[Something honest, huh. Hikaru shoves the sweet bun back into his mouth, stifling a response before it can strike anywhere. It's hard not to take that comment as a personal slight, which just tells him he's being too sensitive, as usual. The worse he feels about himself, the easier it is to feel like the entire world is out to get him... But that doesn't change the fact he hasn't been honest with Touya. Believe it or not, he doesn't want to hide things from Touya, but it's a matter of pure instinct at this point. It's another form of protecting himself from ridicule, or contempt.

He chews, swallows, and chews some more, all while directing Touya down the sidewalk in the direction they came from.] Yeah, well... [He can't think of anything to say that won't incriminate him, so he just sighs and shakes his head a little. His bleached bangs sway into his eyes, then, and he really notices they're longer than ever, badly in need of a trim. Not now. Later. If not later today, then sometime tomorrow. It'll be fine. As long as he can convince himself to get out of bed, it'll be fine.]

If you want to take me literally, then sure, whatever, you're not wrong... [But even when Touya screws up and misses an otherwise obvious atekomi, Hikaru has felt less and less like berating him for it. On his worst day, in his most poorly played game, Touya Akira will be a hundred times the player that Shindou Hikaru is. Self-righteousness is just about impossible to hold on to when that's also a fact of life.] But I don't think most people could do what you're doing right now. That has to count for something, right?

[His other hand brushes up against Touya's elbow, in what can't be and somehow still is an intimate gesture.]

That has to count.