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Knowing it was a waste, I put out my cigarette to give my undivided attention to this old friend of mine.

Jun: "What's up with the sudden call?"

Mitsuki: "Well I figured I'd call since I got a new number!"

No...

Mitsuki sends most all his messages through LINE. If telling me he had a new number were all it was, he could have just sent me a message through LINE.

It's always been that there was something up if he calls me.

Jun: "And? What else?"

Mitsuki: "Huuuh?! How'd you know there was something else?"

Case in point.

Even if I don't know for certain that something happened, I can always feel that something happened.

Mitsuki: "Well... I kinda broke up with my girlfriend. So then I thought it'd be nice to hear your voice."

Jun: "Seriously?"

Mitsuki: "Don't gimme that! See, it's like even though I did so much stuff for her, she still cheated on me! Oh and also-"

...

Who'd have thought after not calling for so long he'd jump right into bitching about his ex. Mikkun is just that kind of guy. But to be fair, he's started so many fun conversations with a dull guy like me.

Jun: "Uh-huh. Ahh. Damn that sucks."

Mitsuki: "I know right?! Hey Junjun, let's hang out! Do you have some free time anytime soon?"

Jun: "Hey yeah, let's hang out. Saturday I have work at night so anytime around noon."

Mitsuki: "Sounds good! It'll be so good to see you after so long~"

Jun: "Message me on LINE later."

I guess the last time we met was summer vacation right before I became a second year. I just so happened to be hanging out in a group of friends from middle school then. He still had a girlfriend then.

Guess I'll get to hear the rest of his story after we meet in person.

Saturday

_ _

It was still a bit early to be eating lunch, but we decided to meet up outside a nearby family restaurant.

Jun: "Sorry for the wait."

Mitsuki: "Aaaahhhh! It's been so long!"

I get the feeling he put on a pound or two since we last met, but other than that he's the same as always.

Mitsuki: "Junjun, did you gain weight?"

Jun: "I don't want to hear that from you! Anyway, let's go inside."

Mitsuki: "Who was that that you just had drop you off?"

Jun: "Uh, a senpai of mine."

I got Kiyoto-san to take me here by car.

Mitsuki: "Whaaa? He seems super scary! Huh, no way! Junjun, you smoke now?!"

Jun: "Just a bit."

Mitsuki: "Hmmm, wow, in the while time we haven't met you've turned into a total Yankee!"

Jun: "No I'm not."

We both ordered our food and went together to the drink bar.

Mitsuki: "You're only drinking coffee because you want to look cool, dontcha?"

Jun: "Suddup. The coffee here is pretty good."

Mitsuki: "Is what you say but you're hardly drinking any. Look, there's lots of milk and sweetener syrup you can put in it~"

Jun: "Don't need any."

For a cute-looking fluffball, he really knows how to come at me for random things.

Jun: "Okay so, Mikkun, why'd you break up with your girlfriend? You were still with Kimura-san from middle school right? The gal-like one?"

Mikkun was a dime-a-dozen, non-spectacular high school student, just like me. What was he even doing dating a gal like that?

Mitsuki: "Do you remember when we met up before our second year in high school? That was the first point where it felt like things were heading to breakup."

Jun: "You were starting to feel unsatisfied?"

Mitsuki: "No, she was."

Jun: "Seriously?!"

Mitsuki: "I'm telling you, even though I'm weird or whatever I wanted to always take good care of my girlfriend. I tried really hard too! Going out a lot, buying presents for her, and and-"

Frankly speaking, they sound like they were a backward-ass couple.

Still, even with how he's harping on her, from his expression and appearance, I can tell that he's depressed over it.

Mitsuki: "I even gave her a Vuitton bag for our one year anniversary... and she really loved it."

Jun: "A Vuitton?! Holy crap, you don't mess around!"

Mitsuki: "But in the end she still cheated on me! She dumped me for some other guy she started liking! And then after that, I started hearing rumors that she was only dating me for my money..."

"For your money?... Ew, that's real shitty of her."

Gotta admit it's weird to hear a high schooler say 'for my money'.

But in actuality Mikkun's family is what you'd call 'countryside millionaires'. They live in this massive old Japanese style home at the edge of town. His parents were always busy, so his grandma would always drop off and pick him up from school in a luxury car...

Jun: "But wait, what did you do to get the money you spent on going out and presents for her?"

Mitsuki: "I worked really hard saving up my allowance and lunch money."

Jun: "Your lunch money?"

Mitsuki: "Yeah. My mom says she can't really make bentos so she gives me 5,000 yen every week for lunch. Even though grandma ended up making lunch bentos for me anyway."

Jun: "O-Oh. And you used your allowance on top of that?"

Jun: "I've been getting like 20,000 yen a month. But also because my parents can't spend much time with me cause of work so they buy me necessities or anything I want. Like these clothes or anything, really."

Jun: "You must get a killing for New Year's..."

Mitsuki: "Yeah, I do have a lot of relatives that give me money for New Year's... But I'm not going to tell you how much I get."

Oh I see how it is.

The money that I have to work for at my job is something that this guy takes for granted as money or gifts from his family...

Jun: "Sorry, but I don't think saving that kind of money counts as 'working really hard'..."

Mitsuki: "Oh..."

Jun: "People work hard at jobs to get that kind of money. Buying a bag as a present with allowance from your family doesn't seem like the same thing."

Mitsuki: "I go to a private school. They don't allow part time jobs."

Jun: "That's not the issue; it's how you're thinking about it."

Looking a little dissatisfied, Mitsuki looked at me with upturned eyes. I can understand why he'd do that, though.

Jun: "Don't get me wrong, she's a bitch for dating you for your money, but there are people out there in happy relationships who manage without all that much money, time or fancy presents."

From just this conversation, I noticed lots of red flags pointing to Mikkun being treated as a 'profitable boyfriend'. Though there might be school-related and personal circumstances to this story too.

Mitsuki: "Yeah... I guess there's a lot of things that I still need to work on, huh?"

Jun: "Well, failure breeds success. Especially with love. So don't give up!"

Mitsuki: "You're right, thanks."

I sounded like I knew what I was talking about, but really that was just second hand advice I heard from Kiyoto-san or other people.

Mitsuki: "I really do end up feeling better after talking to you, Junjun~"

Jun: "You do?"

Mitsuki: "Everyone at school's been giving weird vibes recently. So I'm at an all-boys school, yeah? It makes sense that they might be jealous that despite me being nothing special, I have money and was dating a cute gal..."

Jun: "Well if you're fine with me then I can always talk to you about these things. Hit me up anytime."

Mitsuki: "Thanks! Love ya Junjun!"

Jun: "Yep, yep."

I didn't have anything else to do, so for the first time in a while I stopped by at Mikkun's house. And typical Mikkun, actually called a goddamn taxi to take us there.

Jun: "Your house is as amazing as I remember."

Mitsuki: "You did used to come a lot, didn't you?"

Inside the premises, from lightweight trucks to luxury cars, there was quite a selection of vehicles.

Jun: "Been forever since I've been inside here too... Woah, that's a huge-ass TV!"

Mitsuki: "My parents got it for my birthday last year~"

Grandmother: "Welcome. It's been so long. Sorry this is all we have, but please have a snack."

Jun: "Thank you very much."

Mikkun's grandmother brought out tea and sweets for us to eat.

Mitsuki: "I've just been talking about myself this whole time, but how have things been on your end, Junjun?"

Jun: "How have things been with me? Nothing special."

Mitsuki: "Oh? Well how have things been with your parents?"

Why does he pinpoint in on that?

Mitsuki: "You know, you used to talk about how you fought with and hated your dad so much sooo, I was wondering if you were doing fine."

Jun: "I'm surprised you remember that. Things are going normally."

Mitsuki: "Is what you say, but how are things really?"

Jun: "What?!"

Mikkun really is sharp with certain things. Sometimes enough to shock me. Not to mention how, instead addressing me seriously, he causally says these things with a normal face...

Jun: "Well, we just fought a little."

Mitsuki: "You don't change, huh? You're trying to hide things, huh?"

Jun: "Wha- what are you talking about?"

Mitsuki: "I can tell plain as day from looking at you~ It's totally fine if you want to complain and talk about the crap that's happening."

Even though we haven't talked in over a year, after just a couple of hours since meeting he already managed to see through me that far.

Ever since way back when, even when I never said anything to anyone, he alone would approach me asking 'What's wrong? Did something happen?' Even if I'd try to pass it off saying 'it's nothing', sometimes my walls would still get broken down. Like now.

Jun: "I don't like talking about those sorts of things."

Mitsuki: "I'm not going to force anything out of you. You know, anyone can share fun experiences with others. But that doesn't mean sad and painful experiences are things that can be buried away forever. Is what I think, anyway."

Jun: "......"

Mikkun suddenly stood up and moved over to my side. He looked at me, pulled on my arms, and before I could say anything I was brought into a tight hug.

I started to say 'the heck are you doing?' But the warm feeling of being hugged kindly... I lost to it, and remained silent.

Mitsuki: "Everyone has times where they struggle, and even for me there's lots of things like that that I feel I can talk to you about, Junjun."

Without realizing, it I surrendered myself to an odd sense of safety.

Mitsuki: "Maybe I'll try to get together with Junjun next~"

Jun: "What does that mean?"

Mitsuki: "Maybe that way I could become important enough to you that you'll be able to forget all your troubles~"

Shit, this is strange.

Why is Mikkun making my heart all fluttery?

Mitsuki: "If only I were a girl..."

Jun: "You're fine as a boy."

Mitsuki: "W-What?"

Shit. What am I doing blurting this shit out?!

Mitsuki: "Now what does _that_mean?"

Jun: "Doesn't mean anything..."

Mitsuki: "That's funny... So no girlfriend?"

Jun: "No."

Mitsuki: "Still a viiirgin?"

Jun: "Shaddup."

Mitsuki: "What? Even though I just told you all so much about me at the family restaurant?"

That's exactly right. So terribly sorry.

Mikkun laughed and told me 'Well I'm sure you'll get a wonderful girlfriend soon', so it seems like I wasn't completely seen through.

But if it's by Mikkun maybe it wouldn't be so bad to be seen though. Heh...

At night, I got Mikkun's grandma to drop me off at work. Mikkun was riding with us.

Mitsuki: "Thanks for today~ Let's hang out again somewhere soon!"

Jun: "Yeah, I'll message you again. Thanks."

That guy can seem like an airhead, but can be strangely intuitive and get at the heart of things other times.

In this era where it's a struggle to even find a dream or hope to latch on to, I guess that's the exact kind of person that will stay by your side and tell you what's really important.

I'll work hard at my job tonight. Wonder if I'll be alone when I return to Kiyoto-san's place. Saturday nights are when Kiyoto-san always heads out.

Out to a dangerous world that normal people like me can't enter.

Mitsuki Minamide

Species: Bear

Gender: Male

Age: 17

Height: 170cm

Weight: 78kg.

Appearance: Thick eyebrows. A good natured chubby guy.

An old friend of Jun's that went to a different high school. He has rich parents with a bourgeoisie style of living. He looks like a quiet young airhead, but actually is really intuitive with his good friends.