Chapter 1

Romance? No, thank you.

Why Rin had ever agreed with her parents to come to this stupid summer program she did not know. How they did it? She didn't want to know. Did they put some follow-us-drugs in her hot chocolate or something last week?

All in all, she came to the conclusion that yes. Yes, they did.

After all, this was something that her parents would want her to do and not what she wanted to do. Rin would have preferred staying at home for the rest of the summer over anything to do with socialising with people of her age.

How her parents thought this was a great idea, she did not know.

She wasn't even social; rarely had Rin attended such events, especially if it meant meeting new people of all genders. Rin thought that surely her parents must understand that she's an introvert after all her refusals to even birthday parties. She'll gladly socialise if it meant something but not all the time - she'll only really talk if she had a topic in mind or if it's truly necessary. Heck, she can talk to strangers easy as pie. But not this. She needs her time and space to cool off since she easily gets tired of talking or being social with people she barely knows or is even extremely close with.

(No one was actually close to the level of what she deems as 'closeness' in which they discover that Rin is actually more sarcastic and rather more critical beyond her seemingly childish and weird face around her friends. Not even her best friend Miku. Only her family really knew she was like that.)

Whatever the case, Rin really regrets her decision to come back for the second week when she could've opted out instead.

Too late for regrets.

The evening of the first hour of the first night itself was already heading to a strange start.

(She had no clue as to why they told everyone to arrive into the place by 5 PM, but she was gladly accepting of the late time since it meant less interaction.)

"I love you."

"Yeah, no." She refused almost immediately, her icy cold, aquamarine eyes narrowing as the blond boy looked at her in surprise, his cerulean blue eyes widening in response.

"Um...?" Was all that escaped his mouth.

Others who were near them simply stared at Rin who had a straight face as if judging Len. Did she just?

"Pfft...!" A short green-haired girl nearby from the right, who seemed to be watching them, started to laugh from behind a shaking fist and sending giggles particularly aimed towards the poor boy, "Oh, dang. Ha ha, Len! Just... wow. You got rejected!"

Len whipped his head towards her direction, "S-shut up, Gumi! It's not even serious!" He glanced back at Rin who continued giving him a judging stare, her eyes sharp and piercing but never wavering.

He then looked away, clicking his tongue and his cheeks turning a faint hue of red. Blond eyebrows furrowed in what seemed to be shame and confusion before he shook his head. The boy then walked away towards the other side of the circle to find another victim to replace him as he tries to ignore the howling laughter of his friend.

Miku - who stood next to Rin and had been watching silently - only looked at Rin as her lips stretched into a huge smile, "Wow... Rin. That was... harsh..." She began to chuckle slightly.

Rin didn't respond at all, instead just merely looking ahead into blank space. Noticing the lack of response from her best friend, Miku peered at her warily, "Rin?"

Unknown to others, Rin was currently undergoing what you would call... a defence protocol. In other words, she was currently in a mode where she refuses to communicate while her mind mentally undergoes through a shutdown which results in her body doing minimal efforts or doing whatever they can to avoid any sort of social interaction.

She never expected it.

While she looked calm, she was anything but that.

In reality, her whole body was having a meltdown. Blood was rushing to her face at a fast rate that everything in her body was doing all their can to prevent her face from flaming into an inhuman shade of red while all of her cells screamed, 'EMERGENCY!', her heart beating at an unusual rate and her brain trying to control her mouth from doing anything that she may regret.

All she could think were, 'Thank god, thank god, thank god!'

This all occurred just because of those damn words.

Her defence was slowly being rusted just from those three stupid words consisting of eight letters. Not to mention, she's someone who can easily hide emotions very well.

When they had explained this game, that two people would be chosen to try and make people laugh by saying "I love you, honey", in which each person that do laugh or grin must replace the one who told them that and attempt to do the same, Rin was prepared (and slightly nervous) knowing full well that she couldn't possibly be chosen.

Unless a friend of hers would get chosen first and then come up to her instead, though.

Which... didn't happen. When it did, one of her close friends or all of them knew she didn't want to partake so they chose other people.

So, she had thought that surely, no one who she had barely interacted with before should try and say the words to her, right?

But nooooooo!

One guy- Leo? Ren? Len, was it? Whatever his name was, he had to choose her of all people to say it to!

And when he did, Rin went totally blank and the smile was wiped off her face. Not only was her heart racing, but there was this faint hint of disappointment about him that he had to say it to her of all people.

Clearly, she didn't show that she was shy enough.

Did he think she was an easy target?

That she'd laugh the first time and he'd comfortably bask in victory as she continued on his job in humiliation since she didn't know a lot of people?

However, her anger and resentment couldn't replace the feeling of shyness since she was still a girl herself, and had never been confessed to by a boy, never mind had a first serious love (she's had many crushes, but rarely acknowledges them).

The blonde couldn't help but think back to the memory of when they had last gone on a coach for going home from the countryside - the first time she actually met that guy.

She could still remember it, the day she actually noticed that he was there - she never really knew he was there in the first place and was surprised.

Rin had just fallen sick the previous day from getting super wet during an activity where she wasn't supposed to get wet so she had to wear a white cap, instead of her usual uniform, and also a white waterproof hoodie just because she felt absolutely cold even though it was merely summer.

That day on the coach, she had been feeling bitter to Miku for leaving her to instead sit with this guy who looked similar to her best friend, and rather than save a space for her or even help with the ill girl's luggage, she had left poor Rin alone, all sick, and having no choice but to sit with someone she had little interaction with but was comfortable enough to sit with.

(Lily was actually rather nice.)

She slept the entire time in the coach and she still wonders to this day, had she snored at all?

Rin still felt bad though. She never talked to Lily once after asking if she could sit next to her, but she was pretty sure it was alright since the older blonde herself seemed to drown herself in her 3DS and headphones.

Beforehand, however, when they had to fill out a survey and she finished it early as well as waiting for people to take it; Rin ended up focussing on drawing made up flowers from her head onto her sketchbook.

Truthfully, while she was unaware that anyone could even watch, Rin wanted to see if anyone would notice her drawing at all. Even though she tried to hide it from her own team that she was placed into.

However, what she failed to expect was that you could see from above her head and that it'd be him of all people.

One who she never really saw the entire trip.

"That's beautiful," A voice that was rather high but masculine enough - as if they hadn't gone through puberty or something - sounded from above her in awe, "Did you draw that? That's awesome!"

Rin had flinched from the voice from the fact that she thought her aura was set to ward off people as much as possible and she couldn't exactly see who it was that told her that, nor did she recognise the voice.

Actually, she didn't think it was directed at her in the first place.

Should she look up just in case...?

Curiosity got the best of her in order to see who the hell said that or who to, so she looked up, eyes peeking from the bottom of her cap.

Only then did she realise she was staring into a pair of blue - or was it green? - eyes that looked so much like glistening gems and reminded her of the earth from the specks of emerald islands in his eyes amongst the sapphire seas.

His eyes shone and she took note of his rather feminine face and his golden and soft-looking hair blessed by the sun's rays, her eyes noticing how his hair had been pulled back into a ponytail. She also noticed how he eerily looked pretty similar to her.

Speechless, the boy noticed her gaze and seemed to stare into her eyes. Rin, however, was in quite a dilemma.

Who...? Who the heck was this guy?

'Oh god, what's his name? Will it be rude if I ask him? Should I answer him, or should I just ignore him?'

"U-uh..." Rin nervously started (and out of reflex to not seem rude), trying to recall who he was but having no luck. Instead, she let her lips take over, "Um... thank you?"

It was more like a question, the way she had said it. But she was struggling to discern who he was and she felt bad not knowing his name.

The boy only seemed to continue watching her before a toothy grin makes its way on his face, "No problem."

When he had walked back to the front to gather up the surveys (eventually getting to her but he had to pull it out of the seat table thing because she ignored him and she was busy drawing), she only went back into drawing, her mind going haywire.

'That was... the first boy who said that to me in a long time.' She thought carefully, and it was true. It was only on this trip did she start interacting with males her age since she had been going to girls schools for middle school and high school; not to mention that it really made her socially awkward whenever she had to communicate with males or something. She even tried her hardest to hide the fact she can draw from her own team.

Adding to that embarrassing memory, she recalled the aftermath which was two days later or today, beginning the second week of the program and they all had to stay in some University kind of residency for the whole week.

When they had gathered into the grassy outdoors of the place and sat on the grass trying to catch up with friends, and after the leaders had announced the rules and sorts, a friend she had recently made from the last week - Luka, a very kind soul - had poked her and pointed to a large group having a laugh together. Unknown to Rin, it just so happens that their current conversation focused on the different talents of people and it was just a huge coincidence that Rin - who's drawing talent was found by some nameless guy she couldn't remember - was one of the people mentioned by the same blond.

Rin had looked in the direction the pinkette was pointing to in irritation, "What?!" And only ended up seeing the same boy pointing to her and screaming at the top of his lungs or something to the rest of the world, "What's the name of the girl who can draw?"

The blonde had remembered blushing in embarrassment and seemingly getting rather frustrated as she looked away quickly, 'How dare he blurt that out in front of the whole group?'

She wasn't exactly the sort who liked to flounce her supposed 'talent' to the whole entire universe (but really, Miku liked to argue she was just too humble and modest, but she digresses).

Miku only glanced at her in pity before telling the blond boy her name in the same shouting manner.

And now back to the actual situation.

"Oi! Rinny~!"

Rin snapped out her trance resulting into turning her head towards her best friend who seemed to have been shaking her, her face seeming desperate as her teeth were clenched together and a rather scarily weird expression on her best friend's face. Instantly seeing signs of life from Rin, Miku's face turned normal in relief.

"Ah!" The leek lover grinned in enthusiasm, "You're alive! You were out of it for a few minutes." She flicked the younger girl in the forehead, the blonde only staring at her with no indication of pain.

Rin only hummed, "Er... sorry... I was just thinking of a strategy..."

The tealette's interest piqued up; clearly shown by her slight tilt of her head, "Strategy for what?"

"Cooking for later." The blonde automatically replied and Miku only giggled at her slightly .

"You're not the slightest bit affected, huh?"

Rin blinked, "Excuse me?"

Miku only snorted, merely waving away Rin's rather confused reaction, "You really do have an iron heart. And here I thought you were just shy - we're back all the way to when you didn't interact with boys back then, even after I worked so hard to make you social with others."

At this, Rin flushed as she was unable to understand what her friend meant - well, barely, but she isn't so sure of what she's thinking is right (Miku's just so unpredictable) - before she calmed herself down, "Eh... Yeah, uh-huh, sure."

The blonde furiously shook her head as she tried her best to seem composed, her blue eyes looking towards the grass as she pondered when this stupid game would ever end. It's already annoying enough as it is, the way the people forced to say these things spoke in silly voices in an attempt to make their victims laugh but only resulting in rather humiliating acts of display. It was a wonder how the organisers ever thought this game would have been great for an icebreaker.

Miku only watched her in amusement before her lips stretched into a smile, 'Such a shame,' she mused, 'Len seemed to really like her and all, especially when he said it seriously. He seems pretty oblivious, though. Rin doesn't seem to like him, either. Huh. Go figure.'

And she doesn't miss the fact that Len is staring at her friend curiously.

17/08/2017

This was written at night at half past four in the morning with groggy eyes and based on my experiences during this program I did, but no romance and no drama because that only ever happened to my other fellow people who weren't on my team. Never doing it again.

I may write the second chapter when I have motivation since wow, the fandom on FF is kinda dead. Reviews are also appreciated (because I'm just so desperate haha)