The tears threatened to come but he swallowed them back.

He wasn’t going to cry for Yuichi.

“I’m back!”

Having zoned out for thirty minutes Kanae had finally decided to go back.

If he didn’t see Yuichi then he wouldn’t know. He wouldn’t be able to sort his feelings out.

So he went back. Back to Yuichi’s place.

“You’re late! I thought you only had until third period today!”

Yuichi looked at him. He really was good looking. That was probably what had attracted Kanae to him in the first place.

He knew that it wasn’t just Yuichi’s face that he liked. But then, a face was an expression of the person. Kanae, who was always called beautiful and feminine, and Yuichi with his masculine, rough face. The first time that Yuichi had laughed, Kanae had fallen for him. He was alluring.

Personality-wise, he wasn’t a bastard. It was only his straightforwardness that made him enemies. He had never purposefully done anything mean to Kanae. Because of their completely different personalities, their conversation was guaranteed to be lively. Kanae always nodded and listened.

It may have been Yuichi’s face that Kanae had found attractive at first, but he liked all of Yuichi now.

No matter what bad things others said, he still loved Yuichi.

“Yeah, I’m sorry. I was just shopping. You ran out of beer.” Kanae offered the beer. Yuichi immediately recovered his good spirits.

“I was just thinking about going out and getting some! You’re so thoughtful, even though you don’t really drink.”

“I just remembered you moaning about beer yesterday!”

Kanae was surprised that he was able to keep up such a normal conversation. Even though he wanted to talk about something totally different. How were your classes today? You didn’t ditch, did you?

But he didn’t. He didn’t want to hear.

Knowing Yuichi, he would just come out with it. That he had been with a girl.

And then, Kanae would cry.

He didn’t want to cry. He had decided he wasn’t going to cry.

So he wasn’t going to ask.

“Still good for dinner?”

“Yep.”

Recently they had been eating in more than out. They could take their time, and if they wanted to, they could have sex straight away. That was Yuichi’s way of looking at it, anyway.

Maybe he would want to have sex today as well.

“What’s the matter with you? You keep zoning out. You feeling okay?”

“Huh? Yeah, fine.”

Maybe they were back to being friends. Maybe he didn’t have to worry so much.

Kanae tried to tell himself that.

Yuichi himself had told Kanae that he didn’t have any other friends. Moreover, if he did have plans to meet with a friend today then he would have said something. They had met at lunchtime so he could have told him then.

He wanted to know.

He wanted to know everything…

But that was the road to their break up.

“Yuichi…” Yuichi had started preparing dinner. Kanae hugged him from behind. Yuichi laughed and turned around.