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"Jou, you dropped something."
Jou turned around. "I did?"
Mira had a picture in her hands. Jou reached to grab it, but not before Mira got a look at it.
"What's this?" She asked, looking back up at Jou.
Jou took the picture from her and shoved it in his pocket. "Nothing. Just something a friend gave me."
His avoiding response grabbed the attention of everyone in the room now. That wasn't good. Now all eyes were on him. This wasn't how he had wanted this to happen.
"Then why so secretive? Top secret photo?" Mira pouted and crossed her arms.
"It's just not something anyone was meant to see." Jou replied.
"Come on. I think you can trust us with it."
"I agree. What are we going to do with this information?" Ishiro added on.
"I..." Jou trailed off, not knowing what to actually say in his defense. He just hadn't wanted anyone to see it. At least not until he had actually given them the background information needed for such a thing.
"You can tell us." Taiya said.
Jou hesitantly grabbed the photo and stared at it. Mira looked it over again too as hard as Jou tried to keep it out of her sight. The others started gathering around him now too. Everyone saw the photo.
"So, who are they?" Genba asked.
The photo was what appeared to be of a family. A mom, dad, and a little girl.
"It... it's my family." Jou mumbled. "I..."
"Your family?" Ishiro repeated.
"Then who is that girl? Where are you?" Sakito questioned.
Jou hesitantly looked up at everyone. He hoped no one could see the anxiety on his face but he doubted that.
"It... it's me. I..." Jou trailed off and swallowed hard.
There was an awkward silence for a moment as everyone began to take in what he said. Jou hoped they understod what that implied and would just leave it now. He didn't know how to continue to conversation. He hadn't planned on what to say.
"Oh. So, why do you have this picture anyway?" Taiya asked.
Jou blinked at him for a minute. That was it? He wasn't going to ask anything more of it?
"A family friend found it and wanted to give it to us. I was going to drop it off at my parents." Jou replied.
He put the picture back in his pocket. He didn't really want to look at it anymore. It was always a strange feeling to see who he used to be. And now everyone here knew about it too.
He still wasn't sure how to feel about that. It was hard to tell just what was going on in everyone's heads. How did they truly feel about this information? Did they understand what was being said here? Was someone going to ask what he meant? They all understood he was trans, right?
Was he overthinking it all?
"You know you're supported here." Mira said, offering him a smile.
"You don't have to say anything more about it if you don't want to. We won't bring it up again." Taiya nodded.
"Indeed. You can keep these secrets to yourself for as long as you need." Genba said.
"Tomorrow it will be like this never happened." Ishiro agreed.
"It really doesn't matter. You're you. That's all we need." Sakito shrugged.
Jou smiled. "Thank you, everyone..."
"Group hug!" Mira announced.
Before anyone had much of a time to react, Mira had Jou engulfed into a tight hug. Jou laughed. Taiya and Genba joined, Ishiro being unwillingly drug into it as well. Sakito also got forced into it.
A very awkward group hug, but Jou didn't mind it. It was definitely helping calm the anxiety that had been floating inside of him.
It was nice to know that no one here even gave it a second thought.