Yul chewed his lip for a moment. "You have really pretty eyes, Bayushi-sama." He said simply. It seemed better than complimenting her hips.

He shrugged. "Huh. As a pilot, I'm used to depending on someone else. Everyone has a wingman. My first..." Yul swallowed, "-I was really close with. The second..." Yul chuckled. "Well, I still trust her with my life, anyway. I don't know. Wouldn't it be nice to have someone watching your back?"

Tenma said nothing for a bit in response, closing her locker before leaning her back against it, crossing her arms.

"...I mean, you're not wrong. About someone having your back, that is; I can't agree on the eye thing. But at the same time, isn't having someone watching your back also leaving your back exposed in some ways? I mean... I don't mean to imply everyone is out to betray you; Even as a Scorpion, I'm not that paranoid. It's more... if you watch your own back and you get backstabbed, at least it was your own fault rather than someone else's failings, you know?"

For a brief instant, real pain flashed across Yul's handsome features, as sharp as if Tenma had stabbed him. But only for a moment.

"Well..." He smiled, just a little awkwardly. "I guess that's not how we see it. With your wing, and especially with your wingman... it's hard to explain. But it's not I failed, or she failed. It's we failed. Because you spend so much time practicing and training together, that anything that happens up there, it's both of you.

Yul smiled, chucking softly to himself. "Like, when once dancer falls, maybe they lost their balance, but their partner should have helped them, right?"

"Hm. An apt enough analogy; Succeed or fail together or not at all; I think I heard it put it that way once, though maybe that's something else entirely."

She gave a slight bow after unleaning from the locker, "You have my apologies if it is a touchy subject for you. I suppose it would be for me as well were I not so determined to overcome my own paranoia with action, rather than dwell on it."

Yul shook his head, managing a smile. "No... it's okay. No apology necessary, really." He swallowed. "I lost my first wingman, a while back." He gave a humorless chuckle. "Sometimes stuff just surprises you, you know?"

He took a deep breath, then managed to smile at her more normally. "So... wait. What do you mean, overcome paranoia with action? Like, what do you do?" His brow creased gently; he didn't quite follow.

"Hmmm... well, I suppose the best way to put it is I try to not overthink things. If I'm anxious about something, worried about an outcome or such, I find some way to act rather than dwell on it too long. If I think about it, I can imagine any sort of number of things that could go wrong with a situation, things in the darkness to run into if you will. But if I think of something in my control, some action I can take, some goal... well, then I won't be swallowed up by fears and doubts. So, in this case... I worry sometimes about being alone, being a burden, about the existential thing I have for not wanting to disappoint people or be disappointed by them. But rather than let things get to me and dwell on my feelings or the past, I try to make sure that at no point am I not moving forward."

She crossed her arms, "...does that... make any more sense, Shinjo-san? I suppose it's all kind of vague because my fears are my own so it can be hard to describe why I might dwell on them or such."