Callisto looked anywhere but Hinata's face. She could see a fair number of students spending lunch break with their friends in the track, while some seemed to have their gaze locked on where the young lady and the young man were, even though they were far enough that it was impossible for them to hear anything gossip-worthy to satisfy their craving for drama.
Callisto looked up at the tree, noting how it was providing a shade not only for her and Hinata but also for the couple of birds on one of the branches, keeping them from the heat of the morning sun.
Thanks to her ability to understand animals, Callisto had been listening to the birds wondering what they were doing in their home since they came. Callisto never thought she would feel awkward intruding into a bird's home. But now she did.
"I'm going to go straight to the point," Hinata declared, making Callisto still as she looked down, hands on the hem of her PE t-shirt. "You should take back what you said to Elesis."
"What do you mean?" Callisto asked, even as she knew what the young man was talking about.
"I know you didn't mean it. You're not pretending to be friends with Elesis or with everyone. The connections you made with everyone, with me and Elesis, are all real, and you know that."
Callisto's hand clenched tightly around the hem of her shirt. She knew full well that she didn't mean the words she uttered to Elesis yesterday. In fact, she wanted to run and look for Elesis to take those exact words back and apologise.
But it was impossible.
"I can't be anyone's friend, not while I have something I absolutely cannot tell anyone. Not to Elesis, nor to you."
"Elesis told me what happened last night. So you have a secret you can't share even with your friends."
Callisto nodded; her face was kept down, avoiding looking at the young man in the eyes. Hinata took the silent response with a soft smile, the sole of his shoes leaving fading marks on the grass as he started moving towards the bark of the tree.
Callito's gaze followed his feet until she found herself staring at his face as he sat down, his back against the tree they were under.
Hinata looked up, finally meeting her face, her beauty never ceasing to steal the breath away from his lungs as he offered, "Sit down with me."
Callisto hesitated at first, but in the end, she gracefully took the spot next to the young man. Relief washed over Hinata's face as the young lady accepted the invitation, though he quickly recomposed himself as he continued to speak.
"Did El tell you that it was okay if you didn't want to tell her your secret?"
"Yes," Callisto replied just as she clearly remembered that exact moment. "She did."
"And still, you left her on the rooftop and told her that you're pretending to be her friend."
Callisto couldn't even answer the young man. She simply buried her face on her knees. Hinata glanced at her ball-shaped form, like a chicken sticking their head on the ground to make predators uninterested. Unfortunately, Hinata only continued to press on further.
"You know, Calli. If the trust between friends is based solely on the secrets they share with each other, a lot of people in this world wouldn't have friends."
There was a brief moment of silence between them, broken only by the gentle chirping of the birds above them and the distant laughter of other students in the track. Callisto's head moved slightly, one sky-blue marble peeking between her arm and her silver hair as she looked at the young man.
"What do you mean?"
"What I mean is that it's perfectly normal if you have secrets you wanna keep to yourself. Being friends with someone doesn't require you to tell them all about yourself. A real friend is someone who's willing to listen when you're ready to share a bit of yourself with them and knows to keep it to themselves, someone who understands and respects your decision to keep your life private."
Callisto lifted her head ever so slightly, though her form remained intact as a ball next to Hinata. Hinata could see it from her side profile, the gears turning in her head as she processed the young man's words.
"When El asked if you wouldn't share your secret even with her, she didn't mean to make you feel like you betrayed her as if you weren't a real friend," Hinata added, his voice taking on a softer, reassuring tone. "All Elesis wanted is for you to let her in, to get closer with you. You are Elesis's friend, Calli. And you're mine, too."
Callisto, after listening to everything Hinata said, held her head up. Her sky-blue eyes stared in the direction ahead of her as she began replaying the times she spent with Elesis in her head.
Elesis was Callisto's very first friend, the very person who taught her to be confident, the one who helped her gain all the friends she now had. The redhead often did silly things, acted clingy, and would eat a lot despite not gaining weight, but those traits never made Callisto think that she wanted to cut ties with Elesis, not even once.
If anything, Callisto found all of those traits of Elesis endearing.
Hinata looked at Callisto's face from her side, his eyes widened slightly at the sight of tears flowing down her cheek, though a small, fond smile was caught on her lips. That was when Hinata knew Calli wanted the same thing all along.
Callisto wanted to be closer with Elesis.
After a brief moment of self-thought, a smile formed on Hinata's lips as he leaned in closer towards the young lady.
"Calli," Hinata called softly.
Callisto wiped the liquid leaking from her eyes off her face. When she turned to face the young man, she was almost taken aback by how close he was; she could feel the heat coming off his body. What Hinata said next stole the breath from Callisto's lungs.
"I want to be closer with you too."