[center] [img]http://i.imgur.com/tOSegMM.png[/img] [h3][color=b16edd]Reina Mori[/color][/h3] [/center] Reina blinked, glancing to Mamoru as the other girl moved closer to her. She blushed upon being called ‘Reirei,’ the redness only deepening when Mamoru took her hand. Reina looked away quickly, and very lightly tried to pull away, more because that’s what she felt she was [i]supposed[/i] to do—she ... didn’t [i]really[/i] want Mamoru to let her hand go. The dark-haired girl stared quietly at the ground as she listened intently to Mamoru’s words, fighting back her blush equally as much as she fought her instinct leave and quit bothering the other two. As Mamoru finished, Reina glanced up to her again, looking for the right words to say, but coming up short. Again. She noticed her hand tightening around Mamoru’s as the other girl addressed Kenichi, something she quickly corrected with another pang of embarrassment. She kept quiet as the other three spoke, deep in her thoughts. [color=bc8dbf]”Mori-san, please, don’t feel pressured by my offer.”[/color] Reina looked to Takeshi for a moment as he spoke, looking back down again with a sad, distant frown. That... wasn’t it at all. There was so much she wanted to say to him and Mamoru. But she couldn’t. Even if she somehow had the courage to speak for more than a few seconds, she’d never be able to open up to people she had just met today, no matter how terribly she wanted to trust them, and no matter how much she liked them. Maybe that was the issue? Maybe wanting so badly to be close to them made it harder. It scared her. She couldn’t view growing close with others as anything more than setting up an eventual awful fallout. It hurt. [color=b16edd][i]Be better, you piece of trash.[/i][/color] [color=b16edd]”I-I...”[/color] Her voice cracked noticeably to her embarrassment. She stared at the floor, her grip in Mamoru’s hand weakening as she pushed herself to ‘be better.’ [color=b16edd]”Wh-when you teach Yoshida-san or Mamoru-san... I-I’ll join...”[/color] There. She had forced herself. Her shoulders dropped, and she looked almost defeated. Maybe it would make the others happy in the short term. But she had taken another step towards setting up the inevitable break down. Guilt burnt her heart. This was what she [i]wanted[/i]. She [i]wanted[/i] to be with them, and to learn from them. But it was disgustingly selfish. Was there any hope she’d not screw these relationships up as well? There wasn’t—not on her part, and not in this moment. She’d was going to drag them down steadily, until a breaking point was reached and either they cut their losses, or she did so for them. [sub][@Lucius Cypher] [@Aerandir][/sub]