“Gyahh!!” Takashi hit the coffee table with his fist, waking his lover from his sleep. “I JUST DON’T GET IT!!” Takashi shouted at no one in particular. Exams were in three days and Takashi had no idea what he was doing in English. Verbs were not his cup of tea. His English textbook hit the floor and closed. Takashi leaned over, and hit his head off the table. “Arrghh, shit!” He said, clutching his temples.

            “Whoa…” Yuki sat up, and looked over at Takashi now wriggling in pain on the floor. A loud laugh erupted from the Yuki’s small body. Clutching his stomach with one hand, he put out his hand on Takashi’s head. His soft, black hair rippling between Yuki’s fingers. “You’ll do fine. You don’t need to study for English, that only makes it harder.”

            Takashi moved his head from under Yuki’s hand; he was in a horrible mood. He sat up again and ripped open the book. He grunted and started reading the roman letters to himself again. He made some kind of angry sound, “Okay, if you’re so smart, explain this to me,” he shot at Yuki, while shoving the book at him.

             “MY NAME IS YUKI. I AM 17 YEARS OLD. I LIKE MY FRIEND TAKASHI VERY MUCH.” Yuki said easily and plainly in English. “Oh, whatever…” said Takeshi feeling utterly defeated by an underclassman and blushing a little from the small bit he understood at the end of English sentence. “U-um, well…  s-shut up!” added Takeshi blushing more than ever.

            “Well, I didn’t mean to make you mad Takashi…” Yuki said quietly. Ichiro walked into the room.

“What happened here? Why are you all so quiet?” Ichiro said as he walked trough the door.

            Ichiro was a tall boy the same age as Takashi. He had medium length blonde hair and was very smart, so he was not studying, he had complete confidence in his work. Takashi looked up at Ichiro. “What do you think we’re doing, smart ass? Unlike you, we normal people have to study.” He spat at Ichiro. “…Wow, someone’s in a bad mood today!” Ichiro teased Takashi, giving him a funny look.

            Takashi tried not to make eye contact with the annoyingly smart boy insulting his intelligence. He read the next sentence “WHEN I HANG OUT WITH TAKASHI AND ICHIRO I AM VERY HAPPY.” Ichiro looked at Yuki. “YOU’RE writing his English study notes? You make me laugh, Yuki.” He smiled and sat next to Takashi. “Happy is pronounced like this: Hah-pi.” He grinned as if he was enjoying every second of this, which he was. Ichiro was a good friend, but when it came to intelligence, he couldn’t help but show off. He leaned in by Takashi and pointed out his mistakes in his roman letters.

                                                             ***

            The day of the exam came faster than Takashi could imagine. He walked into school with his head low. He knew that he wouldn’t do well. Yuki ran up behind him, “Are you ok? You seem down…”

“Well of course I am! I stayed up really late last night reviewing the crappy notes you gave me!” Takashi spat.

            “Well, if you’d paid attention in class, you wouldn’t have to used my crappy notes.” Yuki was under a lot of pressure, although tried not to appear it. “You should have used Ichiro’s notes if you thought mine were that crappy.” He said, looking very put down. Takashi ruffled Yuki’s hair. “No, that’s okay, I’m sorry,” He said, noticing that Yuki was in a depressed state.

            Takashi looked down at Yuki who was looking at the floor. Takashi grabbed Yuki’s chin and turned his head upright. “What’s wrong? You seem really depressed, did something happen?”

Yuki said nothing. He turned his head lose of Takashi’s grip, and then he looked at the floor again.

            “I-it’s no-nothing, Takashi, I’m just worried about how well we’re going to do on the exam.” Yuki said. Takashi put his hand on Yuki’s shoulder. “Don’t worry,” he smiled. Yuki blushed. They entered the exam rooms.

            Throughout the test Takashi couldn’t get his mind off how strange Yuki was acting. Takashi finished his test early and went straight to the room that Yuki was in. He stood outside the door when a girl walked out he asked, “Has Yuki finished already or is he still writing?”

“Actually… He left a while ago… He started crying and went to the bathroom and when he came back he asked if he could go home. So he left,” the girl said. “That was the first time I saw a boy cry…”

            “Thank you,” Takashi said as he rushed down the hall to the door. On the way out the door Ichiro and his friend, Shohei, stopped him. “Whoa, what’s the rush, Takashi?” Ichiro asked. “…Yuki… something’s wrong…” Takashi said. Ichiro frowned. “It’s probably just the exams getting to him.” He scoffed. Takashi stared at him and left the school. He rushed down the street to where Yuki lived. He knocked on the door.

            “YUKI!!YUKI!!” No answer. “YUKI!! WHAT THE HELL YUKI!!” He kicked the door. He turned and started walking back to his house. Halfway there he lost his train of thought. “Takashi…? What are you doing here?” Yuki asked.

Takashi kept walking. Then he turned around. “Why did you leave before your exam was over? Why were you crying…?”

“It’s a long story really…” Yuki explained everything to Takashi, while chocking back on his tears, how Ichiro was trying to take Takashi from Yuki, how Yuki was worried about loosing Takashi, how Ichiro was acting like a dick when Takashi wasn’t there. When he was finished there was a long pause. A car passed by and several dogs barked at each other. Takashi didn’t know what to say so instead he leaned over and lightly kissed Yuki on the forehead.