Juri was tying up her shoes and was about to leave when (step)mom called her.

"Going out again, Juri?" The woman smiled.

Juri mirrored her and nodded. The flash of disappointment on the woman's face proved she wasn't fooling anyone, but the smile came back up before she could blink.

"I'm... meeting a friend," Juri said to break the tension.

"Oh, is that so? Take care then."

She nodded and turned around but froze when she heard what the woman said next.

"You've been smiling a lot lately." She paused but continued when Juri didn't say anything. "After what happened with your... Digimon friends was it? You kept sulking in your room. And when anybody asked you just force that smile onto your face."

Juri stared at her feet, restraining herself from clutching her hands.

"What are you trying to say?" Despite trying her best to reign in her emotions, the words came out rather cold.

The woman shook her head, chuckling in a way that reminded Juri too much of her real mom.

"Nothing, nothing. Just rambling is all. Be back before dinner."

That was all the cue Juri needed to grab the doorknob and leave the house. The door closed behind her, hiding her frowning face from the woman on the other side.

Juri dropped to ground and hugged her knee.

"Of all the people that would notice..."

"How… do I say… my name… in sign language…" Juri said aloud as she slowly made the corresponding signs that Rinchei had taught her so far. He nodded.

[Like this] he mouthed and brought his fist vertically next to each other, the index fingers moving downwards and upwards again. [Katou] he mouthed her family name as he did so.

Juri copied him and committed it to her memory. Shakily, she introduced herself in sign language.

[Me - Name - Katou - JU-RI] she signed the words individually, pausing as she did so to remember how to spell her given name in sign letters. It was slow, but Rinchei's clapping once she finished gave her a sense of achievement.

They spent the rest of the morning chattering about mundane stuff from school to which idols they thought were having a scandal. What could she say? Not even the aunties got anything on him when he started spewing rumours and gossips he heard from his classmates and strangers he passed by.

The topic soon flipped enough for Rinchei to start talking about his love life. Or at least what his family thought was his love life.

"My mom asked me if I found a girlfriend," Rinchei wrote in the drawing book, smirking. "She said I've been spending too much time outside."

Juri, ignoring the implication of his words, turned to him with a confused expression.

"You don't come here often?"

He shook his head, already flipping to a new page to write his response.

"I come here sometimes for inspiration when I felt like it. But then I met you. It's been awhile since I had someone outside the family to talk to like this."

He smiled, and it wasn't his contagious, cheery smile that invited everyone else to smile along with him. No, it was more melancholic, and she understood it immediately. After all, she looked at that same smile on her reflection every single day.

"Yeah. It's been awhile for me too." She smiled back.