Several months later, on one of the rainiest days of the season, Lina stood outside of her room on the porch, looking out into the woods where the rain splattered rich mud onto the suckling roots of sprouting trees. The branches of the evergreen pines dipped up and down with the falling drops as if conducting the following symphony of raindrops dancing on leaves and roots alike. The others were inside, bored as can be and trying to agree on something to do to pass the time.
Since Lina'd left Garden, she'd been living in a surreal dream. The Suzaku Seven and Miaka had treated her with unfaltering respect and she was grateful to them all. Her closest friend throughout her stay was Chichiri considering Miaka and Tamahome were always so caught up in each other, Nuriko was so busy with attempts to seduce Hotohori who only wanted out of those disturbing plans, Chiriko was always studying, and Lina dared not get to close to Tasuki with his boasting of pilfering of the poor for his personal pleasure. Needless to say, she was actually a little scared of Tasuki.
Lina missed Garden dearly--her friends, her sister, even Seifer sometimes--but most of all, she missed Zell. Every time she closed her eyes and thought of their last embrace, tears surface and she'd have to fight another battle to not let it show. Lina thought about his words, "Come back soon." She didn't know if soon was enough. With a secret like hers, she felt she needed all her friends to forget about her--for their safety.
Chichiri walked outside to see if Lina was alright, interrupting her thoughts. "What up?" he asked her.
"Nothing..." Lina lied, trying to smile as she looked up at him. To Chichiri, Lina only had two types of smile: where she'd smile with her mouth but not with her eyes just to be polite, and then there was that smile where her eyebrows were flat and her eyes revealed just how torn she was inside. This smile was the latter.
Meanwhile, back at Balamb Garden, Lina's friends were suffering from the same issue of boredom that rainy day. "Hey Selphie, wanna play a game?" Irvine asked as he leaned into a table. Selphie leaned in also, as if it were going to be a secret and she was the only one who could receive it. "It's called 'Kiss Irvine'," Irvine winked at her. Selphie immediately began laughing hysterically and hit Irvine over the head, hard. His face hit the table, but he smiled even as he rubbed his head in pain.
"Let's go down to the training center!" Karen finally suggested. She stood from the table and eagerly pulled people out of their seats as well. "Zell, come on!" Zell had his cheek against the table, staring at everything from a horizontal point of view. His eyes were focused on absolutely nothing and he merely blinked when Karen called his name. "Zell...you're totally out of it...what's wrong?" Karen gave him a little pat on the back to encourage him to stand up and leeavvee--the table was too boring.
"Tired I guess...didn't really get a good night's sleep..." he lied. He missed Lina, and something inside of him was aching so direly that he thought he'd never be cured of the pain.
"AGAIN!?" Karen rolled her eyes. "This is like the ten millionth time!!! You haven't 'had a good night's sleep' since Lina left." Karen stopped for a second, looked at the others and caught their malicious glares. "Sorry, Zell."
"It's alright...let's just go..." he sighed and followed the group out for the training center--hopefully it wouldn't be raining there too because that'd just be ironic.
Back at Hotohori's palace Nuriko had finally come up with a "brilliant" idea. He proposed that the group go out to the city and go shopping along the market streets. Only one problem--it was pouring outside. "Just don't mind the rain and I'm sure it'll go away!" Nuriko suggested as they all stepped outside, suddenly looking a little unsure himself. They stared at him like he was crazy. People could die in a storm like this-what was he thinking!? They minute they stepped outside they were soaked in water. "Just a little further!" Nuriko called to them after half an hour of wandering through the thick woods. Apparently, Nuriko had no clue where he was going.
"I think we're lost, Nuriko!" Miaka called out to him.
"Come on! Let's find shelter from the rain!" Lina yelled to them over the raging waters. They were in luck--just beyond where they stood was a group of trees with their trunks carved out to form significant shelters. Hotohori and Nuriko took shelter under a tree trunk together to Nuriko's absolute delight, Miaka went with Tamahome naturally; Chiriko volunteered himself alone to take the smallest shelter, and in the largest shelter, Lina squeezed in with Chichiri and Tasuki.
They scurried into the shelter and wrung out whatever water they could from their hair and their clothes. Suddenly, something dropped right onto Chichiri's head with a big thump. He rubbed his forehead while Tasuki and Lina giggled at him, then picked up what had fallen on him from the ground. "That hurt, ya know?" Chichiri muttered, then examined the item. It seemed like a miniature orange basketball. "Oh! It's ripe," he exclaimed as he wiped it off and took a big bite out off the side of its leathery textured skin. "Delicious!" He tossed it to Lina who looked at it warily. She flipped it over once or twice in her hands and examined its leathery exterior.
"I've never seen any kind of fruit like this..." she mumbled, holding it at an angle and shifting it from side to side. Chichiri licked his lips and wiped his mouth with his sleeve, satisfied. "Is it good?" Chichiri nodded and urged her to take a bite. Very anxiously, Lina took a bite and chewed on its suckle meat for a while. Her eyes brightened as she swallowed and she was obliged to lick her lips as well. "Hey, it's really good!"
"Told you, no da," Chichiri said rather proudly. Lina tossed the fruit to Tasuki next. He took a humongous bite, then scrunched his eyebrows and made a face the best he could. Tasuki was always putting up an ostentatious front and this time, Lina and Chichiri expected no less.
"I've had much better than this before," Tasuki scoffed and threw it back at Chichiri as if he were disgusted. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and stuck his nose up into the air full of pride as he always did when he were getting ready to boast. "Where I came from, we were rich enough to purchase the best ones in all of Animanga!" Chichiri scoffed and took another bite.
After swallowing he yelled, "Stop trying to show off for the girl, Tasuki. You know as well as I do that you stole everything you ever had!" Tasuki immediately flushed a bright red and Lina laughed. Chichiri glanced at Lina with a timid smile on his face. Yes, over the weeks of their interesting and though provoking conversations, Chichiri had acquired quite the crush, and it seemed now that with Lina's disposition of being blatantly oblivious to any romantic situations, she was the only one who didn't notice.
They settled down and passed the fruit around some more. "So Chichiri," Lina passed the fruit to Tasuki again. "How'd you get that awesome scar over your eye?" It was silent. Lina could immediately tell she'd swiped her finger over a weak spot. Tasuki rolled his eyes and turned away from the two of them immediately
"Now you've done it," Tasuki muttered. The last thing he needed to see was Chichiri pouting and teary eyed while he was trying to enjoy this fruit with his friends on a rainy day. Chichiri looked slightly disappointed; it wasn't something he wanted Lina to know about, but he guessed there was no use in trying oto avoid it.
"Oh...sorry! You don't have to tell me...it was just to carry on the conversation," Lina apologized for her stupid mistake. Chichiri sighed and shook his head.
"It's alright..." he mumbled. "When I was eighteen, I...I had a fiance. She was beautiful and intelligent and wise and I loved her, but soon after our engagement, my 'best' friend, Hikou 'stole' her from me. I was heartbroken and in a blind rage." Lina moved to stop him again, but he held p his hand and she quieted herself. "I was angry with him...and well, you could say we had an argument. That very same day, ironically, I got this scar, but I hide it with my mask. No one wants to see a man with only one eye. It's like a masquerade every day."
Chichiri took the mask off and showed her his scar. He watched her caring eyes meticulously examined the thick disoriented line of scar tissue over his left eye. Then he reached to slip the mask back on over his face, but Lina grabbed his hand and stopped him. They both froze for a minute--Lina had acted on impulse and needless to say, it was a bit of a shock to both of them. She smiled--once again the latter--and gave him some good friend to friend advice, "Don't hide from your past. Trust me." He smiled at her, hesitant. "Besides...you look better without it." She added to encourage him. Tasuki, however, who'd been eavesdropping on their sentimental conversation, took it another way.
"WOO HOO!" Tasuki screamed. "What's this!? SCOOREE!" The next thing he knew, he was chucked out in the rain, shivering like he was in the arctic. Meanwhile, Chichiri and Lina sat in the dry shelter, laughing at him.