"My parents." He deposited the cube he was holding into her hand. Was she amused? He shouldn't be surprised, really—Jirou had actually laughed and still brought it up occasionally, but Tomoko knowing was so much more embarrassing.

"They let me take out all the other embarrassing things from that shelf as long as they got to keep that one. It's...." My parents are weird. "...They like it for some reason. I tried getting rid of it once, but they found it again and put it back." He'd even tried putting something else in front of it, but they moved that back, too. Ryusei had resigned himself to it (Jirou aside), and hadn't thought of it until now. And this was why complacency was dangerous.

The harm was already done. Quick, change the subject! "—So how's Gentarou?" he said in a rush. "Are his grades as bad as usual?"