“Tojin!” Izzy called. “You’re breaking the new girl! Stop comparing sizes!”
He looked back at the table, then he blushed. He scrambled to pull on his shirt again. It could have all been a display for her and the other girls, like Painter had flippantly said. Yet that didn’t feel right. He seemed more excited about talking technique with the other men. And when he sat back down, he apologized to her with what sounded like true sincerity.
“I didn’t mean to make a spectacle of myself,” he said, lowering his eyes.
“I…” Yumi stammered. “It…um… What kind of beasts do you fight?”
“Beasts?” he asked. “Fight?”
“Those muscles,” she said. “You train for…war? Battle?”
Izzy laughed so much she was likely to shoot noodles from her nose. Tojin appeared embarrassed. He was…shy? Really? Why would a shy person make such a display of himself, if not for battle?
“It’s not for anything like that,” he said. “I just like to make the best of myself that I can. See how much I can do. Reach my limits, then pass them.”
“To accomplish what?” Yumi asked.
“That is the accomplishment,” he said, then flexed his arm in a very specific way that made his veins distinct. It was almost grotesque, yet somehow impressive all the same.
“Our bodies are the most incredible tools ever,” Tojin said. “Isn’t it odd that we’ll fine-tune an engine until it purrs, but never do the same for our bodies?”
She barely knew what that meant. But she did notice Akane gazing at Tojin with fondness. And when the woman went to get some sauce for the noodles, she put a light hand on his arm and then let it trail away. Tojin gave her a goofy smile, then looked down, grinning.
He actually was shy about women. Either that or Yumi was completely misunderstanding—admittedly also very plausible. But now she felt she understood the way a woman might look at a man. Liyun might have tried to keep her away from people, but Yumi still had eyes. Akane’s way of looking at Tojin wasn’t the stare of a hungry woman wanting to feast. There had been more than a few of those around the room earlier.
Did he truly want muscles…just because? Was this what happened to a society that had hion lines to do all the hard work? Was that…a bad thing?
“It’s so odd,” Yumi said. “When my brother was talking about you, Tojin, he…” She paused, realizing that maybe she shouldn’t say it. Indeed, all of them immediately looked straight at her, intensely curious.
Talking to people was hard.
“…didn’t explain that part,” Yumi finished. “With the muscles. Why you’re building them.”
“I’m sure he didn’t,” Izzy said, with a smile.
“Where is he, Yumi?” Tojin asked. “If you don’t mind me prying. I normally see your brother every night or two, patrolling near us. Foreman says he’s on personal leave. But it feels like we should still see him now and then.”
“He, um…” Yumi’s heart started thumping. Could she go grab Painter and have him tell her an untruth? She decided on something that was close to what he’d said. “He has important work. Very important work.”
“More important than his job?” Akane said, returning and handing the sauce to Tojin.
“No, no,” Yumi said quickly. “It is his job.” She leaned in. “He’s hunting a stable nightmare.”
She expected shock.
Instead Akane rolled her eyes. Tojin paused, then shook his head, looking down. Izzy outright laughed.
“You don’t believe…” Yumi said softly.
Why did everyone react that way to Painter? Was he really so useless? Strangely, the thought didn’t make her angry as it had before. This time she felt sad for him. Along with…an odd sense of indignance?
Surely they’re being unfair to him, she thought. He might not be the best, but he’s trying to learn stacking. And he picked it up quickly.
Perhaps, though, she could see why he had some hard feelings for this group, if their first reaction to this news wasn’t concern, but dismissiveness.
“Enough, enough,” Izzy said, holding up some paper with words written all over it. Not a book. This was loose-leaf and made at an awkwardly large size. “Have you read this?”
“Please, no horoscopes,” Tojin said, emptying what seemed to be half the bottle of hot sauce into his soup. They all appeared happy to move on, without looking back, from the topic of Painter and his ways.
“Horoscopes are forbidden at this table,” Izzy said. “They’re a competing product. But this isn’t even a dramascope. They’re launching the ship soon.”
“They said that last week,” Akane said.
“The shroud was too thick,” Izzy said. “But it’s happening for real this time.”
“I bet,” Masaka said softly, “they are very. Very. Friendly.”
“They?” Yumi asked, glancing around as she slurped up a noodle. “What are we talking about?”
“The aliens?” Akane said. “Who live on the star?”
Yumi immediately started coughing. She drank half a cup of barley tea out of embarrassment, then spoke. “The what?”
“Don’t they have newspapers where you’re from?” Izzy said. “We’ve been planning a launch! Of a ship that can travel the space between worlds. It’s been building forever. But it’s finally time for it to leave.”
“Friendly,” Masaka hissed, leaning forward. “Aliens are all friendly.”
“You really haven’t heard, Yumi?” Izzy said. “That’s wild. I need my notebook. This is good information for refining your dramascope…”
“Hush,” Akane said. “Not everyone reads the paper obsessively, Izzy.”
How did Akane remain so dainty when eating? Was Yumi supposed to be that way? It seemed hard to eat noodles without slurping. She’d never actually eaten in front of anyone but her attendants before.
“I’ll bet,” Izzy said, “the aliens are hot.”
Yumi started choking again.
“Wildly hot,” Izzy said, flopping back. “All the men dreamy. All the women sultry.”
“How many dramas involve aliens these days?” Tojin said, with a smile.
“Like half,” Izzy said. “And the aliens? Hot. All of them. Isn’t it natural they would be though?”
“Um…why?” Tojin asked.
“I’m going to date an alien or two,” Izzy said, lifting her chin. “It’s in my dramascope. I’d never date one who isn’t hot.”
Yumi was glad for the others and their baffled expressions, so that she knew it wasn’t only her thinking Izzy was strange. Even Masaka stared.
“Your logic, Izzy,” Akane said, “is…um…”
“Terrible?” Tojin offered.
“I was looking for something more politic.”
“Allegedly terrible?”
“You’ll see,” Izzy said. “When I have both a handsome alien hunk and a curvy alien knockout fighting over me.”