Chapter 8 of 11

Chapter 8

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Chapter 7

Shouri groaned as he held his head in his hands, slumped on the study desk. Kazusa too looked at his homework and mumbled in frustration. There were three days before summer vacation ended. They weren’t the brightest and thus were almost crushed by the remaining loads of homework they both hadn’t done.

They had written a book report and some essay on welfare, but Kazusa’s English work and Shouri’s maths skills were still unfinished. The solutions to the worksheets were confiscated on the last day of school on the grounds of “prevention of copying”. Did the teachers know how many tears were shed by the students on the last day of school because of that?

“I’m so glad I wasn’t born in America…” Kazusa muttered, his English homework sprawled all across the table as Shouri fiddled with his phone.

“No, you could speak English if you were American.”

“How do they study then?”

“Dunno, don’t they speak Russian or something?”

“Russia is in America?”

“I thought it was in India…”

Shouri and Kazusa’s relationship was surprisingly the same as it had been before. Even though it had been two weeks since the incident, they were still visiting each other’s houses and going to the beach as normal, even though they couldn’t swim. Shouri had started to think that the confession was some sort of prank, that Kazusa was just fooling around.

“Ahhh! The world has no use for dumbasses like us” Shouri cried and threw his phone onto the bed. The poor phone landed safely on the towel and avoided destruction.

“Don’t say something so sad yet so true, Shouri…” Kazusa said, with a light in his eyes. As he listened to the cicadas buzzing in the summer breeze, he suddenly had an idea.

“Hey, Shouri?”

“Hmm?”

After he made sure that Shouri was looking at him, Kazusa smiled.

“Why don’t the two of us go to Tokyo sometime?”

Shouri blinked as the words refused to come out of his mouth. He did not know what to think, nor how to think; instead of saying silent. Kazusa mistook his disbelief as refusal, his expression clouding in sadness.

“You must be too busy…”

Shouri, snapping out of his daze shook his head.

“No no, I’m sorry, It’s not like that, it’s more like if you came here to heal from the polluted air, would it be okay to go back?” Shouri had always wanted to visit Tokyo, as he was born there, but never remembered any of the neon lights nor buzzing crossings. If he could go with him, he would definitely go.

“They said it’s fine. The doctors at the hospital said that going back to the city for a while wouldn’t impact my health too much.” Seeing Kazusa smile happily, Shouri felt his heart beat faster.

“Then… Are you going home? Back to Tokyo?”

“Just a small trip, we’ll figure out a date and stuff later~”

Relieved by Kazusa’s confidence, Shouri began to stare at the equation again.

Finally, the first day of the second semester had arrived.

Although August was over, Summer’s presence was still lingering. Cicadas were still chirping, the hazy breeze barely cooling down the humid heat.

Cicadas were chirping and buzzing without restraint and it was still too hot during the day. It was enough to make it hard to sleep at night. The withered sunflowers on the side of the road added an oddly melancholy quality to the town’s summer. And with four more pages of maths to do, he never finished his homework.

“I’m off!” Shouri shouted, before running over to Kazusa’s house and pressed the doorbell in anticipation. Hearing the bell ring, Kazusa opened the door with the look of a kindergartener on a field trip on his face – filled with excitement.

“Did you finish your homework?” Shouri asked, to which Kazusa smiled like a child and laughed.

“Nope~”

Other students in backpacks walked past, looking at the two giggling together, a quizzical look on their faces.

It’s so peaceful today…

“The homework is so hard… I’ve already had my hands full with the basics, but this extension work is impossible!” Laughing, the pair headed to school, complaining about the homework. It had been a while since Shouri had seen Kazusa in his school uniform and he looked a bit like a cosplayer.

“Ahhh, I wish summer vacation lasted forever!”

Shouri had grown by seven centimetres in the summer and more importantly, his physique had improved quite a bit. His arms and legs, strengthened by soccer training, became more muscular, and his skin more tanned. Kazusa, on the other hand, hadn’t changed much since May. On the contrary, he appeared to have lost weight. Although his cheek’s rosy tint had not changed, his body became thinner and his ivory skin seemed ephemeral, that could have disappeared at any moment. But in the end, it only seemed to have added to his morbid beauty.

“Come to think of it, I’ve never met your mother or father, have I, Kazu?”

“They’ve been really busy… They said they might visit during New Year’s though…” Kazusa didn’t seem to mind.

Shouri glanced at him wondering if he didn’t miss his parents, but he didn’t ask because he didn’t feel like it was necessary. They crossed the road, the green traffic light flickering as they crossed. It seemed the brass band had already arrived, the sound of trumpets and trombones filling the school. It was the annual orientation ceremony.

“What do we have in the first period?”

Kazusa shook his head in disappointment.

“Idiot, it’s homeroom.”

Shouri sighed, unpacking his bags, wondering what his excuse for his unfinished homework would be.

Shouri propped himself up alone at his desk. There were so many people in the classroom, but no air conditioner. To put it simply, he felt his energy being sapped by just being there, his life expectancy decreasing before his eyes. Kazusa had already gone to the nurse’s office with heatstroke. To say it was expected was an understatement, but it was impossible boring without him being by his side. The commotion around the classroom had also started becoming annoying.

“Shouri?”

“Hmm?” Shouri turned, looking for the voice that had called him. Rin smiled at him, raising her head.

“You shouldn’t skip work just because Kazusa isn’t here.”

“Wha-”

Looking at Shouri’s confused face, Rin let out an exaggerated sigh.

“School lunch duty. It’s your turn today, isn’t it?”

Oh.

Shouri had forgotten all about it, but it was an early lunch as there was a school year assembly. Come to think of it, the fragrant smell of miso soup had been wafting through the air since the morning. Such bad timing, as Shouri was not bothered to even stand up.

“What a pain in the ass…”

Rin chuckled at Shorui’s annoyance, her expression softening.

“He’s a very unusual person, isn’t he, Shouri?”

A mysterious person. Shouri raised his eyebrows, his annoyance changing to confusion once again.

“I think its partly because he has such a beautiful face. Like a painting; a work of art.”

Shouri was once again reminded of that incident. It was true that Kazusa didn’t look human at times, as he had an ethereal or even eerie quality to him. Perhaps Rin was right, he was like a painting. However, with that in mind, Shouri refuted Rin.

“He’s surprisingly normal. He’s as dumb as I am, he’s incredibly tone-deaf, and he’s an amazing gamer.”

Rin was staring down at Shouri, adding “Well he’s attractive, but…”

That gaze, unintentionally glaring, made Shouri feel like he was being treated as a child.

“Yes. I’m sure you’re right.” Rin muttered, withdrawing unexpectedly easily, before leaving the classroom. Shouri watched her back, inexplicably looking away. Shouri was getting tired of hearing other people say things about Kazusa these days. Kazusa is Kazusa. And Kazusa was his. And that’s okay, isn’t it? Whatever it was, he was bright, innocent, beautiful, but ephemeral.

“Oh, I forgot my apron.”

Shouri sighed again.

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