_{[ He does keep his eyes on his phone, but he seems distracted.
Instead of replying to the text, he merely slips his phone in his pocket and carefully guides Steven's hand from his arm to his own hand. They're holding hands in the street again— the street of his home city. ]}

Oh. Yes, ah. She's.. something else. She's preparing for another contest, it sounds like. And she really wants me to attend in the audience since I've never found time to do that before.

_{[ HE JUST SNUBBED HIS EX RIGHT THEN AND THERE. ]}