[ Ai hesitates too. She wonders if maybe it's easy for her to say all this from her lofty highs - sure, she's had frustrations and setbacks, but she's never had failures like Maki did. She can't understand that kind of sting and there's no point in pretending she can.

But Maki's her friend. And she has so precious few of those. It only feels right to do... something.

She shifts a little uncomfortably on her feet. ]

Well... what if you are? I can't tell you either way how it'll go. But say you give it a shot and you really can't make it work... at least then you'd know for sure. You wouldn't have to wonder anymore.