When all was said and done all three of them ended up with jobs; Satoru at a convenience store, Hiroto at a restaurant and Kanato at his favorite CD shop.

Satoru couldn’t help but feel exhausted after his first day. His entire body screamed in agony. Now he understood why his sister would always crash whenever she would get home. 

He was glad to be getting some earnings but he started to realize that he would be doing this on top of going to school. It seemed to be a bit overwhelming. 

Satoru let out a heavy sigh and went to the bathroom to wash up for the night. A long bath with some music sounded like heaven. 

He walked into the bathroom, pulling out his hair tie. His head throbbed from his hair being pulled tight all day. Satoru took off his uniform, leaving it in a heap on the floor. He waited for the bath to fill up for a bit before slowly submerging himself. His body instantly relaxed, the aches and pains of the day, slowly but surely dissipating.

He wondered if Hiroto and Kanato were experiencing the same thing. He would have to ask them about it tomorrow. Satoru was a bit jealous of Kanato. He seemed to have the perfect job working at his favorite store.

Satoru was just about to fall asleep in the tub before he heard his phone ringing. He wasn’t too sure who it could be since it was pretty late. 

He quickly grabbed a towel to dry off then headed to his room, hoping to pick up the call in time. 

“Hello, this is Satoru,” he answered. 

“Oh good! You picked up! I thought you might’ve gone to bed already.” It was Kanato’s voice on the other end. A pleasant surprise.

“You know I’m usually up this late,” he laughed, “so what’s up?”

“You got me there. I just wanted to call and ask about how your first day was at the store,” Kanato said. Satoru could hear the smile in his voice. 

“It wasn’t bad but I’m definitely sore. I didn’t think I would be in so much pain,” Satoru said. “But other than the pain, the work is fine. My manager just gave me a tour of the store then made me stock shelves the rest of my shift,” he explained. 

“Oh that doesn’t sound too bad. I assume you’re happy that you didn’t have to talk to anyone?” Kanato asked. 

Satoru rolled his eyes but smiled, “oh shut up. That may or may not be true. Anyways that’s enough about me. How was your day?”

“It was pretty good. I can’t complain much since I’m working the ideal job.Though I’ll have to be sure to restrain myself from buying new merch since we’re trying to save up for all the things we need.”

 “Yeah, that’ll definitely put you to the test. I know how you are with your spending.”

“Guilty as charged,” Kanato laughed, “I’m excited to be working there. Hopefully they’ll let me advertise our band stuff whenever we finish our first single.”

“Yeah, that would make it easier on us. Gives us one less thing to worry about,” Satoru agreed. 

“Exactly,” Kanato said, a yawn escaping.

“Seems like someone is tired,” Satoru teased. 

“Nope. I’m perfectly awake. Besides, I still want to talk more. It’s been too long since we’ve had some quality one-on-one time.” 

“Well if that’s the case why don’t you come over to my place one of these days? It can be just like old times. My sister is hardly ever home anymore so you can come over pretty much whenever.”

“Sure! I would love to do that. I really miss those days, you know. I hate that my parents had to separate and that we had to lose our house. Coming over to your apartment was always the highlight of my day.” Kanato said, sounding a bit melancholic.

“I know your mom can be a bit overbearing and it’s harder to come over all the time because of the distance but my door is always open. Megumi is hardly here anymore. Even if she were here I don’t think she would mind you being over. I’m sure she’d rather have you as a brother anyway,” Satoru laughed. 

“I’ll keep that in mind. Recently my mom has gotten more and more strict. My grades never seem to be good enough. Whenever she looks at me she seems so upset,” Kanato said, his voice cracking, “I just hate being at home.” he quietly sobbed. 

Satoru’s heart ached. He knew what Kanato’s parents were like and he despised them for what they did to Kanato. Every time the exams would wrap up Kanato would come to school with new injuries. Kanato tried to hide the bruises on his arms but Satoru and Hiroto always took notice. 

“Hey, like I said you can always come over. You can pack a bag and spend however long here,” he said. 

Kanato took a deep breath, seeming to calm down, “thank you. I really appreciate it. It’s getting to be too much…”

The two continued to chat a little while longer, Kanato eventually falling asleep while listening to Satoru talk. He laughed to himself and hung up the phone, not long after, falling asleep himself.