Chapter Text
Monday March 8th 2010
Hidetoshi has committed a great sin. He’s late.
Well, okay, he needs to cut himself some slack. He’s trying to be more relaxed after the whole cigarette thing. He already told Makoto last week that he has a new lease on life, but it does take some time to unlearn some things.
That’s why he can’t help but scold himself as he rushes to the student council room. What will the others think?
He might get an answer sooner than expected, since almost all members of the student council are standing outside of their usual room.
“Where is everyone?” Hidetoshi asks.
“Oh, Odagiri-senpai,” one of the junior members starts, “Chihiro-san told me that she will have to skip today’s meeting, but I do not know where the others are.”
The others being Mitsuru Kirijo and Makoto Yuki. Makoto doesn’t always show up, since he is busy with other things, but Kirijo-san is the leader, so when she is late or has to sit out, she usually lets the others know.
As on a cue, they hear footsteps approaching. Hidetoshi turns around and sees Kirijo-san walking towards the others.
“Sorry I am late,” she says, her voice is soft and there’s a hint of sadness in it.
“Tough weekend, senpai?” another member asks.
Kirijo-san doesn’t answer. She walks past everyone else and enters the room without another word. The others share a look before following her inside. Hidetoshi takes a seat and waits for the meeting to start. So does everyone else. Kirijo-san is facing the blackboard.
Hidetoshi and the others keep waiting. And waiting. And waiting.
“Kirijo-senpai?” another member asks.
When she turns around, there’s tears in her eyes.
She coughs.
“I have some bad news,” she says, voice steady, but it sounds forced.
“Shouldn’t we wait to see if Makoto-kun arrives?” Hidetoshi asks, but when he says Makoto’s name, Kirijo-san’s eyes go downcast and for some reason, Hidetoshi knows.
An unsettling feeling overwhelms him.
“Makoto Yuki unexpectedly passed away,” Kirijo-san tells everyone.
There are gasps and shocked noises. Kirijo-san tries to answer any questions that people have, but she’s also hanging on a thread. She was Makoto’s friend too. Someone butts in to talk about another memorial, like what they did for that other student who passed away in October. Others agree and continue their conversation. Kirijo-san seems to retreat from the conversation, letting the others do the talking.
Hidetoshi can’t really understand it. He spoke to Makoto last Thursday. He even thanked Makoto for all that he did for him. Hidetoshi gave him the lighter, and he knows that Makoto knows what it stands for, but if Hidetoshi had known it’d be the last time he’d ever see Makoto, he would’ve…
Well, he doesn’t know what he would’ve done, or thought, or given. It had never occurred to him that his friend would just stop existing like this.
“Odagiri-senpai, what do you think?” someone asks, snapping Hidetoshi out of his funk.
Hidetoshi opens his mouth to say something, but nothing comes out.
The others must know that Makoto saved him, right? They were all fed up with Hidetoshi’s behaviour about the cigarette butt accident.
Hidetoshi gets up.
“Excuse me,” he manages to say. Then he leaves the room without another word. The next thing he knows, he’s in the boys’ bathroom and he’s locked himself in a stall. Hidetoshi doesn’t cry, not because he doesn’t want to, but because he can’t. He’s just too shocked. Kirijo-san must be wrong, he wants to tell himself, but he knows it’s futile. Kirijo-san was closer to Makoto than him. They even lived together, so of course she must be telling the truth.
Hidetoshi doesn’t know how long he sits there on that toilet bowl, losing his mind. But after a while, he gets up. He needs to get it together, for Makoto’s sake. Planning a memorial is nothing and Makoto deserves so much more, but Hidetoshi latches onto it, since it’s the least he can do.
But once he opens the door of the stall, he realises where he is. This isn’t just any boys’ bathroom at Gekkoukan. It’s the one where the cigarette butt was found, and once Hidetoshi realises that, the tears start flowing.
He’s standing in this bathroom and cries, and cries, and cries.