The Truth Behind His Smile

Not Going To Change

The girl shook her head, glancing at the empty table beside her. "No, not yet."

Shinsuke frowned. "He said that he'd come today."

"And, he will come." Kariya appeared behind him, startling the small defender.

"Kariya! You scared me!" Shinsuke cried out.

The teal-haired boy flashed him a small grin. "Sorry."

Aoi giggled at the two boys and slipped her phone into her pocket.  After managing to calm down a bit, Shinsuke took in what Kariya just said.

"How are you so sure, Kariya?" Shinsuke questioned.

"Don't know. Just have a feeling that he will." Kariya shrugged and put his hands behind his head. "You know that Tenma's late sometimes."

A small smile appeared in both Shinsuke and Aoi's faces at the fact. "Well, I can't deny that." Shinsuke chuckled.

"But, what should we do when he comes?" Kariya asked.

"What do you mean, Kariya?" Aoi tilted her head in confusion.

"You know, when Tenma comes here. What should we do? Act normal or something?" Kariya repeated.

Aoi and Shinsuke frowned, recalling yesterday's events. Fortunately, they had made the problem easier by showing Tenma that they were sorry. But, they knew that wasn't enough to make the brunet trust them yet.

Trust is fragile, and it's certainly not an overnight thing. The only way you can earn someone's trust is by being there with them every step of the way and show them that you care.

Because of what they did, Tenma didn't trust them anymore. It may take weeks or even months to earn his full trust back, but in this case they don't have that much time.

It's not that they're impatient (they stayed up the whole night just to wait for Tsurugi to come back and give them updates on Tenma, they're anything but impatient), but this time they have a very strict deadline.

Besides, the sooner they can help Tenma, the better.

If not for Tenma's sake, then for their own sanity.

Somehow, they need to make Tenma trust them in a matter of days, even a little bit of trust is fine. Anything to make him feel comfortable spending time with them again.

The question is, how?

"Shindou-senpai said that we'd stay by his side." Shinsuke stated. "But, you know how well that went back in Okinawa."

"That's because we were doing it wrong." Aoi scowled, crossing her arms. "Like what Tenma said, we took action too fast. Back then, every single one of us tried to talk to Tenma at the same time." Aoi's scowl deepened in the slightest, her eyes showing mild concern. "I could tell that made Tenma feel uncomfortable."

"Well, we know what we did wrong. We were too obvious and too blunt." Kariya stated matter-of-factly. The teal-haired boy slipped his hands from his pockets and did a thinking pose. "That means we need to take it slow, and show him that we care in a more...subtle way."

Kariya looked up and saw both of his friends blinking at him like he just grew another head. "What?" Kariya said, a bit agitated.

"Kariya, you just said something...smart." Aoi mumbled, still taking in what the defender just said.

Said boy raised an eyebrow, not getting what she meant. "Yeah, so?"

"The world must be ending." Shinsuke thought out loud. "Kariya said something smart. What's next? Tsurugi will ace in his Maths?"