"Oh, Suwan-san?"

"You know him?"

"He's a bit notorious for—"

"Are you guys really dating?" blurts out Kobashigawa.

Blink.

"Ah, what I mean is—"

"It's totally fine if you are. Or if you aren't! We're cool here."

"Goodness me, is that really what the rumour mill is going with this morning?"

"Told you it wasn't true," Fujioka says to Kobashigawa under his breath.

She looks at him out of the corner of her eyes and says, in a similar undertone, "Well he hasn't denied it—"

Yasuda elbows her. "Stop gossiping."

She rubs her side where she got hit. "We're in the journalism club, gossip is what we're here for."

"I met him yesterday, just like you all. Also he is a guy."

"You don't sound disgusted by it."

"In 2026? I'm more enlightened than that."

"Come on, man, you gotta give me more than that."

"I gotta give you more than that?"

"My livelihood's on the line!"

"That's a bit dramatic."

"I'll literally die."

"Now you're just being gratuitous."

"Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease?"

"Don't you think, if it were true, that it'd be kind of stupid for me to confirm it?"

"...no. Why would it be stupid? Everyone's gonna want to be your friend if you confirm it."

"They already want to be my friends," he points out. "And besides, haven't you heard the rumours about what exactly it is that Iwasaki Iemasa's kid did to get expelled?"