Sen shook her head when Hoji sought reassurance from Sam that she saw him as a man after her own comment implying that he was not. It was a joke on her part, of course, and Sam's response may or may not be the same, but nevertheless, it was probably not good for his ego to hear the same thing twice. Then again, hanging around either of them may not have been good for his ego, although it never seemed to be an issue. He was either immune to their apparently hurtful banter, or he had enough ego to go around. After all this time, she still wasn't quite sure which it was. Probably the first, but she could not entirely discount the latter.<br/><br/>"And more shots fired. You ladies really are a cruel pair. Why do I hang around you again?" he asked in a somewhat ambiguous way, as if to make it difficult for them to tell whether he was seriously questioning their friendship or simply teasing them back. He then shook his head, "Nope. I'll pass. Hard pass, actually," he responded to the offer to join them with a wave of his hand. "Really, though. I'm surprised Sen is going to spend a whole evening doing stuff that's so... feminine. It seems a bit out of character, don't you think?" he asked, not bothering to phrase it as a 'no offense' observation as many might. All things considered, it was only fair.<br/><br/>"Hey! That's..." she was about to respond when the class began to immediately sink into silence as the teacher walked in. She huffed slightly, annoyed that he would get off the hook for that comment so easily. But really, he wasn't wrong. She didn't often do the things most girls seemed to enjoy, largely because it was all so expensive. Why did being feminine have to be so expensive? Make-up, haircuts, nice clothes, hand bags, manicures, facials. She couldn't afford all that stuff. She worked hard as it was just to make sure that they could eat more than rice every night. So, really, he wasn't wrong. Besides, all things considered, she guessed it was only fair for him to shoot back after her own comment, although that didn't make it any less frustrating.<br/><br/>She glanced back at Sam and nodded, "I'll let you know after class," she whispered back. Like her friend, she, too, gave the tasks in front of her a very single-minded focus. Hoji did not give things the same focus as the other two. He would pay attention for a time, but he tended to get bored and then he became easily distracted, although you would never know it by his grades. He worked just as hard as the other two when it came down to it, his work just looked different. That was probably a good thing, though, as he tended to encourage Sen to take breaks every now and then rather than working herself to the point of exhaustion. This was probably why they worked so well together on the student council.