More than Best Friends?

Chapter 6 - Absence

In the morning when Yuki awoke, the other side of the bed was empty.  He assumed that it was late enough that Pe had already gone to school.  But that would mean that he'd have nobody else to talk to, except for Pe's eldest brother.  He seemed so...well, in a nice way...traditional? He sometimes overheard him scold Pe for the littlest things when he stayed with them.

Since Yuki was Asian too, he often celebrated holidays with Pe. Even though they weren't the same nationality, it was still fun to be with a friend.  Friends... he thought about Kyle a little bit. Come to think of it, he had never really talked about Pe to Kyle.  Whenever Kyle asked what he did on breaks, he just said he was staying with family friends.  Pe's family was indeed like a second family to him, he visited them frequently and had been friends with Pe for a long time.

Kyle... Yuki hadn't seen him for a few days.  He wasn't sure why, but he felt funny when thinking about him. It was almost like a hurting feeling, but it made him feel happy at the same time.  Yuki didn't have the slightest clue about what this was.  How could one hurt and feel happiness at the same time?  The thought of it was simply absurd to him, and he tried to shake it away most of the time.  If he did something else, it would surely distract him, so he decided to play with his cracked phone.

~*~

Meanwhile, Kyle was feeling down in the dumps.  He missed his best friend, and it was as if school wasn't hard enough already.  It was difficult to walk into the classroom without seeing Yuki in his regular seat.  Though, it was even more upsetting to walk onto the track field and not see him sitting so calmly on the bleachers.  He missed seeing him there, his eyes closed and looking like he didn't have a care in the world.  The sunlight would filter through the leaves of the trees, letting little specks of light hit Yuki's pale skin.  A gentle breeze would blow, causing the branches to rustle and fallen leaves to flutter by. The soft winds would also tease Yuki's dark locks, and maybe he would be courageous enough to reach out and play with the ends of his hair.  Kyle felt a smile creep its way onto his face as he thought of him. Then, his thoughts shifted to sitting there beside Yuki, leaning closer to him until the tips of their noses would meet.  He felt a longing feeling in the pit of his stomach as he pictured Yuki's serene expressions and his rare, subtle smiles.

Even though it had only been a few days since he'd last seen Yuki, Kyle's sadness started to make it hard for him to get things done.  Kyle was usually a hardworking and motivated person, even though he wasn't the brightest student in school.  But without Yuki there, he didn't feel like doing anything.

Ever since Kyle had found out Yuki's secret, he'd been feeling weird.  He wondered why Yuki hadn't told him about it sooner.  There was also that girl, Yuki's friend.  It was kind of strange to him that he hadn't told him about her.  Did she know about his secret too?  He wasn't judging Yuki for keeping secrets, and he certainly wasn't angry with him, but he felt a little upset that he didn't tell him these things.  But Yuki was reserved and quiet; it wasn't unlike him to keep his feelings to himself.  Either way, Kyle hoped that Yuki would return to class soon.

(612 words, 30 October 2019)

(613 words, edited 31 May 2020)