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Of all people, Nagito inwardly cursed, why did he have to fall for a reserve course student like Hajime?
It was the day of Hope's Peak Academy's annual school cultural festival. The event was always a big one — it was the only day the prestigious school's grounds were fully open to the public, after all — and there was much to be done. Nearly all of the Ultimates were busy running a stall or booth of some sort, and as talented and capable as they were, manpower was still needed to help run things in the background to ensure that things went smoothly.
The people entrusted to this very task were the academy's reserve course students. Having nowhere as much talent as the Ultimates, they were assigned the duty of their background helpers instead of actually running the booths in the forefront.
Contrary to what one might think, the reserve course students did not actually mind being mere errand runners. It meant that they had more free time to walk around and enjoy the festival with their friends, anyway, especially since they took shifts.
However, there was one reserve course student in particular who seemed to be taking on more shifts than he'd been assigned — and that student was Hinata Hajime.
The brunet, understanding that as much manpower as possible was needed, offered his services to nearly everyone running the stalls, even offering to take his classmates' shifts so that they could go enjoy the festival in his place.
It was fine, he'd told his friends. It was for the sake of the school, after all. For someone who loved Hope's Peak Academy as much as Hajime, helping out was hardly a chore; it was an honour, even. If it meant he could help the Ultimates, he would do his best in whatever he could. Besides, he'd become good friends with many of them over time, so if nothing else Hajime could simply be seen as helping a couple of friends out. This arrangement benefitted everyone. Hajime could assist the Ultimates, his classmates would have more free time to experience the carnival and the Ultimates would receive valuable help.
This way, Hajime figured, everyone would be happy.
... Everyone but Nagito, that was. Hajime was oblivious to this one downside of the arrangement. Due to him scampering all over campus running errands all day, Hajime had barely any free time left to spend with Nagito.
Nagito had asked him a few days prior if he wanted to walk around the festival with him, to which Hajime had readily agreed. But due to the multitude of errands Hajime had taken up, Nagito was sure that the brunet had forgotten all about their agreement.
Not that he blamed him, though.
Nagito had been planning on spending time alone with Hajime at the festival – kind of like a date, even. They could check out the booths together, play some games, hold hands, maybe even kiss...
Nagito flushed slightly at the thought. Knowing his luck, he probably shouldn't get ahead of himself. Besides, in order to initiate his plan, he'd first have to find Hajime, which was evidently not a simple thing to do, given the brunet's current situation.
But still...
Nagito hadn't realized he'd fallen this hard for the reserve course student.
The two had not had the best first impression of each other, after all.
The first time Nagito and Hajime met had been something short of a disaster. Nagito had stepped into his classroom one morning to find two of his classmates, Kuzuryuu and Souda, talking to a reserve course student who'd been leaning against the window. The trio had been joking and laughing with one another, and the ambience was pleasant.
That was, until Nagito spoke up.
"What's a lowly, pathetic reserve course student doing in the building meant for the Ultimates?" He'd asked coldly and harshly.
His cruel remark had come as a surprise not only to the aforementioned student, but to Nagito's classmates as well. Generally, Nagito was pleasant and mild-mannered in class. Frank, but never exactly rude per se. So for the white-haired boy to snap so suddenly and harshly at their friend, Kazuichi and Fuyuhiko were most certainly surprised.
But Nagito ignored them. To Nagito, who valued hope and talent above anything else, reserve course students were nothing but pests — talentless, worthless creatures who had nothing going for them. They were just there to tag along on the prestige that being in the famous academy allowed them, and to, in a way, fund the school. Nothing else. The fact that one of such pests stood before him in his very own classroom filled Nagito with great annoyance, and he hadn't hesitated in expressing it.
However, inevitably, his crude remark had pissed off his hot-headed classmates.
"Hey!" Kuzuryuu had snapped, glaring at the white-haired teen. "What's wrong with you, Komaeda? Hajime's not lowly or pathetic in the slightest. He's fucking great, and he's a close friend of ours."
Nagito had raised an eyebrow at the gangster, unimpressed. "Is that supposed to change my opinion of anything?" He'd replied nonchalantly.
At this, Souda had hissed. "Komaeda, you—"
"Save it, Kazuichi," the reserve course student had interrupted, clearly trying to break up the impending dispute.
The brunet had looked at Nagito right in the eye, and the Luckster had to take a moment to comprehend what exactly was going on before his eyes widened slightly.
"Y'know..."
He hadn't expected the talentless student to have such pretty eyes, or such an enchanting voice.
He bit his lip.
No. Pretty boy or not, this guy was a mere reserve course student, and was insignificant to Nagito.
Snapping back to reality, Nagito returned the brunet's gaze as the latter continued.
"You're right, I'm nowhere near as talented as all of you," he'd admitted, albeit with a firm tone. "But don't go insulting people unless you know them. Reserve course students aren't lowly, and we're not pathetic, either. You should try to get to know someone before saying anything about them."
Nagito's lips had curved into a smirk in response, but he said nothing more, and simply turned around to go to his desk.
The brunet was interesting, and very, very pretty, he'd thought to himself. Maybe part of him actually did want to, as he'd said, get to know him. But he'd waved the thought away. Either way, a pest was a pest.
Following their first meeting, Nagito and Hajime had had a series of coincidental, unplanned meetings which at first, had annoyed and confused them both to no end. They kept running into each other, be it on the street, the academy's huge campus or in the supermarket. Both had accused the other of stalking, but after some time had passed, they began to get along, to look forward to their next meeting, to realize that they clicked together a lot better than they'd initially thought they would.
Nagito wasn't sure when exactly, but at some point Hajime had become the only exception to his opinion of reverse course students.
They had soon become close friends who talked with each other every day, and this had eventually led to Nagito developing a secret crush on Hajime.
As the bearer of extreme luck, Nagito had not planned on falling victim to fate's plans. He had never intended to develop feelings of attraction for Hajime, but now that he had, there was surely no escape.
Unfortunately for Nagito, though, even as time went on, he still had absolutely no idea whether all of what had happened with him and Hajime was ultimate good luck or ultimate bad luck.
Either way, as it were, he was unable to locate the object of his affections. Nagito sighed and tried calling Hajime on his mobile for the umpteenth time, but as always, the brunet had set his phone on silent mode.
"Really," Nagito mused. "What's the point of a phone if you're not going to use it, Hinata-kun?"
Deciding his efforts were futile, Nagito put his phone back into his pocket and sighed once more.
"What's wrong, Komaeda?" a voice suddenly sounded, taking the Luckster by mild surprise. Nagito turned around to find the source of the voice, and saw that he was faced with none other than the Ultimate Mechanic.
Kazuichi stood before him, a duralumin case in his hands. He seemed concerned.
"Are you alright?" He asked again.
Nagito smiled faintly. "Hello, Kazuichi," he said, mindlessly playing with his jacket strings. "Have you seen Hinata-kun around lately?"
Kazuichi pondered for a moment before tilting his head. "I think he was helping Gundam and Sonia out with the pet cafe."
Nagito blinked. Had it been any other school, he might been shocked that there were animals, let alone a pet cafe, during the school's cultural festival. But since it was Hope's Peak, he couldn't really say he was very surprised. In fact, a pet cafe sounded amazing. As expected of the Ultimates.
"It's in classroom 2-B," Kazuichi informed him. "But hey, good luck finding Hajime, Komaeda. Rumor has it he's been running around all day."
Nagito thanked the mechanic, then waved at him as he walked off, duralumin case in his arms.
"Oh, they're not just rumors," Nagito thought, somewhat amused.
Now with hopefully some idea as to where Hajime might be, Nagito made his way to the second floor. Along the way he passed by some of the other stalls and booths — some hosting carnival games; some selling balloon animals, cotton candy... Oh, there was even one selling mochi. He'd have to check if there was any kusamochi being sold there later. Hajime would surely like that. The particular type of mochi was his favourite, after all.
Nagito stopped outside classroom 2-B and looked around. The exterior was decorated extravagantly with balloons and streamers, along with a brightly-decorated banner that read 'Pet Café' in cursive letters. People were filing in and out of the room, smiling and laughing happily. Curiously, he entered the classroom, only to be met with an equally cheerful atmosphere.
Tables were lined with white tablecloths, and atop each of them sat a flower vase filled with brightly colored flowers. Customers sat at these tables, enjoying cakes and sandwiches.
But what was unique about the cafe was that all around the room, small animals were running about. From hamsters to kittens to rabbits, the creatures were entertaining the customers, playing with them and allowing themselves to be petted. Each animal seemed content with its freedom, but not a single one of them was misbehaving.
Nagito didn't even have to guess who the owner of the animals was.
"Oh, Komaeda-kun!" Sonia Nevermind, the Ultimate Princess, came forward to greet him. She was clad in a cute white-and-green dress — presumably a waitress outfit, by the looks of the other similarly dressed girls running around in the cafe. Her smile was as bright as always, and she addressed Nagito with equal enthusiasm while holding a clipboard.
"Welcome to our enchanted café!" She greeted cheerily. "Would you like for me to arrange a meeting for you with a magical beast, Komaeda-kun?"
Nagito smiled and shook his head, amused by her little speech. "It's fine, Sonia. Although, I must say, you and Tanaka really did up the place nicely. It looks great."
Sonia laughed. "I'm glad you think so! But actually, Gundam and I handled the other café preparations. The one who put up most of the decorations was Hinata-kun."
Nagito's eyes widened slightly. "Speaking of which, have you seen him?"
The princess shook her head. "I'm afraid not. He was helping out as a waiter when we were understaffed, but that was a while ago. I believe he might have gone to help some of the others out with the carnival games since then."
Nagito hummed, silently wishing he could've seen Hajime in a waiter suit. "I see. Thank you, Sonia. Well, I'll be off now."
"Wait, Komaeda, would you like to stay here for a while?" Sonia offered.
Nagito shook his head. "I've got a reserve student to catch," he told her, before walking away.
Sonia watched, slightly confused as the white-haired teen departed, but decided not to dwell on the matter and instead went back to her duties in the café.
As he headed over to the courtyard, where the carnival games were being held, Nagito checked his phone once more. Nothing.
"You don't deserve a phone, Hinata-kun," Nagito groaned.
Shoving his phone back into his pockets yet again, Nagito approached the game stall that Fuyuhiko and Peko were handling. It was a shooting game, wherein you attempted to hit the moving targets with a toy gun and if you got at least one bullseye out of the six tries you were given, you won a prize.
The concept was simple. But it was exactly the type of carnival game kids look at, underestimate, and end up losing even after dozens of tries. It wasn't as easy as it looked. Nagito wondered about that.
"Komaeda," Fuyuhiko called, seeing his classmate approach. "Wanna give it a go?"
Nagito hummed, watching as a red-haired kid — Masaru Daimon, from the academy's elementary section — tried to shoot one of the moving targets and missed.
Nagito shrugged. "Actually, I—"
"Oh, come on," Fuyuhiko urged. "You've got nothing to lose, you know. Except maybe some of your money, but never mind that."
Nagito sighed and handed Fuyuhiko a few coins to pay for the game. Wordlessly, he picked up one of the plastic toy revolvers lying on the table in front of the 'shooting range'. After loading the gun with its fake bullets, Peko gave the okay to start and Nagito took his position behind the firing line (it was just a line on the ground marked out by masking tape, really).
Almost effortlessly, Nagito hit one of the moving targets with immense precision. He glanced at Fuyuhiko, whose eyes were wide, then turned back to the targets.
Figuring he may as well use up the rest of his bullets, Nagito fired off the remaining five shots in succession, hitting the targets each time. Satisfied, he set the toy gun back down on the table and smiled at Fuyuhiko.
"H-how did you—" The yakuza stuttered, bewildered.
"I was lucky," Nagito laughed. "That is my talent, after all." He ignored the envious looks being shot his way by Masaru, who was still trying his best to even land a hit on a single target.
"So," he continued. "What do I win?"
Fuyuhiko raised a brow and gestured towards the display shelves on the other side of the store. The shelves were lined with stuffed animals, candy, pillows and other things.
"Honestly?" Fuyuhiko answered, somewhat amused. "Take your pick. You're the second person to win today, and you even managed to get a bullseye all six times. Seriously, man, go wild."
Nagito tilted his head slightly. "Second? Who was the first?" He asked, curious as to who had beaten him to winning the game.
"Hajime," Fuyuhiko replied, grinning. "He was helping us set up this morning, and he wanted to try it. He wasn't very good, but somehow he managed to get it on his very last try. He didn't take any of the prizes, though."
Nagito raised an eyebrow. "I see. In that case, I won't be taking anything either."
Fuyuhiko stared at him in disbelief. "At this rate," he coughed, "we'll have to give out prizes just for trying."
Both of them glanced back at Masaru, who had just asked Peko for another dozen bullets. (Really, did that kid have nothing better to do?)
"I think you will," Nagito agreed. "Why is it so difficult, anyway? Aren't carnival games meant to be easy?"
Fuyuhiko all but shrugged in response, and Nagito decided it was better not to dwell on the matter.
"So have you seen him? Hinata-kun, I mean?" The white-haired boy asked, growing slightly impatient.
Fuyuhiko frowned. "Nah, I haven't. Why don't you try calling him?"
Nagito grimaced. "Believe me, I've tried."
"Actually, I saw him not too long ago," Peko chipped in, having just finished preparing more bullets for Masaru to use. "He was walking around the festival with Koizumi."
Nagito felt his chest tighten at her wording, and immediately felt dumb for feeling that way. The way Peko had said it, it sounded as if Hajime and Mahiru were on a date together, although he knew that probably wasn't the case. Yet, somehow... The thought of Hajime being alone with Mahiru irked him, especially since he knew that Mahiru liked him more than any of the boys in their class.
"I see," Nagito said. "Any idea where the two of them might be?"
Peko smiled. "They're going around taking photos of the different attractions in the carnival, so I can't quite say where they might be. But if there's any event coming up soon, they'll probably be at the venue to cover it."
Nagito's face brightened. "Thanks, Pekoyama. Oh, and good luck with your game, Fuyuhiko. I imagine you might need it."
Amused and slightly annoyed, Fuyuhiko flipped Nagito off before turning back to his stall.
Sometime later, after having discovered that the next major event of the festival was an eating competition to be held in the gym, Nagito made his way to the venue. At this point he had no idea what to expect anymore, and was perhaps even beginning to lose hope that he might ever find Hajime that day.
Upon reaching the gym, Nagito was met with the sight of three long tables, each seated with people from beginning to end. Each table was lined with dozens of dishes, and every single one of them was made by the Ultimate Chef himself, Hanamura Teruteru.
Nagito glanced at the competition’s participants with the unlikely chance that Hajime might be seated among them. Akane, Aoi and the Ultimate Impostor were some of the participants getting ready for the event to start, but alas, Hajime was not. Nagito felt silly for even trying.
He turned to the rest of the crowd who were watching the participants with great anticipation and interest. After a moment or two, he managed to locate a certain redheaded photographer, but Hajime was still nowhere in sight.
Mahiru was getting her camera ready when Nagito approached her. “Hi, Koizumi-san,” he greeted, half expecting to get lectured by her for interrupting whatever she’d been doing.
But Mahiru was in a surprisingly good mood, and smiled upon seeing him. “Oh, Komaeda! Hey, wanna see some of the photos I took for Hiyoko’s performance earlier? She did really well, and I managed to take some amazing photos.”
Excitedly, she showed Nagito the aforementioned photographs, explaining to him what had happened during each shot. Nagito smiled as she showed him a picture of Hiyoko doing a twirl onstage. Mahiru really was a nice person— that was, when she wasn’t scolding the boys for one thing or another.
But Nagito didn’t have time for that. He had to find Hajime.
“Those pictures are lovely, Koizumi-san,” he complimented the photographer, earning him a delighted smile from the freckled girl. “Um, I’m sorry, but I actually came over here to ask you something. Have you by any chance seen Hinata-kun lately?”
Mahiru hummed, exiting the camera’s photo gallery, and Nagito silently thanked the gods that she hadn’t called him out for ruining her moment.
“Yeah, he was with me earlier. He was helping me to take photos of Hiyoko’s concert,” Mahiru explained. “That was some time ago, though. I think he said he was going to the washroom after that. Why? Are you looking for him?”
Nagito frowned. “Yeah. Which washroom?”
Mahiru coughed awkwardly. “Why do you ask?”
Nagito stood there, confused for a moment, before realizing what Mahiru was implying. “N-no! I’m not planning anything, I swear. I’m just looking for him, that’s all.”
Mahiru raised an eyebrow, seemingly unconvinced. Luckily for Nagito, though, she didn’t say anything more on the matter, just told him that she didn’t know which way Hajime had gone.
“I hope you find him, though,” Mahiru said helpfully, before waving him off and returning to her camera. The competition was about to start, after all, and she didn’t want to miss out on any good photo opportunities.
Nagito exited the gym and shut the door behind him, sighing. Seriously, where could Hajime have gone? And why was it that he was always a moment too late?
Tiredly, Nagito made his way to the staircase and sat on the side of the steps, thinking to himself. Perhaps he should just give up? No, that wasn’t good…
Figuring he should give it one last shot, Nagito pulled out his phone from his pocket and checked for any sign of life from Hajime.
His eyes widened.
[ 1 new message ]
Had Hajime finally responded? Had the spiky-haired teen actually looked at his phone?
Nagito rushed to find out. Hopeful, he opened the message.
[Mioda Ibuki: GUYYSSS! Chiaki and Ibuki are doing song requests n dedications over the PA system in a bit!! Tell us if u want anything, okayy? <3 ]
…
Speechless, Nagito dropped his phone.
Sometimes, he wondered if his talent granted him more bad luck than it did good luck.
…
All of a sudden, he had an idea.
“Wait a moment,” he breathed, picking up his phone. “Wait just a moment.”
He unlocked his phone and began typing.
Hajime smiled to his reflection in the bathroom mirror as he washed his hands in the sink. It was only about 2pm, but he’d managed to do a lot so far. He had arrived in school at 7am, earlier than most of the other reserve course students, and had helped with the setting up of some of the game stalls. He’d even assisted Gundam and Sonia in decorating their animal café.
He felt pleased with himself. He’d helped his friends from the Ultimate course and had even completed some of his own classmates’ work shifts, apart from his own.
Being able to help others made Hajime feel happy about himself – relieved, even. He knew he wasn’t talented at all compared to many of his friends, even from the reserve course. He was nice enough, and lots of people seemed to like him and get along with him, but Hajime had always had the sinking feeling that he would never be nearly as talented as others no matter how hard he tried. Due to this, being able to help others was, in a way, Hajime’s way of convincing himself that he could do something too.
That, and he just really enjoyed helping and being with his friends.
Humming to himself, Hajime turned off the water tap and dried his hands with a hand towel.
Despite his satisfied feeling, Hajime had the hunch that he was forgetting something.
Maybe he had forgotten a shift? No, that couldn’t be it. He only had two more to go, and he’d taken on six in total, including his own. He’d even written them all down and double-checked them the previous day. So what could he be forgetting?
All of a sudden, his thoughts were interrupted by a booming voice over the PA System.
“Heeelllloooo, everyone! It’s Ibuki and Chiaki here! From now until 4pm, we’ll be taking song requests and dedications! Let’s goooo!”
Hajime smiled. It was so like Ibuki to have this much energy, even while doing something as simple as announcing song dedications. He hadn’t expected Chiaki to be a part of this as well, though. Maybe she’d told him, but he’d forgotten?
Either way, although song dedications sounded fun, Hajime wasn’t particularly interested in them. Out of curiosity, though, he continued listening to the broadcast.
This time it was Chiaki who spoke.
“If you’re interested, drop us a note outside the control room on the 4th floor with the song you want, along with a message and the name of whoever the song’s for, if you like.”
Ibuki then took over the mic again, her enthusiastic, hyper voice in stark contrast to Chiaki’s gentler, calmer one.
“Okay! Our first request is from Komaeda Nagito-chan, for Hinata Hajime-chan!”
Hajime’s eyes widened as Ibuki continued.
“The song requested was Deer In The Headlights by Owl City, and the message left for Hajime-chan is…”
“’Hinata-kun, please check your phone.’” Chiaki finished, giggling.
Hajime came to a sudden realization as the requested music began playing.
“Oh my god, I forgot about Komaeda, I forgot –“
Shaking, Hajime retrieved his phone from his pocket and unlocked it for the first time since he’d arrived at school. His words were caught in his throat as he realized his phone was overflowing with dozens of messages, several of which were from Nagito.
“Shiiittt,” Hajime groaned, silently cursing himself for not checking his phone sooner.
He couldn’t believe himself. He’d remembered all those extra shifts, and yet he’d somehow forgotten about his date with Nagito.
W-wait, no, it wasn’t a date. Not really.
He’d just promised to hang out with Nagito, that was all.
Hajime bit his lip. He’d be lying if he said he hadn’t been looking forward to spending time alone with Nagito. Even though it was just to hang out, walking around together at a carnival with just the two of them made it seem like a date somehow. The thought of that made Hajime all fluttery inside, although he couldn’t quite understand why.
But somehow despite all that, he’d still forgotten about Nagito!
“Nice going, Hajime,” he sighed to himself. He wondered if Nagito was annoyed at him.
At that moment, a notification on his screen popped up, signalling that he’d received another message.
It was from Nagito. Nervously, Hajime opened the message.
[ Komaeda Nagito: Hinata-kun, have you checked your phone yet..? : ) ]
Hajime didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
He typed back a reply.
[ Hinata Hajime: yeah. Sorry about that, Komaeda. ]
Hajime wanted to bang his head against the wall, but at that moment his phone notified him of yet another new message. To his surprise, it wasn’t from Nagito, but from one of his classmates whose shifts he’d offered to take instead.
[ Yazawa Haru: Hinata, Roma and I will take care of our own shifts, okay? Thanks for working so hard, man, but seriously. Go hv fun. Rumor has it your boyfriend’s been looking for you the whole day. ]
Confused, Hajime reread the message.
[ Your boyfriend’s been looking for you the whole day. ]
Hajime was glad he was alone in the bathroom, or else someone might’ve seen his cheeks flush a brilliant shade of pink.
He’s not my boyfriend!, he messaged back in protest, but received nothing but a winky face in reply.
Well, Hajime figured, at least he was free now. He could spend time with Nagito.
Speaking of Nagito…
Another message had come in from him.
[Komaeda Nagito: I’ll wait for you by the school gate, Hinata-kun. ]
Hajime smiled.
[ Okay. ]
”Hey.”
Nagito turned to the source of the voice and smiled, his eyes bright.
“Hinata-kun.”
Hajime smiled back sheepishly, scratching his cheek. “I’m sorry for making you wait so long, Komaeda,” he apologized. “I uh, heard you were looking for me the whole day.”
Nagito’s gaze softened, but part of him couldn’t help but tease the brunet.
“I was,” he agreed. “I went everywhere looking for you, you know. I even asked a lot of people where you were. But every time I went somewhere, you were nowhere to be found.”
Hajime gulped and averted Nagito’s gaze guiltily. “I’m sorry,” he muttered. “I forgot.”
Affectionately, Nagito patted Hajime’s head. “I’m kidding,” he laughed. “It’s alright, Hinata-kun. I shouldn’t have expected you to remember.”
Hajime bit his lip. “I-“
“It’s okay,” Nagito insisted, “really. But I suppose… There is something you could do to make it up to me.”
Hajime looked at his friend unsurely. “Okay. What is it?”
Slowly, Nagito took both of Hajime’s hands and intertwined them with his own. He then smiled at the reserve course student, and though his actions were confident and brave, Hajime could tell that he was uncertain.
“Will you… Go on a date with me?” Nagito whispered, his hopeful eyes gazing into Hajime’s.
Hajime stared back at Nagito, speechless. He could feel his face growing warm, and he was pretty sure that Nagito could see that his cheeks were a dark shade of pink.
“U-uh. What?” Hajime coughed and looked away, embarrassed.
Sighing, Nagito let go of his hands gently. “No, it’s nothing. I just…”
His voice trailed off, as if he couldn’t find the words to continue. Instead, he just looked down.
“Yeah,” Hajime blurted out all of a sudden.
Nagito’s heart leapt in his chest.
“Yeah, what?” He asked slowly, making sure he hadn’t heard wrongly.
“Yes,” Hajime continued. “I’ll go on a date with you.”
Seeing that Nagito was still at a loss for words, Hajime attempted to explain himself.
“I-I mean! I made you search and wait for me for such a long time,” he reasoned. “I didn’t even respond to any of your messages. This is the least I can do for you to make up for that.”
Nagito began to laugh, and the sound of his melodious laughter was enough to make Hajime jittery inside.
“Yes,” Nagito breathed, amused. “I suppose it is.”
Hajime looked at him for a moment before laughing as well.
“Now then,” Nagito said, taking Hajime’s hand once more. “Before we begin. Am I allowed to hold your hand during this date, Hinata-kun?”
Hajime smiled.
“Yeah,” he replied, intertwining Nagito’s fingers with his own once more. “You are.”
Hajime was pleased to note that Nagito’s cheeks went a rosy shade of pink at this.
Nagito giggled, and Hajime couldn’t help but think that he was absolutely adorable.
“Then,” Nagito continued. “During this date, am I allowed to kiss you, Hinata-kun?”
Hajime blushed.
“We’ll see about that,” he replied, trying to conceal his fluster. “A-anyway, let’s go, Komaeda. Let’s get this date started!”
Nagito raised an amused eyebrow at the brunet’s choice of wording, but said nothing more as they made their way back into the festival grounds, hands interlocked.