[Coarse thumbs brushed against her knuckles, and the color left him a little at her remark when he realized the true danger of the rumor mill. The things people would assume... and at their age!]

R-right... well... we tell 'em the truth, and if they wanna come up with some batshit scheme, that's their own problem. It'll just be proven wrong after some time, yeah?

[That's the best they can do, really. But until then they could continue their stroll, and a quiet so thick that Kanji feared thinking too hard would somehow be heard by the forest as well as Naoto.]