Just wanted to say that I'm thankful for all support I get, even if I don't reply to it. All criticism is taken to heart, be it good or bad. Now enjoy the next chapter (Or don't, all up to you. Don't really see any reason to read unless you're enjoying it, but you gotta do what you gotta do)

5 AM and still no sign of sleep. Deciding that even if he were to get sleep now it wouldn't help him, Hisao goes from his lying position to a sitting one. Sighing, he pushes himself upon his legs despite the soreness from yesterday's run. It's his fault, after all, deciding to race Emi, and she wouldn't find soreness a reason not to run. Probably the opposite.

Realizing he doesn't have anything to do for some time, he sits down on the chair in front of his desk. On top of the desk is mostly homework that needs to be done, but it's one of those kinds of things that Hisao opts to do later rather than right now, after a sleepless night. The reason for the sleeplessness is quite obvious, but even thinking about it for the whole night he wasn't able to answer a single question he had about Rin.

Being the member of the art club that he is, Hisao decides to try to draw something. He's not sure why he's still a member, since he's not much of a fan of art or much of an artist either. It's just something that stuck, all without reason. Of course his skill has heightened, but he still doesn't truly see the charm that others supposedly see. The thought of quitting crosses his mind, like it has so many other times, but unlike the other times it now stays. It might have been him trying to keep some kind of memento of Rin, but now that she has returned there might not be any reason for him to stay.

A sigh leaves the boy's mouth as he puts a paper in front of him and grabs a pencil in his right hand. What to draw? Not able to decide any special subject, he just lets his hand lead him as he lets the tip of the pencil touch the paper.

It doesn't take Hisao long to see the similarity of his drawing to western-style dragons. If that wasn't what his subconscious had planned for it to be, that's too bad for his subconscious. As his hand continues moving he becomes more and more focused on the paper in front of him. After some time he declares the drawing finished; a western-style dragon facing a knight with his sword held high. It's not the best of drawings, but as he thinks back on whatever he tried to do before joining the art club, it looks like the paper in front of him could very well be a masterpiece.

Looking over at the clock that's supposed to keep him from missing each day, he sees that he's supposed to meet his running partner in thirty minutes, but not having anything to do Hisao decides to go there early, maybe take a few easier laps before Emi shows up. He puts on his running outfit and heads down to the track.

With at least another twenty-five minutes to go the boy decides to take a couple of laps before his partner shows up. An easy pace to start off lets him take his time around the track, and as the first lap is done he starts off the second one, this one with a quicker pace. Running, he fails to notice the person walking up to the track until taking the third curve. Hisao is surprised as he sees Rin looking at him, and after the surprise has drifted from his mind he sprints the part between himself and her.

"Rin! What are you doing here?" he asks her.

"Couldn't sleep," she answers. It isn't until he's almost next to her that he notices that her clothes are barely on. She must have put them on herself.

"Want me to button your shirt or something? Seems like it would be quite cold."

"I'm fine. Emi will do that later anyway."

Hisao looks at the girl in front of him, thinking of what to say now, if anything. There's still no anger in him, so that could very well be entirely gone by this point. Four months is quite some time to vent, really.

"Did you have any special reason for coming here to the track?" She thinks about his question for a few moments.

"Not sure," she then answers.

Just standing there dumbfounded, Hisao thinks back at what the girl in front of him told him the day before, how she told him that she wouldn't have known what to do had it not been for him. What did she really mean by that?

"Rin... Yesterday, on the roof, you told me that you 'didn't know what to do' had it not been for me. What did you mean by that?"

Rin seems to be caught off guard, or at least slightly stricken by the question. Her face turns down a notch, her way off showing that there's something about the subject that she has a problem with. She seems to think for some time before finally giving her answer:

"It's always been shaky, in my head, and everything just flew around. But it was different when I was with you, it didn't shake, it didn't fly around. It was easier."

The words shock Hisao slightly. Up until this point he hadn't understood what he means to Rin, but as he hears her words he realizes that whatever he actually is to her, it's something important. Although he can't know exactly what she feels, her words seem to have made him understand her to some degree. He ponders upon her statement for some time before thinking of something to ask:

"Even if that's the case, you can't just be around me forever. What will you do when I'm not there?"

Her response is a simple shrug. They continue looking at each other for what for them feels like an eternity, albeit not an unpleasant one. This eternity, however, lasts no more than a few minutes, before the boy finally breaks the silence:

"Look, Rin, I said something that hurt you. I know that, and I'm sorry for that. Really sorry. But I've thought about it, and what you said there was true: We have to live our own lives, because if we don't they'll just move on without us. I can't promise you anything besides the time we have right here, right now." They're eyes don't break contact once, and they both grow silent again.

"What is it that goes through this girl's mind? What is it that goes through my mind when I see her? Am I still in love with her? Probably. But what am I suppo-"

"Did you mean it?" The words drag Hisao out of thought.
"Did I mean what?" he answers.

"What you said back then, that everyone's alone." Hisao thinks for some time, remembering what Misha told him yesterday. It seemed to be a subject she took extremely seriously, something that's not too common to come across when it comes to her. But what she said, it's true: How can we care about others if we are alone?

"I think... I think that back then, yes, I believed in it. But thinking about it now, it doesn't seem right; if that was the case we wouldn't care about other people, would we? We'd just do things to make ourselves feel better, but that's not all that we do, is it? We do things for others, not because it makes us feel better, but because it makes them feel better."

The girl seems to think about his words for a few moments before closing her eyes and giving a nod. As her eyes open again, Rin and Hisao return to their earlier eye contact. The boy's mind filled by the girl's green eyes, the girl's mind filled by the boy's brown eyes, they just continue standing there, until...

"Aren't you gonna kiss each other?" The high-pitched shout reaches them just before the sound of titanium legs does. Rin and Hisao continue like they did before the appearance of the shorter girl until she's about fifteen meters away from them. Rin turns around to face her, while Hisao steps slightly to his left.

"Hello," Rin greets the girl in front of them.

"Good morning, Emi," Hisao follows suit.

"So what are the two lovebirds doing out here?" Emi's trademark smile is plastered on her face.

"Couldn't sleep," Rin answers. Hisao nods, as if to say that his reason was the same. Suddenly Emi's expression changes to something that could be expressed as a combination of anger and shock.

"Rin! Have you been out here all morning like that?" Apparently she noticed Rin's try at putting on clothes herself. Rin not appearing to care, Emi runs up to her, buttoning her friend's shirt as fast as she's close enough to do so. The shorter girl is done with this task quite quickly, after which she turns to the boy.

"Didn't you offer to help her with it?" Emi's concern next to Rin's apparent total lack of caring on the subject is quite the image.

"I did offer. She didn't want me to." Emi seems slightly surprised at this, so she turns to the redhead who gives a nod. The shorter of the two girls sighs.

"Oh well. Are we going to start our run now?"

"You wouldn't take no for an answer." A grin fills Emi's face after hearing those words.

"Of course not."

The two runners set up to run, and it doesn't take long before they're off. The first lap is done with quite an easy pace, but as soon as it is finished they increase their speed. Rin watches as Hisao and Emi run alongside each other, soon finishing their second lap and beginning on their third. The boy is starting to feel like his legs don't want to co-operate, something that usually doesn't happen for another few laps. That's what he gets for yesterday afternoon and this morning, his mind tells him.

"Take it as it comes," he mutters to himself as he raises his pace another notch, to which his companion follows suit. They finish the third lap and continue with their fourth, which is done quite quickly. Continuing on their fifth, Hisao having to push himself to continue while Emi seems to still have all under control.

"Already getting tired are we?" the girl asks him with a sly grin on her face.

"I already took a couple of laps before you showed up, and let's not forget that I raced this one track star yesterday." Emi gives away a laugh before speeding up another notch. Her partner follows, even though it's clearly visible that he's pushing himself at this point.

As the sixth lap starts Hisao pushes himself to his utmost limits and gets up to the maximum speed he thinks he'd be able to run the rest of the track at. Since he hasn't regained any energy since yesterday afternoon through sleep it's not the best speed of all time, but his partner seems pleased with it. As they pass the second curve the boy's body is telling him to stop, but he chooses to ignore it like he's learned to do. He hasn't reached his limits yet, that's something he knows, and he can go further.

The third curve passes, and deciding to take it all out at once the boy lets his legs move forwards as fast as they can. Their silent screams to him are still ignored, even as his mind goes blurry and all seems to want to stop. He pushes forward, rounding the fourth curve... Almost done...

As he finishes the lap he immediately walks over to the bleachers and sits down.

"Already done?" Emi asks her partner.

"Yeah, didn't get any sleep last night. We don't want me having a heart attack, do we?"

"If it's when you're around girls you get them this would be quite the risk, yeah." Hisao looks up to Emi grinning at him. It's quickly switched back to her trademark smile, though. "I'm gonna take some more laps, I'll see you at lunch."

"It's a date." Emi giggles at Hisao's joking answer.

"I thought you were the one who said you didn't want another heart attack!" With those words she leaves her companion to continue running along the track. The boy decides to stay in the bleachers for some time to cool off before seeing Nurse.

"You were good." Rin's sudden appearance and comment surprises the boy slightly.

"Thanks," he answers and looks up at the girl in front of him. "Care to take a seat?"

"Nah." They look at each other for a few seconds.

"Emi and I are having lunch later. Care to join us?" Hisao asks her, realizing that there's no point in not doing so. If there ever was any dislike for the girl in front of him it's been lost by now.

"Sure."

Not having anything else to say, the two of them just sit and stand there for a few minutes before the boy finally stands up.

"I guess I need to get changed before school. See you at lunch," he says, looking at the redheaded girl.

"See you." With her response given the boy takes off towards the nurse's office. After a quick checkup he then heads back to his dorm, changes out of his running attire before taking a quick shower and putting on his uniform. He then heads to class, hoping that he'll be able to concentrate on today's lessons.