Mitsuru was returning very late back to the dorm herself. When she got back she was puzzled to see Koromaru waiting patiently outside the entrance. She let him in and he licked her hand gratefully, then settled down planning to nap in front of the television. As she was setting her things down Mitsuru looked around the lounge. There weren't many people present at this time of the evening. She turned to Aigis.

"Aigis, do you know how Koromaru got out? Did someone take him out?"

"I am sorry, I was not here. I will ask him." Aigis bent to Koromaru for a moment and the two of them had a quiet conference. Then Aigis sat up again. "Yukari and Junpei took him out. They have not returned."

Mitsuru frowned. "They just left him there?" She scratched Koromaru behind his ears.

Aigis shook her head. "He left them." She paused a moment and then said, "He thought they might not wish to be disturbed."

Mitsuru's eyes widened and she cleared her throat. A dull sound that normally wouldn't have been noticed rang out across the suddenly quiet lobby. She turned to see Akihiko bent over to pick up one of his boxing gloves from where it had fallen to the floor. His face was expressionless; he might not have even heard.

She turned back to Koromaru and continued petting him for awhile contemplatively. When she rose to go back to her seat, he lay back down and was sleeping in seconds.

When Junpei and Yukari got back, he held the door open for her but neither of them spoke or even looked at each other. Everyone already in the lobby did their very best not to notice anything. Minato, who had come in later and hadn't noticed anything, remarked that he planned on going to Tartarus tonight. Junpei nodded but Yukari said she wouldn't be going because she thought she must be getting a cold.

Akihiko looked concerned. "That's too bad." He turned to Junpei and said mildly, "You'd better be careful not to get it too."

Mitsuru shot him a glare. Everyone else tried to look blank (in Aigis and Minato's case, this didn't require any effort). Junpei said he didn't know what Akihiko was talking about and the topic mercifully died.

Later that night after they all got back Junpei sat up late in his room. He didn't know just what he expected, but he knew something was going to happen. Today had been too damned messed up for something not to happen. For about an hour or so he just stared at the walls, thinking about this and that, but that got a little boring after awhile. When the knock at his door finally did come, he was sprawled out on the floor half-propped on the pile of things there, reading. He didn't normally read a lot but it wasn't like Koushun Takami was really hard to understand or anything.

In the novel, Shogo and Shuya had just run into each other again. The body of their classmate lay between them on the ground as the two of them stared each other down silently, sizing each other up. A little distance away Noriko stood, frozen, watching the two men. Junpei shoved a movie stub between the pages and closed the book, leaving the three characters trapped in that moment of fear and uncertainty. "Yeah, come in."

The door opened and shut. Junpei sat up a little. "It's pretty late for you to be up."

Akihiko kicked an empty can of Mad Bull and watched it roll under the bed. "You're up too."

"I was expecting company."

"…should I leave?"

"Nah. I mean, I figured it'd either be you or--"

Another knock at the door. Akihiko stiffened and half turned around. Junpei paused in mid-sentence.

Yukari, impatient, burst in.

Whatever she had been about to say died on her lips as she realized Akihiko was there too. She took a step back towards the door, dismayed. Akihiko's look of shock slowly dissolved into a deep frown. Junpei merely looked to the side. Finally, he broke the silence.

"So, what did you need, Yuka-tan?"

Yukari was still speechless. Akihiko said gently, "Are you sure you should be up and around? …with your cold and all."

"I made that up so I wouldn't have to…I mean…" Her cheeks were burning.

"You didn't want to see him, did you? Looks like you changed your mind, though…" Akihiko's voice was matter-of-fact. After all, Yukari wasn't the one he was angry with at the moment.

She looked down, ashamed, and Junpei rose irritably. "All right you two, that's enough of that."

Akihiko turned to face Junpei but didn't say anything. The force of his look was enough to make the other boy flinch back a little. Then he dug around until he found Junpei's chair (it wasn't easy), turned it around, and sat down in it. "I want to see what happened earlier."

"…what?" The cry might have come from either one of them, but Junpei said it first.

Akihiko rested his arms on the chair back and looked at him pointedly. "Last time, she got to watch…so it's only fair. Now show me what you two did."

"But…we really didn't do anything!" Yukari protested.

"I'm sorry, but I don't believe you."

Yukari was about to deny it again when Junpei cut in. "Fine, you want to see what we did?" He pulled her to him, meeting her outraged resistance with the same stubbornness Akihiko had gotten used to over the months.

Akihiko watched them struggle and wondered if what they were doing counted as making out or fighting. He decided it was both since she was letting it go on for so long. He felt wrong watching them but he also felt something else and he was uncomfortably aware of this. Finally he said, "Okay, stop."

Yukari panted a couple of curses at Junpei and shoved him away. It took him a second to regain his balance and then he stood up straight again and pulled his hat back into place.

"I think that was roughly what we did…tell me if I missed anything."

"I hate you!"

"You got a real funny way of showing it."

Yukari just stood there fuming. Junpei shrugged and plopped down on the bed. "Anyway, it wasn't like we planned it or anything. So what's the big deal?"

Akihiko looked at his gloves. "I wasn't there." He hadn't meant to say it to either of them, hadn't really known it for himself, but that was what had bothered him so much. They had done something behind his back, never mind that it was something a lot more innocent than the things he and Junpei did, and he didn't like it.

"Senpai…" Yukari looked down. She clearly felt awful.

Junpei, on the other hand, didn't take his eyes off Akihiko. "You're here now."

Akihiko looked up.