2:01p.m., Taimadou Academy, Main Campus' Garden
Rin left the physical armaments class only half an hour after it started. When he realized that more people were watching the class from the balcony, it made him feel more uncomfortable as a result. This made him not able to think straight which resulted in him feeling that practice won't be as efficient. It is not to say that Rin has straight fright.
For Rin, having a duel as compared to being watched in class are two entirely different things. In a duel, the spectators are there to watch the duel. They aren't there to watch him as in this case. And when a duel commences, usually his brain is filled with adrenaline which doesn't allow him to think of things like this.
With nowhere to go, Rin found himself strolling towards the school garden, located in the center of the school campus. The garden was designed like a traffic roundabout, where there was a small building in its epitome. Rin for one didn't have a like or dislike towards flowers. Although, he has seen more flowers than he should've throughout his entire life.
It's as if he has seen flowers every week in the main clan's house due to a celebration of some sort. Be it a successful completion of a mission, a person's birthday, some odd tradition, or others. While the scent of flowers was fragrant to smell, Rin was starting to get sick of it, which made him wonder why he ended up visiting the garden.
"I guess I'll visit the other classes after this."
Rin took leisure steps into the small building that was open for the school to visit. It was a two-story building, made from entirely wooden planks. It wasn't as worn down as he had expected, with its new paint job and bright-colored interior. Stepping on the floor planks didn't make it creak, to his surprise. To the right side of the entrance, there was a staircase. Before Rin could scout the place, he heard movement.
"Is someone there?"
A voice came from the second floor of the building. Her tone wasn't wary or scared, just simply questioning. Rin seemed to recognize her voice from somewhere.
"Is that you Hana?"
Rin might've gotten the wrong person as it has only been a day since he befriended her, but for some reason, he felt that she was Hana.
"Hello Rin, it seems that you also wandered here as well."
As Hana was talking, her voice became increasingly louder until Rin noticed that she was on the top staircase standing.
Expectedly, Hana spoke to Rin in a more formal manner, as he is from the Hitotsu clan, which was respected throughout the magic association. He wished that Hana would be less formal with them, however.
After walking up the staircase, Rin came face-to-face with Hana. As Hana was a bit shorter than Rin, his face was slightly angled downwards.
"I didn't like being watched which is why I left early, how about you Hana?"
Rin threw an inquiry at Hana. It wouldn't be unreasonable for Hana to be here as she felt the same way as Rin, considering she is from Daichi herself. But in some cases, it could be due to something different.
"Same here, the balcony was starting to be more crowded, and I felt too many eyes on me Rin. Besides…"
Rin had correctly guessed Hana's reason for being here but hadn't expected her second one.
"I do love flowers myself."
Rin knows that Hana's name literally means flower itself, but he didn't expect that he had to make this exact connection.
"But I don't think I'll divulge the reason yet."
"Hmm, okay."
Rin was intrigued by her final statement as she was hinting, that she was hiding something. It could've just been something simple again but in this case, he felt that it wasn't something to be taken light-heartedly judging from her shift in tone and her eyes being covered by her bangs, making Rin hard to cipher the expression on her face.
"Why are you here Rin? Sorry if I phrased it wrongly, it's not that I don't want you here, I'm just asking for your reason."
Rin corrected his misunderstanding of her question but was puzzled. Didn't he just explain why he was here?
"Sorry again, I should've phrased it more properly, why did you come to the garden specifically Rin?"
Rin didn't expect Hana to ask him such a specific question. Going with the flow of the conversation would logically lead to this point though. He genuinely wanted to give her a response but didn't know why.
'Why did I come here in the first place?'
It was a fascination that Rin for once had no answer to. This behavior was not the norm for him. Usually, Rin would do something with intent in his mind, only in this case it wasn't as such. Perhaps Hana's presence here might've caused this strange occurrence.
Ultimately, Rin decided to answer honestly.
"I don't know myself. I suppose this place simply looked interesting to me."
"I see…"
Hana took a quick glance at Rin's face, before turning her body away from him. She walked a few steps forwards before voicing.
"Follow me Rin, there are seats there."
Hana mentioned while pointing forward. Rin mindlessly followed Hana's back.
They walked for a short while before stopping in front of a big window. Beside the window were a tea table and two chairs. On the tea table were a cup of tea, one flask, and glass with flowers inside it. The glass was placed in the center of the circular table, beside it was the flask. The teacup and flask had a similar design on them.
Upon taking his seat, Hana on the other hand was walking to a different room.
"Would you like a cup of tea Rin?"
"Sure Hana."
Rin personally preferred coffee but didn't exactly mind drinking tea. He was expecting Hana to come back with glass soon, but she took longer than expected. He decided to approach the direction Hana had been walking.
Upon entering a different room, he found Hana trying to reach an upper cabinet. Looking at her trying her hardest was very cute for Rin, but he refrained from commenting as it could be seen as an insult or him cheating on Mihiro.
"Do you need help?"
"Huh?"
It seems that Hana was so focused on getting an empty cup that she didn't notice that Rin had entered the kitchen. She was embarrassed but instantly shrugged it off.
"Thanks, Rin."
The funny part was that Rin himself couldn't reach it. This was a problem. While Rin was about to grab the chair from outside to stand on, Hana had voiced an interesting solution.
"Rin, how about you just piggyback me?"
"What?"
Rin had to clean his ears to realize that he wasn't hearing things. Hana just requested to be piggybacked by him. It made him feel weird but at the same time amused at the logical approach proposed. Seeing that Hana didn't mind made Rin's opinion of her change.
"If you don't mind that is."
Rin kneeled and Hana got onto him. He then slowly stood upright.
"Wow, this is pretty higher than usual."
Hana randomly uttered the statement. Being at a level twice her normal height seems to amaze her.
As Rin couldn't look upwards for obvious reasons, he relied on Hana voicing out when she was done. He heard a cupboard open, which signals that the combined height was tall enough. After hearing the cupboard close, he waited for Hana's signal to let her down. For some weird reason, he didn't hear anything.
"Are you done, Hana?"
There was no response from her. Rin found this strange but didn't bring her down. He felt that sudden movements would make a bad situation occur. Instead, he decided to ask her again.
"Are you done, Hana?"
He repeated the exact same question this time and was met with a reply. Apparently, it seems to him that Hana simply didn't hear the first time he asked her.
After bringing her down, Hana could be seen slightly blushing while looking slightly childish. This made Rin laugh. In her right hand, was a teacup. Interestingly, the teacup wasn't of the same design as the one on the table, which made Rin infer that she had brought her own teacup along with the flask, considering that they are similar in design, signifying that it isn't her first time here.
Considering that this was the second day of the new semester, made the situation a bit odd. Rin felt that it probably had a relation to why she didn't want to tell him her reason yet.
The two sat across each other while sipping tea in silence. Hana's face was still slightly flushed at what occurred. The two nonetheless enjoyed drinking tea in silence while looking out of the big window, at the flowers in the garden.
The two of them had a lot to talk about, but in this given time and space, where no one would bother them, they felt that it was better spent in peace and quiet.