Jann is minding his own business. He is playing by himself in the courtyard with a wooden sword: this definitely constitutes minding his own business. Nothing that follows is his fault.
"I can't figure him out as well as I can you but I have no strong reason to believe he'd laugh off the idea, you know."
"Girls who want to date dukes are a little more common than boys who want to do the same thing, if you haven't noticed, it's a better sign than if he acted like me."
"On the other hand, if he acted like you it would be evidence that he was interested in dating anyone at all." He sighs. "I don't know."
"Oh, hello, Cath. We were just discussing my hopeless crush on Duke Reko."
Meow.
"You didn't know about that? I guess it hasn't come up. Well, I have a hopeless crush on Duke Reko. Jann thinks I've got a shot. Opinions?"
Cath considers this, then meows a few more times. Milo laughs.
"Well, it's good to know I'll have your support if I marry him, but I was wondering more if you thought he might like me back."
Meow, meow.
"He does play chess with me, that's true. And always responds very promptly. But so does Glynn, and I'm pretty sure Glynn doesn't like me that way."
She meows a conceding sort of meow and hops up into his lap to be petted.
Cath purrs.
"And she always lets me know when I guess wrong."
Affirmative meow.
"I'm very impressed. Anyway, if you want me to ask Glynn if he wants to date you, I can do that too, but that is obviously much less useful, in more than one way."
"Good, because he has way fewer hangups than you and I think if he wanted to date you you'd already know."
Cath rubs her face against Milo's stomach. He sighs and pets her some more.
Jann goes about business as usual, plus significant looks when Milo is looking at his end of the chess-by-mail game.