“You want me to what?” you asked, blinking in surprise as you stared at Kyojuro Rengoku across the café table.

His usually confident expression was tinged with a rare hint of sheepishness, his hand rubbing the back of his neck as he avoided your gaze. “I know it’s a lot to ask,” he began, his voice as steady as ever despite the awkwardness of the situation. “But the Corps celebration is coming up, and I’ve been telling the others about my ‘significant other’ for months now… and I might have exaggerated a bit.”

Rengoku was well-known for his larger-than-life personality, and you could see how he might’ve gotten carried away. But now he was asking you to play along- to pretend to be his partner for an entire evening, surrounded by strangers.