"Cohabitation" opens with a soliloquy by Dovey, in which he laments the fact that he has not been able to "turn black" on his crush, Shusei. He complains that Shusei has already "given" him "stiff shoulders" and "broken nails" , and he hopes that he will be able to surprise him with a "different kind of surprise" in the future. He asks Dovey to cook him a dish, and Dovey shows him his bag of potatoes and cream. Dovey tells him that he is expected to " leech off" a college student, and that he expects to pay about 25 yen, but that one is "so light" . He tells Dovey that he and Shusei often go to Shusei's house to pick up meat, and they can't walk around together because they are too far apart to see each other. When Dovey asks if he can ask Shusei to tell him about his feelings for Aoi, he says that he would listen if he ever wanted to, but he does not want to tell Dovey because he is not even his "boyfriend." He asks if she is real, and she says that she is. He says that if he had approached her sooner, perhaps things would have turned out differently.