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The ryokan was busy, which was good news, but it did nothing to improve Yuudai's mood. For the past few days he had been nothing but surly to most everyone around him, the only exception being Shizuka, as she always was. He dealt with customers tolerably well, but given his attitude, his parents had reassigned him to background work more than once -- laundry, dishes, anything to keep him away from people. His sulky mood was oppressive and contagious, and they didn't want people to be put in a bad mood simply by being around him. This was fine by him, as he didn't particularly want to be around anyone else, anyhow.

The fact that Junko took disturbing glee in his poor mood only served to make him more irritated. She was a constant thorn in his side these days, reminding him at every chance she got that she had and would continue to defy him until the day she finally got what she wanted. His parents seemed much less concerned than he was, which was another point of irritation.

Actually, everything served to irritate him. It was enough that, as he was slamming dishes around, he was seriously considering picking a fight just for the sake of having someone to fight with. Junko was an easy enough target, often rising to the occasion magnificently, but she was busy elsewhere actually doing her job. For once.

The fact that she was being a dedicated, studious attendant also annoyed him, for reasons he could not explain. Perhaps he was just in a bad mood. No, he knew he was in a bad mood, from a combination of just about everything, and he was sick and tired of just sitting back and seething.

As Miao reached for a dish, he snatched it from his hands, muttering, "You're not scrubbing them properly." He was being unfair -- Miao was scrubbing them just fine -- but his expression was stony, set. "What if a guest eats off this and gets sick? The inn's reputation suffers. Attempt to be a little more careful."

He swiped the sponge over the dish in wide, temperamental strokes, face faintly heated from annoyance. Junko was too far away, it seemed.

He wanted a fight, and he wanted one then.