Chapter Thirty-Six: A Fresh Perspective

I slid open the door to my classroom and waited to let Ryou enter first. As expected, girls from every year swarmed around her desk. "I guess I'll see you at lunch, then," I said, ready for a return to the usual.

"Of course you will, but…" She took me by the hand and led me to her seat and gently but insistently pushed me into it. She then took my bag and put it at the usual spot by my desk. Then, as everybody watched, she came back and settled herself in my lap, my arms wrapping around her almost on their own. "Th-That's how it should be," she said with a playful grin over her shoulder as the girls around us squealed.

I blinked at her. Where had the shy, timid Ryou gone? I liked this new one, sure, but it would sure take some getting used to.

I watched as she did her tarot card readings. At first I felt a little twinge from a sad memory, but the feeling of her warmth in my arms and my lap made it seem like a distant memory…and maybe at this point it was.

The warning bell rang, and I wiggled my legs to get her to get up so I could go to my seat, but she just looked over her shoulder at me with a smile that sent my heart racing. "N-Not yet," she whispered.

"S-Sure," I whispered back. Where had the shy, timid Ryou gone? This would really take some getting used to!

Eventually the first bell rang, and Ryou finally got off of my lap, shooing the girls away as I hurried to my seat. The day had barely started, but I was already starting to see how different we were from when we left for summer break.

"The school looks so different now," Ryou said as we walked arm-in-arm during a break. "I know it's because I'm different than I was before then, but still..."

"I know what you mean," I replied with a smile. "Hey, let's check out more of the school during lunch; I'd kinda like to see if anything else looks different."

"Okay," she replied with a squeeze of my hand.

The day started to look more normal from that point, with Sunohara getting to class during third period and immediately going to sleep on his desk. As I watched him I felt something like annoyance but wasn't sure why, so I shook my head and returned my attention to the teacher.

At lunch I left him snoozing away to meet up with Ryou at her desk. "How about wandering around the old building for a while? After we eat, I mean?"

"That sounds good," she said as she took my arm and give me a shy smile.

As I held the door open for her to enter the old building I felt a sense of unease. "Huh. Weird."

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"I dunno," I admitted as she took my arm again. "Just…something doesn't feel right; like I'm forgetting something."

The minute I saw the door to the Reference Room, however, it all came back to me. "Miyazawa!" I yelled, and nearly dragged Ryou down the hall.

I slammed the door open, startling its lone occupant. "Miyazawa!" I yelled again, causing the girl to jump, losing her grip on her book.

"Tomoya-saaaaaan!" Yukine squealed as I picked her up by the waist and twirled her. "W-Welcome back!"

"Tomoya, what was that all about?" Ryou puffed as she entered the room. "You took off so…suddenly…."

I put Miyazawa back down; knowing that she was safe made me happier than I'd ever thought possible. "Ryou, this is Miyazawa Yukine; she's the one who was missing a few weeks ago! Pastor Jeff visited her family, and I went along, and now she's back, safe! Isn't that great?!"

"That's…really good," Ryou said as she studied our kouhai.

"W-Welcome to the Reference Room," Yukine greeted as she grabbed my arm and half-dragged me to the table before heading to the counter where her cooking supplies waited. "Would you like some coffee?"

"Thank you, I would," Ryou replied as she took a seat…in my lap.

"I'm glad to see you're safe," I said, a little more level-headed. "What happened?"

"I was kidnapped," she explained, her back still to us. "Apparently a bad man from America wanted to force a deal that my dad's company was trying to make, so he had me and some other kids kidnapped."

"How did you escape?" Ryou asked.

She paused in her movements. "A tall man named Knight-sama and his talking car rescued me and all the others."

"Wait a minute," I said, my head buzzing. "Was it a black car? With a red light on the front?"

"It was!" she chirped as she turned to us with mugs in hand. "How did you…know…?"

"I saw it when I was visiting your parents with Pastor Jeff," I said, the buzzing starting to go away. "In my mind, I mean."

"Th-That's interesting," she said, the mugs rattling as she set them on the table before straightening. "Tomoya-san? Are you and senpai…dating?"

"We are!" I replied cheerfully…then remembered our last interaction. "Oh. I-I'm sorry; do you, uh, want us to leave?"

"N-No, that's all right," she said as she settled into the seat across from us.

We drank our coffee in awkward silence, Ryou having moved to the chair next to me, and when it was time to leave I stopped her by the door. "Listen, could you go on ahead? I promise there won't be any funny business, but I need to set things straight with her."

"She's in love with you," Ryou said simply.

"Yeah, I figured," I replied with a heavy heart. "I'd just like to take care of some damage control, okay?"

She glanced into the room with a distrustful look. "All right Tomoya, but only because I trust you." The emphasis was not lost on me as she brushed her lips against mine again before heading back to our classroom, and I smiled at her level of possessiveness as I stepped back into the Reference Room.

"Listen, Miyazawa…" I rubbed my neck as she watched me with hesitant eyes, "…I didn't bring her here to rub your nose in anything, it's just that…well…our summer break was kinda exciting and we wanted to look around the school to see how our perspectives have changed."

"My summer break was 'exciting', too," she replied quietly.

"I'll bet," I said. "I really am glad you're safe."

She rose from her seat and approached me, putting her hands on my chest. "I wish you could have been the one who rescued me."

I took her hands and held them between my own. "Thank you. If I could have, I would have."

"I love you, Tomoya-san," she said quietly, a tear escaping from her cheek.

"I know," I said. "I'm sorry." Then something shifted in my perspective. "I do love you, just…not in the way you want. I'm sorry."

"How can you say you love me while you're with her?" she scolded as she pulled her hands from mine. "Are you into harems or something?"

How could I explain something I didn't fully understand? "I'm not sure how to explain it. I guess I see and appreciate your uniqueness…kinda like family, but not."

"Please leave, senpai," she said, folding her hands and turning her back to me. "I need to be alone for a while."

"Okay." I opened my mouth to apologize again, but thought that getting out was the smarter thing to do, so I turned and left, closing the door to the sounds of crying.

"OKAZAKI!"

"HUH?" I leaped from my seat to stand next to my desk."Yes, sir!"

"Pay attention, please!" the teacher barked.

"Sorry, sensei," I replied as I retook my seat amid a cloud of laughter.

As the teacher turned back to the board I looked over at Sunohara, still asleep in his desk. I hadn't seen him all summer, and it looked like he hadn't changed a bit; that really pissed me off. "Hey," I whispered, poking him in the side. "Wake up; loser now, loser always."

He simply grunted and shifted position.

"Hey dumbass, you're going to end up a taxi driver at this rate," I hissed, poking him again. "You're better than this."

"Let me sleep," he whined, shoving my hand away.

I was damn-near furious; this guy had mad skills in soccer, but he'd rather sleep his life away just because his own attitude came back to bite him in the ass? "WAKE UP!" I yelled, overturning his desk and him along with it. "What the hell is wrong with you?" I yelled at his blinking, terrified face. "You're awesome at soccer but you're letting life run you over! At least I can't play basketball because of my busted shoulder, but what's your excuse?!"

"Okazaki!" the teacher bellowed.

"You want to mooch off of some girl, huh? Well, what girl's gonna want your good-for-nothing ass!" I dropped down, straddling him and grabbing his collar to bring his face right in front of mine. "You're better than this, Yohei! You've been made for great things, but you're pissing it all away! Don't give up on yourself, don't give up on life, do you hear me?"

"O-Okazaki…" he gasped and I realized that I was holding his collar too tight.

"You don't have to be the best at everything," I told him as I relaxed my grip. "We've each been given different strengths and weaknesses, and it's our job to find out what they are and learn from them. Stop running away!" I yelled, shaking him.

"Tomoya!" I heard the voice of my girl cry out, and I felt a 'snap' from within me; not like I had broken something, but like I had been 'in the zone' and was coming out of it. I quickly released Sunohara, stared at my hands for a moment, then got to my feet and held out my hand to help him up. "S-Sorry about that."

"What's gotten in to you?" he demanded as he got up on his own. "Who the hell are you?"

Who was I? The 'Tomoya' from before wouldn't have cared whether he slept or not, and might have even had some fun with it, maybe involving a marker, but now… "I…I don't know…" I looked to see everyone staring at me with wide eyes, the teacher included. "I'm…going to go to the nurse's office…and then to the main office for whatever discipline is appropriate." I felt a little light-headed, so I leaned on the wall to keep from toppling as I headed toward the door.

"I'll go with him," I heard Ryou tell the teacher. "I want to make sure he gets there okay."

"Go ahead," I heard our teacher say.

"What happened back there?" she asked as we made our way down the hall. "I've never seen you so angry."

"I don't know," I answered honestly. "When I saw Sunohara sleeping, I felt angry and sad and frustrated, all at the same time. He has so much potential in him, but he's wasting it with his antics."

"You sound like Ashton-sensei," she remarked with a giggle.

I blinked; I sounded like Jeff? He was supposed to be my mentor for winning Ryou back, but…were there other ways that he'd influenced me?