“Hey, don’t be like that. It’s like this: we were told to get all the good looking guys to come. They’re stewardesses. Stewardesses, man. They’re going to be hot.”

“I’ll pass.” Yuichi waved them away. “Oh, and don’t bother me again. I told you before that I never want to hang out with you guys again. Wasn’t that after I took one of your women? She wasn’t that good anyway. Terrible in bed.”

One of the group's members started to push forward, looking as if he wanted to punch Yuichi, but the others pushed him back.

“What’s the matter? Let him go. He’s not competition for us anymore. You can tell just by his face.”

“You guys have no guts. Stewardesses or no stewardesses, go and have your singles night. I’m not having anything to do with it.”

Yuichi glared at the group. Everyone fell silent as the tension drowned out all else. With a spit as their final retort, the group finally left the cafeteria. Yuichi made a face.

“Aah, what was I doing?”

“Ye-yeah! I mean, a singles night…”

“Eh? What do you mean? I don’t have any reason to go anyway. It’s not that.” Yuichi sighed. “Why did I ever hang out with those guys? They’re all idiots. At one time I thought they were cool. They were all so proud of how many people they’d been with, how many people they’d dated. And stewardesses. What idiots.”

“Yuichi…”

Kanae wanted to pull Yuichi close to him. He’d stopped saying that he wanted a woman or he wanted to hook up with someone. Before, those were the only things he’d talked about.

“They really weren’t cool.”

This wasn’t the time to ask about what was bothering Yuichi, so Kanae stayed silent, drinking his tea.

“…Come to think of it, do you have any friends?”

“Yeah…” Yuichi pointed a finger at Kanae.

“I only need you. I only really have fun when I’m with you. You don’t have any friends apart from me either, right?”

“I have a few people I know, but no one I’m close to like you. I guess I don’t have any friends either, really.”

“It’s best to have a friend and a lover in one, huh?”

Yuichi flashed Kanae a roguish grin.

“I already have what I want. So I don’t need to go to any parties. Anyway, would you be bothered if I went?”

Of course I would. I would hate it.

But Kanae knew he had no right to stop him.

“…but, don’t you enjoy them?” he asked brightly. Yuichi studied Kanae’s face for a moment and then sighed.

“If I went I’d surely get laid. You’d be ok with that?”

No. No I’d hate it.

But Kanae wouldn’t say anything. He couldn’t say anything.

Yet he couldn’t bring himself to say that he would be all right with it.

Kanae smiled. “Well, whatever. That’s you, I guess. Anyway, what are we doing today? Want to go eat somewhere?”

Kanae was relieved that Yuichi was back to normal.