A/N: ...This story is progressing far too slowly for my own liking. I'm really sorry if it seems awfully draggy, I tend to get really long-winded. Despite that, I still can't call this chapter filler, because it does raise some points that will be elaborated on in the later parts of the fic. I wonder if you can find them? Haha.

Once again, thank you all for reading and/or following and/or favouriting and/or reviewing this story!

April 14, 2013

The journey to Tokyo had been rather uneventful, aside from Souji and Chie's teasing of Yosuke and his Teddie doll. For the rest of the train ride, Yosuke listened to his music, taking a few quick naps in between. Once Chie had exhausted all of the videos she had on her phone, she performed some stretching exercises and stayed perfectly awake. In contrast, Souji was completely dead to the world as his body rested as much as possible.

When the train finally reached Tokyo, it was Chie's turn to bid her two former schoolmates farewell. They did the same, all three of them doing so reluctantly. Then, grabbing her large travelling bag, the chestnut brown-haired girl turned towards the opposite direction and began walking to catch the next train to Fuchushi, Asahi-cho. Souji and Yosuke took all their belongings and headed for the train that would take them to Ikebukuro.

Unlike the journey from Inaba to Tokyo, the ride to Ikebukuro was much shorter and quicker, so Souji and Yosuke didn't mind standing, even with all of their bulky luggage. The brunet then followed his grey-haired companion like a duckling would its mother out of the Tokyo Metro Line station and into the streets, feeling completely and utterly at a loss despite the fact that he was born and raised in a city like Souji was.

"My apartment isn't too far from here." Yosuke was extremely relieved to hear that, and quickly followed his friend as he made a left turn and started walking.

The brunet took this opportunity to have a closer look at his surroundings. Although it was rather late into the afternoon, the streets were still teeming with people from all walks of life, taking brisk steps wherever they went. Nobody paid attention to the pair of former high school students carrying around large bags and luggage, which was a stark contrast to how the townspeople of Inaba would react, as Yosuke envisioned it.

There were rather few vehicles out on the road, he realised. Despite Ikebukuro being an urbanised area, there was a lot of greenery around, just as Yosuke expected after having led a life as a Tokyo city boy once. As he continued looking around, he noticed some large shopping malls, and grew excited at seeing such large buildings that weren't Junes-affiliated again.

While he had been to Okina City at times, its vibrancy paled in comparison to that of highly developed places like Ikebukuro and Shibuya, the latter being Yosuke's former place of residence. He had probably dropped by Ikebukuro before, but inevitably, after having lived in a rural town like Inaba whose shopping district initially gravely disappointed the brunet for two years, Yosuke had grown used to seeing small buildings as opposed to the towering complexes that filled Ikebukuro. The experience was reinvigorating, he had to admit.

"We're here." Souji's tired voice interrupted Yosuke's train of thought. The grey-haired adolescent gestured to the elevator. "Remember to get off on the eighth floor from now on, that's where we live."

The brunet nodded enthusiastically as he shoved his luggage into the spacey lift when it arrived. Souji pressed the button for the eighth floor, then, seeing that there was nobody else coming in, pressed the button for closing the door. Upon reaching the eighth floor, Souji grabbed his keys from his pocket and opened the front door leading into his apartment.

It was quite spacey, even with the sofa, dining table, and plasma television set all placed in the living room. The kitchen was compact, but large enough for all the basic cooking tools and plates and bowls of varying sizes. The apartment only had two rooms, other than the living room and the kitchen. One of them had an interior that looked exactly like a replica of Souji's room back in Inaba, even the tiny television set was there. While the bookshelf contained reading material for the psychology course in university, among other books like novels and encyclopaedias, Yosuke could tell that the model was the same as the one Souji had in his room in the Dojima residence.

"...Souji, this is..."

"Oh." Souji rubbed the back of his head, smiling sheepishly. "It was supposed to be a storeroom, but I didn't have much to store anyway and I didn't want to see this room go to waste, so..."

"Don't lie, dude. You're horrible at that." Yosuke's gaze was hard and questioning, making the grey-haired adolescent slightly uncomfortable.

"Well, it really was a storeroom. I just changed the interior to make it look like my room in Oji-san's home." Yosuke didn't stop staring. Souji cringed and continued, "...because I really missed it."

The brunet's gaze softened instantly. "Yeah...I just wanted to hear you say it."

Souji's smile was warm and gentle. "I know. Thanks, Yosuke. I do feel better after admitting it."

"Everything's better after you admit something." As he said that, the brunet tossed his best friend a knowing wink. "So. Where's my room, partner?"

"Ah," the grey-haired adolescent mumbled. He turned to face the closed door directly opposite of his room and made a gesture to it using his thumb. "This is it. Oh, wait-"

His words fell on deaf ears as Yosuke happily barged into the room that now belonged to him. Then the brunet examined his new room carefully. He found that it was smaller than he initially expected, but it was still perfectly fine with him as he could still find some space to place a new bookshelf and a cabinet to store his music collection. There was already a single-sized bed, its horizontal left side embedded in the wall, placed. It wasn't fitted with a bedsheet just yet, exposing the mattress to the stale air in the room.

There was a simple study desk by the window; Yosuke didn't really pay attention to whether the design was to his liking since he never once considered himself a studying sort of person. The desk was empty, and looked relatively new, compared to the other furniture. It made the brunet wonder if Souji was actually half-expecting him to come and stay in the apartment.

"My parents recently bought that desk for me," Souji spoke up, folding his arms as he leaned against the edge of the wall casually. Yosuke flinched slightly, inwardly blaming himself for being too transparent. Souji smiled at that. "Luckily I didn't say no, otherwise you would have been stuck without a table."

Yosuke snorted. "Dude, you know that I don't study."

"Oh you don't? Well, okay, I'll call up my parents and tell them not to buy an extra bookshelf then."

"Waitwaitwait I meant that I didn't study. Didn't. Not don't."

Souji's smirk widened. He had a vague idea of what Yosuke needed a bookshelf for, and he knew from spending a year in Inaba with him that Yosuke could be considered a rather frugal person as he had to save up in order to afford to buy himself a motorcycle. After the brunet was forced to pay for Teddie's expensive clothes and had to cough up the money to pay for his scooter's repairs, saving up became a necessity instead of a habit for Yosuke.

After putting two and two together, Souji deduced that even though Yosuke wanted a bookshelf, the latter had to refrain from overspending, and given that he was forced to pay for his own tuition fees, there was no doubt that Yosuke wouldn't fork out the cash to get himself a bookshelf. So if he could get it for free, there was no way Yosuke would turn that down. Based on his own experience as the leader of the Investigation Team, Souji could empathise with his partner to a certain extent.

Said brunet, however, hadn't the faintest idea of what Souji had experienced. While he marvelled at how skilful the leader of the team was with his finances, Yosuke never pondered about exactly how Souji could splurge on weapons and armour and still had enough money left to go shopping at the Shiroku Store. He simply took it as a personality trait of their leader's and left it at that.

"Though that reminds me..." Yosuke spoke up after the brief moment of silence, which the two spent reminiscing about the past. When Souji gave a quick nod, the brunet continued, "If you are getting your parents to buy an extra bookshelf, does that mean that they bought you all that stuff in your room? And wait, doesn't that also mean that they know somebody else is living with you?"

The grey-haired adolescent shrugged. "My parents don't question what I do. They believe I'm independent enough to make sound decisions, so no, they don't know that you're living together with me now."

"Wow," Yosuke whistled, his eyebrows raised. "If it were my parents, they'd constantly worry about me. I mean, I'm not as responsible as you are. Dad always complains about how much of a spendthrift I can be."

That got Souji's full attention. "You, a spendthrift?" If anything, Yosuke was more of an overly frugal housewife, but of course, the grey-haired eighteen-year-old knew better than to say that in the presence of his partner.

"Hehe, I, uh, can get a little crazy when it comes to...you know, magazines and stuff like that?" Although the brunet sounded sheepish, he tossed his friend a knowing wink, perhaps in hopes of the other making some kind of follow-up.

Unfortunately for him, Souji looked unamused. "Magazines," he had deadpanned. "Yosuke, you sound like a girl."

It was extremely entertaining to see the brunet choke and get flustered over an honest comment. "W-what the...dude, I meant that kind of magazines, not those fashion stuff girls like to go cooing over."

"Ohhh," Souji muttered, realising his mistake. He rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Huh, but haven't your parents already learned about the magazines you own? I don't think it's a good idea to keep buying them if there's a higher chance now that they could suspect you of spending on such...reading material."

"Ugh, don't remind me of that time. I still haven't quite forgiven Teddie for what he did," Yosuke moaned, wincing slightly. "Anyway, I think I can manage. They haven't mentioned the incident for a long time. Maybe they've forgotten about it already!"

The brunet's optimism made Souji chuckle. "Well, magazine maniac, I hope you haven't forgotten about lunch."

"Oh crap, I seriously forgot about that! H-hehe." Yosuke scratched the back of his head awkwardly. "So, uh...whatcha got here that we can eat for lunch?"

"Nothing."

"...Huh?"

"We," Souji declared as he took the opportunity while Yosuke was stunned to grab his jacket and put it on. "Are eating out."

"You mean there's nothing we can eat here? Why? I mean...don't you always make your own bento for lunch every day? You gotta have some ingredients in the fridge or something."

The incredulous look on Yosuke's face was, in Souji's opinion, extremely amusing; the brunet himself, however, found his partner's laugh that followed slightly offensive. "Oh hey, it's not like I knew beforehand if you had anything to cook with here," the brown-haired adolescent quickly explained.

"It's not that, Yosuke," Souji replied, smiling. "I do have some ingredients left, but they're definitely not enough to feed the two of us here, so I thought we might as well eat out and then we can go grocery shopping later. I already reserved us some seats at the restaurant."

"...Oh. Ohhhhh." The brunet shook his head to distract himself from the heat rising to his face in embarrassment. "You're always one step ahead, partner. I didn't even notice you making a call to make reservations."

"Ah, that happened along the way to my apartment. You seemed a little distracted, so maybe that's why," the grey-haired adolescent said as-a-matter-of-factly.

Yosuke gave a nervous chuckle. "Coming back to the big city is a bit overwhelming for me, I guess. I mean, I never thought I'd be coming back, since...there's not much left for me here."

The pause didn't go unnoticed, Yosuke knew that, so he was immensely grateful for Souji not saying anything further about the matter and switching to the subject of their meal at hand. It was certainly an urgent matter to handle; empty stomachs couldn't possibly wait any longer, after all, though if the leader of the Investigation Team hadn't mentioned it, Yosuke figured he probably wouldn't have felt any hunger till it was dinner time.

Their lunch was supposed to start soon, which got the pair - mostly Yosuke, actually - hurrying a little, grabbing some of their belongings and windbreakers as they prepared to leave the apartment. Although there would be little time left for them to unpack and get themselves geared up for the start of university when they would be back, Souji told Yosuke comfortingly that there was no need to rush, and that it would still be possible to make it, which did put the brunet at ease as he put on his shoes. He wasn't surprised to see his partner all ready after he was done.

The brunet took a deep breath. He used that moment as an attempt to calm himself down as he grew excited yet scared at the prospect of seeing the city once again; Yosuke didn't think he would feel so mentally unprepared to take in the sight of grand urbanisation despite having lived in a metropolis for most of his life. It was ironic, he realised. After all, how could a city boy be afraid of the city?

But that was exactly the situation Yosuke found himself in, and he had no idea how to crawl his way out. As he released the breath he had been holding, Yosuke faintly wondered if Souji was trapped in similar circumstances when he returned to Tokyo in March of the preceding year, and if he would know how to inch back into the life of a young adult living in a highly developed area. He made a mental note to himself to ask his partner over lunch.

Feeling ready to lay his eyes on Ikebukuro again, Yosuke stood up and gave Souji a firm nod. The grey-haired adolescent smiled and nodded back, before he got up as well and turned to open the front gate. At that very moment, the brunet heard something click, which Souji didn't appear to notice, so out of curiosity, Yosuke glanced around. It wasn't long before he found something lying on the floor tile, presumably the source of the clicking sound.

It was an old-looking pen, coated in midnight black with patterns of cherry blossoms dancing all over it. The tip of the pen was exposed and slightly stained with ivory ink, leading Yosuke to believe it to be a fountain pen that fell from a height. While staring at it confusedly, Yosuke bent down to pick up the pen. He felt its lightweight trickling his palm, like a leaf floating across the surface of water. It was quite an exquisite pen.

"Hey Souji, did you drop this?" Yosuke asked, holding up the pen between his index and middle finger on his right hand.

Souji craned his neck over his shoulder, taking a careful look at the object in Yosuke's hand, then turned completely to walk up towards the brunet to retrieve his item. "Thanks Yosuke, it must have fallen out of my pocket."

The brunet laughed. "Well, be careful with it from now on, partner. It looks like it's really important to you, if you are still keeping such an old fountain pen. Here ya go," he said cheerfully with a playful wink as he stretched out his hand to place the pen in Souji's open palm.

At the instant Yosuke's hand made contact with Souji's skin, a shiver trailed down the brunet's spine. In that split second, he also heard some violent ringing in his ears. Surprised, he immediately flinched away, as if he had felt static, and allowed the pen to drop onto Souji's palm safely instead. Yosuke's left hand instinctively reached out to rub the back of the right hand, even though his hand wasn't injured or sore.

The strange behaviour had Souji asking, "Hm? Yosuke, is something wrong?"

"It's...it's nothing," came the shaky reply. When the grey-haired adolescent casted him a doubtful look, Yosuke quickly said, "R-really! I just...felt some static, is all."

Souji kept his eyes on the brunet for a while, then he softly sighed and shrugged. "Well, if you say so...but when you're more comfortable with telling me the truth, please don't hesitate to do so, okay?"

'Ouch,' Yosuke thought. 'I feel kinda bad, for some reason.'

With that lingering in his mind, Yosuke verbally agreed with Souji to come clean with him when he felt he was ready. However, the brunet personally believed that it wouldn't be any time soon. For one, putting it in words was difficult. It wasn't that the strange sensation was hard to explain, but rather, Yosuke didn't want to put it across too directly lest he made Souji feel uncomfortable.

But the real reason was that he simply couldn't possibly tell Souji. Secrets didn't exist long between the both of them, so it was normal for the leader of the Investigation Team to expect his best friend to reveal anything within a short period of time, but Yosuke felt that this would be different; that it was more of Souji the one keeping secrets rather than Yosuke himself.

After all, Souji never told anyone that he could constantly hear the voices of all his Personas. If it was something he didn't want the others to know, despite the fact that he knew that nobody would treat him differently, then Souji had to have an unquestionable reason for keeping this a secret, and within that quick moment of skin contact with Souji, Yosuke could see why.

It was a matter the two of them - no, all of them as a team - would eventually sit down to discuss for a long period of time, but it was something that wouldn't happen until a much later time, Yosuke decided. The first small step to take would be to ask his partner about the pen, before he could continue slowly encouraging him to step out of his shell and finally asking why touching it while also having direct contact with Souji would open a window into the voices in his head.

For now, Yosuke was hungry. The first thing on his to-do list? Chow down. And so he left the house with Souji, pushing all prior thoughts to the back of his head, to make his way to the place that would fill his stomach.

"...Uh, Souji? What is this?"

"Hm?" The grey-haired adolescent looked up from his tray. He glanced over the array of sushi on Yosuke's tray, which mirrored his own. It had sushi with raw beef that was literally dripping with fresh blood, another with live shrimps dipped in melted cheese, yet another topped with tomato cubes and squid ink, and many other kinds of strange-looking food.

Souji casted Yosuke a confused look. "What do you mean? It's obviously sushi, isn't it?"

The brunet cringed as he watched his best friend pop a suspicious piece of the so-called sushi into his mouth. "Sushi is supposed to... It's supposed to look edible, at the very least. This doesn't look anything close to that."

"Really? I think it looks fashionable."

"...Dude, I don't think looking fashionable has anything to do with whether you can eat it."

Souji chewed his sushi thoroughly before swallowing it. He had a blissful expression on his face. "It's really good, Yosuke. Just give it a try. I'm sure you'll love it."

"Somehow, I get the feeling that I can't trust you about this."

But of course, Yosuke couldn't bluntly reject his friend's kind offer, especially since Souji was already thoughtful enough to book reservations beforehand, on top of giving him a place to stay and buying all of the furniture he needed. So the brunet hesitantly picked up the rice with smoked salmon topped with melted blue cheese and cucumber slices, and placed it into his mouth whole.

The first bite made his eyes water and his tongue sting.

Yosuke spat the sushi out as eloquently as he could. "What the hell-urghhh," he managed to say, pain and misery evident in his tone. "H-how could you even stand eating this thing?! It's almost as bad as Mystery Food X, no wait, it's worse than that! Why are you able to swallow this crap?!"

"Well, I guess you could say that I'm used to the taste," Souji replied sheepishly, shrugging.

"Wait, so you're saying that you frequent this restaurant? Seriously, partner? How did you even survive your first time here?" Yosuke asked incredulously.

"Oh, I passed out after the first bite." The silver-haired adolescent deliberately paused to see Yosuke's stunned expression frozen in place, then he chuckled quietly. "It was kind of a blur, but I remember one of the staff here carrying me all the way to the hospital. He even paid for my medical fees. I came back here to show my gratitude, but the same thing keeps happening, so I keep coming back here."

"...So basically, you land yourself in the hospital, this staff compensates you, and you come back just to find yourself hospitalised again, only for the same person to pay for your medical bill, aaaand the entire cycle repeats itself." The brunet shook his head. "Souji, you are unbelievable. In every sense of the word."

"Ah, well, at least I'm able to stay conscious after eating their sushi now." The unbelievable youth smiled warmly. "Besides, it's really not so bad. True, their sushi might look...weird, but if you have it more often, you'll find that it's actually pretty good."

Yosuke grimaced at the idea of taking another bite of the Ikebukuro version of Mystery Food X. "Maybe some other time, partner. For now, I just want some normal sushi. Like, ooh, plain ol' tamago sounds good. Y'know what I mean?"

"Okay, okay," Souji said lightheartedly, raising both hands as if in defeat. "I'm sure they have the more common kinds of sushi here. Hang on."

While remaining seated, Souji pushed himself forward towards the door of the private room he and Yosuke were in, then slid the door open. He stuck his head out to get a quick glimpse of the rest of the restaurant's interior, only to find a handful of customers enjoying their sushi at the counter and the owner of the restaurant busily preparing more for a few other waiting customers.

"...Huh," the grey-haired adolescent muttered, sounding surprised. "Simon-san still isn't back from his delivery yet?"

"'Simon-san'?" Yosuke echoed. It took only a few seconds before the brunet continued, "Ohhh, you mean the Russian guy you told me about last night? So, is he the staff you just mentioned about? The one who kept paying your hospital bills?"

Souji nodded. "I told him over the phone that I have a friend coming over, and he sounded excited to be able to meet you... He even said that he'd try to finish up his delivery as soon as possible. I wonder if something happened..."

"Ahh, I wouldn't worry about him if I were you," the brunet said casually while fighting with his abomination of a sushi platter with his chopsticks. "I mean, we're talking about a guy who can literally lift you up and carry you all the way to the hospital. And even pay your fees, to boot. Sounds like he can take care of himself just fine."

"...Yeah, I guess you're right," Souji replied with a sigh of relief, then closed the door and slid over back to his seat. He watched the person sitting across him tackling the challenge of separating the rice from the raw fish and meat, and couldn't help but chuckle. "You know, you can just use your hands. It's much easier that way."

"And get all the goo on my fingers? No thanks." Yosuke winced as he imagined himself picking up the rice with hands that have been stained with blue cheese, squid ink, and other sauces all at once.

After a few more minutes of struggling, Yosuke gave up and somehow arrived at the conclusion that he would be better off eating the sushi, and rapidly downed everything on his tray. Souji calmly sipped his tea while his best friend suddenly turned death pale and collapsed to the ground.

It was a rather eventful lunch.

An hour passed before Yosuke regained consciousness.

"I am so not ordering that ever again..." he groaned as he stepped out of the restaurant, hunched over as he gripped his stomach with one hand. "You hear me, Souji? I am so not ordering that aga-bleargh..."

"I heard you the first time, Yosuke," the grey-haired adolescent sighed. "Come on, place your other arm over my shoulder. I'll support you. You can't walk properly in your current condition."

"Ugh...thanks, partner."

The brunet took some time before he could muster the strength to drape his arm across his friend's shoulder, but once he did, he felt himself moving forward at a much more pleasurable pace. One that did not involve him crouching over in pain too frequently, or make him feel like he was going to empty his stomach on the streets, despite the cold spring breeze.

Although his vision was still slightly blur, Yosuke could make out the images of the skyscraper structures towering over the both of them, as well as the many cars on the road. The streets were teeming with people from all walks of life, engaged in different activities like listening to music or talking on their cell phones. It was almost stifling to have that many people surrounding him; Yosuke had to constantly remind himself of the life he led before moving to Inaba so that he could calm down.

He felt Souji shifting a little, and turned his head in confusion. It was then that he noticed that his partner was trying to lift himself, along with Yosuke, onto the scooter Souji inherited from his uncle, most likely to drive them back to the apartment. Yosuke started to panic again.

"H-hold on, Souji!" His yell caught the silver-haired adolescent's attention instantly. "I can cycle back to the apartment! It's no big deal, really! You don't have to carry me while riding your scooter back... B-besides, it's illegal to have two people on one scooter, remember?"

Yosuke saw the blank expression on Souji's face slowly turn into a frown. "It's not just that, Yosuke. I still need to do grocery shopping, remember? I can't possibly drag you with me when you're not feeling well, especially since it is my fault that you're like this now."

"Now don't go pushing all the blame to yourself, I'm the one who decided to be a hero and do something stupid," the brunet retorted. "Anyway I'm sure I'll be fine soon. I just need some fresh air and I'll be as good as new in no time! Trust me on that."

Seeing Yosuke's trademark wink again brought a smile to Souji's face. "Okay, then. We'll walk around for a while longer. Is there anywhere you want to go? I can take you there."

Yosuke's eyes sparkled, like stars dancing about in the pitch black sky. "Ooh, so you can be my personal tour guide? Well, now that you mention it, I've been wanting to-"

He was cut off when a large item of sorts landed right in front of their eyes.

The next thing they knew, it was lodged deep into the pavement, forming a ring of loose tiles and debris surrounding it. It all happened so quickly that the pair could barely even register the ear-piercing sound of the vending machine being crushed when it fell onto the ground. Their eyes widened at the sight.

Before either of them could say anything, a low-pitched yell reminiscent of a bull that saw red reverberated throughout the area.

"IIIIIIIZAAAAAYAAAAAAAAAA...!"

At that precise moment, a raven-haired young man manifested before Souji and Yosuke's eyes, the tails of his fur-trimmed coat brushing against their heads as he jumped over them merrily.

"Oh my, do excuse me," they heard him hum while he landed on top of the damaged vending machine, before he leapt to grab a nearby sign post. They stared in awe as the man swung himself around the pole and released his hold to glide over the crowd gracefully, then he melted away into the sea of people.

The pair remained silent when, just a few seconds later, a blond bartender dashed past them, shouting at the top of his voice while lifting a trash can over his head. It wasn't until he watched the man stop to fling the bulky object that Yosuke felt the bile rushing to his throat.

"Get back here so that I can beat you up, you damn flea!" the bartender bellowed as he uprooted the sign pole the other man had clung onto before. Then he was off to resume his chase.

The spectacle left Yosuke, whose back was being rubbed by a stunned Souji, whimpering.

"H...h-holy shit, dude... Did you see that?!" the brunet finally spoke, but still unable to get over his evident shock. He didn't wait to see Souji nod and continued rambling, "H-he threw a freakin' vending machine, a-and a trash can and even pulled out a sign post like it was nothing! Who the hell is he?!"

Right after that, a dark-skinned man wearing a sushi chef outfit chose that moment to appear, running after the blond. He was carrying a large sling bag over his shoulder, and had his left hand on his hat to hold it in place while he sped through the crowd.

"Fighting no good! Come Russia Sushi! Sushi fill stomach! Eat good!" the sushi chef chanted in accentuated Japanese, his voice fading away as he dashed off into the distance. Yosuke gaped, staring wide-eyed after the towering figure.

"Okay...that was weird."

"...Ah." Souji blinked out of his stupor once the man disappeared. "Simon-san."

"Wait, what? That's your benefactor?" Yosuke sputtered out in disbelief, turning to face his partner. "What's he doing chasing after a guy that's chasing another guy anyway?"

"I wonder," the silver-haired teen answered, nodding in agreement with his friend's question.

"...Please don't tell me you wanna find out."

Despite the fact that he could hear the shakiness in Yosuke's voice, Souji couldn't help but stare in the direction where Simon and the other two men took off to, then he turned to look at his scooter and Yosuke's bicycle parked near the pavement leading to the entrance of the sushi restaurant, appearing deep in thought. When a long moment of silence passed by, Souji finally shrugged.

"Let's just leave them be."

Yosuke heaved a sigh of relief.