( i wanna feel weightless )

[parallel]

[ By any account, Junpei has had a downright terrible year, between the two murderous games he became a part of and all of the crap that happened in the middle of it, getting his hopes up about getting the girl, and having that go to shit too. He's pretty sure that's why Carlos asks him to spend the night and have some drinks, even though by Junpei's own confession, he drinks too damn much and drinks to escape his problems, two habits that are bad as they are and even worse when put together — sometimes a guy just really needs the release.

Besides, Carlos is nice and socially capable enough that Junpei's reasonably assured that Carlos will say some kind things that make Junpei feel better, even if it's just lip service. Sometimes a guy just needs some buttpats and reaffirmation that despite the fact that he's become moderately bitter and can be a low-grade asshole, he's still a perfectly fine catch and no, it's not you Junpei, sometimes these things just don't work out and that's okay.

The first time that Junpei draws out the obligatory "it's not you" comment, he's only one cheap beer and a shot down, not yet far gone enough that he's uninhibited enough to push the boundaries on that comment. But the drinks are poured out again and again, it turns out that either Junpei can keep pace with somebody who probably benches the same weight as Junpei is or Junpei can gloriously fake it (the truth, of course, is somewhere in between) — and eventually, Junpei begins rehashing the same points but with more details that quite frankly, Carlos never asked for. But again: Carlos is kind, so Junpei is all too happy to take advantage and vent it out, follow up his recollections of "anyway, it turns out I thought we were close childhood friends, but I also never knew she had an older brother that entire time" with a round of thinly veiled self-loathing that elicits another remix on "it's not you, Junpei, it's just the situation, it's just how things happened, there are other fish in the sea."

That's when Junpei's uninhibited self decides to escalate. ]

So it's not me. That's kinda rich coming from somebody who looks like he had underwear dropping left and right for him since hitting puberty. I mean, don't get me wrong, it's not like I don't appreciate the sentiment.

[ Junpei, a fool among fools, pauses here to take a sip of the wine cooler he's been nursing for a while. ]

But you're hot, so it's not like you've probably had problems getting a date, whereas me... not so much.

[ He's never dated seriously. Technically, he never even dated seriously the girl he proposed to. This is all beside the point of him saying, unsolicited, that he finds Carlos hot, of course. ]