[ Ah, Dazai knows that familiar line of thought. When hasn't he hoped that by refusing to open the door to vulnerabilities of the heart that it might spare him that fatal moment when all those tender things crumble to pieces? Instincts are meant to protect one's self. And so it's only natural to place your bets on outcomes that bode a less disastrous end.

Not that feelings ever played by the rules which Mori taught him by. ]

You might.

[ No matter how Linneus frames the line, or however light-hearted he aims to be, Dazai has pulled the same tricks of masking his emotions for nearly as long as he's been alive. And the ominous truth sitting heavy behind those soft words resonates like a kindred thought for someone who has never stopped asking himself the same question. ]

But trying to avoid something to prevent that attachment...

[ Seven years spent running down the road of denial has left Dazai a veritable scholar on the matter. No amount of time, distance or iron-clad resistance can ever free a man from all the endless yearning over what (or who) he truly desires. It only makes the certain and inevitable loss feel agonizingly preventable, when someone does act in taking the chances you've never allowed yourself and relishes in the things you've wanted. ]

Take the advice of someone who knows. It doesn't work.

[ Throughout the duration of his introspection, Dazai has taken to pestering his chosen miniature cake with the curved back of his fork. A bit of pressure for long enough renders it into a decidedly flattened pancake shape upon his plate. ]

I think my favorite thing was fiery, bitter and strong.