“I mean, I just approached him because of your text, and he was pretty pleasant to deal with. This guy doesn’t seem to have any boundaries. Honestly, I was pretty stunned that he was the one to suggest exchanging information. I just was like, ‘I don’t really have any interest in joining Moai, though.’ And he was like, ‘That’s a shame, but since you’re already here…’ so we did it. Those kinds of guys are unbelievable.”
“Yeah. It’s like they’re from a completely different world.”
“Right?” Tousuke laughed, as though he understood everything about me. “Anyway, what was that about some scandal about him?” I realized then that I had not yet explained that to him and regaled Tousuke with the encounter at the café that afternoon.
“I see,” he muttered, once I was through.
“Was he doing anything like that there?”
“I mean, it’s not like I saw him straight up feeling up some businesswoman’s tits or anything.”
“Well, if there was a guy like that in the leadership then we wouldn’t even have to lift a finger to fight them.”
“I mean that’s true, but like, he did seem to get along pretty well with all the businesswomen who seemed like they had been there a bunch of times before, and he even had a lot of conversations with the first-timers, trying to make some sort of connections. By that extension, it wouldn’t be all that surprising if he was doing that sort of stuff. He seems to be a smooth operator and attractive enough. Not that cool, but…”
But charming enough, I’m sure he wanted to say.
“You don’t seem too fond of him.”
“I mean, I definitely wouldn’t have approached him if it wasn’t my duty.”
I could not say that I understood all that there was to Tousuke, so I just settled the matter with, “Seriously, thanks. Anyway, sorry to keep poking while you’re tired, but mind if I make some proposals about our next moves?”
“You’ve got it, boss!”
“Right, gonna keep this simple and clean, but I feel like the most effective way to get this thing to blow up would be to get the man himself to slip up and say something or to catch him in the act. So, much as I hate to say it, I think we’re gonna have to make friends with him.”
“You’re probably right. You say we, but he doesn’t know you, does he?”
“I don’t think so. We inhabit totally different worlds. And also, he wasn’t there while I was still around.”
In fact, I had no idea when he had gotten there. Regardless of when it was, though, if in fact he had joined merely to find hook-ups, to find someone to get off with, if he had managed to make it into the ranks of leadership while joining under those pretenses, then Ten’s very existence was a symbol of all that was now wrong with Moai.
“Well then, I guess the first order of business would be to get in touch and actually take him up on those drinks. Oh, but if it turns out to be a mixer or something, I’d only be going for the sake of my duty, so don’t say anything to this one,” he said, gesturing to Pon-chan with his thumb. I got the feeling there might be more than one reason for this, but that was none of my concern. I could still hear her faint snoring.
“Got it, I won’t tell her you’ve got the hots for her.”
“Stop it!” It was charming the way he looked at Pon-chan, whispering the warning in a way that almost made me think he wasn’t joking. I wonder if it’s strange to be so endeared to someone your same age.
“Oh yeah, Kaede, so you saw their leader?”
I was sure he saw the way that my gentle smile faded when he asked me this.
“I did.”
“How’d that go? Er, sorry, that’s kind of weird to ask.”
“It’s fine. Hm.”
How had it been? I had to sit and think. I thought about it and came up with the most straightforward way to convey this to Tousuke.
“It just made me think…I have to take them back. Not just Moai but our ideals.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, I mean, it’s not every day I hear you get fired up and say something that embarrassing, so I’m all in.”
I offered my wonderful friend a heartfelt, “Thanks.”
He waved it off with a, “Stop thanking me, it’s embarrassing.”
For about the next thirty minutes, we drank, forgetting all the day’s woes.
“Mm, well, think it’s about time I get Pon back home. You can get changed over at my place. Oh, or if you like those clothes, you can borrow them?”
“I would in fact like to get out of them as quickly as possible, so I’ll stop by.”
“C’mon, didn’t you tell Pon you were goin’ on a date? Why not go out and find yourself a new girlfriend? Oh, wait, are you still hung up on that girl from work…?”
“I’m not like you were back in the day. I’ll be fine. Just wake her up already.”
As instructed, Tousuke called out to Pon-chan. When she did not stir, he poked her in the shoulder. She jolted, revealing her now reddened forehead.
“Oh, sorry…I wasn’t slee…er…”
“Yeah you were.”
“Yeah…”
I went and settled the tab, leaving the dazed Pon-chan to Tousuke. We left the shop and saw her home, heading to Tousuke’s place with the intention of having an afterparty there, but at some point, the two of us just passed out on the floor.
For some reason, both Pon-chan and the girl from work I had dated and broken up with over a year before came to mind.
Now that I thought about it, just when was it that Pon-chan had started calling me Kaede-senpai? I wondered upon waking the next morning, for no reason in particular.