Author's Note: I love Haruhiko and don't get to write about him too often.
What made Akihiko so much better than me? My mind had drifted to that topic again. Sitting in bed at night it always did. Why did Misaki like him instead of me? I found myself tossing and turning in bed. I chucked a pillow out of bed and it landed halfway across the room. I was just as capable. I was even nicer than he was. He still liked that jerk over me. Everyone liked him better. They worried about him more and wanted to be his friend or marry him or whatever else.
In the morning walking around doing my routine check of all the authors I spotted Misaki running around delivering some papers. Since when did he work here? Every time he spotted me he always got some weird look on his face. Today I would leave him alone. I sat in the cafeteria picking at whatever it was I grabbed. I couldn't even remember now.
A tray plopped down next to mine. I looked up to see Misaki. "You seem unhappy today." The way he stared at people was so strong it was uncomfortable. Anyone could fall for him if they looked in those green eyes enough.
"It isn't anything you'd be able to help with." He bit his lip. Was he troubled by not being able to help? "I was just wondering why it is that everyone seems to like Akihiko better than me."
"That's probably not true. Your friends must like you lots." What friends?
"I don't have friends." Misaki looked down at his food.
"I'll be your friend. We just can't tell." Misaki got up and walked to the trash can. He dumped his untouched lunch and walked out. It was weird how some people could change you. When I first saw Misaki I felt nothing towards him. The more I saw him, the more it changed. I picked at my food some more and left for the day.
It was snowing. The sky was extremely light even though it was supposed to be dark by now. Misaki was in the courtyard making a snowman. He watched for awhile until his brother pulled up. He watched Akihiko go up to Usagi. "What are you doing?"
"Building a snowman." Misaki kept at what he was doing.
"Without gloves. I don't think so." Misaki frowned but got up and followed Akihiko to the car and then they were gone. Without thinking about it I put on my gloves and began to finish Misaki's snowman. It was extremely dark when I finally piled the huge snowballs on top of each other. I looked up to see Misaki with a box of stuff. He put his finger to his lips and walked over.
"I saw that it wasn't finished." I pointed to the snowman.
"That's why I'm here. It kept bothering me that I left it here. I figured someone knocked it over or something. I brought this stuff in case though..." I looked in the box. There was a carrot, a hat, and a scarf. There were also some rocks and sticks of different sizes. Misaki put all the finishing touches on the snowman and then took a picture of it. "Perfect." Misaki made me take a picture of him with the snowman and then he took one of me and one of us together. "When I get them developed you can have some. He waved and walked off in the direction he came in.
I woke up with a fever and a cold the next morning. I felt horrible, but in the afternoon my maid delivered an envelope. I opened it to find all the pictures from last night. I couldn't help but think it was all worth it to have a friend even if it was a secret. I put the picture in a frame and put it on my desk. The others I tucked away. I would keep the one of us together out.
I never really liked snow that much before yesterday. I hated it worse when I couldn't figure out why I was out alone building a snowman that I hadn't even cared about. When it was finished and I saw these pictures I was happy though. And while it snowed I couldn't stop looking out the window. For once in a long time I felt myself smile. I almost forgot how nice it was.
