CHAPTER 3 One of the other reasons Kusano did not like Yamashita was that the girl he was in love with was in love with Yamashita. Just like any other girl. It was all about Yamashita. Yamashita here and Yamashita there. EVERYTHING. Kusano threw the Math book in the wall for the fourth time. The clock had already past midnight, and Kusano was death tired of doing Maths all afternoon. The light from the table lamp was so sharp, it stinged in his eyes. While rubbing his eyes Kusano walked over to the bed, to then throw himself on to it and stare out the window. The sky was still light up, and the clouds were burning in red, orange and pink. He was never going to be able to sleep since he had ripped down his curtains four nights before. Shige had been complaining about the room being to dark, so Kusano had ripped down the curtains to make Shige shut up and sleep. Kusano rolled around in his bed to face the wall. At least it was darker, but the night air from the window did not reach that side of the bed. Kusano rolled around to face the window again. Looking down from the window, Kusano glanced at the schedule for the school day tomorrow. Volleyball tournament 2 hours… Math 45minsx2… Kusano blinked, English 45minsx2, meaning he would be working on the English project, and working on the English project meant that he would be working on the project with Miki. Even though he was in the same class as Miki, did not mean that he had been able to talk to her the past three days. Miki was one of the cutest girls at his age. Compared to all the pretty popular girlish girls Miki was quite a tomboy, but still she could look very elegant in a dress. That was what made her one of the popular girls, she could be a girlish girl if she wanted to. The weather was horrible the next morning. Rain, rain and utter rain. The rain drops were so heavy and big they could make you soak wet in only seconds. When Kusano had started to walk from his house it had not been raining, so he was not wearing a rain cloak. Because of the missing rain cloak his school uniform turned soak wet and heavy to walk in. Kusano knew the teacher would kill him for coming to class soak wet. Kusano met up with Shige by the school gate. Shige was wearing his rain cloak, a red one, and he also held a black umbrella over his head. “Where is your rain cloak, Hironori?” Shige asked and quickly held the umbrella over him. “It wasn’t raining when I left home” Kusano mumbled and started to walk towards the entrance door. The ground was wet and dirty, and the worms were coming up from the ground, avoiding to get drowned by the rain water. Some of the girls screamed as they saw a worm, and quickly got inside the school building. “GEE! Hurry up you lazy bum!” Shige shouted back at Kusano as he had walked up the stairs to the entrance door. Kusano rolled his eyes and walked a step up on the stairs— someone shoved him aside, causing Kusano to fall and land upon the dirty ground. Shige let out a small laughter as Kusano shouted some ugly words. Kusano blinked away the rain that kept hitting his face and sat up. “I am so sorry” Yamashita held out a hand to help Kusano up on to his feet “You okay?” Kusano frowned and took Pi’s hand “Besides that I am soak wet AND dirty… yeah!” Yamashita bit his lip and he really looked like he was sorry. “Ehm… look, let me take you to one of the wardrobes and you could borrow my clothes the first two lessons, and I could dry yours?” Kusano grinned, “And what would you be wearing?!” Yamashita hesitated for a moment and smiled, “I have gym the first two lessons, so I won’t need my uniform.” “Fine, fine~ let’s go and change… uniforms… before the lessons start” Kusano was not sure if Yamashita was joking or not, but he could not walk around in a wet school uniform either. “In here” Yamashita said and opened one of the wardrobe doors. Kusano entered the wardrobe and what met him was not a pretty sight. All of Yamashita’s class mates, changing. Kusano quickly turned to Yamashita and cleared his throat before talking, “You expect me to strip in front of all of them?” Yamashita giggled and walked over to his locker, starting to take his jacket of. “You’ll have to wait ‘til I’ve changed anyway, and by then…” Yamashita’s cheeks turned pink “we’ll be all alone.” Kusano raised an eyebrow on what Yamashita just had said and sat down on the bench with his back to Yamashita and his class mates. It passed another ten minutes before Yamashita’s class mates were done changing. Yamashita handed Kusano’s his own school uniform and sat down on the bench. “You really don’t have to wait for me to change” Kusano said and un-buttoned the last button on his school shirt. Yamashita blinked “Etto…” He stopped for a moment and started to fumble with his t-shirt “I’ll have to hang up your clothes after you’re done changing anyway, so I’ll wait.” “Same for me” Kusano replied and pulled his jeans of after he had taken of his shirt. But he had to admit he felt a bit uncomfortable knowing Yamashita was staring at him as he striped. Kusano glanced at his clock as he pulled Yamashita’s shirt on. It was kind of tight. He was already ten minutes late for class. “Don’t make my clothes dirty ne!” Yamashita laughed and handed Kusano the belt. “Will you come here with my clothes after class? I really don’t wanna change at the toilets” Instead of replying Kusano took his shoe on and of twice, and threw the schoolbag over his shoulders. “Sure” Kusano said as he started walking towards the door. “Talk to you later then, Hironori” Yamashita said and almost ran out to the gymnasium. The first two lessons Kusano had math, not one of his favourite subjects. He hated the teacher, and he hated the subject. The only plus the subject got was that he could spend most of the time talking to Shige (since the teacher let them go through the chapters in the math book all by themselves). Clearly the math teacher was one hour late this morning (because one of the wheels on his car rolled over a nail on his way to the school), so Kusano would not be punished for being late. “Where on earth have you been?” Shige asked as Kusano sat down on the chair beside him. “I got… Yamashita forced me to wear his clothes!” Kusano answered and bent his chair backwards, so it hung on its back feet. “Well… I couldn’t walk around in wet clothes either now could I?” Kusano added and noticed a red mark on Shige’s neck. “Eh, what is that?” “What is what?” Shige blinked. “On your neck!” Shige’s cheeks turned hot. “Ehm… well…” he bit his lip and lowered his voice “it’s… ehm… one of the reasons I don’t wanna be with Koyama anymore” “Be with like how?” Shige opened his mouth to answer, but he got interrupted by that the class room door got slammed up, and the math teacher entered the room. “Take your seats!” the math teacher shouted. Shige formed the word ‘later’ with his lips and turned around to face the blackboard. After the math lessons were over, Kusano hurried down to the wardrobes to get his clothes back on. When Kusano arrived at the wardrobes Yamashita was the only one left, changing. To be exact, Yamashita was only in his towel. “Pewh… you came” Yamashita said relived and placed both hands on his hips. “I was afraid I had to walk around in my towel the rest of the day” Yamashita walked over to where Kusano was standing and grabbed onto Kusano’s shirt. “Now, get out of my clothes…” It was the way Yamashita grabbed Kusano that made his stomach jump. It was at this moment, for the first time, Kusano realised how much taller Yamashita was then himself. Yamashita was about 3-4 cm taller then him, even though it seemed like 10. “I can change clothes myself thank you” Kusano snapped at Yamashita as he started to open one of the buttons on the shirt Kusano was wearing. Yamashita sent Kusano an unpleased glare and pouted “Sure you can, but hurry up ne! The lesson starts in 5 minutes” English lesson for 45 minutes x2. Kusano had been looking forward to the English lesson the whole week. Miki waved at him the moment Kusano entered the class room. His heart jumped and he could feel a sting of heat growing in his chest. “I told the teacher you were at the toilet—“ she started to giggle “Poohing” the giggling turned into hysterical laughter. Kusano grinned and sat down on the chair beside her and opened his English book. At first he did not remember what chapter they working with, but after Miki told him what chapter they were working with Kusano remembered. Sport. The teacher had given Miki and him the task that was about Volleyball. As for now they had written down over 3 pages with rules and general information about Volleyball. Since Miki was head over hills after Yamashita she had suggested that she and Kusano could interview him. After all, he was the best in Volleyball at school. For Kusano’s part, it meant that he had to talk to Yamashita, again. “You knock on the door and ask if we can talk to Yamashita-kun!” Miki commanded and hid herself behind Kusano’s back. “EH!!! Why can’t you do it?” Kusano asked and knocked on the door. “Because I’m a girl!” Miki answered and dropped the interview papers on the floor. Kusano started to laugh and bent down to help her picking them up. “Clumsy~” Kusano mumbled and knocked on the door again. “Yes?” the teacher had opened the door and looked quite angry. “Could we borrow Yamashita for a few minutes?” Kusano asked and looked into the class room. Yamashita was sitting in the back, by the window, staring out of it. His shirt was half open, and the arms were pulled up. “What are you gonna borrow him for?” the teacher snapped and glanced over Kusano’s shoulder to see who was hiding behind him. “For an interview” The teacher smirked and turned around “Yamashita! They want to interview you!!” Yamashita looked over at the teacher and took the pencil out of his mouth “Who wants to interview me?” “Some kids” the teacher cooked his head to where Kusano was standing. Yamashita looked over in the direction the teacher had cooked his head. He smiled at the sight of Kusano, and got up at once. While walking over to Kusano he fixed his hair a bit. “I’ll never get rid of you will I?” Yamashita whispered and closed the class room door behind them. Kusano could tell by the tune of Yamashita’s voice that it was irony. “Oh~” Yamashita said as he saw Miki “You weren’t alone” “Erm… no, it was her idea” Kusano replied and handed Miki (who was clearly blushing and mute at the moment) the pencil. Yamashita nod and took the hair behind his ear “Shall we go outside to the benches?” Both Kusano and Miki nod, and followed Yamashita out to the benches. Not to Kusano’s surprise he had to ask Yamashita all the questions. Miki did not dare to talk to Yamashita at all. She was sitting on the bench beside Kusano, with her feet up, writing down what Yamashita was saying. “Well, that was it” Kusano said and handed Miki the paper with the questions. “Ah okay…” Yamashita smiled and looked over at Miki “You okay?” Miki looked up at Yamashita and started to blush even more. She answered Yamashita with a nod and quickly walked back to the school building. “She likes you…” Kusano said and lent back so he could rest his back to the bench. It hurt so much to say that. Even how much Kusano liked her, she would always like Yamashita, and never look at him more as a friend. So why not help her a bit? Yamashita nod and lent back as well, staring at Kusano. It had stopped raining. The sun was shining now, but it was still blowing. Not as hard as in the morning though. The wind made Yamashita’s hair keep blowing into his face. “GAH! Irritating wind!!” Yamashita mumbled and walked in between the trees. Kusano followed Yamashita with his eyes. What was he up to anyway? “Come here for a moment Hironori~” Yamashita said lightly. Kusano shrug and walked to where Yamashita was waiting for him. Yamashita was smiling. “The wind doesn’t blow so hard here” he said and waved Kusano over to where he was standing. Yamashita was right; the wind was not blowing as hard as it did over at the benches. “You know—“ Yamashita started and looked into Kusano’s eyes “I’ve never actually been into girls” “And why are you telling me this?” Kusano asked, placing both hands in his back pockets. “No good reason…” Yamashita smirked and moved closer to Kusano. “Etto…” Kusano briefed the school yard to see if he could see anyone else. “I think the les—“ Kusano was not able to fulfil his sentence. Yamashita had bent down and sealed his lips with his own.