"I can NOT believe I just did that!" Haru rambled on to himself. "I almost K I S S E D him! I almost kissed Makoto. Makoto Tachibana-my best friend, I almost kissed him!" Haru was pacing around his room as thoughts were running through his head faster than ever before.
"Haru chan?" Ran's voice said from behind the door. Haru opened the door to see Ran. She looked rather embarrassed to be there.
"Yeah, what's up?" Haru replied casually.
"Can I talk to you about something?" She looked to the ground, avoiding eye contact.
"Uh, yeah sure. Come in." Haru steppes swag from the door so she could pass.
She sighed as she sat down on the bed. "I don't really know who to talk to about this." She started. "I can't talk to Makoto about it because I'd be too embarrassed. Ren would just laugh at me. But maybe I can talk to you."
Haru sat down next to her and turned so that she knew that she had his attention.
"Okay, go ahead."
"I.. um.. I think I have a crush..." she admitted hesitantly.
"Oh." Haru was shocked to have to be a pet of this conversation. "Well, who is it?"
Her eyes lit up as she began to talk. "His name's Tomoe, and he's in my class." She started to ramble. "He is always nice to me but whenever I try to talk to him, he kind of ignores me."
"Well, Ran, the thing about boys is that they aren't always good at showing affection." Haru tried his best to give good advice. "Some boys don't know how to deal with their emotions very well and they may come across as mean. Most of the time they're just confused at how they are feeling." Haru continued on after more and more thoughts flooded his head. "Most boys don't always know how to accept affection either. We can become even more confused when someone starts to show interest in us. Especially if we feel like we don't deserve the affection. Boys are hard to understand. I'm a boy and even I have trouble understanding them."
Ran listened and nodded her head. "Umm, Haru can I maybe talk to you about something else?"
"Sure, anything."
Ran looked away bashfully. "Even if it's...umm... girl stuff?" Her face was growing redder by the second.
"Um, Ran, I don't know if I'm the right person to talk to about this stuff..."
"Please!" She begged. Her voice was wavering now. Her eyes were pleading at him with tears forming. "I-I don't have anyone else to talk to. I'd be too embarrassed to talk to Mako about it and Ren wouldn't understand." She was crying now. "I don't have a m-mom to talk to about this."
"What should I do?" Haru thought frantically.
"Please. I don't know what to do. I'm scared, please!" Big tears continued to fall down her face.
"Hey hey hey, don't cry Ran. It's okay." Haru tried to be comforting. He wiped the tears from her eyes with his thumb. "It's okay. You can talk to me about it. I understand."
"You do?"
Haru sighed. "Yeah of course. Both of my parents had died when I was your age, so I didn't have anyone to talk to about this kind of thing."
Ran had stopped crying now and she looked up at Haru before hugging him. "Thank you."
He wrapped his arm around her to hug back. "Okay so what do you want to talk about?"
————————Later————————
Haru knocked on Makoto's bedroom door before entering. As if almost kissing him wasn't embarrassing enough, he had to have this talk with him too.
"Hey, what's up?" Makoto asked. He was laid on his back casually with his arms folded behind his head.
Haru couldn't help but notice the exposed area of skin between his V line and belly button from his shirt being pulled up slightly.
"Um, I wanted to talk." Haru said somewhat distracted.
"Okay." Makoto said as he sat up-much to Haru's disappointment. "So...."
Haru walked over to sit next to Makoto. "So, uh, Ran talked to me today."
"About???" Makoto urged Haru to continue.
"Well... she got her period yesterday." Haru said shyly. He was kind of embarrassed to have to explain this to her brother.
"O-oh." Makoto looked down at his feet. "I was kind of hoping that maybe mom would be stable enough to talk to her about this."
"Well, it's our responsibility to look after them now." Haru said, trying to get Makoto to lighten up.
"Yeah. You're right." Makoto said. He smiled at Haru.
Somehow, even in absolute hell.... Makoto can still manage a smile for me. How lucky am I?