[AQ]A friend in...need?[Yukiya/Mitsuo][DONE]

[Yukiya]

He sighed. "Ah, yes. Once upon a time, I was once known as the King of Flirts," he bragged, but he slumped his shoulders, "But you see, after a few times getting ignored, rejected, and once hit in the face, I thought maybe I should step down and watch from afar!" He laughed at first, but he just slumped again. To be honest, it might've broken down one of his friends too...

"...well, anyway! It's not only authentic, but really good I'm not just saying that because I'm my dad's son, either. My grandpa also runs a sushi place too...my family was born into cooking royalty, you could say, but unfortunately I'm not about that life." He laughed, before eating more of his food, "My parents are fine with it. They're all about following your own dream or something, but to think a great place like that will shut down when I close is a bit sad."

He was surprised to see that Mitsuo brought his own lunch too, one that looked so much better than the cafeteria food. "I...I'd rather eat that stuff. Oh, and it's a mother's homemade cooking...ah, my heart~" He looked around and picked up some of the vegetables. "Since my dad is a chef, my mom doesn't really have to cook. Instead, she makes fun of my sister and I instead," he said, laughing. "Just out of curiosity, do you like cooking too? Or just fond of eating like I am?"

Unfortunately, his cheeriness ended when Mitsuo told him about his phone. He thought the color might've drained out of his face. "That sadist! Is he really messing with me?" he said, looking for the other teacher. Thankfully he found her in the cafeteria line, holding it, but not really paying attention. "Hi, sensei! Uh, that phone, I think that's mine?"

"Eh? No, it's from the other teacher," she replied, "He gave it me for safe keeping while he took care of another student."

"Oh, huh? You sure? It looks like mine. Can I take a better look?" he said, but the teacher just shook her head and turned away. So much for trying to sneak it back. He came back to Mitsuo, sighing deeply.

"Dammit. I really want it before school ends...what can I do..." he muttered, stuffing part of the potato salad in his mouth. "...this is good too."

[Mitsuo Takahashi]

"Pffffft!" Mitsuo couldn't help but laugh at that one. He was about to make a joke about that title too - until he noticed the way his shoulders slumped. The freckled boy had only stared at him, his mouth partly open as if he was about to say something, but he hadn't a clue if this was something he should bring up. Besides, they had only just met right? It felt weird to suddenly ask him something like that out of the blue...or was it? He was however, saved - or perhaps he missed his chance - by the second-year's switching topics to food again. "Well, that's what I'm counting on!" he said, grinning. He laughed at the other's comment about being born into 'cooking royalty'. But he faltered slightly at the mention of the restaurant possibly closing - but he soon brightened up again. "Well then, I'll just need to eat there before it closes! Oh hey, let me know it's name and the address! I'll come visit you or something one day and you can tell me all the good dishes I can try!"

The freckled boy laughed at his comment, letting the other pick one of the stewed vegetables. "Really now?" was his response, as he bit off one of the fried chicken pieces. Ahhhhh it was sooooooo goooooooooood. But he seemed to chew for a while, mulling over his words, until he swallowed quickly. "Actually that makes sense now that I think about it," he said, laughing at himself. He could only give a grin of amusement at Yukiya's words about his mom; she certainly sounded like an interesting person. "Oh me?" he repeated, pointing at himself with his chopsticks. "Well! I love food and I love cooking it too!" he said, flashing him a wide grin.

He would have talked more, if not for the way the other's face had gone pale. He blinked, but before he could ask anything, Yukiya had taken off, running up towards the teacher. The freckled boy only blinked in confusion again, staring at the second-year - who appeared to be trying really hard to talk to the teacher. Maybe trying to bargin something with her for the phone? But the teacher left quickly; and Yukiya appeared dejected as he returned to the seat. Mitsuo could only give him a look of sympathy. "Cheer up Yukiya!" he said, trying to give him a reassuring smile. "I'm sure that the teacher'll give it back to you at the end of the day like he promised! Besides, unless you have like pictures of naked girls in there, I doubt you'll get into trouble." He gave a laugh.

[Yukiya]

Thankfully Mitsuo was an easy person to amuse, and distract. Especially when food was concerned. It'd been a while since he'd met such an excitable person that wasn't a Guardian Character. "Yeah, sure. Maybe I could get you a discount too," he said. He grabbed an extra paper and ripped it, writing the name "Naha Paradise" on it and and the restaurant's address. "Sure, sure. I've been the tester for my dad's food for years!"

He ended up taking another part of his vegetables and ate it with the pork cutlet. "There's just something that makes it taste different when it's homemade, isn't it?" he said, smiling happily. "You should bring some food for me to eat. I mean, to taste." If his mom was a good cook, he'd probably be good too, right?

Unfortunately his cheery mood was cut off with his cell phone with another teacher. Naked girls? Well that was bad, and okay there might've been a few girls (with clothes on) on his phone, but the amount of sentai weapons and mechazords and stuff like that on his phone was the worst thing he wanted to show people. "Y-You don't understand," he said, shaking, "...we have to get that phone back. Right now."

[Mitsuo Takahashi]

"Discount?!" he said, his eyes shining, before giving a whoop of victory. "Yes! I'll totally love that!" But then he blinked, and he quickly pulled his hand down, slightly embarrassed. "Oh I mean, that was rude wasn't it," he laughed sheepishly. "I shouldn't be asking for a discount from my classmate like that! I'll pay the full amount don't worry!" Still, he took the piece of paper with a smile, reading it quickly. "Naha Paradise, huh?" he soon said before smiling back at him. "Is there a reason behind the name?" he asked, out of curiosity.

"I know!" Mitsuo couldn't help saying, giving the other a toothy grin. He bit into another fried chicken, relishing once again in it's taste. "My mom's a housewife, so she's been cooking for both me and sister for like...eons!" He laughed at his words, picking one of his stewed vegetables. He quickly munched on them, until the other asked him a question. "Oh-" and quickly he swallowed his food again. "I totally would! In fact, I could totally cook some for tomorrow and let you have a taste!" He flashed him yet another wide grin.

Mitsuo was really making a joke - but upon seeing the other's look of horror, his expression soon turned to one of concern. This sounded serious. Was there something on the phone that he didn't want the teacher to see? "Whoa are you okay?" he asked, his eyebrows furrowed in worry. "Um, maybe you could talk to the teacher or something? Like tell them what's wrong? I mean, if it's serious, I'm sure they'll let you have it back soon enough."

[Yukiya]

"I mean. It'd just be a 5% discount. Any more and my mom would probably kill me," he said, laughing nervously. "But we could use the business. And somehow a guy like you sounds like you could be good advertising for the restaurant. As for the name, well. Naha's the capital of Okinawa. And it is paradise. So we brought a slice of paradise back to Otonoki." He winked at him, but wait, this was Mitsuo so he just shifted his eyes to the side. "Naha is also where my dad's from. We had a trip to Okinawa recently and I got to visit my aunt there."

"I bet my mom would like to be a housewife...just kidding. She's already somewhere in her forties and has too much energy to be anything but a business owner. But yes, I can feel her hard work in this veggies! ...and you're way too kind," he said. If only he could cook better. He could cook...decently in return, but the hours in the restaurant haunted him and he hadn't cook much since he started working for Faberge.

All of this was just a distraction while he was thinking up a plan to get his phone back. "I'm fine. I was just thinking...that maybe...I should go after them..." he said. What if someone else saw the photo? Were they passing it around like a game of hot potato. "You think they'd be in the teacher's lounge right? It's their lunch break. I mean, we don't have to get it now. Just, uh, observe! Yes!" Technically he didn't have to bring Mitsuo into it but he felt stressed and needed to vent somewhere. But he didn't move yet. Instead he went for a piece of chicken. "...uh, but your mom's food is really good..." He couldn't even believe he was distracted enough by good cooking to not go after it, but here he was.

Yuki returned to Mitsuo still in shock. He had to plan, of course.

[Mitsuo Takahashi]

"Makes sense," he said, laughing a little before biting into another piece of fried chicken. "Pffft, do I?" he started laughing in amusement. "Well I'm happy to be of service anyway!" He only continued munching onto his food, nodding every once in a while at the boy's explanation. "Oh wow!" was his response, before laughing at Yukiya's 'paradise' comment. "Man, I would love to visit Okinawa one day too!" he gave a dreamy sigh. "And eat all the food there, and visit the places there and everything...but definitely mostly for the food," he stated once again, popping a tamagoyaki into his mouth this time. "Was it nice there when you visited your aunts?"

Mitsuo gave another snort of laughter at the boy's statement about his mother. "I think my mom likes to be a housewife," he said, laughing. "And she loves to cook too, so it all works out!"

There was yet another pause as the freckled boy stared back at the second-year in front of him. Honestly, he did look a little pale from before, and was certainly rather panicky, judging from the way he was talking about the phone. He didn't know what was in it, but clearly the boy needed help. Mitsuo then peered down at his lunchbox - which was nearly finished, now that he really took a look at it. Most of the fried chicken was gone, save for 1 or 2 pieces, and there was no more pork cutlet left on his plate. With Yukiya taking some of the vegetables, he was left eating the other side dishes - and already he had quickly eaten through them, so there wasn't much left. He continued to stare down at the box for a while, before a determined look settled over his face and he set the bento box down on the table.

"You know what," he began. "Why don't we go to the teacher's lounge?" he stated clearly with a bit of a smile, looking back at Yukiya.

[Yukiya]

"Maybe you could be like that guy on the food channel that travels the world to eat all kinds of food," he said. "Hmm? Yeah, we went about a month ago? Summer's a good time to visit Okinawa because you get to go to the ocean and look at girls in bikinis and food, food everywhere! Although my beach time was interrupted because I had to help my aunt with her dance practice stuff. I can't dance, but she needed someone to keep a bunch of her students in line..." He sighed. "Next time, I'll spend most of my time relaxing!"

He tried not to panic so much, but the food was almost done and now he couldn't stop thinking about it. "Somehow that's weird in my family...I think I only know one of my aunts that doesn't work anymore," he said, laughing nervously. "But yeah, thanks for the food. It was really good."

He knew that he should help Mitsuo out, but he really wanted to go to the teacher's lounge. He was thinking that he might be able to give a tour while going in that direction, before the new boy suggested going there together. "...what, really? ..you'll help me?" he said. It was terrible to get a new guy in trouble, but this was an emergency. "...thanks man. For this, I'll give you a meal on the house." He got up and put away his lunchbox. "Operation Get Phone Back Commences now!"

[Mitsuo Takahashi]

Mitsuo paused at his words - before his eyes shone at the idea. "That would be awesome!" he said, grinning wildly. He gave a dreamy sigh, already listing places off in his head that he would visit and eat all of their food. "Travel and food - who wouldn't love that? In fact, I'll totally tour the whole of Japan first, to see what other foods that no one has discovered yet! And then I'll move on to the rest of the world!" he said with an excited fist pump into the air, before lowering to pick up a piece of tamagoyaki to pop into his mouth. He could only laugh at the rest of Yukiya's words. "Oh man, that sounds rather boring," he said, pulling a bit of an amused smile.

"No problem, Yuki!" he said with a grin, giving the other a thumbs-up. "I'm glad you enjoyed it - in fact my mom would be overjoyed too, to hear that!" Then again, she would probably chide him again for sharing his food...but considering he did it so often that his mother had simply sighed in resignation, letting him do it however much he wanted.

"Yeah!" he said, smiling reassuringly at Yukiya. To be honest, he felt bad for the guy; after all, who would liked to have their phone taken away by a teacher like that? Besides, he seemed to be rather panicky and afraid the moment he saw the phone in the other teacher's hand...maybe there was something important in it that he couldn't let the adults see? Which he had no clue what it was, but he didn't want to pry. "Yeah!" he said with a fist-pump into the air, snapping the lid onto his bento box shut quickly. He stood up, pulling the chair behind him, to walk with Yukiya towards the teacher's lounge. "So what's the plan?"

[Yukiya]

"Somehow I feel like you could make ratings go sky high," he muttered dryly. Though he also thought traveling the country would be fun. "Maybe we'll graduate and have a road trip or something. Post it on Youtube or some site. Make money," he said, laughing. "And yeah, it was boring but I got to the beach in the end, and that's all that matters!" He gave Mitsuo a thumbs up. "Hope your mom doesn't mind if I try some of her food again, ahaha."

But now was not the time for (admittedly delicious) food, it was the time for action! The two boys got out of the cafeteria and into the hallway. If he remembered correctly, the teacher's lounge was just right down this way. The second teacher was right in front of them, and it looked like she noticed them, by the way she turned around and frowned at them.

"You two again? Can't kids just not have their phones for one afternoon, really?" she sighed. If it wasn't for the fact she was angry at them, Yuki would've thought she was really pretty for a teacher. She had to be 30 at most, jade colored eyes and had thick black hair that went to her waist. She wore a cream colored peacoat and brown boots.

Unfortunately this stare down made him want to run away and give up, but she accidentally hit the home button on his phone, and his latest text message from his dad showed up. If he saw it right, there was a photo of a new Beetle Knight figure there. He thought he was turning pale as a sheet. Thankfully the image only showed up for a second.

"...Takahashi...what the hell should I do?" he whispered. For some reason the teacher didn't move. It was almost like...she wanted to give the boys a chance. But she was also smirking. That was not a good sign.

[Mitsuo Takahashi]

Mitsuo only tilted his head to the side in a bit of a confused manner at his words, but perked up with a smile once again at the other's suggestion. "Oh god, I would love that," he said, sighing dreamily. "Think of all the food we could eat! All the places we could visit! We could totally make like a food and travel video blog or something! Those like vlogs that those Youtubers are always taking about!" he said, laughing. Making money would be more of a side thing that he wouldn't mind having; what he was more excited about was being able to travel and eat food! He only nodded at Yukiya's comment about the beach, before beaming back at him once the topic switched to his mother. "Of course! In fact, you could come over to my house if you wanna eat more of my mom's cooking!" Was that too early to invite a friend over? Then again, Yukiya was a friend to him, even if unintentionally so, and Mitsuo always loved bringing friends over!

The freckled boy followed after the other as they walked towards the teacher's lounge. Admittedly he hadn't a clue what to do in this scenario; his friends had certainly had their phones nabbed by teachers often enough, but so far they usually teased each other until they got the phone back. Which was usually at some point after class or after the school day was over. But this was the first time he had seen somebody go so pale at having seen his phone being taken by the teacher. This was for a good cause! Mitsuo told himself.

But he faltered the moment the teacher stared back down at them.

He glanced at Yukiya to see what he would do first - until the boy had passed the baton to him. As much as Mitsuo thought of him as his friend, that still didn't mean he didn't want to curse at him a little for shifting responsibility to him now. "U-Um..." he began. Well, wasn't that fine and dandy. He hadn't a clue what to the hell to do. Perhaps going the honest route was the best way to do it. "Please Madam," he said, giving his best apologetic look he could ever give. "Our English teacher said that he could get his phone back once he showed me around. And he did!" he gave what he hoped was a smile of gratitude. After all, the boy did keep him company in the cafeteria and that was more than he could ever ask for in a new school. "Besides, he's been really stressed out about his phone being taken away, even turning pale while talking to me. You don't want to stress a nice student like him, right?"

[Yukiya]

"I'm sure there's a market for high school boy foodie blogs. Or something like that?" he asked. Bright personalities sure attracted girls like flies to trash. "You could start now if you really wanted to, I'm sure." He finished up his food, and was still trying not to panic so much. "Wow, seriously? She'd let me....well, I'll accept! ...when I find time. Faberge has way too many concerts..." he muttered. It was a headache to deal with after school but he wanted to stay there if he could. Especially if Suna might be involved with the egg business after all.

The teacher listened carefully to Mitsuo's response, and nodded. She considerably calmed down afterward, to Yuki's relief. "Ah, yeah. Sensei said something like that before he left off. So you transferred recently, huh?" she asked, still holding the phone in her hand. "But he really turned pale after a phone? Doesn't that sound like...he's hiding something?"

"W-Wait! No, I'm not hiding anything!" he said, which of course was a total lie. "Come on, sensei. He's a new kid! And...and I want my phone back, not because of what's on my phone, because I want to save his number! What if he needs to ask me more questions about the school! I haven't even shown him the...the..." he faltered, but he remembered something about this place. "The Planetarium! We gotta schedule a time where we can go together!"

The teacher, speechless at first, suddenly burst into laughter so hard she had to lean against the wall to support herself. "Y-You're kidding right? You really need your phone for that when you can use a piece of paper and a good landmark? You guys...need to learn to make better excuses. It's good when you gotta get out of things," she said, handing the phone back to Yuki. "But I needed a good laugh. Grading essay after essay breaks your soul after a while, and you two have restored my faith in this generation just a bit. I...I'll make something up for you when sensei comes back."

Unfortunately she once again hit the home button and that masked action figure came up again, and now even Mitsuo could see it in its bright, heroic glory. And so did the teacher, who laughed once again. "OH my god, is that Beetle Knight? My friend's daughter watches that religiously instead of the magical girl shows on Sundays. You're a little too old for that kind of stuff, aren't you?"

Yuki didn't say anything, and just took the phone. The teacher waved good bye, but Yuki just took this time to stash his phone into his bag and stare blankly into space. Honestly, he wanted to say a lot of things. Like hero shows were a family tradition, and a bunch of adults still watched it, but that probably wouldn't matter to the teacher.

But Mitsuo was still here, wasn't he? He slowly unfroze and faced him. Was he gonna make fun of him too now? As a fellow man, would he understand - or at least try to? "...h-haha, so...school...uh...food...number...r-right! Phone number!" he said. At least he didn't want to lie to Mitsuo about being friends with him, or having a guide to this place.

[Mitsuo Takahashi]

The boy paused at the other's words. Huh, he did have a point. Maybe there was. "Haha maybe I can start one then!" he said with a smile. "And Naha's Paradise will be the first restaurant on it!" he tagged on, pumping a fist into the air in excitement. But he soon blinked, lowering his hand. Faberge? "Faberge?" he repeated. Come to think of it, it sounded familiar...Had he maybe passed by a word like that while he was out and about in town?

Mitsuo nodded at the teacher's question - yes he was a transfer student - before his eyes suddenly widened in surprise. Goddammit. He wanted to kick himself for that. Of course the first thing the teacher thought was that Yukiya was hiding something, not that he was panicking over whatever that was on his phone! He looked frantically back at Yukiya, honestly not sure what he should do in this situation. God, he sucked at this. "Y-yeah!" the second-year began, gesturing towards himself as if on cue. He didn't know what the other boy was doing, but he would play along for his sake. Even if he hadn't a clue what the Planetarium was. "What he said! We just wanted to save each other's numbers after all!" God, would this fly?

Nope it didn't. The freckled boy only gave an embarrassed smile at the teacher's laugh, a clear indication that she had seen through them. Dammit. Did that mean that Yukiya wouldn't get his phone back? But when the teacher handed the device back, Mitsuo only stared in surprise, before he smiled. Hey, so it wasn't so bad after all! They managed to get his phone back! Now Yukiya would f--

Oh.

The freckled boy blinked at the picture of...whatever it was on the home screen. Some kind of...action...hero...thing....? Mitsuo had definitely seen them in his younger days, but he grew out of it pretty quickly, preferring outdoor activities and cooking to pretty much anything else. His gaze flickered from the phone to the teacher, and he tilted his head in confusion. He didn't recognise the name at all - was it a new masked action hero series? Honestly he was more confused than anything else. Was it a bad thing that he had something like that on his home screen? Sure it was childish - and that was kind of funny to the second-year - but it was a harmless TV show, wasn't it?

Yet the horrified look on Yukiya's face made it all the more clear that the other was definitely dismayed by the fact that the freckled boy had now seen the wallpaper on his phone. The sight of him however actually made Mitsuo give an undignified snort - and it soon exploded into all out laughter. He couldn't help it! Yukiya's distressed look completely set him off. And besides, it was hilarious to think that he would actually think Mitsuo would judge him for watching a cartoon show! Why did he even make so much effort to hide it? "I-I'm sorry!" he struggled out between peals of laughter. "It's just - your face! I didn't think you could make one like that!" It was so funny that he simply couldn't stop laughing! But mercifully for Yukiya, he soon quiet down, and he raised a hand as if to wipe tears of laughter from his face - although there really was none. "I mean, there's nothing wrong with liking a children's show is there?" he said, chuckling a little. "I don't get why you would want to hide it!" Actually he had kind of inkling that it was probably for some kind of image, but why should Yukiya hide something like that? It was a part of him, wasn't it? "Besides, having passion for something is a good thing, isn't it?" He flashed him a grin.

[Yukiya]

"Seriously? But you haven't even...I mean, what am I saying. We'd love the advertising," he said, grinning. He actually hoped this would go through, and Mitsuo would be famous, and the restaurant would keep going until his dad wanted to retire. "Faberge? The entertainment company? They have a partnership with the school, so some of us take a period off school to train over there as a performer, or, if you're like me, work backstage."

After the phone incident, Yuki was still recovering from this really embarrassing reveal - to someone who just transferred to the damn school, even. Although his status as a flirtatious playboy had withered away, he still wanted to be seen as cool? Approachable? Not the giant superhero nerd that he was when he got home, who religiously watched Sunday morning cartoons with his dad and bought all the figures and transforming items from a store at the mall dressed up like a hobo whenever he had money?

And now the guy was laughing like a hyena. Seriously, he was just gonna curl into a ball and roll out of here, except Mitsuo suddenly apologized to him. Yuki slowly turned his head, wanting to punch Mitsuo since he was still laughing at him. He dusted himself off and got off the floor, trying to calm his nerves. "I...you know, when it's not kind hearted guys like you, it's people like that teacher that make fun of you for liking childish things..." He touched his home screen phone. Even though it brought him so much shame, he just couldn't help but admire the newest model with the new Metamorphosis Belt. "...it's good to like certain things. Like cooking. Maybe not masked heroes. Not publicly, anyway." He sighed. "But I appreciate your optimism."

[Mitsuo Takahashi]

Mitsuo gave him a thumbs-up, grinning like an idiot. "You shall see the descent of the Foodie Schoolboy onto Naha's Paradise very, very soon!" he joked, laughing. Mitsuo was terrible at naming things, but it was clear that he didn't care too much about it at all. But at the boy's words about Faberge, the second-year furrowed his eyebrows further in slight confusion, tilting his head as the other explained. "Oh!" he suddenly said, his eyes lighting up in recognition. "Is it that uh...black building out in town? The one with the yellow name out on the front?" he asked eagerly. Though he had only transferred recently, he had walked a little around Otonoki, just to take a look at what the town to offer (though, he wondered how had he not seen Naha's Paradise...but then again, he hadn't explored the entirety of Otonoki yet). There was no missing that large - and fairly intimidating, now that Mitsuo thought about it - modern-looking building. "Whoa!" he exclaimed. "That's way cool! So does that mean there are like performers or something in this school? Oh does that mean you perform too?? Oh wait," he suddenly stopped himself. "You just said you work backstage didn't you..."

The freckled boy blinked at the second-year's words, before he realised he might have potentially made it all worse. Now that he thought about it, Yukiya probably hid it all for a reason, and was likely apprehensive now that Mitsuo knew it all - and here he was being insensitive by laughing at his face. Okay, the expression was still funny, but now he felt bad about making his newfound friend feel that way. "Aha sorry," he apologised again, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly. But as he watched how the other dejectedly look at his phone screen, he couldn't help but feel like trying to cheer him up. "Maybe," he said, shrugging. "But why should it be something you have to be embarrassed about? If it's something that you like, even if people wouldn't understand it, it's still a part of you right?" For a moment, it brought his own schizophrenia to mind, but he immediately willed those thoughts away, not wanting to distract himself. He quickly walked over and tapped at the phone with a determined look. "Honestly what's so bad about liking a superhero? He fights crime and brings peace right? I mean, I don't watch these sorts of shows anymore, but I'm sure they're still making the same old speeches about protecting the world and everything yeah?" He frowned down at the figure on the phone.

"After all," he started again. "It's not like it hurts anybody. And maybe if you open up about it, you'll find the people that will like your honesty - even if others don't." He grinned back at Yukiya again. "And besides, I'm sure one day you'll find people that like the same thing as you do! You can't be the only one that still likes cartoon shows at your age."

Before he suddenly paused, realising that he might have been assumed too much. "Unless you already have, that is," he said, frowning a little - until he beamed once again. "And that would have been great too!"

[Yukiya]

"You...let me give you a better name when it comes to me," Yuki said, shaking his head. At least Yuki might be able to help later on. This guy's positive attitude was infectious, and he couldn't help but smile as he got on. Probably helped that he could help his parents, though. "Yeah, that's the company," he said. He sighed a bit. He remembered at one point he was really impressed with the place, but now all he could think about it is work. "Yeah. Lots of idols and actors have been debuting from there for a while, and many of them come from Seiyo. But yeah, I just...wanted to work there because it seemed like a good place...to work," he said. Recently he wondered if he really had a reason for going there besides making sure Suna was all right, but he enjoyed the people, at least.

Ahh, this kid. It was really hard to hate the guy for being so upbeat. And he was trying his best to make Yuki feel better. He slowly curled out of his little ball and stood up. "...a part of me..." he repeated. He wasn't wrong. If anything the guy who loved these shows was the real him, not the cool guy he was at school. The way that Mitsuo talked sounded just like he was talking to one of the protagonists of his shows - or even like his own guardian character. ...was this guy real? Or just...ah, nevermind. "People just make fun of guys like that. And I don't blame them. It's weird to a lot of people to like something so much. But like you said, they bring peace to people. And hope. And friendship and...things like that," he said, trying to stop himself before he got excited again.

But as Mitsuo continued, he felt himself softening a bit. He scratched his head. "I don't know. But...but maybe you're right. ...I don't actually know anyone else who likes it besides my family. My cousins and my uncles - we used to watch episodes together all the time. It's a big family tradition. ...but I'm sure that I like it far more than anyone else," he said. After all, he had a lot of time on his hands, while the rest of his family had either work or a different hobby.

He sighed. This was not as terrible as he thought it would be. He smiled sheepishly at his new friend. Since he was new, he had no idea about how he was like. So maybe. He could take Mitsuo's advice and show his nerdy self a little, and see what happened. It's not like he could hide anything from him anymore, anyway. "You're a good guy. So, for being a good guy, I'll not only help you around - I'll give you a free meal like I promised earlier. I'm sure you'll make lots of friends here, but I hope I can be one of your first friends," he said, shaking his hands. It felt like the end of an anime episode, but in real life, it was more of a beginning. He hoped anyway.

The lunch bell rang. Oh, right. Had this really taken less than an hour? It felt like eternity. "Hey. Let's get to class, Takah--wait, no. Can I call you Mitsuo?" he asked. "...or is that a bit too friendly for meeting on the first day?"