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Yukari hasn’t even gotten a bite out of her bento when one of her lunch-mates breaks into a fit of giggles.
“Look, look!” She sing-songs, bumping her shoulder into the girl sitting to her right, “I bet he’s waiting for her again!”
Aoi doesn’t seem to share Yukari’s confusion, because she just gives the other girl a playful nudge. “Sheesh, can you be any louder, Maya?”
Maya’s excitement is contagious, so Yukari finds herself giggling along. “Who are you pairing-up now, Miss Cupid?”
“It’s a total waste, but I don’t think those two need my services,” Maya heaves in a dramatic sigh, giving a pointed nod towards one of the classroom’s doors.
Yukari waits a couple of seconds before pretending to take a look around the room, not wanting to tip-off the two lovebirds, whoever they may be. Her subtlety seems to be pointless, however, because when she allows her gaze to set on the entrance, she finds none other than Minato.
Yukari can only blink, her lighthearted curiosity quickly giving way to confusion instead. He is standing by the door, shoulders slouched and trying in vain to stifle a yawn. There is a fading spiral mark on his cheek from where he fell asleep atop of his notebook, and Yukari would find it endearing if it didn’t look so ridiculous on him. All in all, he looks less like a guy about to score a date and more like someone who would like nothing more than to skip lunch and nap his way to the second period.
Confused still, she looks back at her two friends but they still have their eyes trained on Minato. “Um. Ahaha, I’m not sure I—”
Her question gets drown-out by Maya’s barely muffled squeal. Yukari looks back over her shoulder just in time to catch Minato’s eyes darting towards the teacher’s desk, where Miss Toriumi seems to be caught in conversation with a certain android.
It dawns on her, then, just who are the latest subjects of Maya’s gossiping streak, and the realization comes with a frown and a bitter feeling that she refuses to acknowledge as jealously.
Figures they would get people talking, jeez, she thinks, pursing her lips. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out what set Maya’s radar off. It’s been a while since Minato and Aigis started to have lunch together on the rooftop. Alone.
Aigis has zero awareness but he should know better, she decides, breaking her disposable chopsticks with more force than necessary. Even if it’s easier for Aigis to not have to put-up any pretenses for a while, it wouldn’t hurt Minato to have some common sense and at least ask Junpei to join them.
And those two, she thinks, aiming her friends with an accusatory look that neither of them seems to notice. They hardly know them! What do they think they're doing, jumping to conclusions like that?
“They’re pretty adorable together, aren’t they? It’s super cute how they’re always looking after each other,” Maya says as if on cue, in a conspiratorial whisper that is anything but. To Yukari’s ever-growing aggravation, Aoi has the never to agree.
“You think they’re already dating?”
“No, they are not!”
Both pairs of eyes do turn to her, now. Yukari feels her ears grow red. “I—I mean, I’ve talked to them a couple times and they seemed like just friends to me,” she finishes with a chuckle and feels horrified at how nervous it sounds even to her own ears.
Luckily for her, both girls seem to be oblivious to it. “Oh. Well, if they aren’t, they sure seem to be close to it,” Aoi offers with a shrug.
Maya nods, pointing her chopsticks at Minato. “I give it a month~!”
Yukari contemplates setting the record straight. Not because the thought of Minato dating anybody else annoys her, of course. She just wants to save her friends from the trouble and embarrassment. She knows first-hand how insistent Maya can get when it comes to these things, and with Saint Valentine’s fast approaching…
Ugh, but If I say anything else it’ll look suspicious, Yukari bites down on her bottom-lip. Maybe I should just talk to Arisato-kun, tell him to be more self-aware? I mean, he should care, right?
… Really, why am I getting so riled up about this?
A month ago she would have waved off the notion of Minato and Aigis dating with little more than slight irritation. Irritation at the fact that Aigis says such things when she doesn’t even understand how they come across—and also irritation at Minato, who never bothers to correct her or tell her how uncomfortable it can get for everyone else.
But now, now the thought leaves her feeling… uneasy. Aigis is becoming more and more human with every passing day, and yet her behavior around him has not changed; if anything, it’s become more… intimate, in a way Yukari cannot help but to notice. And Minato… He’s the same as always, but Yukari has the impression that lately, it’s getting harder and harder to tell whether it’s Aigis who’s everywhere Minato is, or if it’s the other way around.
I'm just being paranoid, she thinks, lightly shaking her head to clear her thoughts. He's protective of her, is all; she is like a kid, after all.
Her gaze flickers to him and something flutters inside her chest. She is just wondering if she should try to talk to him about it after class, when Aigis comes to stand by him.
“I have confirmed that all of my notes are accurate,” Aigis announces with a firm nod as he takes out his earphones. “I made sure to cover everything you missed while you were asleep, Minato-san.”
Minato sighs. “Aigis… I told you, you didn’t have to.”
“That may be so, but I wanted to. You are my highest priority, and that includes your academic success,” she replies merrily and going by Maya’s and Aoi’s giggling, Yukari isn’t the only one listening in to their conversation.
Minato says something Yukari can’t quite catch, then. It steals a laugh out of Aigis, who tilts her head to the side. “I believe that is a ‘gaming’ reference, correct? But even if your stats are maxed, it’s just as the saying goes: Study hard, for the well is deep, and our brains are shallow.”
“I… don’t think that’s a saying, Aigis,” Minato points out, lips quirking up. “Shall we go?”
Aigis nods and the two leave together, but not before Yukari catches the way they turn towards each other wearing matching, content smiles—as if they were in their own little world.
The sight stays with her long after they are gone and suddenly, Yukari finds that she doesn’t feel that hungry anymore.
The realization gnaws at Yukari for the best part of two weeks; flutters in and out the forefront of her mind during the times she isn’t fretting about Graduation or Mitsuru or upcoming life-or-death, life-deciding battles against inhuman entities, only to make her stomach knot up as if she were. Still, she doesn’t think she will do anything about it, not really.
Until one night when, as she lazily browses a magazine in the dorms’ common room, Minato, Aigis and Fuuka make their way to the door with Koromaru in tow.
“Sorry I can’t go with you two. Sorry to you too, Koromaru,” Minato adds when Koromaru lets out a reminding bark, and Yukari can almost hear the smile in his voice.
She makes a point of pretending to be engrossed in her reading, even as her chest warms up with longing.
“Not at all, Minato-san,” Aigis replies, voice as candid as the feelings Yukari would not voice aloud. “You should focus on your studies. Mitsuru-san would be most pleased if you do as splendid a job as last time.”
“Ah… somehow, that makes me feel pressured.”
Fuuka giggles. “It’s okay, Arisato-kun. I’ll take good care of her. And… it hasn’t been just the two of us for a while, has it, Aigis?”
“That’s right,” Aigis confirms, opening the door. “This would be called… ‘Girl time’, yes? Though there is Koromaru-san too, of course.” The dog lets out another bark. It makes Aigis giggle, and the sound stays with them even as the two girls leave the dorm. “Ah, Koromaru-san says that our secrets are safe with him.”
It’s only once the common room is silent again that Yukari risks a look at Minato. His back is turned to her, but the way he lingers by the window for a second too long is eloquent enough. It tells Yukari a lot of things, most of which she already knows—like the fact that she isn’t imaging things, and that the situation won’t go away no matter how hard she wills it to.
But it also tells her she isn’t the only one who’s been trying to play the oblivious card. And for some reason, that makes frustration beat inside her like a pulse.
It seeps into her voice when she addresses him, turns her question into a demand. “When are you going to tell her?”
Minato turns to give her a curious look that she doesn’t bother to meet. “Hmm? Tell what to whom?”
“Who else?” She waits, but Minato gives no signs of catching on. Yukari can’t hold back an airy sigh. “Aigis. I’m talking about Aigis.”
Minato cocks his head to the side. “What should I tell her?”
Yukari does look at him at that, her brow furrowed and her magazine forgotten. “Seriously? That you like her! Love her. Whatever,” Minato’s eyes widen ever so slightly. Yukari has to cling to the annoyance to ignore the stab of hurt; she knows him enough to read that look. “Jeez, don’t look so surprised. Everyone can see it,” she folds her hands on her knees, focus her eyes there. “…Anyone would’ve to be blind not to notice you carry a torch for her.”
Several moments pass by before Minato even so much as moves. When he finally does, he walks past her to lean against the back of the couch. “I don’t think telling her would be a good idea,” he admits rather quietly.
It’s Yukari’s turn to be puzzled. “Huh? Why?”
Minato looks thoughtful, as if he were measuring his words. “Aigis has just… started to understand and embrace human emotion. She has enough on her plate as it is… I don’t want to overwhelm her.”
“…Is that all there is to it?” Yukari asks, gaze sharp. It isn’t until Minato meets her eyes that she continues, “Or are you scared she will say yes just because it’s you who’s asking?”
Something passes through Minato’s gaze; the closest he ever gets to flinching, and Yukari knows at once that she’s hit the mark.
“Wow, Junpei was right,” Yukari chuckles dryly, shaking her head with no small amount of wonder. “You really are oblivious, aren’t you?”
“Eh?”
“Ugh, seriously? Do I really need to break it down to you?” She deadpans at him, suddenly feeling like she is talking to a child. How in the world can he possibly not have noticed it, when it seems to trail after Aigis like a second Persona? “Aigis is in love with you, you idiot!”
His face opens in such a way that Yukari’s heart swells and swells until it feels like her chest is about to burst. She both loves and hates him for it. “Has she…?”
“No, she hasn’t said it. Not like she needs to,” she adds, rolling her eyes and praying her voice still sounds casual and even—that her heart isn’t as easy to hear as his or Aigis’s are. “I mean, it’s not my place to say it, but believe me, you’d probably be helping her figure out her own feelings if you tell her.”
“…Why are you telling me this?” He asks, fixing her with an unreadable gaze.
The breath gets stuck in her throat.
No. No, don’t tell me—
Has he noticed it? Has he noticed that Yukari is always watching him? That ever since that night by the beach when he opened up to her for the first and last time, her feelings for him have never stopped growing?
That she wishes she had the courage to tell him she wants nothing more than to call him hers; that she wants to be by his side.
…That she wishes she could still pretend that it’s she who he would want there. That she still has a chance.
“Because both of you are my friends, I guess,” she murmurs. Her gaze leaves his and falls back on her lap, “… I don’t want to see you two go through the same thing Junpei did with Chidori.”
“Yukari…”
Yukari forces herself to straighten; forces herself to not meet his eyes. Knows that if she does—if she sees the touched look he is giving her, letting him go will only hurt more.
“And because it’s annoying watching you two dance around the subject like this,” she scolds, sticking her nose out as petulantly as she can. “Jeez, you’re behaving like two grade-schoolers! You’re supposed to be a man, aren’t you?”
Minato chuckles, then, and no matter how hard she tries, this time she can’t keep her eyes from flicking to him. To him and the grateful smile that curves his lips as he says, “Thanks, Yukari.”
Ugh, I hate you. Make things harder for me, why don’t you.
She waves his gratitude away with a hand, “It’s nothing. So, are you going to tell her?”
“…Maybe,” he concedes with a mysterious smile, before detaching himself from the couch and starting towards the stairs. “I’ll think about it after we defeat Nyx.”
Yukari sighs.
Well, I guess that gives me more time to come to terms with it, huh.
The thought is as bitter as it is relieving—
But what Yukari couldn’t have possibly known then is that both of them had already run out of time.
She kneels by the headstone and places her flowers beside the rest. It’s been a while since she last visited, and it’s been even longer since she was last able to think of him with a smile.
But she is smiling today.
“You… sent Orpheus to protect her, didn’t you?”
She chuckles lightly, reaches out to tuck a stray lock of hair behind her ear. “Even though things are like this, you’re still looking after her, huh?”
She lets her eyes close, her smile stretch just a little wider. She feels so stupid, now; how could she have let jealously wreck her the way it had? “…I get it.”
When she opens her eyes again, they are wet with unshed tears. “I’m sorry. For hurting her, for being so selfish… I was desperate, I guess. But I promise you that from now on, I won’t let feelings like those get the best of me.”
She hopes he will be able to hear her as clearly as he had that night in the dorms; the last conversation they ever had alone.
You’re out there protecting us forever, so…
“I promise you I’ll do my best to protect the things that were precious to you,” her voice gains momentum; becomes a promise sealed with determination and strengthened by her desire to make up for her mistakes. “I’ll protect this world, and also… I’ll protect Aigis.”
She feels unburdened; liberated.
“Yukari.”
Mitsuru is standing a couple of feet behind her, making sure to support Yukari without invading her privacy. When their eyes meet, Mitsuru smiles and nods in the direction of the car waiting for them. “Whenever you are ready.”
Yukari turns to face him one last time, with a smile as wide as the one she will give Aigis later than day, when she asks her to become her roommate and reminds Aigis that she has a friend in her. “I’ll help her to live on, to be happy. I promise you that, Arisato-kun, so rest well, alright?”
It’s taken her some time, in more ways than one. But Yukari thinks she is ready, now.
She feels ready.
“I’m coming, senpai!”