Mob and Teru had been broken up for a whole year.

It had hurt, it really had, that day. The day when he told her that she had to choose, him or Reigen. She had been ready to go home, back to the home she shared with Master Reigen, and he asked her to come home with him. Not for the night, and she did sleep over sometimes, but forever. They were seventeen then and he had been legally emancipated, which meant that his parents still sent him money but they didn't have to take care of anything for him that would mean that they would have to set foot in Japan. He wanted her to stay with him forever.

She said that she had to think about it.

"What could there possibly be to think about, Shigeko?" that was what he said, or rather yelled, at her on that awful day. He yelled at her, actually yelled, something that he had never done before. It had been kind of scary. Kind of very scary. She didn't much like yelling or being yelled at.

"Me or him. Just…I can't do this anymore. Choose. Me or him." was something else that Teru had yelled at her. He expected an answer right then and there in the middle of the street. He expected her to make this big choice, who she was going to be with for the rest of her life, right then and there in the middle of the street while people passed them by and gave them looks for fighting in the middle of the street.

She needed time.

Because the entire thing had just been too much. She had fought off criminal organizations, evil spirits, the most powerful man in the world, divine stalks of broccoli, and even her own inner demons but that choice right there in the middle of the street had just been too much. She had needed more time, lots more time, but he just didn't give her any. She had been planning on making this choice when she became an adult. She had been planning on making this choice in another year. But Teru, by virtue of being emancipated, was already a legal adult. He was already and adult and had been for years. She had felt like a kid, such a kid, as she stood there and practically begged him for more.

Because he was asking a lot.

And she told him that.

"I am not asking you for anything. I just…why do you have to think about it? Don't you love me? We have been through so much fucked up shit together and you're still going to choose that-that-that REIGEN over me? It's always been him…you've always chosen him….for him, for him, all for him! Always for him!" Teru had been yelling before but as he got to the end of that sentence his voice got so loud that people were stopping to stare at them. She wished that they hadn't even started this conversation. She had no idea who she would choose. She loved them both equally.

But Teru was her age.

But she had loved Master Reigen for longer.

But it would have been easy to just go and live with Teru.

But it would have been even easier to just go back home.

Teru was asking her not to just move in with him but to spend her entire life with him, to give him perpetuity. She didn't know if that was something that she could give him. She had already promised perpetuity to Master Reigen. Not in the romantic sense but in the sense that no matter what happened she would always be there for him. She would always be his friend and he would always be hers. She would always have his back and he would always have hers. That was what she had promised and Teru wanted her to break that promise. He didn't just want her to live with him. He didn't just want her to be his girlfriend forever. He wanted her to totally cut ties with Master Reigen.

There was no way she was going to do that.

She needed more time. She needed time enough to come up with something that would make everyone happy. She didn't want to lose Teru or Master Reigen. There was an expression that she never understood. 'You can't have your cake and eat it too' which was confusing because it was her cake and she could do whatever she wanted with it. Now she understood better. You couldn't have your cake right there in front of you but also consume it. She couldn't have Master Reigen and Teru at the same time…

And she had loved Teru.

Teru had been the first person to ever change for her. He had been the first person she ever kissed, the first person she ever cuddled, the first person she ever slept next to that wasn't her brother, the first person she ever went into battle with, the first person she had ever almost died with, the first person she had ever done…things…with, and the first person she had ever reached instrumentality with. He had been all of her firsts and she had been most of his and they had been together for three years, an eternity by her standards, and she could not just stand to see him go.

But that was what he had done.

He had walked away from her on that day. He had said that if she was going to be that way, if she wanted to draw this out only for reject him later, which she had not been planning on doing at all, then she could just go crawl into bed with Reigen. She cried. He didn't care. She begged him to stay and talk to her. He didn't care. He just walked away and left her crying right there in the street. It was like she had lost a part of herself. A small part of herself had just gotten up and walked away, like she had a parasite body part like in Parasite the Maxima and it could just detach sometimes….

But this was real life and that part of herself that walked away with Teru was not ever going to come back.

That had been a year before all of this. A year before she confessed to Master Reigen. A year before they had reached instrumentality together. The wound was still raw, the one left when Teru left and took that part of her, but it only hurt when she thought about it. Originally it had been a constant, low level, hurt that nothing could make go away. Not hanging out with Master Reigen, not playing videogames with Serizawa, not going on crazy adventures with Tome, not listening to Ritsu plan his vengeance on Teru for ever breaking up with her, and not even Sho and his bucket full of animals that he used to avoid his problems, his words.

The wound had hurt.

But now it was healed.

Mostly. It felt more like it had scabbed over. So long as she didn't pick at it then she would be fine. She just had to leave it all alone and hope that the scab grew into a scar. Not that she had scars. Once she learned how to channel her powers into healing her vessel she had just sort of stopped getting scars. Scars and other stuff. She hardly even ever got sick anymore. But this wasn't physical, it was emotional, and it still…it could be hard.

Some days could be easy and some days could be hard.

The days when she didn't think about it were the easiest. Those days had come more and more and more as the year had gone by. The initial hurt passed as the wound scabbed over. It had been slow at first. Every little thing reminded her to Teru. The clothes she wore, clothes that he had helped her pick out, the way she wore her hair, hair that he had spent countless hours running his fingers through, the foods she ate, foods that she had learned to cook with him….it had been slow going but she had gotten through the worst of them…

There were better days now. There were days when the pain didn't come at all. When she could go through an entire day without even thinking about him. When she could walk past places that they had gone on dates, see movies that he had introduced her to, wear clothes that they had gotten on shopping trips together, and not feel bad for more than a second. It had gotten easier as the weeks turned into months and then turned into a year.

Then she started her relationship with Master Reigen. With Arataka.

So really it was a whole lot easier.

She was making new relationship memories with him. Not just bed memories, though those were good memories, but also just normal daily life ones. There was just something different about living their lives together as a couple. It was different. Getting up together on the same futon, having breakfast together, going to work together, making dinner together, cuddling in front of the TV….it was nice. Nice, new, good memories. The best sorts of memories. The kind that she could flip through when she had a moment with her thoughts. The kind that she could fall asleep next to him while flipping through. Even something as simple as getting ramen with him…it was different now…better.

These were better days.

She had no idea if she and Teru would have had good days like this. She had no idea what it would have been like to get up with him every single morning. To have breakfast with him. To cook dinner with him. To just be with him at all times and in all things. They had spent some days together, before, back when they were still a couple. Those had been nice days, good days, halcyon days, but they were done now. Done and over with and she did not miss them too terribly….but there was always that curiosity. That nagging little curiosity that killed the cat and would kill her too if she followed it for too long. That curiosity that would hit her as she laid next to Arataka at night and tried to drift off with him. The curiosity that followed her mind as she tried to drift off to the ebb and flow of his breathing, to the feel of his arm around her, to the warmth that burst into bloom within her at the simple fact that she finally had him. For years she had been dreaming of the day in which she would truly be Reigen Arataka's and now she was and it truly was everything that she had always imagined it would be…

She only had to feel a lot of pain along the way.

And she had to cause a lot of pain, too.

Teru had accused her of always putting Master Reigen, of always putting Arataka, before him. Teru said that he had known for years that Arataka had feelings for her, that he had been able to see it since that day when they defeated Claw for the first time. He had been able to see it and he had thought that she was just too oblivious to see what was right in front of her own two eyes. Well she had been, of course, because Master Reigen was an adult and she was just a kid, at the time, and she thought that he could never have developed those sorts of feelings for her. Even though they had been through so much together the thought that Reigen Arataka could have returned her feelings seemed like the craziest sort of dream. But it was not a dream. It was real life and it was the life she was living now but it had also been the life she had been living then.

Because aside from the fact that she and Arataka had sex now their relationship had not really changed.

And that was the part that had hurt Teru for all of those years.

Because Mob had feelings for the both of them in equal measure. She knew now, with the wisdom that came from age, that she had bene wrong to be with Teru when she had feelings for Master Reigen. She should have just put those feelings away. The feelings for one of them. But she had tried to have her cake and eat it, too, and that had done nothing but cause her and Teru both pain. She had been all of his firsts except for his first kiss. She had been the only person that he had ever changed for. Her, for her, always for her. He had even tried to…when they were fourteen he had even asked her to marry him…and she hadn't been able to give him an answer….

It was a moot point, now.

And it wasn't like she wanted to get back together with him, anyways. He had gone out with plenty of girls in the year that they had been broken up. Girls from his school, girls from places that he went to, even Rei which had been kind of weird because she was Mob's friend and Ritsu's ex-girlfriend from before he knew that he liked boys and not girls. Teru had moved on long before she had. It made sense, he had been the one to walk away from her that day. She had just stood there and cried…

Well it wasn't like she had thrown herself on the ground and begged for him to come back to her or anything like that.

They were broken up now and that was that. No use rehashing the past over and over and over again. She was in a relationship and he was between relationships but he would find someone else because he really was a great guy. They were adults now, the both of them, and they could be adults about this, too. They were all grown up and grownups did not agonize over relationships they had when they were kids. Besides, it wasn't like they were mortal enemies or anything. Mob had very few enemies and the ones that she did, Mogami and Sho's dad, were either exorcised or in prison until the end of time. She would never count anyone she loved currently or had loved in the past as an enemy. She just would not. She had no reason to, none at all. They had decided to remain friends.

They had decided to remain friends and that was what they were. They hung out a lot less, adult life was complicated and busy after all, but they were still friends. The sort of friends, adult friends, that did not get hung up on the past every single time they hung out. The sort of adult friends that didn't get to hang out that often, though, because adult life was different from kid life and they were both so very busy…that was all. That was why they didn't hang out like they used to. Not that Mob wanted them to hang out like they used to. Not that Mob wanted those halcyon days of their youth and the love they shared back. Not that Mob wanted to have her cake and eat it, too.

Well she did have her cake and she was going to eat it.

That was what had brought these thoughts of Teru back. Hanazawa Teruki. Former boyfriend, very good friend, and chooser of very good cafes to have lunch in. As friends. That was all. They were friends. Just friends. This didn't mean anything. Even though they had gone to cafes just like this before, so many times before, when they were kids. He liked coffee, she liked cake, and he liked to be seen with her for reasons that Mob still could not understand. She still had those, the endless pictures that he had taken of her, sometimes the two of them, but a lot of the times just her. He posted them to Friendbook, which a lot of people had moved past, and his other stuff too which she didn't have accounts on anymore. She could have always flipped through those pictures like she flipped through the memories of the time they had together. Endless dates…days spent just in each other's company. Pictures they posed for, pictures they didn't, pictures that she hadn't even known that he had been taking…

He really liked to take selfies of them right after they had sex.

She really didn't understand why.

That was the one good thing about not being in a relationship with Teru anymore, he stopped pulling his phone over with his powers while they were cuddling in the afterglow of it all and taking a picture to 'immortalize the moment' as he said. The moment had been immortalized but not only on his phone. He loved to immortalize the moment on the internet so that they entire world could know that they had sex and that he was good at it. He was very good at it…but that time had passed. That time was gone and she could not be thinking about that right now. Not when they were here, at this café, eating cake together.

"….so I don't know. They've been out of my life for so long but now, suddenly, they want me to just cross the world to be with them for university." Said Teru as he sat across the table from her. His parents had asked him their weekly phone call to come to Europe to be with them since Claw was well and gone, now, and they had no reason to think that he would put his parents in danger anymore.

"I think that you should do whatever makes you happy. I mean, I know how sad you were, before, because of your parents and if you wanted to go back to them and it would be something that made you happy…then that's what you should do." Said Mob because, well, it was just not fair for his parents to just go and ask him to uproot his life just because he was an adult, now, and his parents didn't have to be scared anymore. She knew how lonely Teru was because they had just abandoned him…she had held him through the tears that came when they missed their weekly phone call and E-mail.

"So you want me to go?" asked Teru. Mob shook her head.

"Teru, it doesn't matter what I want. I just want you to be happy." Said Mob. She didn't know what the meaning of his tone was, there. She was bad with tones and she was getting worse at reading him. Even his aura was had to read. He seemed to be trying to keep his aura away from her, even. He seemed to be wanting to keep himself away from her. Even the way he was sitting. He was sitting back, he always sat forward, before. But that wouldn't make any sense. He was the one who invited her out, today. He was the one who wanted to have lunch with her.

"You know…that's all I've ever really wanted for you, too, Shigeko." Said Teru. He always called her that. Shigeko. Her actual given name. He had always wanted to called her Shigeko. Never Mob. A little at the beginning but he always wanted to call her Shigeko even though she wasn't really a fan of her given name. Mob just fit better. It was her name and she could decide what she wanted to be called.

"When you care about someone you want them to be happy. That's what caring about someone is." Said Mob. She didn't see it any other way. She just wanted the people in her life to be happy. That was all she ever wanted for the people in her life. She would miss him, and that was just how she felt, but if reuniting with the parents that abandoned him when he was just a little kid would make him happy then that was what she wanted for him.

"I suppose so." Said Teru

"What do you think it is, then? Caring for someone, I mean." Said Mob. He used to care for her and now she was remembering it…all of it…but she didn't want to be thinking about this. She didn't want to remember those halcyon days when they would have been younger and planning their future or enjoying their present or even reminiscing about the past, their shared past…she didn't want to remember that…

"You want them to be happy…but you also want to be happy yourself, too. I don't know. Maybe I'm just selfish. Maybe I've just always been selfish." Said Teru. Mob got the feeling that they weren't talking about his parent's weekly phone call anymore.

"You're not selfish, Teru, not any more selfish than most people. I like you just the way you are and if going all the way to Europe would make you happy then I think that you should go." Said Mob. There was some silence between them. It didn't feel like a good silence. That happened a lot these days, these silences.

"….would you miss me? If I were to go." asked Teru after a while.

"I would, I really would, but I just want you to be happy." Said Mob

"Right, when you love someone you let them go…" said Teru

"Yes. That makes sense." Said Mob

"But they don't always come back, do they?" asked Teru

"I guess not. Are you saying that you wouldn't come back? Because that would make me sad, Teru. It would make me sad but I can't tell you what to do one way or the other. I just want you to be happy, that's all. Even if we aren't together anymore I want you to be happy." Said Mob. He sighed.

"I'm saying….I don't know what I'm getting at. I shouldn't even be getting at anything. I mean, I know you, and you can never tell when someone's getting at something." Said Teru

"I do have trouble with that, you're right. So please stop getting at things because you know that unless you're direct I'm going have trouble understanding. We haven't been together in a while, Teru, and I'm starting to….I guess that I'm starting to have trouble understanding you." Said Mob

"I know. I know and…and I guess that I'm having trouble understanding you, too. If I ever completely understood you, Shigeko. I don't know if it ever did…" said Teru

"That's ok. I mean, sometimes I can hard to understand. All people can be hard to understand sometimes, Teru, and that's ok." Said Mob

"I just mean….I have never been able to understand you. I have never been able to understand you one bit. I thought that I could, I like to think that I could, but I guess that I couldn't. I mean, even back when we were kids-" said Teru

"We aren't kids anymore, Teru, so you don't have to worry about that anymore." Said Mob

"We aren't? We aren't adults, Shigeko, we're only eighteen." Said Teru

"Eighteen is an adult, Teru, the law says so. Well we still can't drink or smoke but we're adults. You've been an adult for much longer than I have, though, so I guess that you would be more used to it. I guess that way it would make sense that you don't feel like an adult, because you've had to be one since you were a kid. It's hard for you, I think, I mean you always seemed so sad, sometimes, I think…and I'm sorry. And I'm sorry that you're sad now. If you don't want to feel like an adult that's ok, I guess. You've had to be an adult for so long and-" said Mob. She would have kept on talking, because sometimes he needed to hear that, but then he reached over and put a hand over hers.

She didn't know what she was supposed to do.

She held had held hands with him before, he was the first person who wasn't her brother who she had held hands with, and it felt just like the first time. Still nice. Still warm. Still…his aura still met hers when they held hands. This was new, though, because they hadn't done this in over a year…because they were broken up…

She had held hands with her brother before.

She had held hands with Sho, before, who was practically her brother.

She had even held hands with Serizawa before.

But those times had all been out of comfort. Sometimes the best way to give comfort to someone was just to hold their hand. Sometimes it wasn't enough to hold someone's hand, sometimes you had to hold them. Like when Ritsu thought that he was a bad person for cheating on Rei with Sho and she held him while he cried. Like the time when Sho just sort of broke down while they were playing dolls, not that they called it dolls at the time it was more the game of picking up random junk and acting out things that bothered them, he had broken down when the parent characters left the kid character all alone and Mob ended up having to pull him into her arms because he just would not stop crying….she even had to hold Serizawa once when the world got to be too big and too much and he was going to explode…

She hoped that this was one of those times. She hoped that this was one of those comfort times and not one of those romantic times. Those times were over and done with, now. They were broken up and they had moved onto other people and other relationships. As much as she thought about him and what they had before she would still never trade what she and Arataka had for the world.

"Teru, is this for comfort or because….or if because you might still like me?" asked Mob. Sometimes it was best to get right to the point of something. The question was an awkward one and it made the atmosphere awkward but it was one which needed asking. She needed to ask him because while she would gladly offer comfort, a human connection, she would not offer up a romantic one. She was a lot of things but a cheater wasn't one of them. She had never once, no matter how in love with Master Reigen she was, cheated on Teru. Not once. Not a single time.

He took his hand away.

"I honestly have no idea. I guess that…I may still harbor some feelings for you….but I would never force you to do anything that you didn't want to, and I know that you don't want that with me anymore." Said Teru. His voice sounded bitter, like coffee. That would make sense because he did drink a lot of coffee. Also because their break up was probably a wound for him too. A scabbed over wound that neither of them should be picking at. It hurt him too, Mob thought, even though he was the one who gave her an ultimatum and he was the one who had left her there crying in the street. He had just walked away…and that was what happened. She hadn't exactly chased after him…thrown herself down at his feet and begged him to stay with her…but that was also not something that she should have had to do.

They were a couple. He shouldn't have just dropped that question and the ensuing ultimatum on her like that…and she should not have had feelings for someone else. So maybe it was a good thing that they were broken up now.

"Teru…it still hurts to think about how we broke up and to remember what we had but…but I don't want us to fight or to feel bad. We have something that was really nice but it's over now." Said Mob

"Well you would be the expert." Muttered Teru

"What do you mean?" asked Mob

"You're the one who wanted to-" said Teru

"I never wanted to break up and I'm sorry that there was a misunderstanding. I didn't say that I wanted us to be broken up…I just said that I needed time. It was a big thing you asked of me, Teru, and I needed time to think and to process-" said Mob

"No matter how much time I would have given you the answer would have been the same. You would have still gone right back to Reigen." Said Teru

"I don't-I don't know that I would have-" said Mob

"You know that you would have. You've always gone back to him eventually. You went back to him after that time you disappeared after you leveled half the city-"said Teru

"I had to go home, Teru. I hadn't even been in control of my body for days. The other Shigeko was. She…she was hunting down Mogami…and she didn't really feed us or have us sleep that much…I can live off of my powers but it's not…good…" said Mob

"You could have just come to my house! Sorry, sorry, just…that was hard on me. That…whatever her name was…shows up out of the blue and then you just…exploded….and then you were gone…and that was right after the Divine Tree-" said Teru. Mob took a deep breath. She could feel her powers reaching out around her. She did not want to talk about that stupid tree. She did not want to go over every single thing that she had ever done wrong in her entire life. She was not the one on trial here, nobody was on trial, and if anybody had to be on trial then they should just find someone who deserved it and then put them on trial if Teru wanted to have a trial so badly!

"I. Did. My. Best." Said Mob. She needed to stay calm, to stay in control. She was an adult now and adults did not explode.

"I know, I know-" said Teru

"That stupid tree was bright, very bright. I couldn't see your aura or anyone's because it was so bright. I didn't know that it was evil or that it was stealing people and using them as batteries…and I'm sorry. I'm sorry that it got you and everyone else I care about…and I'm sorry that it got Dimple…double killed…and I'm just sorry, ok? I never meant to-" said Mob

"The second that it was all over you went right to Reigen. Not to me, not to your little brother, not even to Sho who thinks that he's your little brother. No. You went right to Reigen." Said Teru

"That doesn't mean that I didn't love you." Said Mob

"It sure felt like it, Shigeko. That's always the way it felt. Even after we stopped Claw from taking over the world you didn't even-" said Teru

"We made love right there in the dirt under the tree and from what I remember it was nice, really nice." Said Mob

"…we didn't do that until we got to the Awakening Lab…"said Teru

"Well then I guess that I remembered wrong, and I'm sorry. It was a lot, Teru. I had to give up my physical body and then put it back together again and-"said Mob

"I know. I was there. We were all there. I remember….I remember how it looked when you turned into that big white…thing…that looked like you but it was made of energy…how it grew and sort of bent over backwards and then…exploded…and then I thought that you had died-" said Teru

"I'm sorry that you had to see that. I'm sorry that any of that happened and I'm sorry that I did whatever it was that I did afterwards that I don't remember. Ok? I'm sorry and I don't feel like going over every single mistake that I've ever made-" said Mob

"You went with Reigen. The day afterwards you went with him to Lower Back Pain City and you just…you were there and you left me all alone…and I had no place to go…" said Teru

"I'm sorry. Master Reigen, Arataka, just woke me up and asked if I wanted to visit his mom. She's…she always been kind of a mom to me and I guess that I needed a mom then. I needed someone because I was scared, Teru, I was scared. I died….I really think that I might have died that day…or at least my body was gone…and the world almost ended…and I was scared. You were scared too and I guess that I was just being selfish….or something….and I am sorry that I left you all alone-" said Mob

"You left me so that you could be with Reigen. Just like after that first time we fought Claw and-" said Teru. Mob saw spider cracks beginning to form on the window next to them. Control was starting to slip through her fingers like snowflakes in a blizzard. She didn't want to feel any worse than she already did sitting next to him and wondered what could have been. She would have gladly sat there remembered all that is, was, and could have been over this…this tribunal. She knew that she had made some mistakes. She knew that she had been selfish when she was a kid. That was just it, though, she was a kid. She was a kid and looking back she had to go through a lot of stuff that other kids didn't. She convinced herself that she was an adult back then but she had just been a scared little kid who just needed everything to stop for a moment so that she could be a kid. No more wars with Claw and spirits and trees and herself. She had just needed a break from it because it just kept going on and on and on and on. That was what the trip to visit Sophia was about. She just needed to breathe and be a kid and have fun and bake things and play game and jump on the trampoline and go through the dusty attic boxes and try on Sophia's nice dresses and wedding kimono and look through all of Master Reigen's old stuff and play with the cat and watch movies and play albums in languages that she didn't speak on records older than she was…

She would not apologize for that.

She had literally saved the world. She had been entitled to a break.

"I was a kid, Teru. I was a kid and I needed a break. I was only thinking of myself and that's what kids do. I don't want to go over every single thing that I've done wrong in my entire life and if that's what you want to do then I guess-" said Mob

"Reigen. Are you seeing him?" asked Teru suddenly. Well that question had certainly, seemingly, come right out of nowhere. Mob blinked.

"Arataka and I are a couple-"said Mob. She hadn't told him. She hadn't come here to set out to tell him. She wasn't even sure if she wanted to. If she did she figured that she would have just been opening up old wounds…and that was bad for everyone involved. Maybe she had just been selfish, then, because maybe Teru still had hope that they could get together. Maybe she had just hoped that by not telling him she could have still stayed friends with him. Maybe she was still the selfish little girl who had tried to have her cake and eat it, too.

The cake in front of her was untouched.

"Thought I ought to know." Said Teru. It was a statement and not a question. Mob knew the difference in tones between statements and questions.

"Yes. You ought to know." Said Mob

"I know. Sho told me. Well he told me in the context of telling me about some dinner that you and your family had where your mother apparently had some sort of breakdown…" said Teru

"That happened after we left. Mom didn't…doesn't…like that Master Reigen, Arataka, and I are a couple now. Dad minds a little, Ritsu says, but not as much as mom." Said Mob

"It just…hearing about this…new development…from SHO of all people just…hurt. It hurt because I suppose that even though we did break up there was a part of me that still…held out hope that you would come back to me." Said Teru

"But you're the one who walked away from me, Teru, right? Am I remembering what happened right?" said Mob trying to keep calm. She remembered that day. She would never forget that day. That awful day years ago…

"Yes but you didn't give me any indication that you wanted me to come back to you. You didn't give me any indication that this time would be different than any of the other times that you chose Reigen over me." Said Teru

"I never meant to choose him over you. I guess that I….that I didn't want to have to choose anyone. I guess that I was just a dumb selfish kid who wanted to…to have her cake and eat it too." Said Mob. Teru, much to her surprise, smiled. It was a tight thing, a painful looking thing, and she wondered why he did it if it pained him so much.

"You've barely touched your cake." Said Teru

"I know. I guess we were too busy fighting." Said Mob

"I hate it when we fight." Said Teru

"I do too…and I am sorry if I hurt you…I had no idea that I had been hurting you over and over again. Teru…you should have told me. If you had just told me what you were feeling back then….things might have been different." Said Mob

"Would they have? Would they really have?" asked Teru

"I don't know, I can't see the future. I could call Rei…if you want to see our future. I don't think that there's anyone who can see alternate timelines, though, or we would have met them." Said Mob. Teru laughed, a bitter sort of laugh, but a laugh.

"Yeah. They would have tried to kill us at some point." Said Teru

"I hate when people try to do that." Said Mob

"Me too…and it's been so frequent…back then. Not now. It happened so often and it was…it was hard on both of us. I guess that you just clung to Reigen because…because he was there for you…but so was I…" said Teru

"We were there for each other…sometimes…but you're right. I should have been there for you more." Said Mob

"And I should have told you how I felt. I guess that I…that I just didn't want to rock the boat. We had something together, something amazing, and I just didn't want to open your eyes to how Reigen felt about you…and I guess that I didn't want to open my eyes to how you felt about him. I told myself that you didn't return his feelings but it just got harder and harder to ignore and then I just…snapped." Said Teru

"….I'm sorry that I put you through that. I'm sorry that I caused you so much pain. I never meant to-" said Mob

"Those were some of the best, and worst, times of my life and I wouldn't trade them for the world. I guess that I invited you here today to…to ask you if it was true…and to get some closure. To know that what happened between the two of us is over and done with now. That you…you're finally with him." said Teru. She saw so many emotions cross his face in that moment that she didn't even have time to put names to them. So much hurt and sadness but also a small sort of smile, a bitter…but less bitter…sort of smile. She didn't know. She was bad at reading people's faces. His aura was much less guarded though. It moved to meet hers. Meet, not meld, as Master Reigen's…Arataka's…tended to do.

"That time is over but we…we made some very good memories…and I thank you for those. I'm sorry that I made you feel bad, before, and I'm sorry that I didn't tell you about me and Arataka…you're a good friend and you've been a big part of my life for years…and I should have told you myself instead of letting you hear about it from Sho…" said Mob

"Yeah, never tell Sho anything. Within an hour everyone and their dog will know. Who knew he was such a gossip?" laughed Teru, a real laugh that time.

"He loves going into other people's business. Remember the time he went through everyone's search history?" asked Mob with a laugh of her own. Looking back that had been funny. Not in the moment, of course, not that she had been looking at anything weird. Everyone else she knew on the other hand…

"How could I forget? I couldn't look anyone in the eye for weeks…." Said Teru

"Nobody could look anyone in the eye, not even Sho himself. Remember when he tried to make it right by printing out his entire search history?" asked Mob

"Yeah I learned way more about him that day then I ever wanted to know…" said Teru

"Me too…" said Mob. They settled into a silence, a comfortable one. The atmosphere was different. She didn't know how but it was.

"I…I really do want you to be happy…ok? That's all that I want for you." Said Teru after a moment. Mob watched him. His aura. His face. Pain but…but not as much. She knew that it hurt. The wound hurt but it was healing. Her wounds and his still needed time to heal. But at least there was closure, now. A wound could not heal unless it was closed.

"Teru….that's all that I want for you, too." Said Mob softly. They just watched each other, then. For a moment he wasn't eighteen anymore. His hair wasn't long enough that he could put it up in a bun, he didn't stand head and shoulders above her, and he still had that bright green hoodie that they both shared. For a moment she wasn't eighteen anymore. Her hair was still in braids, she was in her school uniform, the sailor suit, and her socks had broken elastic. She wasn't in a proper dress that she had gotten at the department store. Her hair wasn't hanging lose down her back, and she wasn't wearing proper shoes with a bit of a heel to them. For a moment they were two kids, not two adults, sitting there at that café planning their lives or reminiscing about the past or discussing the idiosyncrasies of the present.

But that moment passed.

Then she finally ate her cake.

And no longer had it.