[ He was in the middle of hanging up, but he pauses when he hears her voice. The words sink in after a few seconds, and when he speaks again, it's less frustrated and more just— dull. ]

It's complicated because, like. The whole— friendship-ruining thing. Back home, we're kind of on a team, and the team is barely holding together a lot of the time as it is. Like, it's the sort of operation held together by shoestring and prayers, you know?

And then we add, like, "Hey, I kinda like you. But not, like, normal like you, but like-you like you." And then it doesn't work out, and boom – an entire system gets blown up when things go atomic. Everyone takes sides, and the band breaks up, and everyone moves on to some shitty solo careers, and it's never as good as when the band was together, but all the bad blood means there's no chance of a reunion, and—

[ he's rambling. someone will need to stop him. ]