Careful what you say there, Kai, that's Shinji's boyfriend you're talking about.

Those implications aren't lost on Shinji, though - he had a pretty good idea of what Kai thinks of himself. Without the exact wording to dispute, all he can really assume that pause means is that he might be under-thinking the issue at hand. No reason to be less charitable about it than that.

"I'm listening," he coaxes gently, leaning in as Kai's arm loops around him. If there's anything Shinji's any good for, it's over-thinking things. Let's balance the problem out between them, so a proper amount of thought can be averaged out.