Chapter Text
Left, left, right.
Chiaki’s whole attention focused on the screen, inputting commands, her whole world centered on her character.
Up, A, up.
The classroom was loud. Murmured conversations drowning on into a mass of white noise. Nothing to do with her. Just voices talking over each other, becoming meaningless.
It was strange how much like home it was.
Left, left, left. A.
The ringing of the bell didn’t even register in her mind, so engrossed she’d become in the patterns. So engrossed did she make herself become.
It was better to be lost in a game than to be lost in the background of reality.
“Ah…Nanami?”
…An encounter…?
She glanced up from the screen, blinking eyes suddenly aching-probably too much time playing in a dark room-wait, the room actually was dark. Who’d turned off the lights?
In front of her, looking hesitant, was the boy who sat in front of her desk in class. He was difficult to forget, though he tended to blend into the background compared to the others. Hair that was mostly grey aside from faded patches of color at the ends. Tall and willowy, taller than most of the rest of the class, but with a delicate frame that made you forget how tall he was most of the time. Pale as a ghost, but the prettiest jade green eyes she’d ever seen.
Komaeda, Nagito Komaeda. That was his name, right? He was softspoken, usually stood apart, he was a little like her in that regard. He was also the student chosen for the lottery for their class.
“…Nanami?” He tried again, leaning down to peer at her, hand half raised, almost like he wasn’t sure whether to wave it at her or to check to make sure she wasn’t sick. “It’s…class is over now. The others already left. I was worried that you might fall asleep in here again…?”
Oh right, she had done that a few times, hadn’t she?
She yawned, suddenly realizing how tired she was, a hand lifting to rub at an eye. “Mmm, no, I think my back might hate me if I do that.” She murmured, mostly to herself. She wasn’t looking forward to the long walk back to her dorms though.
Suddenly long delicate fingers brushed against her cheek, just the lightest of grazes, waking her right up and instantly centering her to the here and now.
“Do you need me to walk you to your dorm?” Komaeda asked, her eyes wide as she glanced up at him leaning over her desk, his pretty eyes soft and lidded with concern.
And instantly widening themselves a split second later, his hand snatching away from her cheek as if her skin burned him, it’s tingle, faintly left behind burning her. His fair skin flushed as he quickly backed away. “I mean-sorry I just-I’m just a little bit worried is all! About you, I mean. You always look like you’re about to fall over so I just-“
Then he craned his neck to face the wall, where the clock hung, ticking away. His arm lifted to point at it. “Lunch! See? It’s lunch now. You should go get something to eat, is what I’m suggesting!”
Chiaki blinked slowly, turning to look at the clock herself. “…It’s a half hour past lunch actually.” She helpfully supplied, though she was still a little shocked at his action. Or rather, at his attention.
Though, maybe she shouldn’t be that shocked.
Komaeda was a fanboy, fully and completely. Though ever since she’d started making her own income by competing at tournaments Chiaki had plenty of experience with eager fanboys, and he was harmless as far as that group was concerned. He’d seemed all too eager to please, but it was more in the harmless puppy way than anything weird or concerning. His habits did, however, tend to put their other classmates off.
He was a lot like her, just all around awful at social events.
“Ah, so it is…” He murmured, reading the time properly for himself. He lowered his arm and brought it to his chest, rubbing his wrist and avoiding her eyes. “Still, you should at least go and get something, Nanami never seems to eat consistently when she’s focused on her games, and it’s not like we need to go to classes regularly anyway.”
He was correct about that, though it was only the first few weeks of the term, so everyone was still mostly in the habit of coming to classes, even if they didn’t have to. Chiaki kept coming because a part of her hoped that maybe she could actually make friends, but even here, that seemed an impossible feat.
“Ah, but I’m not suggesting that you stop playing of course, haha! I would never.”
Chiaki studied Komaeda and his oddly flushed face, wondering where the sudden concern came from.
“…If I have to.” She sighed, slumping in her seat and her desk. Well, it wasn’t like staying in an empty classroom would have it’s appeal anyway. Anyway, where would she even get food now? The convenience store was probably still open, since the cafeteria was likely closed. Or if she really wanted she could probably beg the guy in their class for some food…he was the Ultimate Cook, and regularly worked in the cafeteria for his Talent. Still, Chiaki wasn’t so sure she felt up to attempting his social route yet…
“Ah-“
Once again, Komaeda’s voice caught her attention. She glanced up, noting his eyes pointed at her gamegirl’s screen.
“Is that..” He started, an underpinning of excitement rising to vibrate in her chest. “I think I know that series. That’s the one with the clocktower and all the demon summoning, right?”
Chiaki instantly perked up in her chair, all her drowsiness vaporating away as she leaned forward. “You know it?” She asked, her heart racing. “It’s a really old horror series, not a lot of people would recognize it at first glance. Have you played? Which games? Do you have any favorites?”
Instead of being put off by her enthusiasm like so many others before, Komaeda’s eyes widened, and then something…happened.
Komaeda was always smiling. A placid, friendly, polite smile that Chiaki couldn’t help but note never quite reached his eyes. It was why he blended into the background despite his ethereal appearance.
But the smile that grew on his face in that moment was very, very different. Warmer, softer, real.
“You really do have a love for games, don’t you Nanami? Ah, but that’s only to be expected.” He then laughed into his hand, his eyes squinting in a way that was extremely charming. “But to answer your question, I haven’t played the early games, but there was one on a more recent console that I was lucky enough to get a hold of. The one with the cult of ghost fighting girls, right?”
Chiaki nodded, recognizing the title. She was practically vibrating in her seat.
“I’m not exactly an expert on horror genres, but I do like games with some mystery element to them.” He continued, looking amused at her enthusiasm. “It’s the sort of novels I gravitate to most often. I just have always found it interesting seeing how people react in those situations.”
Something flashed in his eyes then, and Chiaki ignored it, but later on, much further in the future, she would wonder if she shouldn’t have questioned him about that a little deeper when she had the chance.
“Do…do you want to play a little?” She offered, hesitant, hesitatingly holding out her gamegirl to him. “I don’t mind if you wanna try on a new file, or…or I have other games.” She turned to reach into her bag, full of different cartridges as always, keeping her company in place of friends. “I have some two player games if you-“
When she turned back to face him her heart instantly sank. His smile, that beautifully sincere smile was gone.
“I’m sorry.” He said, like a balm to the sting, pain familiar and dull by now. “I just remembered I-“ He looked away, refusing to meet her eyes. “…I have to go somewhere.”
“Oh…” She looked back down to her gamegirl, ignoring the familiar lump in her throat and ache in her chest. “…Okay. Some other time then…?”
It was a halfhearted question at most, but she still asked it. Still hoped…
“Some other time.” He said, the chair scraping and his footsteps quickly retreating from the room. Too quickly. She really wished she knew what she did to make them leave so fast.
In the end, Chiaki was alone. Like always.