Renga

Renga is the slash ship between Reki Kyan and Langa Hasegawa from the Sk8theinfinity fandom.

Canon
Langa is introduced as a Canadian transfer student, attending the same class as Reki. While on the street looking for a part-time job, Langa encounters Reki once more, by stopping his skateboard from rolling down the road. Reki offers Langa a chance to ride his board, Langa agrees, only to stumble and fall off immediately. Reki demonstrates how to ride it, leaving Langa intrigued. Langa is later employed as an assistant, working at the same shop as Reki.

He and Reki are to deliver a skateboard to a buyer, located at “S”, an illegal skateboard racing arena located in an abandoned mineshaft. Reki discovers that he brought the wrong skateboard. The buyer, unsatisfied, claims he will not participate in the race without a proper board, he tells Reki to replace him, but, before Reki can agree, Langa decides to skate for him instead, this worries Reki, as Langa can barley stand on a skateboard, let alone ride it. Langa tapes the board to his feet, and the race begins. Langa is revealed to be a snowboarder, he catches up to his rival, Shadow. This surprises Reki, leaving him in awe.

Now that Langa beat Shadow in the race, he is named “The Rookie” by most members of S. Reki is impressed and proud of Langa, calling him amazing and cool. Langa decides that he wants to continue skateboarding. Reki is happy about this, and proudly becomes his coach / teacher. Langa tries to impress Reki by skating down the street, but Reki soon realizes to his horror, that there is a busy road waiting for him at the bottom. Reki concerned for his friend, screams his name but, it was too late, Langa falls into the street, almost getting run over by a truck, luckily he survives and Reki tends to his wounds.

In episode 3, Langa is challenged by Miya to another race at "S". After quite a bit of protest from Reki, Langa accepts. Reki doesn't believe Langa is ready to race Miya, but supports him nevertheless. Reki then realizes a handicap Langa had been having to deal with. The fact that his board didn't turn as Langa was used to, and Reki immediately stumbled upon a solution. He worked tirelessly on the board until Langa was able to try it out, and then, then it was time for the race. After a very close and intense race, and an emotional moment between Miya and Reki afterwards, Adam comes in to inspect the newcomer. After being thoroughly insulted, Reki challenges Adam to a race to protect the honor of his friends.

Episode 4 gets a bit wild. People had constantly attempted to talk Reki out of it, but he wouldn't back down. Now, not only was he defending Miya's honor, he was defending Langa as well, and this came largely into play. During the race, Reki could've almost been killed, and Langa was shown to have expressed extreme concern on the subject, even going as far as to steal someone's motorcycle and race after them. Reki was knocked off and sent flying, where Langa immediately rushes over to him, but Reki is still smiling somehow, even after all of that.

Fanon
It's a new but understandably popular ship in the Sk8theinfinity fandom. Despite being so new, it has a large fanbase on Twitter and Tumblr, and a decent few fics on AO3. Renga can often be portrayed as soulmates because of their matching hair colors, blue and red, and generally the way they act.

Reki is seen as the “caretaker” and “protector” in the relationship, as he frequently shows concern for Langa’s wellbeing, as well as dressing Langa’s wounds, and making sure Langa doesn’t get into trouble. Reki is believed to have “saved” Langa from a lonely depressed life, as Langa’s father died and he had to give up snowboarding, one of the things that made him happiest in life. Now that Reki has introduced Langa to skateboarding, he is much happier, and feels like he has purpose in life. Langa, in addition, also shows concern for the other, and is very protective and affectionate towards Reki. Renga is the most popular and most written ship for both characters for a variety of reasons, and its popularity will likely grow as the show progresses.

Fandom
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