With You (Souyo)

Elsewhere

Yu's POV:

I feel my heart racing. The Shadow holds my face, waiting for my answer. My palms go all sweaty, and I feel myself choking up.

I know I should push it off; to defeat it once and for all, but it's so tempting. It's wrong, I know. It's his other self. Maybe that's the reason I want to do it so badly.

Maybe if I kiss his Shadow, these 'feelings' I have for him will fade. Then everything will go back to normal. Best of all, Yosuke doesn't have to know about any of this.

And, my God, I want to say yes so badly. I want to kiss this being, but I know I shouldn't. I know so well that I shouldn't.

But my body is ignoring my mind, pressing my lips against his.

~~~

Yosuke's POV:

"Yu?" I call out. "Hey, dude, where you at?" I look around, hoping to see him - somewhere.

He's not where we left him, that's for sure.

Maybe he went home? Or maybe he went to join us in the café, but I missed him.

Trying to hide the feeling that something is terribly wrong, I go back upstairs to meet with the rest of the group again.

~~~

"Is he up here?" Is the first question I ask when I enter the room.

"Is who up here?" Chie cocks her head.

"Yu," I snap, the feeling of worry quickly overtaking my body.

"Please, calm down, Yosuke-kun," Naoto says, trying to comfort me.

"I thought you were going back to see him," Kanji purses his lips.

"He wasn't there," I say; tears now stuck in my throat.

"Okay, well maybe he left?" Rise considers. "It's alright."

"No way!" Teddie objects. "Sensei would never leave us. Especially when we were going to go into that world."

"Teddie, you ain't helpin'," Kanji snaps back, making Teddie look away in guilt.

"I'm sure he's okay," Yukiko tries to smile. "Have you tried calling his cell?"

I shake my head.

"Ugh, see?" Chie laughs, nervously. "Give him a call - he's probably fine."

And so I pick up my phone from my back pocket, and slowly scroll on my contacts list. Finally, I reach his name. Narukami, Yu.

Hesitantly, I tap the call button, put the phone to my ear, and hear it ring.

One ring, two rings. Three rings.

"He's not picking up," I hear Rise whisper to the others, which only makes my anxiety worse.

Four and five. Voicemail.

I take the phone from my ear and hold it in my palms.

"Perhaps his phone died?" Naoto suggests.

"No, he was using it not so long ago to message us," Yukiko points out. "He wouldn't have wasted battery talking to us."

"Okay, well, maybe he left it somewhere," Kanji says.

"Like where?" Chie counters. "The only place he'd have left it, is either in here, or in the electronics department."

"Did you see his phone down there, Yosuke?" Teddie asks, trying to play detective.

"I... wasn't really looking," I admit.