Chapter Eleven: Ready, Set... Read!

A few days had already passed from Kairi's birthday. It was already Wednesday, meaning that school would end a lesson earlier than usually, for both Roxas' class and Sora's, Naminé's and Kairi's class. It was a bliss for all of them. Or it could have been, if the last lesson for Sora's class wouldn't have been Physical Education.

Sora and Kairi both loved Physical Education, and they were both in an excellent shape – partly thanks to Riku – but unlike them, Naminé was quite literally dying. Girls' and boys' lessons were mixed together, since the girls' teacher, Mr. Xaldin had injured himself, so Mr. Lexaeus, the boys' teacher had taken over. And so, the girls ended up playing soccer with the boys. Kairi had insisted that they played girls versus boys, being confident in her skills, but since the rest of the girls had begged for the teams to be mixed, Kairi ended up playing with Sora. But making Kairi play with the boys – or more like playing with Sora – was a bad decision for the opposite team. The duo's combination was amazing and they were perfectly in sync. Kairi was the speedier one, since she had been racing with the boys since she was little, and Sora was the one with more power, which was obvious, since he was a male.

The winner was obvious. The opposite team even went to beg for Lexaeus to separate the duo who kept scoring all the time. Lexaeus merely laughed at this, not bothering to deal with the problem, since he found the duo amusing to watch, even though they were completely crushing the opponent.

The luck was not on Naminé's side, and she had ended up on the opposite team. And with her abilities, she couldn't have stop Sora and Kairi anyway, so she just ended up running around the field without even touching the ball.

After the game Sora and Kairi went to apologize to Naminé, saying that they had got a little too excited, but Naminé told them that it was better that they hadn't went easy on anyone. Kairi joined with Naminé when they headed towards the girls' changing room and showers, while Sora headed towards the boys'.
The girls got to the changing room quickly, since it was way closer for them than to the boys. They entered along with some other girls who had played soccer with them. They occupied some space for the both of them from the wooden benches that were supposed to be seats, although they were used to keep their stuff from touching the somewhat dirty floor. They threw their bags on the benches and started undressing. Soon something could be heard to come on contact with the floor, as if a coin would have escaped someone's wallet. Naminé bent forward and lowered herself. She noticed that the item that was dropped was familiar to her, but she couldn't recognize where had she seen it before. It was a shiny necklace. Without any clues that could have lead her thoughts forward, she turned into Kairi, who had already wrapped herself in a towel, and was about to head to the shower room.

"Kairi!" Naminé shouted in an average shouting volume. Kairi turned around and walked back to the blonde so that she could hear properly what Naminé had to say.

"Did you drop this?" she asked and took out the necklace.

Kairi's eyes brightened up when she saw the pendant.

"Yep, it's mine. Gosh, thanks for picking it up for me!" she said and took the necklace from her friend.

"Ah, wait, let me put it on for you", Naminé said, but realized it was futile since Kairi was going to shower in a minute. But it didn't seem so futile when she noticed that Kairi was wearing some bracelets when she used her right hand – filled with the bracelets – to pick her hair so that Naminé could put the necklace on. 'So Kairi's apparently the type to shower even with accessories on', Naminé thought while locking it.

"Hey, is this the one you got from Sora, on your birthday?" she asked, now seeming to recall where she had seen the necklace. She received a small nod from Kairi. And then her smile turned slightly devilish. "Oh? Really now? You know, Kairi", she said, in a sing-song voice. "When a boy gives girl a necklace, it means he loves her", she continued with the same tone, still wearing her grin, even though she knew Kairi wasn't facing her and thus, couldn't see her.

Kairi blushed madly. She knew Naminé couldn't see it, so when Naminé released her grip of the necklace, Kairi just hurried towards the shower without a word, leaving Naminé giggle there on her own. Naminé knew Kairi's reaction. She knew she'd have great news for Roxas now.

Today was the first day their club could actually start. On Monday there were lots of confirmation things to be done, where they heard that they had to have a club adviser, and his or her signature on the papers. All three of them turned their heads towards Roxas, who had been in charge of the whole thing, and the smart boy had avoided their gaze until he admitted his mistake under pressure. On Tuesday they were hunting for a teacher who would volunteer for the job. They looked for one all day, but none of them found anyone who would have been free. For some reason, Roxas had managed to find someone after school and turned the paper in on Wednesday, and an empty classroom, or rather, a storage room had been appointed to them.

When the three sweaty teens had showered, refreshed and changed, and met outside, they went to the clubroom. Roxas told them he'd be waiting for them over there. And so, Sora, Kairi and Naminé were reunited with Roxas.

Roxas had become the president. The teacher who had confirmed the papers insisted that the leader must be either Roxas or Kairi, but Kairi declined politely. She didn't think she'd be fit to be a president, despite what Sora and Naminé said. But to the less-smart duo, it didn't really matter who got to be the president, if they were to pick from Kairi and Roxas. They had the same average grade, and were adored by everyone. The only difference in their talents was that Kairi was more athletic and Roxas was more into music. But none of that had anything to do with being a president of their club, so when Kairi declined, Roxas stepped into the position with a laid-back attitude.

When they had reached their destination, Roxas was already there, leaning on the wall, until he saw the trio and bounced off to get back on his balance.
"How nice of you to rush here so quick, I didn't have to wait at all", Roxas said and cracked his knuckles. The rest of them sweat-dropped and wondered whether he was being serious, sarcastic, or messing with them. In the end they all decided to give him their quick apologies before Roxas took out the key.
"Whoa, now that's a nice key!" Sora cheered while he took a second glance at the key. He couldn't keep his eyes off it until Roxas put it into the keyhole and opened the door. But what he could catch by the glimpse was that the handle was yellow, the key itself was silvery and the ending was based on a crown. "I didn't know keys like that existed", he continued, still thinking about the dazzling design.

"Yeah, well", Roxas said, not really thinking about answering properly.

Roxas entered the room, and Naminé was planning on following him, when he took steps back, making Naminé lose her balance and falling to the floor. "Ouch", she said, pretty casually, and rubbed her behind, while Sora and Kairi were enjoying a small laugh, and Roxas offered her a hand. "Sorry", he muttered and pulled Naminé up.

"Why'd you stop?" Kairi asked, and tried to take a peek inside, but Roxas and Naminé were completely blocking her view. Roxas turned to her and sighed.

"Look."

The blond moved aside and let Kairi and Sora find out the reason he had taken a few steps back. The room was covered in dust. Literally. Aside from the few first centimeters from the door, the floor was so dusty you could wipe it with your finger, and get a nice line left. There were three empty, big bookshelves that filled the left wall, and the right wall had a whiteboard. The room sure had been a classroom – although a small one – at some point, but now it was just so full of all kinds of things that it had earned the right to be called a storeroom. You could have seen to the outside right from the door, but the windows were covered by curtains, that were dusty themselves too. All the things that were stored in were covered in dust, and if they weren't, they were covered by some blankets that collected the dust instead. In the right corner, beside the whiteboard and the windows were a few tables and stairs stored on top of each other. On one of the tables there was still even some flowers. But of course the flowers had withered a long time ago.

"Wow", was all Naminé, Sora and Kairi could say, and Roxas was pretty sure they didn't mean it in the most positive possible way. They examined the room and came to the decision that they couldn't start their club activities in a while, and most likely not today. The school would be closed at eight o'clock due to the library, and the clock was currently about to hit number three. They had five hours. Five nice, long, painful hours to clean. And that didn't seem so attractive to Naminé.

"Oh, right!" she said, as if she had remembered something. "I forgot mum asked me to cook today..." she continued, letting her voice trail off, and now sounding apologetic. "So, uh, good luck!" And with those words, she escaped. Or would have, if Kairi wouldn't have grabbed her collar and dragged her back. "No escaping, missy", she said and pressured Naminé with a threatening voice. Naminé just cried about not wanting to clean and how it would suck and how she had so many things to do. And of course, the other three just ignored her cries, since her lies were obvious. Sora and Roxas laughed at Naminé's escaping attempts, since they had experienced Kairi's perfectionism attitude before themselves. When Kairi wanted to perfect something, she wouldn't let herself or anyone else get off the hook so easily.

The cleaning was really tough, with there being so much dirt. "So much for taking a shower", Sora sighed before taking his sweater off. This resulted Kairi to stop working for several minutes. She was cleaning the same spot over and over again. Sora didn't notice anyone staring at him, so until Roxas whispered to her that it's rude to stare no matter how much you'd want, Kairi was staring at him. She also tried to argue back saying that she couldn't care less about Sora, even though she was blushing and didn't seem convincing at all.

In the end, it was surprisingly Naminé who got most of the cleaning done. About fifty percent of the cleaning was done by her, the boys shared a forty percent and Kairi cleaned only a ten percent.

The room was now nice and tidy, and they were now relaxing by drinking some juice around the tables they had moved into the middle of the room. The rest of the random things were moved into another room, and now their room seemed empty.

"Ah, this is refreshing", Naminé said happily after taking a good sip. The others stared at Naminé who had soon emptied her glass and was pouring more juice in it.

"Naminé, you're good at cleaning", Roxas said after emptying his own glass. Naminé smiled at his compliment and started drinking again to hide her faint blush.
"Yeah, you're completely different from a certain rich kid over there!" Sora yelled with enthusiasm, knowing that he'd get a scolding from Kairi.

"Hey, I never clean around the house!"

"Yeah, don't blame Kairi, she got distracted quite often", Roxas added, sounding and looking completely serious but from the content of his sentence everyone could tell he was messing with Kairi.

They kept teasing Kairi for a good while, until she snapped lightly and lectured them all. Despite being made fun of, she was having fun, too. They were all too tired to carry the books in that they were planning to read, so they just kept talking about anything that popped into their mind.

Suddenly, Sora reached out to Kairi's chest, and for a while, she was really shocked and was about to back off when Sora raised the pendant. 'Oh, it was the pendant', Kairi sighed in relief. 'Wait, what else could it have possibly been than the pendant?' she asked herself, now feeling stupid.

"You're actually wearing it", Sora said and smiled. "It fits her, don't you think?"

Sora received a nod from both Roxas and Naminé.

"Just wondering how you can something like that that fits her perfectly", Roxas began, "when you can't even get something nice for yourself."

"Hey! What's that supposed to mean?"

"Oh, nothing~."

"Come on guys, calm down", Naminé tried.

"But it's true that Sora could pay some more attention to himself..." That was Kairi.

Now the two girls had jumped into the conversation.

"Right?"

"Gee, you guys are cruel!"

"Cruel? How?"

"Naminé, Kairi, tell something to this guy!"

"Roxas, you should go to Sora's house early in the morning and help him fix his appearance."

"Kairi!"

"Err, I kinda agree with Kairi..."

"Not you too Naminé!"

The next day, after school was the actual first day the club activities begun. That was, after they had dragged all the books they felt interested in. Even though they would treat the club as a place to relax and just hang out, there were several reasons for them to get all the books into the shelves. For instance, if they ever got bored, or if all the others were occupied with something and couldn't come, they could read the books. Also, they had to have a cover, or else the teachers wouldn't have let the club be formed.

The books that were stacked in really varied from heavy literature like Harry Potters and Lord of the Rings to some simple picture books the girls had found attractive. Kairi had also brought some of her manga, but she placed them all in a safe place, also known as a lockable drawer. Naminé and Roxas were delighted about this, but Sora was pretty much neutral. Naminé tried to get him hooked by introducing One Piece to him, but he gave up quickly as he found reading right to left too difficult.

So, their first day started. For starters, Roxas had suggested that they'd read whatever they wanted individually. He told them that they'd start reading the same books later on.

"We're really going to do the club activities?" Sora asked with a frown. Roxas sent him a sympathetic smile. "We've gotta do it for the first few weeks, at least. The teachers are gonna check up on us pretty frequently, y'know", he explained, before walking to the third bookshelf that was the closest to the windows, and took a thick book. Then he sat down on the couch they had brought in along with some other nice things, took out his glasses and started reading.
Kairi followed the leader's lead and took a book that looked like a girly romance-type book. But instead of jumping on the couch beside Roxas, she headed to where Sora and Naminé were standing, which was around the table, and sat around it.

The blonde girl was somewhat disappointed when she found out that they actually had to read. She didn't mind comics or text posts – especially the ones Roxas wrote – but other than those, she hated literature and reading, basically anything that happened to have something to do with books. She let her shoulders drop as she took a deep breath.

"Do I really have to read too? Can't I just kinda... draw?" she asked with a selfish and immature tone. She knew she was asking for, maybe not impossible, but a sort of irresponsible thing. She had, after all, joined a literature club. Naturally there would be some reading too, no matter how much she thought she could just hang out in a room after school.

Sora patted her lightly on the shoulder. "I think you should do as the president says", the brunet stated and took a comic book before sitting beside Roxas. "I didn't know you had a bad eyesight."

"I didn't know you didn't know since I've worn glasses until I became a ninth grader. Well, I stopped wearing them when I was twelve, but I used them every now and then."

Naminé took a look at their president. She found herself drooling at the sight of Roxas wearing glasses. Suddenly she didn't understand the reason Roxas wore contact lenses, since she found him look way better with glasses. She sighed in defeat and took some manga from the so-called safe and joined Kairi, now that the two boys had occupied all the space from the sofa, even though all four of them could have easily fit if they had just sat there considering the others a bit more.

The curtains were now gone and the windows were washed nicely and they were shining thanks to the Sun that was warming up the room, including Sora's and Roxas' back of their necks. Kairi had brought some smaller curtains to frame the windows and to decorate them. They were the color of baby blue, and had several pearls attached as details.

Everyone had brought something. As already mentioned, Kairi had brought the curtains. Naminé had brought some of her framed paintings and drawings to decorate the empty wall beside the door. She also brought some magnets for the whiteboard along with whiteboard markers. Roxas had brought a tablecloth and the lockable drawer, while Sora had brought a small rug to keep their feet warm, since the floor itself was cold. The four of them had paid for the used couch equally. And since it was used and bought from a second-hand shop, they got it for such a small price. The quality of the sofa was a whole different story, but that didn't mean it couldn't last for a few years.

Naminé was starting to get annoyed with the seating, as she flinched in her chair. The chairs were just the regular school chairs, considering that they didn't really have any spare money to use for any more comfortable chairs. The library did have some nicer ones, but everyone highly doubted they could get any, since there were never any spare ones when you actually did need them.

The blonde gave the boys a nasty look, before mouthing her thoughts. "Can't you guys move a little? These chairs are so uncomfy!" she complained, completely aware of her attitude she had had since she had been explained the program of the day. The boys that were slightly taken aback by Naminé's tone, quickly moved aside a little, enough for one more person to join, other than Naminé.

Naminé had moved to sit beside the two boys, letting out a satisfied sigh as she flopped beside Sora, who was now sitting in the middle. They would have went back into their books, if Sora wouldn't have talked.

"Kairi, aren't you going to join us?" he asked and patted the seat beside Naminé. Naminé and Roxas were soon joining the choir of encouragements and were pretty much patting the empty seat to get Kairi join. It would have felt awkward to have one of them stay on the cold, hard seats while there still was space on the comfortable, soft couch. So, they tried their best to suggest Kairi move.

But unexpectedly, Kairi sent them a troubled look, and eyed the couch in suspicion.

"Kai, what's wrong?" Roxas asked when he noticed Kairi's troubled face.

"Well, yeah, I know I was also paying for this thing but... isn't this from a second-hand shop?" she mentioned, still wearing her troubled expression, unable to hide it anyhow. She gestured towards the sofa.

After a moment of silence lingering around, Naminé snapped lightly, and because of the attitude she had been having for the day, Kairi was starting to wonder whether she was on her period, which could have been the cause of her foul mood. "Yes, it is, but that doesn't mean it's bad!" Naminé argued back, in a higher volume that she had meant to, and faster before either Sora or Roxas could have said anything. Kairi was also quite caught off guard by Naminé's sudden raise of voice, noting that she didn't shout much, so she quickly apologized and told them that she'd still rather sit on the chair.

Usually, Naminé was shy and quiet, but she was being unexpectedly loud that day. She wasn't quite the same the day before, but she was obviously on a better mood back then. Nobody dared to say a word to it, so they all pretended to be busy with their books.

The other part of the argument was regretting her decision to raise her voice and was in even lower spirits than she had been since stepping into the room. These kinds of feelings made it even harder for her to continue reading the manga she had had confidence in that she would enjoy reading. But after all, she didn't like people insulting her situation. No, she didn't think Kairi did it directly and she most probably didn't even know about it, but it still had hurt Naminé. 'She was practically saying that second-hand shops suck', Naminé thought, while sighing, both with her exhaling and her heart. Her heart was really aching, she was really sensitive when it came down to these things. 'I better explain it properly to Kairi later on...' she continued thinking, until she realized she hadn't turned a page for forever, and no wonder – she hadn't read a word.

The club members decided to continue tomorrow after two hours. Two hours of reading without a break can be really tiring, no matter how much you'd like the content of the text you're reading. Naminé was completely worn out and she felt as if she had just completed some sort of a marathon, even though that was definitely not the case. She had never read that much in two hours, which was probably the reason why she got such low grades. And she had been reading manga, and that really is quite easy.

Roxas, Sora and Kairi were about to part ways to their homes, Sora accompanying Kairi and Roxas heading towards the opposite direction, when Naminé shouted them to wait.

"I think... I'll quit the literature club..." she gasped in a low voice, making it more of a whisper. Water was twirling in her eyes, but she decided not to let any tears fall. Her determination was enough and worked, but she couldn't stop her voice from cracking.

The other three members were way beyond shocked. They stopped completely, and headed back to Naminé. Anybody could tell she wasn't having the time of her life while reading, but they thought she could get used to it, or rather, she didn't mind reading. But apparently, it was far worse than that. But there was no denying that they were slightly more considered about the club itself than Naminé. If Naminé were to leave, the club wouldn't be able to continue.
"No, Naminé, you-, you can't quit!" Kairi said, in a concerned voice that just made Naminé feel more uncomfortable. Sora tried saying something similar, but it obviously didn't help, at all.

"Naminé, think about it", Roxas said, he, too, with a concerned tone, but to Naminé, it sounded completely different. Maybe it was because it was said by Roxas, or it was because Roxas was a guy and had a different voice. "We've spent so much time setting everything in the clubroom. We went through pain begging for the teachers to sign all these papers, getting humiliated by other clubs that were around saying that ours was just a pathetic wanna-be-club and get our prides hurt as men", he said, now sounding like a lost little boy, his eyes starting to gleam with all the tears.

"No, Roxas, that was actually you", Sora jumped in, with a hint of amusement in his voice. Kairi supported his sentence with a low giggle.

"Oh, you, shaddup, you", Roxas turned to Sora quickly before returning his eyes into Naminé's.

"Look, we all, including you, researched for lots and lots of books on the Internet, from each others' houses and the library, and that was really troublesome!" he continued with his so-called speech. "We used our money to get us that crappy couch that probably won't even hold for a whole year!" he finished, and added a smile.

For a minute, Naminé stayed silent, letting Roxas' words sink into her mind, as she was running through all the points he had made. She couldn't deny any of them. After thinking about it for a while, Naminé decided that she couldn't argue with Roxas. Knowing that slightly-appearing-to-be-arrogant-and-a-know-it-all-that-he-seemed-to-have-learned-it-somewhere, she couldn't stand a chance. Her only reasons for leaving were that she was exhausted, and as already mentioned, felt as if she had just completed a marathon, even though she had never completed a marathon, and she doubted she could ever do it.

She inhaled and exhaled. Then finally, she raised her both hands as if she had given up. "Fine fine, I won't quit", she announced while taking a look at the sky and sighing quite much through the sentence, literally between every word, and the sentence did contain five words.

But those five words were more than enough to get a relieved sigh out of Sora and Kairi, and to make Roxas smile. And of course, Naminé couldn't not see that one, and felt overwhelmed, but happy about her decision. Surely, if it was for that blond angel with that smile that could melt anyone's heart, Naminé would start practicing reading. She wasn't exactly sure whether practicing reading was possible, but she would do whatever it takes for Roxas' sake, even though she doubted she would be able to tell him, at least in a while.
The slower people present, Kairi and Sora were absolutely off the track. They were whispering to each other, asking about the situation and wondering what was going on. What they saw was a blond boy and a blonde girl standing on a sunset, the boy smiling at the girl and the girl as red as the sun that was setting. The thing the duo didn't understand was, why were the blondes staring at each other with such eyes.

Once again, the so-called slower people were walking to Kairi's place. Sora did this usually, walking the auburn-haired girl home. Whenever the two of them plus Riku had been out playing, Riku would just suddenly disappear, and the next day say he got tired and left home. That's why Sora would always make sure Kairi got home without troubles. A trauma the duo had got was from a few years ago, was when Riku had disappeared for the first time ever, and Sora and Kairi had decided to leave home after searching Riku until very late. And very late, as in the time when all the drunkards start to walk the streets. At the time Sora didn't used to accompany Kairi to her home, so after finally getting a text message from Riku, a reply to their question, they decided both head home. The question was about Riku's whereabouts, and he had finally replied to them, telling them he had already gone to bed.

Kairi had been terrified of walking home on that late hour. And just a few hundred meters away from her front door, an old man, who reeked of alcohol and was obviously drunk, had approached her. He had grabbed quite firmly of Kairi's hand, and if it weren't for some of Kairi's friendly neighbors who had heard her screams in the middle of the night and woken up to help her, who knows what would have happened to her.

After telling about the incident to Sora, he absolutely refused to let Kairi experience the same ever again. He had clearly noted how much Kairi was shaking while telling him the story, and her voice was cracking. So that's why the habit of walking Kairi home had become a habit, and Kairi had gotten used to it. Moreover, Sora's house wasn't so far away from Kairi's, and walking back to his own from Kairi's house would only take five minutes.

This time, walking with Kairi was silent. Usually Kairi was hyper about the events that had happened that day, and she'd notice every little positive thing, such as how beautiful the sky looked, or how cute that little stray cat was, and how much she wished she could keep it. A second later, she would call to a place that would take in animals and take care of them until they found an owner. Or, she would take a quick look at the windows of the shops that they passed, noticing all the sparkly and glittery things and pointing at them.

"Kairi?" Sora asked, not being able to handle the silence any longer. It wasn't like Kairi had experienced anything so negative that it would be a bad idea to talk.

Kairi's head turned to her left and a bit up, reminding her about the height distance that had grown between them the last few years. She didn't say anything, but she was staring at Sora, waiting him to say something.

"Uh... you okay?" Sora asked, when he didn't hear or see Kairi replying, thinking it was a rare sight to see.

Once again, Kairi didn't, or wasn't bothered to reply, and just nodded. She was quite deep in thought. She didn't even notice her pace of walking dropping, which, if she would have continued it, would have made the walk to her home take forever.

But thinking really wasn't Kairi's thing, other than in exams. Other than exams and tests, she would've preferred not to think. At least, not to think alone. That's why soon, she was holding the back of Sora's sweater, making him stop at the same time she did. Sora looked at the girl who had grabbed the comfortable material and was waiting her to say whatever she had to say.

"Do you think..." Kairi started, still keeping her head to the back of Sora's feet and at the same time, staring at her own toes. When Sora turned around to face her, she raised her head and continued. "... Naminé likes Roxas?" she asked, with a desperate and helpless voice, that differed from the tone Roxas had had when thinking about his hurt pride and the humiliation he had faced. The tone Kairi was wearing on her question was heart-wrecking to Sora, but he didn't know what to do, and the fact that he hadn't listened to her question, at all, didn't help.

So after trying to recall the words Kairi had just said, and succeeding at it, he wore a confused frown. "W-w-what? Naminé likes Roxas?" he asked, more like shouted. He was genuinely surprised.

"I think Roxas likes Naminé too..." Kairi continued, this time clearly not bothering to answer Sora's question. She had already, either unconsciously or consciously grabbed the T-shirt Sora was wearing, since he had turned around and his sweater was open.

Sora just stood in his place, trying to get the message through to his head, but Kairi's voice, her sad voice, was distracting him well enough. So, his thinking was a lot slower than usually, although it wasn't that quick even if he wasn't distracted. "Aren't they just remarkable friends? They act like old friends, actually..." Sora tried, and patted Kairi in attempt to calm her down. He went from patting to stroking it. Kairi's smooth hair could never stop surprising Sora, although he didn't usually have a reason to touch it.

After getting a piece of the calming touch, Kairi's thoughts came together and she could actually forge a sentence, which had been difficult for the past minutes, even though the sentences were simple and didn't consist of difficult words. "Didn't you see the way they were staring at each other?" she asked, still wearing that sad, desperate voice.

Now, Sora couldn't stop stroking Kairi's hair, he was addicted to it. It seemed to really calm Kairi down as well, and she seemed completely comfortable with it, so he continued doing it. "That sounded really cliche, but other than that, they really took their time eyeing each others' eyes", Sora chuckled, but his voice turned serious at the end of his sentence, although he was still smiling reassuringly.

"Yeah..."

Sora was really trying to resist the urge to say what he was thinking. 'You should get over him already', or something of the sort. But the last thing he wanted to do was make Kairi upset. And he refused to lie, so he stayed silent, and just plain stroked Kairi's hair.

After a while, once Kairi had completely calmed down, they resumed their walk, now just a hundred times slower than before. There was no awkward atmosphere. There was no relaxed atmosphere. The both of them questioned whether there was an atmosphere at all. But Kairi was, in a way, very sad, but in a way, very happy. And if the atmosphere would have been named something, it could have possibly been "trust". Kairi knew he could trust Sora, and likewise. There was no reason to be afraid, ever, as long as Sora was with her.