He had gone home after taking a shower in the middle of the night. He wasn’t sure if he could face Yuichi the morning after. Maybe he was afraid. In any case, Yuichi would turn up at school in the afternoon, so Kanae had until then to think of an excuse.

He yawned and covered his mouth. Through his sleep-encrusted eyes he saw a familiar figure standing ahead.

He must have been mistaken. Perhaps he’d seen so much of Yuichi last night he was starting to hallucinate about him. There was no way that he could be up at this time.

He rubbed his eyes and looked again. There was Yuichi, arms crossed, standing at the main gate. He didn’t look happy. Kanae wanted to turn right back around, but Yuichi had already seen him. There were no time for excuses, and before he knew it, he was whisked away to the nearest campus restroom.

The campus was newly renovated and this restroom was new. The stalls were spacious and lots of students chose to use these over the others. Yuichi pulled Kanae into a stall and glared at him.

“Why did you go home last night?”

“…I woke up in the middle of the night, so…”

“Did you forget what I told you before we went to sleep?” Yuichi’s face was so close that Kanae took a step back. The back of his knees met the toilet seat, he almost fell over backwards.

What did he say yesterday…?

So much had been said that he couldn’t recall all of it. But he hadn’t forgotten that Yuichi had called him his lover.

“U..umm…” Kanae scratched his head. Yuichi looked pissed; he stared daggers at Kanae. Kanae couldn’t think properly under that gaze.

“I wanted to have another go when we woke up. Geez. I get up and I have a full-on morning wood and no lover to help me calm it down! Why weren’t you there?! You’re my lover! It’s your responsibility.” Now that Yuichi had mentioned it, Kanae did remember something like that. He hadn’t actually thought Yuichi was serious though.

“I’m…sorry…” Kanae’s voice was so faint. “I had to get ready for school, so I thought I should head home. Sorry. Are you mad?”

“I’m not mad. Just frustrated. The morning after the first time with a new lover, I usually like to wake up to a sweet hello.”

“Oh… I see…” Kanae had no experience and had only just lost his virginity. He had absolutely no clue what passed for ‘normal’ in a relationship.

“I really don’t know what kind of people you’ve dated before. Did you always just run off on them like that?”

“…no …” Kanae was doing his best, but his reply seemed to enrage Yuichi further.

“…so I was the only one you’ve run off on?”

“No! That’s not it! I…just…umm…” Unable to come up with an excuse, he apologized instead. “…sorry.” He added, quite flustered, “Next time I’ll stay until morning. I won’t leave you like that again.”