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“Okay,” Jun said finally.

Walking together to the food court, Jun didn’t know what to do. He didn’t know whether to look at the stores or at Ruki, who was scanning for different options. Ruki leaned in, a gleam in his eye. “Do you know what you want?”

Jun felt stupid that he didn’t look at the stalls to give Ruki a proper answer. His mouth gaped as he frantically looked at the options. He heard Ruki chuckle softly, then nudged him with his hip.

“You still like tofu, right?”

Jun looked over where Ruki was pointing. A bright orange logo with white letters in a blue border spelled out the boba shop’s name. Jun nodded. “Yeah…”

Ruki smiled. “Do you want that? Or do you want something else?”

Jun glanced at the other stores before shaking his head. “What about you?” he asked.

Ruki glanced around before shaking his head slightly. “I think I’ll get something from there too. It’s been a while since I’ve had it.” He motioned with his head back at the crowded seating area behind them. “Go grab a seat, and I’ll come and find you.”

Jun nodded, then headed off. He settled at a small table after hunting for an open seat. He glanced at the boba booth when he saw Ruki was already coming towards him, tray in hand.

Ruki set the tray down and passed him the fried tofu and a cup of water. Ruki got himself a standard milk tea with boba. Jun nodded to him in thanks when he realized he was being rude.

Jun fumbled in his pockets, and Ruki waved his hand in front of him. “It’s okay, Jun, you don’t need to.”

Jun froze. Ruki always told him not to pay him back. “But I haven’t seen you in a while.”

“And that’s exactly why,” said Ruki, smiling. He took his seat across from Jun and sipped his drink. “If you want to get a drink, let me know, and I’ll go grab it for you.”

Jun frowned towards the fried tofu, hoping Ruki wouldn’t see his face. He was always giving and never asking for anything in return. It was concerning. How was Ruki still acting like this when he never contacted him since Paragon?

With so many questions piling up in his head, he couldn’t get one of them out of his mouth. He nibbled on the familiar salty soft goodness of the fried tofu, slightly burning the tip of his tongue as he continued to search for the right question.

“What have you been doing then?” Ruki asked, beating him to the question first.

Jun stopped mid-chew. “Doing?”

“Like… have you been working on anything or got into a new hobby? New game?” Ruki had always been good with wording things politely. It was one of the many things that Jun looked up to him for.

Jun licked the grease off his lips. “Um… I guess catching up with the newest games. Anime. News. Reading. You know, the usual stuff.” He shoved another bite of scorching hot fried tofu. “I’m sorry my life isn’t very interesting,” he added with a shrug.

“Jun,” said Ruki, his voice clipped. “Don’t say that.”

“But it’s true!” Jun argued. “It’s not like I have anything else going for me. I’m still the same boring person you knew from high school.” Jun laughed at himself, like the joke that he was.

“Jun.” Ruki’s voice became low and serious. He held Jun’s gaze. “I’ve known you for fourteen years, and I have never thought of you as boring. Ever.”

Heat bloomed across his cheeks from Ruki’s sudden compliment. Jun needed this conversation to stop before it was going to make him look more like the loser he already was.

“Anyway! Don’t worry about me, I’m fine.” He took a swig of water, hoping to wash away the shamelessness of his current lifestyle. “What about you? Is everything alright with you, Ruki?”

Ruki reclined in his chair and stared at the table, his long eyelashes lowered in thought, before raising his eyes back up to Jun. “Yeah,” he finally answered.

The way Ruki answered wasn’t how Jun expected. When he didn’t continue, a cold sweat pricked the back of Jun’s neck. How could he move the conversation forward without mentioning the incident? He was about to explode if he didn’t. “Then… what have you been up to since Paragon?”

Ruki sipped one boba pearl in thought. “I mean, it’s gonna be hard to clock back in with no building to walk into.” He smirked at his own joke.

Jun’s ears burned. “I know that!” Of course he knew. Everyone saw the news clip of the smoke coming from the building. “I mean after that. What did you do after that? How did you survive?”

A few moments passed until Ruki responded with a half-hearted shrug. “I’ve just been dealing with a lot of things.”

Jun’s heart sank. Every conversation he had with Ruki in the past was not like this. This was the person who shared everything, but he wasn’t doing the same anymore. He was almost at the point of desperation, to salvage anything to keep this moment alive. “Then what about now?” He asked softly.