Shinji: Baby StepsI walked to school slower than usual. The medicine Taka put on my welts had reduced the pain down to a dull ache, but my muscles were stiff. It was probably good I’d already quit the track team for our final year under the guise of needing to focus on entrance exams. I hadn’t wanted to quit, I loved running, but it had gotten harder to make up excuses for wearing long clothes or needing to change by myself. I’d long since run out of any sane-sounding stories about how I’d fallen down or had an accident.
When I’d told Taka I was quitting, he’d hugged me so tight, with those sad, scared eyes like he wore yesterday while we lay beside one another. If I really loved him, I’d let him go too, but I couldn’t. Maybe it was selfish of me, but I needed him with me, wanted him with
