I've Got Your Back

Tatsuya did admit that he was pretty dense. However, he was hardly dense enough to be fooled by Hamuko’s fake smiling. He could tell something was wrong. And if she didn’t want to talk, he would make her. He already had enough of her hiding her emotions from everyone. Specially from him. And even more so when he knew exactly what was making her act like that this time.

He knocked on the door to her bedroom.

“What is it?” What answered him was her usual happy, cheerful tone. But he could tell something was odd about it. It sounded… Somehow, hollow .

“It’s Tatsuya. I need to talk to you.”

“Ah…” There was a pause for a moment, and her tone began to falter. “C-can this wait? I-I’m kinda busy…”

“I wasn’t asking.” He opened the door. Even after all the times everyone had told her it would be best to lock it, she still didn’t do it. But he would have to argue with her about that another time.

“H-hey! It’s bad manners to just go into someone’s room without permission!” She glared at him, rubbing her eyes and turning her back to him.

“As if you’re one to talk. You do that all the time.”

“I haven’t done it even once for the past week, though!”

“And that’s exactly why we need to talk.” He closed the door behind him, crossing his arms and leaning on it. He wasn’t gonna let her run away so easily. “Stop acting like you’re fine. You haven’t acted like yourself at all in the past week. It doesn’t matter how much you try to hide it. We can tell.”

She turned around to look at him, and then he finally saw just in what state she was in. Her eyes were red and puffy and, even from where he was standing, he could tell her cheeks seemed to have been wet recently.

“Your eyes are red… Were you crying?” He got closer to her, then leaned so he could look her in the eye.

“I-I’m fine.” She tried to wipe away some of the tears that were threatening to come out.

“Why are you still lying?”

“I-I don’t know!” She pushed him away, tears rolling down her cheeks no matter what she tried to do.

Tatsuya just stood in shock for a moment. He had never seen her act that way. It was almost… Scary. But he refused to back down. “You got so used to it that it’s just instinct?”

She widened her eyes. Bingo.

He sighed. “This is because of that guy, right…? Aragaki.”

Hamuko sat back on the bed, cheeks reddening as she started sobbing.

Tatsuya sat beside her, putting a hand on her shoulder. “If you need a moment to cry it out, I don’t mind it. But you have to promise to tell me everything afterwards, okay?”

Hamuko nodded. And just like that, her sobbing got a lot more intense. He grabbed a tissue box that was on her bed and gave it to her. In between sobs, she tried blowing her nose.

Tatsuya knew what had happened one week earlier. It was impossible not to know, really. They all saw it. Shinjiro lying on the ground unconscious, while Hamuko sobbed and tried to make him talk to her. There was so much fear in her voice. So much despair.

And yet, two days later, she had pretended to be fine. She had tried acting like everything was normal. But none of the other people in the dorm had believed her. Of course it would take much more than a day to get over someone so special to her getting in a coma. But none of them had had the heart to confront her about it.

That is, aside from Tatsuya. And he found he would much rather be there, with her sobbing beside him, than watching her carry the weight of her pain all alone.

“I… I really liked him. A lot…” She spoke as her sobs calmed down.

“That wasn’t hard to notice.” How could someone not notice it? She always looked at Shinjiro with so much joy. Even in the small time they had known each other, it quickly felt like he had become her highest priority.

She laughed a little. Blowing her nose one more time before speaking again. “I’m… Such a hypocrite. I keep telling you guys to open up more and that you don’t have to deal with your problems alone, but I go on and do the opposite of that every single time…”

“Don’t beat yourself up so much. I can only imagine what else you must have gone through to get like this so often.” He squeezed her shoulder a little as he pulled her closer to him. “But… You still should follow your own advice. We all care for you, Hamuko. You helped us all so much. I doubt we would have made progress with Goro as fast as we did if you hadn’t talked to him. And it’s only fair we would help you as well.”

“I know. I’m… So sorry. I’ll… I’ll try. It… Probably won’t be easy…”

He chuckled, using his free hand to playfully punch the side of her stomach. “But you won’t be alone in this, you know?”

She giggled, holding onto the hand that was on her shoulder and leaning her head on his shoulder.

It wouldn’t be easy. It was hard to get rid of old habits. But if more than half a year of being with everyone in that dorm had taught Tatsuya anything, it’s that they would get through it as long as they sticked together.