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...
He sleeps through most of their morning class. Yukari knows this without turning around because she can hear him snoring softly - in fact, the whole class does. Once Mr. Ekoda notices, he tolerates it for about a minute before demanding that Aigis wake him up so that he can scold him properly.
Minato lifts his head after several seconds of the blonde robot's insistent poking, and whatever Mr. Ekoda sees is enough for him to abandon the scolding and send him to the nurse's office instead - and when Minato goes to the front of the room to get a hall pass, she understands because she sees his sallow complexion and sunken eyes and tense shoulders. The lesson continues as the door opens and closes with two quiet swishes, but she can't focus at all.
(For once, she thinks she understands what he's feeling.)
...
They're sitting in the auditorium, Minato to her right and Junpei to her left, as the principal drones on and on and on like he always does with everything he opens his mouth about - this time, the shocking tragedy that is Shinjiro Aragaki's death. Junpei looks irritated but Minato is a blank slate, gazing into an invisible abyss with headphones hooked on his ears. Yukari's hands curl into fists in her lap.
(For once, she thinks she understands what he's feeling.)
"Why is this bastard talking like he actually cares?" Junpei gripes after the amount of time that the principal has been talking goes into the double digits. "He's only doing this for brownie points. And it doesn't matter anyways - those seniors from earlier proved it. Nobody here even knew Aragaki."
Neither did we, Yukari wants to snipe, just for the hell of it, but she sees Minato's bottom lip twitch and stays quiet as Ms. Toriumi turns around with a scowl to shush them.
...
No one feels like going to Tartarus after Shinjiro's funeral, so the group returns to the dorm for the night.
Akihiko and Ken immediately lock themselves in their rooms. Mitsuru eventually retreats to her own as well, claiming that she has to study, leaving the rest of the juniors in the lounge to sit awkwardly and pretend that everything is still the same.
"Where are you going?" Fuuka asks in surprise when Minato suddenly rises from the couch and heads towards the door, hands buried in his pockets. Koromaru barks, which Aigis quickly translates as a similar inquiry, and Junpei looks up from his video game. Yukari flips a page in her magazine and brings it closer to her face.
"Out," he responds shortly, clipping his headphones onto his ears. He opens the front door and is gone in seconds. They exchange looks as Koromaru whines softly in the ensuing silence.
"...Yukari-chan? You're leaving too?"
"I'm just gonna sit on the step and get some air," she says, setting her magazine on the coffee table and slipping out the door.
(For once, she thinks she understands what he's feeling.)
...
It doesn't take her long to catch up with Minato, because he's walking so slowly and dazedly that she could easily mistake him for a moving Apathy Syndrome victim, or a zombie from one of the many stupid horror movies Junpei's dragged them to. He walks all the way to the shrine without noticing her trailing a few feet behind him because he never looks back, and just when she thinks he's going to keep walking and walking and walking to the edge of the world, he abruptly stops to sit on the stairs.
Yukari plops down next to him without a word and he doesn't so much as glance in her direction. They sit side-by-side and stare at the sky, navy and swirling with stars, for what feels like hours without talking.
(For once, she thinks she understands what he's feeling.)
"Minato," she finally tries, and then becomes conflicted on what would get through to him - sympathy and coddling, or a solid voice of reason? "Minato," she repeats, still at a loss, and he finally looks at her with hollow, lifeless eyes.
"Don't," he says, and he doesn't sound angry or annoyed or close to tears; only weary and sad sad sad. "Just don't, Yukari."
She bites her lip and fights the urge to move away, to get up and leave him alone even though she wants to because it hurts, it hurts to be pushed away, it hurts to think that he believes he needs to bottle it up because he's their Leader or whatever. But instead, she grabs his hand - uncharacteristically limp on the step between them rather than in his pocket - and squeezes tight until she thinks she feels his fingers gently touch her knuckle.
...
By the time they return to the dorm, everyone else is asleep. They walk to the second floor, bumping elbows the whole time, and at the foot to the next flight of stairs, Yukari pauses and turns around.
"It - it'll be all right," she says. You'll be all right. I know you will.
"...Yeah," he replies, and disappears down the hall. Once she hears the open and closing of his door, she continues up to the third floor alone.
(For once, she thinks she understands what he's feeling.)