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Yosuke lowered himself onto the steps of Marukyu Tofu with a groan. He'd forgotten that walking around and questioning people could be so exhausting. "Jeez, we're not getting anywhere this way. This is so stupid, I could have swore we had the right guy."
"Sorry," Souji said, sitting next to him.
"Eh, it's not your fault."
Souji's mouth twisted up in frustration. "It's just like what happened with Kanji. If I'd remembered that and told someone to stay behind before running off—"
"Don't do that," Yosuke said more forcefully, knocking his hand against Souji's knee. "None of us were thinking straight. Even Adachi-san didn't think of it and he's a cop, he's supposed to worry about that stuff. We'll do better next time."
It was gratifying, the way Souji sighed and said, "You're right." Yosuke'd gotten used to taking his advice but having Souji do the same was still new. Yosuke liked it; it made him feel like they were balancing each other out, really being partners, instead of him depending on Souji all the time. "I'm not sure how I feel being compared to Adachi-san, though."
"Sorry," Yosuke said. "If it helps, I think you're a lot smarter."
Souji laughed. "Thanks."
"No problem." That taken care of, Yosuke couldn't resist some more complaining of his own. "You'd think this would be easier. Kanji had such a bad reputation that I get why no one wanted to talk about him, but Rise's an idol, everyone should know about her." Which, ironically enough, was exactly the problem; everyone knew about her but only as Risette, so most of the information they'd managed to gather was nothing more than rumors and speculation, when they got anything at all. Even the older folks who'd known her before she'd made it big hadn't offered anything but comments on how surprised they were to see her back in town, or how much she'd grown, and her grandmother wouldn't talk to them about anything useful, convinced Rise had simply gone off for one of her usual walks.
"What about you?" Souji asked. "You're her fan, do you know anything that might be helpful?"
"Not really," Yosuke said, reluctant to admit it. He could name her favorite food and her measurements but somehow he doubted that would impress Souji. "Just what they show in interviews and on her TV guest spots. I guess I can't complain about everyone else."
"There has to be something we're missing," Souji muttered, and Yosuke stayed quiet, letting him think. He considered himself pretty good when it came to forming theories about the case but this wouldn't be the first time Souji noticed something he'd overlooked. "You mentioned her interviews. They'd put those in magazines, wouldn't they?"
"Sure, they published a ton when she debuted, I remember buying a couple." As soon as the words were out of his mouth, Yosuke made the connection. "Hey—"
"Do you still have any?" Souji asked. "If you do, we might be able to find something useful in them. It's a long shot but..."
"No, it's a great idea. Good thinking, partner." It would have been nice to rest longer but when Souji stood, Yosuke did the same and reached for his phone. "Want me to call the others?"
"Just to tell them they can stop questioning people for today," Souji said, fussily brushing off his pants. "I'm sure you don't want all of us crowding your house, and if I'm wrong about this, I'd rather you be the only one to know."
Yosuke rang up Kanji and Chie while they walked, repeating the same conversation twice and realizing belatedly that he still hadn't managed to get Yukiko's number. Chie promised to pass the message on to her, but it was still inconvenient. "Hey," he told Souji as he hung up, "give me Yukiko's number."
"She hasn't given it to you yet?"
"No, and Chie won't either. I don't get what the big deal is." It wasn't like he was some random classmate, they were part of a team.
Souji smiled. "Maybe she's worried about you calling her late at night and telling dirty jokes."
Of course Souji would remember Chie saying that. "Once," Yosuke said. "I only did it once, and you would have, too, it was a great joke."
"You'll have to tell it to me someday. Anyway, if I give it to you without asking her first, she'll get annoyed at me."
"I need it for the case, though. You're not holding out on me so you can be the only guy in Inaba who has it, are you?" He didn't really think Souji would do that but Yukiko's number was seriously valuable information. If the other guys at school knew Souji had it, they would have been trying to bride it out of him or steal his phone.
"Hardly." Souji considered his request. "I'll talk to her about it. I can't promise anything, but you're right, you should have it for the case. You can't always get to her through me or Chie."
"That's the only reason I want it." Souji looked at him sideways, and Yosuke did his best to keep a straight face. He must have not done a very good job - Souji's sigh had a resigned tone to it.
"Don't get yourself into trouble, or she'll come after me, too." As they turned onto the street that led to Yosuke's house, Souji asked, "Will your parents be home?"
Yosuke thought about it. "Probably not Dad, he works late, but Mom might be around if she's not visiting her friends." Some of their neighbors refused to have anything to do with her, of course, the same way some of the men around town wouldn't share a beer with his dad when he went drinking, but his mom had found a group of housewives who couldn't have cared less about Junes and spent a good bit of time with them. If Yosuke remembered right, they'd started a book club.
"Should I stop and get something then? Like a gift?" Souji glanced back towards the shopping district, and Yosuke laughed.
"A gift?"
"I've never met them before," Souji said, defensive. "I want to make a good impression."
Yosuke doubted that would be a problem. Souji was attractive and polite; if he combined that with a gift - a cute houseplant or practical cook utensil or whatever - his mom would fall in love. She might even demand to trade Yosuke for him. "You do that and you're going to make me look bad. Anyway, don't worry, I already told them about you. You'll be fine."
"You did?"
"Well, yeah," Yosuke said. He didn't see a reason to mention how much he did it or that his dad had started preemptively asking about him. "They want to know who I've been hanging out with lately. It's okay, I only say good stuff."
It turned out that neither of his parents were home, which was slightly disappointing. On one hand, Yosuke knew they wouldn't have gotten much done with his mom hovering over them and making a big, embarrassing deal about him bringing a friend home. On the other hand, he'd been looking forward to, well, showing Souji off, for lack of a better phrase. Souji seemed relieved, probably because he had time to go buy that gift now.
He made sure to be a good host, letting Souji know he could help himself to the fridge, and showing him where the bathroom was located, and then they headed up to his room. Yosuke took a seat next to one of the many piles of magazine he had stacked on his floor, and Souji began a slow circuit around the room, checking things out.
Instead of getting to work, Yosuke watched him. "What do you think?"
"It's cleaner than I imagined. I'm joking," he added when Yosuke made an indignant noise. He gestured to a poster of a sleek, orange motorcycle. "Is this the kind you want?"
"More or less," Yosuke said. He'd hung it to remind himself that all those hours at Junes were going to pay off one day. "But I'm still not sure about the color, I might go with yellow instead. Which do you think would get more attention?" Getting noticed was half the point of having a motorcycle, after all.
"I've always like gray," Souji said unhelpfully. His wandering took him over to the desk, its surface covered in manga and CDs, and he picked up a sheet of paper. "What's this?"
Yosuke recognized it immediately. "Oh, that's—"
Hearing his tone, Souji put it back down. "Sorry, should I not look at it?"
Yosuke hesitated before answering. "No, it's fine, go ahead." He picked up the nearest magazine and flipped through it to distract himself but couldn't resist keeping one eye on Souji. "They're song titles," he explained. "I'm trying to come up with a new playlist for when we're in the TV."
"It looks complicated," Souji said, nothing about his expression giving Yosuke any clue about what he thought of the song choices. "There are a lot of arrows."
"Everything's gotta be in the right place or it won't sound any good. I can't fight Shadows if I'm busy skipping tracks." Souji continued to look over the list, long enough that Yosuke grew nervous. "What's up?"
"It's just that you never tell anyone what you're listening to. It's interesting."
Yosuke shrugged, reaching up reflexively to touch his headphones. "Music's pretty personal, isn't it? I'm not really interested having anyone judge my choices."
"But it's okay for me to see this?"
"Yeah," Yosuke said, "you're okay."
Souji smiled and set the list down, coming to sit next to him. "Here, let me help."
Yosuke split the pile in half and pulled another closer, ignoring the few issues that tumbled off the top. "Finding the right ones shouldn't be too hard. They always put her name on the cover when she's featured, so look for that."
It turned out to be more work than Yosuke'd anticipated. At some point his magazine collection had gotten out of hand, meaning they had to spend time separating the ones that dealt with motorcycles from the ones covering idols or the latest gadgets. Souji sorted them into neat piles. Yosuke tossed them aside to be dealt with later.
"You've got a lot of these," Souji said, impressed.
"I like collecting them." He'd gotten into the habit of picking up a new issue every time he passed a magazine rack, but as he tossed yet another magazine aside he had to admit that it might have gotten out of hand.
"I'm a little surprised I haven't seen any dirty ones yet."
"Of course not," Yosuke said. "I can't risk leaving those out. I've got them hidden."
Souji didn't ask where but Yosuke noticed him eyeing likely spots around the room. He made a mental note not to leave Souji alone for too long.
Finally, they decided they had enough and settled back on Yosuke's bed, his collection of Rise related magazines spread out around them. There were more than he remembered, enough that he was slightly embarrassed, but thankfully Souji didn't comment on it.
"I just thought of something," Souji said, toying with the corner of the closest magazine. Rise winked at them coquettishly from the cover, clad in a brightly colored swimsuit. Yosuke recognized that picture; more than once, he'd considered tearing it off and adding it to his private collection. Maybe after Souji left. "You've probably read these already. What are the odds of us finding anything new?"
"Pretty good," Yosuke said. "I only really wanted them for the pictures."
"Oh." Souji pulled his hand back and wiped it on his pants. "Then should I be touching them?"
"Should have thought of that earlier." Souji's expression turned scandalized. "Relax, they're clean."
"I'll wash my hands afterwards, just to be safe." Souji opened the magazine, landing on a two-page photo of a girl group. Yosuke expected him to keep going but he paused on it. "One of the pictures you bought this for?"
Yosuke laughed sheepishly. "Ha, yeah."
"They're cute," Souji said lightly before moving on.
The first article they skimmed proved unhelpful, even if most of the information was new to Souji, who hadn't heard about Risette until recently.
"Listen to this," he said, spotting a blurb. "It says that Rise didn't submit the original application to the talent agency herself, it was done by a relative without her knowledge. Do you think it might be useful? She could resent it."
"If she wasn't interested, she could have just said no when they offered her a contract," Yosuke said.
"That's true, but what if she didn't want to disappoint the person who submitted her?"
Yosuke wasn't so sure. "I can see going to one or two auditions but being an idol's a lot of work. Even if she didn't want to disappoint someone, that's going too far."
"I guess you're right," Souji said, and grabbed the next magazine.
They learned more irrelevant facts about who wrote Rise's songs, how much say she had in designing her outfits, and whether she had any plans to get a boyfriend (she didn't). Occasionally as they searched, Souji paused on a picture of an idol or model to get Yosuke's opinion on her. That was surprising; Souji generally agreed when Yosuke pointed out a cute girl, but he never pursued the topic. Yosuke went along with it, pointing out their best features and explaining who they were, but it was strange that Souji would suddenly gain an interest in them now.
For all that Yosuke liked looking at them, he didn't complain when Souji turned the page.
Eventually, the articles got thicker and leaning over the pages together became awkward. Souji offered to read them aloud, and Yosuke leaned back, absently flipping through the magazines they'd already gone through so he had something to do with his hands. He didn't keep it up long; as cute as the idols were, he wasn't in the mood to admire them, and Souji's voice was more interesting, nice and steady.
"—do you think?"
It took Yosuke a second to realize that Souji was staring at him and waiting for an answer. "What?"
Surprised, Souji asked, "Weren't you listening?"
"Sorry," Yosuke said, rubbing the back of his neck. He'd gotten so caught up in the sound of Souji's voice that he'd missed the words entirely, but there was no way he could admit that. "I zoned out for a second."
Souji checked his watch. "Do you need a break?"
"No, I'm okay. The sooner we find something, the better, right?" Yosuke stretched to get his blood flowing. "What were you asking about?"
"The interviewer brought up the fact that Rise keeps reinventing herself for her performances and asked how she felt about it. She says it's fun to try on new looks and keep the fans guessing, but admits it can feel like she's constantly performing even when she's not on stage."
"She is always changing her concept," Yosuke said, recalling how many outfits he'd seen her wear. "And I guess as an idol, she has to watch how she acts all the time. Pretty much everything she does ends up in the news or online."
"No matter how much she likes being an idol, not being able to be yourself would get to anyone." Souji looked to him for agreement, and Yosuke nodded, thinking of how he had to watch himself in front of the neighbors.
"It gets tiring real fast."
Pleased at having finally found something that might prove useful, Souji started reading again. This time, Yosuke forced himself to pay attention to what was actually being said. None of it proved quite as promising, and maybe because of that Yosuke grew restless, his mind wandering to all the other things they could have been doing. He knew nothing was more important than finding clues, but learning about Rise's childhood pet wasn't going to help them. His eyes drifted round the room, finding CDs he could have recommended to Souji, or games they could have played, before finally settling on a magazine they hadn't gotten to yet. It was another thin issue he'd bought more for the photos than anything else, and Souji would pick it up next. He'd probably spend a good bit of time lingering over the idols, too, asking Yosuke which one he liked better.
For some reason, listening to Souji talk about Rise, the idea didn't appeal to Yosuke the way it should have.
"You're not listening again," Souji said, setting the magazine down. Guiltily, Yosuke supposed he hadn't been hiding it very well. "You don't look like you're enjoying yourself, either. I know this isn't the most exciting thing in the world but I thought you'd like doing it since you're her fan. Did I make a mistake?"
"That's not it. Maybe I do need that break." Yosuke slid off the bed and paced the room, but moving didn't cure his restlessness. Crossing his arms, he asked, "Do you think we've got enough for today?"
"You want to stop?"
"Maybe," Yosuke said. "I am getting sort of tired."
Souji made a sympathetic noise. "We have been sitting around for a while."
"Actually, I'm, uh, getting tired of talking about Risette." Yosuke gestured dismissively towards her picture on the magazine cover. "I mean, she's not really that great, is she?"
Souji let out a surprised laugh. "What? You love Risette."
"I did," Yosuke said, knowing he didn't sound the least bit convincing but continuing anyway. "But she's kind of depressing in person, isn't she, and her music's not anything special. She even lies about her bust size, you heard her in the shop."
Souji narrowed his eyes, staring at him hard. Yosuke tried his best to hold his gaze, but he couldn't stop himself from going hot in embarrassment. "You don't mean that."
It wasn't a lie Yosuke could drag out, and he folded instantly. "You're right, I don't, Risette's great! She's cute, and super nice to her fans, and she even gave us extra tofu, how cool was that?" How could he not like her? Hell, after they saved her Yosuke was probably going to ask for her autograph.
"Then why would you say something like that?"
"I don't know," Yosuke admitted, annoyed that this was bothering him. Unable to keep the displeasure from creeping into his voice, he asked, "When did you start paying so much attention to girls?"
Because Souji'd barely shown any interest in them before. He didn't buy idol magazines or hang pictures of bikini clad models on his walls, and when their classmates started trading dirty stories in gym he always found an excuse to avoid joining in. He'd even said that Yukiko wasn't his type, and every other guy in school had imagined what it would be like to overcome the Amagi Challenge.
Thoroughly confused now, Souji asked, "What are you talking about?"
"I get reading about Risette, that's for the case, but you don't need to keep checking out those other idols."
"But you like looking at their pictures, don't you? You said yourself that's why you bought these."
"It is, and I do, but I don't want to look at them with you." Realizing how bad that sounded, he tried to backtrack but Souji was already frowning, clearly hurt.
"What's wrong with me?"
"There's nothing wrong with you." Yosuke wished he'd thought this through before opening his mouth; figuring it all out as he went along made him stumble over his words. "It's just... You're in my room for the first time, and all you're doing is talking about Risette, and asking me how cute these idols, and I—I always figured when you finally came over to my house, you'd...pay more attention to me."
He trailed off weakly, so embarrassed by his pathetic admission that he couldn't look at Souji. He could only imagine the look on his face, and the few second before Souji replied seemed like forever.
"But I have been paying attention to you," Souji said. "I asked you to do this with me because I knew you'd like reading about Risette more than anyone else, and you're always checking out girls so I made sure to show you the best ones in your magazines, and I told you not to invite the others because I wanted to hang out with you."
Yosuke risked looking up. Souji didn't look like he was lying. If anything, he seemed confused about how Yosuke could have misinterpreted his actions. "Are you serious?"
Souji shifted uncomfortably. "It wasn't obvious?"
"Of course not." Ogling idol photos might not have been usual for Souji but it was normal behavior for pretty much every other guy their age. How was Yosuke supposed to see it as anything other than that?
"Oh." Disappointed, Souji said, "I thought you'd appreciate it. I didn't expect you to get jealous."
Yosuke hunched his shoulders. "Could we not use that word? It makes me sound super lame." And while he sure as hell felt that way, he'd rather not put it out there like that. Seriously, what kind of guy got worked up over something like this? And for Souji to admit he'd been doing it for Yosuke's benefit? So much for them being equals.
"It doesn't." Souji averted his eyes and added, "If it helps, sometimes when we're hanging out and you start talking about girls I get annoyed, too." It didn't; as he spoke, the bridge of his nose went red, and seeing that made Yosuke strangely flustered.
"Don't get all weird on me," he said, and Souji laughed sheepishly.
"Sorry." He began to gather the magazines up. "Why don't we call it a day?"
"We don't have to. I mean, there's no reason to mess up the case just because I'm being stupid," Yosuke said.
"We won't. I don't think we're going to get anything else useful out of these, and we do have a few more leads." At Yosuke's clueless look, he said, "I heard there's been some paparazzi hanging around the river, so I'm going to search there tomorrow. I bet she has a lot of fans at school, too, we can ask them after class."
That made sense. They hadn't gotten around to asking their classmates but there was bound to be one fan or two in school who kept up to date on Rise's activities, and the paparazzi always knew everything. "You didn't mention those earlier."
"I wanted to try this first." Souji set the magazines aside and watched Yosuke expectantly. Yosuke couldn't come up with anything to say, though, and they ended up staring at each other awkwardly from across the room. "Do you want to do something else now? Or maybe I should leave?"
"Of course you don't have to leave," Yosuke said. He wanted Souji to stay, he was just having trouble coming up with anything for them to do. Everything he came up with sounded trivial compared to working on the case. "What do you feel like doing?"
"Something that you'll actually enjoy."
"You don't have to say it like that, it wasn't all bad." Souji looked skeptical. "I'm serious. I liked it when you were reading."
"Really?"
Again, he wasn't about to admit it was because Souji's voice sounded nice. "Sure. I was able to turn my brain off."
Souji smiled. "Should I do that then?"
It was sort of weird, maybe, but if Souji was offering then Yosuke wasn't going to turn him down. "Yeah, alright." They'd had enough of magazines; he found a book on his desk instead, and spied his playlist as he picked it up. Remembering how intently Souji had stared at it, he said, "You never did tell me what you thought of my playlist."
"I thought you didn't want other people judging your music."
"I don't," Yosuke said. He handed Souji the book and took a seat next to him. The bed was the most comfortable spot in his room, after all. "But what'd you think?"
Souji kept his eyes on the book, turning it over. "It wasn't finished, right? I can't really judge it yet."
Yosuke supposed that was fair enough, even if it was more of a half answer than anything. Still, he couldn't help being a little disappointed.
"But you're the one making it so I'm sure it'll be great," Souji said, and started reading as the tips of his ears went red.