[center][img]https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/617914243760783381/866258589646323732/thumbnail_yuuya.png[/img][/center]Yūya had had enough of the barking bulldog treatment for one night, so he decided to give Yonaka her space. Slinking across the roof, he dragged half a beer and half a cigarette with him. Tonaka had just arrived; that meant Kevin-kun wasn't far behind. And if there was one pup it was just too fun to rile ... The span of wall right beside the door would give Yūya the perfect spot from which to launch his ambush. The only other greaser in the group, he knew better than anyone how much Kevin's hair meant to him. All in harmless fun, of course; nothing a little more pomade couldn't fix.

Once heads started turning and lips started shushing, he took the cues that someone had something important to say. He listened all the while making his seemingly-innocuous move into position; to the boss first, then to the phone's speaker. He still didn't know whether or not to look at Ri Mai as he passed her, though. He still must've been deciding what to think of her. In certain respects they shared a lotta the same circumstance out here; both of them had been given a chance. Someone had chosen to trust them both. They were still ... on parole, one could say, like the guys getting out of juvenile prison. But if he welcomed her outright, and gave her the ally she probably needed right about now, wasn't he supporting her being here? Then, by association, he was supporting her first beating at the hands of Sarayashiki's rivals ... and all the humiliation and shame which comes from losing a fight. Any fight. [i]Kuso;[/i] why did he have to be so cold to do the right thing in the long run?

Yūya just had to remember Rin. That'd keep him sensible. Would he let [i]her[/i] follow him into a skirmish with a baseball bat or a [i]bokken[/i] or a chainlock? Would he just look away and accept her foolish wishes to make her happy today, while sacrificing her happiness tomorrow? Was he really that kind of coward?

"Sounds like someone's only got the guts to go after people littler than him," he replied tersely to the message at hand, gathering his lips into an O and launching a globule of phlegm over the edge of the roof between [i]tameguchi[/i] verbs, laden with trilled R's and scalding contempt, a well-practiced drawl he, like most [i]yankii,[/i] had picked up from one American movie or another. James Dean, Marlon Brando, Peter Fonda, Frankie Valli—the first step into delinquenthood was choosing your idol, Yūya supposed. "An insect like that will go down easily enough. It should be taught some manners."

Alright, fine; just one little peek. Maybe Mai was already losing her nerve among all the sneering and jeering and suspicions going on up on Sarayashiki Junior High's roof. Maybe she was beginning to realize the entire breadth of what she was trying to get herself into.