:Invisible to the eyes of the hypocritical:

"Whatcha reading?"

Shuichi has officially lost all track of the conversation. He's long finished his coffee and is now just idly listening to his friends speak back and forth, or at least... kinda back and forth, with two, technically three of the people at the table not speaking, Keade has seemed insistent on keeping the topic on ghosts, while Kaito has been desperately trying to change the topic to something else.

"It's not cause I'm scared of 'em! I'm Kaito Momota, Luminary of the stars! It would be humiliating if I was scared of g-ghosts, I just think they're... a negative topic! Like, you're talking about d-dead people that are trapped on a different plane of existence, that would be miserable! We should talk about something happier!"

Kaito slams his fists together in all his lovely Kaito fashion as he finishes speaking, Keade ponders on his words for a few moments before simply giving up, crossing her arms with a small huff, turning her head to the side as she mumbles

"Not scared of ghosts my a-"

Shuichi then zones out of the conversation completely. He looks down at his empty coffee mug that he is still holding in his hands even though it's been empty for about ten minutes now. He just stares down into it, not thinking about anything really, his friends voices sound distant as they continue their conversation, he can hear his other classmates too, Miu's high-pitched rambling, Kiibos soft attempts at getting her to shut the fuck up, Tenko exitedly talking to Himiko about something, who responds with tired two word sentences, Angie having a conversation with Korekiyo about some creepy "Beauty of humans and painting them" stuff, Gonta and Tsumugi seem to be engaging in a pleasant conversation, Kirumi is helping Ryoma with his plate, but there's another voice there too, one that he doesn't recognize, it sounds hyper, but more faint and distant than the others. While trying to pinpoint any possible owner of the voice, which he isn't making much progress of, he vaguely recognizes the rare occasion of Maki speaking up, then Rantaro, and then it occurs to him that they're calling his name when Kaito and Keades tone change to something more like concern, and he snaps back to the present, Looking up from his coffee mug to see that all four of them are staring at him now with concern on their expressions... Well, Maki looks a bit less emotional than the rest of them, but that's just Maki.

Shuichi blinks, finally fully processing the fact that he has four pairs of eyes staring directly at him right now and instantly becoming a mess, he blushes faintly, then tries to speak only for his voice to stutter about three times and fail to come out at all, and then he clears his throat before finally actually speaking, pulling the brim of his hat down to avoid eye contact.

"S-sorry, I guess I got even less sleep last night than I thought... I just zoned out for a moment, What's up..?"

He tilts his head slightly as the rest of the group squints suspiciously at him before seemingly deciding to leave it alone, much to his relief. Though surprisingly, Rantaro speaks next.

"It's fine, we were just gonna ask you why you still have your mug. You finished your coffee like 15 minutes ago."

Shuichi just stares blankly at Rantaro for a few moments, his still-tired mind working overtime to form a proper response,

"...I like holding it."

He failed.

It goes silent. Maki take a drink of her tea while looking away, Kaito looks away awkwardly, Rantaro and Kaede are both looking at him with half confused half concerned expressions. Shuichi glances between all of them for a bit before pull down the brim of his hat over his eyes for the third time this morning, wanting nothing more than to go back to his room and continue sleeping till the next morning, but as Kaede speaks it becomes clear that Shuichi never gets what he wants,