A/N: *cough* friday the thirteenth *cough*

Excuse the author's semi-laziness. The events in this chapter is the same as the 13th chapter of another story of mine~ But the point of views are different. XD *whispers* please reeeaaad~ *vanishes into thin air*

Sorry for the summary. I was in my writer mode. XD

_________________

Ki-chan, though being given a total makeover, looked worse than before. Well, she said she caught a cold yesterday, but I don't think that's it. Once again, she seemed extremely stressed and I couldn't help but worry.

I stretched my body comfortably on her apartment's couch, watching her edit her group's PowerPoint presentation. She leaned on the lower part of the couch as she busily typed and made modifications on each slide through her laptop safely placed on top of the small living room's short center table.

I didn’t want to ruin her focus on the presentation so I shut my mouth and decided to talk about it later. I stood up from my comfortable position and went to her manga stash containing varied genres. She might not be as big as an anime fan as me, but she’s also part of this big fandom. It was one of the things that brought us together back in middle school. Out of all the genres ranging from shoujo to sci-fi, I picked shounen ai. What’s a sad thing is that she’s not as fond of yaoi as I am.

My phone’s message alert tone interrupted the clacking sounds of Ki-chan’s keyboard. She didn’t seem to be bothered with it and only said, “You have a message…” with her eyes completely glued to the computer screen. I took the shounen ai manga then went back to the couch. The manga in my hand’s utmost care, I took the phone and opened the inbox. I just received an email from Ryumi-senpai, and missed one message from my older brother while I was in the train on my way here, Kyoto, for my weekly overnight visit at Ki-chan’s place. I always stay here from Friday afternoons (after school) to Saturday mornings. I checked the messages one by one.

From: [email protected]
Subject: Brothers
Content: Yuki-chaaan! Did something happen with my idiot of a brother? (/ ‘ o’)/ He suddenly barged in here with a depressed look on his face. Your big bro even tagged along! <(=_=)>  …or maybe your brother asked him to bring him here… Eh. I’ll update you…

From: [email protected]
Subject: Ace
Content: Do you know what happened with Ryouta? He’s out of it lately. (=A=) Ah, Riku’s asking for some sweets from Kyoto too! We can’t let our precious lil’ brotha be deprived of such things, yes? (^_^)? Spare me some too~! (*u*)/

I let out a sigh as I closed my phone then threw it to my right. It bounced once before settling on the couch’s cushion. Why are they asking me? My presence couldn’t be that important to Ryouta-kun for them to ask me about it, right? We’re not that close, right?

What happened yesterday flashed back to my mind. The pained expression on his face when I carelessly said such mean and thoughtless words on a whim kept bothering me since yesterday. It wasn’t the annoying type of being bothersome, but it was more like I kept getting this guilty sensation in my chest. I didn’t want to hurt Ryouta-kun, but I also didn’t want to be shunned by people just because of being friends with him. I was torn into two. I honestly wanted to be friends with him, but at the same time, I didn’t.

It’s weird.

Due to both frustration and confusion, I shut my eyes tightly and buried my face in my hands then groaned loudly . . . synchronizing with a familiar voice. I put down my hands out of surprise and immediately looked down on the other voice’s owner. Wide-eyed, I met her surprise-filled emerald eyes. We stayed like that for almost five seconds, and we suddenly burst out laughing.

“What was that just now?” I asked in between giggles.

“I should be asking you the same thing!” she replied.

“Weren’t you focused on your report?”

“Weren’t you engrossed in your shounen ai fantasy?”

When our guffaw died down, we looked at each other with the same meaningful gazes. I shot her a look which asked what was really up with that groan, and she did the same. She raised her eyebrow and smiled lopsidedly, eyeing me to go first. I wiggled my eyebrows and smirked, nodding a little to let her go ahead. Again, our faces stayed in those what seemed to be stupid-looking expressions, before she threw a piece of crumpled paper to my face and laughed. I joined in with the laughter.

We laughed again for a little while, before she waved her hands in defeat to put a halt to our weird act. “Let’s—Let’s just settle this once and for all!” she announced as she forced herself to stop laughing.

“Agreed!”

“Loser gets to share first?” she suggested. I nodded, grinning.

We stared at each other with determined look on our faces, not wanting to lose to each other. The upcoming battle has so much in stake that I couldn’t afford to lose to her now; my indecisive self still needed time to think if I should tell her the truth or mouth out a minor problem. I didn’t want to make her worry about me when she was obviously still adjusting into school after being cooped up in her apartment for a long period of time. Maybe it had been two weeks since she went back to school already, but, knowing her nature, it’s not that easy.

I took a deep breath as we locked gazes to say that we should start. I quickly decided my moves before I quickly raised my fist in the air and so did she.

“Jan-ken-pon!”

Her hand was still in a tight fist while my fingers were spread out.

Her eyebrows crumpled and I squealed with glee.

“Well, go on ahead, A-ki-ya-ma Sa-ki~!” I sang mockingly. She sighed, shaking her head in displeasure, before she set her laptop to hibernate mode.

“Do you want some snacks while we talk?” she asked with a voice of defeat as she set her laptop aside.

“Hm? Did you make anything?” I asked curiously, trying not to sound so eager. I liked her baked treats a lot.

“Just some refrigerated cake. Graham and mango. Was craving for something sweet earlier.”

“Sounds good!” I grinned enthusiastically. “Cold choco too, please~!” I requested with puppy-dog eyes. She laughed before standing up and going to the kitchen to prepare. I watched her move swiftly in the small kitchen, miraculously not in the mood for some BL story at the moment. The manga in my hands was about a seke pair, and sekes strangely remind me of Ryouta-kun. I got up from the couch to help, but she eyed me to not to. I sighed and shrugged, plopping myself back to my seat. She returned with two small plates, two forks, a bread knife, and a large container with the graham cake in it. She went back to the kitchen and served the drink I desired and a cup of chocolate coffee for herself. She sat beside me comfortably, both of her feet on the couch like my current position.

I took a serving then placed it on my plate. I took a bite, the taste of grahams, mangoes, cream, and condensed milk spreading in my mouth. The sweetness was just right, and I was sure it was enough to make someone who disliked sweets to eat it too. I gave her a thumbs-up. She smiled in response.

“So what’s your dilemma, Ki-chan?” I asked, trying to sound as casual as ever, but still concerned. I was never good at serious talks such as what this would turn out to be, and their atmosphere almost suffocates me. “Please tell me what it really is now! Unlike what you did from that time…,” I added, pertaining to the time when she always evaded the reason why she quit school. I pouted then wiggled my eyebrows.

She took her chocolate coffee then sipped from it, her expression changing to something unreadable. There was a slight crease in her eyebrows. “Okay…” She took a deep breath then started. I hoped she would be completely honest with me this time, and I wasn’t disappointed. She told me what was bothering her lately. She told me about the bullies who started harassing her again this week, and I felt bad for being unable to do anything to help her. Even I wouldn’t know what to do if I were in her shoes. She told me that it was okay, that she found some ways to avoid them, but I wasn’t convinced. I didn’t voice it out, though. Well, maybe she could feel better by sharing her woes to someone, right…? We stayed silent for a while after she spilled her problem.

She sighed after a while. “You know, that’s not the only thing I worried about, actually… I was debating whether to tell you or not but… here it goes…” She then told me about a certain guy who made her uneasy every single time he’s nearby. At first I thought he was a stalker and thought of giving her tips on how to handle dangerous guys. The first thing that came to mind? Destroy his manhood! Kick him in the groin! Shatter his balls! Creepy guys with ill intentions don’t deserve to live! (Nor do they deserve another guy to share a wonderful forbidden love with!) It turned out that my suspicion was wrong, though. She told me her heart kept thumping quickly, and sometimes he’s stuck in her mind. Though I wasn’t really fond of it now, I told her she found her Kazehaya, and she is Kuronuma (The characters I mentioned is the main pairing of a famous shoujo manga, Kimi ni Todoke.). She shot me a look of disbelief but her face was in an adorable shade of red that I wanted to tackle her because of it. I explained that the love in yaoi and shoujo is not that different.

She took a deep breath, covering her troubled face. She probably found it hard to believe, and she looked so cute! I had the urge to mention that she reminded me of some of those straight guys in yaoi manga finding it difficult to realize that they like another guy and that they’re actually gay or bisexual, but that’ll ruin the mood.

She looked at me, running her fingers through her hair. A small smile played on her lips. “Well, it’s now the winner’s turn to share.”

“Eh? …Ah…” I hesitated. I didn’t want to be another worry. I considered telling her that I just forgot to buy the latest issue of the publisher of one of the BL manga I like, but it didn’t seem fair to her. Besides, she could read me easily! I took a deep breath then decided. I was going to tell her.

“Remember I told you when things were going great with my high school life in Kaijou?” I asked sheepishly.

She pursed her lips, looked up, then nodded. “What about it?”

“Well, I guess it’s a half-lie,” I said silently. “It’s connected to that swimming team incident in our senior year in Meiko…”

I sensed her look of worry. She understood what I meant. “Go on…”

“I guess it left some sort of trauma…” I summarized, then realized it sounded dramatically gloomy so I quickly added, “…or something like that. It’s nothing really serious!” I grinned then held up two fingers to form a peace sign, in an attempt to lighten the mood. She gave me a whatever-you-say look before motioning me to continue. I complied. “All this time, I was careful not to do anything notable that people would react negatively too. I did my best to act friendly, but still kept my distance in a way. I know some people don’t like those who act too clingy—“

“You were clingy to me,” she cut me off, amusement hiding in her manner of speaking.

I puffed my cheeks then pouted. “I was friendly! You needed someone to be clingy to you because you were so shy and anti-social~!” I retorted to my defense. I was actually thankful she said that. I was feeling really uneasy with our serious atmosphere.

“It’s introversion,” she explained, raising an eyebrow. “There’s a difference.”

“We wouldn’t be like this right now if I wasn’t clingy, though!”

“Hm… Point. But you admitted you’re clingy.”

“I—ugh.” I sighed, admitting defeat. She chuckled.

“Continue,” she said.

“Where was I again?” I honestly forgot. Something about being clingy…?

“Keeping your distance because some people don’t like clinginess.”

Oh, that. “With that, I think I landed the ‘acquaintance’ value to everyone. Like, I don’t have my own circle of friends but I think I could get along with most of my classmates just well, you know? I guess having a famous-ish alumnus brother kind of helped…”

“Keiichi-san…? Ah, Kaijou’s ace before we entered high school…,” she thought out loud.

“Yeah. Anyway, I joined the Anime Club because I still wanted to have fun in high school. People say it’ll be the most memorable period of our lives, right? So I wanted to prove that to myself. I made friends with them and… stuff. Kind of? I’m not really sure. Well, the club’s president is Kise Ryumi…” I looked at her questioningly, confirming if the surname rung a bell.

“…The Yellow Copycat?” she answered in response, seemingly unsure.

I nodded. “Yeah, his older sister.” I smiled. Ryumi-senpai is like my idol and role model. “Well, I kind of… I don’t know… Got acquainted to Kise Ryouta? We had mutual friends like Kuro-tan and his sister, my brother in a later point of time.”

“I think I’m getting it… He’s a model, right?” she confirmed. “Then he must be popular…”

“He is! That’s where the problem starts. I get to do some favors connected to him because Ryumi-senpai knows I know him personally, and because I kind of understood the main concept behind my big brother’s skill since I came to his practices to kill time back then, so I substituted on the days he couldn’t train Ryouta-kun for the Winter Cup.”

“Ah… Winter Cup… It’s been a talk in Rakuzan lately…,” she muttered. Ki-chan’s currently going to the high-class Rakuzan High!

“I’m kind of excited for the Winter Cup too~ Kuro-tan’s participating, and so is Ryouta-kun, and so are a lot of other guys…” I sighed dreamily. Ah, guys. Guys and their test of bonds. Guys and man-to-man positions. Guys and forbidden—

“If you’re having your yaoi fantasies right now, finish explaining first,” she chided.

I giggled embarrassedly. Ehe~! She saw right through me.

“Where was I?”

“Kise’s Winter Cup training.”

“Ah… So… because of that, we spent some time together and walked to the station. Some people saw that, and…” I looked at her as she finished her cup of coffee. I finished my chocolate drink when she was sharing her woes earlier.

“And didn’t like it? Confronted you about it?” she continued for me.

“Mh-hm. I was scared people would start to be suspicious of me, like I’m his stalker or something, and what happened with the swim team would repeat just because of false assumptions. So when he said he considered me as his friend, I…” I winced at the memory. It was really, really, really rude of me to do that. “…I ran away from him and avoided him for almost a week. He was persistent in trying to talk to me, but I avoided him. And yesterday, he was trying to help me with something but I really wanted to be away from him because people were watching so I…” I took a deep breath, “I said some things and I think I hurt him…” I focused on the rectangular slice of the cake on my plate. I didn’t feel like eating now.

She was silent for a while, probably contemplating on what to say, before she released a deep breath. “In short, you’re pushing him away because you’re afraid of what other people would think?” she asked, but she didn’t seem to be cold at all. I nodded meekly. That was kind of a blunt way to put it, but she was right. “I have to admit that it’s unfair to his side and you’re kind of in the wrong but I couldn’t blame you for that.”

I sighed helplessly. “What should I do?” I placed my head on her shoulder after I placed my food on the coffee table.

“Hmmm… Do you dislike him?”

“No. He’s really friendly and… He’s a good person.”

“So you’d actually like to be friends with him?”

“I actually do, but it’s a pro—“

“Well, there you have it,” she announced in conclusion. “Apologize and be friends with him. You want a fun high school life, right? I’m sure you need friends for that. He’s right there, waiting for you.” It was tempting, but there are other people to think about.

“But, Ki-chan, other people might—“

“Honestly, Yuki-chan, who cares what other people think?” She pulled away, so I sat up straight, and she looked at me. There was a reassuring gentleness in her expression. “It’s your life. Think about it. Five years from now, who would you remember? Those people whose opinion matters so much to you now just because of what they see on the surface or a friend who genuinely knows you and sticks with you even if you pushed him away?”

I stared at her, realization dawning on me. Didn’t I want to leave high school with no regrets? And in middle school, when those rumors spread, Ki-chan was there. She’s a friend who really knew me and stayed by my side when things got tough. It stayed that way until now. Was she trying to tell me that Ryouta-kun could be high school’s version of her?

“Or, in other words, hashtag YOLO.”

“Pffft—“ I flicked her forehead for ruining the moment, stifling a laugh. “You’re learning, Ki-chan!”

She shot me a deadpan look, similar to Kuro-tan’s whenever he’s 100% done with me. “What the heck do you expect from someone who was almost 24/7 in the internet?”

“Huh… Point.” I grinned. “Anyway, those were words of wisdom from Ki-chan! Thank you very much, oh great and mighty Saki!” I clapped cheerfully. “Wait, it rhymed!” I laughed. She rolled her eyes as she settled back to her former position on the tatami floor and in front of her laptop.

“The great and mighty Saki needs to finish her presentation now, or else Akashi-kun’s going to—“ I smirked at her and wiggled my eyebrows teasingly. Her cheeks turned into the color of strawberries and looked away. “Stop that,” she scolded, her lips somehow pouting. Kyaaah!!! Cute, cute, cute! Tsundere moe! I giggled in satisfaction. “A-Anyway... Could you just make tonight’s dinner? I need to finish this. Tomorrow’s the deadline but I might still need to revi—”

“I’d really like to be in charge of tonight’s dinner, but I might set your kitchen on fire,” I reminded her of my poor cooking skills. I help out with the slicing and preparing at home, but when it comes to actually cooking the meal, I suck. There was always something that’ll go wrong.

“…Then just slice the cabbage and the onions and marinade the pork… Everything’s in the fridge,” she instructed after a sudden facepalm. She opened her laptop and continued her work after our long break of talking. 

Standing up, I saluted. “Aye, sir! I mean, ma’am! Aye, ma’am!” With that, I went to the kitchen, my chest feeling a little lighter.