The day after the show, Souda awoke to a knocking at his door that rattled his teeth. He nearly fell out of bed to answer it before he remembered that it was Sunday and that he, therefore, had no obligations to do anything with anyone. He answered the door anyway because Tanaka started to whine.

Souda flinched at the harsh lighting in the hallway that outlined a tall, wide silhouette. "What'daya want, Nidai?" he slurred.

"We have been-" Nidai bellowed, stopping himself when he realized that it was, in fact, very early. "We have been waiting for you in the gym, Souda," he continued in a lower tone. "Are you feeling well?"

"Um, I'm kinda fuckin' tired," Souda said, rubbing his eyes. "Had a late night. You were at the concert too, right?"

"Yes, but I retired at a reasonable hour so I could be up at the regular time today," Nidai said. "I would have advised you to do the same, but I thought you had established your own schedule by now."

"I made an exception." Souda yawned. "I think I went to sleep at, uh... 2:00, maybe?"

Nidai nodded. "You need your sleep, then. Just keep your schedule in mind in the future."

"M'kay." Souda shut the door in Nidai's face and plunged back under the covers.

By the time Souda willingly got out of bed, his clock read 12:53. He went to the cafeteria for lunch and wondered how he would get his sleeping schedule back on track by the next day, but he had never needed much sleep, anyway.

That didn't mean that he didn't spend hours in bed when he got the chance, though.

A few minutes later, holding a tray with enough food to make up for his skipped breakfast, Souda glanced around the cafeteria and spotted Hinata, Nanami, Mioda, Tsumiki, and Komaeda sitting together. He focused on keeping his tray in some sort of precarious balance as he walked to the table.

"Mornin', guys," Souda said, sitting next to Hinata and rubbing at one eye.

Hinata sighed. "Normally I'd object to your idea of what morning is, but I just woke up an hour ago, so I can't really say anything."

To Hinata's left, Nanami snored lightly. Hinata stifled a snort. "She'd be like this even if we all weren't out late yesterday."

Tsumiki giggled. "I wish I could have gone, but the office was v-very busy last night." She chewed at the skin of her lip. "S-sorry."

"Don't worry about it," Hinata said. "We'll probably have another show soon, if you can come to that one."

Mioda nodded and cheered some sort of assent, which startled the sleepiness out of most everyone.

Nanami groaned as she burrowed into Hinata's shoulder. "Morning, Souda," she mumbled.

"Yeah, same t'you," Souda said, grinning at Mioda.

"Perhaps I picked a bad place to sit," Komaeda said to Mioda's right. He gestured to his ringing ears and smiled. "But I guess I'm lucky that you all let me sit here in the first place."

"I hope that pun wasn't intentional," Hinata muttered, looking to Nanami as the screen of her GameBoy flashed to life.

"Hey, when is our next show, anyway? Do we have a schedule planned out?" Souda asked.

"Ibuki is working on it! Sunshine is using her super diplomacy powers to talk with a bunch of different clubs and wiggle into open time slots." Mioda used three straws at once to blow three times the bubbles in her iced tea. "MGC just needs to keep practicing! Ibuki's thinking maybe some synchronized gymnastics before slash during slash after the show. Thoughts?"

Souda snorted. "I can barely hold a handstand."

Mioda squirted iced tea at Souda with her straw. "Ibuki hears a quitter!"

"Hey!" Souda wiped the droplets from his cheek. "I wasn't sayin' we can't, I'm just sayin' it's gonna take a lot of work."

"Well, MGC'd better get to work, then!" Mioda set the straws on the table, downed the rest of her drink, and slammed the glass on the table. Souda tried not to flinch, but Hinata's snickers told him that he failed. "MGC needs to work on lots of things. Ibuki hereby calls a meeting tomorrow right after classes!" She put all three straws between her teeth and nodded.

"Don't we usually meet on Mondays, anyway?" Hinata asked from his position on Nanami's shoulder.

"Ibuki is calling a double meeting," Mioda slurred, air whistling through the straws as she spoke. "Rest up today, because MGC's going hardcore tomorrow!" One straw fell from the side of her mouth, but she caught it and twirled it like a baton.

Souda poked at his food and said, "Yeah, awesome." He turned to his left. "Hey, Hinata, can we go for a walk tonight? I wanna go to the shoreline."

Hinata looked away from Nanami's game. "I guess, yeah. Why?"

Souda shrugged. "I just feel like getting out. The weather's gettin' nicer."

"Ooh, the soul friends ship is heating up!" Mioda trilled. "The moon shines on two band geeks on a romantic evening walk, who keep bumping hands by quote unquote accident-"

"Cut it out," Souda groaned. "You're startin' to sound like Hanamura."

Komaeda and Tsumiki giggled. Souda was disturbed to note that they sounded equally cute.

That evening, Hinata and Souda made their way through the city to the shoreline, chatting about the band and anything else that came to mind. They arrived at the water as the sky turned golden orange and walked along the beach in silence, admiring the view.

As the sun's color deepened to red, Souda sighed and looked to the waves undulating on shore. "So vacation's comin' up in a few months. What do y'think you're gonna do?"

Hinata shrugged, following Souda's line of vision. "I'll probably go back home for the month. I'm gonna miss all you guys, but I haven't seen my family in a while. Mioda might not like breaking up the band, but I don't live very far; maybe I could still practice." He kicked up a cloud of sand and watched the wind whisk it out to sea. "What about you?"

"Well, um..." He coughed. "Haven't really thought about it. I don't really want to go home and deal with my dad. If Mioda's around, I guess I can just stick with her and the others."

"What if she's not?"

Souda swallowed. "I could always stay in the dorm over the summer. It might be kinda lonely, but maybe someone else from our class will be around."

"What's up with your dad, anyway?" Hinata asked. "You mentioned a while ago that he treats you pretty badly. Is it something you can report to the police?"

"No, it's not worth the trouble." Souda paused. "He's just an asshole. I'd just be alone with him all day in the shop. Might get kinda awkward." He frowned. "That was how it was before I came to school here, anyway, but I could distract myself with all the stuff in the shop. Now that I have people that I wanna hang out with, I don't think a month by myself would be as, uh..."

"Tolerable?" Hinata finished.

"Yeah, sure." Souda avoided Hinata's gaze by staring at the water, and he lowered his voice. "I know I can be kind of a pain in the ass sometimes, but thanks for stickin' around."

Hinata smiled. "Yeah, no problem."

Souda looked up to return the smile, but a short scan of the beach ahead revealed two distant figures sitting on a bench. He squinted, cursing the sand in his contacts, and thought that he recognized the way the setting sun shone platinum on a head of long hair.

"Shit," he muttered.

"What?" Hinata looked forward. "Is that Sonia?"

"Shit," Souda repeated. "Uh, can we turn around or somethin'?"

"Is she with Tanaka?" Hinata turned on Souda. "You did take the microphones out, right?"

"Yeah, I did! I didn't plan this, I swear, I don't even wanna talk to 'em..." He trailed off as Tanaka leaned towards Sonia, who turned her face away from view. Souda scowled. "We gotta get outta here before they see us."

Hinata sighed. "You're not really good with conflict, huh," he said, making more of an observation than a question. "What, are you just gonna-"

Souda squeaked as Sonia started turning around. "C'mon!" He grabbed Hinata's arm and ran to a line of trees by the street.

"Souda, this is ridiculous," Hinata said, wrenching his arm away. "I mean, yeah, we shouldn't interrupt them on their date, but you also shouldn't spend the next two years avoiding both of them. You're gonna have to talk to them sometime."

"Yeah, yeah, just... not now," Souda said. He peeked out from behind the tree and started walking up the street.

"Okay, so why are you going toward them?" Hinata asked.

"I just wanna see what they're doin'," Souda muttered.

Hinata remembered that saying about old habits dying hard, but it seemed useless to make a comment about it. "No, c'mon, I thought you were getting better about this whole-" he grasped at words for a moment, "situation. Let's just head back."

Souda kept walking.

Hinata clenched his teeth, looked behind him, looked to either side, and started following with a growl.

The two came to a stop at a tree a few meters from the bench, and Hinata grabbed Souda's arm. "What is this going to accomplish?" he hissed.

"I'unno," Souda grumbled, peeking at the couple. "I still can't believe they're together, maybe. I guess."

"Well, there they are. They've been together for, what, half a year? A little less?"

"Since January," Souda said. "S'been almost four months."

"Um, yeah." Hinata tried tugging Souda away. "A while, anyway. Can we just go?"

Souda didn't respond. Hinata tugged harder, causing his friend to lose his balance and fall back with a yelp. Hinata caught Souda and both boys froze, straining to hear Sonia and Tanaka's reaction.

"...something over there?"

"...sounded almost avian in nature..."

"...could be wounded... go check?"

A grunt. The bench creaking as two weights shifted.

"Shit," Souda said. He tried to break away, but Hinata's grip kept him in place. "What are you doin'? They're gonna see us," he hissed.

"They're gonna see us if we run, too, and that's going to look really suspicious," Hinata replied.

"And cuddlin' behind a tree doesn't?" Souda's eyes started to fog up. "C'mon, lemme go-"

"Mister Hinata, Mister Souda, what are you doing over here?"

Souda flinched and buried his face in Hinata's chest.

"Um." Hinata patted Souda's back. "There, there." He looked to Sonia and Tanaka, who stood with almost identical bemused expressions. "We're just. Talking."

"Is he injured?" Sonia asked.

"No, he just fell," Hinata said. He sighed. "Souda, please get off me."

Souda didn't lift his head, but he started to shake.

Hinata dropped his arms. "Come on, you're fine. Don't you have something to say to-"

Freed from his bonds, Souda darted back, looped around the tree, and started running down the beach in the direction he and Hinata came from.

Hinata balled his fists in his hair and leaned against the tree. "I am so sorry."

...

Souda lay in a ball under his covers, hoping that Tanaka wouldn't come in to the dorm room and wondering if he could make a run for the workshop. He could just sleep there that night. And every night until the next vacation. And avoid Tanaka for the next two years.

Hinata was right and this was ridiculous, but Souda didn't want to deal with the whole situation. It was stressful and overwhelming and made his inferiority complex swell like an infection, but drawing the conflict out only made it worse. He didn't know what to do.

He shut his eyes, tried to think of a solution, tried to think of anything but Sonia and Tanaka, and fell asleep.

The door creaked open some time later and startled Souda awake. He curled into an even tighter ball and tried to steady his breathing, but it seemed to shake more as time passed. Souda listened to Tanaka putting his hamsters away for the night until the air rushing in and out of his lungs drowned out any other noise.

"I know you're awake, mortal."

Souda rolled to face the door and waited for death.

He tensed and tried to muffle his sobs as a weight settled on the side of his bed, listening for the sound of a knife sliding from its sheath or the roar of a lion or a low voice muttering a spell-

"It's okay, it's okay, everything's okay... you're all right, it's all right."

Souda's fingers dug into his arms. He recognized the chant from the times Tanaka had comforted his hamsters after a fight, and he would have been insulted were he not so relieved.

The words continued until Souda's breathing settled and his arms relaxed from their self-hug.

"Have you calmed your demons?" Tanaka asked.

Souda drew the covers from his head and nodded. He sniffed and sat up, facing forward, looking at his feet.

"Hinata informed me as to your true purpose in gathering behind the ancient earth spirit," Tanaka began. "He recommended that we speak frankly with each other about the matter that has cast its shadow over our souls for so long."

"Sonia," Souda said to his feet.

Tanaka grunted. "Rather, the conflict surrounding her that has its origins in you and I." He paused, also looking at Souda's feet. "I have understood that you have had an infatuation of sorts with her for many moons, yet neither you nor I have directly addressed the matter. This has caused a prolonged tension that will only exacerbate as both sides continue to avoid that very tension. Am I correct?"

Souda nodded.

Tanaka nodded back. Both sets of eyes were still focused on Souda's feet. "Then we obviously must address this."

Souda let the air hiss through his clenched teeth. "It doesn't make any sense that she would go for you an' not me. I thought that you were usin' some kinda spell or somethin' to make her like you."

Tanaka's head snapped up. "I would never stoop to a level so low. Miss Sonia does not deserve that sort of blatant disrespect for her own desires and emotions."

"Was that some sorta jab at me?" Souda turned his head to glare at his roommate.

"No, you simply do not seem to understand her true desires or, in fact, anything about Miss Sonia." Tanaka met Souda's gaze with a glare of his own. "What are your motives behind pursuing her affection?"

"What, do I need to have some sort of big, important reason to want a girlfriend?" Souda snorted.

Tanaka opened his mouth, but his words turned to a sigh. He looked back at Souda's feet. "As I said, we are only exacerbating the conflict. Perhaps I should try a different line of inquiry." He fiddled with the corner of his scarf and thought for a moment. "Is there anything that I can-" He tsk'ed. "We should form a plan of approach to best loosen the bonds of resentment and ill will. What do you propose?"

Souda almost said something about Tanaka and Sonia breaking up, but he reconsidered. "Honestly, Hinata's been on my case about this for so long that he's startin' to convince me that this is basically just my problem. If you really aren't cursin' Sonia or anything-"

"I am not."

"-then I guess I should get over her and get myself a girlfriend," Souda finished. "I don't really have anyone in mind. I was focused on Sonia for so long that it'd take a while to move on."

Tanaka nodded. "I will admit that my lexicon of knowledge does not provide extensive coverage on this topic. Hinata is usually a helpful source on these sort of earthly matters."

Souda grunted in agreement. "Uh, anyway. Are we okay? I mean, I was kind of an ass to you for a while just 'cause you were with Sonia, but I've kinda given up on that whole thing. I told her how I felt and she shot me down, so it wasn't goin' anywhere, anyway." He sighed. "I don't know why I hid behind the tree. It was stupid."

"All is forgiven," Tanaka said. "You did not exactly receive a warm welcome on my part when you first arrived here, which must have planted the seeds of resentment that would later bloom so violently."

"Oh, yeah! Almost forget about that first day." Souda frowned. "Why did you do that, anyway? Somethin' wrong with me?"

"On the contrary, I should have utilized the art of introspection to understand the true intentions behind my actions." Tanaka paused. "It had nothing to do with you. I simply did not wish to share an abode."

"A'right." Souda rubbed his eyes. "Not sure whether I totally believe that or not, but I'm beat. We done here?"

"I believe so," Tanaka said. He stood up. "Good night."

"Yeah," Souda grunted. He buried himself back under the covers, but, having slept earlier, he lay awake for some time.

...

Just before lunch break the next day, Hinata pulled Souda into the hallway.

"Hey," he muttered, "did you talk to Tanaka yesterday?"

"Yeah, we're good," Souda said.

Hinata raised an eyebrow. "Just like that? After months of hostility?"

"I guess so. I mean, he's still a weird dude, but our main problem was really about Sonia. He kind of seems like less of an ass than he was at the beginning of the year, anyway." He sighed. "It's just a weird situation. I was crushin' on her for so long that now I don't know how not to, y'know?"

"Yeah, I know," Hinata said. "I talked to the two of them after you ran away yesterday, and Sonia actually recommended a few things to help you move on."

Souda tapped his foot, listening to the echo in the empty hallway. "Like what?"

"Well, actually, it was more like a few people..." Hinata mused. "Are you really ready to date someone, though?"

Souda shrugged. "I dunno. I guess it's worth a try. I've been pinin' over Sonia for a while, so maybe I should switch gears." He laughed. "Hah, I didn't even mean to make that joke."

Hinata groaned. "Okay, yeah, anyway. What do you think of the other girls in our class?"

"Alright, well..." Souda looked around to ensure the hallway was deserted. "Saionji is a definite no, and Koizumi is by association 'cause those two hang out all the time. Pekoyama is completely terrifying, and I don't wanna get involved with Kuzuryuu again, anyway-"

"Again? I've never seen you two around each other."

Souda flinched. "Not important. Um, who else... there's Mioda. She's pretty cute, but she's also got that whole thing goin' on with her current partner, so would I have to date both of 'em at the same time or somethin'?"

Hinata crossed his arms. "Actually, I didn't think about that. You could probably just talk it out with them; they're pretty open-minded."

"Eh. Too complicated." Souda frowned. "Owari's kinda scary sometimes, but she'd be pretty easy to win over, I guess. I could just give her food and she'd let me touch her-"

"Woah, hey, let's just come back to Owari later," Hinata sputtered. "That just leaves Tsumiki, right?"

Souda nodded. "She's cute, too, but she's kind of..." He shrugged. "She's a piece of work, honestly."

"Souda!" Hinata frowned. "Tsumiki is really nice. She's just had a hard time, but she's been getting better about trusting people."

"A'ight, sure. I just haven't talked to her that much lately, I guess." Souda thought for a moment. "So that's pretty much three options, unless you and Nanami were up for-"

"Please don't finish that sentence."

"Okay, three options," Souda chuckled. "I guess I'd put Mioda last because she's already datin' someone else and because it'd get pretty exhausting bein' around her even more."

Hinata tapped his chin. "I feel like you'd take advantage of either Owari or Tsumiki, just in different ways-"

"Hey!" Souda barked. "Who d'ya think I am? I know the way I acted around Sonia wasn't great, but I wouldn't do that to either of 'em. Owari'd kick my ass, and I always feel guilty around Tsumiki even if I didn't do anything wrong."

Hinata winced. "Sorry. Um, you don't have to decide anything now, obviously, and we don't even know if anyone feels that way about you, so we'll just think on it for a while."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence," Souda grumbled. "Can we just go eat now? I'm really hungry."

"Yeah, let's go." The boys started towards the cafeteria. The first minute of the walk passed in silence until Hinata said, "Actually, maybe dating someone isn't the best way to get over Sonia. Maybe you should just sort out your priorities and your life in general before you'll be ready for other stuff."

Souda snorted. "Getting a girlfriend has been my highest priority since I was twelve."

"Fair enough." Hinata sighed. "Just thinking out loud, that's all."

"What, do you think I'm not mature enough for a relationship?"

"Yeah, exactly."

"Hey, I can be a gentleman when I want to!" Souda puffed out his chest as he turned the corner. "I'll treat my girl really nice an' take her out to dinner an' buy her stuff an' cuddle for as long as she wants."

Hinata laughed. "I guess the best way to learn something is to just do it. Just come to me if you need advice, okay?"

"Psh, like I'll need that." Souda grinned. "I'm gonna be the best boyfriend ever for whoever I end up with, and we're gonna be ten times cuter than you an' Nanami."

"It's not a competition," Hinata said. He smiled back. "But if it was, I think we would win. Nanami and I make all the little old ladies swoon when we hold hands in public."

"Wow, I'm so impressed." Souda kicked the cafeteria doors open and sauntered to the usual table. He sat across from Tsumiki and Mioda, which earned him an elbow in the side from Hinata.

Souda tried not to roll his eyes. "So, how are you two?"

"Ibuki is F-A-N-tastic!" Mioda twirled an entire bowlful of noodles onto her fork and tried to stuff them all into her mouth.

Souda failed at trying not to roll his eyes. "Uh-huh. What about you, Tsumiki?"

"I-I'm fine. Thank you for asking," she murmured.

Souda grinned across the table at the nurse, and Mioda coughed on her noodles a few seconds later. "Feetsh! Feetsh!" she slurred.

Hinata wrinkled his nose at the half-chewed bits falling from Mioda's mouth. "What?"

Mioda swallowed. "Kazoo is trying to learn the ancient art of footsie, and he's practicing on Ibuki."

Hinata muffled a snicker as Souda went pale. "No, I swear, I was just stretching-"

"Then what was this-" Mioda did something under the table that made Souda yelp and cross his legs.

"I did not do that," he hissed.

Mioda wiggled her eyebrows and returned to her lunch. Souda glared at Hinata, who would not stop smiling.

Lunch progressed as normal until Tsumiki flinched a few minutes later. Mioda gasped, allowing a chunk of mushroom to fall from her mouth. "Has Kazoo found a new target for practice?"

Hinata used his position from Nanami's shoulder to peek under the table. Souda's foot was indeed nudging Tsumiki's, and Hinata rolled his eyes. He stood and stretched his neck. "I have to go to the bathroom. Does anyone else have to?" He poked Souda in the back.

Souda yelped. "Hey! What are y-"

"Souda, do you have to use the bathroom?" Hinata asked.

"No, but I might need to get ice for the bruise that you just made," Souda grumbled, rubbing the back of his shoulder.

"Okay, let's go get some."

Souda continued to sulk as the two walked away from the table. "What was that for? You really need to trim your nails; they're too goddamn sharp."

"Why did you think footsie was a good idea?" Hinata asked, pushing open the door to the bathroom. "We're not ten anymore."

"I dunno, it seemed like a subtle, romantic thing to do." Souda rubbed at his back again. "Hey, I was serious, I think this is gonna bruise."

"We'll get ice later. What you need right now is advice." Hinata leaned against the sink and looked at his feet. "Different things work for different people. With Nanami, anything subtle would've gone over her head, so I was just straightforward. Mioda seems pretty intuitive to any romantic advances, but she's really obvious about it when she likes someone. She seems to just think of you in a friendly way." He crossed his arms. "I think you'd need to be straightforward with Tsumiki, too, because she still has some trouble believing that people actually like her."

"Fair enough. What about Owari?"

Hinata's hands twitched. "Honestly, I don't think that's a very good match. You need someone who will be patient with you."

"Hey, I'm not a kid that needs babysittin'," Souda huffed. "I'm a man that needs some lovin'."

Hinata visibly cringed. "Please don't ever say that to anyone."

"Yeah, okay." Souda coughed. "So. Tsumiki, huh?"

"She seems like the best match." Hinata thought for a moment. "Unless you're open to dating guys, in which case-"

"Woah, woah, no!" Souda stuck his tongue out. "Man, where'd ya even get that idea?"

"Considering your reaction just now, you probably don't want to know." Hinata turned to the door. "Anyway, lunch is not the best place for asking someone out. Just try to talk to her after class sometime, I guess." He hesitated. "Actually, she's usually pretty busy in the nurse's office, so if you two were to date, you probably wouldn't be able to spend a lot of time together."

Souda shrugged. "If a cute girl wants to go out with me, I'll wait for as long as I need to until we can see each other."

"Wow, that was almost romantic. You're getting somewhere, Souda." Hinata patted his friend on the shoulder and headed out the door.

"You ain't seen nothin' yet," Souda mumbled to himself. He started toward the exit with a grin.