He hated colors. Red, blue, green, purple, no matter what word he would hear he'd always grimace at the words as a twinge of jealousy would flare up in his chest, silently cursing those that could see every hue whenever they oh so pleased. Though sometimes the black haired boy would feel a spark of curiosity once he'd hear the various words and tried to imagine how each pigment would look against the canvas of the monochrome world he has always seen around him.
It was normal though for people not to see color early on in their life and from what he heard many were unlucky enough to never experience its joys but those lucky few claimed to see it he was absolutely sure it was just a lie. After all there was no way that their world of black and white and every shade of grey in between would suddenly brighten up by something as ridiculous as a soul mate. It was laughable really for anyone to believe such nonsense that could only happen in those bleak colored fairy tales but slowly he began to doubt his theory that color was just nonsense that people with time to waste thought of.
That day started that planted the first seed of doubt started off pretty normal since he kept to himself and rarely strayed away from his comfort zone that is until a female classmate of his, Ayano was her name as he eventually came to find out, told him red was a color that suited him. He found it annoying how she would drag him along in her attempt to befriend the lonely boy and how she wouldn't stop trying even when he'd try his best to hide from her. Once their friendship began to flourish he still found that it was unpleasant to hear her ramble off about what color everyday things were dyed in but eventually he found himself memorizing the shade of grey that would match this illusion of what red looked like through Ayano's eyes.
As weeks began to pass he began to wonder who caused the sudden surge of richly dyed brightness to enter the long haired girl's world. He remembered asking her once on a hot summer day during one of their daily meetings with their friends from school and instead of answering Ayano would stutter out an excuse as to why she couldn't answer that question as her cheeks would flush the shade of grey that he had previously dawned red before the loud Takane would step in and oh so gently tell him to mind his own damn business while the oblivious Haruka would try to calm their friend down.
To this day he continued to wonder what had caused that girl to see the world the way he had always wished to experience it and as he finished his reminiscing he couldn't help sigh softly as he clutched the bundle of "red" daisies at his side, instead switching his attention over to reaching his destination before sundown hoping not to run into anyone while he was there.
He expected the visit to be short, just him scanning the rows upon rows of granite and marble gravestones until he catches sight of the familiar name followed by him carefully switching out the wilted dull colored flowers that he left weeks ago by the tablet with the fresh batch of handpicked daisies. Finally once that's done he'd quickly wrap the meeting up with telling the long gone girl what she had missed during the month of absence before making his way out the depressing place.
But before the NEET could even make his way to his to his destination he could only freeze where he stood once the sound of a carefree voice made it to his ears while an unfamiliar figure of a boy, most likely a year or two younger than him if he had to guess, stood in front of the girl's grave as hues of unfamiliar colors crept into his vision. Once their eyes managed to lock he finally released the breath he wasn't aware he was hold as the younger boy flashed him a cat like grin as he carelessly drawled out, "So you're the Shintaro Nee-chan always talked about.~" And suddenly Shintaro found himself hoping that his fate wasn't tied to this person he could already sense was annoying.