~

Some 40 minutes later, Roma shut down his own console, and dragged himself to bed. It was almost 3 in the morning, which meant that he had himself another night with less than 5 hours of sleep awaiting him.

Finally, the clock hit 3, and the lack of movement on Roma's part, likely meant that he had finally found slumber, though the same couldn't be said of her. Her eyes glanced over towards him in his bed, before returning to the ceiling.

"..I'm sorry… I didn't mean to bother you… I didn't mean to drag you into my problems. Truth is, I used to be a street kid. I was homeless."

She began to open up to him, sitting up and sitting on the edge of the bed,, her eyes focused towards the floor,

"My mother left my father, and then my father left me. I had to fend for myself. I had to beat people up to stay alive. I got beaten up too… I had to eat from trash cans, beg, live in crazy places,,, But, one day, I asked to work for this guy at his stupid food truck. His food tasted horrible, so I made it better. People thought it was amazing, and I was saved from there."

She leaned her head back, a small smile on her face despite her golden eyes being more dull than usual, "People paid me to cook at their restaurants, this and that and everything. And then this school wanted me, so I came. They had me work my ass off. I worked harder and harder, and expected so much out of myself that I got sick.

I had sleeping problems, but those turned into nightmares, and sleep paralysis. The pinching was to keep me awake and let me know what was reality from nightmare. It was a way to calm me down… I can't eat anyone's food but mine because I'm too scared that someone is out for me. I couldn't make friends, because the head of the school, and the teachers except for the one we had now wanted me to focus and become better…

I developed trust issues. The fear of touch came from when I was living on the streets, but some of  the people here are complete bastards. I don't work with other people because I was trained at this school not to. That's the only teacher who is trying to break me out of my ways…"

Rena stood up, walking to the window and opening it, allowing a breeze to enter the room and blow her long hair back a bit. The moon shined down on her, and though she didn't realize it, she had a soft smile on her face, and the glow in her eyes returned tenfold.

"But… You're the first male I've been okay with touching. And… I trust you… So.. Thank you, Arthur Roma, for letting me be able to at least trust someone again."

Her confession was met by the sound of snoring from Roma's side of the room. The girl sighed, staring out of the window and at the stars, feeling… comfortable. She had never said all of that out loud before. Ahoge moving slightly, Rena hummed a little, before holding her head and wincing a little.

…all the while, Roma rolled onto his other side, clutching one of his pillows tightly, and wearing a smile etched onto his face from ear-to-ear.