The thing was, he was just used to expecting the negativity. Either they were calling him a freak, or they were ushering people away. It was just normal, and it made sense that a nice, polite boy would want to protect another nice, polite boy from riff raff like Kaito. It just hadn't happened in Havenwell just yet.

Though it... didn't seem to be happening right now, either. No, this was the complete opposite. Kai didn't know what to do with having someone vouch? For him? Or maybe it was just that he didn't know what to do with Shinji vouching for him, since that warm feeling in his chest wasn't the usual sort of thing.

"Did he?" Kai glanced up again, a soft huff on his breath in newfound amusement. Seeing where the boy was hovering, Kai nodded his head towards one of the other stools as he picked up a pair of scissors. Wanna sit, dude? "S'cool, you're not interrupting nothin'."