Unsurprisingly, the group that was missing their materials was not able to give their presentation during that class period. When the group leader explained the situation to our instructor, an associate professor, she ™ƒ•‡–™‹–Šƒ”‡’Ž›‘ˆǡDz‡ŽŽǡ–Š‡›ǯ”‡’”‘„ƒ„Ž›’”‡––›„—•›”‹‰Š–‘™ǡdz‹ •—’’‘”–‘ˆ–Š‡•–—†‡–™Š‘Šƒ†•‹’’‡†ǤŠ‡‰‹”Žǯ••Š‘—Ž†‡”•–”‡„Ž‡†Ǥ After class, I was a bit peckish, so I picked up a bread roll from a kiosk and ate it. I had a bit of time to kill before our scheduled meet-up, so I sent messages to my parents and the manager of my former part-time job informing them I had accepted a job offer. I arrived at the karaoke bar about three minutes after we had agreed to meet. Tousuke was standing out front, poking idly at his phone. Dzǯ—’ǡdz…ƒŽŽ‡†…ƒ•—ƒŽŽ›Ǥ‘—•—‡Ž‘‘‡†—’ǡ’—”•‹‰Š‹•Ž‹’• dramatically. Dz‡ŽŽǡ‹ˆ‹–‹•ǯ––Š‡ƒ™Š‘ǯ•Œ—•–”—ƒ™ƒ›ˆ”‘ƒŽ‹ˆ‡‘ˆ‡†Ž‡••ǡ ‹ˆ‹‹–‡’‘••‹„‹Ž‹–‹‡•Ǩdz Dz‹‡‡˜‡”Šƒ†–Š‘•‡–‘„‡‰‹™‹–ŠǤdz We continued our vapid conversation as we entered the bar, finding in fact several groups of students from our university inside. Thankfully though, there was no one who I recognized. We stood in line, checked in, collected some drinks from the bar, and moved up to our allotted booth on the second floor. A faint smell of tobacco wafted out as we opened the door. I should have just taken a seat on the sofa and struck up the conversation right away, but we had come here for karaoke after all, so I decided I may as well sing a few songs first and not think about anything. Both Tousuke and I sang whatever songs we liked in whatever way we liked, regardless of whether we both knew them or whether our own choices would get the other pumped up. Every once in a while, one of us would find the song the other was singing catchy, and we would make a ‘–‡‘ˆ‹–‹‘—”’Š‘‡•ǯ‡‘••‘–Šƒ–™‡…‘—Ž†Ž‘‘‹–—’‘Ž‹‡Žƒ–‡”Ǥ This was the proper way to enjoy karaoke. After we had had a little bit of fun, Tousuke stood from his seat for the umpteenth time, saying he was going to get more drinks and asked me what I wanted; I asked for a melon soda. I watched him go but thought it would be weird to sing something without him and so just scrolled on my phone in the meantime. It would take him a little while since the only bars were on the first and third floors. Melon soda was only available on the third floor, incidentally.