You were most likely the only friend Rin had at school. With his not so pleasant personality, he managed to keep most people at bay.

He tolerated you because you left him alone. You didn’t pester him nor did you ignore him. You managed to give him the space he needed when he wanted to be by himself while being sweet to him every time you met. At first, he used to think you were just like those girls who were nice to him because he was his school’s soccer captain and wanted to get with him. But over time, he came to realize that you wanted nothing in exchange for your kindness. And then he found himself avoiding you less. You became a breath of fresh air in his life; someone who grounded him and chased away his turbulent thoughts.

He’d decided, for the first time, to ditch practice today after school in favor of hanging out with you. It had taken him a long time to make that choice since he never missed practice. Soccer was first above everything. Except maybe not you.

With the heat being awfully unbearable, you had decided to get ice cream from a convenience store. Then you had gone down to the beach. It wasn’t a place he liked going to very much because it reminded him too much of Sae, but when you’d asked innocently, he couldn’t find it in himself to say no. It was just a bit scary, how easy it was for you to get him to bend to your will.

The both of you sat a wooden bench, facing the sea. He glanced at you occasionally, noting how content you looked next to him. It was enough to make him smile a little. At one point, a bit of the ice cream you were eating stained the corner of your lips and he found himself reacting before he knew it; he leaned over to you and swiped the ice cream off your lips with his thumb. Then he popped it in his mouth, looking away.

“You had ice cream on your lips.” He mumbled, ears red.

Strange. It tastes sweeter now.