Unravel Me

8: Okay

   "Chuuya, are you alright?"

It was a stupid fucking question. His two best friends in the world had betrayed him. They'd acted selfishly, not even caring about how it would hurt him. It wasn't fair. He never would have done the same to them. So, no, he wasn't alright, but his sister knew that. That was why she was hovering in his doorway while he laid in bed with his back facing her.

She inched further and further into his room until she was lowering herself onto the edge of his bed. "Chuuya?" She repeated. She was reaching out to shake his shoulder when a muffled voice finally responded from under the blankets.

"I'm fine."

"Then why are you in bed on a Saturday afternoon?"

"I'm tired."

"Is that what it's been every day for the past two weeks? You've been tired?"

Obviously not. He'd told her about it the day it'd happened. She was in Paris for a shoot, but she rescheduled and flew home to be with him. Chuuya was never really one to admit when he was feeling down—instead choosing to mask his sadness with anger or humor—so the fact that he was reaching out at all meant it was bad.

She'd climbed into bed with him that night with two pints of their favorite ice cream and put on one of their favorite comedies to try to cheer him up. By the end of the night, he'd promised that he was feeling better, but he'd barely left the house since, completely skipping classes, work, and track practices the first few days afterwards. This week she'd at least talked him into attending them all regularly, but he didn't have the motivation to do much else.

"Kouyou," he snapped. "I said i'm fine."

She sighed. "I'm just worried about you, you know. You've barely left your bed since. . ." She didn't dare to bring it up, worried she might only upset him more. "I just think that it might be a good idea for you to get out of the house."

"I worked this morning," he pointed out.

"That doesn't count. You had to do that. Why don't we go do something fun?"

He groaned.

"There's a winter carnival set up downtown. Why don't we go check it out? There are artists, and food trucks, and—"

He groaned again, louder than before.

"Alright, come on," she said as she grabbed his ankles and started dragging him out from under the covers.

"Ane-san! Quit it!"

"I'm not stopping until you're out of that bed!"

"Jesus, fine, i'll fucking come, just knock it the hell off!"

"Alright, good."

She dropped his legs and watched as he popped up from under the covers. The pride she felt in her victory was overshadowed by concern as she saw how knotted and tangled Chuuya's hair was, and how deeply sunken his eyes looked. She knew that Chuuya cared a lot about his appearance, so she was shocked to find him looking so exhausted.

"I'll give you some time to get ready," she said as she left his room, hoping he couldn't hear the worry in her voice.

About an hour later, Chuuya was showered and dressed. He'd decided to put some effort into his outfit, hoping that doing so might cheer him up, or at least give him enough confidence to be seen in public at this stupid winter carnival that Kouyou insisted on dragging him to. He wasn't sure how much of a difference it really made. No matter what he was wearing, he still wouldn't want to go.