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I stuffed my gym clothes into the bag, panting heavily. I was never good at sports, but running really took it out of me. The coach was tough on those who fell behind, too. That would me be and Benjamin, a blonde-haired male who looks like he should be a football player. But he says he doesn't play anymore because of an injury to his thigh. Apparently he'd been counting on a scholarship, and it had been ripped from his fingers. Tends to happen a lot. Kuroko would be in our group of "lungs don't work" if he took gym. But he doesn't have to because he does basketball after school. Lucky him.

I sat on the cold metal bench and sighed, leaning back against the wall. They really need to fix this room: the lockers are rusty, the walls are a filthy white, the blue-and-white tiled floor has orange mould growing around the cracks. The showers suck, so I usually just smear some more deoderent on and hope for the best. But sometimes I have to wait here. When I get the call. That's when I wish that Kuroko did have gym, so that maybe I wouldn't have to wait.

I tense at the sound of the door creaking open, resounding through the room. My once relaxed position transforms into a small, tense, fragile form on the bleachers. The me two years ago would never have thought that I could be this weak. But now it happens often. Light footsteps pad against the tile, until I can see their owner peer from behind the row of lockers. The dim light illuminates purple and black hair on the tall, tan-skinned figure as it steps slowly closer. My breathing hitches, and not as a result of running. Nostalgia engulfs me as he comes close enough for me to see his tear-stained face, clouded blue eyes. I realize that anything I had previously tried to distract myself with was useless.

"Hikari?" he asks, now a few feet away.

"...Yes?" I whisper, my voice barely audible to my own ears, responding to this name that isn't mine, but that I know as well as my own.

He knelt before me, moving his way between my knees. "I couldn't..." He swallows back tears as he stares wide-eyed into my face, raking me over with his eyes. "I couldn't get your face out of my head... after the crash. I had to see you without blood." Long, cold fingers trail down my face, and his eyes follow them in disbelief. He touches my cheek, my nose, my hair, my lips. "I'm sorry I wasn't there. I'm sorry..."

And then I'm having the life squeezed out of me, his arms tight around me, his head buried in my neck, and I'm hugging him over his thick shoulders. His breath is warm on my skin. But the only face in my head is a face that looks exactly like mine. "You smell like him..." he says through my neck as he inhales deeply. I sense the tears welling up behind my lids and push my face deeper into his coat. Tears for him as well as for myself. It doesn't feel right.

Ten minutes later I walk into my science class about 15 minutes late. Luckily the teacher is a frazzled woman who couldn't organize her life if she got help. It's a horrible thing to say, but no one says it. They only think it. Which somehow makes it right. It shouldn't be. Kuroko is sitting at the table in the back as usual, with these ridiculous goggles on that are too large for his face. I walk over to him and set my bag down, reaching for the utensils. He hands me my goggles and I slip them on, ready to forget the last 20 minutes. But Kuroko addresses the situation immediately.

"Did he call?" he whispers under the voice of the teacher. He knows the deal with me and Hitomu. I told him two weeks after it started. I had expected it to happen only a couple times. But he asked to speak to Hikari, and I had felt horrible for him, so I let him. Sometimes it's so twisted that I think when he asks for Hikari, I'm experiencing Hikari as well, by being him. It's too far gone to stop now, at least without hurting anyone.

"Yes," I whispered back, making it clear that I wanted to drop the conversation. So we listened to Ms. Delany's detailed explanation of the Law of Mass Conservation. But we both knew the words I should have said.