Mmm- mmm.

Oga ignored the vibrating phone in his pocket. It would be his sister. The last 3 messages had been his sister, demanding that both he and Furuichi head home immediately. It was barely even 5 o'clock – when had he ever been home before 5 o'clock? Never mind that he was just playing video games at Furuichi's house, he'd go home when he was ready.

Mmm – mmm.

"Ugh, fine."

Ignoring Furuichi's complaints, Oga paused the game to check the phone. Yep, 2 messages from Misaki. He opened the older one first:

[Sender: Misaki]

[GET HOME NOW MY BRAINS ARE ALL OVER THE FLOOR WE NEED TO TALK]

Still with no clue what she was so worked up about, Oga opened the second message:

[Sender: Misaki]

[Did you really think you could keep this from me? I'm so fucking proud of you little brother :D ]

Now he was really confused. When had she ever been proud of him? Only ever for delinquent stuff, but he hadn't done anything really bad lately, nothing for this sort of reaction.

He typed out a reply:

[What am I supposed to have done?] [SEND]

Leaving his phone open on the floor next to him, he picked the controller back up.

"Ready?" he asked his friend.

"Yep."

"Dah!" To the little demon, game play was like cartoons, and the gorier the better – 'Mutant Sailor Zombie Scout III' was Baby Beel's version of Elmo.

They both looked to the screen as Oga unpaused the game, and the two boys quickly focused on slashing their way through an army of zombies, trading insults and warnings with each other. Until...

Mmm – mmm.

Oga sighed and hit pause again, Furuichi swearing at him, as his character froze a step away from the end point – Beel slapping the screen to make the zombies move again.

"Who's texts are that damn important?!" Furuichi demanded.

"It's Misaki, she says I've done something," Oga replied as he opened the text. Weirdly, it was a picture of Furuichi. A really good picture, in which Furuichi looked really fucking good. Oga stared at the picture. It was just of his friend sitting at cafe table, but at the same time, it was so much more than that.

His hair seemed to glow compared to the dark light of the cafe. His school books were open on the table, but he was looking out the window instead, chin resting in his hand, straight into the camera on the outside of the window, looking straight at whomever looked at the picture. Oga wondered when Furuichi had become that beautiful.

Still staring at the beautiful picture-Furuichi, Oga jumped when the annoyed living one spoke.

"So what did you do?"

"Oh, um..." Oga looked at the caption of the picture:

[You know what you did ;) ]

Winky-face? WINKY-FACE? What was his sister implying?! Wait, what was she implying? Oga tried to process while Furuichi and Beel looked at him – Furuichi increasingly convinced that Oga had taken one too many hits to the head, Beel wondering if electro-shock therapy would unpause the game any faster.

"You know what you did" ... a picture of Furuichi... the winky-face... wanting to talk... proud of me... the winky-face... "did" ... the winky-face... Furuichi... DID Furuichi? DOES MISAKI THINK FURUICHI AND I HAD SEX? Why would she think that? Where did she get that picture... better save that pic to my phone... But why does she think we've had sex? Do we give off a Had Sex With Each Other vibe and oh shit he's still waiting for an answer.

"I, um, have to get Baby Beel home." Oga smiled as he picked up Beel, confident he'd avoided the question.

"Seriously, what did you do?" Furuichi asked again, becoming more interested, thinking that it must be something really embarrassing if Oga was avoiding talking about it.

Oga thought for a moment, then bolted out the door, down the stairs, said a hurried goodbye to Mrs. Furuichi as he replaced his shoes and grabbed his bag, threw himself out the door and took off running down the street, Beel slapping his head like a jockey to make him run faster. He was a block away before he slowed down, certain that this time he had avoided the question.

He pulled his phone out to look at the picture again. When had Misaki taken such a good picture of Furuichi? Oga didn't think they spent any time alone together. And more to the point, when had Furuichi started to look that good? Oga paused.

When had he started to think that Furuichi looked good?

Oga shook his head. "It's the photo," he thought, "that damn photo, it just surprised me."

Oga really did jump in surprise when the phone suddenly went off in his hand. Mmm-mmm. Another text message from Misaki, he thought, reading it.

[Sender: Furuichi Takayuki]

[Seriously dude, what did you do?]

For a moment, Oga seriously considered throwing his phone away, but instead shoved it to the bottom of his school bag.