It's always been hard for me to properly express myself in front of others, but through a keyboard, that's another story. Is what allowed me to met those who would become the reason I improved so much at facing people and conveying my thoughts and feelings. Both things are still a hard thing for me to do, but now I have wonderful band members…
'No, that isn't quite right' Rinko thought.
...I have wonderful friends who listen, support and care for me as much as I care for them. Maybe that is why it pains me so much being hiding something from them.
I hide from them the fact that I know how Yukina has scars on her chest, belly and back from the time she snook up 3 kittens under her shirt, even though she never told anyone about that. I also know that Lisa likes to make silly songs about how pretty each of us are, even though she never sang them out loud. And that Sayo, after she gained enough confidence in her cooking skills, has been trying to replicate the fries of the family restaurant we usually go, a fact she hides by making sure her hair doesn't smell like cooking oil every monday.
For I, Shirokane Rinko, can read other people minds.
Rinko couldn't help but laugh after re-reading that sentence. It would be something that a shounen protagonist would reveal dramatically while doing a cool pose in one of Ako's mangas.
It would be more accurate to say that I can hear thoughts. When I'm near a small group of people in a closed room, is easy to… let's say 'turn off' my power so I can't hear what they are thinking. When I'm in the open, or in a building with lots of people passing by, thoughts are just like background noise, no different from hearing someone talking near you.
Crowds, however, are a different matter.
Everytime I see one, I feel like a little kid in front of the ocean. If I don't go inside, I'll be fine. If I keep myself far from the shore, I'll be fine. If I stay away from it, I'll be fine. The best way to not drown is being away from places were you could drown, right?
This idea of slowly losing the grip of myself in a mass of words, noises, pain and heat was enough to kept me away from people for a long time. I never imagined the possibility of being one of those girls who could stand against a thing that can cause such a dreadful feeling, much less befriend one of them.
But that changed the day Ako dragged me to the venue where I heard Yukina singing for the first time. Her voice pulled me away from everything around me. My heart skipped a beat at the sigh of her beautiful fa-
Rinko realized what she was writing and immediately closed her browser. Feeling her face turning red from embarrassment, she decided it was enough venting for a day and proceed to get ready to go to bed, not noticing the strange object floating in front of her window.
The small object made a shaky fly from the Shirokane's roof, all the way to the hands of it's owner. Shirasagi Chisato grabbed her dog's favorite tennis ball and let out a sigh of relief.
-Please be more careful with your toys Leon.
Both, owner and dog walked away, unaware of how close their little secret was from being revealed.