"Oh, I rather like Haru."

"It's my middle name. Actually it's the second half of my middle name."

"Oh. Than I suppose perhaps I would agree with you about your given name if I knew it."

"I'll tell you if you really want but I don't know what Ren was thinking."

"I don't need to know."

"Haru is short for Masaharu. It's just in the Latin alphabet on my birth certificate but if I did write it in kanji my options include ones that mean 'proper governance' so I'd probably do that."

"Oh I actually like that. Though it would also not be able to go on a 1920s New York Times byline if you had my editor."

"My first name would probably have been excusable in the 1920s, maybe I would have liked it fine then."

"Possibly, yeah."

The check arrives and Haru reaches for it.

"Um...."

"Hm?"

"The check?"

"I've got it." He puts a card in the little foldy object and signs the receipt.

"I'm um. I am confused how this works. Since we are both men."

"I proposed the restaurant and also have... an income... so it's on me."

"But I'm also a guy?"

"I would not be on a date with you if you weren't."

"And so. Uh. In my time whichever one of us was the guy would get the check, I think. Or not literally the guy - I expect Deb would get the check for my mom because even if Deb wasn't a guy she was... filling that niche."

"When you have money you can take a turn picking the restaurant and paying for dinner."

"I um. Still have some savings from the historians? But uh. I also don't want to imply that I am clearly the man here I am just confused."

"Even straight people in this day and age do not go with 'the man gets the check', anyway."

"How do they decide?"

"There's not a consistent system, but some common factors include the income thing and who did the asking and sometimes they take turns or go Dutch - uh, pay separately."

"That sounds like a lot more overhead."