The Rainbow Love

Chapter 3 - A Little Closer

Yin's POV:

"Morning, Yin!"

I was walking slowly to school, unusually early. Normally, I'd show up half an hour late, just in time to avoid the morning rush. But these days... I'd been leaving the house early, hoping to run into War before class. On the days he had early lectures, he'd usually arrive around now.

It had been three days since his birthday party, and I hadn't seen him once. I didn't call, either. Each time my hand hovered over his contact, I stopped myself for no real reason at all.

Today, the fourth morning of my unofficial stakeout, my luck finally turned. That bright, familiar yellow appeared ahead.

War was looking at me, his smile lighting up the early morning. "Hi! How are you?" I asked.

"I feel great! I was kinda sick for a cou—"

"WHAT? Are you okay now?"

Before I realized what I was doing, I'd grabbed his arms, scanning him to make sure he was alright. Aside from a slightly stuffy nose, he looked healthy.

"Okay. You seem fine."

"Well, not really." He gave me a half-smile. "You're kinda hurting me."

"O-oh! Sorry." I quickly let go, inwardly cringing. Why did I just grab him like that?

Thank God he couldn't see my emotions. My embarrassment was practically radiating off me.

"Maybe you should have... I don't know, rested a bit longer?"

War shrugged. "After seasons and seasons of TV shows, I got bored. And I missed school. And the people in it."

Am I one of them?

"Did you have breakfast?" I asked, quickly moving the conversation forward.

"No. I can't eat right after waking up. That's why I come early—to grab breakfast before class."

"Let's go, then."

We took our food and sat down at one of the tables in the cafeteria. We must've done this dozens of times over the past two months, grabbing lunch together, eating side by side, falling into an easy rhythm. But today... it felt different.

My mind kept drifting back to the party, replaying moments I couldn't shake. War asking me for a kiss, his eyes holding something deeper than I wanted to acknowledge. The strange, uneasy feeling I'd had about Ohm—how his aura flickered with something that didn't sit right with me. And then, the tightness in my chest when I noticed that War had attached the keychain I'd given him to his keys, like it meant something special.

Why did that matter so much?

I pushed my food around my plate, unsettled by how those memories lingered, how they clung to me even though I'd tried to brush them off. It wasn't like me to dwell on things. I was used to letting people drift in and out of my life, never holding on too tightly.

But War... he was different.

I glanced at him across the table. He was talking, smiling, his usual brightness in full effect. But there was something beneath it today, a slight dimming of that constant yellow that threw me off. I didn't know why, but I felt a sudden urge to ask, to understand what was going on with him.

"Yin. Are you listening to me?"

I blinked, snapping back to the present. To be honest, I wasn't.

"War, can I ask you something?"

He looked at me, curiosity lighting up his eyes. "You can ask anything, Yin."