With their hunt concluded, the two looked over their rewards screens. Kai casually checked over the materials he was randomly assigned with neither joy nor a clicking of his tongue, when suddenly...
“Hey, Kai?” asked Jun, not breaking her gaze from her screen.
“Hm?” responded Kai as he continued moving his controller. “What’s up?”
“Did...something happen?”
Jun’s voice was nonchalant and she didn’t look away from her TV, but she cut right to the chase. This time, Kai couldn’t answer right away. His only reaction was the halting of his fingers. But Jun took his hesitation as her cue to press the issue.
“Did something happen between you and Hotey?”
She really was a sharp girl. The way she kept her eyes on the screen and her tone casual was simply a show of good faith. The former signaled that she was considerate enough not to pry into his reaction, and the latter implied that she didn’t intend to blame him.
There’s no getting past her, groaned Kai to himself.
“...What makes you think that?”
“Normally you’d be getting pissed and saying stuff like ‘There’s no point in beating Kulve Taroth without breaking the horns’ or ‘This quest was basically a failure.’”
“Well excuse me for wanting to be efficient!”
“Either way, you’re way less focused than normal, so I figured something happened.”
“...Even if something did, what makes you think it’s got anything to do with Kotobuki?”
“Because when I asked about Hotey, you dodged the question and said it’d be soon. Normally, you’d be the one to take it a step further and ask when.”
“That’s all you need to base it off of? What are you, psychic?!”
Kai was honestly shocked. But Jun continued.
“Yeah, that’s all I need,” said Jun with a smile. She had finally put her controller to the side and turned to face Kai. “I don’t need to read your mind. Friends just know these things.”
“There you go with the cringe again,” said Kai. He meant that to be a jab, but he was really just hiding his own embarrassment at being read like a book. If that wasn’t embarrassing enough, she scooted up next to him to boot. He wished she wouldn’t—she smelled too nice.
“All right, perp, time to come clean. Did you get in a fight with Hotey?”
“Hold up, is this suddenly a crime now?”
“Yeah, and yer lookin’ at life in the slammer!”
Jun balanced her antagonizing interrogation by rubbing her shoulder and cheek against Kai. For the sake of Kotobuki’s privacy, he couldn’t give too many details about what had happened. And Jun didn’t dig for every bit of dirt there was, instead choosing to wrap her arm around Kai’s neck and pull him in. Kai didn’t resist; he shifted his position to let his face press against Jun’s.
“Say cheese for the flirty selfie!” shouted Jun as she suddenly whipped out her smartphone.
“Wait, what’re you doing?! I’ve got a bad feeling about this...”
“And sent to Broyalty!”
“Oh god no stop he’s gonna kill me!”
“C’mon, don’t sweat it.”
Kai feared for his life, but there was no use crying over spilled milk. A message that was sent couldn’t be recalled. And sure enough, the smartphone in Kai’s pocket started vibrating just three seconds later. He was getting a call. Kai, his body trembling just as strongly, checked the screen to be certain. It was from Royalteach. He considered pretending not to notice, but putting this off was definitely going to bite him much harder later on.
“H-Hello,” answered Kai into the receiver, fully expecting to get chewed out.
“I swear...Jun just never grows up. She must be a handful, no?”
Kai didn’t expect what came through over the speaker. Royalteach was probably mad given the lack of a greeting and the hushed voice he spoke with, but it didn’t sound like he was directing it at Kai. Kai was so stunned that he didn’t respond right away.
“She’s a handful, right?!”
“Oh, right! Yeah, innocence sure can be a handful!”
“Glad you agree. Now, wouldn’t you also agree that it’s your responsibility to be the reasonable adult around her?”
“I admit that I’m very much still a child, but I highly value responsibility! This photo is merely a symbol of friendship and absolutely nothing more!”
“Good to hear. Don’t make me regret placing my trust in you.”
And with that, Royalteach hung up.
“Told ya,” said Jun cheerfully. “Totally fine. Broyalty accepted our friendship.”
“That was bad for my heart. Please don’t put me through that again.”
Kai was going to complain no matter what Jun’s defense was, but he wasn’t so dense as to question the fact that Royalteach did acknowledge their friendship.
Royalteach was a terminal doter towards his sister, so he didn’t accept Jun and Kai’s friendship at first. He stayed firm when he said, “No inappropriate cavorting!” and, “Never flirt with Jun again!”
It took Kai getting fed up, barging into the Miyakawa household, giving Royalteach a piece of his mind, and then challenging him to a Monster Hunter duel to get him to let the two hang out again—not that Kai quite understood how he managed that change of heart.
Nowadays, Kai and Royalteach were close enough to play games together when time allowed for it.
Kai suddenly remembered that whole sequence of events. Jun had made him remember.
“You know,” whispered Jun as she tensed her arm around Kai’s neck and pulled him in closer, “I was just acting tough when I told you not to come to my house back then. I really was happy when you showed up. Really...really happy.”
Jun expressed as much gratitude as her words would allow. But Kai picked up on the rest of what she was trying to say; specifically, the encouragement in those words. That if he was so shaken up by what happened, he should just go to Kotobuki himself. Don’t think, just barge in. That was the Kai Nakamura she knew. That was the boy she was cheering on!
“...I’m the one who ought to be thanking you, Jun.” Kai felt the weight of his gratitude in every word...before quickly shifting to an apology. “Sorry, but I gotta go!”
It was a shame; Jun had made plans and come all the way here to hang out, but he had to barge in on Kotobuki’s place. Or so Kai meant to say, but Jun didn’t let him repeat the obvious.
“Sorry Kai, I just remembered something I have to do too!”
Jun gave Kai a pat on the shoulder with the arm she had around him before suddenly standing up.
“Huh? What thing?”
“I’m going shopping with Reina today,” said Jun as she wildly waved her hands about and breezily made her exit.
Liar, thought Kai. You just said Reina was working.
He wasn’t so tactless as to say that aloud, of course. He just became ever more grateful of how considerate his friend was.
As Jun left, though, she peeked through the slightly ajar door and made one plea.
“I can’t wait until December, though. I wanna play with Hotey now!”
“Gotcha. I’ll talk it over with Kotobuki and make some plans.”
Kai let Jun know that he heard her loud and clear. After his best friend gave him the push he needed and cleared the path to boot, he couldn’t let her go with a mere thank you. He had to give her the same encouragement she gave him.