It's Tuesday morning, but for the life of me I can't think about anything except Monday night. The night I finally made up my mind, the night the floodgates burst open, the night everything fell into place. I can't wait to see Makoto again. Now that I know how I feel, nothing and no one can stop us from loving each other.

I climb into the bath, trying to harvest some sort of shadow from last night. I let my mind run free, throwing images and feelings around the same way a child with too many toys starts hurling them everywhere. I see Makoto across from me, I see him out the window, I see him standing in the bathroom. And eventually my mind breaks free of the bathroom altogether. I see him at school, being all studious, maybe with those glasses on if he's a bit tired. I see him in the pool, swimming his hardest, muscles bulging with strain. I see him in a bedroom, sitting with me, playing some sort of video game. His fingers work the buttons like the controller's an extension of his hand. They flit about gracefully, but powerfully. I'm so transfixed, I forget about the game, and he wins with no effort. He turns to me, and I get lost in the expanse of his eyes. Haru, focus! It's no fun winning easily! He draws closer to me and pushes me back flat on the bed. Not always. We lay flat against one another, mouths reaching for any patch of skin they can find. I rip his shirt open, but I end up throwing the buttons of us really care. He just responds in kind and we have a whole new field of searching.

"Haru? You're in the bath again? We have to get to school!" The voice of the real pierces through my imagination, and I'm torn back to the present. He pushes his way in. "I'm not getting in today." The way he says it, I know he wants to. He's just too responsible.

I don't bother giving him a chance. I stand up and climb out, reaching out and wrapping my arms around him. He submits from surprise as much as anything and I force us against each other. The impact dislodges some of the water from my hair and it trails down my face, my neck, along my chest and all the way down into the swimsuit I wish I hadn't worn. The water from my body wets his shirt, and the material's so thin it turns transparent in the morning sun, revealing hard muscle underneath. "I don't really want to go to school today." I pull my mouth up to his ear and whisper straight into it. "Staying here with you sounds a lot more fun."

He's stronger than I am, so he pushes out effortlessly. "We can't afford to just miss days haphazardly, Haru! Don't you want to get into a good university?"

"If you're there with me, I'd go anywhere."

"What do you even want to do after we finish school? We can't just swim forever."

The question catches me off guard. "I don't care about that right now. The future should be worried about in the future."

"But that's not the future, Haru! It's practically now!" He grumbles, realising that his argument isn't going to get anywhere with me.

"I get it." This is important to him. I kiss his cheek as I walk past. "I'm getting dressed."

So I do, and I eat quickly because in a fit of foresight I cooked breakfast before I got in the bath. We suddenly we're on our merry way. It's only 8, so we have about 15 minutes to get to school. For once, we might actually be on time. I stare out at the ocean as we walk past it. It seems to be happier today than it normally is. The waves are more energetic, and it's sparkling really brightly. "What are you looking at?" The voice that I'm addicted to runs through my brain.

"Take a look at the ocean. Doesn't it seem happy to you?"

He stares at it, intently. "It does, doesn't it? It's time like these that I can forget how terrifying it can be."

I smile at him. "It won't be terrifying if we're together." The words hang in the air between us.

And we both realise we've stopped walking, so we start again at double the pace, trying to salvage some of that "maybe we'll be on time" that we set out with. We make it school with about a minute to spare. Everyone's already gone in, and the courtyard's completely deserted.

I turn to Makoto. "I can't believe we're on time." I push up onto the balls of my feet and kiss him square on the lips in celebration. "Let's see if we can't be on time to homeroom."

We start walking in, when a voice chirps up from behind us and proves that the courtyard wasn't so deserted after all. "Makoto-senpai?"

I hear my name called, and I turn around, as you do. Gou's friend is standing there… I can't manage to remember her name, but I know she saw that kiss. I feel sort of guilty. And I only feel guiltier when I see what she's carrying. She has a bentou box, wrapped in a heart-patterned handkerchief. A little card pushed under the knot reads 'To Makoto-senpai.' My heart sinks while my head connects the dots. I direct a little smile to Haru. Go on ahead. I'll be up in a minute, it says. He hears it, like I knew he would, and walks off with a brisk nod.

"Don't think you have to say sorry."

I'm taken aback. "Don't I, though?"

"Not at all." She smiles and for the life of me I can't think of what her name is. "I've only got a crush. You two have known each other for forever. It'd be selfish of me to want you to apologise."

"I'm glad to hear that. But, you know, I'm sorry anyway. Sorry that you had to see it like that, and sorry that I can't return your feelings."

"I'm fine with it, really."

"I'll still eat your bentou, if that'll make you happy."

"What, this? It's a culinary tragedy anyway. I thought squid was meant to be easy to cook!"

"Sounds like you cook as well as I do." We laugh, somehow sound in this common trait.

"Thanks for offering."

"It's the least I could do. This must cut pretty deep."

"It's fine, really! I mean, I was ready for the possibility. And if I had to get rejected by someone, I'm glad it was by you."

"Thanks, I guess?"

"You know how to put a woman down gently. It's that softness that I liked about you in the first place." She looks down briefly, but it only takes a second for her to meet my eyes. "But, I can't change the way you feel. So, I hope you can be happy. Both for your sake and for the sake of the relationship we couldn't have. I'll find someone. I'm still young." She smiles at me and I can feel how strong she is. To be able to say this sort of thing with the kind of honesty I can see in her eyes after finding out your crush is with someone else (another guy, no less) means this girl has some serious steel.

"Can I ask you a favour?"

"Keep this all a secret, right?"

"Got it in one."

"I wouldn't dream of telling anyone something like this. It's yours and yours alone to tell."

I smile at her. "You're going to make some guy very happy someday."

She blushes. "What makes you say that?"

"You're mature. You're responsible. You're optimistic. You're willing to cook, even if you're as much a Disaster Chef as a Master Chef. You're bulletproof, if the way you dealt with this is any indication. And you are pretty cute. What more could a guy want?"

"A different gender, apparently."

"And a sense of humour with it!" We both laugh and I feel so guilty that I can't think of her name.

"See you around, then, Makoto-senpai!"

"Thanks for everything."

"For what?"

"For having a crush on me, for keeping this a secret, for not freaking out. I couldn't have asked for you to take this better."

"Such is the creed of the teenage girl!" And with that, she runs off, waving at me as she goes.

I walk up to homeroom and arrive just as the bell rings. I quickly take my seat and get ready for the whole stand-bow-sit thing, nodding to Rin as I rush past. Arranging my books on the table to try and make myself look busy, Haru and I lock eyes by coincidence. I can feel myself drowning in the ocean behind his irises, and it's not even the smallest bit frightening. "What did Chigusa want?"

I snap my fingers the way you do when you have a lightbulb moment. "Chigusa. Chigusa Hanamura. That's her name."

"You forgot?"

"Yeah. But I'll tell you the whole story later."