Thank goodness his cousin wasn’t going to be staying here for much longer. Ishi knew that he wouldn’t be able to handle much more admiration towards Rinse from Koto any longer. Things were also looking up from the news that renovations for their spare room were finished. That meant he didn’t have to have a room so close to that idol.

Right now, the boy was surveying his room. There was going to be a lots of things needing to be moved fairly soon before this Summer break ended. Chances were that he wasn’t going to be receiving much help from people who would want to keep him in this room.

“Ishi, I got some great news for you!” Koto came barging into his room unannounced. Of course, to this point they were sharing it while this boy was visiting. So he wasn’t expecting much privacy for the time being.

“Hopefully it’s you going back home soon.” While he was more than ready for this boy to leave his life. It was a little sad that they wouldn’t be seeing each other anymore. Not after his cousin moved away from the country with his parents.

“That’s the thing, this is my home now too.” Ishi shook his head in response. Did he just hear that right?

“Mom, dad, what’s the meaning of this?” He asked after calling them into his room.

“We wanted to keep it a surprise from you.” They answered him.

“You know I hate surprises.” They usually were not will with any joy for him. This example being the most prominent.

“Well, surely you would’ve figured out why we were renovating the extra room.” It turned out that this was known to them for at least a couple of months. Koto’s parents felt bad about taking their child out of Japan after he spend all his life growing up here. Which is why Ishi’s parent agreed to take the boy in to allow him to not have to worry about a massive change in lifestyle.

“Great…” He responded sarcastically. There went another set of his plans down the drain. Perhaps he could’ve asked his cousin if that boy wanted to room next to Rinse. Then again, that kid was really annoying to him as is. If he had the chance to irritate the idol, then that was no good. Ishi wouldn’t want that fate set on anyone, not even his enemies. Not that he considered her to be an enemy.

“That’s good to hear.” His mom exclaimed. “Now, the rest of his things will be coming in a truck later. So we’ll be helping him finish the move-in today.” Another thing to put a damper on his day. The boy really didn’t want to do more physical labor.

Though that’s what he had to do as the vehicle came in with all the stuff a young teenage boy would own. Which turned out to be quite a bit.

“What do you have in here?” He complained as he struggled to pick up one of the boxes. “Weights or something?”

“How’d you know?” It turned out that boy had been attempting to work out. This was spurred due to the comments about his rather feminine nature, so perhaps muscles could fix that problem. So far that wasn’t working.

“Why do you have so much manga?”

“Well, I like having the physical thing. You never know what might happen to digital.”

“And I’m pretty sure you’ll never need to shave.”

“...Y-you never know…” While they were taking the multiple trips in and out, their conversations caught the ear of one specific girl.

“What’s up with all this?” She walked up to the pair. “You aren’t moving away are you?”

“Sadly, no.” Ishi answered. “My wonderful cousin is actually moving into my place.”

“Really?” While she didn’t hate the boy or anything. Koto was a little bit much into her personal space. Hopefully that would fade once he was used to her presence. “Do you two need help with any of this?”

“Normally, I’d tell you off.” He replied. “But today I could use someone to lessen the workload.”

“That’s great.” She got off right to work, but the first box she ran into was a lot heavier than it looked. “What in here, wei-”

“Weights. Ridiculous I know.” Thanks to her help, the group was able to finish up a lot quicker than anticipated. Though it was still getting late into the day. The sun was going to be setting soon and dinner was going to have to be served.

“Thanks for you help, Rinse.” Koto gave one major bow to her as the final item was placed inside. “You really are kind.”

“It’s no problem.” She winked at him, which nearly made the boy faint. “I love helping others.”

“If I was any other person, I might invite you to join us for dinner as a reward.” Ishi rolled his eyes over Koto’s reaction. “But I’m Ishi Hirose, so I won’t.” He turned around and grabbed his cousin by the collar to prevent any more meandering around in front of their house.

“That’s fine with me.” She said her farewell to them. “Hope you have a nice dinner.” Rinse did actually wish to chat with Ishi. However, the girl wanted it to be in private, and she was in the perfect position to do just as she wished.

Time went and dinner was had. It was nothing special to Ishi outside of his parents talking about how exciting it was going to be with Koto joining his school. There was most of the paperwork already filed, so all that kid needed was to receive his school uniform and everything would be golden. He wondered how his relative was going to fit in with people knowing about their relationship. Hopefully nothing bad would happen, but that kid did allow himself to be a target of bullies.

“Good night.” Ishi told everyone and retired into his room. This day was yet another horrendous experience. His Summer break was easily the worse one he had ever dealt with in all his years of living. Unfortunately, things were going to get worse… Or perhaps better.

There was a lighting banging on his window. Certainly this was Rinse once more with a broom, but at least it didn’t sound like she was mad. “What do you want?” He asked upon answering her call.

“I wanted to talk privately.”

“No.” He went to close the window, but again she jammed her broom to prevent him from doing so. “You know, I’m never opening this window again no matter how much you bang next time.”

“Give me your contact then.”

“Feels like we skipped a few steps.” This girl really wasn’t one to waste time. “Let me guess, it’s so you don’t have to bang on my window and can just message me.”

“That’s right.”

“You can’t threaten someone just to get their number.” He was getting nearly done with this girl. “Honestly, tell me why I should even bother with you?”

“Because I finally get you.” Her time of observing him had come to bear fruit. He might be an odd fellow, but she did understand him now. “You’re trying to make everyone happy too, just in your own way.”

“Now you’re really misunderstanding my actions.” He couldn’t believe the nerve of this girl. All Ishi did was prevent bad things from happening. Too often did the students at their school allow themselves to get into bad positions because of their pride, their reputations. This annoyed him so much when he witnessed it all come crashing down, that he came to a point of speaking the honest truth. Of forcing others to confront their demons head on instead of hiding and hoping it goes away. “I would’ve thought that an idol of all people would know what trying to make people happy looks like.”

“Really, and tell me what that means to you.”

“It’s easy, you entertain the folks with your voices and your talents.” He answered her question. What she did on stage inspired joy. It allowed others to have confidence in themselves to achieve their hopes and dreams, even though he thought that was some fairy tale trash. However, even Ishi would never deny that motivation was a powerful tool within humans. “Everyone knows how happy you make them.”

“And no one wants to admit how happy you make them.” She countered. Otoya was right in explaining to her why no one ever seemed to truly hate this boy despite his poor attitude. He was someone that was needed, and even the teachers recognized it. However that also led him to becoming a bit of an outcast. “But we all know we need you.”

“Now I’m seeing what this all about.” He was getting finished with this conversation. “You want my contact because you think I’m secretly a nice guy on the inside. Well you’re wrong.” Ishi pushed her broom stick out of the way from his window, causing it to fall down to the ground. “I’m not giving you my number or my email.” The boy paused a moment right before he went to close his window. “So goodnight Rinse.”

“Wait, did you just-”

“I said goodnight.” He cut her off as he slammed the windows closed.

“…” She stood there in awe about his words. Why did he call her by first name? Up until now, he always referred to her with Hattori, not Rinse. What prompted a change like that? A sign of disrespect or…

That’s when it hit her. He also started calling Youna by first name after becoming friends with her. It was a surprise when it happened, but it made sense. She giggled a bit and couldn’t hide her smile no matter how hard she might try. Ishi was no liar, as he proclaimed himself. Yet there was nothing preventing him from hiding his own meaning in his own words. It appeared that her appeal reached him after all, for he did appreciate someone understanding his actions, just a tiny bit. As well as giving them their due recognition.

Finally pleased with herself, Rinse slowly turned and went to close the window. “Goodnight… Ishi.”