High school schedules are cruel.
When Nanami and I first started living together, I assumed we would leave for school together, attend the same classes, and return home at the same time like we always did when we were younger.
Reality proved me wrong very quickly.
Our schedules are completely different.
Nanami somehow ended up in a class with an earlier start time. His homeroom begins nearly forty minutes before mine. Meanwhile, my classes stretch later into the afternoon.
The first time we realized it, Nanami stared at the timetable posted on the school wall.
"This can't be right."
I looked at mine and then at his.
"Oh," I said. "We're doomed."
Mornings became strange after that.
Nanami leaves first. Every day I half-wake to the sound of the apartment door closing softly. Sometimes I hear him rummaging around the kitchen before he goes—probably looking for breakfast that he definitely didn't cook.
Then the apartment goes quiet again.
I'll eventually drag myself out of bed, brush my hair, and eat the breakfast I prepared the night before. It feels weird doing everything alone.
School isn't much better either.
During lunch, I sometimes see Nanami across the courtyard surrounded by his classmates. He laughs easily with them, like he always belonged there.
Not that I'm jealous or anything.
.
.
.
Okay, maybe a little.
There is also the afternoons.
Nanami usually gets home before me. When I finally return, tired and carrying too many textbooks, the lights in the apartment are already on.
Sometimes he's on the couch playing games.
Sometimes he's sprawled out on the floor doing homework.
Once, I walked in and found him staring seriously at a pot of instant noodles like it was a complicated science experiment.
"Don't touch the stove," I said immediately.
"I wasn't going to!"
"You absolutely were."
Still, despite our mismatched schedules, coming home and seeing him there makes the apartment feel less empty.
I guess that's the beauty about living together.
Even if our days go in different directions, they always seem to end in the same place.