Seven Weeks: A Seven Days Fanfiction

WEEK FOUR: Tuesday (Touji)

Yuzuru told me to sleep last night, but that hadn't turned out so well. My brain kept replaying the moment he'd paused the movie, and it had sounded like he was about to cry. At first I'd thought he was affected by the character's death—it was a pretty sad scene. But later, it occurred to me... maybe it was about his father.

I knew his parents didn't live together, but I'd never dared ask why. I hadn't seen photographs of his father anywhere in his apartment when I'd stayed with him. If his dad had passed away, there would probably be pictures everywhere, right? So his parents were likely divorced.

I wondered if that was what Okada had meant about Yuzuru's family situation. It bothered me more than I wanted to admit, that Okada knew something important about him that I didn't. A small part of me couldn't help wondering if Yuzuru didn't trust me enough to tell me. But maybe he just really didn't like talking about it. I wasn't going to badger him just to soothe my own ego.

Since I couldn't meet Yuzuru at the station before school, I decided to go to morning club practice. I was hoping to confront Suzuki about stealing that picture off Yuzuru's phone, but she hadn't been at practice yesterday.

I was in luck, if you could call it that, because when I got out of the locker room in my gear, Suzuki was by the bow racks talking with Tajiri. I stalked in their direction in time to hear her say, "Tajiri-senpai, do you know when Shino-senpai will come to practice next?"

"He's never coming back," I said, marching up to her. They both turned and looked at me with wide eyes. I would have thought Tajiri already knew, but maybe Fukuda hadn't told her yet. "Yuzuru-san's been banned from club because of the photo on the school message board."

"What?!" Suzuki's little mouth dropped open. "N... no way!"

I gave her a baleful glare. I know what you did. I didn't say it out loud, but I'm sure she read it in my face because she turned a deep shade of magenta pink from the collar of her gi all the way to the roots of her hair.

Tajiri's hand flew to her mouth. "Seryou-kun, are you serious?"

I nodded tightly.

"But that's not fair, he's the best archer in our school! Why would they kick him out?" Suzuki returned my scowl with equal loathing, and looked me up and down like I was something disgusting. "They should have kicked you out, you pervert."

"Suzuki-chan!" Tajiri gasped. "Shame on you."

"Maybe so, but Yuzuru-san's a third year," I replied coldly. "He's already retired from club activities, so I guess it was easier to just ban him from attending at all." I couldn't resist adding, "You won't be seeing him anymore." And it serves you right.

Her eyes filled with tears. "W... well, you shouldn't have taken that picture with him! This is all your fault, I hate you."

"Suzuki-chan!" Tajiri protested again, but I didn't really care.

"It really isn't all my fault, though, is it?"

Her chin started trembling. She looked so young that for a second I had the discomfiting impression that I was bullying an elementary schooler. I remembered that Yuzuru had very nearly been suspended during midterms week, though, and couldn't bring myself to feel sorry. "Do you know that the school almost suspended him? With university entrance exams only a month away? He got lucky."

Horror filled her face and tears went down her cheeks. "They should have suspended you," she shrieked. "You're the one who kissed him."

"Believe me, I'd have taken the punishment for both of us if they'd let me." That was absolutely the truth. Suzuki sniffled angrily. "But that's not how it worked out. They banned him, and there was nothing I could do about it." Okay, now my eyes were getting misty.  "Tajiri-senpai, can I go set up the targets now?"