Seven Weeks: A Seven Days Fanfiction

WEEK ONE: Thursday (Yuzuru)

The only reason I got out of my house in time to catch the train on Thursday morning was because my little sister came into my room at six forty in the morning and yanked all my bedcovers off to get me out of bed.

The last time I'd felt this terrible was three years ago, when I was preparing for high school entrance exams. Japanese kids were supposed to be studying super-machines, getting by on ambition and two hours of sleep a night, but I really didn't know how everybody else managed it. Two late nights of schoolwork and my whole body hurt. My brain, swimming with the data I'd been stuffing into it, seemed to have temporarily forgotten how to do lower-level things like decipher human speech and balance upright.

Somehow I managed to make it to the train with all the necessary pieces of my uniform on, thanks to Yuriko and the socks she stuffed into my hand when I was about to walk out the door. I fell asleep on the train—while standing up, if you can believe it—until the crowds packing into the car kept prodding me awake with their wayward briefcases and elbows and nauseatingly pungent hair products.

Seryou met me at the station, and while I probably could have recited every step in the Krebs Cycle if he'd asked, for the life of me I couldn't remember the word for "good morning." I could tell he was worried. He must have handed me at least three coffees on the short walk to school, and before I headed up the stairs to my homeroom he shuffled through his bag for painkillers and insisted I take them while he was standing there. I dropped them on the ground twice and he picked them up, patient as a saint, until I finally managed to wash them down with yet another gulp of coffee.

My morning classes went by in a haze, but luckily Utsumi copied the homework assignments into my notebook for me. Seryou showed up at lunch and I don't remember the excuse he made to get me out of there, but I swear I had never been so grateful to see anybody in all my life. He led me back to the roof exit stairwell and I crawled into his lap and blacked out.

The nap was way too short, but waking to his gentle voice in my ear was a million times better than my sister's cold-hearted cover-snatching. I was able to focus a little better for the last two classes of the day, which was a good thing because we ended with a rehearsal of our class's festival dance number, and that took all the energy I had to spare.

Finally school was out at last, and Seryou showed up at my classroom seconds after the bell rang.

"Let me do that," he said, packing my books and pencil case into my bag for me. He lifted the bag onto his shoulder, and Koike tapped his arm.

"What's going on with Shino?" she demanded, tossing her head in my direction. "He's been a zombie the last couple days."

Seryou glanced at me, almost as if he was asking for permission to answer. I really didn't care what he told her.

"He's behind with cram school," Seryou said, "so he's been doing a lot of studying."

"Studying? Wait, Shino knows how to study?" She turned to me with exaggerated shock.

I might have been exhausted, but I was still able to glare. "I'm standing right here, you know."

She stuck her tongue out at me, then eyed Seryou. "And why are you guys hanging out all the time lately? I've seen more of you the last couple weeks than I did when you and I were going out."

"Well, that's..." He looked over nervously, like he was hoping I'd jump in. But I waited to hear his answer. Every time I'd told the truth, no one took it seriously. I wondered if Koike would, if she heard it from him. That is, if she could get him to say it, since he had that whole rule about not discussing his dating life.

"Yuzuru-san is..." His ears were turning red, and Koike was tapping her foot impatiently. He bit his lip, stared down at the floor.

I was gathering up my energy to come to his rescue, since it seemed pretty clear he couldn't do it, when his head came up and he pinned me with this look that I'll never forget as long as I live.