"Hmm. Come back soon."

That, too, is part of their usual dance. With the snacks in tow, he exits the shop.

"—Towa?"

Towa looks up from his phone and spots Rei across the street from him. He pockets it and waits for his friend to walk over to him.

"You're up early," he says. "I mean, a lot earlier than usual. And, um, you look..."

"Like shit. Yeah."

"Are you a̸͓̥̭͘̚l̴͍̈͋r̶͈̀̕ĭ̸̖͙̙̀g̵̦̀͠h̶̢͇̰́͘͝ṭ̸͔̎̄?" Then he covers his mouth. He's a lot less good than Fujieda at not saying the word. "—ah, sorry, I—"

"Nightmare," he says, cutting Rei off. "Bad one."

"...oh. Is there, um—"

"No."

"...right."

"Anyway!" he says, flipping a switch to cheerfulness to try to smooth over the topic. "Were you just at Tajima's?"

"Yeah."

"What were—wait. Is that meant to be your breakfast?" he asks, gesturing at Towa's bag.

"Yeah."

"No, sir, that's not healthy at all. Come on, I was on my way to Yanagawa's, let's eat together there. Your treat."

"My treat?"

"Are you or are you not dating and living with a lawyer who has insane amounts of money?"

"Yeah."

"So: your treat."

Towa sighs but doesn't resist. With Rei, it's always easier to just go along with whatever he wants, even for small things like this.

So he drags Towa along with him to the Café and orders two honey toasts, a black coffee for Towa, and a strawberry milkshake for himself.

"Splurging on Fujieda's money, huh?"

"—do you think he'd mind?"

Towa leans back and takes a drag of his cigarette. "Nah."