Seven Weeks: A Seven Days Fanfiction

WEEK THREE: Saturday, Part 2 (Yuzuru)

"What are we doing here?" I asked as Okada pushed open the door marked POOL, and a blast of hot, humid air enveloped us, along with the smell of chlorine.

The hotel had both an indoor and an outdoor pool. The outdoor one was visible just past the glass wall of this indoor one, but it was covered with a heavy tarp and closed for the winter. The pool that lay in front of us had steam rising from it, the turquoise water sending ripples of light all around us. The pavement under our feet had lots of shiny little pebbles embedded into it, and was slippery with the humidity. The entire enclosure was clear glass, like a greenhouse, but the glass was fogged with the steam from the pool. Except for the faint sloshing sound of the water, it was quiet. Except for the faint glow of the underwater lights, it was dark. We were the only people in here.

Okada gestured to a couple of plastic chairs near the side of the pool, and we went to sit in them. "I wanted to talk to you alone for a while. I thought this would be a good place, since everyone's getting ready for the reception."

"Huh. Okay, then. What did you want to talk about?" I scooted my butt back in the chair, which was surprisingly comfortable for being plastic.

"Actually, it's more like... there's something I need to tell you."

"Go for it," I said.

He leaned his elbows on his knees and looked out at the pool, the light dancing over his features. "Man, this is hard. I've thought about how to say this a thousand times, but now that you're actually sitting here I don't know where to start."

I smirked. "You know I'm not good at reading between the lines. So you should just say it."

He chuckled under his breath. "Okay." He turned to look at me, the turquoise color of the pool reflected in his eyes. "I'm gay."

I blinked. I hadn't been expecting that, but whatever. Why would I care? Okada's personal life was his own business.

"I like men," he elaborated after a second, when I hadn't said anything.

"I know what gay means," I replied defensively. He flinched, and I reconsidered my words. I thought of Tanaka, and Sato, and Nakamura and her friends. I thought of that guy at the skating rink, too. For a lot of people, information like that completely changed the way they saw a person. So maybe Okada was worried that I was going to view him differently? "It doesn't matter," I said as reassuringly as I could. "I like you no matter what."

"You..." He turned toward me quickly. "You do?"

"Sure. You're the one who got me into archery, you know. No one's ever taught me as much as you, not even Fukuda-sensei. I even got to come to this tournament because of you. You're the best, Senpai!" I added a cutesy V-finger sign to that last part to make him laugh.

But for some reason, the answer seemed to make him unhappy rather than cheering him up. He gave me a half-hearted smile. "I see. Thanks."

The soft gurgling noises of the pool filled the silence. Okada was staring down at his folded hands. I guess confessing something like that was a big deal for him. Even though I didn't really have an opinion about it one way or another, I was starting to get curious. I wondered why he'd felt the need to tell me. Maybe because he'd seen the website with all those pictures of Seryou and me? Maybe he thought I was gay too, and he wanted to give me support. That was really cool of him, actually. This was an opportunity, wasn't it? If Okada was gay, maybe he would be willing to answer some of my questions without hitting me like Koike did—that would be nice.

"When did you find out?" I asked.

"Find out?"

"That you were gay."