I'M GLAD YOU'RE GIVING HIM ANOTHER CHANCE SO I CAN SLAM MYSELF INTO CR WITH YOU THIS TIME AROUND and thankfully not with a person who talks shit about his lab, rip Yusuke

BUT!! I am so down for them being part of the same robotics/engineering club in middle school and probably working on a few things together for... whatever shows or fairs the club teacher wanted them to be a part of, and maybe they visited one another's houses at some point to get headway on their projects? And that way they both found out they were in similar positions (being carted to another country for 'their own good' and living with unconventional parent figures whom they admire greatly), and gotten to be better friends/acquaintances because of it? He probably fell out of touch with him a bit once they changed schools and Retrospec started causing havoc in his life, but it's cute to think of Xiaolang having a friend/person he got along with outside of Sakura prior to all the game stuff!

... though catching up is probably going to be wild. 'Sooooo, I have... a girlfriend' 'I've been tagging places and gambling' 'WHAT' 'WHAT'