I heard that you fell in love or near enough

Koa

Don't take this the wrong way
You knew who I was with every step that I ran to you

He looks away when she says she's worried, a flush of shame creeping out from underneath his collar. All he's done for years, it feels, is to try to keep others from worrying, and the weight of failure coupled with the vivid awareness of being seen is almost too much for Koa's fragile mental state. "I'm fine," the boy counters automatically, a forced smile utterly failing to make it to his eyes which remain fixed studiously on the empty chair. "Haven't been sleeping well." It's a lie, and they both know it, but it's a lie he almost believes. Has made himself live and breathe and adhere to, whispered like a prayer. I'm fine, I'm fine, I'm fine.

Soh was the first person he really opened up to, the only one he thought he might be able to be not fine with, and look how that had gone?

But Anju, blessed Auntie Anju, promises not to pry, and so Koa doesn't spill the tears that sting against his eyes. Instead he straightens, eyebrows raising toward messy hair at her proposition. "Oh?" he presses, grateful for rhe change in topic, for the promise of something to distract himself with. "Something for the Dragoons, or...?"

Only blue or black days
Electing strange perfections in any stranger I choose