"—oh, my, we're wasting so much time outside, let's go in and to warm ourselves up and get some refreshments."

In they go, Aiko trailing her parents cooperatively.

Yutaka's of a mind to go find some more people he likes. Or hates. Maybe he should go for the second one, seeing Aiko-chan has lifted his spirits even more.

"Nakano-san, father, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to see about finding some people I have not had the opportunity to see in a while," he says to the four of them.

"...yes, you may go," Iemasa says, as if Yutaka needed his permission.

"Please, have a lovely evening." He bows, then goes off.

Now who else is he going to go torment tonight...?

Well, how about Kobayashi Akira and Toshiki? The twins are also trailing after their parents over yonder by one of the cocktail bars.

Oooh—

Except as soon as Toshiki makes eye contact with him he physically flinches then tries to smooth his expression over.

But not before his twin and their father notice and look at the source of Toshiki's discomfort. They adopt identical scowls, murmur something amongst each other, then as a group walk farther away.

Hee hee hee. What did he say? So much fun!

Anyway, he supposes the Kobayashi twins are going to be a later-tonight meal. He's got plenty of other targets. He intercepts one of the waiters walking past to pluck a fruity drink from the tray they're carrying (the drinking age in Japan is twenty but what is anyone going to do about it, call the cops? lmao) then goes on the prowl again.

You know who he'd love to run into? Matsuda Eiji is who. That boy is so deep in the closet he wakes up every day sniffing the White Witch's balls and he loathed the way Yutaka was so cheerfully and exuberantly out and made it so much harder for everyone else to be discreet. Yutaka absolutely hates that mindset and would really, really love to run into him, especially if he's got a beard in tow; Yutaka thinks he vaguely heard rumours of Eiji getting a girlfriend, and that's just incredibly funny.

There's Eiji! With a girlfriend! He's got his hand on her shoulder for no reason while she talks to somebody and he stares into space. He hasn't noticed Yutaka yet.

He does! He does have a beard in tow! That's hilarious Yutaka is about to go ruin his day. "Eiji-kun!" he exclaims when he's close enough that he won't be screaming at the top of his lungs but still far enough that if Eiji had noticed him he might've managed to escape. This way he won't be able to run away without losing face, which he could still do and would also be funny but less funny than this.

"Iwasaki-san," acknowledges Eiji after a perceptible delay in which he determined he was stuck having this interaction.

"It's been so long! And who's your friend, I don't think I've met her?"

"This is Nodake Sayori."

"Nodake-san, it's a pleasure to make your acquaintance," he says, bowing.

She glances his way. "Oh, hello, and you are?"

"This is Iwasaki Yutaka," says Eiji, gritting his teeth just a little.

"I used to study with Eiji-kun!" he says, as if that fact were more relevant than his family name to anyone at this party. Still, he doesn't mean to trade on his father's name, here, so he'll just move right past that. "He and I go way back. But please don't let me interrupt you, we're just catching up."

"Mm-hm," says Sayori, and she returns her attention to the girl she's talking to (about shoes, sounds like).

Plausibly deniable glaaaaaring.

"So, Eiji-kun, how'd you two meet?"

"We were introduced by my cousin." Go ahead, guess the cousin, you're probably going to spend a finite amount of time here and some of it might as well be spent on figuring that out.

This boy's so funny. "Tōta-san?" Yutaka guesses. "He's always been pretty good at knowing what people like." His grin widens. "But not as good as me," he adds with a wink.

"Well. He introduced me to Sayori-chan." Go awaaaaaaaay. Stop fucking wiiiiinking.