12. Chapter 12 (1/2)

csilla: since i will be away this upcoming weekend, i finished up the chapter i was working on so i could post this one~ :3

it was now or never. i could do it. it should be easy to string three words together, right? so why was i having so much trouble?

"yuu, i-" a loud knock at the front door caused me to fumble over my words as i glanced over in time to see mitsuba opening the door, with shinoa flanking her side.

her eyes widened when she saw me, "mika? you're back?! why didn't you tell us he was coming back, yuu? well, whatever… talk about timing," lifting an unopened bottle of liquid -that from my current spot i couldn't tell what was beyond the glass- up with a pained smile, "we were going to have a get-together and drink to shiho…" her violet eyes watered and i lowered my eyes. i couldn't meet her gaze. i knew it was going to be hard to come back after disappearing, but i couldn't tell anyone else the truth. unless yuu…

i hesitantly raised my gaze only to meet his eyes, had he been watching me? my shoulders sagged as i played with that idea for a moment. if he had been watching me then what? did he want me to explain myself to them? did he want me to tell all of them the truth about what i did to kimizuki? the truth about myself?

after all the problems i gave him, he had the right to decide who knew the truth about me; i cleared my throat, "yeah… i was just telling yuu that-"

"he was just telling me that something came up back home and that's why he had to leave so suddenly… but he's back," i immediately turned my gaze back onto yuu as he went on to explain a phony family emergency i had not even a week prior when kimizuki had died, "…but he apologized for leaving without knowing what had happened… that's all, right mika?" his vi

ant green eyes glanced over to me for confirmation, which i gave with a slight nod.

"well, at least you're back… we were worried yuu was going to kick the bucket if you didn't return," yoichi appeared from behind both girls, who shared knowing smiles with each other.

shinoa grabbed the bottle that mitsuba had lowered somewhere through yuu's explanation and lifted it, "let's drink~"

"alright, we'll get the cups..." i felt myself pushed from behind by my roommate until we were both in the kitchen, isolated from the others.

i watched as he went about grabbing a handful of plastic cups –that looked like they wouldn't hold much of whatever the liquid was that mitsuba

ought- before i spoke up: "why did you do that?"

"do what?" he didn't even bother to spare me a glance as he checked the cleanliness of each cup, obviously trying to stall in any way he could.

i closed the distance between us until we were side-by-side, standing close enough to warrant a ton of teasing if anyone caught us like this. i kept my voice low, "why did you lie for me? i would have be fine if you thought they deserved to know the truth about me…" hoping it stayed leveled, despite the jitters bubbling around inside me.

"you make it sound like you're giving me the right to choose who knows and who doesn't" his low chuckle only made the jitters grow more excited inside me and my eyes reached out for his. his vi

ant green found mine and the humor he had put into the atmosphere disappeared immediately.

"i am, yuu" i whispered,

eaking eye contact afterwards to hesitantly move my hand closer to his. if he pulled away, i would accept it.