Reading while eating lunch was something that Yui never imagined doing before. Not because she didn't understand the importance of studying, mind you. But, before all of this, she had always assumed that there was a time for everything. A time for having fun, relaxing, and hanging out with her friends.

Nowadays, however, she understood the importance of managing her time a little better. So, in the spirit of retaking her life, she chose to do a little bit of reading while she could. Prepare to continue her education like everyone else was doing. Go back to normalcy, even if she needed to drag her feet through the process to retake what was once lost. If she kept it up, surely, she would

"Hey, everyone!" Ai-chan bursting into the room made quite a few of the employees on break go into their own 'oh, shit!' mini-panic attack. With some of them spitting water or choking as Strawberry Production's golden child let herself in and wandered around the room, waving and greeting people while walking leaning forward a bit. Like she was studying people's faces. "Ah!"

Yui froze in place when the idol's expression brightened up in front of her. She didn't know what Ai-chan wanted, but this wasn't helping the gossiping about Yui's weird position in the company. Coming all the way here, casually looking for her, and… Doing whatever she wanted, really.

"H-Hey, Ai-chan. Hehe…" Yui put down her book and fork, trying to smile as well as she could while hastily cleaning her face of sauce of stray rice on her lips. Feeling nervous simply because this was the boss' daughter flagrantly boasting her ability to do whatever she pleased. "Sorry, I'm on break. Do you need something?"

Wow… 'Flagrantly', huh? Maybe reading stuff did pay off!

"Of course you are. That's why I'm here." Ai-chan's words made Yui flinch. And the pink-haired girl had to forcefully dispel the thought that this idol was going out of her way to deny Yui her break. Because, all things considered, she didn't think Ai-chan was that kind of person. It was just Yui's experiences that made her jump to that unfair conclusion. "Want to have lunch with me?"

"Ummm…" A high school girl question?! In this time and age?! Seriously! "I mean… Sure! I'm halfway done but…"

"No problem!" Ai-chan moved her left hand, which she had kept behind her back thus far; without Yui noticing because all of the idol's actions oozed an attention-grabbing vibe that left no room for stray thoughts or wandering gazes. There was something wrapped in paper in her hand, though. "Actually, if Ichigo-san asks, this is yours."

"…Okay?" Yui obediently stood up, even though Ai-chan didn't ask for it, and let herself be guided out of the room. Tucking her college preparation book under her arm while Ai-chan cheerfully walked out of the room.

"I used to eat the biggest sandwiches when I was younger, but I had to stick to a stricter diet since I was 15." Ai-chan explained loud enough for the other employees to hear. "But I wanna eat like before today. I just don't want Ichigo-san to get mad at me."

"Ah…! A little treat!" Yui finally had some of her apprehension dispelled as they left the room, walking a little closer to Ai without feeling discomfort.

"A guilty pleasure, if you will." The idol looked away, smile still in place like she had people looking at her in that direction. Even though there was nothing but the wall in there. "Y'know, I'm a bit too fond of them for my own good."

"Oh, well. You're always keeping yourself in shape and stuff." Yui didn't want to check the idol out while talking, so she looked in the opposite direction instead. "One snack can't hurt."

Ai's smile became cheekier, somehow. But only for a moment. As she tilted her head and seemed to weigh her next words carefully.

"Yeah."

Yeah. Just… Yeah.

"Haha… Right?"

"Mhm." Again, Ai refused to elaborate further. Seemingly not paying her full attention to Yui before grabbing her wrapped sandwich with both hands. "It's tough. Thinking 'I can take a bite' without feeling a little guilty, y'know."

That sort of thing…

"Well, if it's a rule you've followed for a while…"

"It is! The industry is pretty ruthless in a lot of aspects." Ai pointed out, squishing her sandwich a bit. "I used to think that people were being overdramatic, you see. Oh, how wrong I was."

"You could get away with eating junk food a lot?" Yui had the odd feeling that they were talking about different things here.

"Hmmmm… I wouldn't say it was about junk food." Ai looked at Yui, but it still felt like the idol wasn't wholly paying attention to her. Like her eyes just so happened to rest on Yui, even without actually processing the visual data of the pink-haired girl being there. "More like, even odd choices are no-good sometimes. You feel me?"

"Not really…" Yui frowned as they approached the room that B-Komachi usually occupied, getting ready in case the other idols were there too. Even though it was widely known that Ai had a history of sticking around for longer than the rest of the group.

"Do you think it's weird not having a favorite food, for example?"

"Eh, well…" Yui scratched her cheek awkwardly. "I wouldn't say 'weird' but…"

"But people rarely don't have an opinion, right?" Ai smiled softly, actually paying attention to Yui here.

"I guess…"

"Stuff like that." The idol sighed. "It's easier to tell the things you don't like, but people don't really wanna talk about such things. So it ends up sounding weird."

"Being an idol is tough, after all." Yui looked around while Ai sat on one of the couches to unwrap her sandwich. It felt lonely, with just the two of them. Awkward, really.

Guess Yui should go sit with Ai, then.

"Mhm." Ai opened her mouth as wide as she could, and bit down on her food like some sort of shark would on a whale's belly. Visibly pressing her teeth together, because the sandwich simply had too much stuff that she had to chew through to get a piece of it. The idol looked thoroughly pleased by the taste.

Seeing the idol enjoy herself let Yui sit down and open her lunchbox again, wordlessly saying her thanks before proceeding to eat. Trying to ignore the awkwardness of being with just another person in a big empty room, eating without saying anything.

"Come to think of it." Ai spoke up after a few minutes like this, where her gaze had wandered around Yui's appearance more than once. "Do you like reading?"

"Eh? This?" Yui felt a little embarrassed to show the book. "No, no! It's… Y'know. Now that I have more time, I should look into continuing my education and stuff."

"Really?" Ai sounded puzzled by Yui's words.

"Yeah. I mean, I should go back to college, get a degree… Stuff like that." Yui smiled politely at the idol, who probably didn't have such concerns in mind at all. "I'd like to get a better job at some point."

"You don't like it here?"

"That's not what I meant, but…" Yui couldn't help looking away. "I can get something better if I graduate."

"I guess…" Ai looked at her sandwich. "Is it that important?"

"Well, I have no other way to get a higher salary, so…"

"Right." Ai nodded like she understood everything.

"Yeah…"

"Well, uh, good luck?"

"Thanks! I did it once, so I'll just be lagging behind a little. Hehe…"

"Oh? You entered college before? You must be very smart!" Ai's words stung a little, to be honest.

"Y-Yeah… I'm not too bad at school! I had good teachers."

Ai-chan smiled brightly at the sentiment.

"Having good teachers is important." She looked at her food, eyes still somewhere between actually seeing and not perceiving at all. "How else are you supposed to polish yourself to your maximum potential?"

"Yeah! Our homeroom teacher, Hiratsuka-sensei, was pretty cool! She even got Hikki to stop being as mean as he was and…" Yui kept talking, even though she felt odd for a moment.

She could've sworn that Ai-chan's face twitched for a moment. Like her smile became a little forced for a split second.

Eventually, the clock struck eight once more. Since the day before, Hachiman hadn't seen Hoshino again. Just a couple of texts while they both moved on with their days. Facing their ends of the consequences of their actions. Which, in Hachiman's case, meant a long scolding session from Komachi that thankfully ended without their parents' intervention.

Being honest with his little sister was a must anyway, and he couldn't hide things from her as easily. So it all ended okay-ish, for now. With the girl threatening to be on the lookout for any funny business while covering her end of things.

He didn't quite like that she'd have to visit Strawberry Pro more often, to show her connection to B-Komachi to protect both Hachiman and the idols from the employees' gossiping. But he could do nothing but thank his sister from the depth of his heart.

"Of course I do it for you, dummy." Komachi replied, but looked a little embarrassed. Something out of the ordinary, given that she thrived being a lot more shameless in these things. Especially when she was in the right. "But… I kinda like them, some of them at least."

Well, that was fantastic. He couldn't foresee any bad consequences of hanging out with celebrities at all!

Of course, those were thoughts that he'd have had before he started to have an idea of what the idols were about. At the very least, Hoshino and Shijo were no longer people that existed in an abstract sense. Maybe Kamei too, if the glimpses he got of her were to count for something. And, of course, the one that he got to know in a completely different way… Nino.

Hachiman felt his mood sour when his wandering thoughts went in that direction, making him sigh as his phone made a second ringing noise of his call trying to connect. Before the sound of the other end of the call finally opening.

"Hey." Hachiman murmured, sounding a little tired even to himself.

"Hey~" Hoshino replied on the other side, shuffling in such a way that it sounded like she was brushing over the speaker to do… Something. "It's pretty early."

"Well, you did say that you'd be available at eight so I assumed…"

"Well, yes. But that's because we're going to watch… Err, a kids' show I watch is starting now. So I kind of…"

"Right." Hachiman didn't waste time cutting her off, for he knew that Hoshino would have to make something up. Paranoid as she was, that she wouldn't say her kids' names even through text. A strange contrast to her usual behavior when they were physically together. "I should've waited a little bit."

"It's fine, it's just…" Hoshino cut herself when the hint of a kid's voice was heard in the background, and the speaker was covered with something. Probably Hoshino's hand, until the kid who Hachiman assumed was Ruby became silent again. "…Very obvious that I'm just going to do something else, y'know."

"Tough audience, huh."

"Well, I'm an entertainer first and foremost." Hoshino chuckled. "I'm expected to be good at this 'magician' sort of thing."

Hachiman frowned in spite of himself.

"I don't get it."

"You know how when a magician says that the magic is happening somewhere, it is actually happening elsewhere? Like that." Hoshino replied. "There's a showmanship I'm expected to have, y'know."

"Sure. Dunno why you'd employ that in your own home, but…"

"You know that Ichigo-san raised me to be unrivaled in this." Hoshino chuckled again. "He'd argue something like I'm taking it easy just because I know him, or something like that."

"Well, someone worth listening to wouldn't make you watch a kids' show with him." Hachiman suspected that this sort of misdirection was okay. That Hoshino would get that he was pretending not to know about the twins, that she was watching a kids' show with actual children.

"Who knows? Maybe there will be a growth in idol interest with little kids." Hoshino herself sounded amused by the idea, so Hachiman smiled at that. Shifting in place before grabbing a pencil and drawing lines on the edge of his notebook. "What are you up to?"

"Studying." Hachiman sighed. "That's my number one responsibility."

"Cozy." Hoshino stated. "Your friend does the same in her break."

"My friend?" Hachiman ran a quick list of the friends that Hoshino could meet in her dad's company. "Yui-san?"

"Yep! Today, I had lunch with her!"

"Really, now?" That… Sounded kind of good. Depending on how it happened, of course. But Yui was, at the end of the day, one of the people with the softest touch that Hachiman knew. Even if Hoshino was good at hiding things, he doubted that she could've screwed a lunch with Yui so badly that she would have to. Hide it, that is.

"Yep! She's pretty nice."

No shit, Hoshino. That was why they remained friends in spite of everything… But Hachiman wouldn't say that out loud.

"She tolerated me a lot more than she should, in the beginning." Hachiman closed his eyes, feeling guilt creep up from his heart. "I owe her some of the things that I've learnt in life."

"Then I'm glad you're still friends." Hoshino replied in a not-so-subtle tone of disapproval. "I want to learn from her too."

Hachiman smiled, but not feeling as good about it as he probably should.

"You'd have loved her, back in the day."

"…Really?" Hoshino sounded oddly out of sorts for a moment. Like she was taken by surprise so much that she didn't think of filtering her tone through her usual pleasantness.

"She livened up everything, even though we took her for granted sometimes…" Hachiman's frown deepened. "Thanks again for helping her, by the way."

"Ichigo-san is the one keeping her afloat." Hoshino stated in a neutral tone. "But you're very welcome."

Something moved on her side, and he could heart the idol speaking to someone; away from her phone's speaker. It seemed like she was asking Aqua to do something, but while Hachiman tried to discern what was happening, Hoshino returned to talking to him.

If Hachiman hadn't known the names of the twins, the whole thing would've sounded like pure gibberish.

"Sorry! Busy day. I couldn't even tell you about the plans and stuff."

"It's okay, I don't think we should push our luck." Hachiman replied, knowing where she was going.

"But I want to go see Nino-chan as soon as possible. It just doesn't sit well with me to let her stay alone with her thoughts, in a hospital room. Sounds horrible."

"…" Hachiman thought back at his own experiences in a hospital. It was, indeed, a kind of torture. In its own way. But not so much that he felt bad about Nino of all people. "Not like you'd know."

"Hey!" Hoshino's outburst caused more noise to come from her end, which she quickly dealt with before returning to the conversation. "I did have to take a break when I was fifteen. What do you think I was doing? On vacation?"

"…Right." Not that he'd remember. Her idol career was on the realm of things that Hachiman wasn't wholly interested in. The cover up, the lie. The part of her that she showed to the world. It only made him try to look harder at what she showed him, try to piece together the tidbits and details that made up the real Hoshino.

"No, really. I wasn't on vacation. I'm not being sarcastic. I couldn't." Hoshino continued in spite of the lack of response. "I needed to earn money for rent, food, and stuff. Ichigo-san supported me a bit, but…"

"I… Yeah, I suppose it'd be strange if you trusted him to continue to do it forever." After all, Hachiman understood very well how distrustful she was. It only just so happened that this trait of hers didn't apply to him, for some reason.

"Yup!"

"But don't change the subject on me. I still think that you don't have to think too much about the whole Nino thing. Won't Saitou talk to her at some point?"

"It feels like I'm abandoning her, if I let Ichigo-san deal with it on his own." Hoshino spoke quieter now. "I'm involved in a way, after all. I can't just keep ignoring this problem anymore."

"But it's not your fault." Hachiman insisted.

"I didn't say it was, but it might be worthwhile showing Nino-chan that I'm not trying to hide from it either."

"She might not even be awake." Hachiman argued, perhaps trying a little too hard to dissuade Hoshino from doing what she wanted here. "Maybe they have her sedated, for now."

"I… I didn't even ask." Hoshino realized, speaking like she didn't enough breath.

"Which maybe is the tactful thing to do, given Shijo's still trying to keep her composure about this whole thing." It took no reading between the lines from Hachiman to guess what Hoshino was thinking, how she was feeling down for noticing her lack of empathy. If it could be called that.

She probably had as much in her mind as Hachiman, if not more. It was to be expected that things slipped her consciousness. Doubly so with those that she had no experience with.

"…Maybe." She didn't sound fully convinced, but at least she sounded calm about it. More in control, rather. Because her ability to put up a brave front wasn't an actual positive thing, when they were talking privately like this. "I should have asked, all the same."

"But now you know what you need to do and that you need to be tactful. Careful with who you ask." Hachiman pointed out.

"I guess…" Hoshino shuffled more things on her side of the conversation, but Hachiman had no way to guess what she was doing. "Ask about the specifics of Nino's stay at the hospital… Tact… Ummm… Who should I ask…?"

"Are you… Are you writing this down?" Hachiman didn't want to sound too surprised, but he still found it a little hard to believe.

"Yup. Things I shouldn't forget go here." Hoshino replied while slapping something that was clearly a notebook, loudly enough for the phone to pick it up. "It's how I learnt your name."

"…What?"

"I wrote it down until it stuck." Hoshino's answer did not help Hachiman whatsoever.

"Uh…"

"…Sounds weird, right? Oh, gosh. It's so weird…" Hoshino's mood changed again. She wasn't embarrassed; but sounded like she was just making a new discovery instead. A bad one, but a new discovery all the same. "Names and faces just don't stick with me. Like, at all. And I'd feel awful if I just met you at the hospital and forgot your…"

Hachiman waited for a moment, as he guessed that something else came up on her side of the call. But all he could hear was the TV in the distance.

The world had frozen on the other side of the call.

"…Hoshino?"

"Yeah?"

Uh…

"Something's wrong?" Hachiman insisted, even more confused as to why she'd stopped talking.

"No, no. I just realized something." She sounded a little out of sorts, but quickly regained her composure as usual. "Something fuwell, I don't know if it's funny. But it's kind of curious."

"Okay?"

"I met you in a hospital." Hoshino sounded genuinely moved by this fact, and Hachiman couldn't begin to guess as to why. "At one point or another, the most important people in my life have been in one with me."

Hachiman's face lit up. Not instantly, mind you. It took a couple of seconds to sink in, so that Hachiman could fully appreciate what Hoshino was trying to imply.

Of course they had, there was no way for her to meet her children for the first time anywhere but a hospital.

"I-I see!" Hachiman cleared his throat, feeling like he was being shoved into a kind of responsibility that he had no idea how to take. "That's… That's not a good record, I'd say."

"Did you really have to ruin the moment?" Hoshino sounded genuinely disappointed, even though she tried to chuckle it off as her own joke.

"…Sorry. I'm not good with people, you see."

"You could've fooled me!"

"The more one talks, the more likely it is to say something dumb." Hachiman put up some airs of defensiveness, for the sake of the bit. "It's just human nature."

"I'd know." Hoshino sounded just a little bit amused. But it felt a lot more personal than if she had reacted with faux-anger or sadness all the same.

"I'd know too." Hachiman chuckled nervously.

"What's the most hurtful thing you've said without thinking?" Hoshino sounded a little too interested for Hachiman's comfort, but he still thought about it for a moment.

He smiled a little, thinking about how he called Yui a bitch when they first met. How laughably shitty his attitude had been. Then the timeline moved in his mind, and his smile faded.

"…Probably some iteration of 'why do you care?', now that I think about it." Because, no matter how much Hachiman prided himself in being able to see through lies and evil intentions, looking so hard to try to see the small font in any text would inevitably make anyone miss the actual content.

Had he kept looking for the twist, or the malice, in everyone's interactions with him, he'd have missed the fact that some people just… Cared about him. That they wanted him to be okay.

And, at some point, he might've even asked 'so what?'. Like it was of no concern what people thought about him, because that was the approach toward negativity. Why should he care about the other side of the coin?

Because, deep down, he had come to care about the people that chastised him for sacrificing himself for others. And, in a selfish way, it helped him understand. Because seeing them hurting hurt Hachiman too.

When asking why people cared, when they did care, was a particularly sadistic way of hurting them. Because, if you came to appreciate someone, it was obvious that you'd want to think that they cared about you too. And the pain coming from rejection, of realizing that your feelings weren't reciprocated, was so particular that a whole sub-genre called 'romantic comedy' had been born around the fear of it.

How can you be so smart, yet so dumb at the same time?!

"Hey, Hoshino." Hachiman spoke up after a long silence, rubbing his eyes as if to snap himself out of his own grief.

"Hmm?" Hoshino had waited for him, respecting the moment that he needed. Like she understood that the topic was heavy from his answer alone… Which should be the normal reaction, actually. But this was Hoshino. So he was a little surprised.

A little proud too, maybe.

"You…" Hachiman felt like he needed some air, like he couldn't articulate his thoughts into proper words. Convey his feelings in a way that could be understood. "…Are a huge pain in the ass, you know?"

"…What?"

"But… But at the same time…" Hachiman sighed, the previous energy in his voice settling down into a comfortable mumble. Closer to his usual voice. "When all is said and done, you're just so… Tender. I don't know how or why, but you're so socially inept that you circle right back into being empathetic. And I… I can't look away anymore. I can't stop thinking about it, about you. Not-not in the sense that you're thinking! Just… Figuring you out, trying to puzzle out what makes you… You, if you will."

"…" Hoshino didn't respond. She probably couldn't take the full rambling in one go, and probably shut down when the first insult-like wave came in. He wouldn't fault her. His old self was… As ugly as people always told him he was.

"I… Should probably have worded this better." He admitted, scratching the page of his notebook with the pencil so hard that it got ripped. Hachiman threw the pencil onto his desk. "I know it's not your fault… I mean… I know that your circumstances are awful, and you don't deserve to listen to some random creep call you out on your…"

"You're not a creep." Hoshino replied softly.

Hachiman scoffed.

"See? I-I tried to rip you apart and that's what you focus on? What a weirdo…"

"I've always been different from everyone around me." Hoshino replied like it was an obvious statement. "Not better, I know. Just… Different."

"You're definitely better than a big chunk of society." Hachiman tried to salvage his own mood, but didn't quite manage to land the compliment.

"Well, I try to be someone worth looking up to!" Hoshino chuckled. "I'm glad at least this much can get through that thick skull of yours."

"I'm sorry. I don't know what I'm saying." Hachiman placed his face on the desk, groaning as he admitted how dumb he was being. "It's probably the tension."

"Might be." Hoshino sounded like she'd be nodding here. "I get it. Would it help you relax to know I'm not going to randomly escape to the hospital to see Nino-chan alone?"

"…" Hachiman suppressed a lame protest so that he could answer honestly. "It would."

"Will you go with me, when you have time?"

Hachiman screwed his eyes shut, knowing that he was likely inviting more trouble just by having this conversation.

"You know the answer to that."

"No, I don't. That's why I'm asking."

"I'm telling you yes, woman."

"Then say so!" Hoshino scoffed.

"Sorry… Yes. I'll go with you."

"It's a promise, then." Hoshino sounded pleased with herself. "I'll take it easy, let Ichigo-san give me the green light. And you… Will be with me, right?"

"Sounds fair enough." After all, Hachiman felt confident in trusting Saitou in this. In keeping Hoshino out of trouble by walking right into a problem with news outlets, or even Nino's family or Shijo's.

"See? I'm not dumb at all."

"Sorry…"

"You underestimate my abilities, Hikigaya Hachiman." Although her tone didn't change, that sentence sounded very threatening for some reason. "Careful with looking down on me too much… It'll just make it easier to trick you into submission…"

Someone made a noise on the other side, a disgusted one if he had to guess. And Hoshino quickly covered the speaker again, speaking up even through the obstruction. Apologizing.

Hachiman felt his face burn too, even though he couldn't see the children's reaction.

"A-Anyway! That's how things are going to be. I'll let you work, do homework… Err…"

"Study." Hachiman reminded her.

"Right, write. Whatever." Hoshino still didn't sound flustered. But like someone was hurrying her up, instead. "Eat your veggies!"

"I'm not a child, woman. I" Hachiman's words hung in the air when Hoshino just cut the call entirely, not waiting for him to finish his barbed comment.

Hachiman put down the phone, staring at the screen. A curious memory resurfacing as Hoshino's number appeared close to Shijo's. Making him groan a bit.

Once upon a time, he told Shijo that she took too long to deliver her punchline. And now, here he was. Unable to finish his banter because he wasn't fast enough.

The irony felt too personal for comfort.

Or maybe he was too embarrassed to admit that he'd have liked to say something that actually got Hoshino embarrassed, for once. And he was just deflecting.

…

No, couldn't be that. Not at all.