Laying It Bare
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Sitting on the grass in a circle, seven students were eating their lunch in silence, well some of them were. This silence has reigned on for a few minutes now, because of something a certain someone said and the action of said person.

On the boy's side, Ren was just eating with a calm expression like nothing had happened, Hiro was occasionally taking glances at him with eyes filled with admiration, and Iniji had a wry smile on from feeling warm and for some reason sweet air.

The girl's side, on the other hand, Alice was the calmest of them and yet even she has a small blush on her face while staring at Ren with eyes as if to say how impressed she was of him, she even started seeing him in a new light. Suika also was blushing slightly while thinking 'Is this really Ishi-kun!?' with a complicated expression. Class Rep's face was burning up really hard; her hands kept trembling making it quite difficult to grab food with her chopsticks.

The worst of all was Asahina, her face completely red with a dazed expression on. She hasn't moved an inch after hearing what Ren had said and did, her brain seemed to have short-circuited, and was having a hard time processing Ren's words, not to mention what he did to her. Out of all the words that Ren had spoken, only the word "love" had made it through her head and was currently bouncing within her mind along with the blissful sensation she had felt.

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Let's rewind time to when Ren and co had arrived at where Asahina and Suika were.

"Sorry to have kept you two waiting, we had some technical difficulties" Ren walked up the two with Hiro and Iniji on tow, Atsuka and Alice were a bit behind them.

"Hehe…" Iniji sweated while averted eye contact with Suika because she was staring him down, it was like she knew he was the reason for the delay; a woman's intuition is scary.

"It's fine, we didn't wait long. Also, I see you've brought these two too" Suika turned to look at the two girls behind Ren before turning back and making eye contact with him. Thus, the telepathic conversation ensued…

'Are you sure about bringing more people?' Suika raised an eyebrow.

'It's fine~' Ren just smiled gently in response, slightly cocking his head to the side.

'You know what we're going talk about, right?' Suika motioned her head ever so slightly towards Asahina, who was absentminded giving glances to Ren with rosy cheeks.

'You worry too much' Ren moved his head back by a bit while putting on a carefree close-eyed smile like everything was going to be fine and dandy.

'Sigh… Suit yourself' Suika showed a defeated expression while softly sighing, then she turned to Asahina shaking her out of her dazed.

Hiro, Iniji, and Atsuka were looking at their interaction with a dumbfounded expression. From their point of view, the two just stared at each other for a good 30 seconds while making slight movements and changes to their facial expression, then it just ended.

All three of them had the same thought.

'''Is this the power of friendship!!?'''

It might have been obvious, but both Iniji and Hiro are big anime and manga fans so of course they've seen something similar happening in those. They're just flabbergasted at seeing it in action IRL.

Same goes for Atsuka, although she's only a causal watcher, she's still fairly aware of the common things happening in the community. She was greatly astonished that something she had perceived as only possible in the world behind the screen was actually demonstrated to be real.

Alice, on the other hand, was just very confused with what she had witnessed. Last she heard, telepathy wasn't real no matter how much her twin brother wanted to believe in it, it's not possible for humans. Little did she know…

"Alright, let's find somewhere to sit down and eat. We have an hour left before Elective Classes start" Ren looked at the nonexistent watch on his wrist before picking up his bento.

"Huh…He's right…" Iniji took out his phone and there was indeed an hour, on the dot, left before afternoon classes started.

"I'm really starting to believe you had an invisible watch on your wrist all this time" Suika stared at Ren's wrist with a deadpan expression. For some reason, he always knew what time it was whenever they're outside, give or take a few minutes.

"I'm just good at telling the time. Anyway, that spot looks pretty good right?" Ren pointed to a small clearing in between the trees, the spot was shaded by the trees and was wide enough to fit more than twenty people.

"It is, nice job spotting it Ishi-kun. Asa-chan, come on, quit daydreaming already~" Suika stood up and forcefully tugged on Asahina's hand, pulling her off the bench and out of her daze.

"Wha!?! Don't suddenly pull me lik-" Asahina was about to complain but with the sudden movement, she tripped on her own leg and started falling forward with Suika still holding on to her hand.

*Poof*

Asahina felt a pair of arms grabbing her from behind with one arm wrapping around just below her neck and the other one around her abdomen, halting her fall.

"Namaii-san, you seriously need to stop pulling people out of the blue like that" Ren had caught Asahina with his arms and pulled her up into his embrace. Asahina's face blushed after knowing Ren was the one who was holding her; she could feel his warmth on her back.

"*Can you walk by yourself or do you want me to carry you?*" Ren whispered teasingly close to her ear, making her shiver from the tickling upon her ear from his breath.

"N-no, I t-think I can walk b-by myself" Asahina's face turned redder from his words; she stuttered a bit in her speech from the embarrassment she was feeling.

The two were oblivious to the gazes of the others; well, Ren was very aware of their gazes but chose to completely ignore them.

Suika was grinning mischievously since she had deliberately tried to make Asahina fall knowing this would be the outcome. She ignored Ren's complaints as she walked away with a bounce in her steps.

The other four didn't comment anything as they followed Suika towards the spot. However, on the inside, they had varying reactions. Alice was curious about their relationship, Hiro admired how Ren had stepped in to save her so quickly, and Iniji and Atsuka were just shocked as they never expected it to be like "that".

"Alright then, let's catch up to them" Ren released her from his arms and picked up his bento that he had gently dropped on the grass.

"R-right…" Asahina felt a bit sad and lonely but then shook her head rapidly to clear that thought from her mind as she calmed down, but her face was still rosy while catching up after him.

The two made it to the spot where everyone had already decided where to sit.

"Asa-chan! Come sit next to me" Suika waved to Asahina while patting on the space next to her where Asahina's bento was placed.

Asahina didn't think much about it and just sat next to Suika. Then she noticed that everyone was sitting in a circle and the only empty space left was the one to her left which was also next to Iniji.

Before she could register what this meant, Ren casually sat cross-legged next to her.

Asahina swept her gaze around and every one of them averted their eyes except Alice, who was just opening up her bag of bread, and Suika just gave her a smile that says "you're welcome".

Asahina's hand shook visibly while her face was twitching from trying to contain her irritation, but soon she composed herself then turned to Ren.

"Right, Ren. We wanted to talk to you about something" Asahina put on a serious face while looking at him in the eyes.

Seeing her serious expression, Ren shifted his eyes to Suika, who also looked serious as she stared at him.

"Sui-chan and I invited you to have lunch because we wanted to ask you something privately but…" Asahina briefly glanced at the others before turning back to him, which made them stop what they were doing and looked at the three.

"It's alright, ask away. I don't mind them hearing what we're talking about" Ren casually went about unwrapping his bento like this wasn't that important.

"Okay, here goes…" Asahina took a deep breath to calm her beating heart.

"It's about your change, we wanted to know the reason you've changed so suddenly" Asahina stared deeply into his eyes like she's trying to catch any sign of fluctuating emotion.

"Do you like my new looks that much? You've been staring at me a lot lately" Ren turned to her and smiled teasingly while leaning in close and lifting her chin with his hand.

"Of course, I-" Asahina tried to catch her words but she already partially admitted it as she blushed deeply after realizing what she had admitted to.

"Oh? Then stare at me as much as you like" Ren released his hold on her chin before giving her nose a little tap. Ren was about going back to what he was doing when…

"Don't think you can dodge the question Ishi-kun" Suika tagged in after seeing that Asahina was already down for the count, she grabbed his shoulder in a tight grip.

「Answer the question, Boy」 Suika tried to make her voice sound deeper and more intimidating.

「Tsk… Foiled again」 Ren clicked his tongue while putting on a scowl.

Seeing their little comedy skit, Iniji looked at them with a deadpan expression as he had expected to hear their talk about this "change" that Ren went through since he was quite curious about it. In fact, he wasn't the only one, the other three were also curious about what Asahina meant about Ren's "sudden change".

"Umm… If you don't mind me asking, can we have some contexts?"

Ren and Suika stopped their bantering and looked towards the person who asked that. Iniji was a bit surprised because the person that spoke up was Hiro, who had his hand raised to get their attention.

Hiro shrank back a little from having all these eyes on him but soon he steeled himself after seeing the proud smile from both Ren and Iniji. He endured through the [Anxiety] he was feeling and spoke again.

"Can you tell us about what Izuno-san meant when she asked about 'his sudden change'?" Hiro lowered his hand as it was unnecessary now and showed a look of conviction. He wanted to know more about Ren and what better way for that than to hear about his past.

"Yeah, I'd like to hear about that too" Iniji chimed in as he was also interested in hearing about it.

"You want me to tell them?" Suika turned to Ren and raised an eyebrow.

"Sure, I don't mind. Who I was back then isn't really important" Ren casually scooted over to Asahina, who was still sitting on the grass, frozen and red in the face.

He grabbed her by the shoulder and delicately pulled her down to lay on his lap making sure not to get her hair messy before starting to gently run his fingers through her long silky and beautiful black hair.  Feeling the sensation of her hair being played with, Asahina snapped out of her frozen state and turned to look up at him.

Asahina wasn't flustered at all, she was captivated by the soothing warmth she was feeling. It felt nostalgic almost; she remembered this feeling from that fateful day where she realized her own feelings towards him.

While these two were in their own little world, Suika was telling the others about what Ren used to be like. She explained that he was the silent introverted type, he always tried his best to avoid crowded places and didn't like talking to people he doesn't know.

The Ren back then was super unnoticeable and blended in with the surrounding too well, though this worked in his favor as he didn't like being the center of attention. However, there was also a drawback as one time he got smacked in the face because the person didn't notice he was standing behind them.

Iniji snickered at this, Hiro and Atsuka were holding back their laughter, and Alice was thinking about something else right now and wasn't really paying attention.

"Yeah..hehe..it was very funny seeing it firsthand" Suika giggled a little recalling that day, Ren got a nosebleed at the sheer force of the hit and had to go to the infirmary.

"Let's continue. Where was I at? Ah, he also looked different" Suika decided to move on to the last point in her presentation, which was his appearance.

"Different how?" Hiro raised his hand to ask a question like he was at a seminar.

"Well, I think the only thing he changed was his hairstyle. He used to have long hair that covers the left side of his face" Suika quickly took out her phone from her blazer's pocket and searched for a picture.

"Ah, here it is" Suika's eyes brightened as she leaned down and handed her phone over to Iniji to look at.

Hiro and Atsuka moved over close to Iniji and looked over his shoulder.

What they were looking at was a photo taken of Ren and Keirou in casual wear standing side by side in front of a beautiful sunrise from atop a tall cliff that overlooked an entire forest of trees. Ignoring Keirou, Ren was donning a deep blue hoodie with the hood pulled up, a pair of gray jeans, and black sneakers with white outlines. His hair was long, covering his left eyes and even his ears from view; he had a slight smile on and crouched eyebrows that really sold the photo as something an edgy 8th grader would take.

And funnily enough, that photo was taken while they were in 8th grade on a joint family camping trip between the Ishia, Izuno, Namaii, and Nijima families. The four (Ren, Asahina, Suika, and Keirou) had snuck out of their tents to watch the sunrise together and took many more photos than just that one.

Anyway, back to their reaction.

"Hahaha! He looks so cringe!" Iniji threw the first jab, hitting Ren right where it hurts making him pause his hand for a second as his face twitched ever so slightly.

"Yeah… To be honest, that pose is kinda tacky" Atsuka came with a right hook, causing Ren to let out a small grunt which didn't go unnoticed by Asahina.

"I can tell he was trying too hard" Atsuka followed up with a gut punch, making Ren flinch a bit gaining Asahina's concerned stare.

「Are you okay?」 Asahina grabbed his hand while looking at him with worry.

「It's fine… I need to hear this to fully move on」 Ren showed a determined smile while listening to the two raining down insults; he had already been roasted by Reiji and co, but hearing them diss his past self for the second time doesn't hurt any less than the first time.

After a minute or so, Iniji returned Suika's phone before commenting…

"Now I get why you girls would want to ask him about the change. I'm honestly surprised; I thought he was always like the one right now, all confident and charismatic but guess I was wrong" Iniji expressed his honest thoughts while glancing at Ren with curious eyes.

"I agree; the Ishia-san here and the one in the photo looks and feel like completely different people, it's amazing what a haircut can do" Atsuka agreed with Iniji while rubbing her chin all sagely.

"Well, if it was just the haircut that could change him this much, we wouldn't be asking him for the truth now, would we?" Suika remarked with closed eyes and a wry smile. If it was so simple like that, many people wouldn't be struggling to change themselves for the better; changing oneself takes motivation and willpower to avoid going back to what you're so used to.

Getting yourself out of your comfort zone is hard enough for some, staying out of it is even more stressful and when people get stress they would want to go back to their safe space, their comfort zone where they're more used to.

Like the saying goes "Change does not come from a place of comfort". You need to go out of your way to change; it doesn't just fly through the window and land on you while you're sitting down on your couch playing video games.

Another thing is, changing yourself is an arduous task that takes months or even years. Asahina and Suika had only not seen Ren for a week or two; no way would he have seen his old cringe-worthy ways and change his entire character.

Iniji, Atsuka, and Hiro nodded.

'''You'd need to go through an entire character development arc for that''' The three thought inwardly. And they were right; Ren did go through character development arcs, multiple of them over his years on Mirkaz in fact.

You could even write a novel about it.

"You guy really want to know that badly, huh? If so, I'll spill" Ren turned towards them with raised eyebrows and a serious expression, an expression that showed he would tell them the whole truth if they so wished for it; of course, he was still going to keep about him being isekai'd to another world a secret… for now at least.

"Really? You're not gonna try and divert the question again are you?" Suika looked skeptical of his claim, especially after what he just pulled off on Asahina.

"How untrustworthy am I in your eye?" Ren smiled wryly while scratching his cheek.

"With your track records, no, sometimes you're the most untrustworthy person in the room" Suika stared at him with a deadpan expression.

"I second that" Asahina got off his lap and turned towards him with a serious face.

"Sigh, fair enough" Ren showed a defeated expression while scratching the back of his head.

"Alright, I'll only say it once so listen closely" Ren stood up straight and looked off beyond the sky.

Everyone straightened their sitting posture, facial expression turning serious, and eyes focus on his figure. Even Alice snapped of her thinking with the tenseness in the atmosphere and focused as well.

'I intended to wait a little longer to say it, but this was a pretty good time to get my feelings out there' Ren thought to himself with slightly blushed cheeks, right now he was not putting any effort in controlling his facial expression so whatever face he's making now reflected on his emotion.

Ren soon put on a gentle smile, hiding away his nervousness with confidence. He turned around as the wind blew past, fluttering his blazer.

"I changed because I didn't think I was good enough…" Ren turned to Asahina with loving eyes, making her heart beat fast.

"Good enough to be with a certain someone…" Ren slowly took short steps, the grass beneath his feet made a rustling sound at his every step. The wind kept fluttering his blazer even so slightly as though trying to set a mood, and it was doing it splendidly as now the only thing in Asahina's eyes was him.

"Hina…" Arriving in front of her, he kneeled down on one leg, making it so that Ren was only slightly looking down into her light blue eyes liken that of a midday clear sky, and her slightly looking up into his dark blue eyes liken that of the midnight sky.

Tucking a lock of her long black hair behind her ear, he caressed her rosy cheek gently. A gentle, loving smile bloomed on his face as the words he wanted to say came out…

"Aishiteru…"

(A/N - Aishiteru = I love you)

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