Even Though I Loved You First

Middle School

Riku Ryouzaki wasn’t exactly an introvert. He wasn’t exactly shunned either. He talked if you started conversing with him and most of the time he lent a hand to his classmates.

However, he spent most of his time drawing, he sketched whenever he had the time and looked at most things with an eye for art. He wasn’t exactly the ‘normal’ most people would expect.

People tend to find him overwhelming whenever they talked to him, some just didn’t have the time nor energy to go along with his personality. Riku was alone all over his first year and soon, that changed during his second year.

Like always, he was on a staircase that overlooked the entire soccer field. It was a place few people knew about and was one which was quiet. Something that Riku looked for whenever he wanted to draw in peace.

That was until he heard a certain voice behind him, “What a gorgeous drawing!”

Due to the sudden voice behind him, he jumped and covered his sketchbook before turning back to the source of the voice.

“Ah, sorry. Did I scare you?” The boy wryly smiled. He was a little taller than Riku, his black hair was neatly groomed to the side emphasizing his good looks. Something that really stood out from him were his purple eyes that gave a gentle look to the boy.

“U-uhm…” He felt like he had seen the boy before, however, no matter how much he tried he just couldn’t remember.

“I haven’t introduced myself, right? I’m Kei Ichinose, a second year student. I’m glad I could finally have a chance to talk with you!” The boy’s greeting was polite and gave a feeling of friendliness.

This was Riku Ryouzaki’s first meeting with Kei Ichinose.

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“Second year… Riku Ryouzaki… nice to… meet you…” He took the boy’s outstretched hand. In response, Kei chuckled.

“Now now, we’re the same age so don’t need to be stiff~” (Kei)

“U-uhm… S-sure…” (Riku)

Kei took a seat beside Riku, then as he opened a can of juice and took a sip, he overlooked the scenery from where they were seated.

“Hold up, doesn’t this place have such gorgeous scenery?! Oh! I know those two!” He pointed at a gray-haired girl and a short brown-haired girl. “And that guy! He’s a transfer student!” He pointed to someone else.

Don’t just point at people…Riku sighed inwardly.

“Did you find this place yourself, Riku?” Kei excitedly turned around.

“Eh? O-oh… Unn. I was… looking for a quiet place to draw in and just happened to stumble upon this place.” (Riku)

“Heh~” He turned back and stared at the field.

“By the way… U-uhm, earlier you said ‘…finally have a chance to talk with you…’ What did you mean by that?” (Riku)

“Eh?” (Kei)

“Eh?” (Riku)

Silence fell upon the two boys and they just stared at each other, a little while later, Kei spoke.

“Ah, right. Sorry, I dozed off… You see, I’ve been seeing you around here and there and I had this urge to talk with you.” (Kei)

“Seeing me here and there?” Riku asked.

“Unn. I’ve seen you around regularly with a sketchbook on hand. You always seemed so immersed in your drawings that I didn’t know how to strike a conversation with you…” Kei wryly smiles while scratching the back of his head.

In his words, Riku couldn’t help but feel embarrassed as he looked down. Do I really immerse myself that much? I thought I was pretty aware of my surroundings… He thought.

“Hey, can I have a peek?” He asked as he pointed to his sketchbook resting on Riku’s lap.

“U-uhm…” (Riku)

“Why don’t you do something better with your time?”

“Ryouzaki spends most of his time drawing, doesn’t he?”

“Can’t you just talk about something apart from art? It’s honestly annoying.” Riku has been judged  in many ways all throughout his first year in middle school, so he felt scared for it to happen again.

“Oh, if you don’t want to, it’s okay. I only thought that it was awesome.” (Kei)

“‘Awesome’?” (Riku)

“You have something you like to do and you’re so passionate about. As of now all I’ve been doing is continuously approach my childhood friend in hopes that she looks at me, you see.” (Kei)

They began to talk more since that day, at first Riku thought that their interaction back then would’ve been a one-time thing. However, whenever Kei caught a glimpse of him, he would take the opportunity to talk to him.

↤※↦

I wonder if we’re gonna get to talk again… Well, he has other friends so it’ll be normal if he can’t…

“Hey, Riku.” He has gotten accustomed to Kei’s random appearances. Still, he was surprised at the gap in his personality.

“Were you going?” (Kei)

“I’m planning on going to the garden behind the school.” Riku answered.

Whenever he saw Kei interacting with others, he had a gentle and mature atmosphere around him. However, whenever he talked with him he seemed more carefree and friendly… He seemed… more genuine.

“Oh, then can I come? I know you don’t talk much whenever you draw, but I want to try and look at the process you go through, you know?” (Kei)

“Is that so?” (Riku)

“Unn. My friend Aurora is also an artist, so I’ve had an opportunity to look at his process when drawing. He told me the process varies depending on the artist so I wanted to see yours~” (Kei)

“I see. T-then, want to come with?” Riku felt that little by little, he was opening up to Kei, they steadily built their friendship to the point that they’ll consider each other best friends a year later.

Even to this day, Riku is extremely grateful to Kei because if it wasn’t for him, then he wouldn’t be enjoying his school life this much.