He went to look at the board and discovered that the class had been cancelled today. He was completely free until third period. Yuichi was in class all afternoon, so they hadn’t planned to meet up.

“What am I going to do?”

For the first time in a long time he had time to himself. Kanae was thrilled. It wasn’t that spending every minute of the day with Yuichi was bad, but sometimes it was nice to be alone too.

“I could go and watch a movie. Or maybe go to the bookstore? I won’t eat at the cafeteria. It would be nice to go out and eat somewhere else.”

Kanae left the campus and headed for the station. The university station was a shopping district with a department store, movie theater, and so forth. He was going to go to Yuichi’s house later today, so he might as well kill some time around the station.

“I’ll go and get some tea.”

After buying some books at the bookshop he thought it would be nice to sit down with a drink at Coffee Time. They didn’t mind if you sat in there for a while, and the atmosphere was leisurely and nice.

“I can do some shopping too.”

Yuichi was running low on beer at his place, so Kanae would pick some up for him. And then some toilet paper. Kanae smiled to himself as he worked out all the things that Yuichi was in need of. He was just like a housewife.

Whoever thought of it first was the one who picked up the groceries. They would then split the costs when they got back. It was a fair system.

“Well, I’ll go to the bookstore first.”

He wanted to leave the heavy shopping until later. He wasn’t adept at carrying heavy stuff, so he would have to get a taxi going back. It wasn’t very expensive from here to Yuichi’s, anyway.

As he headed in the direction of the bookstore, Kanae suddenly stopped dead in his tracks.

…what?

What he saw rendered him unable to think straight, like his brain had suddenly shut down.

What?!

That can’t be right. That can’t be…

He had to take a closer look. He had to be seeing things.

But Kanae turned around instinctively. He went into a store to hide.

He didn’t want to see.

He didn’t want to see anymore.

But even so, he had to know.

When he peered out of the shop, there could be no mistaking it. Kanae was stunned.

There in front of him, Yuichi was walking with a girl.

After that he didn’t remember where he went. When he came to, he realized it was already six o’clock, and his mind reminded him about getting back.

I have to get back. Yuichi is going to be home.

I can tell him I went out and just ask about it.

But just thinking about it, he knew that he wouldn’t be able to do it. He had watched from a distance. But he didn’t remember anything after that.