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... That your brother is...

[ Terry stays quiet for a moment. There are a lot of words to describe Yuusuke. He wasn't there when the Shadow was ranting about how horrible Yuusuke was, but... ]

... mean.

[ He would have just said "Yuusuke is an ass", but. You know. ]

Anyway, it's fine for you to get mad and then scold me to not do it again. [ He already has a lot of people doing that to him already. ] Expressing yourself is great. Kinda feels like catharsis.

[He gives a slight shake of his head.]

Even if I get mad, it won't change anything. I don't think I'm really the kind of person who could actually convince you to stop or anything.

And... if you know about Yuusuke, you already know I've been through worse.

[So... it doesn't really matter. He can't do anything about it anyway, so there's no need to go through the motions of getting angry about it. Not only that, but it's just him, so...

Nothing worth getting riled up. Not even a little.]

Anything else?

I'd rather hear the rest from your mouth if you ever feel like telling me.

[ Maybe he knows more. Maybe he doesn't. He doesn't make that clear with what he says, but they both end up at the music store soon enough. ]

You can take a CD and scan the barcode under a machine where the headphone is to listen to a sample track.

[He doesn't answer verbally, instead fixing Terry with a long look that seems to scream >[x] Doubt

But he'll go ahead and into the music store, looking around with a mild interest. Which is probably actually a lot of interest, because it's Sasuke and his emotions tend to be muted even on a good day.]

Is there any way to tell what might be good?

[He picks up some pop CD with a colorful cover, curious.]

[ He has hopes for you Sasuke...

Huh. That's a good point though. For someone new to the music scene, there should probably be a starting point somewhere. ]

There's a section over there that has the more popular songs. It's liked by a lot of people, so chances are, you might like it too?

[ Worth a shot. ]

[Worth a shot indeed. He'll head over and, after looking over the covers, pick one... pretty much at random, because he really has no idea where to start. He'll put the headphones on and scan the CD - it's some romantic pop song, something something please wait for me and so on and so forth.

He listens for about ten seconds before taking the headphones off, looking unimpressed.]

...Not that one.

[ The day when Sasuke looks impressed is when he'll have to buy him 10 containers of takoyaki as celebration.

Anyway, Terry smiles awkwardly when he sees Sasuke's reaction, which is basically little ot none in his eyes, so... Hm. He'll also go through the popular section, but a little further from Sasuke, since he's already picking random ones from that portion. Might as well help him cover some.

He comes back with two CDs: One OK Rock's The Beginning and Bump of Chicken's Tentai Kansoku. He's personally never heard of them, but their album covers stood out to him, so... He holds them out to Sasuke. ]

Try these too.

[He does give them a listen, expression about as impassive as ever. And when he's done:]

...Are most songs about romance?

It's hard to find love for younger people, so I guess it kinda resonates within them? That's probably why some of them are popular aside from having a good beat. If you don't want to bother with the lyrics, then you can skip to the instrumental section.

[ Maybe that will work... Though he didn't think there were that many love songs, probably because of the songs he usually listens to instead. But those are mostly in English. ]

...There was a guy who went to my school just so he could find a bride.

[Ganba, Kotarou. But he'll set those CDs back into place.]

Instrumental... is that mostly classical, or?

[ ...

Ganba, guy from Sasuke's school. Terry thinks that's amusing though. Was his school known for cute girls or something?? ]

It's anything that doesn't have lyrics in it. So if lyrics are what bothers you, it's better to take that out, right?

It's not that it bothers me. It's more like... It's not very relatable?

[Because what is romance. The closest he's ever gotten was having a crush on a classmate, and that just gave Yuusuke another avenue to exploit when manipulating Neko - as well as himself.

...

Okay, so maybe it does bother him, just a little.]

[ Hm.

Songs that don't really have a romance undertone in it... he pinpoints to scan the section of those real quick and picks one out that the pinpointing excluded.

He gives Sasuke a CD--Lost One's Weeping. ]

[Well, he'll give it a listen and--

Oh no.

It's relatable.

Which probably shows because he actually listens to it all the way through with a mildly surprised look.]

[ Terry doesn't actually know what the song is about himself, but he'll assume it's good since it was in the popular section and Sasuke doesn't take off his headphones ten seconds into the song.

...

But he has to wonder... was this good or not? Maybe he'll feel less alone. ]

[Hmmm yeah that was super relatable. He slowly takes the headphones off once it finishes.]

That one was really... [Not good, exactly, but...] interesting?

[Looks like he's keeping the CD, too. They found a winner!]

[ Since Sasuke didn't put it back on the shelf, Terry will consider this as a victory. ]

You can get another one, in case if you get tired of listening to that one. A little variety is nice. Want me to pull something out again?

That's probably better than me trying to find anything.

[Do your magic, pinpointing-sensei.]

[ You put too much faith in him, Sasuke... but he'll do it, because he's here to help. Besides, he feels like he holds some responsibility over what he said back there, so. He's gonna do his best. By that, I mean, he'll pick out something random again that isn't a song that mentions love without checking its contents.

So he picks out ECHO (singer of your choice) and JItter Doll, handing them over to Sasuke so that he can give them a try. ]

[He'll give it a listen! He looks pretty thoughtful as they play.]

...I'm not sure I understand the second one fully, but... both of them are interesting, like this one. [Lifting the CD with Lost One's Weeping.]

I think if I get these, it should be enough to start with. [Maybe?? That's like three CDs already so.]

Yeah, sounds like a good way to start.

[ Terry has no idea how the songs are like, despite having picked them (at random), but... he hopes this will help Sasuke be on his way to enjoy living life for himself. ]

Okay, now for a CD player and headphones. I'll help you pay for these at least. They can get pricey depending on which one you pick, and I don't want you to pick a cheap one and it dies in a month.

It doesn't need to be anything fancy. [He doubts he'd be able to tell much of a difference anyway.] So maybe not the cheapest, but still cheaper?

[ Honestly, though... Terry has never owned a CD player in his life, but he'll do his best, since he knows about headphones at least. ]

Yeah, I'll go pick something out. Feel free to look around to see if anything else catches your eye.

[ And there he goes, but then he comes back quickly as if he forgot something (he did). ]

What's your favorite color?

[Oh.

Um...]

I don't really have one. [Hmm...] Something that isn't too bright?

Alright. I'll be back.

[ Okay, now Terry goes off to find a good pair of headphones. He starts looking for muted colors too, using pinpointing like a search engine again to find a good pair.

...

After some time, Terry comes back again, with a CD player and a pair of headphones. ]

Do these look good to you?

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