Sigh. "Yeah."

"That it's Yamada Inori? The crazy boy from Yoshikiri High?"

"Inoue, you are not seriously saying you expected his answer to be in the negative, here."

"...no, I guess not, just..." She looks at Subaru, then back at Tōkan. "Why? Everyone thought you two were gonna end up together..."

Oh, ouch, why would you say that in front of Subaru, Tamiki, that's insensitive as fuck. He glances at his friend for a second, who is keeping an impassively nonchalant face, but he can see the note of tension. "It's complicated." It's really not, not objectively, but this is fucking Kokonoe High, anyone dating an omega is news.

In any case, he has a pretty good guess about what the next question is going to be.

"...is it the sex? I've heard stories about—and there was a rumour Yamada Inori doesn't take suppressants—"

"Tamiki, I beg that you think about who exactly it is you're talking to for a moment. Inori did not seduce me with pheromones and however good or bad the sex is it was never going to be the main reason." And the next thought: "He's not pregnant either."

"And is your father..."

"He's aware of it," Tōkan shrugs. "You can guess how he feels about it. I've never been particularly fond of the idea of making him proud."

She chews on her lower lip for a bit, while her face goes through several complicated expressions in a row.

"Also if you could let Naoko know that she can just come talk to me rather than relying on rumours, that'd be appreciated."

"How'd you—" Sigh. "Yeah I will."

"Thank you. Anyway, uh, sorry if I'm... disappointing or anything. Nothing really needs to change."

She looks at him dubiously then says, "Okay."

"...on a completely different note, did that book you were looking forward to get released? We haven't caught up in a while, I lost track. It was this month, right?"

"Oh! Yeah, next week, I'm so excited! I'm gonna reread the whole series this week so everything's fresh in my mind..."

"That bothers you," Subaru observes after their next class; Tamiki occupied all of the rest of their break so Tōkan and he couldn't resume their conversation until now. "The thing with Inoue."

"Yeah. I knew it was gonna happen eventually, actually kinda surprised if took this long."

"No one really took the idea of the Kokonoe heir actually doing that seriously, I guess, especially with how much you always said that you'd never have sex with an omega."

"Come on, the fact that we were having sex was obvious months ago, he keeps showing up."

"Yeah and a lot of people took that as a sign that everything you'd said about the subject was just trying to posture about being so modern and actually you were just like everyone else and thought omegas were sex toys."

He lets his head hit the wall behind him and stares at the ceiling. "What'd I do to deserve this."

"You want a list or..."

"Fuck off, Subaru."

"You're just whining, you knew about everything I said."