Four out of Six

~Chapter 14~

"Daichi-kun!"

Suga's father answered the door cheerfully. Daichi stepped in, giving the older man a firm hug.

"Hello, Satoshi-san. It's good to see you again!"

"Likewise! Ah, let me see you!" He held Daichi back at arm's length, nodding and smiling. "Well, you've certainly grown up to be a strapping young lad."

"Thank you."

"Hiromi's upstairs. She'll direct you to what needs to be done."

Daichi bowed again. Removing his shoes, he headed up to Koushi's room.

Hiromi-san was standing in the doorway, staring. She didn't acknowledge Daichi until he stood beside her in solidarity. She just reached back and took his hand gently. They stood like that for a few minutes, until she let go and took a step back.

"Okay," she said quietly. "I'm ready."

"What would you like me to do?" Daichi asked.

Hiromi-san pointed towards the bookshelf and the desk. "We're just starting with boxing up his books and comics. Since those things are a bit heavy, we were hoping you could take them downstairs for us. We have a truck coming tomorrow to take it all to a book drive."

"Okay."

"And if you see anything you want to take with you, don't hesitate to do so."

With that, Daichi was left alone in the old bedroom with two cardboard boxes and a whole lot of memories. He looked around.

Nothing had changed.

Suga's uniform was hanging from the hook by his bed. His desk had a neat stack of textbooks, the spines lightly worn. The bed was made, the floor devoid of clothing. Aside from a thin layer of dust it looked just like it did since Daichi had first come over with Asahi during their first year of high school to watch volleyball videos together.

His bed was the only thing that Daichi knew hadn't been used; Suga's last few weeks were spent on a futon downstairs.

Daichi made a small lap around the room when he noticed something glinting under a small stack of papers. He dug through it gingerly.

Koushi's old phone. White, with exactly four phone charms attached: a volleyball with the #2, a little black crow, some Pokémon character Daichi didn't recognize, and a piece of tofu with anime eyes and a smile that Daichi had gotten Suga for his birthday when he turned sixteen. Daichi pressed the power button.

It didn't turn on.

Of course not, Daichi scolded himself. It'd been over four years since the thing had been used. The plug was still in the wall, though.

Daichi wasn't sure what made him do it, but a sudden impulse to plug it in and look through it took over. Suga wouldn't have minded, surely. He let the phone charge as he began looking around the room again, this time with a new mindset. This would be the last time the room would look like this. He wanted to take in everything.

After a few more minutes, Daichi sighed and began placing the old textbooks carefully into the box the Sugawaras had placed in the room. Next was the bookshelf. There were some manga, a few novels, and a ridiculous number of magazines. Mostly sports, but Daichi smirked when he saw a few naughty ones in the mix.

So much for everyone thinking Koushi was a saint.

After some deliberation, Daichi threw those into the garbage bag. They were probably not appropriate for a book drive, though Koushi would've probably thrown in a few for shits and giggles.