Meanwhile with Digimon Adventures' KouTai{/shiro} (Koushiro x Taichi)
Someone involved with the Chosen Children, to Taichi Yagami: Uh, so, is Izumi REALLY your "friend"?
Taichi, slowly: ...Why do you ask?
That Person: Well, I mean, you guys don't even hang out super often. It's like Izumi's always off hiding somewhere. Like aside from the work he does, like that Izumi doesn't even want to be around peopl---
Taichi, cutting That Person off: "Koushiro" has Koushiro's OWN stuff to do. I don't need to "hang out" with Koushiro "24/7" to know that Koushiro cares about the team---
Taichi's mind: (And 'me')
Taichi: --Koushiro likes email communication and long distance type stuff anyway, Koushiro LIKES writing out the "thoughts" even if Koushiro rambles a lot, so I sometimes have to tell Koushiro to 'scale back' a bit so I can keep up with what Koushiro says, but--
That Person: No, I mean, don't you think Izumi needs to work on communicating with you better?
Taichi: ...It's true that Koushiro is a very private person, and our communication could always use "improvement", but I think the one that needs to ""work on communication better"" is you.
Taichi: (I'm outta here.)
Koushiro, later on, genuinely surprised: ...You said that?
Taichi: It was either sit there and listen to them put you down for the rest of the conversation, possibly multiple times, or do something about it. I chose the--
Koushiro: (I'm glad Taichi-san said that) but...
Koushiro, definitely not shyly: Well, um... "Thanks."
TAICHI: (...Koushiro's thanking me Koushiro's thanking me Koushiro's thanking ME KoushirO'S /THANKING ME/----)