“Itai” Ryosuke flinched after feeling a painful sting on the bottom of his lip. He looked at Rio’s worried face and her expression just struck a bolt in his heart. Her eyes always sparkled as if she’s gonna cry any minute, and they just makes him weak. He tried to turn his gaze away from Rio and looked at the other two people in the room: Amu and Daiki.

After the incident, Amu suggested to go back to the university’s infirmary to treat Ryosuke’s injury. Besides, she has a spare key to the room. Being a regular visitor in the nurse’s clinic, the nurse entrusted Amu a spare key in case of emergencies.

“Sorry…” Rio mumbled ever so silently, guilty that the reason Ryosuke got hurt was because of her. She lightly pressed the band aid on Ryosuke’s lip after she finished tending his cut. She then looked down and fiddled with the rest of the bandages, obvious that there’s something on her mind. “Sorry you got hurt because of me”

“Who said I got hurt because of you? I got hurt because I was careless. That’s all. Don’t worry about it” Ryosuke replied with a massive smile on his face. He then patted the girl’s head as if comforting the latter. “Now can I get my handshake?” He extended his arm towards Rio and waited for her to shake his hand in return. Rio hesitated at first but then softly shook Ryosuke’s hand. Besides, it’s the least thing she can do for saving her. Watching this, Daiki and Amu just smiled on how gentle Ryosuke is towards Rio. “Call me Yama-chan”

--

“So… Mind reading huh?” Ryosuke tried to fill in the gap of awkwardness after noticing Rio seated on her seat silently as if stopping herself from opening to the group. Feeding his interest, he then diverted the topic to Amu – the girl who just read the mind of their opponent earlier. He grabbed the nearest chair and twirled it around to face Amu. Daiki followed his gesture and interrogated the girl. “Care to tell us?”

Rio, Daiki and Ryosuke leaned in as if not giving Amu much of a choice but to confess. She took a deep breath and then started, “I had it as long as I can remember. I thought I was normal, but I was wrong. I remember my only friend in primary school started hating me for reading her mind. Even my own mother hated me for it,” Amu explained and felt all pairs of eyes in her direction.

Rio looked at her with empathy as she knows exactly what Amu is experiencing – alone and hated for being different. She watched Daiki scoot his chair towards Amu and beamed a smile at the latter, “If it’s okay with you, we would like to be your friend” Amu heard him say and just looked at him in awe. Is this guy for real? All this time, she thought both Daiki an Ryosuke are like everyone else: rich and arrogant. She was obviously wrong about them.

Ryosuke smirked then turned to Daiki, and it was as if he read his mind, the two boys walked slowly towards Amu as if planning something cunning. “Amu, since I was a kid, I dreamt of having super powers like Professor X from ‘X-Men’! I’m afraid I’m gonna have to make you prove your abilities!” Ryosuke leaned forward and left only a few centimeters gap between his and Amu’s face. He looked directly into her eyes, “So… what am I thinking right now?”

Amu was taken aback from his actions, making her gulp in nervousness. Usually, people avoid her gaze, but this time, Ryosuke and Daiki seems to be too interested. “St-Strawberries” she uttered, proving her said ‘mind reading abilities’.

“Woahh! That’s awesome” Like a little kid, Ryosuke jumped once out of excitement.

“Tsk~ You strawberry-loving freak! That’s easy! Everyone in campus knows you LOVE strawberries” Daiki clicked his tongue and felt himself pushing Ryosuke slightly to the side. “Let’s settle this once and for all” he pulled a piece of candy wrapped in clear plastic from his pocket and showed it to everyone. “Amu-chan, I’m gonna hide this piece of candy on either hands and you have to guess where I hid it.”

Amu tilted her head in confusion and just couldn’t help to agree to what the boy was asking. She then turned around and faced the wall while Daiki chose which hand to hide the piece of candy. He chose his left hand. He then signaled Amu to look at him again and guess which hand he hid the candy. Amu didn’t even look at his hand and just looked directly at Daiki’s eyes… “Left hand” she said. Daiki opened his left palm and revealed the candy. She got it right!

“Let’s do it again. Turn around” Daiki repeated his earlier actions and placed the candy on the same hand: left. “Which one?”

Again, Amu looked at him in the eye and said, “Left hand again”

Ryosuke and Rio who are watching this are amazed to a point that they both clap their hands whenever Amu gets it right (which is EVERY SINGLE time). Amu and Daiki did this a few times and every time, Amu's guess on where the sweet is, is always right.

Finally, Daiki did the same thing, but this time, instead of his hand, he placed the peeled candy inside Ryosuke’s mouth. “This will be the last one, if you get this right, then you win”

Amu turned around and looked at Daiki’s eyes directly. She squinted her eyes and soon turned to Ryosuke who was trying his best to hide the fact that he has the candy in his mouth. Amu smiled and lightly tapped her index finger in between Ryosuke's lips, “It’s inside Yamada-san’s mouth” Amu declared, making the three people in the room give off an O-shaped mouth.

—

“Th-That’s just… AMAZING”

—

*Next Day*

Daiki, Ryosuke, Amu and Rio finished their respective morning classes and headed towards their homeroom where they usually eat their lunches. Ryosuke and Daiki waved at the two girls when Rio gathered all her courage to approach her saviour - Ryosuke. She pulled the bottom of his