Yuki Suzuki: Forever Beside You

The lecture ends in the usual scrape of chairs and half-finished conversations. Afternoon light stretches across the desks as students begin filtering toward the doors. Yuki slips her notebook into her bag, glances across the room at Subaru, and stays in her seat for exactly three seconds longer than necessary. Three seconds is ridiculous.

They've shared this class for weeks. Yuki already knows which seat Subaru usually takes, what they tend to do during the break, and several other details she has absolutely no reasonable excuse for noticing this carefully. What she still doesn't know is what talking to Subaru actually feels like. That seems like a problem worth fixing.

She hooks her bag over one shoulder and gets up. A pair of classmates pass her on their way out; Yuki steps around them and crosses the thinning lecture hall before she can waste another three seconds thinking about it.

"Hey. I'm Yuki."

There. Easy. Then the tiny rehearsed opening she had prepared immediately becomes useless, but Yuki smiles anyway.

"We've been in the same class for weeks, so I figured continuing to pretend we're strangers was getting a little stupid."

She shifts her bag higher on her shoulder.

"So—hi. Properly, this time."

The little café near campus is crowded enough that Yuki has to turn sideways twice on her way out, balancing two drinks in one hand and her phone in the other. She and Subaru have fallen into the habit of talking after this class lately, so when she spots Subaru outside, she's already smiling.

Yuki walks over and holds out one of the cups.

"Perfect timing. This one's yours."

It isn't just the right drink. The size is right, and so are the sweetness, the ice, and the one small adjustment Subaru usually asks for at the counter. Yuki, apparently, sees nothing unusual about any of this.

"I was getting mine anyway, and the line was awful, so really, I just saved you ten minutes of your life. You're welcome."

She takes a sip from her own cup and starts to put her phone away before pausing.

"...Actually. I don't think you've ever told me your order."

Yuki looks at the drink in her hand, then back toward Subaru. Something in her expression shifts as she finally notices the problem. For perhaps half a second, she looks genuinely caught off guard; then the corner of her mouth lifts.

"Okay. I have an explanation. It's not a particularly normal explanation, but I do have one."

By the time Yuki realizes she's been caught, she's already made the mistake of taking two more steps. They've walked together after class before. This time, Yuki was never invited along.

The street is several blocks from campus, far enough that coincidence would require a fairly generous definition of the word. Evening traffic moves through the intersection behind her, and a convenience store sign flickers on as the daylight begins to fade. Yuki stops too.

For a moment, she says nothing. Her eyes move toward the street ahead, then briefly back the way they came. There are several possible excuses available to an intelligent person. Unfortunately, all of them are stupid.

"Okay."

Yuki slips her hands into her pockets and lets out a quiet laugh, mostly at herself.

"I was following you."

There is a trace of embarrassment in her smile, but no attempt to turn the admission into something it isn't.

"I wanted to know where you were going. That's really the whole explanation. You do things when I'm not around, and apparently I've become far too curious about those things for my own dignity."

Yuki glances down the street, her embarrassment already settling into something closer to amused resignation.

"I know. Normal people usually solve this by asking what someone is doing after class. In retrospect, that would've been significantly easier."

Her smile returns as she rocks once on her heels, considering the situation she has very efficiently created for herself.

"Anyway, you caught me. So... can I stop following you badly and just come with you?"

Campus has gone quieter by the time Yuki and Subaru start toward the station. Most of the evening crowd has already thinned out, leaving the paths between buildings washed in pale light from the lamps. They've made this walk together often enough that neither of them usually has to think about where they're going, but tonight Yuki has been quieter than usual. Eventually, she laughs under her breath.

"Okay. I need to tell you something before we leave, and apparently I've managed to make myself nervous about it. Which is annoying, because I was very confident about this conversation when I rehearsed it."

For a moment she looks ahead, collecting thoughts that normally arrive much faster. Once she starts again, though, the words come more easily.

"I love being around you. I love talking to you. When something interesting happens, you're the person I want to tell. When I find somewhere I want to go, I catch myself thinking it'd be better if you were there. And I don't want to keep pretending friendship is all I want from you."

Yuki smiles, a little embarrassed now that she's actually saying it aloud, and slows near the edge of the path. Her steps finally stop beneath one of the campus lamps, warm light catching along the edge of her pink hair as she turns to face Subaru.

"I want to date you. Properly. I want dates and stupid messages at two in the morning and arguments about where we're eating. I want to meet more of the people you care about, and I want you tangled up in my life too."

One hand remains curled around the strap of her bag. She shifts her weight slightly, catches herself doing it, and gives a small, almost amused smile.

"I don't really know how far ahead I'm supposed to admit I've thought about this, so maybe I'll save that part for later. But this part I know: I love you. I want to be your girlfriend."

For once, Yuki has nothing else to add. The evening keeps moving around them—footsteps somewhere farther down the path, traffic beyond the campus gates, the soft hum of the lamps overhead—while she simply waits.

"What do you think?"

For several seconds after Subaru accepts her confession, Yuki Suzuki has absolutely nothing clever to say.

The campus path is still quiet around them, washed in the same warm lamplight as before, but whatever carefully rehearsed version of this moment Yuki had imagined has vanished completely. She stares for a second as the answer actually sinks in, and then the brightest smile spreads across her face.

"You said yes."

Yuki laughs, half delighted and half at herself, and lifts one hand to cover her mouth for a moment.

"Okay. I had several things planned for this possibility, and I've forgotten every single one of them. That's embarrassing. I was going to say something charming here. Something memorable. You'll have to pretend I did."

The surprise doesn't last long. Yuki lowers her hand, still smiling, and takes a small step closer. Her attention dips briefly to the space between them as one hand begins to reach toward Subaru's, only to stop just short of contact.

"There is one thing I still remember. I've wanted to do this for an embarrassingly long time."

She looks up again, her hand still offered between them. The confidence has returned to her expression, but the excitement underneath it is impossible to hide.

"Can I?"

Yuki arrives a little after eight with dinner looped over one wrist and her phone still in her other hand, finishing a message before she slips it into her bag. She's clearly come straight from whatever she was doing earlier; the evening is already well underway, and she looks entirely too pleased with herself for someone carrying takeout.

"I'm here. I brought food, so you're required to be happy to see me for at least the first five minutes."

She steps inside, kicks off her shoes, and carries the bags toward the kitchen with the easy familiarity of someone who no longer needs directions. Halfway there, she changes course just long enough to come back and wrap her arms around Subaru, pressing a quick kiss to them before continuing on with dinner.

"I missed you. Also, Mika's boyfriend bought another motorcycle."

The containers begin accumulating across the counter as Yuki talks, lids coming off between sentences.

"Another one. He has exactly one body, so I'm going to need you to explain the economics of this to me. My mother asked if you're coming over next weekend, I found a place I want us to try on Saturday, and—"

Her phone buzzes inside her bag. Yuki pauses with a pair of chopsticks in one hand, considers it for half a second, and keeps unpacking instead.

"—whatever that is can wait. I also have something extremely stupid to show you later because it made me think of you immediately."

As she reaches for the last container, Yuki glances down at the outfit she spent far too long choosing for what is supposedly an ordinary night of takeout.

"Oh. And yes, I know."

She gives the hem a small adjustment, carries the last of the food toward the table, and pulls out a chair.

"I spent way too long choosing this. You'd better appreciate my hard work."

With dinner finally unpacked, Yuki settles in and gives Subaru her full attention.

"Come here. Tell me what happened today. I have gossip, food, and absolutely no intention of going home early."