A few hours prior, just before the sun had completely been hidden behind the dark clouds, right after the match, Osamu had just finished cleaning up his stall. Afterwards he took his phone, while waiting for his twin, Osamu decided to call someone.

It didn't take long until it's answered. "Hello,"

"Kita-san," Osamu said, leaning back on his car. "I saw someone familiar earlier before Tsumu's match."

"Someone familiar?"

Osamu was silent for a few seconds, his eyes trailed down on the ground. "Senpai—Y/n-senpai."

In contrast with the silence earlier, the silence this time was longer. Osamu even thought it was longer than it really is. He couldn't see Kita, so he doesn't know what expression he's making now. And even if he's right in front of Osamu, it's not like he can read Kita's expression. The guy had always been collected, hardly showing any expressions like smiling or crying, he did so rarely before but that was only on the rarest of occasions.

"Have you guys been in touch?" Osamu asked just to break the gnawing silence. "Do you know if she's...ya know...married?"

"Married?"

"I mean, I don't know, but I saw her with someone. He looks kinda familiar, prolly during the Interhigh. And there's this young girl who's prolly five or six and she called senpai mommy."

Kita didn't say anything for a while, and Osamu thought maybe he shouldn't have run his mouth like that.

"Kita-san?"

"If she's happy, then I'm happy for her."

He has always been like that, Osamu thought. There were times when he'd think of others more than he thinks for himself.

"Did you like her, Kita-san?"

Kita's answer came in short and simple.

No, but she's a kind person.

Osamu doesn't know if it's really a no or a yes. Nonetheless, even if he said he did or he still does, it's not like anything else will change at this point. Not when they both believe that you have a daughter now.

After the call, Osamu realized that the surroundings had darkened. He looked up and saw that the dark clouds have hovered above and the sun had completely been hidden behind.

"The heavens are about to cry. I wonder if it's raining in Hyogo too," he said.

---

The rain continued to pour until later in the evening. It left behind the cool breeze that made people snuggle on their blankets more and oddly enough sleep more comfortably, it provided a feeling of something that isn't as cold as winter and not as hot as summer, the perfect amount of temperature to lull everyone to a cozy slumber.

But you, on the other hand, stirred in your sleep, rolling to the side as you slowly blink your eyes open. The room is dimly lit and after a moment your eyes adjusted to it. Suki is sleeping soundly and beside her Kenma is too.

Or at least what you thought Kenma would be, but when you looked to the side you didn't see him.

"Kenma?" you muttered, low enough so Suki wouldn't wake up.

Slowly you sat up and looked around until you notice a light coming from the glass door leading to the balcony. You didn't know what prompted you to stand up or what made you walk all the way to the balcony. But you realized you've been outside when the cold breeze engulfed you.

"Ah, it's cold," you said, making Kenma looked up at you from his phone.

He's sitting on the chair in the balcony, there were two chairs and a table meant to use during morning tea or coffee. But it provided an odd atmosphere when it's the middle of the night and the smell of petrichor that was carried along by the breeze linger in the atmosphere.

"Kenma, why are you up at this hour?" you asked, walking towards the vacant chair.

"Couldn't sleep," he answered, looking back on his phone. "What about you?"

"I woke up," you said. "And you weren't there."

For a second Kenma froze, until the game was over. He shouldn't think much about what you said, a mere curiosity was what drove you to look for him, he convinced himself. He tore his gaze from the phone, the words game over flashing on the screen and he doesn't like to look at it a second longer since it's becoming rather annoying as if mocking him.

Instead he look at you to see that you're looking passed the balcony until he noticed your hands rubbing your arm. He stood up and took off his jacket until you felt something draping on your shoulder.

"Kenma?"

"You said it's cold."

You found yourself touching his jacket, your hand lightly gripping its sleeve. When the wind blew you can smell Kenma's scent and you instinctively held his jacket closer until you realized you were comforted by his scent.

It felt like you were engulfed by warmth and you wanted to feel it longer but you shook your head and pulled yourself back from your reverie. "I think we should go inside."

He didn't say anything, he merely nodded and headed inside while you followed him to the settee near the window, there were two on each side of the coffee table and Kenma sat on one while you sat on the other across him.

Silence engulfed you both, but it didn't last long until you heard Kenma's voice.

"What was his name?" he asked, making you look up at him. "Shinsuke?"

"Oh...you heard," you muttered, averting your gaze from him to look at the flower vase displayed in the middle of the table, you wonder if the flowers are made of plastic, they look too pretty yet they don't give off the scent of freshly picked flowers.

"You see, there was this guy from high school who used to wait for me until I boarded the bus, and I'd wait for him until club practice was over so we could go home together," you started, and you found yourself touching the flowers in the vase. They were fake, you thought.

"He's really a kind and nice person, perfect even. He never got low grades, never arrived late in class, he's a natural-born leader so to say."

"And do you like him?" Kenma asked, and for some reason, the question that you so frequently heard back then, that would make your face heat up and would make you feel flustered, for some reason you don't feel the same thing as back then when Kenma asked that question now.

"At some point I think I did," you answered, a faint smile on your lips. "I did like him."

Kenma was silent for a moment, and you let that momentary silence linger by as you admired the flowers. "There was this funny story too. His grandmother pushed him to get married at eighteen, saying that she wanted to at least see her grandson's children before she leave the world of the living."

Your hand slipped down from the flowers until you retrieved it back and you found yourself touching the sleeve of Kenma's jacket.

"I wasn't ready to get married then and chose to go to a University in Tokyo. A year later I met you and years later, I met you again."

"Do you, by chance..." Kenma started, and you think you know what he's going to ask even before he did. "...still like him?"

"No," your answer came without hesitation, and it surprised you even.

Before you would think for a while, you have pondered that question a few times back then. But when Kenma asked you that question, for some reason yet again, you didn't hesitate.

"He always treated me so kindly, that perhaps I've mistaken it for love when in fact it was what brothers would do to their sisters. I learned that soon enough."

You remember when you asked him if he would do the same things to others and his answer was yes. Because he's that kind of person, generously kind.

But then you remembered when you told Kenma how generous he is. In contrast to what Kita said, Kenma said he isn't like that to just anyone.

And those two different answers provided a huge difference.

"You don't like him anymore? Why?"

You couldn't provide him an answer to his question, at least not yet. And Kenma didn't press, he just let it go when you chose silence over anything else. At least now, you thought, he knew you've let go of any lingering feelings towards anyone in the past.

But you wonder if he does too?

Since you still don't know anything about his daughter's birth mother. But you didn't let that dawdle in your mind for any longer than it invaded it.