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“Everyone knows that ‘coffee’ is derived from Arabic. Or you should, because I told you that last time. But which one of these things is NOT Arabic? Sugar, magazine, or wristwatch?”
It was just a simple question. Pop quizzes were quite common for them, as the teachers seemed to think they were an effective way to make sure their students either listened in class lest they be humiliated. Hell, Junpei would be the first to admit that if Minako wasn’t there to whisper to him the answers each time he would’ve probably gotten more scoldings than usual!
Sometimes he wondered if she’d ever get a question wrong, but as far as he was aware (as far as he was aware in the times he was awake during class) such a thing had yet to happen, and will probably never happen because, well, duh, it’s Minako! She was a scholarship kid for a reason, and it probably required a heck of a load of braincells to be the resident field leader of S.E.E.S. and, as he tried to withhold his self-loathing, he would probably be killed by the shadows by now from rushing to charge at them if it wasn’t for her.
So yeah, while he knew and made sure to remind himself that Minako wasn’t a perfect human being, he also thought she was the very damn closest thing to it, which was why he knew something was up when it took her more than five seconds to answer the question.
Even he knew the answer and, well, the only ever subject he could come close to aceing was P.E. of all things!
“...Minako? Are you alright?” Ms. Toriumi asked, clearly also noticing that something was off about the class’ star student. She probably would have chewed off Kenji or him if they did the same thing, but now wasn’t the time to think about favoritism.
“Mina-chan! Snap out of it!” he whispered, nudging her with his feet. That seemed to do the trick, the girl clearing her throat for effect as she briefly apologized before answering.
“The wristwatch… should have European origins and not Arabic, so it should be that.”
“Bingo! You hit the jackpot. Both “sugar” and “magazine” had their origins in Arabic. However, they’re derived from European languages, not directly from Arabic.”
As if nothing happened, class went on as usual. For once no one was gossiping about the girl, and while he was glad on her behalf, he wondered if he was the only one who thought it was more of a big deal than just her dozing off slightly or having an off day. She was perfectly chipper this morning, and they had not gone to Tartarus the night before so she couldn’t be that tired either— and even if she was, that girl always had some Yawn-B-Gones with her (he would know, he’s asked a few from her).
Junpei just felt it in his gut that something was wrong, he may not be a woman but he definitely had some intuition going on— a best friend’s intuition, if you will— and now he just needed to know if he was alone in investigating the matter or not.
Yukari must have felt the holes he was digging through her uniform the way she nearly instantly looked back at him. Ignoring her usual icy glare, he, as discreetly as he could manage, tilted his head towards Minako’s direction. Unsurprisingly she was quick to get the hint, eyebrows slightly furrowed as she nodded.
“Later,” she mouthed, before turning back to pay attention in class.
Right, the two of them could never go a day without fighting, and honestly barely hung out outside of class or the dorms if their mutual best friend wasn’t present as well, but… they were both serious when needed be, and if Arisato Minako was having a problem, then he, Iori Junpei, would definitely do everything he could to help!
Junpei was wrong. Even like this he still found a way to get into an argument with Yukari.
“Come on Yuka-tan! We both agree something’s off, but you’re not gonna try and sniff out what it is?”
“Unlike you, I don’t want to pry into her private life! If something happened to her today, whether it’s serious or not, we just wait for her to actually talk about it to us. I mean, do you like it when someone pries into your business?”
Did she have a point about that? Yes, but everyone in S.E.E.S. pried into each other's and everyone else’s business! Hell, even their whole school thrived off of gossip and eavesdropping, so what’s a little sleuthing for the sake of their friend?
“Okay, but how often does Minako even talk about her problems? You know how she is, she just smiles at everything! Then-”
“Then next thing you know, she’s listening to your problems instead,” Yukari sighed, face mirroring Junpei’s exasperation.
“Look, I know we’ve both snooped around like… a lot, me especially,” she looked a little sheepish at the self-reminder, “but it feels wrong to do it to her , you know.”
They sat in silence for a while, a rarity for the two of them, staring the other down across the table as if egging each other to be the first to finally speak up.
At the end of the day (or a few minutes, he guesses), it’s him who breaks the silence, coming to the conclusion that they simply had different approaches they preferred over the other.
“Then we’ll just figure it out on our own then! I do the asking around and snooping, you do the subtle shit and observe her,” he clicks his tongue for added measure, “why’d I even want to enlist your help?”
“Because Stupei will always be stupid, duh.”
He laughed and let it slide because, even though he hated the nickname, it lacked any of her usual bite.
It wasn’t really a competition or anything like who could figure out what’s wrong with Minako first? Still, Yukari knew that Junpei wanted to be the one to know first, because he was her best friend, as bizarre as it was to think about sometimes.
Yes, it was not a competition or a race, but if it was, her baseball cap-wearing friend ( friend , another weird thing to admit) would probably be irked to know she already had an inkling on why their field leader might be off. She didn’t know if something said or done during Ms. Toriumi’s class brought out that reaction, or if it was unrelated and she was spacing out, but she could think up a few reasons for her behavior.
“Hey Minako. Are you busy? I thought we could go to Chagall Cafe today!”
“Chagall Cafe…” the auburn haired girl murmured to herself, “I used to work part-time there, though I stopped after we had way too much money from Tartarus. If there’s one good thing about that place, it’s probably that we have so much excess funds that we don’t have to ask Mitsuru-senpai for funds anymore.”
“Huh, no wonder you’re so charming, must’ve been the pheromone coffee!” Yukari joked, momentarily wondering if the selling point was actually true and not some hoax marketing scheme.
“So you’re going with me, right? And since you’re so rich now, your treat too!”
It was a joke, but she looked unfazed as she just nodded. Was she, or, well, they since the money belonged to all of S.E.E.S., loaded now? Just how much funds did she have exactly?
“Alright, let’s go!” she agreed, already linking their arms together as they left the classroom, “I do miss the smell of the coffee there! It just doesn’t smell the same when it’s instant…”
Yukari raised a brow at that, pretty sure that the girl drank a good amount of instant coffee to get through the day, “ right… you not consuming half of the instant coffee stock in the dorms is as likely as Junpei not consuming half of the instant ramen stock.”
“Never said I didn’t like drinking it! Just that it doesn’t have the same effect on me anymore,” Minako pointed out with a laugh, “I’ve just been spoiled by Shinji. Not even Chagall can compare!”
Their leader was too busy boasting about their senpai that she failed to notice Yukari’s momentary shock. No honorifics? And not just Shinjiro, but Shinji , which was much more familiar— a nickname that rolled off her friend’s tongue too easily.
Yukari might not have the same closeness to Minako as Junpei had, and loathe as she would be to admit it she didn’t think she could ever beat him in that aspect, but she was still a girl, an awfully observant girl.
Everyone gravitated towards Minako, not unlike the planets orbiting the sun, so it was only a little bit of a surprise that she had managed to reel in the friendship and adoration of the hard-to-approach senpai. However, it was quite the surprise to figure out that not only did he hold romantic affections for the auburn-haired girl, but that it was clearly reciprocated as well.
It’s not that either one was too good or bad for the other, but rather that despite the short time frame they had spent together, their feelings seemed so genuine. Of course, that was as far as she could tell from staring at them from a distance, and teasing the girl from time to time on the crush.
She never did get to figure out the extent of their relationship. Ever since their senior was rendered to a critical state, the timing never seemed right.
She just hoped they got to at least learn of each other’s feelings before that tragedy. They both deserved happiness.
“Oh, Arisato-chan, long time no see!” a waiter greeted, completely ignoring Yukari… not that she minded, she had her order served already, so she was free to just listen in on the conversation. Sometimes she found herself thinking how little she knew about her friend as compared to how much her friend knew about her, so it was always nice to learn about Minako’s life from a perspective that wasn’t shrouded by high school gossip.
“We missed you, a few of the night time regulars were looking for you, you know?”
The auburn-haired girl laughed, “that’s really sweet of them! I’ve been swamped with school work and clubs and stuff, though, so I don’t think I’ll be able to work here anymore.”
“You should still visit often though! You used to go here all the time!” the man insisted, before finally sparing a glance towards Yukari, looking a little surprised. What, had he just noticed she was there?
“Speaking of… so you’re not here with that man, did you break up?” it was subtle, but the brunette noticed Minako stiffening, clearly taken aback by such a question. That was all it took for her to arrive at several conclusions, all of them related to the glaring fact that the waiter was clearly talking about Aragaki Shinjiro.
When no response was heard, the guy continued, as if unable to sense the growing tension at their table, “you know, the scary looking guy with the beanie. Honestly, he always seemed a little shifty. I was kind of worried he was forcing-” and before Minako could even react, Yukari slammed her fork down her plate, the noise startling the two.
“... get us another slice, please .”
Never mind the fact that their strawberry shortcake was inferior to the Sweet Shop in Iwatodai Station’s strip mall, if glaring and being bitchy would get him to stop talking, she was going to do her part.
“Hey, you didn’t have to do that… but thank you,” Minako said.
“I did it for both of you,” because Minako didn’t like causing scenes, and because she couldn’t stand for that slander when their senpai wasn’t even here to defend himself from such absurd rumors.
How dare he , she thought to herself, her expression only softening as she watched their field leader cringe at the taste of her coffee.
“Ahh… so bitter…” yet went back for a second sip before putting it down, the two of them looking at the cup quietly.
Oh, it was served black. It wasn’t her favorite, so it must have been his.
“I think I know what’s up with Minako, but I’m not gonna tell you. Ask her for yourself.”
On any other day he probably would have hounded her to tell him, but despite the fact that Minako was smiling as she entered the dorm with Yukari in tow, the latter looked a little… what was the word for it, thoughtful? That meant it was probably serious enough that the brunette couldn’t just relay it to him.
So he did, showing concern over her behavior during class in his usual casual fashion. He could see a few of their dorm mates look over them, listening to their words as discreetly as they could (maybe he should have asked somewhere where it’d just be the two of them).
He expected to be brushed off, for her to smile at him and be told that she was fine— then maybe he’d pry a little further until she either admitted to what it was or stood her ground; then he’d watch and try to figure out what was wrong until he’d eventually give up on a solution because she was just too damn good at acting … but then she turned her gaze to Koromaru, telling him,
“Looks like Koromaru wants to go on a walk. Do you want to go with me?”
Minako had yet to talk, and he alternated between making sure Koromaru was within their line of sight and observing his best friend. For the past five minutes, all she had been doing was fiddling with her watch, and if he concentrated enough he could hear the faint ticking of the clock.
What was he supposed to say? Despite his earlier bravado about doing his best to figure her out, well... he was faltering in the moment.
“Um… nice watch you got there! Is it new?”
Yikes, way to go Junpei, that totally wasn’t lame or forced or anything. If he was her, he wouldn’t respond either. Like, surely there was some other thing he could have said to break the ice… or maybe he should have just waited for her to speak up about what was bothering-
“No.”
He blinked, “huh? No?”
“No, it’s not new,” she clarified. She looked up from her watch, not to finally look at him, but to look up at the moon, “it’s a gift from Shinjiro-senpai.”
Junpei knew the look of love, he had seen it on his own face multiple times and, albeit he was late to realize it, he eventually learned that his best friend suffered the same curse he did. He didn’t know why he didn’t recognize it sooner. Perhaps he just hadn’t seen her face up close— she looked at the moon not unhappily, but fondly.
It was easy to connect the dots from then on.
“You thought of Shinjiro-senpai then, huh?”
Minako laughed, “stupid, huh? I shouldn’t have gotten so caught off-guard… thanks for snapping me out of it.”
He wanted to tell her that it wasn’t stupid at all.
“Were the two of you…” he asked instead, trailing off, unable to decide what it was he wanted to ask. In love? Together?
“We only had one day,” she admitted, sounding the most bitter she had ever been. Still, she did not cry— Junpei almost wished she did so she could stop holding back from her feelings, but he knew she wouldn’t (not when anyone could see), because Shinjiro told her not to that night.
“When he wakes up,” not if, he refused to believe he would never wake up, “and when he gets out of the hospital, you’re gonna have all the time in the world. Just wait and see.”
Her smile was unsure. It should have terrified him, her usual optimism traded for pessimism, but as awful as it was to learn that his best friend was hurting… it was reassuring that she was able to admit at least this much to him. Tonight was the most human she had ever looked to him.
“Let’s go out sometime,” Junpei suddenly said, detecting that Minako was done talking for the night. Koromaru probably was done with his walk, too— what a smart dog he was, running towards them as if he detected the serious stuff was over. “You, me, and even Yuka-tan! The OG trio of 2F needs to spend more time together, y’know?”
The auburn-haired girl raised her brows, as if surprised, “you and Yukari? The last time the three of us went out for dinner, we got yelled at by a bunch of old ladies because you two were too noisy, remember?”
“You talk as if you weren’t just sitting in between us, smiling and laughing at whatever we were arguing about,” he said accusingly. Minako was just as good of an instigator as she was a mediator.
“Anyway, we get along better now! We’ll go a whole day without fighting in front of you!” which was a bold promise, but he’d try, “I’ll even treat you both for a meal! Normally I’d say Wuck or Beef Bowls, but Yuka-tan watches her diet so… maybe Chagall? Girls like her like places like that, right?”
“Chagall… I wonder,” she giggled, as if knowing something he didn’t.
She looked down at her wristwatch again, “ah, it’s getting late. Let’s head back before the dark hour strikes.”
She looked at her wristwatch the same way she looked at the moon.