Toya's anger returned. She was letting them walk all over her. It bothered Toya, but he simply blamed it on her stupidity.

He didn't feel like interfering. He didn't care all that much what happened to her at the time. At least, he tried to convince himself of that. He was impatient to ask her to heal him, though. The constant pain in his body wouldn't let his condition be forgotten by him.

He walked closer so that the kids were all aware of his presence. He glared at the kids who were bullying her and then grabbed Kasumi's arm. "I need to ask you something if you're done letting yourself get bullied."

The kids scrunched up their noses from the sight of Toya.

"Come on, let's go," they mumbled to each other to hide their intimidation. They knew Toya came from the palace. If it was anywhere else, they would have picked a fight.

Toya's hand's grip felt a little tight, but not enough to hurt Kasumi. It felt warmer than the average hand would typically feel.

"B-but, they're my friends-" She answered him in a naive manner. Swallowing the hurt she felt prior.

"You're stupid if you think they're really your friends," he snapped. His hold on her arm became a little bit tighter before he pushed her arm away altogether. "They're just using you because you're naive enough to fall for it."

And because of that.

Because of those words and actions.

That was when the waterfalls released relentlessly. She couldn't say anything, but cry loudly.

"Nobody likes meee...." She sobbed, feeling like her insides were churning from years of isolation. Years of wanting friendship, only to get this on the other end.

She hit her limit by leaking out words she kept to herself out loud like that.

At that moment, he felt the first bit of guilt in a long time. In a way, Kasumi was similar to him. That didn't make her any less annoying to him though.

"Obviously," he stated bluntly. He didn't hold anything back. "That's why you should stop hanging out with them. They're stupid. Anyway, there's a reason I came here."

His guilt was short lived as his mind reverted back to his father like it always did.

He rolled up his sleeves to reveal burnt skin, wincing at the way that his sleeves rubbed against him. He pushed his scrawny little arms toward her. "Can you fix it?"

Still crying, Kasumi didn't reply just yet. Her chest was burning from trying to swallow her tears.

But seeing the markings on his skin, she slowly hesitated to move her hands up.

She heard him scoff because of how slow and easily compliant she was. Before he could speak up about it, her hands barely made contact with his arms. The contact hurt for a split second before the process began, causing him to flinch. When he realized what was going on, he relaxed again.

She felt extremely anxious, but felt the tips of her fingers tingling. It became so natural to her to feel his blood cells starting to replenish.

Still having tears coming out from being sad, she wondered how Toya had such severe burns.

"I don't know your name." Toya would have looked directly into her eyes if she would look at him. His eyebrows furrowed. "Mine is Toya Todoroki. I thought you should know the name of the future king."

Kasumi suddenly got more nervous and stopped what she was doing. Her face involuntarily heated up due to him telling her that.

Uwah?! King?! An explosive thought compared to her quiet nature.

Her thoughts are more expressive compared to how she acts aloud.

She then snapped out of it when Toya asked for her name once more. His voice sounded irritated from being impatient.

"I'm Kasumi..." She said without a last name.

Toya noticed that she didn't say a last name. He tilted his head, keeping his irritated expression. "Kasumi what?"

"That's my name." Her eyes started watering again, while sniffling.

"Oh, right. You're an orphan." He said it so nonchalantly. There wasn't an ounce of care in his voice. The only thing that bothered him about that was that he would have no choice but to call her by her first name. It felt unbearably awkward to him.

"Yeah..." Ignoring the sadness the best she could, she then continued finishing up the healing process. She wasn't aware of just how much relief she gave to Toya's wounds. They were completely healed.

The wooziness effect wasn't too bad this time since she healed someone else. Her hands slowly removed themselves from his arm.

"Um..." She kept being timid as her voice was very quiet. She was trying to say more.

Toya was only half paying attention to what she was saying. His eyes trailed over the skin on his arms. That was the first time in a long while that he had seen his arms free of burns. Not only that, they were completely free of any pain.

He moved his arms a few inches. The skin on his shoulders still pulled uncomfortably, but his arms didn't hurt at all. He hated the fact that, with the lack of burning pain on his arms, a burning sensation of a different kind manifested in his eyes

"Tod- um.. Toya?" Kasumi blurted out his name. She said his first name because it was easier for her to say. She stared at her feet while trying to talk.

You can do it. This is your chance.

But even speaking was causing her heart to race. She absentmindedly put a little strand of her hair in her mouth from being anxious.

Strangely, he didn't seem angry that she said that. A little surprised, yes, but not upset. "What? Just say it."

"Are.. we..." She strained to talk. Her heart was going to throw itself out of her throat if she couldn't conjure any words up anytime soon. "Are we friends now?"

Asking that made her face super red. She blushed very easily when it came to talking. It was worse with him being a boy.

His nose scrunched up a little. "No."

Her face then started to grow pale. The tears that had subsided soon returned.

She was utterly crushed.

I guess he doesn't like me either...

"Ok..." Her voice cracked, indicating that she was sobbing once more. She hated that she was crying, so she kept trying to stop it.

There was hurt and a little anger residing inside her chest at the same time. More hurt than anything, so she started to slowly turn herself around.

She wanted to go hide in the bathroom again.

His eyes narrowed. Regret immediately settled in. That didn't stop him from insulting her one last time before trying to make it better.

"Crybaby," he said grumpily. "Fine. You're an acquaintance."

Then there was a little spark of hope in her watery eyes as she met his for the first time. "I am?"

She really was super gullible to believe people so easily. Too trusting for her own good.

Why is she so happy about that? He wondered. His usual angry pout had returned. After all, it didn't make sense in his mind. Shouldn't she want more than that?

Maybe it was a good sign, though. It meant that someone appreciated him. If calling her an acquaintance was enough to make her happy, then surely that meant she held him to a high regard?

It didn't change the fact that she wasn't the one whose attention he was trying to grab. That thought soon returned and caused that tiny bit of happiness to fade away.

"Sure. Now stop crying."

He walked away, unaware of the friendship that would blossom forth from that day. Unaware of the fact that she would quickly become more than an acquaintance. That day was the real start of their friendship.