The Kid With The Hair
As promised, Souji and Yosuke ended up at Souzai Daigaku after an awkward,silent walk. The heavy clouds hung menacingly over the whitewashed shopping district,making everything seem a hell of a lot more gray than it already was. A freezing breezehad just picked up. Nearby, two stern looking women chatted against the backdrop of ashop, closed down with the recent arrival of a certain superstore. Yosuke always had a pretty good sense of hearing (probably because he had to hear orders screamed from oneend of Junes on noisy afternoons at work), and could hear their hushed exchange."There…again.""How…manage…show his face?""I don't… ugh, is he looking at us?"The women turned their backs and lowered their voices."What's the matter, Yosuke? You look pale."Yosuke's head snapped up. "N-nothing. I'm just… getting goose bumps." Herubbed his arm nervously."The wind is pretty cold out here, isn't it?" Souji stated. "Well, maybe your croquette will warm you up.""It… isn't the wind." Yosuke glanced momentarily at the women, who wereglaring at him with such malice that even Souji shivered a little."… Yosuke, do you want to come home with me?Yosuke blinked at the strange wording of the inquiry. Glancing at the womenagain, he agreed, albeit shakily. Souji stood up, and started to leave; noticing that Yosukehadn't gotten up yet, he stopped. "What's wrong?"Yosuke got up, smiled, and shook his head. He reached into his pocket and pulledout a bizarre frog-shaped wallet—and produced a fair amount of yen from it. He handedit to Souji."Wha—""Well, I didn't touch the food, so I figured that it would be fair to pay you back."He winked and smiled, in the usual fashion. Souji couldn't help but join in. Together, theywalked, and everyone's disapproving stares just didn't seem to matter anymore."I'm home!" Souji shouted as he entered the Dojima residence, startling little Nanako, who had been engrossed in the television as always."Big brooooo!" she cried, "I told you not to do that!""Hey, it wouldn't scare you so bad if you weren't hypnotized by that television allthe time!""It's just a cool show- Yosuke!" Suddenly, with Yosuke's entrance, the quarrel between Nanako and Souji was forgotten. Nanako bounded up to Yosuke. "Are we goingto Junes today?"Seeing all that childish hope in her eyes made Yosuke very reluctant to say no."U-uh…""Sorry Nanako, I'm afraid we can't… we'll go some other time, okay?" Nanako sighed, nodded, and trudged back to her favorite floor pillow."Sorry about that, Yosuke. She gets so worked up about going to Junes, she talksabout it all the time…"Yosuke gulped, his eyes darting around the room. "It's-it's fine."
Why am I getting so anxious? I've been in his house before…
Yosuke's mind kept swimming as he followed Souji up the stairs.
It's weird. He's great around everyone. He doesn't get flustered when put on the spot, like I do…
He grimaced at the steps at front of him.
I get it. I'm jealous.
"Earth to Yosuke." He suddenly noticed a hand waving around in front of hiseyes. Watching the quick motion of Souji's hand made Yosuke quickly remember hisheadache. He squeezed the pressure point between his eyebrows and nodded. He had been so wrapped up in his thoughts that he didn't notice that they had reached the secondfloor already…"Ugh, sorry, my head hurts like hell."Souji laughed a little—even a little noise was enough to make Yosuke wince. "Nowonder you've been so out of it!" his face faulted suddenly. "Oh, sorry." Souji pushed thedoor to his room open. "Just stay in here, watch T.V. or something. I'll go downstairs andsee if we have something for headaches.""Thanks," Yosuke grunted, and unenthusiastically shuffled in. The muted colors of Souji's room were a welcome sight for the throbbing receptors behind his gradually blurring brown eyes. He literally fell onto the sofa, not caring that he looked like anabsolute tool with his limbs falling ungracefully onto the floor. He wasn't a graceful person. Souji was. Not bothering to move too much from his surprisingly comfortable position, heattempted to throw his hand to the table to fish for the remote like he always did at had underestimated the distance he had to reach from the couch and, thus, ended uplanding painfully on his left shoulder."Hey-um, Yosuke, you alright?""'M fine." He flung his arm onto the couch and attempted to lift himself up."Then why are you on the floor?" Souji asked, much like a mother would whenseeing her child doing something absurd."'Said 'm fine." Yosuke found it harder and harder to move… everything he triedto do to regain his footing ended up with him pathetically slumping back onto the roughcarpet."Yosuke, get a hold of yourself." Something grasped him by the arms, pulling himupwards. He felt himself relax against a soft cushion, his head falling against somethingthat was cushioned as well. His brain screamed. All he could see was this big, gray blur hanging over him, and it was saying something he couldn't understand…"Yosuke! Yosuke… I have a pill right here that's gonna help with the headache,okay? You'll feel better, just swallow this for me…"He didn't really understand, but he tried to take the pill… he coughed, andchoked, and nearly drowned when water was forced in to help him take it. But, iteventually went down. The pain dulled slightly, and his vision cleared a little… to see areally panicked Souji standing over him."Dear God, are you sick or something? You nearly gave me a heart attack!" Soujisputtered, rubbing his neck in anxiety."I-I dunno…" Yosuke whispered, quite truthfully fell to the seat next to Yosuke, breathing a sigh of relief. Yosuke's headlolled to the side to look at him. Souji rubbed his forehead."I think I know what happened. You must have had one hell of an anxietyattack… what was going on in that head of yours?""I… dunno." Yosuke repeated, still just as truthful as before.
"Well…" Souji huffed. "We have no choice but to wait and see if you haveanother one. Just try to relax for now…" He achingly reached forward, using that elusiveremote to turn on the television. They were playing some old movie from decades ago…some guy in a space suit was floating through the halls of some space station, while someeerily calm voice playing from the speakers repeatedly asked him to stop… Yosuke stillcouldn't understand much, but from what he could gather… the movie was really, reallytedious. Even Souji was starting to shift around in his seat."Stop it, Dave… Stop it Dave." The computer's voice from the movie cooed."What the hell is this?" Souji said, his eyebrow cocked. "Looks American."Yosuke strained to look at the flickering picture on the television. He was soexhausted that he couldn't hold his head up, so he resorted to leaning on Souji's shoulder for support, so incoherent that he didn't entirely realize what he was doing. Souji didn'tseem to mind; in fact, he leaned his head on Yosuke's in turn after some awoke to the light of an orange afternoon sun gleaning into his eyes from between the parting clouds. His head still buzzed horribly, but at least he had the mentalclarity to realize whom he had been sleeping on. Yosuke felt his ears movie had long since ended; now some weird thing about cowboys hugginghad taken its place. The sheer length and lack of interesting content must have put Soujito sleep… but why did Souji let Yosuke sleep on him in such a position? They were justfriends, after still, after all that Souji had done for him, he felt like it would be best to lethim you can imagine, it has to be monotonous to stay in one position for a long position of time, so Yosuke had to come up with things to keep himself mentallyoccupied, since the movie brought up way too many personal epiphanies that he'd rather not deal with at that moment. Yosuke's mind drifted from one topic to the next—fromSaki-sempai to Morooka to the TV world to Shadows to Morooka's homophobia back toSaki-sempai and then arriving, oddly, at the impeccable state of Souji's hair.
Why is it so soft? He has to use a metric shitload of gel on it…
He mentally likened it to a helmet. He imagined a Shadow launching itself atSouji, who bends down and blocks the attack with his hair. Yosuke couldn't 's eyes fluttered open, and lifted his head. Lazily, he mumbled, "Why're youlaughing?""Oh, um, I was laughing at… the movie!"Souji rubbed his eyes and looked at it. The woman, apparently the wife of thecowboy-hat wearing man, was screaming at him for being caught with another man."You were laughing at
that?
""Well, um, no, to be honest, I was—it's hard to explain…"Souji smiled. "C'mon, at least try.""Well, uh… your hair kinda… reminded me of a helmet, and, I thought how—"he snorted, and broke out into giggles. "Sorry, I—""You imagined me fighting a shadow with my hair, right?"Yosuke guffawed. "Yes! How'd you know?""Chie thought the exact same thing."