[Komaeda's fur doesn't smooth, even when Atem pulls his hand from his face and relaxes back into the conversation. He's still bristled into a position where, even if a fight isn't happening, he's prepared for the explosion. He always is—always has to be—like it's second nature.

He wants to ask how is it different? But he bites his tongue. The tension held within his frame is enough to see he's bothered by the statement. Atem had played with his heart as a bartering tactic, only to toss it aside because he was too difficult to manage back then. As if he were something to be put up on a shelf and taken down when it's convenient.

Bitterness is already filling his mouth, when he finally opens his maw again with a sharply inhaled breath.]

No, there isn't anyone! ...And you'd know that if you stopped thinking you already have everything figured out, and actually started paying attention!

[Lila hadn't been a love expected. It was a situation where he got swept along into her pace and found something comfortable in the nostalgia of it. Hinata is likely the most similar of situations, but it still didn't change how often he thought of Atem, even when the guy arrived here.]

...Do you really think I'd still be chasing after you so pathetically like this, if I could just go find someone else?

[Two years, it's felt as if the air has been squeezed out of his lungs, every time he was around Atem. If it could go away so easily... It'd be lonesome relief.]