What was different?

Most mornings, Saburo would come to visit their class, sometimes accompanied by his friends. Takiyo noted that he didn't see Sara around him anymore. In fact, he rarely saw her since then.

He would while away the morning talking with Yuko. He would often leave with a promise to have lunch together. Yuko wasn't completely gone. She just didn't spend as much time with them as before. She would still randomly talk to them, and come over between classes. She would also spend lunches with them sometimes. She was balancing everything out.

So, what was different?

***

Yuko walked wobbling into the classroom, looking half-dead. Ren had arrived earlier than her because he had some morning practice for club. He, Takiyo, Arisu and Syo looked up at her in alarm. Saiki-sensei walked in right behind her.

"Sit down, Nishikawa-san." she said, passing by. Yuko had made it to school in the nick of time, and she looked drained. They all went to their seats, and Yuko stumbled over to her own.

"What happened to you?" Syo whispered.

"Me?" Yuko asked. Her voice sounded dead as well. "Oh, I overslept, and ran over to school as fast as I could, and forgot breakfast." She banged her head against the table. "I missed breakfast."

Syo gritted his teeth.

"But I have my bento, so I need to tough it out till lunch." Yuko said, feebly punching a fist in the air. "I'm conserving energy."

Syo looked unsure. "Are you sure? You should eat something."

"I'm fine." Yuko said, getting her head off the table and smiling at him reassuringly. "I'm just conserving energy."

"Yuko, you don't sleep much either. I'm serious." Syo said worriedly.

"Don't worry about it, I slept a lot last night!!" Yuko told him cheerily.

"Okay..." Syo wasn't so sure.

But by the time lunch rolled around, it was a challenge to pretend that her stomach didn't feel like it was ready to eat itself. They had back-to-back classes, with no opening whatsoever to talk. So Takiyo, Ren and Arisu still didn't know the reason behind Yuko's dullness.

Syo was called over to his friends, and he was having lunch with them. They apparently wanted to talk with him about some new video game. Ren looked at Yuko disapprovingly.

"I think you need fresh air." he remarked. "I have an idea. Let's eat outside today?"

"Outside?" Yuko asked, bringing out her bento with trembling hands.

"Yes! Let's eat outside for once." Arisu agreed, jumping in. "I'll force Takin into it."

"Outside it is, then. Come on." Ren said, pulling Yuko up. Yuko was surprised her legs and enough strength to hold her up. "You okay?" Ren asked suddenly.

"Yes, I'm okay." Yuko replied, smiling.

Soon, they were walking down the corridor (Takiyo was considerably grumpy and was being half-dragged along by Arisu), but they hadn't walked far when somebody called out to them.

"You're Nishikawa Yuko?"

Takiyo, Yuko, Ren and Arisu looked up to see a group of not-very-nice-looking girls. They looked like seniors, and they looked a little ticked. Yuko instantly transformed into a nervous wreck, and nodded.

"Can we talk for a minute?" the girl suddenly asked sweetly.

"O-okay," Yuko mumbled, ignoring her protesting stomach.

"Yuko..." Ren began, but Yuko smiled at him reassuringly.

"Don't worry," she said, handing him her bento. "I'll be right back. You guys go ahead."

She followed the seniors, feeling extremely scared, heart beating fast. They took her to the roof, and by the time they reached the top, Yuko began to regret not taking a bite of her chicken teriyaki before leaving. Why did they need to go all the way to the roof?

The three girls gathered around her, causing her to back nervously into the railing. She felt it bump against the small of her back, and pressed herself against it.

The girl advanced, and they hardly looked sweet now. The finally stopped. The one in the lead eyed her with a distasteful look, and Yuko felt her knees knocking together from fear.

The girl scoffed. "We've noticed that you've been sticking to Saburo a lot lately. What makes you think you can do that, you lowly junior?"

"Yeah. He's not yours." A girl with a side-ponytail piped up.

Yuko looked down. So they didn't know? Saburo didn't tell anybody? No, she knew he did tell his friends. They would hoot and whistle when she walked by, calling out to Saburo that it was his girlfriend. From the way these girls were acting, Yuko could tell they didn't know.

She understood. Obviously, they were one of those small, fangirl groups that would think they were so high and mighty. They were one of those self-absorbed girls who admired Saburo from afar, claiming him as theirs.

The girls glared at her.

"No answer?" the first girl said. "I see you know better than to speak up against your seniors. So don't be too high up on your horse."

Yuko was already drifting away from the conversation. She was feeling dizzy and off-balance. Was it because she didn't have anything since morning? Or did she not sleep well after all? She longed for her bento. She just wanted to get this over with and enjoy that still-warm teriyaki.

"Just because he's nice to you doesn't mean he likes you. He's nice to everyone. So know your place and keep your distance."

When will this end?

The girl gave Yuko a hard shove in the shoulder, then turned around and began to walk away. One of her friends stopped her, with a vice-like grip on her arm, and a horrified expression.

"Keina–!"

The girl named Keina turned around just in time to see Yuko falling over the railing and tumble down the sloping roof.

Ah, I didn't sleep.

***

"Yuko's sure taking her time, huh?" Ren said worriedly. He kept lifting his food to his mouth, but then getting distracted and stopping. They were sitting under the tree that had the bench going around it.

Takiyo shrugged, taking a bite of his egg sandwich. "Eat something already. Nishikawa's fine. You worry too much pointlessly."

Ren shot him a contradictory look but once again lifted his food to his mouth, but then he heard a commotion going on. He was stopped again, and he looked around, confused. Arisu, who had gone to talk with her friends from another class, came running at top speed, looking frantic and hysterical.

"Rekkun! Takin! Come quickly! Quickly! It's Yu-chan!" Arisu looked freaked out of her wits, and she grabbed both of their arms before either of them could process what she said. She pulled them away, knocking Takiyo's bento over as she did.

"My bento..." Takiyo mumbled

Arisu looked like she was going to rage at him. "THIS IS SO MUCH MORE THAN YOUR STUPID BENTO!!"

Takiyo could tell it was something serious. They didn't need to go far, as they could see what was going on from quite a distance.

"Look!" Arisu pointed at the roof. Takiyo and Ren followed the trail of her finger, and their hearts nearly stopped.

A choked yell escaped Ren's mouth. "YUKO!!!"

Yuko was dangling from the roof, terror clear on her face, holding on with both of her hands. The three girls who had wanted to talk with Yuko earlier were gathered at the railing, petrified. It was clear this wasn't their intentional doing, but it was also clear the weren't going to help her in any way in fear of risking their own skin. Students were pointing and looked panic-stricken. Nobody knew what to do.

Takiyo, Ren and Arisu ran as fast as they could in Yuko's direction, hearts pounding, pushing past the students. When they were almost directly beneath Yuko, they stopped, thinking hard about what they could do.

Yuko was trying to pull herself up, and though she had the capability to do so from gymnastics, firstly, the roof was sloped, and secondly, she already had next to no stamina, and it was taking the last dregs in her tank to just keep holding on.

"Yu-chan!" Arisu called desperately.

Ren looked absolutely torn. His gears were turning hard and fast, and he barely heard Takiyo yelling for someone to call a teacher or anyone.

Yuko's hands were slipping. She could hardly hold on anymore, her energy was pretty much over. In the next few seconds, she would either pass out or slip.

Finally Takiyo thought of something. It was three floors up. The impact wouldn't be very dangerous.

"Ren!" Takiyo called him over, and he linked arms with him. "Don't worry, Nishikawa!" he yelled up at her. "Just fall! Don't worry! Ren and I will catch you!"

Yuko looked down at them, the fear clear in her eyes. She had to go that way, she was going to fall anyway.

"Trust us, Yuko!" Ren shouted, catching on.

"I can't watch!" Arisu whimpered, fingers over her eyes and sinking to her knees. "Yu-chan..."

Yuko took a deep breath, gathered her courage, and let go. The second she did, somebody pushed past them, so fast they couldn't see who it was. They both were knocked aside, and the person caught Yuko and held her close to his chest.

Ren frantically pushed off the ground, and breathed a sigh of relief seeing that Saburo had caught her. In his haste to save Yuko, Saburo had thought Yuko had fallen because her hand had slipped and he ran mindlessly to get her.

Arisu peeked through her fingers, and nearly cried out of relief. Takiyo got up as well, to verify that Yuko was safe, and instantly felt himself relax. Ren and Arisu quickly went to her side, but she was whimpering and shivering in Saburo's arms, clutching onto his shirt tightly, tears pouring down her face.

Takiyo took his time to bring his heart rate under control. He was panting and taking deep breaths. He gazed at Yuko, Ren, Arisu and Saburo, calming down.

Out of nowhere, that pessimistic voice came back again. It was rerunning how he was cast carelessly to the side. The next realisation threw itself at him really hard, now of all times.

Now that Yuko had someone else to save her, maybe she didn't need him anymore?

And the most important question struck: Am I needed?

"At the end of the day, we're fighting against ourselves, right?"