Mao: The Quite One

With the pressure off and no hearts involved, things began to feel… lighter.

For once, Mao wasn't navigating drama or hiding behind silence.

He was just living—and learning who was truly beside him.

---

Rika stopped waiting for him to change.

She stopped hinting, stopped hoping.

Instead, she leaned back in her seat at the tea shop one day and said, "You're like the little brother I never wanted—but somehow ended up protecting anyway."

Mao raised an eyebrow. "You're two months younger than me."

"Doesn't matter. You need a sister more than a girlfriend."

Mao almost smiled.

Almost.

---

Kenji, once the rival who stole his rank, had become a regular at Mao's side. They didn't always agree—but they shared an understanding of pressure, expectation, and exhaustion.

"You know," Kenji said one afternoon during a break, "we're kind of like brothers now. Not the same blood—but same battlefield."

Mao nodded. "Yeah. Less war. More strategy."

---

Then there was Mika.

She wasn't loud. Wasn't trying to impress anyone.

But she had a strange way of noticing things Mao thought he kept hidden.

When Mao skipped meals, she brought him food.

When he lost focus, she tapped his desk with a pen.

She called him "bro," despite his protests.

"You're just as reckless as my real brother," she said once, tossing him a juice box. "But quieter."

He didn't argue. He just drank it and kept working.

---

And slowly, something formed.

Not romance.

Not rivalry.

But family.

No blood ties. No obligations.

Just people who chose each other, over and over, despite the noise of the world.

---

Mao didn't need to date.

He didn't need approval.

He had siblings now.

And for the first time… that was enough.