Chapter 1: Parallel Collision

The view from the spectators' stands.

It is a moderately active Saturday night for the twenty four-hour café. Inside the kitchen, Rin hauls in short-notice groceries—several tubs of ice cream—with a grunt. The blend of soft music, clinking kitchen tools, idle chatter and busy appliances fills the place with a sort of cozy hum.

"Yay, you're back!" the barista, a girl with meadow-green hair and name tag "Gumi" welcomes cheerily.

Despite Rin's fatigue, she grins. "It's only been fifteen minutes!" The ice creams are swiftly sorted into the fridge. As she prepares to join the crew at the counter, Gumi blocks passage with arms outstretched.

"You don't want to go out there right now," the girl warns.

Rin raises an eyebrow. "Why, is Boss getting pizza again?"

"Worse." Gumi's voice drops to a low hiss. "He's here."

"No," Rin scoffs, disbelieving. What would be the point of applying to a café so far from her apartment if he could just drop by? It's an awful idea for a joke.

"Yes," Gumi confirms. "Fine, see for yourself." She rolls her eyes and slips out.

Rin dawdles, gulping down iced water, fixing her hair, ignoring the trembles in her fingers. Shit, she's serious. Peeking out of the half-curtain, she waits for Gumi to pass by with all the patience of an angler to tug on her colleague's apron hard.

"Where is he?"

Gumi purses her lips, pointing to a table near the counter. The young man with tousled blonde hair tied into a short ponytail is instantly recognizable and the sight of him rouses a wave of nausea. Rin narrows her eyes. A blonde girl is sitting across from him and they're both dressed up for a date. Of course. Of course he's moved on.

"Told you," Gumi whispers, eyes darting. "What do you wanna do?"

"Stock… taking," Rin says through gritted teeth. "Tell me if—if anything happens."

"Okey-dokey." Gumi salutes and attends to the register.

Leaning against the steel kitchen counter, Rin breathes heavily, heart racing. Her world is too small to completely avoid Len, her former best friend. So much for thinking moving away and avoiding his regular haunts would grant her peace. This sucks. She wrestles her brain into her duties, thoughts swirling up a storm in the back.

She's retained a vague recollection of their childhood together, most of it looking at Len's crying face and her shouting at various kids on his behalf. He was so shy, disoriented from suddenly moving into their neighborhood to the house next door. That didn't matter to her, though, and somehow their playground alliance of a friendship continued well on into school.

There's another memory, one she tries to keep in her brain, away from her heart but is clear all the same. It was at the swings, one evening after Costume Day at school that she took a leap of faith and crashed.

"I think I love you," she'd said.

"Oh, okay." It went right over his head.

"Rin, Rin, oh my god." The curtain swishes and Gumi pokes through. "It's bad. His girlfriend's crying."

"The fuck?" Rin splutters. "He came here—all the way here to dump her?"

"Looks like it…" This time, both their heads peek out the kitchen. The girlfriend, small in her chair, is sobbing quietly. Len looks deeply apologetic, maybe even panicked, saying something inaudible.

A hush seems to come over the nearby tables. It's not just the crew in the audience tonight. Gumi stealthily emerges to turn the music up just a little louder; awkwardness is bad for business, after all. A few customers notice and shoot questioning looks, but the barista pays no mind, tidily cleaning a blender.

The discomfort, sorrow and lingering traces of dashed dreams sweep through Rin like a hurricane. She wonders if she should just clock out for the night, maybe go to the bathroom and not come back for another hour. No, she decides, it's safer here.

At the table, Len reaches out to his girlfriend, but his hand stops short over her shoulder and he leans back, deflated. He sighs heavily. Rin sees the words form on his lips, I'm sorry.

She jerks back when his eyes start to wander, landing painfully on kitchen tile. Fuck, that was too close. She can't face him right now, won't face him ever.

Somewhere between their carefree playground days and the battle with mounting schoolwork in their preteen years, Len had changed. One could say he bloomed, colors so dazzling that she fell into his orbit alongside many others. He was everyone's sun, the garden they frolicked in, the cheeky gust of wind whistling past them. But that was all fine.

The days before her were breezy and uncomplicated. Miki, his first partner, was a girl with a scorching, passionate heart and a temper as fiery as her red hair. Rin wishes she could forget.

The tinkle of hanging door chimes cuts the reverie short. Looking out again, it's just Len's new ex by herself now, drying her eyes and slowly finishing off her beverage. Rin feels a pang of sympathy for the girl; for all the people that gravitate towards Len, he's made a lot of them cry, Rin herself being no exception.

"Maybe we should give her a coupon," she suggests to Gumi who's partway into a long delivery order, punching drinks into queue.

"I thought of that too, but if you and him ever patch up it'll be awkward." Gumi winces without turning around.

Rin laughs dryly. "That'll never happen."

"I'm just saying," Gumi persists. "Here."

Rin reluctantly accepts a foisted pair of coupons, of miniscule discounts for a seasonal item. "You've just wasted these, I hope you know that."

"Pass it on, then. Or do you actually—"

"No, no I don't."

Gumi shrugs.

The night ticks by and Len's ex eventually takes off. From the way the girl's electric blue eyes shine through the puffiness and the strength in her stride, the two staff feel certain she'll be fine.

At the very least, Len seems to be making better choices; this girl seemed nice, didn't seem the type to try winning him back after spreading rumors against him.

Not that it's happened before.

"Hey hey hey did you guys hear about Cul and the lecturer?" the conspiratorial voice of a pink-haired boy begs for attention.

"Lui. Do we really need to know?" The honey eye of the companion next to him darkens.

"Yes! I'm not keeping this to myself! And now that you're listening…"

Len lets the highly-scandalous dissemination in the background continue without him. He has lunch to eat. Lui and Oliver always go on and on like this (most of the time it's Lui sharing the latest, wherever the boy gets—or invents it), which makes for socially-enlightening conversation, but he can't stomach it right now.

When it becomes apparent that the new scoop is too scandalous even for Oliver's tolerance, Lui zeroes in on the next thing of interest. "Another sandwich?" he asks, gaze following Len's self-assembled meal, "Lily too busy to make you bentos or something?"

Len takes a big bite, chews and swallows. Then, very quietly, "We broke up."

"I see! No wonder!" Lui laughs. A beat passes. "Wait, what?!" He swivels to Oliver, who's unfazed working through meatloaf. "Huh?!"

"It was obvious," Oliver says flatly, dicing his food without looking up. "It's been… about a week or so?"

Len smiles wryly. It was lucky to evade their gossip hub of a friend all the while, as much as it was foolish to underestimate the one-eyed boy's perceptiveness. "Yeah."

They ignore Lui's gaping. "Lily was nice. What happened?"

"Mm, she is. Nothing happened. We met up, realized it wasn't working out and that was it." There's nothing on his shoulders, but the shrug feels heavy all the same.

"What wasn't working out?" Lui cuts in, curiosity winning over shock.

"Just… wasn't feeling it, I guess. It's me, not her." Len hopes this is sufficient for his friends, because he's had enough of this topic.

Oliver resumes eating, while Lui's face crinkles into a pout, whining, "Man, leave some feels for the rest of us."

A group passes by their table, the raucous chattering drowning out all other conversations around it. Len straightens up to attention, catching glimpses of an all-too-familiar blonde head and white ribbon accessory through the crowd. Rin, his former best friend.

How many years has it been? He hasn't been counting and doesn't want to. They haven't spoken or even so much as looked each other in the eye after arguing about the rumors of them back then. At the time, it seemed like a guilty conscience; the Rin he remembers was always so straightforward.

When he found his footing and wanted to try making amends, he discovered from her mother that she'd moved out. She left all his texts on Read and his calls rang without response. Just like that, she'd uprooted herself out of his life.

And so despite himself, his eyes linger on the group, on that ray of sunshine he can never reach.

Oliver studies him piercingly, comment dragging him back. "You sure move on fast."

"Right? Tell us about her," Lui snickers.

"It's not like that," Len groans exasperatedly at them. Not with Rin.

His world fell apart when he got the whole truth out of his then-girlfriend Miki—matching Rin's account of the events. Miki cried and begged, but by then they both knew it was over.

Len wishes he could forget. Even now after several years' worth of ups and downs, nothing stings more than knowing he'd done this—let the canyon open between them and then some. The image of Rin's tear-streaked face at that moment haunts his worse days.

She seems to be doing fine without me. He sees her surrounded by her equally-radiant friends, and the smile that softens her expression as she laughs. But it still hurts.

Lui leans over his spaghetti, wagging his eyebrows. "Well whatever it is, she's cute. You have great taste, Len."

"Shut up and eat already," Oliver snaps.

.

.

("But seriously though, my cousin's friends with that girl. Want me to ask her for you?"

"I think I know how to get myself a date."

"Wooow okay. Showoff.")

Inside the illuminated café with the Closed sign flipped out, the crew is gathered around four tables pushed together to accommodate a feast. The salty scent of pizza permeates the air.

"Dig in, everyone! You've done a wonderful job." The tall man wearing the sole collared shirt in the group of tees and aprons claps in glee.

Reluctantly, several hands reach out for the slices. Rin tentatively bites into her pepperoni pizza. It's decent on an empty stomach, but the flavor is so one-note that it feels like she just had it yesterday. Boss always gets the same stuff from the same place.

"Yo, long time no see!" Rin glances in the direction of the voice and immediately wishes she hadn't, seeing the tag "Ryuto" and a mop of mossy-green hair on a gangly figure. Ryuto takes the high diner chair next to her, portion in hand. "Pretty good pizza, huh?"

Rin forces a smile. "It's… fine."

"How come I haven't seen you lately? You focusing on studies right now?" Ryuto leans in her direction as he eats facing the other way.

She sets her slice down half-finished, tilting away from him. The afternoon weekend shifts were pleasant to start, but for reasons undisclosed and to keep the peace she appealed to work nights. For all their eccentricities, the "Late-Late Crew"—as so affectionately named by Gumi—are a nice, nice bunch who mind their own business.

"I'm on night shift now," Rin says quietly, hoping he doesn't hear.

"Really? That's too bad." The disappointment in his tone makes her skin crawl. "What are the night shift hours, anyway?"

Rin hastily stuffs her face. Like hell I'm telling you! And why is he even here at this hour? He works afternoons! Her pulse quickens. Ryuto glances at her and she flashes him an apologetic smile through her filled cheeks.

"Hey Riiiiiin," Gumi calls from across the room, tablet in hand. "Help me out, they wanna order drinks."

Thank goodness. She hops off her chair, gulping down. "Gotta go."

"Oi Ryuto, did you hear about…" Another conversation starts in her place. Leave it to the Late-Late Crew to sneak a rescue.

Gumi is seated by the window, legs crossed and the tablet in her lap. Rin mouths Thank you to her and she nods, half-cringing.

"So… drinks?" Rin unravels in the adjacent chair.

"Nah," Gumi scoffs, showing her a movie playing on the screen. "Are you kidding? We'll overtime if we order."

"True."

They sit in cozy silence, Gumi absorbed in the movie (gory, bloody stuff. How does the girl stand it?) and Rin staring out the window, passing the time. She imagines Len if they were still friends, showing up to this dreary half-assed party to pick her up, and the look on Ryuto's face if she ever introduces them. If only.

Thinking of him always reminds her of home somehow. She scrolls through her contacts, carefully skipping Len's entry and presses on Mom. Her thumb hovers above Call for a beat. What do I even say?

She presses the button anyway. It doesn't take long for her mother Anri to pick up. "Hi sweetie! Is everything okay?"

"Mom, I… I'm still at work. But it's a work party. I'm really, really tired." Her sentence ends with a tremble to her voice.

With Len's unexpected appearance, the busy weekends, her exams and talking with Ryuto, it's all Rin can do to keep herself together. She quickly stands up and exits the café, suppressing a sob staring up at the dark sky.

"Good job hanging in there, sweetheart. I'm proud of you," Anri says soothingly. "Just a little longer until your semester break. Remind me when?"

Though this is a call, Rin nods. "One more week." Noting it aloud makes it feel that much closer. Just two more shifts.

"You're so close to the finish line!" her mother exclaims, and Rin can't help cracking a smile. "Actually, your father and I were just on the phone with Reiji and Sumire."

The names are more than familiar. There's the occasional video call she joins to say hello and leave right after hosted by Anri, but otherwise it's been years since she last met Len's parents in the flesh; they have too little in common now.

"We're going on a trip soon. It lines up with your break, want to join us?" There's a muffled sound on the other end. "What is it, dear? Alright, here you go."

The audible clear of the throat her only warning, her father Riku booms, "Hello, Rin?" She almost drops her phone. "It's ten days, nine nights. Long enough." He reverberates even with the receiver far away from her ear.

"Dad, Dad! Wait. Um, just with Len's parents?"

Riku grunts, continuing with rising volume, "You'll have to entertain yourself some days. We've already fixed—"

There's a thudding sound and Anri returns to the speaker. "Dear! You don't have to shout! Sorry sweetie, I'll text you the details later."

"Remember, you're allowed to rest," Riku interjects in the background crystal clear.

"Dear!"

"Sounds fun! I'll go!" Rin yells back, laughing as her tears spill over.

.

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Notes:

Hi, welcome to another RinLen fic! Got a bit carried away with a oneshot, so hey! First longfic.

The parents' names: Anri and Riku are Rin's. Sumire and Reiji are Len's.

Their conflict is intentionally in snippets for now, but we'll come back to it later on.

Thank you for reading!