Reizo’s grin stayed, sharp and cruel as a blade, but his eyes moved, flickering from Kou to Misaki and spearing the girl with the full front of his scorn, eyes wide and brimming with feral hatred and warning, and his teeth looked suddenly sharp in his wicked grin. The hand on Kozue’s narrow shoulder tightened, silk going to steel. His glare slipped from the pink-haired girl and he glanced at the one he’d shored up against him with an arm, looking closer to shamed than apologetic, grip relaxing.
Another sweeping glance around to the three before he offered them a shrug of his broad shoulders. His grin faded and he managed to look halfway thoughtful as his eyes crawled over Kozue. The way she tried to cut back at him -- that was what she was doing, right? -- was great(if a little familiar), definitely a step in the right direction, and he decided that he liked her a bit more because of it.
“Well,” he started, grin snapping back into place, the bloodcurdling qualities usurped by lazy affability, “I met your .. Uh.. boyfriend at a different park awhile back. Made a pass at me and I was almost sure he asked Toru out when he gave him that gift..” He frowned, puzzled, like he actually believed it. He flicked a few crumbs he’d missed off his lap and, after double-checking for any remaining ones, looked back to Kou.
He squinted at the dark-haired boy, and it wasn’t clear if it was because of the sun or if he was just trying to figure him out. It was the latter, of course. It was always the latter with Kou. Good grades didn’t come bundled with good graces, or even the sense to follow goddamned arguments. He felt the urge to rise up and deck the boy when he recalled all the barely-coherent digs or explanations he‘d had to dig though, but it was hot, and the breeze and shade felt good.
“I’m just lookin’ out for a comrade,” he said, answering them all at once, “like the rules told us to, remember? And anybody who knows the slightest thing about you could see what this is about.” He was starting to sound exasperated. “Talkin’ about trust. All I said was she had a reputation, and that it couldn’t sit well with someone like you.”
He pinched another piece of bread off the loaf (wherever it was by now) and tossed it down to the calming ducks, and then sneered up at Kou. “Only thing I got to do right now is feed the animals and talk to the people who came and interrupted me.”