"A bit. Guess I got to understand him better. But it's not like I don't do the same thing to you. I did figure out that him having a fight with you would be the best way to get you two to know each other."

"...right, that. I suppose it worked."

"Hey, Inori-kun, what do you think of Subaru?"

"...what?"

"What do you think of Subaru? Right now, after everything."

"...I guess he's not so bad."

"Glowing praise."

"From someone whose default opinion of alphas is 'kill them all', yeah. The first time we kissed—after that little incident in the sports storeroom—was because he called me acceptable."

"You're really not making it sound like it isn't negging that you're into."

"Look, it's complicated. Words are an imperfect medium to translate information between people, and the ideal is understanding what the person means regardless of the words they used to try to communicate it. When Inori-kun said I was acceptable, what he meant was that it seemed like I had my priorities straight and I actually cared about other human beings for real and not just as a political maneuver or in a sort of abstract way that goes away as soon as it becomes inconvenient, and that I was willing to back that up."

"I do not remember thinking all of that when I said it."

"Sure, a lot of it was subverbal, but is that an unfair description of what you did mean? Or at least, what you in retrospect think you meant?"

He refuses to answer this question.

"The silence is assent," Tōkan mock-whispers to Subaru.

"I see. So me not being so bad means...?"

"That you have a kind of rough exterior and probably some unexamined instincts influenced by the society you grew up in but despite that you're managing alright in terms of trying to shake them off and work past them, and you do have some good qualities hiding under the surface that you seem to sometimes actively try to hide."

"...I was definitely not thinking all of that."

"You were not, but do you disagree that this is a good summary of your position and that 'not that bad' is the overall colour of it?"

Again with the irritated silence.

"...huh. I... think I'm flattered?"

"By which you mean you don't really understand why this from Inori in particular is doing it but it is making you feel very warm and fuzzy inside and there's a part of you that is a little bit embarrassed by it, like, how silly is it to feel proud of something so small, but on the other hand you are kind of proud of, if not the actual place you're at right now, the long-term trajectory of the life you're aiming for, and this is a sign you're succeeding at least right now."

"God damnit Kokonoe."

"Haven't you had a decade to get used to it?"

"I think I'm just never going to get used to it."

"He just likes showing off."