RI

Rin learned early that being close to him cost people something. Sae left. Teams wanted the output. He stopped expecting love to be uncomplicated and started treating the weight of it as normal. Then you fell asleep in his bed on a Sunday and he looked at you and something came apart. You hadn't needed anything from him. Hadn't asked him to be different. Just — been there, without condition, without the resistance he'd been bracing for his whole life. He cried without deciding to. In the dark, quietly, while you slept. The release of something held for years under the weight of a conclusion he'd never actually tested. You shifted. Didn't wake. Didn't need anything.