The ocean breathed softly against the edge of Rabbit Island as dusk slipped into night. The six of them sat around a crackling bonfire, bundled in hoodies and blankets, their shoes kicked off, their hearts just a little more open than usual.

The flames danced in slow rhythms, casting gold across their faces, and the silence between conversations had turned into something comfortable.

“I’ve got an idea,” Mina said, her voice breaking the quiet. She leaned back, eyes on the stars overhead. “Let’s play a game. Simple one.”

Ren glanced sideways. “I’m listening.”

“It’s called ‘If You Knew Me.’ You just finish the sentence. No rules, no judgment. Say whatever you want. Funny, sad, soft, real.”

Livi blinked. “That’s… kinda beautiful, actually.”

“It’s a campfire,” Mina shrugged. “We gotta earn it.”

There was a pause. Then Hikari, sitting with her knees tucked to her chest, quietly said, “I’ll go first.”

Everyone turned to her.

“If you knew me,” she began gently, “you’d know that I still have the first photo Dylan ever took of me. The cherry blossom one. I keep it in my drawer, even though I never said anything.”

Dylan froze.

She didn’t look at him—just stared into the fire with a quiet, fragile honesty. “It reminds me that… I was seen.”

Silence followed.

Then Dylan spoke. “If you knew me… you’d know I never wanted to be in any of the pictures. I just didn’t think I belonged in them.”

Mina looked over at him, but said nothing. Her eyes softened.

Sora shifted next, adjusting the blanket over his legs. “If you knew me, you’d know I used to rehearse conversations before joining the group. I didn’t want to be the awkward one again.”

Livi looked at him with a soft, surprised smile.

“If you knew me,” she said next, “you’d know that I plan so much because if I don’t… I feel like I’ll be forgotten.”

Ren, unusually quiet, poked at the fire. “If you knew me,” he murmured, “you’d know I almost transferred after first year. I thought I was just the extra in someone else’s friend group. Not the core.”

Livi reached over and gently touched his arm. “You’ve always been part of the core, Ren.”

He gave a small, grateful nod.

Then all eyes turned to Mina.

She exhaled slowly, then smiled faintly. “If you knew me… you’d know I’m always the one who leaves first. Every friend group. Every school. Every everything. I never really knew how to stay.”

That landed harder than expected.

“But you’re still here,” Hikari said gently.

“For now,” Mina replied, her smile crooked. “And I’m trying.”

No one needed to say anything more.

The game fell away, replaced by long stretches of warmth, the kind that didn’t need words. Dylan leaned back onto the sand, camera forgotten at his side. Sora passed a bag of roasted marshmallows around. Ren shared a playlist on his phone, soft lofi beats blending with the crackling fire.

Hikari leaned against Dylan’s shoulder for just a second—barely enough to count, but long enough to make him hold his breath.

The fire burned lower, but no one moved to leave.

“I hope we don’t forget this,” Livi whispered.

Mina looked up at the stars. “We won’t. Even if we don’t talk every day. Even if life gets messy. This? This one’s in the vault.”

Dylan smiled quietly to himself, eyes half-closed. “I won’t take a photo of it. That’s how I know I’ll remember.”

And with the sea in the distance, the fire glowing low, and the stars glimmering above them like old promises, the Bloom Pals sat together—closer now than ever before.

Not because they shared everything.
 But because they chose to.