Seven Weeks: A Seven Days Fanfiction

WEEK SEVEN: Thursday (Touji)

Fourth period was only slightly better than third. I hadn't meant to hurt Yuzuru's feelings like that earlier, so I'd basically spent every minute of third period trying to decide how to rectify the misunderstanding. I guess it had worked... in typical Yuzuru fashion, he'd accepted my explanation in a half second and was probably entirely over it now. I wasn't, though. My thoughts were still a jumble of worry.

Shino kept coming between us, somehow. I suppose I couldn't blame Yuzuru for that, she'd gone out of her way on many occasions to take jabs at him. Sometimes he ran away. Sometimes he pulled me into his arms and kissed me until I couldn't breathe. Then there was the time he started taking his pants off, declaring we were going to have sex on the spot... In any case, it was obvious he felt insecure when it came to her, and I wasn't sure what to do about that.

It was bad enough when she was goading him on purpose—acting like she was doing me a favor. But then I had to go and stick my foot in my mouth like an idiot.

I knew what I wasn't going to do. I wasn't going to let him push himself into something he didn't want, just so he could compete with Shino. It was an imaginary competition anyway, because he was the only one I could see. She knew that. Why didn't he? I had to do better.

When the bell rang for lunch, Nakamura and her friends stopped me by the door. Nakamura was holding out some kind of flyer, and she bowed as she thrust it at me. Kobayashi and Sato, on either side of her, bowed as well.

"What's this?" I asked, taking the paper. It was printed with a bright rainbow and some English lettering, as well as dates and times. I only recognized the first word: Gay.

"We're starting a Gay-Straight Alliance at Houka," Nakamura informed me proudly as her friends giggled. "Our first meeting's next week. Will you and Shino-senpai come?"

Honestly, my first thought was that these girls wanted the chance to gawk at Yuzuru and me in yet another setting. After all, were there even other gay kids at Houka besides us? I didn't know of any. But then I read over the flyer again. "Fukuda-sensei's the faculty advisor?" I asked in surprise. Our archery coach? He was also one of the Houka math teachers and had a second year homeroom in Class Three.

"Mm. You know he's been your biggest supporter among all the teachers?"

"Really?"

"Yeah, he's been at every school board meeting since winter break. He's the one who gave us the idea."

"Wow." Then we really ought to go. "I'll come. I don't know if Yuzuru-san can, though, he has his entrance exams that weekend."

The girls cheered and bounced up and down. "That's okay, he can come when he's not busy," Kobayashi said happily.

"I'll ask him," I said, tucking the flyer into the front of my jacket. "Thanks, guys."

They parted to let me out of the classroom, and Yuzuru was already waiting for me at the foot of the stairs. He was gazing down at his phone with a somewhat shocked, perplexed expression.

"What are you looking at?" I asked as I came up to him.

His head came up, eyes big. "You texted me dicks?"

A couple second-year girls on their way down the stairs stopped to stare at us. I just about choked on my own tongue. "What? I did not!"

"Did too, I looked it up." He turned his phone around. It was the message thread I'd sent him over the weekend, with the eggplant emojis. God, I'd forgotten about those. I'd sent them on a whim—well, more like a hormone-fueled high, inspired by our activities the night before—but I'd assumed he'd think they were nonsense.