“Make sure you keep that getup on lmao”
Obviously, I was still wearing the same clothes—I didn’t need to be told not to change my clothing—but I at least stowed the hat, glasses, and stole away in my tote bag before leaving the shop.
I had no bike with me, so I took the train, walking the last ten minutes to the shop. It was a chain izakaya with semi-private booths, one that Tousuke and I had visited different franchises of many times before. As a university student, it was important to have some awareness of menu prices when selecting a dining location.
I entered the restaurant, gave Tousuke’s name, and was brought to him. It was Pon-chan who spotted me first, looking far more normal than I had earlier with just my jacket and tote bag, her chin resting on her hands.
“Ooh, Kaede-senpaaai! Good work todaaaaaay! You look good, goin’ out on a date? Sounds fun!~”
I could see that her cheeks were already fairly rosy.
“Heya, buddy! Oh, wow, you really did keep your formalwear on!”
“Whaddya mean formalwear? Anyway, hope you had fun at the meeting today, you two.”
We were still keeping the plan a secret from Pon-chan, so I chose my words carefully. I sat opposite her at the four-person table, beside Tousuke.
“So, how was it?” I asked.
Pon-chan swung her head heavily back and forth, flashing her neck—just as red as her cheeks—through the collar of the white dress shirt she had apparently chosen for the occasion.
“It was soooooooo long!” This much was emphatic. “It was sooooooooooo exhausting!” she continued. “Is job hunting always like this? I can’t do it! I’m gonna crumble to dust before I even make it to my senior year!!!”
“Well, today was very much hard-mode, getting asked our opinions that many times.”
“That settles it though. I can’t stand those Moai jerks! Whenever I finally got to voice my opinion, they’d just be like, ‘Oh, but what does that mean?’ I already said my piece! Now it’s your turn!!!”
Pon-chan, more fired up than I’d ever imagined her, took a gulp of what appeared to be some kind of highball. It was fortunate that the shop was bustling enough to drown out any one girl’s passionate laments.
“Seriously though, listen, Kaede-senpai—Oh, wait, guess you’d wanna order first.”
As heated as Pon-chan was getting, she still remembered her manners. At her prompting, I flagged down the grinning waiter who had been lingering nearby and ordered a draft beer. The drink was delivered to me promptly. I gave a little “Cheers” and told her, “Go ahead.”
“Right! So…” she started, as though she had just remembered what it was she was going to say. I gathered she was fairly accustomed to talking to her seniors. “This guy! This guy here!” she shouted, pointing at Tousuke, who tilted his head theatrically. “He was acting like he was having so much fun talking to those Moai guys! What happened to you saying you’d back me up, huh?! They started getting all excited, and just because I was with you, they wanted to hear my opinions too!”
“Well, c’mon, I mean, if someone asks your opinion, you answer, right? That’s just how a conversation works. Right, Kaede?”
I was not there, so I couldn’t say, but I knew that Tousuke was a fairly erudite person. I was sure he truly enjoyed talking to people from all different walks, no matter what their differences.
“That is not true! You were going on about how to protect the labor force in rural areas, and the economic benefits of nuclear power, and all these other highbrow topics. What happened to the fun, laid-back senpai that I love?!”
Tousuke laughed giddily at his kouhai’s disparaging. They were probably always like this. It was just like what Tousuke had said to me back at the karaoke bar.
“It’s not highbrow. Those are just the sort of things that even I think about. Right, Kaede?”
“I dunno, Tousuke, sounds pretty highbrow to me,” I said.
“Right! Ugh, he’s been tainted! Before you know it, he’s gonna turn into a Moai too!!!” she wailed.
“Will not!” Tousuke jabbed back. “Listen, if you’re gonna take part in somethin’, you gotta do it right, yeah?” There was no need for him to excuse himself—I already knew that Tousuke was that sort of person. However, that was not the entire issue here.
“Actually though, how was the event for you, Tousuke? Considering you never liked Moai.” I was curious what he thought. He folded his arms and jutted out his lip.
Sorry, Tousuke, puppy dog looks don’t work on me.
“Hmm, if I’m being honest?”
“Don’t even hold back.”
“Hm…” He seemed as though he was choosing his words carefully. “How do I put this… Well, I thought that it would be a pretty good event for anyone who has their own ambitions to satisfy.”
“You seemed pretty satisfied yourself, Tousuke-senpai!!!” Pon-chan idly chided, snapping up a healthy portion of the rolled omelet that had finally arrived.
“Own ambitions?”
“Like, I think it’s a good sort of thing for people with their own desires to fulfill, who don’t really care what the event is actually about, to participate in.”
“Hmm…” My sighed reply was largely for the sake of not letting on to Pon-chan the sort of relationship that Moai and I shared. Perhaps catching on to this, Tousuke ignored me and continued speaking.
“There were way more people there who were actually actively seeking job connections than I expected, but even though they seemed fairly engaged in the discussions, they were way more engaged in making conversation with the various professionals afterwards during breaktime. It at least seemed kind of taboo to bring up company names and the like during discussions. You could have just mentioned what kind of industry you were in. I thought we would exchange business cards or something, but that was mostly during breaks. It might sound kind of awful to say this, but if you were a girl who’s fairly confident in her appearance, you’d almost be better off just sitting around quietly during the discussions and making eyes at whichever guys appeared the flashiest.”
“I haaaaaaaate girls like that.”