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The best thing about Ni'igaki's boyfriend is he can drive her places.
The second best thing…
She has a hard time picking out anything else that might be good about Morichika Touma.
It's prom night. Everyone else is slow dancing in the gym to overplayed music, but for some reason, Touma drove her to some nature-y place? He must have seen it in a movie. It's not like he's ever had an original idea in his life. The radio is playing a symphony from Bach, which she only knows because he went into a tirade about it as soon as they parked the car.
She shivers. Her mom chose this shoulderless red dress, cooing at her to stay safe and to provide some much-needed beauty to what would undoubtedly be an uncomfortable, sweaty, awkward event, and Ni'igaki could hardly disagree, even if she wasn't looking forward to it. But this isn't better. If Touma had told her they were going to sit outside in the dead of night, she would have been able to dress for it.
She sneezes. Touma startles in the driver's seat like he's been shot. More likely, he forgot she was there. His eyes are always looking up and never at her.
"Oh, are you cold? Here, you can take my jacket…" He starts shouldering off his tuxedo jacket, and in the middle of pulling of one sleeve, she can't take it anymore.
"I think we should break up," Ni'igaki says. She looks up, staring at him expectantly, waiting for an explosive reaction, but he blinks a few times like he didn't quite catch that. Um, hello? She furrows her brow.
"I think we should break up," she repeats.
"…Why?" Touma asks, finally. He frowns, cautious and slow in movement, like he's addressing a wild animal.
"You don't even like me."
"I… I do like you."
"No, you don't."
"Oh."
He nods like he's accepted her words, which pisses Ni'igaki even more than if he'd thrown a fit. She slams her hand down on the radio button and drops them into abject silence. Touma looks more genuinely affronted at the lack of Bach playing than he does over her rejection.
"You don't have to do that. I thought you liked classical music," he says, scolding. Like the previous topic is over and done with. Like she's just some random girl who appeared in his car. Ni'igaki exhales hard through her nostrils. She could've been hanging out with her friends at prom if she'd broken up with him earlier; that's her only regret.
"Do you want me to bring you home?" Touma asks, searching for a way to resolve things.
"What's wrong with you?"
"…Did I do something wrong?"
"Look, I liked you because you don't look at me like a piece of meat, or like you're waiting for a chance to pounce. But now I think you're just too stupid to realize what you have." Ni'igaki finishes speaking with a decidely unwomanly snort.
"You said we should break up. Isn't that… usually where things end?" Touma asks, hesitant. "You don't want to go home?"
She sighs, then leans the chair back and makes herself comfortable, tilting her head up to look at the nighttime sky. The jacket is warm around her shoulders, and it's not sweaty or gross like she expected it to be. Guys are gross and sweaty. Touma wears deodorant. That's the second best thing about him, she decides.
"No. I don't want to go home yet."
Touma nods, despite his lack of understanding, and goes silent. He brightens up a little when he notices her focused gaze on the stars above. She sighs, quiet, and looks back at him with a raised eyebrow. He obliges, kicking into one of his usual rambles.
"If you look over there, you can see Venus…"