It was Friday afternoon. Classes at Gakuen had ended for the day. Izumi and Sekime were walking to the dorms together, a rare thing because usually after school, Izumi had high jumping.

"How's your shoulder?" Sekime asked, nodding hello to a few classmates as they walked past.

At the mention of his shoulder, Izumi rolled it around experimentally. "It still aches," he said, hissing slightly under his breath. "But it's getting better. I can put more stress on it."

As he talked about his shoulder, Izumi remembered why he'd gotten it injured. He'd been talking with his captain as they walked through the roads towards a famous restaurant, and a car had skidded past them, narrowly missing the team captain. But Izumi had shoved him aside at the last second. The momentum of his shove had carried him forward into the asphalt and Izumi had dislocated his shoulder badly.

That had been one of the worst times of my life, he thought. I couldn't high jump and I was in so much pain. But on the other hand, I saved the captain. He'd been grateful since.

"That must've stunk badly," Sekime was saying as Izumi tuned out his thoughts. "Imagine what would happen if Nakatsu broke his leg. Then he wouldn't be able to play soccer, and he'd bitch about it. What's so great about soccer, anyway?"

"Maybe he just feels something that you and I don't," Izumi replied absently as they reached the dorms.

The two students said good-bye. Sekime told Izumi that he and Noe were going to a dance club nearby, and he offered him an invitation. Izumi refused. He used homework and the lack of sleep as his excuses. Then the two boys headed in the directions of their own rooms.

Izumi trudged to his dorm. He stopped in front of the door, unlocked it, and thrust it open. His room was fairly neat—the bed hadn't been made, the closet had clothes halfway in and halfway out, papers were strewn across the desk.

Well. It's as clean as it'll ever get. He made a mental note to tidy up his room sometime.

Izumi shut the door. He dropped his bag on the floor by the foot of the bed, and then grabbed the bottom of his uniform and pulled it over his head, undressing. "I need a shower," he mumbled. He liked taking showers. Often, he would go in and blast the water as hot as he could stand. The heat soothed his muscles. He made his way into the bathroom and closed the door behind him.

For a full thirty minutes, Izumi stood naked in the shower, the water drumming onto his skin. One thing he liked about not having a roommate was that he had the shower all to himself. He could take the longest showers. Sometimes Izumi could go forty minutes under the water before the tips of his fingers started shriveling up like prunes.

As he scrubbed the soap bar over his body, Izumi hummed a tune he'd heard earlier in the day. It was a J-Pop tune, one that had played over the radio. It was really quite upbeat and flashy, and normally Izumi wouldn't be caught dead singing a song under his breath, but it was still stuck in his head and he couldn't get it out.

Finally, the water had pounded out all the tension in his back. Izumi sighed in relief. He shut off the water and reached for the fluffy white towel, drying off his wet hair first, following with his body. "Mother used to always say that drying your hair would prevent you from getting a cold overnight," he said to no one in particular.

That statement brought a pang in his chest. Izumi missed his mother. She had died in a car accident when he was in junior high, and even though his father had walked out of it alive, Takehiko Sano still blamed himself constantly for his wife's death.

As time went on and he grew even more depressed, he began to channel his anger towards Izumi and his younger brother, Shin, by forcing them to jump higher and higher. The two brothers had both been high jumping at the time. While Izumi's body had matured and he could handle the high jumps, Shin was still in middle school, and his body couldn't handle the extra push. Takehiko became enraged with both Izumi and Shin. The night finally came where Izumi could take it no more, and he ran away, to a friend's house, where he stayed until the week of graduation. Afterwards, Izumi had come here, to Osaka Gakuen.

I haven't seen Father and Shin since, thought Izumi as he pulled on a pair of plaid boxers. I wonder how they are…

Then anger welled up inside of him. "Father can be such a heartless bastard," he muttered, reaching for the door knob angrily and opened the door. "He doesn't deserve to be called my father—"

He faltered mid-sentence, and then the rest of the words unspoken on his tongue as he stared at the boy in his room.

It was boy he'd never seen before. His back was to Izumi, but upon hearing Izumi's words, he'd turned around, a friendly smile on his face, which was unusually feminine and pretty. "Hi!" he said cheerfully. "You were in the shower, so I thought I'd settle myself." And that was what the boy had done. He'd been opening one suitcase out of the four he'd brought with him.

"Uh…" Izumi gave him a look. "What are you doing in my room?"

"This is your room? Great, then! I'm your roommate!" The boy laughed and danced forward to shake Izumi's hand. "My name is (Surname) (First Name)."

"Roommate?" echoed Izumi. He draped the wet towel on the back the chair by the desk and walked over to his closet, digging through it for a shirt. "I wasn't informed that I would get a new roommate."

"Really?" (Name) sat on the bed, his feet dangling above the ground. He swung them energetically. "I was told that this would be my room. This is Dormitory 2, right?" When Izumi nodded, (Name) grinned. "Yeah, then. This is my room."

Izumi finally found a shirt, a white button-up T-shirt, and he slipped into it. His fingers worked the buttons as he turned to face (Name). "Weird…" he murmured.

(Name) had a boyish hair style that covered his ears and spiked up on the top of his head. His hair was chestnut brown and when Izumi looked closer, he could see a few streaks of reddish-brown. He was small and slender, with no apparent muscles Izumi could see.

But (Name)'s face was strangely pretty. It was angular, with high cheekbones and smooth skin, unmarred by acne like so many of the boys here at Gakuen. He had full lips and big, (color) eyes, as big as saucers. They were sparkling with excitement and friendliness and almost immediately, Izumi thought of Nakatsu.

The two would make great friends, he thought.

"So you're another pretty boy, huh?" Izumi said, staring him down. "You look like a girl in boy's clothing."

(Name)'s smile froze for a second. Then he laughed, his cheeks reddening. "Yeah, I guess you could say that," he said. "My friends make fun of me for it. That, and the fact that I have a woman's name."

Just then, the door opened and Nanba stuck his head in. "Good! You two are talking!" he said, opening the door and letting himself in. He turned to Izumi. "I see you met (Name)."

"I just did, actually," said Izumi. He glanced at (Name) and was surprised to see his face now looked like a thundercloud.

If Nanba noticed too, he didn't let on. "He's going to be your new roommate, Izumi. You were the only one who didn't have a roommate in Dorm Two, so we put you in with him," he continued smoothly.

"Ah."

(Name) hadn't said a word. He glared at the wooden floorboards, his hands fisted in his lap. His bottom lip was caught in his teeth. Izumi found that strangely feminine.

He turned to Nanba and said, "(Name)'s in my grade, I assume?"

Nanba nodded. "He'll be starting class with you on Monday. I thought that you and Nakatsu, and the rest of you guys could give him a tour, let him know what's what and where's where here at Osaka Gakuen." It was as if Nanba had all this planned out before he came here. He was smiling and nodding slightly, like he could persuade Izumi to do his bidding if he kept nodding.

Izumi sighed. He knew there was no way to deny Nanba. Nanba never took no for an answer, and besides, (Name) had already started settling in. "All right," he said wearily, adding the tour to his mental list of To Do Things. "I'll make sure to do that."

"Faaaaaantastic." Nanba grinned. "Thanks, Izumi, you're a great help. I'll catch you later, all right?" Then he gazed at (Name) and added, "Take care, okay, (Name)?"

"You can count on it," (Name) replied hoarsely, not looking up from his death glare on the floor. Nanba's grin faded a little, but he winked at Izumi before closing the door.

Wonder what's going on between those two, Izumi thought. (Name) took a few seconds to make sure Nanba was gone. Then he looked up. A bright smile had been plastered back into place. "I'm glad he's gone," he said. "Nanba-sempai can be such a pest."

"Tell me about it," Izumi murmured. Then he sank into his chair, leaning his head back. "Okay. You can get the top bed, okay, (Name)? The bottom one's for me."

"Fine by me." (Name) scratched his knee. "I love top beds, anyway."

A pregnant silence passed between the two.

Then (Name) said, "I hope you take good care of me."

He'd looked up as he said it, his eyes trained on Izumi. For a second, Izumi didn't know how to respond. That sentence had sounded strangely feminine coming from (Name)'s lips. Actually, everything about him seemed feminine, Izumi realized.

Then he cleared his throat and said, "Don't worry. I-I'll take—ahem—great care of you."

(Name) laughed. Was it Izumi's imagination, or was that a blush lingering on his cheeks. Then it was gone, and (Name) had stood up suddenly. "I'm going to take a shower, if that's okay," he said.

Izumi nodded. "Sure, go ahead." (Name) grabbed a handful of clothes, strode over to the bathroom, and shut the door behind him. A moment later, Izumi heard the lock click.

Closing his eyes, Izumi let out a long exhale. It would be a long night, he thought, today and everyday for the rest of my life here at Osaka Gakuen. He climbed to his feet and turned to his overly messy desk. "Better get this cleaned up, then," he said. He could hear (Name) running the water inside the bathroom.

(Name), he thought. What a strange roommate.

What a strange name for a guy.