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“I think I hate Yu.”
Chie paused her attack on the beef bowl in front of her to stare quizzically at Yosuke, who was occupying the seat across from her.
“Elaborate.”
“whu-?” The sudden shift in her demeanour had thrown Yosuke off, leaving him in a rare state of being lost for words.
Chie glared at him and pointed her chopsticks at him accusingly, “Don’t act confused!! You can’t just drop that on me out of nowhere and then not explain yourself!”
Yosuke sighed dramatically and made a big show of leaning back in his chair to stare at the ceiling as Chie continued to lecture him. Maybe he shouldn’t have let that one slip out around her. He had a bad habit of saying whatever popped into his mind and once again he was facing the consequences of it.
“I just… I don’t know. I’ve been thinking about things,” he finally huffed out.
“Things.” Chie echoed back to back to him.
“Yeah. Things. Like… he makes me angry all the time!”
Chie’s face twisted into a frown, “How the hell does Yu make you angry? He’s like the nicest guy ever.”
“That’s the problem!!,” Yosuke said exasperated, “He’s nice! And smart! And- and- he’s handsome! He’s too perfect!!
He finished off his rant by leaning all the way forward and slamming both his fists on the table, causing the other patrons to shoot him dirty looks.
“It pisses me off.”
Chie simply rolled her eyes, not impressed in the slightest by his little outburst.
“Oh come on. Yu is not perfect.”
Yosuke sputtered, strangely offended by her assertion, “Y-Yes he is!!”
“No. He’s not. First, yeah he’s nice, but he’s also incredibly boring. That guy can barely keep a conversation going. Second, Yukiko gets better grades than him so there. And finally, he is absolutely not handsome. He has a bowl cut Yosuke!”
“You of all people don’t get to decide if he’s handsome or not!” Yosuke fired back.
“And what the hell does that mean?!” Chie growled in response.
The rapidly escalating argument was drawing more and more curious eyes by the second.
“He’s not- Y’know-” Yosuke waved his hands around vaguely, “-your type.”
Chie stared at him blankly. “What?”
“He’s a guy!” Yosuke hissed through gritted teeth, clearly embarrassed.
Chie paused to briefly reflect on the conversation she was having right now.
“So let me get this straight. I can’t say whether or not Yu is handsome… but you can.”
“Well- yeah! Guys can tell if other guys are handsome. It’s not weird.”
Chie shook her head in disbelief, “wait a minute. I thought you hated Yu. Now you’re defending him??”
Yosuke recoiled at her words, “I’m not-! I'm not defending him! I'm defending the truth!!”
“Nope! Not doing this anymore!” Chie threw up her hands in defeat, “I can’t handle your messed up feelings. They make me depressed.”
“My feelings aren’t messed up…” Yosuke muttered under his breath.
“Also you’re paying for my meal as reparations.”
“Hell no I won’t!!”
And just like that they were back to arguing. The previous conversation quickly discarded and unresolved. However, privately hours the two of them both came to the same conclusion:
That Yosuke definitely had some very strong feelings about Yu, but what exactly those feelings were remained unclear.
-
Naoto flipped open his phone to answer it.
“Hello?”
“Hi Naoto. I need your advice.”
It was Yu. He sounded distressed. Naoto prepared himself for the worst.
“Of course. What do you need advice about?”
“Do you think Yosuke likes me?”
Naoto blinked. That was not quite what he expected.
“Isn’t he your friend? That would mean he likes you, correct?”
Naoto heard Yu sigh from the other side of the phone.
“No I mean.. Does he like me romantically?”
“Oh.”
Naoto’s mind started to race. If only Yu had needed help with homework or was in trouble with the police. Those were things he was actually capable of assisting with. Nevertheless. Yu was his friend, and he should do whatever he can to help him. Naoto’s eyes drifted over to the corkboard on his wall. It was filled with notes, photos, and whatever he could find related to the murder investigation, all messily connected to each other with a mass of multicoloured thread.
Perhaps if he got another board he’d be able to start a new investigation on the side…
“I’ll see what I can find out.” Naoto told Yu firmly.
How difficult could it be?