After school, Seiren sat outside on the bleachers waiting for Isagi to finish up with practice.

It became a routine now. They'd walk into school together, go to class together, walk to their next class together, go to lunch, talk the entire time because his teammates didn't really care then they'd go to class together again. Before they knew it, they were walking outside to the practice field. Seiren would be filling out her homework while Isagi would be doing drills with his teammates.

Though this day, her mind was clouded after seeing Kimiyo's face and how she tried to act so friendly with her. It burned her core to even think about her. Her pencil was hovering the same spot for the past ten minutes, way too into her thoughts to even focus on school work. Her brothers noticed the clouds around her and they knew the reason why.

"Is she okay? That girl that came up to her kinda threw her off." Isagi said to Rin. "Poisonous potato?" Rin questioned. "I'm..guessing so. What's with that name anyways?" he wanted to laugh but for the sake of Seiren, he didn't. "You wouldn't get it." was all Rin said before walking off to his sister. Seiren noticed his figure coming into view, looking up from her paper. "Why aren't you home?" Rin asked her.

"Waiting on Yoichi."

"For what?"

At the same time, Isagi fell beside Rin, staring down at Seiren's homework before looking up at the younger Itoshi. "Go away." Rin said. "No?" Isagi scoffed, looking behind him before jumping over the fence and seating himself next to her. "What're you listening to?" the boy invited himself to take one of her earphones, hearing the catchy beat play. "Luther." Seiren watched his head move to the rhythm, Rin rolled his eyes in disgust and left.

"I like this part." He slowly moved his shoulders in attempt to make her laugh, and it did. Seiren bit down on her lip before grooving with him. Her body gravitated over to his as they locked eyes. The warm breeze between them could make her forget why she was sulking in the first place. The two seventeen year olds jammed out towards the end of the song, humming out to the tune until—

"Isagi. Get on the field."

"Yes Captain."

Seiren glared at her older brother but Sae didn't care. He watched from afar from how her smile lifted so easily from a simple gesture from Isagi. Sae glanced back at his teammate, the poor boy being teased by his friends after being caught with the captain's sister. He then turned back to his sister who was now sulking at the missing presence of the boy. "Hater. Fun hater. Evil guy. Evil brother." he heard her mutter.

"Yeah whatever. He's a teammate and I can't have him distracted for our games."

"Speaking of. When are you bringing a girl to the game?"

"I'm sorry?"

"Yeah I mean..you can't possibly be single right? You can't be that much of a loser.." Seiren stared at Sae. "I don't understand what you're saying. I'm single. I don't need a girlfriend to bring to the games..Why? Do I have to? Is that something I don't know of?" He then proceeded to pout. "Are you serious?" she laughed then stopped once she realized he was. "No you don't Sae but it'd be nice to know if my brother wasn't perceived as a robot." she shrugged.

"I'll see."

"What."

"See you later."

"Wait what?"

"Oh you like her.." Chigiri kept teasing the boy. "I do not.." Isagi muttered, dribbling the ball against his feet while Bachira followed up behind him. "Yes you do! Admit it." he laughed. "I don't like her. She's my friend.." The boy quickly glared at his friends. "You don't share headphones with me?" Bachira was quick to complain, his gaze darting over to the girl. He caught her staring their way, watching her avert her eyes somewhere else.

"Yeah cause you have bad music taste!"

"You just don't get my music!"

"You unironically listen to EDM. Chigiri..help me out here."

"EDM is good! You're just listening but you're not really listening!"

"I don't want to listen!"

Seiren watched the three boys go back and forth with each other. Their laughter filling the air until Sae kicked a ball towards them, getting them to focus on their drills. There wasn't much she could be doing at this moment so she closed her binder and decided to do her homework later. There wasn't anything more calming than to just sit down and clear her mind.

———

Seiren kicked the pebbles off the sidewalk as Isagi held both of their bags. "She was my best friend since I was like five." she said. "That long?" he muttered. "For like ten years." Seiren glanced over to the boy. "She only became my friend because she liked my brother." she said, a laughter following afterwards. "Then she just stuck around until Sae gave her a chance."

"Ew Sae actually had a girlfriend?"

"No they weren't dating..it was like..okay they were dating but he was just like a friend to her rather than a boyfriend. It didn't last long."

"My brain can't wrap around this."

Seiren chuckled. "Kimiyo got what she wanted and she just started acting really weird to me. Sae was across seas and Rin was in a training camp in Tokyo." she huffed out a shaky breath. Isagi noticed how hesitant she was to speak. "You don't have to tell me. We can hate her without you telling me what she did." he said, placing a hand on her shoulder.

"We?"

"Oh yeah dude. I already made up my mind. We hate her to the core."

"I hate her so bad..I crossed her picture out in the year book."

"Oh petty. I like it."

The two of them shared a laugh before they turned the corner into his neighborhood. He saw that his father's car was out front, sparing Seiren a glance. "Wanna go through my old yearbooks?" he suggested, watching her eyes widen. "Yoichi showing me his younger self in the flesh? Oh yes please. Do show me." she grinned ear to ear. "I had a feeling you were going to say yes.."

"How could I not? You were probably the cutest kid." she watched him take out his keys as he tried hiding the blush on his face. "I was the cutest kid actually." Isagi boasted, opening the front door. "Yoichi! You're home— You brought Seiren! Nice to see you again!" his father quickly greeted the girl. "Nice to see you Sir." the girl tilted her head.

"You didn't tell us you were bringing her over Yoichi! I would've cooked nice something up!" his father laughed. "It's fine Dad. We'll just be in my room." the boy said, grabbing Seiren's wrist and leading her up the stairs. "You look like your dad but you look like your mom." she mumbled, stepping into his room. "Guess that's how genetics work." Isagi teased, soon feeling a glare on him. "My bad.."

He then went over to his closet as she sat on his bed, watching him reach over to the top shelf. Isagi brought over three year books. "Mom got one for each last year. One for primary, junior high and then she's getting each year in high school. This one's last year." he passed it over to her. She immediately went to their class page, scanning the faces of each of the students.

Everyone was placed in alphabetical order so as she went down the line of the s's, she was caught into surprise when she saw that their photos were next to each other. "You look the same." Seiren muttered, keeping her eyes on his portrait. The smile he wore seemed forced, awkward at most. "So do you. Just longer hair." Isagi said, pointing at her. "You also had braces."

"How'd you know that?" Seiren scoffed. "Sae would uhm..eat like certain foods and say to not tell you cause then you would get jealous because you couldn't eat them with your braces.." Isagi cleared his throat, acting as if he revealed a huge secret. "Are you serious..?" she sighed, laughing at the thought of her older brother hiding food from her. "Yeah he could've just ate it. Nobody would've cared."

"Let me see the other ones."

It took her a while to find his class. Seiren was going through each of the pages, checking to see if his face was anywhere on them. "Here. Awe. You look cute." she smiled. "I do not..I was like fourteen going through a weird teen phase." Isagi covered his face with his hands, shaking his head in embarrassment, wondering why he even suggested the idea of showing his yearbooks to her in the first place.

"You're in this one too! You don't look that different. You just had a baby face. Still kinda do."

Isagi leaned over to look at what she picture she was talking about. Now that he was thinking about it, the girl he was sitting next to, wouldn't even had spared a glance to him if it weren't for the project they did together. At first she would barely even utter a sentence around him but now she was laughing? Making fun of him? He had slowly peeled off the petals and started reaching her core.

This was the same girl those at school hated yet they didn't give themselves a chance to get to know her.

Seiren had came across a page of them in halloween and Isagi was dressed as Ash Ketchum. She couldn't stop laughing, saying he looked too adorable in his costume. The boy could only take away the yearbook away from her, throwing it back into his closet as if she hadn't seen all the embarrassing pictures already.

"So do you have any yearbooks?" he cleared his throat. "Just for primary." Seiren nodded her head. "We kinda stopped getting them when Sae went to junior high. He said he didn't like getting his photo taken then Rin and I..followed him and said the same thing. We stole a yearbook from the office because we actually wanted one.." she chuckled at the faint memory.

"I can't tell if you're closer to Sae or Rin."

"Both but in different ways. I go to Sae for advice and he oddly enough gives me comfort. Rin and I joke around a lot. He comes to me for advice and I give him comfort. It's just a weird cycle between us three."

"Must be nice. You know, having siblings. Kinda wish I had one but I honestly like it being spoiled by my parents."

"Oh must be nice." Seiren rolled her eyes. "Mom bought us the same of everything— even if I was a girl! She'd still buy me the same clothes as them sometimes." she sighed. "It was so annoying but since they grew quicker..and some of the shirts I did like..I'd steal Sae's shirts cause they'd fit better. He never noticed anyways." the girl shrugged her shoulders.

"Kinda wished I had a sister though. Growing up with two brothers who enjoy doing the same thing is really annoying cause then I had to join them."

"You're good at football so you would just practice with them?" Isagi questioned, crossing his legs on his bed. "All the time until the other left for a camp or to go overseas. Before high school I stopped." she peered over her shoulder, looking back at him. "What for?" he asked, passing her one of his extra blankets to keep warm.

"Just stuff. I also went through a weird teen phase." she smiled gently.

The warm sunlight hit her face, scrunching her nose as she tried hiding away from the sun coming through his window. Isagi closed his blinds, his room falling dark before turning on his bedside lamp. "Wanna watch something with me before you go?" he said, grabbing his phone and opening up Netflix. Seiren nodded her head, scooting up next to him before he passed his phone to her, letting her pick the movie.

She scrolled through the options, finally clicking on one as he grabbed the phone to hold. Carefully, Seiren rested her head against his, feeling Isagi press against her. He gave her comfort. The breaths became synchronized, letting the movie dialogue fill the emptiness of his room.

Their occasional laughs could be heard from downstairs as his mother came back from work. "Is Seiren here?" Iyo smiled at the sound. Issei nodded his head, placing her dinner plate down onto the table. "She is. Ah our son is growing up. Never thought I'd see the day where he'd bring a girl home." he said. "He's a great kid! Of course he'll bring a girl home!"

The two parents glanced over to the stairs as Seiren was rambling on about how the main character was extremely funny but Isagi retracted her statement, claiming he was funnier and went on a ten minute rant spitting out the most unfunniest dad jokes known to man.

She laughed even harder.