7. Chapter 7 (1/2)

csilla: i'm pretty sure everyone will want to murder me for this ;-;

warning: feels.

i sighed, my cell phone muted while krul rattled on about something –i stopped paying attention- as i kept my eyes stealthy trained on my roommate, who was too involved in his game to notice. it's been eight months since yuu agreed to let me live with him. it was fun. every day was anything but boring, although i soon noticed this new arrangement

ought up a new set of issues with our friendship. awkward accidental walk-ins. awkward moments of getting caught taking peeks at each other. and yet, somehow we were able to move past it like nothing happened; although i could erase some of the walk-in moments, i was pretty sure a person should not be able to accurately undress their friend and know pretty much what's underneath. crap, i can feel my face heating up.

"..ika… goddammit, mika! i know you're on the other end!" krul's voice

oke through my trance and i fumbled to pick the phone back up then un-mute it.

"a-ah, sorry about that… i understand," i gave her a weak laugh and hoped she would believe me.

as if luck was on my side, "you do…? well, as long as you understand that's fine… don't forget the clock is almost up on your target," krul's reminder had me slumping in my chair.

"yeah, i haven't…" i mumbled before i hung up, behind me i could hear yuu pausing his game.

i felt his eyes on me before he finally asked: "you okay, mika?"

nodding my head, i was pretty sure of the answer –or at least i wanted to be 'okay'. a part of me had forgotten about my mission. a part of me wanted to leave things the way they were, but a part of me (the part that couldn't forget that i wasn't alive anymore) couldn't forget the guilt that ate away at me whenever i heard about the hardships in his life.

"what time are we supposed to meet everyone again?" i asked, hoping the sudden change in topic wouldn't be

ing up questions later, watching as realization dawned on my roommate.

i don't think i had ever seen yuu whip out his phone to check the time as quickly as he just did. his face paled before muttered weakly, "about ten minutes ago…"

"you're kidding!" i rose from my chair – like i said living with yuu was anything and everything but boring – and slid my phone into my pants pocket before i dragged him out the door.

we ran down the stairs, taking them two or three at a time, and when we could see the first floor in our sights, we both jumped down from the step we were currently on. i fumbled slightly, almost losing my balance, while yuu recovered quickly and was racing across the floor towards the door.

"hey, wait up!" i called out before i ran after him, making it over to him just in time for him to open the door. without worrying about falling on my face, i jumped down the stone steps and onto the sidewalk, which luckily was almost completely empty.

the laughing behind me made me forget about the irritated looks i was being given as my gaze traveled up the steps to see yuu walking down them. he was still laughing as we raced down the sidewalk, dodging slower-moving people on the way. his laugh was so infectious that even i couldn't stop my own from mixing with his. it sort of felt like we were kids playing…

our laughter finally died out as we came to the meeting place: the mall. the moment i found yoichi in the crowd, he waved us over and we mentally prepared ourselves for the teasing that was sure to come.

"finally~ were you going to make us wait all day, lovebirds?" shinoa snickered, playfully elbowing yuu in the side while mitsuba came over to my side, repeating the action.

"yeah~ we were beginning to wonder if you two were too tired… or something," i felt my face heat up and on instinct i backed away only to stumble slightly into yuu, which only helped promote the color in my face to become more prominent.

if my old self could see what i've learned after being around mitsuba and shinoa, he would no doubt turn tail and hide from these two. forever.

"you two couldn't have wait until later to do something like-"

"we weren't!" yuu whined, interrupting kimizuki, throwing his hands in the air – not that i could blame him for reacting like that: it was practically a daily thing our friends did, especially when we were late or leaving early from something.

seeing that their expressions still plainly said they still didn't believe it, i changed the topic: "so how's your sister doing?" i asked, turning my gaze onto kimizuki.

he seemed surprised by the sudden change, but replied nonetheless: "she's still not recovering as fast as the doctors would like her to… and the surgery is still going to happen unless she…"

as he trailed off, we all knew what exactly what he was going to say. mirai kimizuki was his twelve-year-old sister, who had been hospitalized since she was eight for a severe case of tuberculosis. she had been given the vaccine to fight off what remained, but the damage had been done. a part of the tb had infected enough of the marrow in her leg to render it useless without surgery. kimizuki had gotten himself tested as a possible marrow donor, but received the news that he was not a match. after that, everyone else (myself excluded) got their marrow tested to see if they were a match, but again: no one was a match.

"why don't we head inside? i think mirai wouldn't like us not enjoying ourselves," leave it to yoichi to

ing us off a sad topic, i envied him for that.

we headed inside, straight for the food court to get something to eat before discussing what we wanted to get. the girls wanted to tackle a sale together. yoichi wanted a new book. kimizuki wanted to get a new cd, which left me and yuu alone at the food court when they headed their separate ways.

"wanna just wander around and window-shop?" i glanced over at him as yuu stood up tossing his take-out into the nearby trashcan before i nodded my head, tossing my own trash away.

the mall was reasonably packed so we ended up walking side-by-side with little space between our hands. i couldn't help but notice the number of times they