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Ushijima opened his eyes and found himself waking up in stages. He blinked the last remnants of sleep away. He sat up slowly and let his senses take in the world; the sound of birds chirping outside, the sunlight streaming through his window and illuminating specks of dust in their beams. His denim overalls were on his desk chair, laid out from last night. They would all look so put together in their matching overalls today.
“Matching overalls?” said Semi an hour later, with a raised eyebrow. “When’d we agree on that?”
Ushijima coughed into his elbow. That way, he could hide the rising, burning sensation in his cheeks. The sun was already fairly high in the sky, here at the urban farm; maybe he could blame his reddening face on the increasing temperature and how it made his skin prickle with sweat. “Did we not agree on it?”
“I don’t think we did,” said Reon. “Did we talk about it?”
“We didn’t,” said Goshiki, “because I know I would have remembered!” He turned his big pleading puppy eyes to Ushijima. “I’m so sorry, Ushijima-senpai.”
“Don’t worry about it.”
Ushijima coughed again. He pulled himself together bit by bit. The farm and its neat rows of plants stretched out in front of him for the full length of the city block, until the opposite fence was barely more than a centimeter tall. The smell of soil filled the air around them and the other volunteers at the urban farm watched him curiously, giggling to themselves.
He coughed. He pulled himself together bit by bit. And then he caught sight of familiar red hair and a set of overalls, headed straight for their group.
“Wakatoshi!” yelled Tendou, his flailing arms waving something wild at Ushijima. “You remembered!”
Ushijima was quiet for a moment. Then he nodded. “I remembered.”
Shirabu looked back and forth between Ushijima and Tendou, brow furrowed and a question on the tip of his tongue. But he would never get his answer, because one of the farm staff had come up to their group, already smelling like earth and her smile like the sun. Tendou straightened up a little in his overalls, grinning more. He nudged Ushijima in the side.
“We’re gonna be farmers!” he whisper-shouted, the tips of his hair trembling in excitement.
“We are.”
The corners of his mouth curled up for a second. It left as quickly as it had come. Tendou cocked his head to the side, watching him. After a moment, his interest shifted back to the staff member. Her voice went high in her passion and the Shiratorizawa team could start feeling it too. It made them antsy in their clothes, in standing still. Just meters away, the crops beckoned.
Soon enough, they were split up into groups, and sent off to different areas of the farm. While the first and second years had somehow been roped into bending metal bars into hoops, a task doomed to cause mishaps and many a smashed thumb; the third years were now squatting on their haunches and weeding a long row of something green and leafy. Tendou squinted at the plants, perhaps hoping to decode their secrets. But they simply wobbled in an occasional breeze and bent beneath his hands; this and nothing more.
“Oi, Wakatoshi,” he said, “why a farm?”
He pulled at a particularly stubborn weed, not fully paying attention to it. In the next second, he was pulling too hard, and it came out in one sudden, airy tug, sending him toppling onto his rear. Dirt particles went flying and he must have crushed the poor plants behind him, they were all crooked and bent now -
They probably deserved it. With a scoff, Tendou tossed the naughty weed aside. He didn’t go back to work, at least not yet. He crossed his arms over his chest and waited for an answer.
But it might be a long time coming. They were barely five minutes into their task, yet Ushijima was already engrossed in it, almost trance-like, in that strange space between hollowness and exuberant life. He pulled the weeds one by one, with practiced hands. They never resisted and as the pile beside him grew larger, Ushijima’s resolve never wavered. This seemed to be his meditation, in the quiet of his mind and the singular task before him.
Tendou opened his mouth, words halfway out; and then he closed it. He could see Ushijima looking up from the crops, up and out to the scene before them. Volunteers from different groups had all come out today, scattered in their work over the area of the farm. They were laughing, joking; and at the same time, little by little, the plants already looked better, not so choked by weeds anymore and springy from the new day’s sunlight.
Squatting there in his overalls, the denim pale with dirt and wear, Ushijima finally shifted his attention to Tendou. His voice was low and his words were simple. “Why not?”
He shifted his weight and then he could feel how the earth shifted beneath him, too; holding him, supporting him. It had gone surprisingly quiet. There was something like Shirabu’s loud yelp in the distance, and a few choice curse words; but they blended in with the calm mood of the morning, putting Ushijima fully at ease. The chatter and cries of people around him, the hum of city traffic; they all felt very distant now. But now Ushijima found himself smiling. Unconsciously, he let it linger.