Day 3 - School

Despite winter's chill, the Dojima residence was nice and warm. This was mostly due to the centerpiece of the living room: the brand new kotatsu. It was so comfy that Yosuke was pretty sure he wouldn't move from it even to use the bathroom.

He should get up and walk around soon, though. His attention span simply couldn't handle working on this essay for much longer. The teacher had apparently assigned it as a last hurrah before the end of the term. He expected better from Ms. Sofue, but here he and Souji were, scouring their textbooks and the Internet for obscure facts about Mesopotamian statuary.

Yosuke groaned and set his head on the kotatsu table in a gesture of defeat. "I hate this," he complained.

Nanako blinked at him. She'd been drawing while they worked but now she stopped to frown at him. "You hate school?"

For some reason she sounded so sad that Yosuke had to diffuse it. Hate was a strong word, after all. "W-well, you know," – he waved a hand, his head still resting on the table – "I hate a lot of things. It's not really unique to school."

"I'm at school," Souji began to say.

Yosuke shook his head, causing the papers under his head to rustle. "That's not one of those things."

"And Chie's at school," Souji continued, "and Yukiko, and Kou, and Daisuke, and..." He went on and on, naming all sorts of things at school that Yosuke couldn't possibly hate.

Yosuke ignored him because he was facing Nanako, and her expression was preoccupied. She was thinking hard about something... It was curious.

All of a sudden, her expression brightened, as if the Junes commercial had come on. "Big bro!" she cried.

"—and the vending machines," Souji was saying, "and... hmm?"

Nanako bounced in her seat. "Yosuke-nii said he likes you!"

Now Yosuke jerked his head back from the table. "Wh-wh-wh-what?"

"You did!" she said. "You said... you hate school but you don't hate big bro, so... that means you like him!"

"C-come on, Nanako-chan," Yosuke protested. "If you don't hate something, it doesn't mean you like it! The world's not made of absolutes like that. Besides, that's not even what I meant."

"Oh," Souji said. "So you don't like me."

"I don't," Yosuke confirmed.

It got so quiet after that, Yosuke was sure he could hear the snowflakes falling outside.

"I see," Souji said a beat later, the exact same moment in which Yosuke realized what he'd just said.

"No no no no no," he said, frantically waving his arms. "I didn't mean that! Of course I like you, you're my best friend and, and... I mean I wouldn't be here if I didn't like you."

"Good," Souji said. That seemed to have appeased him. He wore a tiny little smile, and his eyes were bright like stars.

"Yeah," Yosuke said, relaxing now that the tension was eased. He picked up his pencil and turned his attention back to the essay. He wrote another couple of sentences.

"Because I really like you too," Souji went on.

Yosuke's pencil skittered across the page as he froze up. Because the way Souji had said that was... He glanced up for confirmation and—

"I knew it!" Nanako cheered.

—buried his face in his hands. He couldn't tell if he felt so warm from the kotatsu or something else. "Really, partner?" he whined.

"Really," Souji said.

Yosuke sighed, and mumbled, "Fine maybe I like you too geez."

Nanako's giggles made it worth the embarrassment.