We weren't normal teenagers. Life and death hung in the balance around every corner. We fought with our lives on the line. I knew I was going to die. The cold reminded me every minute. I could feel it seeping into my bones and freezing the marrow into something that would break. The cold was a poison, and it ate away at everything.

I didn't think she would be the one to go. I didn't think she would die first. I was old. I was sick. I was weak. She was none of those things. She was a miracle.

September 18

When I woke up that morning the sky was gray. The typhoon was coming. Remember? I talked about that the other night when I went out with her and the dog. I took Koromaru out again for a walk early in the morning, while getting some groceries. When I got back, everyone was home from school except for Minako. God knows what she was doing that day, but she didn't make it home before the storm hit.

Every inch of her was covered in water by the time she'd walked through the door. Iori got to her first.

"You weren't quick enough, huh?"

No shit, Sherlock. The girl was shivering, her teeth chattering. She needed to get some bed rest but everyone else was just crowding around her giving her a news report.

"So how are you gonna spend your break?" Iori asked her. I pricked my ears to the question despite my annoyance.

"I have plans," she answered. That little smile on her face. It was the first time that smile had annoyed me. It was also the first time I'd realized that she used it as a way of hiding how she felt. She was shivering, had heavy bags under her eyes, and was being denied a hot shower by a bunch of idiots trying to make conversation she probably didn't even want. She should have been yelling at them to get out of her way, but she was indulging their insanity. I was too stunned to even acknowledge the fact that she had plans with someone.

Every inch of her was soaked with fatigue. I could smell it in the air. See it on her clothes. Hear it in her voice. How could everyone else have been oblivious as they talked around her. She'd barely said a sentence since she'd walked in. Maybe she saw me looking at her, because she stared straight at me and smiled. She put her fingers in front of her lips, tapping twice. Shhh...It's okay.

A behind-the-scenes girl? Yeah, right. I kept my mouth shut. The group kept going on and on about their plans for the long weekend. It took a while but Ken finally decided to go back to his room and everyone else dispersed. She slept for 2 days.

Aegis watched her at night. The robot thought no one would notice, but I saw her when I went to go check on her the first night. She stayed all night like some sort of creep. I wasn't much better.

The day after the typhoon hit, she didn't come downstairs at all. Aki seemed worried about her, and sent Fuuka up to check on her. When she ran back down, her face was stricken. "Minako... She...She's sick!"

"She's what?" I couldn't believe my ears. It looked like no one else could either. The girl was a machine. She had perfect grades, was at the top of her class, in 4 clubs, the library committee, and the student council. Combined with the fact that she could probably handle an entire block of Tartarus by herself, it didn't seem possible that she could ever be tired or sick.

"What are we going to do?!" Fuuka was panicking. She looked about ready to cry.

Mitsuru called everyone back to order. "It would be unwise to go to Tartarus without her. The situation is not dire. The next couple days are holidays so she'll stay in bed and rest. Yamagishi will keep an eye on the Lost and Tartarus. Takeba and Akihiko will take over the duties of walking Koromaru. Iori will continue to watch over the patient in the hospital. Aegis and I will take turns keeping an eye on her and making sure she's resting. Is everything clear?"

Everyone nodded silently. She'd seemed to skip over me in her duties, but I'd already had something planned. I was needed in the kitchen.

It's a well-known fact that the sick still needed to eat. She would need three healthy meals a day if she was going to get better. I got to work. An hour later, I was knocking on her door. Mitsuru answered. "Shinjiro? What do you need?"

"I made her some food. I can take over watching her for now." Mitsuru took a step back in shock.

"What? Are you certain?" I nodded, and something clicked in her head because she nodded quickly and gave me a warm smile. "Then take good care of her Shinjiro."

I almost wanted to stop her and tell her it wasn't what she was probably thinking, but what was the point? It was exactly what she thought.

Minako's room was bright. There was a little sink and a little fridge in the corner. A desk that held her backpack and notebooks for school stood beneath the window. She was being squished under a million sheets, her hair a fan on the pillow. I'd never seen her without the ponytail, and she looked strange: younger.

"Look at you, idiot. Getting sick, and making everyone else worry." I set the bowl down on her nightstand, watching her face. "Now I have to come in here and take care of you. Do you know how much trouble you're causing?"

"No..." She mumbled. Her lips were cracked; her face pale. I've never seen her look more unattractive, but in that second, I was captivated.

"What...?"

"Minato..."

The name had made my blood run cold. Minato. I should've known back then, but it never occurred to me. I was too jealous to see reason, too blinded to think clearly. I just kept thinking she was with some other guy and it pissed me off. It didn't really matter who he was. It just bothered me that she would dream of someone, and that someone wasn't me. It hurt like hell.

"Minato...Don't leave me." Thinking back I acted like a kid. It wasn't important who she was talking about. She was sick. I had a job to do. I fed her the soup slowly, pulling her head into my lap. She seemed to resist at first, but she swallowed it soon after. When the bowl was empty I moved her gently back onto her pillow.

I made her more soup a few hours later but she didn't say anything else. Her face looked like it was convoluted in pain. I kept wondering what she was dreaming about and how could I help her. I wanted to protect her from these nightmares that I didn't understand. But more than anything, I wanted to know Minato was. It clawed at me.

The next morning Aegis told everyone that she still hadn't woken up. I made her something early. No one else was awake. When I came back downstairs, I noticed Fuuka sitting in the lounge, watching TV.

"Hey."

"Sen-senapai!" She jolted a little when she realized I was talking to her. "What can I do for you?"

"Do you know a guy named Minato at your school?"

She thought for a moment before shaking her head. "I...I don't think so. You'd have better luck asking Yukari since she knows more people."

I wasn't a gambling man. But the school wasn't very big. If Fuuka didn't know him, then he probably wasn't at school. Then who was he? "Have you seen Minako with any strange guys?

She smiled, a wide toothy grin with all the subtly of a raging Akihiko. I shouldn't have asked. "Yes. She spends time with this french exchange student, Hidetoshi at student council, this young man at the shrine, a foreign man in a blue uniform, Aki says he's seen her with two men at the club, and some old business man at the mall."

I sighed. "Jeez... Why does she surround herself with weird-sounding people like that? People will get the wrong idea."

Fuuka laughed. "Do you think she'd doing anything with them?"

"I...No, of course not." Minato. Which one was Minato? "I don't think she's like that."

"I don't think so either, senpai. How is she?"

I looked at the ceiling, imagining the place where her room was. She still hadn't woken up. "I think she's getting better."

I wasn't lying. That night, her face had relaxed and color had returned. "You idiot... Everyone is worried about you. We all want you to wake up soon, you know. You'll probably wake up tomorrow morning and not even remember what we did. That sounded dirty. You know, you're always smiling but I can never tell when you're faking it. You act like this bubbly girl who doesn't care about anything, but it's not real, right? You're thinking and worrying about someone right now too...Who is it? Who do you want to see?"

"Senpai...?" She whispered. I fell out of my chair. I thought she'd woken up and heard me. I didn't dare move for a few seconds but she didn't say anything else. She wasn't going to do anything. She was still asleep. Senpai. She could've been calling for anyone. For me. Or for Aki. Maybe even Mitsuru or one of her freaky friends.

A flood of emotions hit my chest in succession: Fear, relief, pain, jealousy, and the final one in Pandora's box: Hope. Maybe, just maybe she felt the same way about me as I did about her.

She woke up the next morning.

September 22

She was panting, her body struggling to hold up her nagatina. She'd just gotten better the day before and she'd already thrown herself back into the fight. She was shaking and sweating at the same time but that infuriating smile was still on her face. "Let's keep going."

"Chu Chulainn!"

"Seth!"

"Quetzacoatl!"

No one stopped her. We all should have. She was tired. Persona after persona, floor after floor, battle after battle, not once did she slow down. Koromaru whimpered, licking her calloused hands. She winced but her face still held that damn smile. It almost made me want to slap her. Thinking about it now, I should've slapped her. Knocked her out and dragged her back home.

Fuuka's voice sounded in our ears, "It looks like you can't go any further. Please come back immediately."

"Thank you Yamagishi. We'll be returning now." Mitsuru responded. She was the first to go back, leaving the three of us by ourselves. Koromaru refused to leave her side.

This block of Tartarus was weird, with a disco-looking glow and funky colors. It gave me a headache. Minako was kneeling on the floor close to the stairs. She seemed to be picking something up. I couldn't help myself. "...What are you doing?"

"It's nothing, senpai. Just looking at a story."

"A story, huh? We don't have time for stupid stuff like that." What a strange girl. I grabbed the dog with one arm, and started dragging her with the other. It was time to go.

"You don't have to hold my hand, senpai. I know the way to the access point."

"Shut up. You're wasting time." I was blushing, but she didn't need to know that. My coat did a lot more than keep me warm.

"Forgive me for wasting your time Shinjiro-san." This damn girl. This damn girl and her infuriating smile. I could imagine it on her face without even turning around, not that I wanted to. I was red as a tomato and she was being cheeky. I swore up a storm that night and fell asleep to a whisper of her name.