During lunch break Dan went looking for his senpai. If he had come to school on that day, he wanted to see him. At least a little glimpse of him, just to know that he was alright.

Since senpai hadn't stopped smoking, not even though Dan had begged for him to stop, it was more than likely to find him from the roof. Within the school it was apparently the only place where he wouldn't be caught and it was also one of his favourite places where to hang out.

When Dan saw him, he was ready to call his senpai to let him know that it was just him and not someone who senpai didn't want to see. But before he opened his mouth, he noticed senpai was just lying on a spot where the sun shone. Perhaps he was taking a nap.

Quietly Dan went closer to him and crouched beside him. Senpai certainly looked cool, even when he was sleeping. It was probably better to let him sleep although Dan would have wanted to greet him and ask him how he was doing.

Then he noticed there was a magazine right next to senpai. According to the cover it wasn't meant for children, supposedly not even for young school boys. Slowly Dan took the magazine in his hand as he sat beside his sleeping senpai. For a while he just stared at the cover wondering if senpai really had interest in such things. It was possible that he did. After all, he was much more mature than most of the boys Dan knew from Yamabuki.

Cautiously he turned the pages and was rather shocked to see the content of the magazine. Of course he knew about the theme of the magazine, but it was completely different to merely hear about it than see the real thing by himself. The more pages he turned and the more he saw, the sadder he became. If this, a porn magazine, was what senpai liked reading, even at school, then he wouldn't have a chance, right? Although Sengoku-senpai had also told him that he was special to Akutsu-senpai, then would those words mean anything if this was what senpai enjoyed?

Dan was about to put the obscene magazine away but right then something was peeping from the middle of it. Because he was curious, he turned the pages to see what it was. And immediately he was highly surprised for it was a leaflet he had done about the boys in his class some time ago. Why would senpai keep such a thing between a porn magazine? And exactly where had he gotten it? Those leaflets were meant for Dan's classmates, not anybody else.

Because he hadn't had a look at the leaflet in quite a while, he decided to flick it through. At the end of it he had added a quiz that had questions about his classmates. Surprisingly it seemed like senpai had filled it in, at least that rough handwriting looked like his.

One of the questions was, "Who is the cutest girl in our class?", but the kanji for girl had been struck out and above it was the kanji for boy. The reply was "Taichi". His heart almost leapt into his throat as he glanced over the other questions and replies. His name or his characteristics were the most common replies to the questions he had come up with for the quiz.

Before Dan decided to have a quick look at his own introduction page, he glanced at his senpai who was still fast asleep. Somehow it was a very special moment to him as he picked a pen from his pocket and wrote a message to Akutsu on the page, which had a smiling picture of him and quite a lot of information about him. After he was done, he put the leaflet back in the middle of the magazine and put it where he had taken it.

"See you again, Akutsu-senpai. I'll be missing you desu," Dan said quietly. And he left the roof just before the school bell began to ring.

-x-o-x-o-x-o-x-o-x-

Eventually, when Akutsu woke up, a cloud was blocking the sun and he noticed he was hungry. He might as well get going home, there wasn't any reason to attend any classes that day.

He took the magazine in his hand and got up. When he looked down, he saw how the tennis club was practicing by the courts. He was too far away to see if Dan was also there. But he didn't want to go down there and find out even if he hadn't met the younger boy in a couple of days.

Rather deep in his thoughts, he took his cigarettes from his pocket and lit one. With his other hand he opened the magazine and looked for the right page from the leaflet hidden in the middle of the magazine. And he nearly dropped his cigarette when he noticed the handwritten text on that page.

Thank you desu. Please, call me or send me mail some time desu. (An arrow pointing at his contact information.) You're important to me, Akutsu-senpai.

Unfortunately, for the rest of the day Akutsu didn't know if he should be extremely ashamed that Dan had seen the magazine as well as the leaflet within it, or if he should be very happy because of the personal message Dan had written for him. Apparently he needed some time to think about it.

...to be continued?