Was it a hallucination? Hitomi could have sworn she saw a word appear over his head and linger there for a moment before vanishing in a blink. And beyond that, what exactly did abuse mean? It was a fairly striking word, she thought, following James into the campus building and off to the side of the main interior space.

She would usually have tried some excuse to flee or sneak off but she was unfortunately too distracted with the impossible mysteries presenting themselves to her today. And that was eating up valuable processing power that could have been used to freak out. At least for the moment.

A buzz alerted her to something on her phone and she quickly checked what it was. A notification from the LD App. She was about to check what it was before just barely stopping herself in place, moments before walking into the man she'd been following.

"So," James looked down his nose at her. He also literally looked down at her, she'd stepped so close without noticing he had to tilt his head down to maintain eye contact. "What are you up to?"

"U-up too?" Hitomi said, stepping back. She would have liked to do a few yards, but a few feet would work for a start. "I-I'm not up to anythi-"

"Don't give me that crap!" James enunciated forcefully. Hitomi's face went stiff as a board as she was told to stop. "What, you know my sister? She setting some lame ass prank up again? Is that why she dragged me out of the studio yesterday?" His eyes narrowed with suspicion as he laid out scenarios to question Hitomi's motives.

"H-huh? No, I, I only met Juli yesterday! I didn't know she was your sister." Hitomi explained, opting for the hope that the truth would absolutely work.

James leaned forward looking very much like he was not buying what she was selling. "Don't give me that bull, she ran straight after you and I didn't see the two of ya leave for at least ten minutes! You obviously know each other, probably from the same freaky weirdo cult."

"H-hey, Juli isn't weird!" Hitomi spurted out, for reasons beyond her comprehension. "She just, I don't know, wanted to get to know me, we talked a lot!"

Maybe she had just said a bit too much. It looked like she had, from Jame's reaction. He looked stunned and stemmed from his inquisition for a moment. Just a moment though. "You seem kinda defensive about someone you supposedly just met."

Definitely said too much, yup, but okay she could come up with a reasonable excuse. "What? No, I just, don't think you should call people weird. Especially your own sister." Actually reasonable.

"You'd only say that because you don't know her." James retorted like he was correcting a child's spelling mistake. "So I guess that checks out. Whatever. So why were you snapping a candid? Some kinda amateur paparazzi wannabe? You look like that kind of person." He crossed his arms and straightened up. "Which still doesn't tell me what you're gonna do with my pic."

"W-what? Paparazzi? Me? N-no, I'd never do that." It was true. She would never do that. She'd had enough trouble rectifying herself to go and follow him in the first place. "W-why would you think that?"

James sighed and looked down at her, this time nearly entirely figuratively. "Are you fucking stupid? Because you thought you might be able to get some dirt on my family? Sell it to some tabloid, make a quick buck? My mom's a famous fashion designer, I'm a freakin model. The blood suckers are always looking for something incriminating."

"A-a model? I had no idea…" Hitomi smiled weakly, trying to keep her face from revealing she had in fact known. Thanks to her "AI" pulling his social profiles, but still. "I didn't even know you'd be there yesterday." The laugh she attempted came out more like a squeak.

"So, what. The fuck. Was up. With the picture?! Stop fucking playing dumb and tell me, I'm not playing twenty questions here!" There was an ominous tick in his voice as he demanded an answer. Clearly, her diversionary tactics were more harm than good.

Still, telling his sister what was basically up was one thing, but she couldn't tell the man himself that she had actually been stalking him, even if just for a few hours. "I-I was, I was-"

"Yeah, you was, you was what?"

"I-I-I was taking a picture of the cafe! For my… journalism project, and I saw you and thought you might have the wrong idea if you saw me and I didn't want to disturb your what I thought was a date I thought I had my shutter off but I didn't so I… uhh… left." That seemed plausible.

James tapped his foot, prolonging the silence before he responded, punctuating it with each click. She couldn't tell at all from his face if he'd bought that particular spin on events. He opened his mouth and gave her a look like she was an idiot. "So you're a fucking spaz is what it is? Cause I damn sure DID get the wrong idea. Next time you play reporter try and respect people's privacy, will ya."

"I, y-you didn't have any privacy." Hitomi didn't know why, it just slipped out.

"...Excuse me? Wanna tell me that one again?" he asked.

"Y-you were in a p-public space, without an expectation of privacy." Hitomi explained nervously. "T-technically, anyone could take your picture for any reason under the circumstances."

He gave her a strange look, like she was an alien. "So what, you studying law or something?"

"N-no, J-journalism." Hitomi clarified meekly.

"Oh," James said, the look morphing into one of mild resentment. "Going to be a tabloid spinner then? Fucking waste of time, but someone has to keep the gossip train rolling, I guess. Well, whatever, just keep that useless shit away from me, Spin-Jockey."

He turned to walk away, but found it blocked by more Hitomi. To be fair, she found this surprising as well, but there was something she had to say about his behavior.

"T-take that back, you, you…" The little storm inside her had built up to a burst, about to pour with all her strength.