<span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 14pt;">Ito texted his father back once they were done eating, just before classes resumed.</span><br/><br/><div align="center"><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 14pt;"><span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: courier;"><strong>Father, it's fine.<br/>I am going to a friend's house to study.</strong></span></span></div><br/><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 14pt;">He didn't actually hear anything back. That was...good. Probably good. Well, it wasn't horrible, at least. If his father was going to punish him, it wouldn't be soon, so Ito counted his blessings. He gave it one more minute before putting his phone on silent and then away for class. <br/><br/>Ito smiled at Ryuu and said, "Yeah, I'll come over tonight. I didn't get a 'no' so I'm going to interpret it as a yes." He didn't say anything about his parents; he would deal with them later. Ito's parents being pushy didn't have to be a Ryuu problem, and Ito's parents were far too polite to ever actually be unkind in front of Ryuu. They would be unpleasant about it later with Ito, but he would figure it out.<br/><br/>Class was agonizingly long and boring. If Ito was being honest with himself, he was falling asleep a little in class. He would never admit it, but his father was probably right that he needed to buckle down, if only a little. Or maybe it was just that this being the final year of his life remaining the same comfortable thing it always was had made him a little...distracted. Once classes were over, he collected his things. He kept a lookout for Takada; he wasn't exactly looking for things to get any weirder and didn't want her trying to steal Ryuu away.<br/><br/>...steal? Ito had to sort of stop himself. Ryuu was a person. He couldn't be 'stolen.' Well, he could, but that was kidnapping technically and Ito knew that wasn't what this was about. No, Ryuu's <em>friendship</em> could not be stolen. Yeah. That sounded more right in his head.<br/><br/>Once he got his things together, he met up with Ryuu outside the school.<br/><br/>"Don't forget the umbrella," he said, grinning. It wasn't raining any more, though the sky still had a murky sort of look to it. </span>