Chapter 1 - The calm before the storm

Part 2/6

The school bell rang just as he was finishing his notes. Yuki walked slowly from the classroom. He had a forty-five minute break for lunch. Having brought something small from home, he had planned to find a quiet corner of the school to eat in, while he figured out how to convince Kai he hadn’t actually been flirting with Niko. 

“Yuki!!!!” A familiar voice called through the hall. 

A bubbly blonde girl ran out of the crowd and threw her arms around Yuki, placing a wet kiss on his cheek. He could feel the thick waxy residue of her lipstick sticking to his face. She laughed, squeezing his shoulders, her eyes sparkling with excitement. 

“I haven't seen you since before the break! You stopped answering my messages online,” she cried, as though it was the end of the world.

“Ah, right! Sorry, Misa,” Yuki answered, smiling innocently. 

She pouted while batting her eyelashes enthusiastically. 

Yuki knew this game. It was the one he played himself. A mix of flirting and suggestive behaviour. The difference was that Misa liked to guilt trip people. A lot.

“No one has heard from you since the new year. What's happened to you?” Misa asked, leaning forward. 

She was dressed the way Yuki had always seen her: the skirt of her school uniform pulled up way too high, so it was near her the middle of her thigh; her neckerchief completely missing, while the top three buttons of her shirt were undone. She wore a lot of makeup, highlighting her eyes. 

In most schools, any one of those things would have got one sent home for the day. But Kōritsu Kōkyō tended to be a little more flexible than others.

Yuki’s lips pulled back lazily, the corners of his eyes crinkling ever so slightly. Eyebrows raised, he relaxed his cheeks and his smile bent upwards. There was a warmth in his soft gaze, as his head tilted and eyes softened.

This was Yuki's signature smile. His defense, used in any and all interactions. Just enough to bring the other party a sense of security, but not enough to make them believe Yuki was someone to rely on. He used it so often, it was muscle memory now. Only Niko had ever managed to make him drop it unwillingly.

Desperately trying to keep the spiky blonde-haired and caramel-eyed boy from his mind, Yuki focused back on the girl in front of him. Misa, whom he had been avoiding for the opposite reason. He considered her a friend, but she wanted a lot more than that. 

Yuki gently pushed her aside. “Ah, nothing new. My part time jobs and taking care of my siblings.”

Grabbing onto him again, she pulled him so close, her chest wrapped around his arm. “You can't just forget us when you graduate, ok? All the others simply left without even saying goodbye.”

She wasn't wrong. His entire class had graduated and instantly moved on. They had all but disappeared from their gangs’ group chats, though many new names had been added. Not that Yuki ever really looked anymore. 

“It's strange knowing they are all in college and will probably never think of us again.” Yuki smiled with sympathy. “But we will probably all grow apart eventually.”

“Don't say that. I wanted us all to stay close,” she whined, pulling him even closer. “Well, at least with you I do.”

“Nakamura!” a boy called from down the hall. 

Oh, thank God,  Yuki thought, dislodging Misa from his arm. 

He hadn’t registered who had been calling, and he honestly didn’t care. He needed someone, anyone to play interference between him and Misa. When he was tackled from behind, however, Yuki instantly wished he could take back the anyone part. 

“I knew you hadn’t graduated!” the boy nearly whispered in Yuki’s ear, rubbing his head roughly. “Where have you been hiding?”

“Akuma, Yuki-kun is being a downer,” Misa whined dramatically. “I want our school group back!”

“You upset Misa and you upset all the girls, Nakamura,” another gruff voice said with far more aggression than needed. 

Akuma jumped off his back, enabling Yuki to finally look at the boy. He had grown, again. Now he was at least 15 cm taller than Yuki. A prospect Yuki didn’t like. The boy also seemed to have built more lean muscle; not that he wasn’t strong enough already. His gakuran was open, the white shirt underneath unbuttoned at the top, showing a particularly nasty scar on his chest.

His arm wrapped around Yuki’s shoulders and squeezed so tightly, it hurt. “Enma, you can’t hold Misa’s mood swings against Nakamura,” Akuma growled, as if warning the other boy to back off. 

The other boy, Enma, was gruff, muscular, and scary as fuck. He had arrived in the middle of last year and, without anyone knowing the details, had become Akuma's right hand. It wasn't until then that Yuki realized how deeply troubled Akuma had become.

Enma’s eyes scrutinized every move Yuki made.  Misa, of course, had reattached herself to Yuki's arm. The death glare Enma threw their way put all others to shame. But it didn't surprise Yuki. It was rumored he was sweet on Misa, after all.

As the rest of their usual group walked up to join them, one yelled, “Good to hang for lunch? We got some first years to torture.”

“Sure,” Yuki smiled enthusiastically, happy he could use the group as a buffer between him and the other three who always seemed more focused on him than he would like.

They went to the cafeteria and sat around one of the largest tables. There were multiple conversations going on at once, along with someone singing and more than one of them yelling. It was loud and obnoxious. But Yuki sat through it smiling, laughing and somewhat enjoying the unbridled emotions of his highschool friends. 

Yuki had never been close with any of them. He had never had the time. Migrating from group to group, he had made many memories with almost all of the students who knew him. While they all considered him their friend, he barely knew a thing about them. 

Mixing up their names was a normal and acceptable occurrence from him. Arriving late to parties and being the first to leave was a given. But every moment he was free, Yuki had made the most of it. 

His relationships, if they could even be called that, were never serious, always fluid, and lasted two weeks at most. Not that he hadn’t hooked up with the same girl more than once. A mistake he had made with Misa more than once. But he was a gentleman, in a way. Only dating one girl at a time, never going all the way, he made sure they knew where he stood on the matter of relationships: he didn't have time for them. 

Not that Yuki wouldn't eventually want a relationship. In fact, lately he’d been longing for someone he could go to for comfort when he needed it. To have someone he could be open and honest with. Someone who was so important, he would change his whole life for them. Assuming, of course, that they would do the same for him.

“Yuki!” a voice called down the table. “Is it true you are only here for the first term?”

“Well, yeah.” Yuki laughed. “I’ve technically graduated.”

The group groaned as one, making him feel more wanted than missed. 

“Not fair we don’t get to have you around the whole year.”

“So you would rather I play dumb and fail on purpose?”

“It doesn’t need to be on purpose,” Akuma muttered, nudging Yuki’s shoulder suggestively.

Annoyed at the insinuation that he might fail, Yuki ignored his instincts and grabbed Akuma’s hat off his head. “Your lucky cap is mine now.”

Akuma smiled widely, something that was rare for him nowadays. Taking the baseball cap, he shoved it onto Yuki’s head forcefully. The boys scraped for a minute, while the girls tried to stop them. At the other end of the table, the rest of the group joked and talked in their own little world. All the while, Yuki wore his signature smile.

—

The doors closed behind Yuki as he ran into the train car. His jacket was almost caught in between the two sliding panels. Flustered and annoyed, Yuki searched for a place to rest his feet. But his phone rang before he did. 

“What?” he answered on speaker phone, not bothering to look at the caller ID.

“What kind of answer is that?” Kai's voice resonated on the other side. “You don’t say hello anymore?”

“Kai?” Yuki asked, as he finally found a place to sit.

“Yeah, it's Kai,” his best friend huffed through the phone. It was unusual for him to call. They normally stuck to texting. “I was wondering what happened. Usually, you would have begged for forgiveness by now.”

“What, I…” Yuki quickly took him off speaker. “One sec.” Covering the mic, Yuki nodded at the confused faces of the people around him. He sighed when they finally turned away. 

“You okay?” Kai’s tone shifted to one of concern. 

“Yeah,” Yuki sighed, putting the phone next to his ear. “I’m on the train.”

“Did you pick up using the speakerphone again?”

“What? No,” Yuki lied. “Anyway, why are you calling me?”

“Am I not allowed to call you?” Kai asked with a playful tone to his voice. “So, what was up with your text to Niko earlier?”

Yuki smiled. “Just a warning.”

“About me or you?”

“Both.”

Kai groaned through the phone, causing Yuki to laugh lightly. Suddenly, he could clearly see Kai’s face in his mind. His eyebrows would be furrowed while he frowned ever so slightly. Kai’s expression would be more annoyed than worried, as he tried to think of a way to outwit Yuki’s remarks. 

In the end, Kai could only growl in response. “Knock it off.”

“Hey, I need the stress relief okay?” He tried to keep his voice light and upbeat. “I’m about to graduate high school.”

“Well, then, no wonder you acted so fake before,” Kai said with such certainty, it caused Yuki to gasp out loud. “You’re much cooler now, though.”

Yuki shook his head. “How would you know? You never saw how I used to be.” 

“Yeah, but I’m sure I would have ignored you,” Kai bantered.

Annoyed, Yuki suddenly found himself wanting to hang up. “Why did you really call me?”

“I’m bored.” Yuki swore he could hear Kai shrugging through the phone. “Niko ran off with Ren and Itsuki.”

Ren and Itsuki? Yuki thought for a moment. As long as Itsuki was with him, Niko would be fine; but who was Ren again? One of them must have mentioned him before…

Deciding not to care anymore, Yuki asked, “Not interested in following them?”

“Even we need time apart,” Kai tried to say it as a joke, but it came off very needy.

“Ah!” Yuki smirked. “You weren’t invited.”

“I’m hanging up now.”

“Come on, Kai, you're the one who called me.” Yuki smiled lightly as he watched the street lights fly by outside. 

Kai grunted back. “It feels like things are changing too quickly. I just want things to stay the way they are, just a little longer.”

Yuki knew exactly what Kai meant. “Growing up sucks.”

“Meeting new people sucks,” Kai agreed.

“It can,” Yuki hummed. “But then I met Niko and you. Change isn’t always bad, even when scary.”

“I guess. What about you?” Kai asked. “Aren’t you afraid of all the changes you suddenly have in your life?”

“You know I’m terrified!” Yuki yelled, disturbing the other passengers again.

He nodded a silent apology, turning back to the window. It was a bright warm spring day. The flowers were blooming, the trees blossoming. It all made him smile.

“Things don't just drastically flip like that from one day to the next, you know. The changes I’m going through were inevitable. But I’ll be fine,” Yuki assured Kai. “I won’t let anyone or anything upend my life, promise.”