“You, what?” Juri shrieked in the classroom.

The boys were in their classroom, with Ryosuke sitting on her seat again and Juri and Shintaro sitting beside him.

“I told you, nothing happened,” repeated Ryosuke. “We didn’t do it. Nothing. Nadda. Zit. None.” He emphasized with much of his nonexistent vocabularies to make things clear to an ecstatic Juri.

Juri shook Ryosuke by the shoulders. “How could you not have done anything with that busty girl? It’s a lie, I say! A sin!” He gasped. “Are you the Ryosuke I know?”

Ryosuke managed to laugh at Juri’s joke. “Of course, I am. I’m…Rolling Ryosuke.”

Rolling Ryosuke was the nickname, or better yet, his womanizer nickname regarding the “fact” that he was always “rolling” with women. That name had ceased to exist sometime around freshmen year when he had stopped flocking with girls.

Ryosuke turned bashful. “Gosh, hearing it now makes me—”

“Want to puke,” interjected Juri, and Ryosuke and Shintaro looked at him. Juri shrugged. “What? It’s a stupid nickname, don’t you think? It should’ve been more legendary, ya know.”

“Legendary?”

“I mean, once we’re out of high school, don’t you want your underclassmen to spread your wonderful legend of how you—”

“Those days are done and over with, Juri. I’m a high school student now. I’m supposed to be serious and not fool around.”

Juri and Shintaro were shocked. Ryosuke was usually always for the fun of the moment, so to hear him confessed that he had thought that far in life already, it wasn’t the Ryosuke they knew.

“Then,” continued Juri, “what did you guys do?”

“She took me out,” answered Ryosuke, “and that’s all. We watched a movie, had dinner, and went to the arcades. Then…separated.”

“Separated?”

“She has a boyfriend, and they got into a fight, so she wanted to make him jealous by lying that she’d sleep with me. But they made up when he came to get her.”

“Aww, that .”

Shintaro sighed. “So, you came to my place instead of doing what you usually do because of that?”

“Huh?” Juri turned to Shintaro. “He was at your place?”

“Yep,” answered Ryosuke to both questions.

“You didn’t go back to Mirai and Natsu?”

Ryosuke shook his head.

“Is that why she’s angry?” he quietly muttered.

“Why would she be angry about that? She doesn’t need to wait up for me.” We’re not really married. We’re just…a virtual family.

“Then, why is she?”

“I don’t know either.”

“I know this can’t be, but maybe, just maybe she got mad because you were in her seat?” He pointed to Ryosuke. “Look, you’re in her seat again!”

Ryosuke tried to find an answer to his habit. “Th-the sun hits this spot, so it’s warm here, you know. It-it’s not like I want to sit here and wait for her.”

“We said nothing about waiting for her.”

Shintaro tapped on the desk. “How long do you think you two will be like this?”

“Maybe not long,” Juri answered for Ryosuke. “They’ll make up eventually anyway. It always ends up like that.”

Ryosuke slouched onto the seat and quietly mumbled, “I don’t know. This time…I think it’s a real fight.”

*

“Why do you look embarrassed?” Haruka asked, laughing.

Mirai looked down. “Because…I’m angry at myself, not at him.”

“But didn’t you just say you can’t forgive him?”

“I can’t forgive him because there’s nothing to forgive. The one I’m mad and angry at is me. I’m just…” She bit her lower lip. “…venting it out on him, that’s all.”

“Really?” Haruka asked with an ‘I don’t believe you’ expression.

“Really,” emphasized Mirai. She saw that her friend didn’t believe her, so she gave up on hiding. “Yesterday…I found myself…” Her cheeks flushed with a scarlet color, and she melted with sweat.

“Mi-chan?” Haruka cautiously asked.

“I-I found myself…wanting him.”

Haruka blinked, frozen, as she observed her friend’s honest expression with a hint of discomfort about the confession, and broke the silence, “YOU, WHAT?”

*

“Ryosuke.” It was Mirai.

He turned around after coming out of the bathroom to wash his hands after lunch, which was a rare thing because she usually washed his hands for him or gave him hand sanitizer, but it didn’t happen since they ate lunch separately.

“C-can we talk?” she asked.

He formed a smile, happy that she was willing to talk to him again. “Yeah.”

They walked to a secluded place outside of the classrooms and stood opposite each other. He stayed silent and let her speak first. From how she looked to him, he had a feeling she took this “fight” much harder than he did.

“Sorry,” she said.

“Why are you apologizing? You did nothing wrong.”

She brushed her hair back and didn’t bother to look at him, too ashamed to do so. “No one did anything wrong. Not even you.”

“You’re not mad at me?”

She shook her head. “I wasn’t mad at anyone.”

Relief overfilled him. He had been worried and had thought of countless reasons why she’d hate him and had been scared that it’d be true. Thankfully, it turned out that it wasn’t the case. Seconds later, he pretended to be angry at her. Crossing his hands over his chest, turning away, and closing his eyes, he said, “Then, why did you yell at me this morning? Why were you being so mean to me? Did you not know how much that hurt me?”

He thought she’d retaliate back.

“Sorry.” It was a quieter apology.

He opened his eyes, glanced at her, and uncrossed his arms. “Mirai?” He looked at her carefully and realized that this entire time, she hadn’t properly locked eyes with him. “What’s wrong? You can tell me.”

Haruka said that it’s nothing I should worry about…but I think it’s something I should. I’ve never felt that way before… She sighed to herself, forgetting that he was still there with her. Maybe it is like what she said, I’m just getting used to the live-in life with him. She recalled her conversation with Haruka:

“YOU, WHAT?”

“I know, right?” emphasized Mirai. “I mean, why would I want him when he’s just a friend?”

Haruka scooted closer to her friend, put her arms on her shoulders, and glared right into her eyes. “You-you’ve fallen for that womanizer?”

Mirai shook her head, not even hesitating or thinking about her answer. “I don’t like him at all.” At least, I don’t think I do. We’re friends, and friends we’re going to stay.

Haruka sighed and slouched. “That’s good then.”

Interested and curious, Mirai asked, “You don’t want us to date?”

Haruka scoffed. “Don’t joke with me, Mi-chan.” Whipping her hair back, she explained, “Although you two are great friends and are my great friends, I can’t see it happening, you know. You guys didn’t like each other from the start, and BAM—one day—you guys just became friends. I… I just kind of prefer it that way.” She arched a brow at her. “Why, you actually wanna date him?”

Mirai giggled. “No. I don’t think we’ll ever do. We’re two best friends who’ll always stay as friends…because our relationship is too great to become anything more.” She looked down at the ground. “Besides, I don’t think we’ll ever see each other that way.” There’s nothing better than that kind of relationship with him. Sighing, she brought the conversation back to her worries. “So, it’s okay to think that way about him?”

Haruka shrugged. “I think so. It’s only natural to think or at least feel some sort of ‘wantings’ you know? It’s just weird that you feel that way for him when you don’t even see him in that way.” She squinted her eyes at Mirai. “Just yesterday, right?”

Mirai perked up.

“You felt that way only yesterday, right? Or has it been longer than that?”

Mirai shook her head. “Just yesterday.”

Haruka laughed. “Then, I’m sure it’ll fly by you like the wind. Maybe it’s because you guys have become roommates and so seeing each other more than usual made you think you like him.”

“It could be that!”

“There’s no other explanation, right?”

Agreeing, Mirai happily concluded, “Yep, there’s no other explanation!”

“Ryosuke.” Mirai began after her mental flashback ended. Although she had resolved her issue, she was curious about his end because if she had experienced that while living with him, he must had felt the same too.

Flinching, he uttered, “Y-yeah?”

“Answer me seriously, okay?”

He nodded.

“H-h-have you ever… Umm…” She cowered away, too shy to ask what was next.

He walked to her and leaned in close, making her tilt back. “Have I what?”

She pressed his chest to push him forward. “Too close.” Clearing , she warned him, “Listen, I’m only saying it once. Got it?”

“Got it.”

Breathing in, she ran out the words as fast as she could, “Haveyoueverwantedme?” She gave him a moment to take that in while analyzing his facial expressions. When she saw him slowly arch his brows and widen his eyes and the formed muscles at his jawline, she silently gasped with a bit of joy. He… He had?

Due to this abrupt question, he thought she had found out that he had once viewed her as when she was cooking in the kitchen or that day when she turned around and looked amazingly gorgeous. He hadn’t told anyone but concluded that she could’ve found out due to his avoiding her after those short revelations. He took a step back, not wanting to relive or confront it.

“…Ryosuke?”

He glanced away, not wanting to look at her in the eyes. He was embarrassed. Is… Is this why she was angry? Because she felt uncomfortable that I saw her in that way? Thinking that it was the cause of what had happened between them, he immediately apologized. “I had thought…of…you…” He looked down and lowered his voice, “In that way.”

She really hadn’t expected this change of event. All she wanted was to explain and apologize to him for venting her frustrations of last night to him.

“You must’ve felt uncomfortable, right?”

She shook her head. “I didn’t notice anything.” She instantly questioned, “Wait—you didn’t see me in any other way, right?”

“No way! I-I only wanted you—and just for that stupid moment—but I’ve never ever liked you.”

Seeing that their relationship had mended and had come to an understanding again, they laughed.

“Hey,” she said, shyly. “C-can I hug you?”

He smiled. “No.” She almost felt dejected but heard him say, “I want to hug you.” Before she could smile, he had already pulled her close, wrapped his arms around her, and squeezed her like they had been missing each other since forever.

While he grinned and rested his chin on her shoulder, she peacefully rested her head on his chest because it was the second most secure place for her after their home.

*

“What’s this, what’s this?” Juri asked, smirking and pointing fingers at Ryosuke and Mirai as the gang headed to the baseball field after school. “I knew you guys were going to make up by the end of the day!”

“We made up at lunch,” Ryosuke clarified. “Man-girl pulled me to the side and started tearing up so bad, I had to hug her to st—”

Mirai pinched his cheek. “Stop telling them lies.” Letting his cheek go, she said, “It was him who cried and wouldn’t let me come back to class. He kept holding onto my ankle—”

This time, it was Ryosuke who got her back the same way. “You stop spouting nonsense too.”

“Here you go,” Shintaro and Juri said to Haruka, handing her ten dollars.

Ryosuke and Mirai asked their friends about it, and Haruka casually answered, “I won a bet, so it’s my prize.”

“What bet?” Ryosuke asked. “How come we didn’t know of it?”

“Because it was about you guys,” said Juri. “We bet to see how long your fight would last. I said a week.”

“I said a day,” Shintaro inserted, raising a hand.

Haruka sneered and victoriously showed off her two ten-dollar bills. “And I said half a day.”

Mirai gaped open. “Haruka, is that why you wanted us to patch up quickly before the end of the day?”

Haruka nodded, shamelessly.

Juri frowned and pointed at Haruka. “Cheater! You had ‘stupid’ on your side, so you—”

Ryosuke and Mirai nudged Juri. “Who you calling stupid?”

“You two,” said Juri, pointing at them. “By the way, what was the fight about?”

Ryosuke and Mirai froze because they wanted to keep their embarrassing confessions to themselves. It was already embarrassing enough to tell each other, let alone confronting and experiencing it.

“What?” Juri and Shintaro questioned.

Haruka grinned. “She had feel—”

Mirai and Ryosuke instantaneously ran to Haruka to cover , not letting her say it.

Mirai smiled. “It was something stupid.” She nudged Ryosuke. “Stupid like him.”

He sent a sarcastic smile back at her. “No, stupid like you.”

“Like you!”

“Like you!”

“Like—”

“Okay, we get it,” said the trio.

“Get what?” It was Sugita-san’s voice from behind them, and the gang turned around and saw the older man. “Heading to the field too?”

The gang nodded, and they walked together to the field.

“There won’t be a lot of people this week.”

“Why? What’s going on?” asked Haruka.

Sugita-san put a hand over his head to block the sun as he looked at the field. “My senior players are prepping for college, and graduation’s coming up.”

“So, no seniors gonna be at practice this week?” Ryosuke asked as he stretched on the ground.

“Yeah. I was planning to give them two weeks off, but since our last game and baseball goodbye trip are also right around the corner, I figure a week’s a good enough break.”

The baseball goodbye trip was a yearly end-of-the-school trip dedicated to the senior members and was organized by Sugita-san and not by the school. He had been doing it for almost seven years. What was required were the parents’ permission and money. As for hotel lodging and the whatnot, Sugita-san had always managed to get it done without problems or worries.

Sugita-san sat down on the bench. “Oh, yeah, about that.” He looked at Mirai. “Umika can’t make it this year, so want to go?”

Ryosuke’s eyes beamed with happiness and excitement, so he stood up and almost sprained his ankle.

Thankfully, Juri was nearby to help him.

Ryosuke asked Sugita-san, “Man-girl can go?”

Mirai pointed to herself. “But I’m not a member of the team.”

“Even if you’re not,” said Sugita-san, “you’ve been helping us in her place.” He kicked his feet toward Ryosuke’s direction. “With you here, or anywhere, his stupidity’s in check.”

While Ryosuke pouted, everyone else laughed, agreeing with the older guy.

“So, what do you say? You don’t have to worry about your arrangements. Umika had been with us twice, so I’ll make similar arrangements for you. I’m sure Ryosuke would love for you to go with him.”

Ryosuke scoffed loudly and pretended to not care. “As if. I’d rather be anywhere but wherever she is.”

“Oh, really?” Mirai questioned. Although she knew he was joking, she had to say something about it. For sure, she could use this against him later.

Catching onto her intention, he was caught in an awful situation. He didn’t want to say that he needed her, but he also didn’t want to say that he didn’t want to be with her. The best thing to do was to keep his mouth shut.

Mirai didn’t give up though. Nudging him on the arm, she said, “So? You don’t want me to go?”

Sugita-san chuckled. “Well, I’ll let you two handle your affairs. I’ve got equipment to settle.”

Finding this as his escape, Ryosuke volunteered to help. “I’ll go with you!” Once at a safe enough distance from her, he turned back and stuck his tongue out at her, provoking her.

“That Ryosuke,” said a smiling Mirai. “He’s going to get it from me!”

*

“Where you going?” Taisuke asked when he saw Yuta walk in the opposite direction.

School was over for the day, and the two friends had caught each other outside their classroom doors.

“Baseball field,” answered Yuta.

“Why? Your girl there?”

Yuta nodded.

“Oh, y’all planned a meet-up there?” Taisuke looked satisfied. “Nice move.”

“No. I just know it.” If Ryosuke’s there, she’s there too. Wherever he is, she can be found.

*

Taisuke decided to tag along with his buddy to the baseball field with Yuta, and during their walk, he asked, “So, on V-day, what you think?”

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