what about hibiki, hiro, AND other hiro? And airi. And ronaldo?
Oh starch. Of course you wouldn’t make it easy.
"Hibiki." Jungo smiles, his tail swishing contently. "He’s very brave. I owe him my life." He idly ‘grooms’ his face. "He also thinks a lot. Sometimes I don’t want to bother him. But he likes food, so I gave him lots of chawanmushi."
Jungo stretches out. “I worry about him a little, too. He doesn’t like to be lonely.” There’s a sliver of sympathy in his eyes. He’s been there, it seems to say. “He’s strong, but it’s hard to be strong when it feels like no one’s there to see.”
Jungo frowns, tail falling behind him. He swivels his ears a couple of times as he thinks.
Then he jolts. A few pixels of data go out of alignment, then quickly restabilize.
"Don’t remember," he states, looking mildly distressed. "He doesn’t either, I think. And that makes me sad. Maybe I should invite him."
Jungo pauses, then gives a wide smile. He forgets to answer for a few seconds.
"My best friend," he finally says with a swish of his tail. "He’s very funny, like Daichi and Joe. He’s also mysterious. I wonder about him." Which was true. Perhaps Hiro’s inclination to reveal very little had the property of drawing Jungo, who was always trying to take his mind off the troubles that went unexpressed.
Jungo lies down across the sofa, looking comfortable.
"You want to know more?" Jungo frowns, moving away from the sofa as he contemplates. He sits on one of the cushions as the other cats mill around. The more he thinks, the more…troubled he looks. He talks to himself.
"Did she forget…? No, she talked to me, I think… Or was I dreaming…?"
You hear a low murrrr of distress. Jungo stops thinking about the present and instead considers the overwritten past. He grimaces.
"Hm… She had a lot on her mind. She didn’t want to admit it. Airi was like Keita a little, but… She yelled at me less." He shuts his eyes and nods, as if sure that’s accurate. "Airi didn’t want to talk about stuff, but she also wanted to. She tried too hard to keep it to herself. I’m glad everyone else was there for her. Like Hinako. And Makoto. She wouldn’t open up to me, but at least she’d talk to someone."
He goes to the window. “I hope she’s doing music lessons again.”
Jungo’s ears swivel back. His tail thrashes uncomfortably behind him.
Seems he has some unreconciled feelings about Clicky…
His cats crowd him. Jungo turns his head, then turns his body to face them. “And these guys came on their own. This one’s Hoshi. This one’s…”
He goes on to introduce all the cats…