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Kokichi walked through the door.
"Hey Gonta!" After greeting his ‘roommate’, he took off his hat and sunglasses, as well as dropping the shopping bag he brought home onto the ground, before walking over to Gonta, who was sitting at the desk at the moment. He smiled a bit upon seeing him.
"Hi Kokichi!"
"What's up? What are you up to?" He propped himself up on the desk, his feet dangling off of it, as he looked at whatever was on said desk. A notebook that was swiftly slammed shut.
"Ah, nothing! Just writing diary!" If Gonta's now reddened face was any indication, he definitely wrote something interesting in there.
"Right, right... Uh, I brought us some dinner!"
"Oh! That's great, Gonta— um, I has been really hungry!"
With that, Kokichi walked back to the bag he brought the dinner ingredients in, and started preparing some rice bowls for the two of them. He never used to cook for himself, he'd just eat packaged meals. After the killing game, the full scope of his memories were returned to him, as well as a handsome cash prize. So he and Gonta halved the prize and agreed to live frugally to hopefully make it as far with the money as possible.
Their only splurge, so to speak, was on this little apartment. It would be enough for them to spend their days in at the very least until the hype dies down — a few more seasons of Danganronpa and everyone will forget about them. Until then, they'd wait in hiding. That day can't come soon enough.
After dinner was ready, they began eating at the table, the flower pot on it one of the few decorative objects in their home.
Gonta's parents kept trying to pressure him into the limelight, while Kokichi's were a couple of alcoholics, so neither of them had much desire to go back to that. That's why they ended up living together.
Either way, when they were done with eating, Kokichi suddenly raised his hand along with his index finger, to signify that he just got an idea.
"You know what we could do?"
'What...?"
"We could go on a walk!"
"But...disguises don't really work on Gonta— me."
"That's okay, because it's basically pitch black outside at this point! Nobody's gonna notice!"
"...last time going out was bad."
Yeah, the last time they went out, a group of people came up to harass them, saying they should have died instead of Shuichi and Kaito, because those two were better characters. This made Kokichi cringe. How could people genuinely see their very real lives as nothing but a 'character'? They literally watched all their classmates die, which was absolutely real. But not to these people.
"Yeah, you're right, but..." He was now fidgeting with his hands, looking off to the side, before meeting Gonta's gaze. "Still, going out a bit could be nice. Besides, a lot of old people who didn't even watch the show live around here!"
"Yeah...you right."
They both put on their shoes; Kokichi insisted that Gonta start wearing them too, to blend in, and because who knows what kind of freak is dropping bottles on the ground! They left together, locking the door behind themselves.
The streets were fairly empty at this time, especially in such an area. They walked together, side by side, their expressions mostly neutral.
"So? How's it to be outside? You haven't come out of the house for a few days now." The question was sudden on Kokichi's part.
"It's nice to breathe fresh air." Gonta nodded thoughtfully.
"Right!" He trailed off slightly awkwardly afterwards.
"Kokichi?"
"Yeah?"
"Why did this have to happen?"
"Well... I don't know what we were thinking, auditioning for the game, but I guess our life probably kinda sucked so we thought it'd be cool!"
"But it was so awful, why... Why did everyone have to die? I feel...bad. Real bad."
"We didn't have a choice. Us or them. In the end, we're only ordinary people."
"Yeah, but..."
"I have a question too, Gonta."
“Yeah?"
"Why did you choose me?"
Now, Gonta instantly knew what this question entailed. After Korekiyo was executed, they presented a sort of double motive. The flashback light was only one half of it. Other than that, the blackened would get to choose another person to take with them, thus resulting in two survivors if they manage to get away.
Miu finished the virtual world. Kokichi went up to Gonta as he was putting on the headset, to make sure he'd do it correctly. Tech wasn't his strong suit, after all. Then, everything went down, of course. They conspired to kill Miu after learning the supposed truth of the outside world, Gonta managed to shift the blame onto Kokichi during the trial, and as such, the blackened was incorrectly chosen when they voted for him.
Monokuma asked Gonta who he wanted to take with him, and after remembering that this clause existed in the first place, the choice was made in less than a second. What Kokichi didn't know was the full motivation behind this. Sure, it was partly due to their friendship, but maybe, some not so platonic feelings were involved as well.
"We're friends, Kokichi. Of course I— of course would choose you!"
"Well, yeah, but you didn't even hesitate! Just chose me instantly!"
"You were always closest to me from the class, or group Gont— I suppose. Doesn't matter... You were obvious choice."
"Yeah, and... I appreciate that, a lot." He reached out and gripped Gonta's hand for a moment, squeezing it, inadvertently causing his heart to begin pounding.
"Have you figured out what to do with future yet?"
"Hm?" Kokichi looked up at him, before staring ahead with a blank look. "Well, in a few seasons, we won't be that interesting anymore, and then we can try and get a job or something, and live normally... I don't want the fame from this shitty game to pay my bills for longer than necessary."
"Mhm, Gonta agrees! But we won't have to stop living together, right?"
"What, you wanna stay with little ol' me?" He smiled. "You're so cute, you know! But sure, we can keep living together even after everything settles!”
"Gonta smiled, relieved.
"Good!"
"Oh, absolutely, big guy! We're totally gonna stick together! Besides, nobody else gets it!"
"Gets what?"
"Everything we went through? The killing game, the horrors that we've seen!"
"Ah..." He pursed his lips at hearing Kokichi's words, and then sighed. "Yeah."
"Though," Kokichi stopped in his tracks as they were walking by a river, picking up a rock, examining it and throwing it into the water. "Not all hope is lost. Today, I found out about something super cool!"
"Yeah?" Gonta copied his movements, his throw missing the lake and hitting a wall on the other side.
"There's a support group for survivors of the killing games that regret going into it!"
"Really?!" His eyes lit up.
"Yeah, really! They meet every Thursday night. We should go next week!"
"Yeah! Good idea, Kokichi! Let's go!'
"Maybe it'll help, I feel like this thing messed both of us up more than we wanna admit."
"Maybe you right..."
"And I was also thinking, maybe after that we could go to a nice restaurant!" Kokichi did finger guns at him, and winked. "You know, nothing too fancy, but—!"
"Wait! What?!" Gonta's face instantly went beet red, is this a date he's asking him on or something?! And, also, who knows what kind of depraved Danganronpa fan comes up to them!
"You know, it's just... I worry about you, Gonta."
"...huh?!" His expression softened, shock replaced by something akin to sadness.
"You used to be so outdoorsy, and now you basically never leave the house. I know you're scared of all of this, trust me, I am too. We could change our names, move away, whatever, but we can't ever change what happened. It's been months and I just... Well, you gotta start going out again sooner or later! Maybe not a lot, but still, you need it!"
Gonta let our a deep sigh, his eyes narrowing.
"What for? To get called bad words or to have people chase for an autograph...?“
"No, but just... To enjoy life again. That's all we can do. I mean, for crying out loud, we thought the world was over! But we're still alive, everything's still mostly okay. Besides, I doubt all the guys that died would want us to just sit at home."
"But they died cause of Gon— me."
"No, not really... I mean, Miu started it. You... No, not you, we finished it. I was just as guilty as you, so don't blame yourself, ‘kay?"
He paused for a second, listening. Really listening to what he was saying. It made sense.
"...yeah, Kokichi is right..."
"See?! But maybe we should go home soon... It's getting kinda late!" Kokichi threw one final rock into the water and then held his arms up, asking to be lifted. He had Gonta carry him places when he didn't feel like walking, sometimes.
They went home, and then came their usual evening routine of getting ready for bed together. Like, right next to each other. Kokichi would literally sit on the toilet seat while Gonta showered, who would return the favor afterwards. Then came putting on their sleepwear, and going to bed. The two of them shared a bed, of course, because it's more economical that way. The apartment only had one bedroom anyway, so what's the point in one of them sleeping on the couch? Especially because Gonta would insist he takes the couch, but he'd barely fit on it and hurt his back. It was just easier this way. They laid together, beside each other, staring at the ceiling.
"You know, Kokichi..."
"Yeah?"
"No, nothing."
"You already brought it up! Now you gotta spill!"
"Just thinking about future."
"Everything will be fine! Eventually!"
"That's easy to say...but what if not?"
"Even if everything falls apart, and things never get better, you know I'll keep you company!"
"Really?"
"Yeah, forever!"
That was such a big word, but it made him feel better.
"Forever." Gonta paused. Yeah, admitting his feelings wasn't a wise idea, even though that's what he was thinking of doing. Maybe tomorrow? "Goodnight Kokichi."
"Mm.. Goodnight."