Unconditionally Yours.

Part 29

"Ah, hi Y/N."

Turning around to the sound of familiar voice, the girl's eyes widened at the sight of her friend, Itoshi Rin.

She softly gasped. "Rin! Hii!"
"Uh huh." He muttered, taking a seat next to her but not too close.
"How have you been?"
Rin's gaze drifted away from the bustling cityscape to fix on a loose thread unraveling on his sleeve. "...Not so good."
The girl blinked in curiosity. "Really? Did... something happened between you and Sae?"
He shaked his head. "No. Something else."
"Oh, then you don't have to tell me if you don't want to."
"Nah it's fine," he shrugged his shoulders, "I feel okay with telling you this. But don't tell this to anybody else or I'll kill you if you do."
"When it comes to secrets, my lips are sealed!" She replied with grin.
He narrowed his eyes at her. "Isn't it because you easily forget them?"
"...Maybe."

The silence stretched between them, punctuated only by the distant hum of the city.

Rin turned his head around the rooftop to make sure that nobody would hear them. "...You know that I have a small crush on Isagi right?"
'Ah, so it's about Isagi..' "Yeah?"

Rin remained silent for a long moment, the weight of his words seemingly pressing down on him. Finally, he sighed, "Well... I recently found out that he started dating Bachira."
Y/N was at loss for words. "Oh..."
As if sensing her concern, Rin quickly brushed it off, "It's fine, he was just a small crush anyway, I don't care anymore."
"...Okay then."

The silence stretched on once again, broken only by the distant hum of the school and the occasional caw of a crow.

Suddenly, Rin's phone buzzed, the harsh ring shattering the quiet. He groaned, a familiar weariness settling on his face. It was his brother, Sae. With a last glance at Y/N, a silent understanding passed between them. "Sorry, gotta go. Who knows what that lukewarm brother of mine needs now." Rin excused himself and walked towards the stairs.

Y/N watched him go, feeling a strange mixture of sympathy and relief. 'I'm glad their relationship have gotten a little bit better.'

She resumed her lunch, the familiar weight of her own situation pressing down on her. Suddenly, a familiar aroma of mint and lavender wafted towards her, followed by a languid groan. Y/N turned to see Nagi, lazily leaning against her shoulder, his head resting on her hair as a silent gesture of affection and comfort.

"Nagi! Didn't expected you to be here." She grins with blush.
"I couldn't find you anywhere so I walked around the school only to find you here."
She cocked a brow. "Really? Isn't walking all alone too much of a hassle? You always told me that."
Nagi pauses for a moment, but answers her without an ounce of hesitation, like the words spilling out of his lips are second nature to him, "Well, if it means being around you, it becomes less of a hassle."

...

Such sweet thing coming out of Nagi himself completely surprised her.
"O-Oh, I see."
Nagi, perpetually in his lazy state, propped his chin on his hand and gestured towards Y/N's lunchbox. "Hey, can I have some of that?" he asked, his voice tinged with a playful whine. "You bought bread again, didn't you?" Y/N asked, her tone laced with suspicion. Nagi, with a mischievous glint in his eyes, shook his head. "Nope."
Y/N sighed, knowing he was lying, but she relented and pulled out a few pieces of her chicken teriyaki for him. "Thanks," he mumbled, already stuffing the food into his mouth. "Say, can you feed me?" he asked, his eyes slowly blinking in sleepiness.

Y/N’s face flushed crimson.
"N-No! What are you talking about?! We are in school!" she squeaked, stumbling over her words. "Don't worry, no one's here. Just let loose and enjoy yourself," Nagi innocently muttered, leaning back on his arms.
Y/N, resigned to her fate, sighed and picked up a piece of chicken, bringing it towards Nagi's open mouth. Just as she was about to feed him, a familiar voice cut through the air. "Ah! So that's where you two-" Reo stood at the rooftop entrance, his expression a mixture of amusement and disbelief as his eyes landed on the scene before him.
Y/N, her face now the color of a ripe tomato, froze, while Nagi, with 'x' mouth, muttered, "Ah. Looks like someone's caught us in the act."
Reo's mouth was agape open before he coughed into his fist. "As much as I understand yours love for each other, couldn't you do it somewhere else? Eugh."
"Stop staring at me like that! Nagi asked me!"

The harsh wind whipped Rin's hair around his face as he stood on the rooftop staircase, the call from his brother, Sae, cutting through the silence. Sae's voice, as always, was nonchalant, a calm counterpoint to the storm brewing inside Rin. "Rin, at what time you lessons will end?"
"At 17:10 p.m. Why do you wanna know that?"
"Because our parents were invited to the dinner and they told us to come with them. So you need to immediately change once you come home, alright?"
"Okay. That's all? I'm hanging up."
"Hold it, is something the matter? You've been quiet and stern the whole weekend."

Rin scoffed. "What makes you think that's any of your business? I'm not some open book you can just flip through."
Rin can't see it but he knows for sure that Sae rolled his eyes right now. "Come on, Rin. You've been down ever since you saw that blue haired guy with his partner holding hands in the mall. Don't act like I wasn't with you at that time."

Rin's breath hitched, his annoyance twisting into something closer to hurt. "It's none of your business," he repeated, his voice strained. "I handle my own problems."
Sae sighed, the calm in his voice turning almost melancholic. "Just because you hide it doesn't mean I don't see it. You're not fooling anyone, Rin. You just need to talk about it." The words hung in the air, heavy with unspoken understanding.

Rin's grip on his phone tightened. "Why are you so nice out of nowhere? You're so fucking weird."
"Language Rin."
"Tch. Whatever."
"So you gonna talk with me about your problems or what?"
"..."
"If I'll buy you an ice cream, will it do?"
"...Yeah. I guess."