[ He does understand how hard it'd be. Although Mamoru would never dare to complain about it out loud or even to himself - since he's much more prone to just plainly running himself into the ground over it rather than realising just how much he's doing that to begin with - he gets that the situation is a little like it was with him and Kaito. How it still is with them, honestly, although a little less so. Kaito is his best friend and Mamoru cares for him so deeply, but since he's gone through so much already, he's never wanted to bother Kaito with his own problems in turn. Instead he just kept them to himself, bottling them up while convincing himself every morning that he could deal with it.

.. it wouldn't surprise him if Kiraki did something similar. When she cares for other people, she always cares very, very deeply. Mamoru knows it. The moment she knew about Haruto being bullied, she was already charging ahead to teach those bullies a lesson. No way she'd want to burden her Messiah then.

Even if Kiraki does need to talk about things. Honestly, Mamoru almost feels a little ashamed. She's having so much trouble with saying this much, putting emphasis on what Umie has gone through.. but Kiraki's gone through a lot too. More than him. She shouldn't be the one putting herself in the last place here. ]

It's alright. Don't blame yourself. [ His voice is steady, and he's hoping it's reassuring. ] I know it's hard.. So instead, if you ever need to let something out, you can tell me. I'll listen, no matter what it is.

[ With him she won't have to worry about it, right? Or so Mamoru thinks, anyway. He'll carry her burden too, if it'll help her look a little happier - that thought makes him squeeze back with his hand a little in return. ]

I mean, with everything with Kaito.. I sort of get it. [ So there's no way he'd judge her for saying any of this. ]