Mitsukou, I'm here now

Alone

Mitsuba sat outside under a tree. It was lunch period, but he knew he couldn't sit inside. He always felt like a burden when he did. Some people would move away from him or even leave the table, but others would just ignore him. Mitsuba wasn't eating lunch. This was his 6th day of eating entirely nothing. His father had died when he was young and mother had to make up for the loss of money by working two jobs, she worked late and often wouldn't see Mitsuba for days on end because of their schedules. He looked around for good photos to take. Photography was his distraction. He carried his camera with him everywhere. Mitsuba was actually quite talented, but no one really appreciated his work. For a kid who had been bullied his whole life, he sure cared about what other people thought about him, even though he didn't have friends. Mitsuba looked through his camera lense and moved it around, trying to find a good subject. He jumped when something blocked his view. He had been pretty absent minded before, but pulled the camera down to see what it was. He jumped again, seeing it was another student. He immediately looked away, thinking if he was unresponsive that the person would leave him alone, Mitsuba didn't want to be bothered.
"Hi there!" The student exclaimed, extending a hand. Mitsuba flinched, he truly thought the person in front of him was there for malicious intent.
"A-are you ok? I'm not here to hurt you, I just noticed you were out here alone and didn't have a lunch"
Mitsuba looked up at the student. It was a relatively tall boy with blonde hair and blue eyes. Mitsuba noticed the palm of his hands were raw.
"Yeah, so?"
"I just thought maybe you'd like some of mine!"
"W-well I don't. You can go now."
The boy in front of him looked confused. He handed Mitsuba the food.
"I said no thank you."
"You didn't eat lunch yesterday either. I'm concerned about you."
"Stalker, do you even know my name?"
"...no, but that makes two of us, right? My name is Minamoto Kou! We're in the same class, I believe!"
Mitsuba looked up at him, he thought he had heard that name before.
"I'm Mitsuba Sousuke"
Kou smiled brightly, Mitsuba thought he seemed like a reckless dumbass. This wasn't to far off from the truth as he'd later come to find out.
Kou sat down and opened the bento box happily. Mitsuba looked down at him confused, but sat down too.
"I really don't want any, Kou."
"Come on! I made it myself, meals are always better made by friends!"
"Friends? That's a bold statement."
Mitsuba sounded quite cynical, but he really did hope Kou was serious about being friends. Kou looked down at the food, but pushed it towards Mitsuba.
"You should just have it!"
Mitsuba looked at the food. It looked delicious, but he first of all didn't want to be a burden and second of all didn't think he deserved to eat.
Kou looked at Mitsuba with pity. All he wanted to do was help, even if he didn't know Mitsuba at all.
"P-please eat it, Mitsuba. Please"
Mitsuba was shocked, the tone in Kou's voice was sincere concern. Mitsuba silently decided he would eat it, but only to please Kou. He thought if he ate it, Kou would leave him alone. Not that Mitsuba didn't enjoy his company, he just thought a friendship between them would never last, so it would be better to stop it before it began.
They sat there in silence until Mitsuba was done. It was excruciatingly long and awkward to Mitsuba, but Kou was happy to wait.
"How was it?!" Kou asked eagerly, once Mitsuba was done.
Mitsuba started crying silently, but Kou couldn't see because the right side of his face was facing Kou, and his eye was covered hy his hair.
Mitsuba whispered, hoping Kou wouldn't notice him crying.
"Thank you"
He then proceeded to get up and run to class, just before the bell rang. Wiping his tears as he went. Kou was left there confused. He realized Mitsuba had forgotten his camera that he took off his neck while eating. He was please by this, it gave him a good reason to see Mitsuba again.