“Corrin!” he yelled.

Corrin looked up from the metal in his hand. He smiled at him, waving.

Rory waved back, grinning.

Jasmine was standing at his side the whole time Rory was gazing at Corrin, waiting for him to respond to her terse repetition of “Amari”.

“Amari!” She shouted once again, this time slapping back of his head.

“Ow!”

Rory looked down at his side, seeing Jasmine glaring up at him.

“Finally I get your attention! I've been yelling your name this whole time!!!”

“...Sorry didn't hear you I was-”

“Paying attention to Corrin like you ALWAYS do!!!” Jasmine roared.

Rory's face became instantly red.

“I pay attention to other people!” Rory protested.

“Mm-hmm… You keep saying that, when I always catch you staring at Corrin, and always responding to him first!” Jasmine snickered, elbowing him.

“I do not!” Rory continued to say, although her accusations were indeed true.

Jasmine walked into the classroom first, Rory following.

She turned to him whispering,

“I think you  have a special thing for Corrin.”

“WHAT?! Jasmine- I DON'T!” Rory hissed, almost slamming down into his chair.

“Whatever you say, Amari…” she laughed, a mischievous look drawn on her face.

He shook his head at her, sighing.

Jasmine might be right about the whole ‘paying attention thing’ but… what does she mean by ‘special thing’…?! If anything… I guess that ‘special thing’ is that he's my first friend… but knowing Jasmine… She's probably referring to something else…. God knows what..

Lunchtime had finally come around. The day wasn't tedious or anything, but it definitely moved very slowly.

Rory had finished off his food for once, and was sitting alone at his spot. Jasmine and Amara didn't come bug him; now he could be alone with his thoughts.

Corrin's been… pretty nice to me. Sure he still freaks out about the medical condition… but that's okay... I'll admit that he's a good guy… and yeah… I do like talking to him...

He did feel happier. He was still antsy and flushed as ever when he was around him, but otherwise Corrin was something to look forward to, in his daily life.

“Hi Rory…”

Rory shot his head up, seeing Corrin standing above him.

“H-hi… C-Corrin…”

“Can I sit with you?”

Rory nodded.

He sat across from him.

“H-How's your day been.. going?” Rory began.

“Fine. Pretty lackluster. How about you?”

“Boring for me too…” Rory responded.

Okay… I should actually try to get info out of him… here goes nothing!

“...So have you ever moved in your life?”

“A couple times,” Corrin said plainly.

“Ah. Must've been rough with your sickness…”

“I'm not sickly. I may have a medical condition… but I'm relatively fine,” Corrin said, his tone somewhat cross.

“...then why are you absent so much?”

“Traveling. I travel a lot.”

“Must be fun…”

“No…not really…” Corrin sighed, leaning his head on his hand, “You make a lot of assumptions…”

God he's being so critical right now...

“The lunch bell is gonna ring soon… let's start heading to class,” Corrin said, switching the subject all together.

“Yeah…”

They both stood up. Rory slung his backpack over his shoulder, while Corrin slid into both of backpack straps.

As they walked out, Corrin's face started to falter, he walking speed slowing.

“Hey… you okay?”

“I'm fine…”

Next second, Corrin started to fall to the ground.

Rory grasped his shoulders, pulling him up. Corrin's eyes were closed, as though he had fainted.

Rory put his hand to his cheek, pushing his head to face him.

FUCK. Wake up Corrin!!!

“Corrin you okay?! Can you hear me?!”

Corrin's eyes opened wearily. Rory's hand was still resting on his cheek, while his other hand still gripped his forearm.

“Oh thank God. I thought you fainted… I was about to take you to the nurse's office-”

“W-What?!”

Corrin's eyes widened, as he broke from Rory's grasp.

He turned away, speed walking out of the cafeteria.

“H-Hey! Wait!”

Rory ran up to him, grabbing his shoulder to stop him.

“What was that?!” Rory said breathlessly.

“...I got… disoriented…”

“So?! What if you did faint?! What would I do?! Just let you faint, and wait for you to wake up?!” Rory yelled.

“Well obviously then you'd take me to the nurse's office… but please, Rory. Don't make my medical condition a big deal… it's really nothing.”

“Oh really? Then explain why I caught you twice- Now three times- in the hallway from your so called, 'not a big deal’ medical condition?!”

Corrin sighed heavily, rubbing his forehead with his fingers.

“Fine…. You're kind of... right. Just promise me… that you won't take me to the nurse's office if this keeps happening… my guardians will get very aggravated with me…” Corrin said, looking Rory straight into his eyes,

Rory blushed, looking the other way.

Good God I totally overreacted again...

“Sorry…”

“Don’t be. You did the right thing... technically. And yeah... I should be saying thanks to you... for catching me so many times,” he said, laughing a bit, “I guess it's nice to have someone who actually worries about… me.”

Corrin blushed in embarrassment, the acute look in his eyes alleviating.

The lunch bell rang, students bustling out of the cafeteria and classrooms.

“I'll see you in gym class then…” Corrin ended, going to his next class.

“Yeah…”

He watched Corrin morph into the crowd. He stood there for a moment, not knowing how to feel.

Gym class had ended. Rory was exhausted from the mile, and from losing several brain cells from listening to the other boys talk.

He couldn't stop thinking about what Corrin had said, and how he himself reacted to it.

Maybe I overreacted… I mean technically I had all right to… but God did I feel so stupid… this whole thing is just stupid… I should just stop thinking about this...

Rory took off his shirt, throwing it into his gym locker, and putting on his lavender t-shirt.

He changed his shorts and shoes, then wandered out of his locker section.

Oh yeah… I'm studying with Corrin today at my house… wonder where he is…

Rory stepped out of the locker room, seeing Corrin leaning against the wall.

“Ready to go…?” Rory asked.

“Yeah…”

They went through the commute of walking to the subway, boarding it, waiting a while, and then finally walking to Rory's house.

The trip was quiet. Rory said nothing, in fear that'd he'd accidentally say more assumptions about Corrin again.

They had made it to Rory's front door.

“Be warned… if you're attacked by a swarm of kids… it's normal.”

“You have a lot of younger siblings…?”

“We have an orphanage here. We have a ton of kids living in our house.”

“Oh…”

Rory unlocked the door, stepping in first to be safe. Checking that area was clear. It was oddly quiet. He expected to at least see Desirae wandering in the kitchen. He gestured to Corrin to come in, Corrin stepping in.

“Very spacious,” Corrin commented, looking around.

“Yeah…” Rory agreed, looking at Corrin's calm expression, “let's go to my room…”

I can't tell if he's angry with me or annoyed with me… or what if he got over it…?

They went up the stairs. Once up the stairs, Corrin saw a narrow hallway with four rooms, and a window at the end of it.

Rory led him to his room, opening his door. Corrin looked behind him, seeing a door bolted up, from top to bottom with locks.

“... what's in there…?” Corrin asked, looking at it strangely.

“Oh. That's my sister's room. Never been in there. She always keeps it locked…”

“Huh…”

“Well… welcome to my abode,” Rory said, opening his door wide, “it's a big mess… ha… sorry.”

“It's fine.”

Rory cleaned the ground, sweeping leftover clothes into the corners of his room and under his bed.

He tossed his backpack onto his bed, rummaging through it for his pencil pouch. Then he went to his desk. He produced two calculus textbooks from underneath the paper piles.

“Okay… you can sit there… and I'll sit here… then we'll start.”

Corrin sat down, neatly taking out his notebook and handing it to him.

Rory started to check his work. Again, he was bombarded with loads of mistakes when he reviewed his work. He went over all of it with Corrin, teaching him and reminding him to fix his mistakes.

Desirae poked her head into his room, seeing Rory and Corrin looking down into a book spread onto their laps.

“Hi Rory, hi Corrin!” Desirae greeted, yawning, “Sorry hun, you don't mind staying late do you? I accidentally fell asleep… so dinner will be ready later…”

“I'm fine with that. So long as I can leave at nine… I have to go somewhere at that time.”

He must be talking about the Institute of Colony Eight Scientific Research!

“Oh don't worry we won't be keeping you for that long!” She chimed, “I'll be off now… I'll call you boys when dinner's ready!”

Desirae left, closing the door behind her.

Rory turned his head to look at the book, only to meet his eyes with Corrin's.

Rory gazed into his pale blue eyes, as Corrin peered back into his dark brown eyes.

His eyes… they're so… pretty.

Their faces turned completely red.

Rory wanted to look away, but felt so mesmerized by his eyes.

Corrin stared at his intently, unable to break his gaze either.

“...f-for problem twenty three… you were saying that… I should fix this… r-right?” Corrin sputtered, pointing at his mistake.

“Oh! ...Y-yeah that's right…”

Slowly, they both left each other's eyes. Corrin started to fix his problem, while Rory stared up at the ceiling anxiously.

“Time to eat!” Desirae called.

Corrin poked Rory's cheek, Rory's lids opening slightly.

“Huh..?”

“It's time to eat. Your mom just called us.”

“Oh… was I… sleeping…?”

“Yeah… you looked pretty worn out, so I didn't wake you…”

“That damn mile… that's why…” Rory said, wiping his eyes.

“Ha yeah,” Corrin said, standing up, “let's not keep your mom waiting.”

He held a hand out to him. Rory grabbed it, Corrin pulling him up.

Downstairs, Desirae was serving the molokhia with rice, pouring the piping green soup over the rice.

Corrin came into the kitchen first, Rory coming from behind. The children gave him once glance, before running over to him like bloodthirsty monsters.

“OOOOOH who's 'dis???”

“Look at her weird eyes!”

Corrin covered head to toe with children. A child sat on his shoulders pulling at his hair, another clung to his arm, and the rest pulled at his legs.

Corrin's eyes were completely wide, his expression beyond belief.

“Oh! You boys are finally down here- KIDS! DOWN NOW!” Desirae hollered.

The clambered off, moaning and groaning. 

She pushed them back into their room, calming them down, before emerging back into the kitchen.

“Sorry about that dear…”

“It’s okay, Ms. Amari.”

She smiled at him pleasantly, placing their plates down before them.

She put tray of chicken on to the table, alongside a large plate of torshi.

“Help yourself dear.”

Corrin grabbed a spoonful of torshi, putting it on to his plate. Rory grabbed a piece of chicken, and a small amount of torshi.

The meal was delicious, from the molokhia full of spices, to the flavorful pickled torshi.

Desirae talked a bit, only asking Corrin a few questions here and there, and telling Rory to eat more.

After dinner, Corrin and Rory went back upstairs to grab Corrin's stuff.

They came down a moment later, finding Desirae next to the front door.

“Thank you for the delicious meal, Ms. Amari,” Corrin said gratefully.

“You're very welcome, dear! You're always welcome to come over.”

Corrin nodded politely, saying goodbye.

They went out the front door together, Rory escorting him back to his house.

Corrin saw Rory's bike sitting on the wall, raising a brow at it.

“You still haven't gotten your bike fixed?”

“No… Sorta forgot about it. Mainly because I was so mad that an asshole banged it up…”

Corrin thought about it, staring at it carefully.

“...I could fix it for you.”

“Huh? Oh it's fine… you don't have to. I can just take it to the repair shop.”

“Your mom's cooked for me twice now... Just think of me doing this, as repaying you for that, and tutoring me for free,” Corrin reckoned.

“Ah… alright… how much?”

“No pay. You've already paid me.”

“But-”

“Rory it's fine, really,” Corrin cut in.

“Oh... Alright… Thanks in advance then… Corrin,” Rory noted.

“No problem…” Corrin said.

Rain started to trickle down, only a few drops coming at a time.

“Oh... it's raining,” Rory mumbled more to himself than him.

Rory put out his hand, letting the water cascade onto his hands, and drip off his finger tips.

Corrin watched Rory, smiling as he did. He edged closer to him, reaching for his hand.