2026-01-06: Rooftop Catch-Up
- Log: Rooftop Catch-Up
- Cast: Hyousuke Suzuki, Ichika Kawase
- Where: Kasugayama High
- OOC Date: 2026-01-06
- IC Date: Thu Sep 06
- Summary: Hyousuke and Ichika spend their lunch on Kasu's rooftop, catching up about recent events and sharing their thoughts regarding Julian and Yua. Hyousuke also ponders how Ichika knows so many Shujin students. It's probably nothing, though.
<Pose Tracker> Hyousuke Suzuki has posed.
Hyousuke wasn't sure that he was allowed to be on the rooftop. Despite the length of time that he had been attending Kasu, he'd never bothered to look into the rules regarding whether or not one was allowed to be on the rooftop, unless you had good reason. However, Hyousuke *had* been in attendance long enough to know that most teachers didn't really care enough to bother enforcing such a rule, and Hyousuke posited that the few that did - Muto-sensei and perhaps Ijuuin-sensei - likely had better things to be doing with their time than standing guard by the stairs.
The current state of affairs suited him just fine. The view from atop the roof was nothing to write home about, but it was quiet, isolated, and had plenty of spots to sit and lean against. Concrete was hardly the most comfortable material in the world, but it certainly beat some of the other spots around the school. He had no doubt that few students would saunter up and try their luck with it, but Hyousuke had thought ahead, and gotten there early, rushing (ie, walking a little faster than usual) to the spot to stake his claim.
While it meant that he had to sacrifice buying some bread for lunch, he'd planned for that as well, and the result of such scheming had long since been dragged out of his bag. That contingency he'd put in place - that endpoint of his plotting, and the fruits of his labours - was a moderately-sized plastic container with rounded sides. It was, as most anyone would have been able to guess from just a single glance, a bento box. An unremarkable one, bearing no brand name and being dyed a rather inoffensive shade of red, but it was undeniably a pre-prepared lunch.
<Pose Tracker> Ichika Kawase has posed.
Ichika doesn't care whether she's allowed to be on the rooftop. It doesn't really matter that much, even trying to go legit--it's just a school rule that nobody enforces. Who cares?
Ichika likes the roof OK. It lets her look over Hirasaka, and she's come to appreciate Hirasaka.
But she has her own lunch, and Hyousuke had indicated that he wanted to eat lunch with her, so...
She arrives and sits down next to him. "Nice," Ichika says. "You came prepared."
<Pose Tracker> Hyousuke Suzuki has posed.
"It's not much," Hyousuke said as he cracked it open, "But it beats trying to shove my way to the front before all the good bread gets taken." The inside of the box didn't contain anything that looked particularly exciting. By visuals alone, it might have even been considered something of a mess. His attempt at egg rolls had ended up closer to scrambled eggs, the salad had been chopped quite roughly - to put it charitably - and he'd not even attempted to make the cute little hotdog octopi. The rice looked fine, but at the same time, it was rice. One had to *try* to get that one wrong. "So, how's being back? Did you get all your homework and stuff done? Got mine done early. Muto-sensei threatened to give me laps if I missed anything..."
<Pose Tracker> Ichika Kawase has posed.
"You have to start somewhere," Ichika says. "So you made it yourself, then?" She approves, and that shows through in her tone and expression. "Nice."
She has her own; it's not Cute, but it is well-made. A respectable sort of lunch. ...She can do cute, but it's weird to make yourself a cute bento, right? Right.
"It's not bad," Ichika says. "I got all my stuff done, yeah--did it mostly early, since... I had people to help me with it. I want to try to do better in classes. Might be too late, but might not be, too."
A beat, "But it's good to be back. I even saw Marlowe-sensei."
<Pose Tracker> Hyousuke Suzuki has posed.
Hyousuke nodded along. it wasn't that he hadn't been listening, he just hadn't much to add - that, and he'd begun stuffing his face the very second that he'd finished speaking. Though he was a Kasu student, and stood in the awkward middle ground between 'delinquent' and 'below average student,' he at least had enough manners to keep from trying to speak through a mouthful of half-chewed rice. By the time she'd reached the topic of Marlow-sensei, he'd swallowed, and decided to latch onto that instead of the small talk he'd been leading with.
"Here or at the wedding? I ran into him there, but he was acting a little off. Ooshi- Ijuuin-sensei too." The name still felt wrong on his tongue. He couldn't quite place why it left a bitter twinge, but something about the name just felt... wrong. "Speaking of, you probably know him better than I do, so I gotta ask... what do you make of all the rumours going around?"
<Pose Tracker> Ichika Kawase has posed.
Nobody likes half-chewed rice words.
"Here," Ichika clarifies. "I bet he felt awkward," she says of his strange actions. "...Ijuuin-sensei," she has to get used to it too, "Was just kinda overwhelmed I think. It was a big, stuffy ceremony and she's so chill... It makes sense, right?"
But Julian? "They're bullshit," she says confidently. "He's got some students who think he's cool, that's all. He's good at what he does. And Shiranui shaping things up a little around here isn't so bad."
<Pose Tracker> Hyousuke Suzuki has posed.
Hyousuke was silent for a moment. The convenient excuse was that he had another morsel in his mouth, but his diverted gaze and creased brow hinted at something going on in his head. It was only when he swallowed that those goings-on were given a voice, however.
"Figured it was bullshit. Rumours always are." It wasn't like there was a shortage of them. Tamaki's jobs aside, that much was just the nature of any school, workplace, or frequent gathering of regular faces. "...But something still doesn't feel right about him."
Hyousuke mulled his next words over for a moment or two, but even when he did speak, he did so with some sense of trepidation. "Do people just... change like that? The hell's he saying to them to make it happen so quick?" He didn't really know how quickly it'd happened, and the way he talked about the speed of such changes made it seem like an afterthought. Indeed, more emphasis had been placed on him questioning the fact that people could change so easily. "I just don't know what I think about him. I ran into him at the izakaya and I just... I couldn't get a read on the guy."
<Pose Tracker> Ichika Kawase has posed.
"Yeah," Ichika agrees. Or at least, close enough to always; technically 'rumors becoming reality' is kind of bullshit itself, in that what the hell?
"yeah?" Ichika wonders. But then, hmm... "They can," Ichika says. "I did. I was pretty different a few months ago... Didn't have any hope for the future, nothing like that."
"I can't really say what he's doing," Ichika says, and that is true; she knows at least one of the things that went down, but it's not hers to tell, and the rest, who knows? "Well, maybe you should see him yourself sometime, see what you think. ...He's hard to read though, but like... He's kinda supposed to be? When you talk to him he's supposed to be kinda... Not the point, you know?"
"But I think he's cool. He's always done right by me."
<Pose Tracker> Hyousuke Suzuki has posed.
"...Maybe." It was a very hesitant 'maybe.' Closer to a 'no' than an 'I will think about it.' Even if he hadn't said anything, the unpleasant look he had at the mention of actually talking to Julian - in a professional context, no less - made it patently clear that he didn't care for the idea, even if Ichika had gone so far as to vouch for him. "Just don't know if I trust him enough to speak like *that* with him. Not even 'cause of the rumours." The words came, but they came slowly, and with gaps between each thought that inched towards an awkward silence.
"I haven't seen much of him, but he's always calm. Way too calm. Even the teachers here that give a shit seem like they get frustrated sometimes." He could only speak from his own experience and what hearsay he bothered to listen to, of course. He couldn't say for certain what *any* teacher was like when he was out of their classroom, save perhaps for Muto. "But him... Never even seen him twitch." He paused, then shrugged. "Besides, I don't want to go spilling my life to him. Don't even like thinking about it by myself."
<Pose Tracker> Ichika Kawase has posed.
It's a 'no', Ichika gathers. She sees that look on his face. "That's fine," Ichika says. "You don't have to or anything."
But... Calm.
"Is that weird?" Ichika wonders. "...I mean, if you're dealing with peoples' problems, you gotta be able to keep a lid on your own. Right?"
"...Well, that's fair," Ichika says. "I found it kinda helped, but..."
"People are different."
<Pose Tracker> Hyousuke Suzuki has posed.
Dealing with other's problems while keeping oneself calm throughout... That much was enough to give Hyousuke pause. What he thought about in that silence remained unclear, and he did not look willing to share, however. A breath then escaped him after that thoughtful lull in the conversation. While not quite a sigh, Hyousuke nevertheless seemed a little resigned after her words had sunk in.
"I'll think about it." Was the best that he managed. He didn't sound like he would think about it, and didn't look as if he was inclined to either. But the sentiment had been put forward, and there remained a chance - however small - that he might actually take a chance on getting the closest thing to professional help he felt he could pursue.
"Speaking of teachers," Hyousuke said, whether out of eagerness to talk about the other matter or an eagerness to just change the subject, "Were you at Ijuuin-sensei's wedding?" There was a split-second pause before he used her new name. It didn't sound like a natural pause, and the word did not feel natural on his tongue either.
<Pose Tracker> Ichika Kawase has posed.
Ichika doesn't ask. Instead...
"Yeah?" Ichika asks of teachers, and then, "I was. I kinda stayed away from most of the crowds, though. I got to talk to Ijuuin-sensei a little, but mostly just stayed out of the way."
A beat, "Weird to have a new name for her, huh? ...I was pretty surprised about her getting married and stuff."
<Pose Tracker> Hyousuke Suzuki has posed.
"Yeah, it feels weird." Hyousuke said, shrugging a little as he agreed. "Just kinda came out of nowhere for me. Then again, I haven't been here long, and I've had other stuff to focus on, so maybe I just missed her talking about it at some point." He didn't feel the need to explain what had held his focus for the past few months. He'd been involved with helping Ichika resolve the situation with Eiji, after all. "But that's not what's worrying me. It was sorta towards the end of the reception. She got this weird look on her face and acted like... Like she was *scared* of something."
<Pose Tracker> Ichika Kawase has posed.
"Maybe," Ichika says. There's stuff here she can't really say... And more stuff she doen't know. So, "Hmm..."
"Yeah, I saw it too. I talked to her about it. Maybe it's just that that head cop guy was a dick about things. I dunno; she said she's gonna be happy, though."
"...Her husband seems nice enough. Gave me some crowd tips..."
"I dunno. All we can do is keep an eye on her, right? I mean, I guess people would say we can't do shit, and shouldn't try. But it's one of those 'wait and see' things I think."
<Pose Tracker> Hyousuke Suzuki has posed.
Hyousuke shook his head. It was less a dismissal of things, and more an expression of his frustration at all that had transpired.
"I know you're right, but it doesn't *feel* right. The police guy, the ceremony, and her husband... kinda... Everything just felt *weird* to me." He paused, canted his head to the side a little in place of a shrug, then gave some offhand addendum. "Or maybe it was just the ceremony. I was happy for her, but the whole thing was stuffy as hell. Wasn't my kinda scene. Kashihara-san sounded like he liked it though."
Hyousuke had only gone off what he'd heard Jun mention to Yua when they'd gone to congratulate her personally - he'd not been there to observe Jun observing the various relics and plaques and whatnot. It wasn't something he gave much thought either.
"Like you said though, we'll have to keep an eye on her. Don't know what's going on, but my gut's telling me that we're missing something." It could very well have just been hunger. He'd been neglecting his bento box in favour of 'gossiping' about their teachers, after all.
<Pose Tracker> Ichika Kawase has posed.
Weird. Ichika nods. "Yeah," she says. "It was pretty stuffy, too. I can't say I liked it. But that might be my own damage, too. Seems like they didn't value her stuff that much..."
She shakes her head. "There was a lot of cool history stuff, I guess. If you're into that kind of thing."
But, well. "Maybe, then. ...But we better eat, too. I guess we'll find out--she came back after, so..."
<Pose Tracker> Hyousuke Suzuki has posed.
The food. The food he was holding. The food that he'd prepared specifically for eating, not just for holding. He'd been neglecting it, and she'd been the one to remind him of it - that much was enough to have him give a surprised blink. However, he seemed to have one other - remarkably less serious, if his more relaxed expression was anything to go by - thing on his mind.
"Actually, while we're talking about the wedding, I met someone else there. Okumura-san or something? Light hair, sounded kinda posh, goes to Shujin? Do you know her?" He was going somewhere with it. The way his voice trailed off on the last question all but said it out loud.
<Pose Tracker> Ichika Kawase has posed.
The food!! It's veyr important. But at least this is less serious. Met someone...?
"Oh, yeah," she says. "She's pretty cool, yeah. I know her. Not like, super well or anything, but I know her."
<Pose Tracker> Hyousuke Suzuki has posed.
Hyousuke blinked at her. The hamster wheel began to squeak in his head. Thoughts started to coalesce, until they finally - after what seemed to be a remarkable amount of effort - began to form something that resembled an idea.
"That's the third Shujin student I've met that knows you. Sakamoto-san, Amamiya-san, and now Okumura-san. I know it's not a lot, but it's weird that it's happened three times. Have you been taking night classes there or something without telling the rest of us?"
<Pose Tracker> Ichika Kawase has posed.
Squeak!
"It is kinda funny, isn't it?"
"...Oh, well." Ichika goes back to her lunch!