exit and was approaching a street food cart. The smell of roasted sweet potato hit me like an epiphany and my stomach started rumbling. I watched him converse with the cart vendor, hand over some cash, and then he was walking toward me with a couple of potatoes wrapped in newsprint. He held one out.

"I was going to buy you dinner tonight anyway. Will this do?"

I took it from him eagerly and broke it open. Hot steam rose from the creamy yellow insides, and I raised one of the pieces to my nose in appreciation. "This is great! All of a sudden I'm starving."

"Good." He reached out and took hold of my jacket, tugging me toward him. With my hands full, I couldn't do much more than blink in surprise. Then I felt a bit of warmth and weight against my hipbone, and looked down to see that he'd tucked the other potato into my pocket. He straightened my jacket collar with a small smile. "Study hard, Yuzuru-san. See you tomorrow."

He walked back into the station. At the entrance he twisted around and gave me a salute, before disappearing amid the other people. I sighed and looked down at the potato in my hands. It was going to be a long night, but I would do whatever it took. The sooner I got caught up, the sooner we could finally have that date.