- The first time he walked into her life, it was a random coincidence, or perhaps a fated meeting.

Despite the gloomy clouds approaching Nagazora, her school was still sunny and clear. It was weather perfect for cheery moods and a good day.

However, despite the warmth of the sun caressing her form on the rooftop, the lack of any other student's presence made her feel as if the thunderous clouds were already above her.

For Raiden Mei, this loneliness was more suffocating than the times when other students and her "friends" would crowd around her.

The quiet atmosphere, devoid of all the noise the cafeteria she was booted out from had, only served to bring her mood down even more. For all that she disliked the noise and distractions from other students badgering her, it was now so much more preferable to this silence and staring down to her homemade food, eating slowly and wishing school would just end.

Suddenly she heard a creek as the rooftop door opened up, looking over quickly, she hoped it wasn't a student coming over to her to harass her, lunchtime was one of her sole reprieves during school time.

However, Mei was surprised to see a student she didn't recognize. It wasn't as if she had every student's face and name down, but she definitely thought she would have noticed this student if she had laid eyes on him.

Tall. Hair white as snow and clear blue eyes. Not only did he clearly look like he wasn't of the Far East, but his looks made him stand out just in general even without the contrast to most of the country.

From the looks of things she wasn't the only one confused by the presence and identity of the other person on the rooftop. He was looking as her rather innocently, as if he didn't even know who she was. A casual glance that held neither the admiration of long ago or the scorn as of late.

"Hey, hope you don't mind if I eat up here, I'm trying to hide away from my sister." He held his free hand up in greeting, his other hand holding what she assumed to be his food, though she didn't recognize what it was supposed to be.

"...If you don't mind eating with me." She scooted over to the edge of the bench, giving the boy more than enough room to eat where she wouldn't bother him. She was starting to lose the energy to put on her newfound Thunder Empress act meant to deal with all the harassment and jeers.

The handsome boy sat in the middle of the bench, and she couldn't help but feel conscious that he was closer to her than she expected. Nowadays the only times she was this close to someone was during class, where they will still separated by desks, or out in public where there were crowds.

"I'm Kevin, I think my class is down the hall from yours so I guess we're about the same age, so you don't have to worry about keigo if you don't want to." He pulled out a pair of chopsticks and revealed his steaming food to show that it was some sort of noodles. Ramen or udon? She couldn't really tell from this angle and she didn't want to be rude and peek. "My sister and I just transferred in. I have to say I'm surprised the rooftop's open and this clean. Usually they're either dirty or locked."

She continued to quietly eat, letting the boy talk. Maybe he didn't know her face? It wasn't as if she was widely known, but if he had seen her in the hallways, then he had to have seen the demeaning looks from the other students right? Maybe he was just thick?

When he began to eat, she assumed the 'conversation' would have ended there as she both didn't have any real intention or reason to continue the conversation and because apparently all her "friends" didn't actually like her anyways, so she had no idea how much of her social experience was actually useful.

"Hm?...Didja make that yourself?" He asked after finishing a mouthful.

She paused and cleared her throat to make sure her voice was clear and not morose. "...I did." Her lunch was actually rather simple today, or rather, it has been some time. Since she was no longer confident in her financial situation, or rather, certain about its state. Despite what her classmates would say, nobody had really barged into her home to take anything nor had her access to her money been frozen or the monthly stipend stopped. While it did make her believe in her father's innocence, she honestly wasn't sure how long it would be for, after all, her father was the reason they had money, and she wasn't entirely certain on her hiring prospects if this was how her school reacted to the allegations.

"Sure looks well made. Better than anything I would make anyways, not that it's a very high bar."

"...You aren't a good cook?" She asked quietly.

"Nope. Apparently it runs in the family or something. But I think I'm pretty good at making ramen and the like." As if on cue, he took another slurp of his noodles while glancing curiously at her food.

Hesitantly, she offered him a taste of one of the onigiri, feeling a bit sorry for him for eating only noodles, which never struck her as a meal people usually had unless they were poor.

Chopsticks in hand, he waved her offer down, surprising her. "Thanks, but I'd feel a bit bad to have you give me one for nothing in return. Unless you're cool with eating some of my ramen. It's nothing special though."

If she thought about it, this may have been the first time anyone had ever offered her their own food. Before, she would make herself a large lunch, as ever since admitting that she had made it herself, her "friends" would ask for a bite. But not once did they ever offer anything in return, simply taking advantage of her kindness. Perhaps that should have been one of the first signs to her that they didn't care about her at all.

She cut her thoughts off to look at Kevin's food. She couldn't remember the last time she had actually eaten ramen. "I don't mind trading..." she said hesitantly, unsure if he was honestly offering or if he changed his mind.

But her worries were unfounded, he held it over in front of her so she would have an easy time taking some for herself. And in return, she handed over an onigiri.

"Hm-mhm. This sure does taste good. Is it seriously just onigiri? It sure does beat every other onigiri I've ever tasted. You're a really good cook huh?"

He was right about the noodles, she found while he talked. It was nothing special. She'd had food with more ingredients and tastes to them made by world class chefs at those business parties her father had taken her to.

But somehow, as she savored the taste of it, she found that it was something that she enjoyed so much more than all those dinners that individually cost more than the lunches of every student in the school.

And just as she enjoyed what he offered, he enjoyed her homemade meal. His praise made her feel a warmth she hasn't felt over her cooking skills for a long time. In fact, this was probably the first time her cooking skills and not the looks of the food were complimented by someone who wasn't her father.

Feeling embarrassed, she downplayed his words. "It's not that good...like you said, it's just plain onigiri."

"Hey, I wouldn't have said it if I didn't mean it. If you can make onigiri taste this good, you can probably become a world class chef or something. Here, take more ramen if you want, it's only fair after getting something this delicious."

Realizing she was starting to turn red, she quieted down and accepted the offer without thinking of rejecting it even in the slightest.

"T-then...thank you...i-if you want to eat here again, I can make extra to share with you?"

That day, she realized, was the first time she experienced what it was like to eat with a friend, and to truly get to know them.

- On the second meeting, she was sought out.

"Oiiii~! Mei~! You still here?"

The class the was startled into silence at the callout. Even the girl in question, who was getting up to leave in a hurry, froze in surprise.

"Eh?"

"Is someone really calling out that girl?"

"Wait, isn't that "The Prince"? Why would he want the criminal?"

'Prince'? What was with that...dramatic...nickname? Well, Kevin was certainly handsome enough to be called a prince, and she learned he 'was' pretty easy to get along with when they ate lunch together...so maybe she shouldn't be surprised that he was so popular.

As it dawned on everyone that he was indeed looking for her, the other girls' expressions shifted as they looked at her with envy, scorn, or disgust. Somehow it made her both want to shrink back and gave her a sense of something she didn't fully understand...superiority maybe?

"Oh! There you are! Y'know you don't have to be so quiet all the time right?" He said smiling as he readjusted his bag behind him and held it over the shoulder with one hand as if he did nothing out of the ordinary.

"K-Kevin! What are you doing here?" She asked. She figured she deserved to know what he wanted after he put her on blast in front of the whole class.

"Well, before we talked about kendo and martial arts and all that right? I didn't have anything planned today, so I wanted to ask if you wanted to find a dojo or a place to trade techniques and all that."

Ah, that's right. She had been surprised that the easygoing boy actually had an insightful amount of knowledge of martial arts, and not just for the sake of martial arts being cool, but as a discipline, though to a lesser extent to her.

"W-wait Kevin! You talked to her before?!" One of the other boys called out before she could reply.

Kevin looked surprised at the question. "Clearly? You guys never seem surprised about who I know or have talked to before, what's this coming from?" At the question, her heart began to sank. She had figured that Kevin didn't actually know her, but now...she didn't want him to think of her like everybody else. She didn't want those blue eyes to look down at her.

"You don't know? She's the daughter of a criminal! The former head of ME Corp!"

The girls jumped in after the other boy finished her two cents the moment they could, like sharks to a prey, and with them the other boys as well.

"Yeah yeah! And get this, she probably knew all about it too with the way she defends him!"

"She's full of dirty money! She looked down on all of us before her father's crimes were found!"

"If you associate with her you'll just become a criminal too!"

She opened her mouth to defend herself and her father, but when Kevin turned to her, her voice failed her, and she stood there looking him in the eye.

Not long after their eyes connected, he looked back at the others with annoyance or scorn, she wasn't sure which, but it made her heart sink further until he opened his mouth. "Knock it off before I make you."

They were all caught off guard. Not a single person in that room expected that response.

"What?" "Huh?" "Er-"

"Well you heard me. That goes for all of you. I don't discriminate. Equal rights means adding in equal lefts, you better be ready to catch these two hands of mine with attitudes like that."

The girls looked as if they saw a dream be shattered at the handsome "prince" of theirs admitting that he had no problem hitting them. The boys on the other hand, gulped and stepped back, knowing how much more athletic and stronger Kevin was than them.

"B-but that doesn't make any sense!" One of the girls shouted at him. "Why would you care? She's the daughter of a criminal!"

Kevin looked back at her, maybe he knew that she wanted the answer just as much as they did. She'd been hoping, dearly, that when the news first broke for someone to believe her, to be on her side-

"It's obvious. A girl who offers away her food and blushes so much when her cooking is complimented is definitely not some embezzling criminal."

"You knew?" This time, the question came from her mouth. The way he casually interacted with her, she thought he had no idea about anything, but if he did it wouldn't make any-

"I did. But Mei is Mei right? The case is something else, and if you say your father is innocent then I believe you. At the very least, I can believe that he was a man who loved his daughter like she loves him, so what's the problem here?"

Her throat felt dry and she gripped her bag tighter. The noise in the classroom picked up and mixed together as she tried to get her bearings straight.

Eventually just as she realized the noise was forcibly stopped, her hand was grasped by another.

Kevin pulled her away. "C'mon. I'm not in the mood to argue the obvious with people anymore. I'll introduce you to my sister. She'll be a bit rough at first, but don't take it personally, I promise she's just extremely anti-social. She'll warm up to you eventually. She's like that with all my friends."

- The third, they were thinking of each other.

"Kevin?"

"Mei?"

The two stared at the other in surprise, having literally bumped into each other at the supermarket.

"What are you doing here?"

Kevin rubbed the back of his head, and after having sparred with him, Mei felt rather conscious of his muscles that were no longer hidden under their school uniform due to his casual clothing. She found that as cute as the school uniform made him, she [definitely] preferred him out of it.

"Well, you said you were gonna make me and my sister some extra food to share, and it didn't feel right to just offer some ramen in return. Figured I'd make something simple in return at least."

She instinctively smiled at him, warmth blooming in her chest. While she had previously offered Kevin lunch on their first meeting, the other day she offered the same to his sister in the hopes of warming her up to her.

Already, she began looking forward to the next time they could have lunch.

"Well, in the future, why don't I teach you how to cook something more complex? I really don't mind cooking for you though."

"Hey, watch what you say." He laughed. For a second, she negatively second guessed her thoughts and offer to be a bother, but it turned out there was nothing to worry about as his next words made her blush. "Keep offering that and I really will ask you to make me something every day for the rest of my life."

"So anyways, what are you planning to make? I might as well carry your- wait, where you going?!" He ran after her as she pointedly turned away from him and hurriedly continued shopping.

- And eventually, she stopped counting, simply treasuring each moment.

"Geez, sure is raining hard ain't it?" A voice popped out behind her, making her jump.

"Kevin?"

"Forgot your umbrella huh? No worries, I'll just go find my sister and walk with her. Take mine?"

"A-ah. Um...thank you."

"No worries! Anyways, better go before she's too far!"

"W-wait! What if you catch a cold!"

"Haha! Never caught a cold in my life! Wouldn't be the first time I've been out in the rain, it's nothing to worry about! You just focus on getting home out of this cold!"

"That's not something to be proud of...-Wait we could just-!" he ran off, not swayed by her worries, "-share..." Even so, it made her smile. She'll just have to make it up to him with her next bento for him. She started walking, not wanting to give anyone who might have hung back a chance to push her into the water or anything.

- Whether it was the things they've done in private.

"I'm always impressed at how strong you are Kevin, no, not just your strength, but your skill." She backed up, shinai in both hands and in her kendo clothing.

Kevin, also in the same getup but a different stance held his shinai with only slight awkwardness. "Well, can't say I'm good with this in comparison to what I'm used to, but it gets the job done. Still, don't put yourself down. I can tell you'd be able to wield real weapons pretty easily as well. Maybe one of these days we should pull them out."

She scolded him, "Kevin, even if that type of spar would be a learning experience, it's not something we can take lightly. One of us could still get badly hurt just on accident."

"Hey, I know I know. I'm just saying it'd be pretty cool. You look and fight so good in these spars that I just want to see you with a katana and more battle-ready clothing."

She pushed away the blush and prepared another strike. "Geez, if you keep having thoughts like that today will be my win."

- Or even the times she was watching him.

She sat on the sidelines of the gym, away from the other girls who were also sitting down and cheering. She hugged her legs to her chest as she smiled to herself at some of the boys playing basketball.

Obviously, specifically for one boy, who was showing up everyone else, and being rather smug about it. Even though their two classes were were competing, all the girls were rooting for the same boy she was rooting for.

It surprised her just how popular Kevin was with her class despite his reaction to their protests on him being friends with her. Since then, while they still talked down on her behind her back, the shoves and more upfront harassment had stopped. It also irked her at how proud they liked to act at their shallow relations with him. Even though their conversations were as shallow with him as their conversations with her, no, even moreso especially with the girls, and even though Kevin didn't spend much time, if any, with them outside of school, they still acted so haughty and smug.

In any case, it wasn't hard to see why they were all cheering for him. While the boys in her class were jeering at their team and futilely telling them to try harder, everyone else was cheering at the dreamy one man show Kevin was.

His physicality didn't exactly impress her in comparison to when they sparred, but that didn't mean she couldn't admire how he looked. Played, she hastily corrected herself, because he was practically a pro with his speed and aim.

As if to prove her point, he casually made a three-pointer, earning claps on the back from his team. When he was turning around, she caught his gaze and he grinned and winked.

In response, her smile grew just slightly as she gently pumped her fists in excitement for him.

She told herself that the warmth in her chest when his grin grew as well from her movement was for her friend. One that wasn't affected by the whispers of the girls around her.

"I don't get it, why does he like her so much? You don't think she's seducing him do you?"

- And eventually, it became a treasure that held more influence on her than she knew.

"Are you sure you're okay? If you know who did this then I'll go teach em a lesson they won't forget."

"Kevin...please, just let it go. It wouldn't really change anything...those girls aren't the only ones in this school who would do this." She said simply as she wrapped the towel closer around her wet uniform.

"It's not right to just stand aside when this type of thing is happening. Let alone when it's you. You sure it won't make you feel better if I intimidate them a little?"

It would make her feel better honestly. The dark pit within her nearly craned at the offer, even if not satisfied. But, "I won't be in school with them forever. It's easier if I just accept what they do and say. What's the point in fighting back? They'll always find a reason to dislike me and it's not like the teachers are on my side."

"Well, haters will hate, but..." Kevin looked so angry, a start contrast to his usual state, but it gave her...joy. His anger meant that if it came down to it, he would choose her over anyone else at the school, except his sister anyways. Despite his friendship with her, he was still easily one of the more popular students in the school, and his presence kept away most of the minority that harassed her.

"Doesn't it make you, I don't know, angry or something? You aren't wrong but-"

There was nothing particularly special about the question. In fact, this was probably the dozenth time they had this conversation. In the future, she would realize that her bottled up emotions had simply reached the tipping point, and that her friend just so happened to be the one she directed 'all' of it to.

Before either of them knew it, she was set off and threw the towel at him. "Of course I hate it! I hate that they enjoy wasting their time attacking me like it's their lifeline! I hate that people call my father a criminal! I hate how shallow they all are and how they pretended to be my friend while I was honestly thinking of them as one! I hate that my best friend doesn't hate all of them as much I do!"

Somehow, she thought when reminiscing, she missed Kevin's expression turn to worry and alarm mixed together. But for her, at the time all she saw was a look that made her angrier. She hadn't noticed that she was completely dried up and that her eyes shone.

And so, it was when he reached his hand to her and she smacked it away that the first sparks were released from her.