A Morning That Won’t Lift
When he woke up in the morning, he saw the plain white ceiling that annoyed him, and he got up feeling fed up.
Yuuki forced his heavy body upright and started getting ready to leave the house as quickly as possible.
He looked at his face reflected in the mirror. It was a mask with no expression at all. A face that looked dead. He splashed it with water to shake off the sleepiness, then went back to his room.
He put on his uniform and finished preparing for today’s classes.
After checking that he hadn’t forgotten anything, he tried to leave the house since there was no point in staying here, but he heard footsteps coming from the living room.
“Yuu, Yuukun. You won’t eat breakfast, right?”
Aika said that as if testing his mood, but Yuuki didn’t even acknowledge her. He finished putting on his shoes, placed his hand on the front door, and stepped out toward the freedom outside.
Just before he closed the door, he thought he heard his younger sister Rei’s voice too, but he had no need or obligation to respond, so he closed it and started walking.
The meeting place with Yume was the same convenience store as always, so it didn’t take long to get there.
Yuuki took a deep breath before heading toward the convenience store so Yume wouldn’t notice the anxiety and worries he’d been feeling these past few days.
At that moment, he felt someone watching him and looked back, but no one was there. He looked around, but still saw no one.
He wondered what that was about and stopped walking to think. It might be possible that Saya had come all the way here, or maybe he was just overly sensitive because he’d been carrying worries these past few days. There were other possibilities too, but those two felt the most likely.
Thinking that Saya might really be nearby, he quickened his pace toward the convenience store where Yume was waiting.
As the familiar meeting place came into view, Yume must have noticed him because she jogged over to him.
“Good morning, Yuuki-kun. You’re a little early today.”
“…Good morning.”
Yume said he was a little early, but it was only a few minutes. The difference wasn’t much. Still, for her, even those few minutes were precious time she could spend with Yuuki.
“Yuuki-kun, what’s wrong? Did something happen?”
“…”
He wondered if he should tell her about what happened earlier, and he still hadn’t told Kyousuke or Yume about yesterday’s situation with Saya either.
He wondered if this was the right thing to do, but if he talked about it here, he’d only cause trouble for them again.
After wrestling with it in his mind, he ended up not telling Yume.
“I’m fine.”
That was all he said.
Seeing Yuuki like this, Yume felt a sense of danger she had never felt before.
“Are you really okay?”
“Yes.”
He raised his voice just a little when he answered, so she wouldn’t worry any further.
But to Yume, the way he said it only looked painful.