In other words, I was trapped in curiosity
Breaking through anything precious
A whole cake without any radiance
I was dancing without a wooden puppet of you

Once again, in a closet
Huddling our small bodies inside
We'll sleep, we'll change
It's safer to think that way

"Don't abandon me, for I'm a foolish child"
Awaken your naïve eyes before my muddled identity
All the toys were put away last night
I still want to stay innocent as ever...

Affections are just too "high" to throw away
Skinning away that precious memory
But if you regret this "low-life"
Shall a summer with a hopeless wish come

Yellow, yellow, yellow, yellow (Ah oh)
Yellow, yellow, yellow, yellow (oh)
Yellow, yellow, yellow, yellow (oh)
Yellow, yellow, yellow, yellow (oh)

It seems like he was killed by curiosity
Testing it with sly means
Nothing will arise from such independence
I sang with a wholehearted smile

Once again, in the closet
Waiting alone is always like this
It'll change, it'll end
It's confirmed

Continue to seek that
Worth, worth, worth
As the second hand approaches
Roll it more 'till it's deep
Eventually, both Heaven and Earth will go upside down
Why? How come?
See, it all got blurred and transparent
"I still remember the scenery I saw through the window"
This "yellow" that is better off to disappear

Yellow, yellow, yellow, yellow (Ah oh)
Yellow, yellow, yellow, yellow (oh)
Yellow, yellow, yellow, yellow (oh)
Yellow, yellow, yellow, yellow (oh)

You've purposely mistaken that, that day will not arrive
Collapsed, divergence and disengagement
There's no salvation within your reach
Yet still, I recall your warmth...

Affections are just "high" to throw away
Skinning away that precious memory
But if you regret this "low-life"
Shall a summer with a hopeless wish come

(A/N): Song - Yellow by Yoh Kamiyama [English translation]

That feeling of despair... It was all so familiar to him.

Days had passed. It was lunch period right now, and Yumiko was off hanging with her friends. Although she invited Y/N to come along, he had surprisingly declined her and decided to head up to the roof. However, he found himself lost in his thoughts at this.

His thoughts of feeling despair.

As that song played, it brought him back to the memories of being overseas. This song was all about his inadequacies and deteriorating relationships. In this case, it was the deteriorating relationship with his father. Y/N laughed to himself, albeit bitterly. He ended up lying to her at that coffee shop on the day of their reunion, telling her that his relationship between he and his father was fine. When in reality, it was deteriorating. Just thinking about it made him so miserable.

His father always gave high hopes for him, pushing him to follow the set path laid out for him. But he never prioritized what his son wanted and what made him happy. Y/N's very own inadequacy was unable to tell his father about how he truly felt about the career he wanted to do for himself. He told him in the past, when he was very young, but that denial planted a seed of doubt within him. Every time he tried to bring up that subject, it was almost as if a wave of fear had washed over him, preventing him from being able to speak at all. He would choke on his words, air being caught in his throat as he was unable to say anything. His father would look at him, giving him a gaze that beckoned his son to hurry up and spit out whatever he had to say because of how busy his time was. But all Y/N would reply with was a fake smile and just ask how his father's day was. Or anything along the lines of that.

As those days went by, feeling like he was tumbling into never ending darkness, he felt the distance between his father and him grow larger by the merit. From ten minute conversations at dinners, it turned into a few words spoken between them. From good mornings to good nights, it went to nothing. No greetings, no goodbyes, none of that.

It was up until the last few weeks in the business prep school, he began to feel anxiety build up in him. The fear of going out into the world and trying to be who he should be. But that begged the question within him.

Who was he? Why was he here at all?

Locked in an endless cycle of indecisiveness between the fact of him being the son of a well-off man, a path laid out for him to be a CEO in the future, or the fact that he could be a person who followed his heart and went out to be what he wanted to be, a musician. These thoughts of indecisiveness, the feeling of loss within his own head, it made him feel like he was going crazy. This madness devolved into a crazed feeling that just made him want to puke up everything and forget who he was. Everything just felt like being ripped out from inside of him, collapsing onto himself until he was just a hollow shell of he once was.

But why hasn't that occurred yet? Because of a simple memory.

The memories of the time he spent with the blonde-haired girl. Again, he considered her his only purpose for living at the moment, her smile emitting the warmth of the sun's rays as she encouraged that dream of his. Music was a passion that both shared and connected them. During the summer overseas, he would constantly remember that day she and him would spend at the park. His mother had gifted him a guitar big enough for him to hold when he was six. And when he would meet Yumiko in the park, he would strum the strings into a light little song while she would sing in her most beautiful, angelic voice.

So mesmerizing to him. The way she shined in the bright light, her blonde hair being illuminated like it was gold, and those cascading olive green eyes looked down onto him. How he longed to relive those memories again.

He would curl up into his bed every night, just thinking about that memory. He was so tired. Such feelings just made him want to end it.

The pain just felt so unbearable at times that he just wanted to die.

---

The lunch period still continued. Y/N was roaming the halls, looking for Yumiko. As soon as class ended, the blonde girl had messaged him to meet up with him. Probably to introduce the friends she's made at this school. He wasn't necessarily overly excited to meet them, but he was curious as to who they were.

Just as he was about to turn the corner to head down to 2-F, two boys rushed past him. One of them bumps shoulders into him, quickly turning his head around and offering a slight apologetic look, albeit very rushed.

"Sorry, man!" He calls out.

"No, it's fine—" Y/N was then interrupted by the boy's friend.

"Hurry up, dude!" He shouts, an excited grin on his face. "Something big's happening on the tennis court!"

The first boy returns the same look. "I know! A match between the two beauties of the school, Miura and Yukinoshita!"

And that caught Y/N's ears, intriguing him. In fact, thinking back to his initial reunion upon returning to Japan, he recalled that Yumiko had bettered herself, thanks to someone with an annoying attitude to which he responded with, "Must be a real ice queen." Now thinking about it, the only one who fit that description was Yukino herself. And now he wasn't surprised that both Yukino and Yumiko were at odds with each other. With how purely blunt Yukino's responses are and Yumiko's tendencies to force her ideals onto others, they would eventually clash.

But a tennis match. Now that he remembered, Yumiko was quite athletic. Her build and body type clearly showed that she was quite slim and active. If the blonde girl were to hear his analyzing thoughts right now, she'd surely call him a creep and scum, causing him to blush a little and shake his head. But a tennis match between the Ice Cold Queen and the Pompous Royal, two nicknames he would think of for them, did catch his attention.

He decided to check out the tennis match.

---

About a ten minute walk to get there, he eventually finds himself standing outside the fence that surrounded the tennis courts. Of course, because of how big this is supposed to be, quite a crowd of people were here. Supporters for both Yukino and Yumiko.

Huge roars and cheers for the both of them, but also loud squeals from females that have gathered here as well. Probably because they were mainly focused on the blonde boy on Yumiko's team. Y/N could admit, the boy was a handsome one. He looked to be the perfect man in most girls' eyes. Medium-length hair, pale blue eyes, medium length with an average build. Not only that, he had a pretty charming face. A perfect boy, apparently.

Y/N then looked to the boy that was on Yukino's team. This must be the famed boy that had the dead fish eyes as Yukino has told him many times that irked her. Medium-short black hair with black eyes, an ahoge on top of his head, and was of medium height and average built. He wasn't bad, if it weren't for his dead eyes and gloomy expression. He noted he would be better looking if it weren't for that aspect.

Shaking his head, he focuses on the match at hand. Already, he was easily mesmerized by Yumiko's form. The way she hit the tennis ball back with her racket was nearly graceful, Yukino mirroring that same form as well. Nearly by the book, as people would say. But, Y/N knew Yukino pretty well. He was well aware of how the black-haired beauty doesn't take losing lightly. Well, she'd rather not lose anyway.

Nearly tripping over, Yumiko messes up on her hit back, the tennis ball clumsily heading across the court onto the other side. Yukino took this as her chance, speeding up a little before reeling her arm back and hitting the ball with all her might. It rushes past the blonde girl, who attempted to dive down and hit it to save it. Unfortunately for her, that wasn't the case. This back and forth exchange continued for five more minutes. Yumiko would serve the ball and launch it forward, only for it to be launched back to her. If Yukino served, she would end it right then and there, prompting for more anger to rise up within the blonde girl.

But again, Y/N knew Yukino well. She couldn't keep playing on like this forever. It was known to him that her stamina wasn't that good as others. It seemed that after she performed her jumping serve, it had depleted her stamina greatly. Yumiko seemed to have caught wind of this and took advantage of the fact that Yukino's guard was down, racketing the ball over to score a point. With her score, it became a deuce.

"I heard that," Yumiko said rather smugly. "You were doing pretty well for yourself, but it looks like you're out of gas?"

"Well, both teams played hard," the blonde teen on Yumiko's team said. "Let's call it a draw."

Yumiko looked displeased. "Hayato, what're you saying? It's a match. We gotta settle it, or it'll leave a bad taste in my mouth."

The brown-haired teen sighed and facepalmed. Her habit was coming out again. Much like Yukino, Y/N knew Yumiko hated losing. She wouldn't be satisfied unless she won.

Yukino pointed her racket over to the boy on her side. "This man will settle it. Be prepared to accept your loss." The boy looked at her bewildered. "I may spew insults and gaffes, but never once have I spewed a lie."

The blonde beauty narrowed her eyes at the black-haired beauty and readied herself. The boy on Yukino's team, Hachiman Hikigaya, simply sighed as the tennis ball rolled over to his feet. Looking up to the air, staring up at the sky, it looked as if he was contemplating.

Grabbing the tennis ball and heading to the furthest line of the court, he bounced the ball a little as he prepared to serve. Lunch was almost over. If he hadn't heard about this, Y/N would probably still be looking for Yumiko, or even worse, still deeply engrossed in his dark thoughts that would always plague him whenever he was alone.

Tossing the ball up lightly, he taps it with his racket, which soared through the air due to the wind. Yumiko cheered to herself, thinking the win was hers. But Hachiman knew better, all because of being in his favorite spot for lunch. Their school was near the ocean. Bouncing once on the opposite side of the court, Hayato had gone for it, but a second breeze soon blew in, causing the tennis ball to head over to the right, going behind the furthest line.

"Match point!"

Up until now, Yumiko had been winning. But ever since Yukino had stepped onto the court, they pulled ahead. And with that point scored by Hachiman, they reached the match point. Just one more and they would win, causing Yumiko to lose, something she'd be dissatisfied with. She hates losing.

Y/N then hears a chubby boi with grey hair and glasses, standing next to a particular orange-haired girl, spouting out some nonsense. Some chunibiyo type things, apparently. He was spouting out the fact that Hachiman had ultimately possessed a technique that involves bending the wind to his will, but that was far from it. Hachiman Hikigaya considered himself a master of solidarity, having spent lunch at his favorite spot that he's identified as to when the second breeze will blow in and uses it to his advantage.

Once Hayato handed the tennis ball over to Hachiman, which the two shared a brief conversation or something like that, the boy with dead eyes like a fish heads back to the furthest line of the court. Serving it into the air and gripping his racket with two hands, he hits it with all his might.

"Screw you, youth!" The boy shouts. Y/N couldn't help but stifle a laugh.

The grey-haired chunibiyo gasped. "That's...! The God of Destruction that Streaks Through the Sky: Meteor Strike!"

"Meteor Strike?" The crowd mumbled. And Y/N facepalms.

He could tell that it wasn't anything special. In tennis terms, that hit was just known as a pop fly. The ball does quite the high arc, eventually falling down to where it would be positioned behind Yumiko. It bounces once behind her, the blonde girl rushing back to hit it back over so she could score a point. But she would fail to notice the fence she would hit.

Knowing that she could hurt herself, but also be embarrassed, Y/N goes for the entrance of the fence. Yumiko embarrassing herself would be bad enough, but seeing her harmed in any way possible was something he didn't wish to see. If anything, he'd rather see her smile all the time, whether the day was gloomy or shiny. To him, that smile of hers was worth protecting.

Just as he was about to enter, he heard a huge crash. He thought he was too late. But his eyes soon widened and he let out a surprised gasp, kept to himself as he gazed at her. She had indeed crashed, yes, but rather, into the arms of another person. Hayato had dropped his racket and ran toward her, catching up to her in time and using his body as a cushion to soften her landing as soon as they hit the fence. While the game had been called and cheers erupted, it wasn't for the winning team. The cheers were for Hayato, successfully saving Yumiko and acting like a proper gentleman. Many of the boys started to chant his name. They didn't care about the victory of Yukino Yukinoshita and Hachiman Hikigaya. Rather, they focused on the savior for the blonde beauty.

But Y/N saw those eyes. Olive green eyes looking up at her savior with admiration, happiness, and content. A slight blush on her face as he gazed at Hayato's handsome face.

A sight that he always feared seemed to be coming true. The sight of the girl he loved... Falling in love with another man.

Time seemed to slow down for him. Y/N's eyes dull and darkened. Suddenly, he felt it. That same darkness he's felt. It was consuming him. He couldn't bear to look at his sight any longer.

With nothing said, he left. He wanted to be alone. It was like a rift was being formed between them. It was just threatening to get bigger.

[Chapter Six] | Forming Rift