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“ — discount, if you refer us! Well — of course, a psychic of my expertise and power level was able to dispel the spirit completely. 100%. But, ah, spirits have to be kept away like one would keep snakes — yes! You —“ Reigen tried not to sigh into the phone held to his ear as the almost certainly teary-eyed older woman interrupted him for the nth time. It’s not that the enthusiasm went unappreciated — she would definitely refer them to people, which was always greatly appreciated. He just kind of wanted to leave early tonight, drop by that new udon stall that’d opened down the street.
His chair creaked violently as he stood up, sweat clinging to his back. God, he needed to get that AC fixed soon. Yeah, some cold udon would definitely be refreshing. He speaks into the receiver again, but is semi-distracted with picking lint from his suit. “Well. When you have garden snakes, do you spray some vinegar around, pull the weeds and fill any nice inviting snake hiding places one single time, and then call it a day? No, no it’s — yes, as I was —“ he huffed, let the old woman go on. She was probably just lonely. And he could really use those referrals.
He ambled around, starting to pack his stuff up while humming affirmatively every few sentences. Mob was still seated at his little desk to the side, pencil stalled over his homework. Yeah, he’d definitely been on the same question for the last 30-odd minutes. They could both definitely use some food. Maybe some takoyaki too, he decided.
“The best way to keep spirits away is — beside my 99% guaranteed spirit reductions, of course — is to adopt a more offensive approach. You see, evil spirits, they feed off of negative energy and — yes, yes, I sensed much of it from you, and this is why the spirit was afflicting you!” He paused his ambling at the windows. Maybe he could leave them open tonight, save on the AC bill. “People brush off these matters but, ah, this allows evil spirits to fester and by the time you realize, it’s too late! So even when you aren’t certain it’s a psychic matter, it’s always worth consulting one. And I, as the greatest psychic of the 21st century, will always do my utmost to ensure those evil spirits are thoroughly destroyed — oh, I am terribly sorry, I must go now. It’s urgent, uh, psychic business. Yes, you too.”
He finally flips his phone shut and spins around, clapping his hands together. “Alright!” throwing Mob a wide grin when the boy looked up from his assignment. “How’s udon sound? Takoyaki, too. I’ve been wanting some.”
“Oh! Sure.” He sounded pleased. Reigen knew throwing in the takoyaki was a good idea.
Mob started quickly shoveling his homework into his bag, relieved. Reigen blew out his cheeks. Well. Mob couldn’t do exorcisms if he was busy at after-school tutoring.
“Is that due tomorrow?” Mob just looked at him, so Reigen lazily gestured toward the school bag resting next to the table.
“Oh. Um, well. No?” Well that was totally convincing. Acting was definitely not in Mob’s future.
“Hm. Are you sure?” Reigen walked over to close the windows. It was too hot outside to save any on the utility bill by keeping them open tonight. “It seemed like a lot, so. If you ever need any —“
“It’s not due tomorrow.” Reigen looked over at him in surprise, watched him look down at the table. “Um. Are we going…?”
“Sure. Do you like cold udon? Maybe we can get something a little bigger than normal, I think this place is cheaper.” Mob had interrupted?
“Maybe I could help you out with your work, while we’re there. It sure looked like a lot, huh? Kind of crazy that they’re giving you kids so much work. I mean, when are you supposed to make time for your other responsibilities? Not to mention normal kid stuff.” Reigen absolutely does not miss grade school.
Mob walked silently next to him with his arms stiffly at his front, hands bunching tightly around the straps of his schoolbag. Reigen huffed a sigh. Mob had been clearly overwhelmed with work, and then he’d gone and started talking at him non-stop about that work. No problem. Reigen considered himself fairly well versed in the art of backtracking.
Patting Mob’s shoulder, he tosses a smile over his shoulder before turning to lock up the office. “You know, it’s great that you’re doing that assignment early. God knows you couldn’t have paid me to do work early when I was your age. It’s— you’re a responsible kid, y’know?” That should be good damage control. He turned around, placing his hands on his hips all self-satisfied. His enthusiasm dimmed when he got a look at his student.
Mob did not look at all how Reigen had anticipated — his head was bowed a little, eyes turned more toward the floor and covered by his bangs. Reigen blinked. “What? Are you feeling okay?”
Mob responded by plucking silently at the frayed twine of his school uniform. Reigen waited a moment. He knew Mob sometimes needed a minute to get to saying things. A beat passed, and it became clear he wasn’t going to say anything. Yeah. Something was definitely going on. Reigen shifted his weight from one leg to the other, exhaling a little. “You know, Mob, sometimes it’s okay t—“
Mob stiltedly cut him off. “I’m not responsible.” He wasn’t looking at him, still picking at the sleeve of his uniform jacket. This was, to say the least, puzzling to Reigen.
“Sure you are. You —“ he thinks maybe he should change tactics. “What makes you think that?” Mob doesn’t answer, so Reigen needles him a bit. “Is it because you didn’t understand your homework?”
Mob nods, just a little, which Reigen counts as a victory. He spreads his hands widely, gesticulating almost violently as he walks toward the exit. He’s usually better at giving these off-the-cuff talks while he’s moving. “People don’t understand things. Let me guess, it was math?” Mob nods, and Reigen scoffs a little. “Didn't you talk to your teacher a while ago about needing help with some work?”
“Um. I didn’t —“ he huffs a little frustratedly, looking down at his feet before gaining resolve and looking back up at Reigen. “It’s not my teacher's fault. I just. Well, um. Those assignments were from a while ago. So. I’m doing them now.”
Reigen blinks. Okay? He pats Mob’s shoulder briefly, opening the door for him so they can enter the courtyard outside the office’s building. The breeze is a nice relief from the oppressive dull air of the hallway inside. He’s glad Mob’s problem is something normal, he had been starting to get worried.
They could see the udon shop now, and he knew eating would probably keep Mob occupied.
“Listen, Mob. Don’t be so hard on yourself. At your age, it’s all kind of a.. training course, for learning how to be an adult. So, it’s okay for you to make mistakes and not be so responsible sometimes. That’s how you’ll learn and grow into a responsible adult, so don’t worry about it.” He herded Mob toward a booth near the back of the shop, away from the front where it was more crowded. Mob probably wouldn’t like that right now.
Taking his seat, Reigen lays one hand flat on the table and uses the other to point toward Mob. “All that matters is that you try your hardest, yeah? And I’d say you try pretty hard, so.” He was pretending to look at his menu casually, but he was really trying to look at Mob undetected. He was relieved that he seemed a lot less consternated.
“You’re a good kid. Better than some adults I’ve had the pleasure of meeting, honestly.” he huffs out a little laugh at that, and is pleased that Mob seemed to have a small little smile on his face. Phew.
“Thank you, shishou.” He pauses, thinking. “I — You are too. A good person..” Mob says it so earnestly. “You work really hard, helping people.” Reigen staunchly ignores the feeling in his throat. Nope. Time to tell a joke.
“I dressed as a woman to exorcise that spirit, that one time. At the girls' school.” He laughs boisterously, but it leaves an bad taste in his mouth. “I think that alone shows my commitment to helping people.” The waiter shows up at their table to get their order at this point, and Reigen feels his face redden a little. He recovers, and orders their food quickly. Mob looks a bit constipated again, picking a little at his increasingly frayed uniform.
“You okay, Mob? If you wanna order something else, it’s not too late to change it. I can go back real quick and —“
“Ah, no. I like the food.” He’s still picking at the cuff of his sleeve. Reigen frowns.
“Something on your mind?” he uncrosses his legs, crosses them again. Man, these pants are kind of uncomfortable. He’ll see about getting new ones this weekend. “Y’know, if it’s about school, you can seriously always ask me. I wasn’t too good at math at your age either, but I’ve gotten pretty good at balancing checks, so…”
Mob hums noncommittally. “Or, I mean. You could ask your brother. Or Hanazawa. I remember you were telling me he got, like, comically good math scores last semester.”
Mob finally looks up from his sleeve, puts his hand around the glass of water in front of him. He draws a smiley face in the condensation. “Yes, I’ll.. I’ll ask for help. It’s okay to ask for help sometimes. Um.” He pauses, puffing air into his checks a little before tugging a little on his sleeve again. Reigen thinks he’s probably going to need to get that uniform jacket tailored. “But, um. I wasn’t thinking about that. Just now, I mean.”
Reigen gestures for him to continue. It takes a minute, but eventually Mob looks up from his glass to speak. “I was thinking about what you said before.”
Well. Reigen says a lot of things, and remembers maybe a third of them. To his credit, he furiously racks his brain. Tapping his finger against the table, he casts a wide net and hazards a guess. “About…” Reigen knows that Mob thinks about the future a lot more than a 14 year-old should, so. “What I said about growing into a responsible adult?”
Yeah, he knows he’s missed the mark the second he says it. Mob makes a face. “I guess I was kind of thinking about that? It was good advice.” Reigen sighs, rakes a hand over his face. He really did not want to engage in a guessing game Mob didn’t realize he was putting on.
“How about you tell me, yeah?”
Mob nods at that before saying, “About the girls' school.”, as if that makes his troubles any clearer. Reigen nods decidedly like it does anyways, about to ask him to elaborate further before being interrupted with 2 bowls of udon. Mob had sadly declined getting cold udon, despite Reigen’s insistence that the taste would be maximized if the dish was cold and eaten in the evening heat.
Taking a moment to dig in, Reigen asks “What about it?” through a mouthful of noodles. Mob just blinks at him, probably because Reigen had been rendered unintelligible. Reigen swallows his food, takes a sip of water to wash it down, before repeating himself. “What about the girls' school?”
Mob folds both his hands in his lap but changes his mind and picks up his chopsticks again to keep eating a few bites. “Well.. You made it sound hard. But, I think that might have been a joke?”
That last sentence has the inflection of a question, and Reigen hums. “Ah. It was…” He feels like he’s breaking out into a little bit of a sweat. “.. it was a joke, but also not a joke. Well. I’d say that, like, maybe a third of it was a joke.”
“Um. So it wasn’t a joke..?”
“Sometimes people say a joke, but part of the joke is serious.” Mob looks genuinely alarmed at this, so Reigen just abandons the line of thought and shakes it away with a hand. “Don’t worry about it. I guess I wasn’t joking.”
Mob nods at this. “Okay. But um. Why? I didn’t… find it hard.” There’s a fan just over their booth, but Reigen feels just as hot as he did outside.
“Well. Um. It’s kind of funny actually, aha. Well. The thing is. It’s just, kind of… uncomfortable for — someone like me to do that.” This is so silly. He feels like he is going to vomit, talking to a teenager. He tries to overpower the anxiety rushing through him. I am a grown man. I don’t need anybody's approval, he nods as if to affirm his own thoughts. Much less a middle schooler. It’s not just a middle schooler though. It’s Mob. Reigen knows that he desperately needs this kid's approval. And he is willing to make an absolute fool of himself to get it.
“Shishou?” Reigen blinks. Mob is staring at him. “Um. Are you okay? You look sweaty.”
Reigen laughs with forced boisterousness, clasping his hands over the table and trying very hard to look casual. “Aha yeah, I uh. It’s hot.” Mob nods sagely and pushes his water toward him, telling him it’s important to avoid heat stroke. Reigen takes a sip of the water before asking, “Sorry. What were you saying?”
“Who is someone like you? That makes it um. Uncomfortable.” Reigen feels like there are bees inside his head buzzing very, very loudly.
“Ohwell, it’s not uncomfortable for me, of course. Well, it is.” his brain scrambles to cobble together enough words to form a coherent and also totally normal sentence. “BUT! Of course, it’s more of an embarrassment at —“ he pauses to take a bite of his udon, which he kind of wishes wasn’t cold now. “At the greatest psychic of the 21st century being seen like that by others, of course.” He projects all the bravado he has into this part, wagging his chopsticks toward Mob. “It’s no big deal, of course. I’m obviously above caring about people’s opinions.”
Mob gives a little nod, mouth pressed together tightly. He picks up his chopsticks, but doesn’t move to eat. He just rolls them around in his hand, before putting his hands back down in his lap.
“Your food will get cold if you take too long to eat it.” Mob doesn’t acknowledge Reigen’s statement, just sits there clearly formulating a thought. Reigen eats more of his udon while he waits.
Eventually, “Um. Well, yeah. That makes sense. I remember that Ritsu didn’t.. like it much either.”
Reigen lets out a long exhale, leg jittering under the table a little. Thank god they could talk about someone other than himself. “The cultural festival, right?” He remembers taking the boys out to eat a decidedly inexpensive dinner (there were 4 of them, after all), where he remembers watching Teru riotously recount the story to Mob, while Ritsu sat across him glowering like it could kill. They’d been laughing, even the corner of Mob’s mouth had quirked up at Teru wildly gesticulating.
That didn’t make Reigen feel good at all. Mob nodded furiously, helpfully adding, “It was the maid costume. I don’t think you saw it.”
Reigen huffed out a very forced laugh and nodded. “No, I didn’t. Ritsu was uncomfortable, right?” Mob nodded in the affirmative, so Reigen continued. He felt kind of sick, actually. “Right. Well, that’s normal! That was probably meant to be, um, a joke? Um. It’s funny. So.. That’s why I didn’t like the girls' school exorcism.” Mob doesn’t say anything, just stares at him and picks his sleeve a little. “It’s.. bad for business,” Reigen adds lamely. He thinks that sounds pretty neutral.
Mob’s looking down in earnest now, eyes covered nearly entirely by his bangs. Reigen waits for him to say what it is he’s going to say, but it never comes. This is…. not the reaction he expected.
After another minute of silence, Reigen decides to needle him. “You should eat, it’s going to be totally cold soon.” Reigen’s own bowl is almost empty.
“It’s weird, isn’t it,” Mob says abruptly.
“Not really? I mean, mine got served cold. You could take it home to heat up if it really bothers you, though.” Reigen knows Mob isn’t talking about the udon he is just…. very confused about what Mob is talking around.
Mob lets out a harsh breath and shook his head jerkily. “No it’s —-“ he clears his throat before continuing. “The. Um. The school. It was weird.” Mob’s mouth is twisted, and Reigen isn’t the only one sweating at this table anymore.
“The… school was weird? Well. It was haunted, so I guess I would have to agree with you.” Mob’s face had dulled a lot since they’d gotten here, and Reigen didn’t know why. This topic should only be sensitive to one person present. He tries to speak more softly, this time. “Do you mean, us going there was weird?” Mob nods tremulously in response.
“Well. I don’t think it’s weird, really.”
“You said it was, before?”
Reigen hums at that and pretends to think for a moment. God, why did he say that. With a great deal of effort he manages to swallow thickly, and presses through, “Well… I was wrong. It’s just uncomfortable for me, because of um. External factors. You don’t have to worry, I’m sure you didn’t come across as weird when we went there.” Mob’s expression remained unchanged, but Reigen hazards a laugh. “I don’t think anybody realized you weren’t a girl, anyways. You blended in just fine.”
Mob hums, and fiddles with one of the plastic straws left unused on the side of the table. He looks like he’s thinking, so Reigen resists the urge to fill the silence in the hope of preventing Mob from asking more questions.
“Were you upset because they realized, for you?”
Reigen actually snorts at this, coughing and pounding a fist against his chest. He’s still chuckling a little bit a minute later, taking his wallet out of his pocket. “Absolutely not. That was actually my favorite part.” He catches himself. “But, um. That doesn’t mean it’s bad, or weird, that they didn’t catch you.”
“Okay.”
“Okay?”
Mob nods, and is wiping the condensation off his glass with his sleeve. Most of it has dropped onto the table by this point, so it’s a bit futile. “C’mon, let’s go pay. It’s getting kind of late.” It isn’t really, but. Reigen pats the table and nods toward the front of the restaurant, and is stopped from getting up when Mob leans forward with wide eyes and says “Shishou. Wait.” He sounds very urgent, and it makes Reigen break out in an entirely different kind of cold sweat. It makes him sit up straighter.
They just stare at each other for a moment in silence, until Reigen awkwardly says “....yes?” and Mob just continues staring at him with his mouth open like a fish in the market. Reigen is absolutely positive that if there was danger Mob would’ve… said something by now.
He asks anyway, “Is everything okay..?”
“No”
Reigen kind of feels like he’s been dunked in arctic water. “What is it?” he speaks lowly this time. The buzzing in his head is back, and it just gets worse the longer Mob stares at him in absolute silence.
“Mob?”
Mob seems to shake himself, face reddening. “Um. Sorry. I —“ he pauses, “Sorry. Nevermind. We can go pay now.”
“Are you okay?”
“I’m sorry. I scared you.”
Reigen blinks several times consecutively. Mob's voice sounds strange, a little strangled and thicker than normal. Ah, god. If Mob starts crying, he has no idea what he’ll do. He stands up, and Mob stiffening makes him feel a little sick again.
“You didn’t scare me, you just had me worried for a minute there. Y’know there’s a bad strain of the flu going around?” Well. Reigen is sure somewhere in the world that’s true. “Making people confused and.. and uh, Overly emotional.” What is wrong with him? He wants to smack himself in the middle of this restaurant.
Mob doesn’t meet his gaze. “You were scared of me,” he insists. Reigen sighs heavily, raking a hand through his hair before crouching a little. Enough so he’s not looming over Mob, but not so much that it’s noticeable and patronizing.
“I’m not.” Reigen sighs, starts over. He is an adult. “Mob, I wasn’t scared of you, okay? I’m just worried about you.” He has to readjust his grip on the edge of the table to keep standing in a normal way. Mob doesn’t look convinced, so he continues, “And, uh.” God. “Something is clearly going on with you. And you don’t have to tell me about it if you don’t want to. But, just to be clear, I would like you to.”
Reigen takes a second to look at Mob, who still looks a little freaked out. He thinks about Mob stiffening when he stood up. Reigen prays Mob will suddenly decide to tell him whatever is going on with him because that is worrying, leaving a sickly taste in Reigen’s mouth.
“But you don’t have to tell me, if you don’t want to. That’s okay too.” He almost decides not to, but he pats Mob’s shoulder. “Ready to go?” Mob nods quietly and gets up after him as they file in line to pay.
The sun has started to dip under the horizon, leaving the air a lot cooler than Reigen had anticipated. He sighs, Maybe he should’ve left the office’s windows open after all. Next to him, Mob carries a cardboard takeout bag that keeps hitting his knees when he walks. He’d decided to take the leftovers home after all. Mob hadn’t been able to comfortably carry both the takeout and his schoolbag, so now Reigen is carrying it. He knows it probably looks silly but. Whatever. He’s had a long night.
They’re nearing the station where Mob will wait for his train. Mob’s been getting stiffer and slowing his pace as they get closer to it, and Reigen’s been matching his walk speed. Does Mob not want to go home? The thought made Reigen’s forehead furrow.
Once they finally get there, though, Mob puts up no resistance. He takes his schoolbag from Reigen and accepts his meager 300 yen salary with a muttered ‘thank you’. Reigen shuffles awkwardly, checking his watch. Well. It’s not like he has anywhere to be.
“You know, I could wait here with you. If you wanted.” He hasn’t done this since Mob was maybe 12, and that makes him feel a weird hollowness inside of him. He really has grown so much. Mob shakes his head no, and Reigen tries to ignore the fact that that smarted. He plasters on his brightest smile. “Alright. Don’t forget to ask your brother or Hanazawa for help with your schoolwork, okay? Or um. About anything else that you need help with.” Mob nods and turns in his seat, so Reigen starts walking back off the platform.
He barely made it five feet before he heard Mob get up and speed-walk over to him, reaching him just as he turns around. Mob grabs onto his sleeve as if to stop him from leaving, and Reigen is startled. Oh god something is definitely really wrong. He feels a little sick and really cold but really hot at the same time. Still, he makes an attempt to appear as calm and normal and definitely not vibrating out of his skin with anxiety as possible. He clears his throat. “What’s up, Mob?”
Mob just grips his sleeve harder, staring at a spot at the floor. Reigen tries again, “Is everything okay?”
For a minute, there is a piercing silence. Then, Mob blurts out “No,” and Reigen feels vindicated as an adult figure, relieved, but also kind of like throwing up at the same time. He just nods, and feels the fabric of his sleeve being twisted more and more in Mob’s grasp.
“Anything wrong in particular?”
Mob nods his head furiously, opens his mouth, closes it again.
Yeah, Reigen’s been there before. Probably not in the same context, though. “You know, I could —“
“I liked. Um. That they didn’t know.”
Reigen stops talking. What. “That who didn’t know, what?”
“I. Um.”
Reigen rocks back and forth on his feet, eyes moving to the sky. He had to be the adult here. “Did something happen? Like, um. To you?”
Mob blinks. “Lots of things happen to me.”
Reigen actually laughs at that, which may have been an inappropriate reaction. “No, no, I mean like..”. He almost asks if anything bad happened, but stops himself. He knows bad things have happened to Mob, stuff that Reigen never should have let happen to him. He breathes in deeply. He can start now. “Recently, did something bad happen to you to… cause this?”
“Oh. I think I know what you are asking now? No.” Mob pauses for a second, before adding, “But. I don’t really know um. If. It’s normal.” He sounds like he’s struggling to say the words.
Mob really isn’t going to just spit it out, huh? Reigen racks his brain for their conversation this evening. Well, maybe the first thing that had him acting strange was the safest best. “Is it related to you falling behind in math?”
“I— I don’t think so?”
“Okay.” Reigen waits for a minute to pass before sighing. “Mob, I can't read your mind. You are going to have to actually tell me.” The hand grasping his sleeve tightens.
“I don’t want to.” Mob is shaking his head a little, and his voice sounds weird again. It makes it easy for Reigen not to take offense.
“That’s okay. Is there anybody you want to tell?”
“I want to tell you. That’s why I.. stopped you. Just now. And scared you when we were eating.” He’s very quiet, almost whispering, Reigen has to strain to hear him. “And — “ his voice drops quieter. “I wanted to tell Ritsu. But he’s the same as you.”
Reigen blinks. Personally he is of the opinion that Ritsu would be very upset to hear his brother say that they are the same. “How so?”
“You’re both ‘uncomfortable’.” Mob blinks several times, and his mouth is twisted and his voice is a little garbled when he whispers, “and I really don’t want him to—- be uncomfortable with me again. And. He was so angry last time.”
Reigen is completely lost. Mob is still talking softly, Reigen offering affirmative hums every few seconds while he tries to piece these sparing bits of information together.
“Mob?” Reigen gets a small hum in return. “Is this about me not liking going to the girls’ school and Ritsu —“ was it some maid cafe? “not liking having to dress in a maid costume?” He feels Mob freeze.
For a long few seconds, Mob just stands stock still. Then he just jarringly shakes his head no, grip on Reigen’s sleeve tightening.
He should've just said it before.
Reigen leans down a little, trying to avoid being too obvious and patronizing again. Mob’s 14 now, and he knows 14 year olds hate being treated like children. But it’s kind of hard to be inconspicuous and nonchalant about it when they’re both standing, and they’re outdoors, and also Mob looks like he might cry and Reigen feels he should prevent that at all costs. To hell with it. He commits to awkwardly doing a combination of squatting, kneeling, and standing on the concrete.
“It’s not that I was uncomfortable with it. I thought we both looked pretty nice. Not to brag about my makeup skills. I just, personally, didn’t like it. Um, looking like that. Because it felt like people were seeing something that wasn’t, um. Me. So that made me uncomfortable, and I was kind of happy they saw right through me. Just, relieved, y’know?” He waits to see if Mob has any reaction. He just keeps staring at a spot once ground, so Reigen continues.
“And. Well, I cant know why Ritsu would react like that. You’d have to ask him. But I promise you it was just that he didn’t like being in that costume. Was he mad at any of the other boys that were there?” Mob doesn’t answer at first, so Reigen nudges him slightly. Mob looks up a little at that, and then shakes his head.
“He wasn’t mad at them?”
“...no”
“So why would he be angry at you?”
Mob scrunches his eyes closed and shakes his head hard, then just says “I don’t know.”
“I wouldn’t be mad, either. Just, hypothetically.” Reigen inhales deeply. What the hell “I kind of understand.”
He stares at Mob like a hawk, only to be confronted with a total non-reaction. Reigen clears his throat. Sometimes Mob needs you to be more clear. “I mean, I really understand.” Nothing. “Like, I definitely understand.” There’s a noncommittal hm from Mob, who is clearly predisposed with thinking. Reigen thinks he might seriously have an aneurysm and die right then and there. This will be where the greatest psychic of the 21st century meets his demise — dying from the stress of coming out to a middle school student. How embarrassing.
He takes a comically big breath. This isn’t about him. Well. It kind of is, but mostly it’s about Mob. Reigen thinks this is only maybe around 4% about him.
“Hey, Mob.”
Mob actually looks up this time. Reigen knows he’s been selfish this whole time. Mob doesn’t need him to dance around this, when he’s clearly upset and confused. Reigen doesn’t bother to steel himself this time. “You know, it’s okay if you. Um. Maybe, you liked um… the way you looked when we did that exorcism at the girls’ school. That’s okay.” Mob is staring at him, and Reigen feels himself start sweating profusely for the millionth time this evening. If he was wrong this was going to be really embarrassing. “Um, if that’s what you felt. Then it’s okay.”
Mob says nothing so Reigen just continues. “You know, I— Aha, I just. I felt the same way, at your age. So.” He feels very very warm. His throat is very dry, He wishes he had a cool drink and also that Mob would say something already. “You know you can… talk to me about it, if that’s what you want to do,” he finishes lamely.
Mob still doesn’t respond and Reigen knows he needs a minute to formulate his thoughts, probably, and his feelings. But Reigen can’t stand the buzzing in his ears that gets louder with each second of silence.
“Ah, I didn’t tell you this because. Hm. Well. I was afraid that you would… I don’t know, I was just scared. So. I should have told you earlier, I mean, you’re important to me, and it would have helped you probably to know um. Before.” He’s just saying words, at this point. “I’m going to.. stop talking for a few minutes. Um. You can respond whenever you’re ready.” He tries to smile, and does a thumbs up. Then he wants to put his head in his hands.
After only 3 minutes of their silent stand-off, Mob speaks.
“You don’t like it anymore?”
Reigen’s eyebrows furrowed. ”Don’t like what?”
“You. Uh.. You didn’t like it when we went to um. The school. You said you liked it when you were my age.”
Reigen flaps a hand dismissively. “No, no. I did it in the opposite direction.”
“Did what?”
Reigen wipes sweat off his brow. “Ah, we’ll um. Get back to that. So, just to clarify, could you um. Explain exactly what we are talking about.”