[Yamaguchi struggles and tries for a smile, doesn't quite succeed.]

Ah. Er...that anyone who saw us, might say to themselves something like, "It's a pity, that boy in the white jacket is hanging out with the other one"?

[He laughs hollowly, trying to lighten the mood by explaining.] When Tsukki and I started in middle school, and then again in high school, those were the kinds of things our classmates would say about us.

That I wasn't smart, or cool enough. To hang out with someone like that... [And a vicious, bitter part of him would always jealously believe it.]