It was a quiet Saturday morning when the unexpected happened.
Leo had spent the night restless again. Though Rin hadn't cried in front of anyone else, he'd seen something change in her since the confrontation with her mother. It wasn't defeat. It was something colder. Still.
She hadn't answered his last two messages.
And now, someone was knocking at his dorm's front gate.
When he went downstairs, the dorm mother looked slightly alarmed. "There's a woman asking for you."
Leo blinked. "A woman?"
"She says she's Rin's mother."
His stomach dropped.
---
She stood at the garden gate, poised and composed like a porcelain statue.
Same beige coat. Same immaculate hair. Same frost in her eyes.
Leo approached with caution. "Mrs. Hayashi."
She nodded curtly. "Leo Shen."
He waited.
Then she surprised him.
"I would like to talk. Not in a hallway. Not with sharp words. Just a talk."
Leo hesitated. "Alright."
She glanced toward the empty benches in the courtyard. "Somewhere public. I'm not here to argue."
They sat beneath the gingko tree, where the golden leaves fell like rain.
She didn't speak right away.
She looked at the sky. At the cobblestone path. At nothing in particular.
Then finally, softly:
"Rin's father proposed to me during a typhoon."
Leo blinked.
She continued.
"Everyone told him not to. That it was too soon. That I was too cold for him. He did it anyway. With wet hair and shaking hands and a ring that didn't fit."
Leo waited, unsure.
She glanced at him. "He was the soft one. I was the spine. It worked. Until he died."
Silence.
"I see too much of him in Rin. The impulsive heart. The disregard for consequence. But… I also see how she looks at you. And it terrifies me."
Leo's voice was steady. "Because you're afraid she'll make the same choice?"
"No," she said. "Because she'll make one I can't control."
Another pause.
She sighed.
"I spoke harshly. Unfairly. You didn't deserve that. Neither did she."
Leo blinked. "Are you… apologizing?"
She gave the faintest smile. "Don't get used to it."
He almost laughed.
"I came to give you both a chance," she said. "Not full permission. Not approval. Just room to breathe."
"What does that mean?"
"It means," she said carefully, "if Rin still wants to be with you after this school year ends, and you've proven you can stand on your own two feet—then I won't stop her. No arranged plans. No forced separation."
Leo's heart thudded. "But until then—?"
"You will not distract her from her studies. You will not drag her into your family drama. And you will not let this become her burden."
Leo nodded. "Understood."
She stood.
"One year," she said. "Impress me."
Then she left.
---
Leo didn't move for a while.
The wind danced through the leaves. A pair of birds chirped above. His hands were still clasped together tightly, knuckles white.
And then his phone buzzed.
Rin: I heard she visited you.
Leo: She said she's not going to stop us.
Rin: …What?
Leo: One condition. One year. We stay strong.
There was a long pause.
Then:
Rin: I'm scared to hope.
Leo: I'm not.
Rin: Why not?
Leo: Because I already chose you.
She didn't reply right away.
But a moment later, a photo came in.
A single ginkgo leaf.
The message read:
> Then I'll meet you under this tree next year. No matter what.
---
The following week passed in a strange balance of tension and peace.
Rin returned to normal—not all at once, but enough that her eyes no longer flinched at shadows. She still kept to herself, but she laughed when Yuki cracked jokes again, and even playfully shoved Hana when the latter teased her in gym.
Kai noticed too. "So," he whispered to Leo during club. "We're entering the 'deal with the scary parent arc,' huh?"
Leo nodded. "With one twist."
"Which is?"
"I get to fight for her."
Kai grinned. "Romantic. Risky. Reckless. I approve."
---
And so, in that quiet corner of the school, beneath golden trees and watchful skies, Leo found a kind of hope that didn't come from fireworks or confessions—but from steady hands, unspoken vows, and a mother's reluctant grace.
The war wasn't over.
But for the first time—it felt winnable.