"Rin-chan! It's time to get up!" Nozomi's voice calls out throughout the apartment, and a muffled '5 more minutes!' is the only thing that can be heard. Nozomi laughs to herself, pulling the frying pan off of the stove element and placing the hot fried eggs onto three plates.
"If you don't get up now, Umi-kun and I will be sharing your breakfast!" Nozomi shouts teasingly. In that moment, Umi had entered the kitchen, fixing his ribbon and frowning slightly.
"Rin still isn't up yet?!" He comments, and Nozomi nods. "She better get ready fast today then, you have early student council duties, don't you?"
"I do, which is why if Rin-chan doesn't show her beautiful face in the kitchen in the next 2 seconds, she'll suffer by these hands." Nozomi places the plates down on the placemats that lay on the table, then lifted her hands and making squeezing motions with her fingers for emphasis. Umi takes his seat, humming to himself.
"The worst punishment is heading her way." He says quietly, before picking up a piece of toast and munching on it.
A loud yawn brings their attention to the door way and Rin is standing there, messily dressed in her school uniform with her ribbon draped around her neck. Her eyes are half closed and she lowers her hand from her mouth, walking into the kitchen. Nozomi smiles, taking her seat at the table and watching as Rin looks at the small white board on the fridge. She reads Umi's note of the day, and smiles slightly, turning to the other two.
"Morning Umi-kun, Morning Nozomi-chan." Rin greets, hopping over to the table and taking her seat. "Breakfast smells yummy today!"
"Don't let it get too cold then!" Nozomi grins, before taking a bite of her own food.
The three of them idly converse, talking about the previous nights dreams and the days plans. Umi offers to do the dishes quickly while Nozomi helps Rin fix up her uniform, straightening out the blazer and skirt and tying the ribbon properly around her neck. The three of them grab their lunches off the counter, and Nozomi does a quick run through to see if everybody has grabbed everything they need.
"Okay Umi-kun, you've texted Honoka and Kotori about todays gender, right?"
"I did." Umi confirms. Nozomi smiles.
"Rin-chan, do you have your gym clothes packed?" She turns to Rin, waiting for a reply.
"Yeees!" Rin replies, patting her bag. "Everything is there!"
"Alright! And both of you have all your homework, right?"
"Yes!" Both reply at once, and Nozomi beams.
"Perfect! We're all set!" Nozomi says. Just as she heads to the door, Umi stops her.
"Wait, Nozomi, you're forgetting something." He says, walking to their living room. Nozomi frowns.
"Eh? Am I?" She replies, patting herself down. She can feel the bulge of her cards in her pocket, and she had double checked her school bag watches Umi step out of the living room, a bag of chocolates in his hands.
"You wanted to give these to the student council president, didn't you?" He asks, and Nozomi can feel the small blush creeping on her face. She laughs embarrassed, taking the chocolates from him.
"You're right, I did. I don't know if I have the courage to give them to her today though." She puts the chocolate inside of her school bag, and Rin pats her on the head.
"You can do it, Nozomi-chan! All you have to do is say 'President! Please eat these chocolates with me!' She exclaims. Nozomi laughs, waving her hand and blushing more.
"No no! I can't do that! That's way too forward, she'll get the wrong idea."
"I think all you have to do is offer to share them." Umi smiles, walking over to the door and opening it up. "If you want to be better friends, this could be the first step."
The three of them exit the apartment, and Nozomi locks the door behind them. They make their way to the elevator, and the older girl finally decides to reply.
"Alright, you've both convinced me. I'll do it today." Rin and Umi beam at Nozomi, and Rin quickly envelopes her in a tight hug.
"Don't be afraid Nozomi-chan! We'll cheer you on!" She exclaims.
The violet haired girl thanks the two of them, and the trio then begin their trek towards Otonokizaka. They three of them were a very mismatched little group of students, but they were happy. Nozomi was the senior of them, being in third year and the vice president of the student council. After her was Umi, a second year who was a superb member of the archery club. Completing the trio was Rin, the younger first year and bubbliest of them all,who wasn't sure if she wanted to join a club or the track team. The three of them had decided to move in with one another after many series of events, and they were all happy with the arrangement. Nozomi had never expected her lonely home life to gain two new people, but it had.
Their story began one night in April as she worked at the family restaurant. It was a nice place with reasonably priced dishes that attracted various families and students. Nozomi worked there part time to make money and keep herself busy on days when it was too hard to be alone. She had been working the closing shift and Rin and Umi had been dining there that evening.
Everything had seemed alright until Rin broke down at her booth, unable to continue eating her ramen. Umi had moved from his table to hers, checking if she was okay. Rin had tried to reply, but during her speech her voice cracked and caused her to sob louder, attracting Nozomi's attention. Umi was afraid a scene would be caused, and offered to walk Rin back home. The ginger haired girl had quickly declined, and in a heat of the moment Nozomi had invited the two to her place, since the restaurant would be closed soon.
After closing up, she lead the two of them to her apartment. Rin had calmed down and was looking away from both of them in both shame and embarrassment. Umi kept a worried gaze on her, and they finally reached the small building Nozomi had called home at the time. She quickly set up the kettle, offering to make both of them a cup of tea.
There was a long bit of silence between them all as they sat awkwardly in the bedroom area of Nozomi's apartment. Rin hadn't taken her eyes off of her tea, and Umi wasn't sure what to say at that moment. Nozomi watched the two of them with a careful gaze, unsure of if she should say anything or not. She glanced at the clock, noticing it was getting late and that it was indeed a school night.
"I'm really sorry." Rin had eventually said. "I've just-" She pauses, putting her tea down and fiddling with her shirt. "I'm just having a really hard time at home."
"It's alright, Hoshizora-san." Nozomi says with a reassuring smile. "I'm just a bit concerned your parents might be wondering about where you are, it is a school night after all."
"It's okay, they think I'm at Kayo-chin's." Rin sniffles a bit, wiping at her eyes.
"Is that one of the girls you sit with sometimes?" Nozomi asks, and Rin nods.
"Mhmm." She mumbles. She looks between the both of them, before shyly speaking again.
"Is… is it okay if I talk about something really personal?" Umi immediately nods.
"If it will help you feel better, Tojo-senpai and I will listen with full attention." Nozomi nods her head in agreement, and Rin lets out a shaky breath.
Rin confesses that four months before, she had come out as transgender to her parents. It had been something she had been waiting to do for a year, and the only other ones who knew were her friends Hanayo and Maki. Her parents didn't quite understand, but they loved their child, whether she was a boy or a girl, and respected her decision. Rin admitted it was the most relieving news of it all, and it made the start to her transition that much easier. The misgendering at the beginning wasn't too bad, but it had been a while and Rin was tired of being called "he" or referred to as their son by family friends and distant cousins. She had confronted her parents about it earlier that night, but their reaction was hostile. They made Rin feel guilty for being the way she was, told her she wasn't giving them proper time to take in it all, made it all about themselves. Rin had quickly grabbed her bag, running out the door and finding herself at the restaurant.
When she finished her story, Rin immediately broke down again, letting out broken sobs into her hands. Nozomi moved from her spot across the room to the spot directly beside Rin. She hesitantly put a hand on Rin's back, rubbing it soothingly in an attempt to get the girl to relax more. Rin leant against Nozomi, and the older girl enveloped her into a small hug.
"Hoshizora-san, I-" Umi begins hesitantly, before closing his mouth. "Your first name is Rin, right?"
Rin only nods, peering away from Nozomi to show Umi that her attention was on him.
"It's not the same, but I really can understand how you feel." Umi moves closer to the two of them, looking shyly at the floor.
Nozomi and Rin listened to Umi's story of his gender discovery. Umi wasn't exactly sure how to place it on the gender scale, but he knew that he was comfortable identifying as both male and female. He was uncomfortable wearing the school uniform a lot of the time because the skirt didn't reach the length he was liked, but he really did enjoy some cutesy things. He had been searching the internet to try to figure out if anyone else felt the same he did at the time, and came to the conclusion he was gender fluid. Umi continued to say that he had very traditional parents, who would never understand and probably disown him if he ever came out or admitted that he was questioning if he was anything more than the girl they had raised.
"It really isn't the same, but I do understand how you might feel." Umi concluded. Rin pulled away from Nozomi, sniffling again one last time before giving Umi a small smile.
"Thank you for sharing that with me." She said. She turned her attention back to Nozomi, and quickly brought her hands up together and bowed her head in apology.
"S-sorry for bombarding you with this, Senpai!" Rin peers up at her. "I-I really appreciate this though, it was really kind of you to listen through all of this."
"I-I feel the same, Tojo-Senpai." Umi quickly added, bowing his head as well. Nozomi stared surprised before smiling.
"It's okay!" She begins. An idea suddenly hits her and she turns to the two of them.
"I know it was hard to talk about these topics, especially when you don't know how the person you're confessing to will react. However, I believe that all of us being at the restaurant tonight was fate. This needed to happen." She stands up, walking over to her dresser and opening up a small box. She pulled out a key, then smiled towards the two guests in her room.
"I'm not always home,since I work and I am on the student council, but if you both ever need to escape to a place where you won't be misgendered, a place where you can be yourself, you're welcome to stay here any time you want." She grabs a cute tanuki keychain she had gotten for herself not long ago, attaching the key to it. She smiles to the two of them again. "I live alone, so you won't have to worry about anyone who doesn't know your stories stopping by. This can be your get away, if you truly need it." She held the spare key out to Rin, who hesitantly took it, looking at Nozomi with teary eyes.
"You'd really do that for us..?" Umi says quietly, and Nozomi nods.
"Of course! Everyone should have somewhere where they're free to be themselves without fear of judgement. I don't mind if it's my place that gives you that bit of freedom." She takes her seat again.
"Just be sure to give me a text if you two decide to come over, okay?" she pulls her phone out, holding it up and keeping the smile on her face.
That night, the three of them exchanged numbers and had spent a good extra few hours talking with each other and learning about one another. Nozomi learnt quite a bit about her juniors,and in turn they learnt a lot about her. When it had gotten too late, Nozomi walked the both of them part of the way home before heading back to her now empty house.
After that day, Rin and Umi visited frequently and the three of them grew closer than ever. Umi's best friends Honoka Kousaka and Kotori Minami had stopped by the student council one day to give Nozomi a small gift as a thank you for helping out their friend, and Rin's friends Hanayo Koizumi and Maki Nishikino always greeted Nozomi with a smile and asked how she was. For the first time in her life, Nozomi had felt like she had close friends. Up until then, she could only say she had acquaintances. The closest people she could even consider her friends were her classmate Nico Yazawa -who often sat near her and shared similar tastes in music and certain interests-, and the student council president Eli Ayase, who Nozomi wanted to befriend but had no idea how to even communicate outside of school and student council work. The emotions had fully hit her when she had gotten off of work after a particularly nasty shift, and both Umi and Rin were there to say 'Welcome home!' to her. Nozomi had cried happy tears, thanking them both with all of her heart.
The stop light in front of them flashed a bright red as Nozomi continued to recall the events that lead to all of them living together. Umi's parents had forced him to come out, and he was kicked out of his household and disowned by his family just as he expected. Nozomi was there immediately, helping him pack up everything important that he owned and needed and taking him into her home. They got him settled quickly, and it took Nozomi assuring Umi many times that he was completely welcome to live with her.
It didn't take the two long to adjust to living with one another, and the two found complete happiness in being roommates. Umi had offered to get a part time job to help out with the bills, but Nozomi assured him that bills would be nothing to worry about. Rin still visited every day, and Nozomi and Umi would always walk her home afterward to ensure she got home safely. It got to the point where eventually Rin had been pretty much living with them as well. After a lot of discussion and talking about it, Nozomi proposed that the three of them get a bigger place and live together, and both Rin and Umi agreed it would be ideal.
It didn't take too long, with a serious talk between Nozomi and her parents, as well as Rin and hers, the three of them had found a decent sized apartment that was not only closer to their school, but in the exact same building as Nozomi's classmate Nico. They moved in immediately, and have been enjoying the adventures of living together ever since.
They entered the school grounds and made their way to the entrance, and Nozomi gave a small smile to the other two.
"I'll be off then." She says, and both Umi and Rin nod.
"Good luck with the student council work, Nozomi." Umi smiles, and Rin gives a toothy grin her direction as well.
"Work hard! We'll see you after school, right?" the youngest girl asks, and Nozomi laughs.
"Of course. I'm off today, so lets go shopping to get things for dinner, okay?"
"Okay~" Rin replies in a sing song voice. Umi smiles, and the three of them part heading towards their shoe lockers. They all changed from their outdoor shoes to their indoor ones, and as they all headed inside the building, they gave each other one last, happy smile before heading off in their own directions and beginning the school day.