You woke up, slipped on your shoes, greeted your parents, then head out to run errands. As was your daily routine. It was numbing, but you hailed from a poverty-stricken family- complaining wouldn't do anything. You'd grown accustomed to keeping your complaints to yourself.

Slipping on your shoes, you stepped outside your house, begrudgingly stepping towards the rickety fences surrounding your parent's garden. The gates opened and you were met with the rather sad sight of wilted leaves and dull-colored plants. How convenient. The weather last night had been ruthless, and as unfortunate as it was, you were expecting this outcome in the morning.

You grabbed a bucket, sighing as you turned on your heel and made your way down to the well. You despised going down to the well. Firstly, it was an extremely long walk. Secondly, the street was littered with rude kids and irritating teenagers that found amusement handing out jabs to any poor soul walking down the path. And today was no different, it seemed, much to your dismay; whatever. You filtered out their remarks for now, focusing on getting to the well. You didn't feel like talking to anyone today.

Reaching the well, you slipped your bucket's lid off, lowered and filled it with water, and pulled it back up. You turned on your heel to leave, though something caught your attention. The water trickling down your head. Great, it had started raining. Just what you'd wanted. You sighed, too exasperated to pick up the sounds of footsteps behind you.

You only noticed a presence near you when you felt the pitter patter on your head stop and someone breathing behind you. Great, was someone here to poke fun at you again? You turned around begrudgingly.

Oh. You knew that guy. It was the older Uchiumi son. Senzai, was it? He lived down the street, didn't he? You envied him, really; you'd heard from the other villagers his father had been planning to enroll him in law school, and you'd even seen the art he made; you two were acquainted, to say the least. Such talent and a pretty face didn't belong in such an depressing village, you thought to yourself.

Senzai knew you, though. He had seen you multiple times in the village, but he'd never had a one-on-one conversation with you until now. He was forced to watch from a distance- not approach you, unsure of how to start a conversation, and oh that was nothing short of hell for him. He still remembers how red his cheeks had gotten and how far his jaw had dropped when he'd first laid his eyes on you, and he also remembered how Isamu didn't stop teasing him about it for the coming week. Today seemed a miracle for him; he finally had a chance to talk to you.

He smiled- that same smile the girls in the village swooned so dearly over, bringing you out of your thoughts. Though his smile seemed different. Were you imagining, or were his cheeks a little pink? And was this the first time his smile reached his eyes? Only now you noticed he was holding an umbrella between the two of you.

"Hi," he hummed, his voice seeming a little more saccharine than usual. "The rain doesn't seem like it's going to stop for a bit. Do you want me to walk you home?"