"What... would a warning have looked like?"

"Tami-chan telling me that her boyfriend was acting kinda grumpy, and Ishiyo mentioning later that she'd seen him and Karato having an argument the other day. Naoko passing me a note in class. Taro stealing nervous glances between me and Takuo. Hōji yelling at me earlier, she's really not the kind to bottle things up and I have no idea how this managed to just suddenly explode."

"...dude you're kind of scary." He puffs deeply from the cigarette and blows it out. "Maybe she just kind of decided it in the heat of the moment?"

"Nah. Doesn't fit."

"What doesn't fit?"

He takes a deep breath and shrugs. "Dunno. Could try to think about it but a lot of this shit is kinda subconscious, you know? When stuff fits it clicks. When the little models of people I have in my head start saying the same things they said in real life, when everyone makes sense. Everyone doesn't make sense right now."

The door out opens again and two girls poke their heads through then start walking towards the boys. "Hey," says the taller one.

"—hi, Naoko-chan, Tami-chan. What are you two doing here?"

"Vibe's off downstairs," says Naoko, sitting down on the floor. "Feels like someone's died."

    "...dunno that I'd say that, but... yeah. Kinda."

...why does he feel like crying. This is so fucking stupid. Ugh he's having the same problem Inori does with processing his emotions in public, isn't he?

He leans back and shuts his eyes so that they won't see it if a traitorous tear escapes an eye, and blows some smoke up to the heavens. "Not gonna lie, I'm really happy the two of you are here."

    "Why?" asks Tamiki.

"Kinda thought I'd have no one left in my corner other than Subaru."

    "Bullcrap, Kokonoe," grumbles Naoko, opening her bag and grabbing two bentō boxes out of it. "You're not gonna find me kissing the ass of Hirune fucking Hōji and her cronies."

"She's got cronies, now?"

    "Seems like it, yeah. Kind of funny that she used to be your crony. What even happened back then, you haven't been together in months and now there's the thing with Yamada and then Friday..."

"—she and Karato tried to rape a middle schooler having her first heat and Inori ran into them and beat them up, I was mad at them, they kept making excuses."

    "You're... dating the guy who beat them up? Damn."

"Naoko—"

    She lifts her hands in surrender. "I know, I know, that was shit of them, just, yeah, I can get why they'd be pissed off." She elbows Tamiki who blinks and also grabs a couple of bentō boxes from her bag.

"Do the two of you always have more than one of those? It's not even lunchtime."

    "I like sharing," says Tamiki. "And Naoko does too even if she likes to pretend she doesn't. She's got an image to keep, see." Naoko elbows her again and she grins.

"...these are for us?"

        "Unless you have your own then this one's mine," says Naoko.

"—uh, yeah, keep it, except, it's not lunch?"

        "Yeah but we figured Tōkan was gonna be bummed out up here and food always cheers me up."

"You were right, I am bummed out." He puts his cigarette out and accepts Tamiki's box. "So, I see you got over yourself?"

    "...you're still fucking Subaru, right?" asks Naoko.

(For some reason Subaru starts coughing horribly—probably the smoke—and Tamiki offers him her bottle of water.)

"Yeah."

    "Thought so."

"You could still have just come talk to me and asked if I'm still DTF..."

    "Can't blame a girl for wanting to step lightly there." There is a fainty flush to her cheeks but she presses on. "Situation's highly unusual. Also you're not bringing Yamada with, he's cute but I hate the way it feels around omega pheromones. Itadakimasu." And she starts eating.

Subaru isn't particularly hungry, though, and despite the coughing fit he continues to smoke some more.

"...so... I don't suppose you guys know anything about that shit."

    "About what?" wonders Tamiki.

"Hōji suddenly acquiring cronies and getting them to beat me up, the police thing..."

    "Police thing?" Naoko looks equally confused.

"Damn. You really don't know, huh. Hōji is pressing charges against Inori for aggravated assault."

        "...he's an omega. Who in this country would believe her that an omega beat her up? Hell, what cops would believe that, and what cops would even take it seriously? Joke of the year, scrawny omega boy beats two alphas up at the same time, on his own."

"Inori was in heat at the time, too," adds Subaru.

    "...Yamada beat Karato and Hōji up, on his own, while in heat? What the fuck, Subaru."

"The epithet is apt."

"Remember the sports storeroom thing back then?"

    "Sto—that was you?" asks Tamiki, looking somewhere between shocked and morbidly curious.

"We didn't break in. We got locked inside it because we were hiding there from eight people who wanted to get revenge on him."

        "He does sound like he'd have a crowd after him. —wait, how'd you—from the inside—"

"He shattered the chain by pulling the door hard enough. With one hand. From the inside."

        "You are such a liar."

"I can grab him and get him to show you."

    "H... how? That's just..."

"Superhuman, I know, I have no fucking idea, but that's the dude that beat Karato and Hōji up while he was in heat."

    "...so the sex..."

"I think he would not be happy if I said anything about our sex life as it pertains the fact that he could snap me in two like a twig if he wanted to."

        "You're wild, dude."

(Subaru's fallen silent, again, staring off into the distance holding his cigarette between his teeth.)

"Well, anyway, Hōji doesn't control the school, actually some of us aren't interested in being pals with her and hers and the two of you are cooler," says Naoko, and Tamiki nods along. "Even if you're kinda a bit too into this whole SJ stuff."

"'This whole SJ stuff'," he says, with a raised eyebrow.

"You know, this thing where you're championing for the weak and downtrodden, fighting the oppressors, etc etc etc. I respect it but it's not my jam, I'm not going into politics."

Sigh. "Tōta getting an omega girlfriend didn't cause nearly as much bullshit..."