<div class="floatleft">(https://66.media.tumblr.com/ad13e4bdb8c6cc121f3c238068fa8da7/tumblr_noyy7y8POW1takfzvo1_400.gif)</div><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 14pt;">Ito Kazuhiro was a tall young man, and he'd just had his eighteenth birthday about a month ago. He'd had it when exams were ongoing, and it had made his birthday very stressful. He had dark brown hair and warm brown eyes, and he was perhaps just a little <em>too</em> tall and a little<em> too</em> thin. But he had a demeanor that made it easy to ignore those slight oddities. He attended a respected high school--Whitebird Academy--and he attended it with his best friend in all the world, whom he had known since the first day of elementary school, when he'd sat next to him. The friendship had blossomed from there--music, hanging out, teasing about glasses, parties from time to time even though only Ito was particularly good with parties--all of that. Ito felt like he could tell his best friend anything. <br/><br/>Except one thing. The most important thing, really.<br/><br/><em>I love you</em>, he thought to himself sadly, but the words didn't come out even as he stood in front of his mirror at home trying to practice saying it. He threw his hands up in frustration and said, "Ah, I can't; this is dumb." He got dressed in his school uniform--dark colors and a white shirt underneath--and headed out. The two young men tended to meet up on a particular street corner and walk to school together.<br/><br/>Ito had gotten a text from one of the guys on the swim team--Akagi--who had said that to celebrate exams being over and many students having gotten first pick for their university choices they'd be having a party on the weekend. With unease, Ito wanted to invite his best friend to the party, but...it was sort of a known fact that Ito was the party-goer in the friendship. <br/><br/>It was raining. Ito tried not to swear, but he hadn't brought an umbrella. Or a coat. Crap. He hoped his partner-in-crime was on time; Ito was probably going to have to ask him to jog to school with him. Unless the other guy brought an umbrella. But really only men and women who were dating were supposed to stand under an umbrella together...<br/><br/>There was a gentle rumble of thunder.<br/><br/>Ito sort of hoped his friend had enough foresight to bring an umbrella, onlookers be damned. </span>