Persona 5 x persona 4

chapter 14

Ren pointed to the blond haired boy standing on the corner of the street. Yu pulled the car over stopping it in front of Ryuji. Ren's best friend clearly didn't recognize the car and was clearly expecting Ren to just walk up to him. Rolling down the front passenger window, Ryuji had a surprised look on his face before he followed Ren's signal to get into the back of the car. Yosuke greeted Ryuji as he got in before Yu pulled the car out and back onto the busy streets.

"Where we going Ren?" Ryuji asked, eyeing the adults.

"The best ramen place in the city." Yosuke smirked.

"Ah so we are heading to Ogikubo then?" Ryuji suddenly sounded excited.

"No." Yu called from the driver's seat.

"Yeah but all the ramen shops are in Ogikubo, most of the ones outside of it are pretty lame 'cause only the best thrive in Ogikubo." Ryuji explained folding his arms over his chest.

"Trust us, this place is so far from subpar it could be in Ogikubo but it's not. We wouldn't take ya to a place that we didn't personally recommend." Yosuke explained.

"Well let's see what this place has got. I'm up for tryin' something new." Ryuji sounded even more excited to try this new place.

After the Palace, the group had decided to split up. Kanji and the girls decided to head back to the condo. Both Naoto and Rise had work to do and Kanji just wanted to take a nap. Teddie was going to go with him, but Rise said she could use his help. Teddie then wanted to stay with the ladies. Morgana didn't want to hang out with Ryuji so he was dropped off at Sakura's place to go hang out with Futaba. The cat clearly knew what she was working on but refused to say what it was. Ren knew he'd find out soon enough so he really wasn't going to press the issue. Either way that just left Yosuke and Yu, as Yosuke was going back in a few days Yu wanted to just hang out with his best friend. They'd be all getting ramen at that place Yu had taken Ren a few night before. Ren figured he was close to a true bond with Ryuji, after all Ryuji was his best friend but it just needed a little push.

"Good luck Ren, remember you can't force it." Yu called to his young protégé as he pulled the car into a parking spot.

Ren glanced at his mentor. "Yeah." He got out of the car and glanced at Ryuji. "I think I got this Yu-senpai!" There was a confidence to Ren's voice that seemed to make Yu smirk in return back at him.

"Senpai?" Ryuji's voice echoed behind Ren. "Jeez aren't you two buddy buddy?"

"I'd hope so. I did spend the night at his girlfriend place after we went for some midnight ramen." Ren casually explained glancing towards his best friend.

"W-wait! For REAL?! You slept over at Risette's house? You've been to Risette's house?! Midnight ramen? Why didn't you tell me?" Ryuji was clearly flustered.

Ren thought about it a minute. "Yu-senpai, do you think we could use Rise-san's condo to meet tomorrow?"

"That's probably a better idea then using Leblanc." Yu took out his phone to no doubt make arrangements with everyone via the group chat before he looked at Ryuji before looking back at Ren. "I take it you didn't tell him about last night either?"

"No." Ren calmly remarked.

Ryuji looked at Ren before he threw his arm around his shoulders pulling him down. "Keeping stuff from me? Your best friend of all people?!"

"I'm dating Makoto." Ren said flatly as he quickly got free of Ryuji's grasp and headed after Yu and Yosuke towards the diner.

Ryuji stood there for a minute. Ren didn't know if it was how he had delivered the information or the information itself that caused Ryuji to look that stunned. It was more than likely a combination of the two, but it was pretty humorous to watch his best friend stumble with the information he was just presented.