Yuusuke's hair was indeed wet in its own way, so before they could slip into something more appropriate for a dinner date in downtown Chiba, Yasutomo dried and brushed it for him.

"You want it styled?" he tucked a lock behind Yuusuke's ear. "We still got time…"

"Can you do the one that looks like it's woven, sho?" Yuusuke looked up.

"Lattice braid?"

"Yeah, that one, sho!"

"So it would match your jacket, right?" Yasutomo began separating his locks with a grin. Yuusuke paused.

"What would you have picked, sho?"

"Waterfall or fishtail braid. You look real nice in both…"


With some difficulty, Yasutomo coaxed Yuusuke's red streaks into a spiral lattice pattern that matched his chosen outfit perfectly. Nothing could stand in their way now: they were soon fooling around the mall, trying on accessories and browsing ridiculous trinkets (including a tacky heart-shaped swirly straw that Yuusuke just had to have for his collection), until it was time to occupy their reserved booth at the nicest restaurant in the mall.

For the birthday boy, cake was included. The sparks of the fireworks danced in his eyes.

"Make a wish…" smiled Yasutomo. Yuusuke paused, took a deep breath, and blew.


"Well?" Yasutomo turned to Yuusuke, his finger still hovering over Confirm on the selection screen of the purikura machine. "Whatchu in the mood for, birthday boy? Gross? Cool? Artsy?"

"Actually…" Yuusuke scratched his flushed cheek with a finger, "how about a nice one first, sho?"

"A nice one?" Yasutomo smiled in encouragement. Yuusuke hummed.

"Just us smiling, so I can show others, sho…"

Yasutomo stared at him wide-eyed, then broke into a grin that made his cheeks ache. He hit Confirm and pulled Yuusuke inside the booth, where their smiles soon turned into grins, surprise kisses, and a flustered embrace.


They made several copies of their masterpiece, and after a few more rounds, Gross included, Yasutomo and Yuusuke returned to his mansion for the night…

"Where are you taking me, huh?" Yasutomo teased as Yuusuke pulled him into a remote hall.

"Someplace comfortable, sho," replied Yuusuke, who led Yasutomo inside a pristine room with a king-size bed. "This is normally a guest room, sho…"

"Oh? What about tonight?" winked Yasutomo, then squeaked as Yuusuke shoved him onto the bed and crawled on top of him.

"Tonight it's a sex dungeon, sho," he replied matter-of-factly.

Yasutomo snorted and pulled him close.


END NOTE:

Once, and only once did Toudou ask Yuusuke what Yasutomo was like in bed, to which Yuusuke replied, "He's a true assistant, sho. He took me to the peak, jammed me across the finish line and came second, sho..." As he said this, Yuusuke's expression became indescribable, not in the way the Mona Lisa's smile seems mysterious, but in the way Lovecraftian horrors defy our human capacity to define them.

Toudou never asked about his sex life again.

As for Yasutomo, the next day he returned to the dorm as radiant, if not even more effervescent, as the night he and Yuusuke kissed for the first time. He walked in with the words, "you have all been blessed," and by the next morning, he found no less than a dozen thank you messages piled onto his cooler, including a tear-stained two-page letter from a girl who no longer needed her bulky bifocal glasses.

And with this chapter, we've finally done it - the longest companion piece later, we have arrived at the much hinted-at second-year Inter-high, which I had written as early as May, and have been casually editing ever since. Please stay tuned, and thank you so much for reading!