The Storage Room on the Third Floor
“Hey Tachibana, could you please take this back to the storage room on the third floor for me?” His teacher approached him with an apologetic smile while carefully placing the cardboard box on his desk.
Tachibana Yuji, who was in the middle of sipping his juice pouch, nodded up at her. She thanked him and hurried out of the classroom to attend the faculty meeting.
His friend whistled. “Do you want help with that? It looks kind of heavy.” He offered, but Yuji just shook his head.
“It’s okay, it’s not that heavy.” He would know since he was also the one who bought it down here yesterday. “Just focus on finishing your lunch.” He cleaned up the remains of his lunch and picked up the box, heading towards the exit.
“Ok, be careful!”
It was only when he was face-to-face with the storage room's door that he realized something crucial.
She didn’t hand him the key…
Yuji sighed and tried twisting the knob anyways, just in case. To his surprise, the door actually… opened?
He blinked. It was definitely locked when he got the supplies yesterday morning…
Did another student grab something and forget to lock it? How careless.
Yuji nudged the door open all the way with his shoulder and then walked in. Before he could put the box down, he heard something fall over with a clang! followed by a soft gasp.
A gasp that did not come from him.
Immediately, he looked toward the direction that the noise came from.
He couldn’t see much because his only source of light was from the hallway, but it looked like two wide eyes were staring back at him…?
He blinked at the figure on the floor. The mysterious figure blinked back.
So many questions popped into Yuji’s mind, but years of experience dealing with utter nonsense allowed him to recover quite quickly. (And for his heartbeat to return to normal.) For once, he was grateful for the boisterous kid siblings he had back at home.
In the end, he did what anyone else would do in this situation.
With a purposely blank expression, he ignored the boy, dropped the heavy box in an empty spot, and turned to leave.
“U-Um!”
He was stopped just as his hand wrapped around the doorknob. Damn, he was so close…
Letting out an inaudible sigh, he turned around. It was still a little creepy to hear the voice coming from the darkness, so he decided to turn on the lights.
The boy kneeling on the floor flinched in response to the sudden brightness that invaded the room.
Immediately, he looked up at Yuiji with startled big eyes, similar to a deer caught in headlights.
When he didn’t say anything and simply continued to gape at him, Yuji decided to speak up first.
“Yes? Did you need something?”
“Um! Actually I….”
“......”
“......”
Why did he even bother stopping Yuji?
“If you’re worried that I’ll tell anyone, you don’t have to be.” He didn’t even know his name, so what could he even tell others?
The boy immediately flushed bright red and shot up, hands floundering everywhere.
“N-no that’s not it! Okay maybe that is part of it, but um…” It looked like the boy’s eyes were getting watery, but he quickly lowered his gaze to the ground so Yuji wasn’t totally sure.
This… felt like it might take a while. Mourning his loss of freedom, Yuji closed the door so that none of the passersby could witness this boy’s potential breakdown.
The boy’s head jerked up when he heard the door shut, but the desperation on his face was quickly replaced by surprise when he noticed that Yuji was still there. In fact, his eyes seemed to sparkle…?
What was this boy’s problem?
“Ah, thank you!” He practically shouts, causing Yuji to wince at the sheer volume of that outburst. And what was he even thanking him for? Promising not to tell anyone? Not leaving? Was either of those things something worth being thanked for?
“Is there something you want to say to me?” Yuji tried again.
“Ah yes! I! I’m!” He screwed his eyes shut and balled his hands into fists, cheeks flushing pink from overexerting himself.
“I’m Sasaki Ichigo!”
Yuji blinked in response.
Why did he introduce himself? And why did he look so proud because of it?
Yuji opened his mouth. And then closed it. Then opened it again.
“...Tachibana Yuji.”
Despite Yuji’s eyes already adjusting to the light, he couldn’t help but squint when the boy in front of him practically beamed at him in response. Seriously, what the heck? His bright smile seemed to light up his previously gloomy disposition, which his messy black hair had not helped at all.
“I! I want to be friends! With you, if that’s okay!” His scrawny frame was trembling and his skin was paper white, but his eyes were so hopeful and bright. They were so similar to the innocent eyes he sees at home that he couldn’t help but feel inclined to accept this stranger’s plea.
Besides, it was just a friendship. What could go wrong with that?
“Sure, I don’t mind.” He rubbed the back of his neck, feeling a little awkward at the atmosphere. It had been a while since someone straight out asked him to be their friend instead of letting it play out naturally. The last time was probably in elementary school?
Somehow, the boy’s–Sasaki’s– eyes widened even more (how was that even possible?) and color returned to his face as his cheeks flushed red again from excitement. Abruptly, he did a ninety-degree bow and profusely thanked Yuji.
“Thank you!! Thank you so much, Tachibana-san!”
“You don't have to thank me like this…” With how he was acting, it felt like the boy had no friends… Which, Yuji glanced at the ground near the boy– an emptied bento box and a knocked-over thermo– might actually… be true? Is that why he was eating in this dark storage room instead of in the classroom?
That’s so…
When he imagined his little siblings in Sasaki’s place, it made him feel… annoyed. Although he knew it was irrational to think so, he still felt like a classmate should have reached out to Sasaki, just like he hoped someone would reach out to his baby brothers and sister if they were struggling and all alone.
He glanced at the boy who was now just happily grinning to himself with what looked like flowers blooming around him. Yuji opened his mouth.
“Do you want to eat lunch with me tomorrow, Sasaki-san?”
Just when Yuji thought the boy couldn’t get any happier, somehow he seemed to brighten up even more in response. (Oh, there were more flowers too.)
“Really?! Can I?! I would love that! Oh, and please just call me Ichigo!”
Already grouping Sasaki into the ‘little sibling’ category in his head, Yujji nodded, easily accepting his wishes.
“Okay then, Ichigo.” Yuji closed the distance between the two and held his phone out to Sasaki.
“Are… are you asking me for my number?” Sasaki looked so shocked as he slowly brought his trembling hands up to hold the phone.
Yuji nodded. It would make communication a lot easier this way.
“The lunch period is probably about to end–” And just on cue, the five-minute warning bell rings.
“Ah…” It amused Yuji how quickly Sasaki’s mood shifted from joy to disappointment. He really was just like his younger siblings… He could practically see the flowers behind him wilt.
“Let’s keep in touch and meet up tomorrow.” He accepted the phone from Sasaki and quickly dialed the number so that Sasaki would have his contact informaiton as well.
“O-okay! See you tomorrow!”
“Yeah.” He walked towards the door but turned around when Sasaki did not follow him.
The boy was kneeling by his lunch spot, cleaning it up.
“Do you want me to wait for you?”
“Ah, no it’s fine! I don’t want you to be late because of me!”
“...It’s okay, I can wait.”
“...T-thank you…”
While he waited for him, Yuji looked at his phone, specifically his call history. He was a little curious as to what Sasaki ended up saving himself as in his phone since the boy was so excited about having a friend, but when he saw the name, he couldn’t help but smile, a bit amused.
[Sasaki Ichigo.]
How surprisingly polite.
“Thanks for waiting, I’m done!”
He slipped his phone into his pants pockets and held the door open for Sasaki.
“Oh, thanks!”
“You don’t have to thank me for every small thing. We’re friends.”
“! Oh, okay. Th- Okay.”
After leaving the room, Yuji headed right, where the stairs were located. When he didn’t hear any footsteps following after him, he turned around and saw Sasaki heading in the opposite direction.
“Where are you going Ichigo?”
“Hm? Back to class?”
“The stairs are this way.”
“Yes? My class is on this floor.”
Yuji blinked. But that would mean…
Oh.
It seemed he misunderstood. Sasaki was–
“You’re an upperclassman?”
It made sense now that Yuji thought about it. He was hiding in the storeroom on the third floor after all, not one of the ones on the second floor. (Though Yuji had initially thought that he chose to hide on a different floor to avoid getting discovered by his classmates- it seemed like his hypothesis was wrong.)
Now it was Sasaki’s turn to blink. He tilted his head, confused.
“Yes? I’m a third-year student. “Upperclassmen?”” It seemed like Sasaki finally caught on. He gasped.
“Oh! Are you my junior?”
“Yes, I’m a second-year. Senpai.” He tacked on at the end, wincing at how disrespectful he had been this whole time. Naoki-nii would have shook his head in disappointment.
For some reason, Sasaki’s eyes shined even brighter at his sorry excuse of a sign of respect. He mouthed the word “senpai” to himself before breaking into a huge smile.
“Feel free to call me Ichigo-senpai! Is it okay if I call you Yuji-kun?”
“Sure…” He didn’t really care, it was just a name.
Sasaki laughed brightly in response. “Okay, see you tomorrow, Yuji-kun!”
Yuji nodded in response, but Sasaki kept looking at him with sparkling eyes, as if waiting for something.
“...See you tomorrow, Ichigo-senpai.”
The older boy practically giggled before waving Yuji farewell. Yuji waved back and watched as Sasaki hurried to his classroom, a skip in his step and flowers blooming around him once again.
He really did remind Yuji of his younger siblings….
That night, after he finished washing up, Yuji received several message notifications.
Sasaki Ichigo 10:12pm
Hello Yuji-kun! This is Sasaki Ichigo!
I hope we can get along as friends! ^o^/
See you tomorrow!
[Sent a happy hedgehog sticker]
Yuji smiled. Of course Sasaki was the type to use emoticons and stickers.
He quickly typed a few messages back before putting his phone down and answering the knock at his door.
You 10:15pm
Hi senpai. Let’s get along well.
See you tomorrow.
[Sent a waving polar bear sticker]