"...Thank you. Should he have questions, I'll handle them."

It should be easier, with people knowing more of her circumstances from the bridge, to accept that. It is not. It still feels like someone is looking at her in a way that she doesn't quite want them to be. Shouji is someone she barely knows. And yet he knows this now.

"I think...when it comes to Mr. Jack, you aren't obliged to completely forsake the friendship. But perhaps keeping the specifics of his work and what he did to yourself would suit better. There's nothing objectionable in 'my friend Jack, from London', after all."