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Junpei wasn’t really the type of guy to wander around Paulownia Mall during nighttime. Heck, he wasn’t really the type to go anywhere at night. Before all this Persona and Dark Hour stuff started happening, he would mostly just stay home and sleep, although he would usually be at the arcade during the day, avoiding his abode at every waking hour.
In all honesty, Junpei had always been kinda scared of the night. It wasn’t a supernatural fear-Junpei did always advocate to go to Tartarus as often as possible, after all-but more so a dread of violence. Although Junpei might’ve gotten low grades, he wasn’t oblivious, and he knew about how people hurt each other in the outskirts of town, and knew it all too well firsthand when he would arrive home during the day.
So when Koromaru (who was admittedly pretty dang adorable) looked up at him and spoke some doggy speak (which Aigis so graciously translated for him) saying “TAKE ME FOR A WALK NOW!!” he admittedly didn’t want anything to do with it. Wasn’t that Kotone’s job? Almost on cue, Mitsuru said the team’s combat leader was “going to a club” and “something about a monk.” without looking up from her book.
“It’s not like you’re going to study or anything,” Yukari butted in. Who did she think she was? Well, she was kinda right, but really-
Koromaru looked at him and whimpered.
“Fine.”
Koromaru was a pretty darn fast dog. Lucky for Junpei, Tartarus had given him a lot of endurance.
“Whoah, boy! Calm down, you’re not gonna outrun me!”.
Koromaru slowed down a lot more once they got to the bridge connecting the mainland to Paulownia. Kotone would slow down a lot here too, on the occasion when they’d walk back from getting ramen or something instead of taking the train. Her smile always plastered on her face would spall. He knew something had happened over there, but he didn’t know what.
Snapping back into reality, Koromaru sped back up and Junpei soon followed.
Entering the glass dome of the Paulownia mall, Junpei wondered if Koromaru would be allowed to be inside the mall. There was technically a “No Pets” sign outside, but Junpei hoped no one would care enough at that hour to actually enforce that rule. Besides, Koromaru was too charming-no, Koromaru AND JUNPEI were too charming for that to actually happen! Yeah. He should follow Koromaru’s lead and not care about rules.
Walking into the mall, Junpei forgot about the mall policy and quickly remembered how dark the mall was. There was a back alley back there-no, don’t think about that. Junpei’s eyes darted back to Koromaru and focused on walking him. He quickly established a rhythm with the canine, and they eventually got to a large fountain with a dome overhead. The night lights above shone through, and Junpei could admit that it was pretty cool to come here at night. Here, they could rest for a bit.
Wait.
Was that a mall cop?
Junpei spotted a person that seemed like they were wearing a blue uniform wandering on an upstairs floor in a different hall.
They were pretty far, and it did seem like they hadn’t noticed Junpei and Koromaru yet, but the risk was still there, and Junpei kinda wanted to stay in the-relatively-safe mall until he was ready to go back home.
Quickly looking around at the stores, Junpei looked around for a place he could walk into to evade the officer. Game Parade? He’d probably have to spend money on some games if he didn’t want to get exposed. Which didn’t sound bad-if he had brought more than 800 yen. Be Blue V and Chagall didn’t seem much better, especially since they seemed to be more highbrow places where they’d shriek at the sight of a dog. Junpei wasn’t dumb enough to go to the police station, and he didn’t know much about the pharmacy or the antique shop to know if he should walk in.
The only maybe was Club Escapade. They didn’t seem like the type to care if you brought a dog, honestly, but could HE get in? Junpei thought he looked adult enough with his goatee, but if they asked for ID, he was pretty screwed. Wait-did they even care if you were underage? He thought he heard Mitsuru say that Kotone had gone there.
Kotone had gone there?
Wait a minute! A helpless (well, not really helpless, she was technically his leader, but that’s not the point!) girl had wandered into a club! That was a recipe for disaster! Something terrible could happen to poor Kotone! Junpei was gonna bust in there with his dog, and save her! The mall cop would bust in, looking to kick out the dynamic duo of canine and human, and Junpei would protest! But alas, a hero must bear the weight of his actions, no matter what happened afterwards…
As he turned around to face the club, he noticed the mall cop was…heading back? A confused Koromaru looked up at Junpei and trotted back to the fountain, where he rested under a bench. Standing near a sleeping Koromaru, Junpei realized that Kotone was probably gonna be okay. Heck, if she was talking with someone, it would probably be pretty rude to butt into her conversation.
In the corner of Junpei’s eye, he spotted a man in a suit…smiling at him? Giving a weak wave back, he saw the guy…WALKING UP TO THE COP? Oh no! Junpei couldn’t let that happen under any circumstances! This guy just looked rich-he could probably sue Junpei for assault or something.
Walking up to the suited man, he put his hand on his shoulder. Junpei luckily left Koromaru under the bench, sleeping, so he wouldn’t look too suspicious.
“Hey dude! Uhh, can we ummm, talk or something?”
The man gave a smirk, turning around. He had a couple of small, lidded eyes, with hair that looked-shaggy? It still looked nice and was slicked back, but “shaggy” was probably the only way Junpei could describe it.
“Really? I’d like to talk about your dog you’ve been walking! He looks sweet.”. His tone almost seemed condescending, like talking to a child.
Oh man. He’d seen the dog and was definitely going to tattle on Junpei. Maybe he could play dumb, take Koromaru out of the mall, and not get sued. Could he get sued?
“What dog are you talking about?” SMOOTH! Junpei actually thought he played that off kinda well, and thought he saw a flicker in the man’s eyes before the guy smiled and pointed behind Junpei.
“Why, the dog that’s nuzzling you!”
Aah crap. Koromaru was right behind Junpei, rubbing himself on his leg. He growled softly at the man in the suit. Junpei’s heart dropped to the bottom of his butt. It was pretty much over for him. He might even get banned or something, depending on what this guy said.
“Listen, I won’t tattle. But maybe you could give me a gift of generosity, saaayy…six thousand yen?”
Yeah, it was over.
Junpei walked back to the bench, and Koromaru followed. The guy tagged him, speaking as Junpei rubbed the dog's face as he stared at Koro-chan's sad expression. The dog knew he had done something wrong, having a pout, but Junpei forced a sad smile. He didn’t want Koromaru to suffer from his stupidity.
“Whoa, I can lower it a bit. How’s 3 thousand sound to you? And, get this, we can walk to an ATM and cash out some money you have in your bank account?”. The suited man gave a smile, but Junpei didn’t even look at him. He barely carried his checking card issued by the Kirijo group and didn’t even know if he would have enough money, with Mitsuru having limits on their withdrawals and all (well, limits on HIS withdrawals). Junpei sighed.
“Kotone, you’d probably know how to fix this.”.
The suited man jumped back a little.
“Kotone?”
Junpei was surprised. Though, when it came to it, there were a lot of women named Kotone, so he probably-
“Kotone Shiomi?”, the man asked.
Wait a sec. Junpei was pretty sure there weren’t many ‘Kotone Shiomi’s’ in Tatsumi Port Island.
“Uhm…yeah, actually. Do you…know her?”.
The man gave a chuckle. He sat down next to Junpei, turning to Koromaru and petting him. The dog, although it was a little wary, grew accustomed to the man and smiled with a content expression.
“Yes. I encountered the girl in my search for a model. She was good-looking, and I could use my skills to make her a star.”
A star? This guy must be like…a casting director or something! Junpei really wondered who this guy could’ve been.
“My name is President Tanaka, of Tanaka’s Amazing Commodities.”
TANAKAAA?! THE SALES GUY ON THE SHOW?!
“YOU’RE THE GUY ON TV?!”
Junpei stood up, startling Koromaru a bit. President Tanaka looked a little annoyed and closed his eyes, not stopping in petting Koromaru, which relaxed the dog.
“Yes, yes, settle down. I know I am quite famous, but you’ll attract paparazzi.”.
Junpei thought about that and guessed that it made sense. This was TANAKA, after all. He sat down and spoke in an exaggerated whisper.
“You-you know Kotone? How?!”
“I told you! I recruited her in search for a modeling gig. Do children even listen nowadays?...”
Tanaka looked quite annoyed with Junpei by this point, so he decided to tone down a lot.
“Yeah, I’m listening. Can you, umm, tell me what you guys talked about? My name’s Junpei, Junpei Iori, if she, uh, mentioned me.”
Tanaka looked slightly more pleased and continued.
“Well, she wasn’t really a model. I guess she was more of…an advisor of sorts. Not saying that I need an advisor or anything. I confided in her about details in my life, and she gave me some back. She…well, changed me a little, I can be humble enough to say that.” Tanaka gave a smile, with a look of reminiscing on his face. He continued a few seconds afterward.
“About her-well, she’s hiding a lot of things behind that smile. She fooled me quite a bit with that-probably one of the few times that happened. I related to her quite a bit with that, but I’ll spare you the details about my life.”.
Junpei was intrigued by this by a large amount, but he wanted the president to answer his question, and decided to be more direct. “Did she say anything about me?”
“Ah, young love.” Junpei’s ears were painted beet red and he put up his hands. “No, not like that!” Tanaka chuckled and kept talking. “Yes, yes, she did talk about you. She honestly didn’t like you very much initially-said something about you trying to one up her when you met-” (Junpei blushed a lot more after this was said) “-but she has warmed up to you. She’s concerned for you a lot, I can say that. That must be nice.”
Kotone was…concerned for him?
Huh.
Before Junpei turned into a stuttering mess, Koromaru started looking antsy, almost as if he needed…to USE THE RESTROOM? Junpei definitely couldn’t hide THAT from a mall cop!
“I’m sorry sir, I need to leave. It was nice talking to you. Oh! Do you want me to pay or-”
Tanaka put his hand up and almost had a look of shame on his face. “No, no. I shouldn’t do that-I really need to put an end to that habit. You don’t need to do anything. Goodbye, Junpei.”.
And with that, Junpei walked home with Koromaru.
Before Junpei went to bed, Kotone came home as he was in the lounge. She was smiling. Junpei would usually leave her alone if she didn’t outwardly look sad, but he wanted to change that a little. He stood up and walked to her.
“Uhhh…hey!”
Kotone looked at him.
“Oh, what’s up Junpei?”
Honestly, Junpei had no idea what to say. It wasn’t like anything had actually happened between the two of them. He didn’t wanna do anything physical, like a hug, because that would be even weirder, so he just kinda stood there.
“Uh…I heard you were at the club earlier? How’d that go?”
She smiled and spoke with a teasing voice. “Junpei, I don’t have to be your every thought when I leave.”
Junpei turned red for the 3rd time today.
“Uhh..yeah, I guess. Just so you know…I’m here if you want to talk with me about anything.”
That was really a nothing burger of a statement Junpei said. Of course he’d always be there for her-that was implied by all their excursions to ramen places and things of that nature.
But Kotone’s smile faded a little. It wasn’t a frown-not really, but more a look of realization replacing that plastic grin she wore all the time, quickly replaced by an even bigger one. Junpei didn’t know if this new smile was fake or if it was real, but in all honesty, he only really cared about the words she said after that.
“Thanks, Junpei.”