Archive of Our Own

'Good grief.'

How had Saiki Kusuo ended up sitting on the floor of Nendou's living room on a perfectly ordinary Saturday afternoon?

It was a combination of a poorly timed teleportation, hairo's excessive enthusism and, of course, Nendou. Since his brain is a complete blank, avoiding him after school is pratically impossible.

...and there also was an offer of unlimited coffee jelly.

Even I have my price.

Somehow, what had started as a casual invitation had snowballed into eight high school students crammed into Nendou's modest living room, gathered around an old board game he'd triumphantly dug out of the back of his closet.

I was already questioning every decision that had led me here.

"Come on, everyone!" Hairo shouted, clenching both fists as sweat dripped down his face despite the air conditioner running at full blast. "Give it everything you've got! If we don't put our hearts into this, we'd be disrespecting the spirit of competitive board gaming!"

'I wasn't aware competitive board games had a spirit,' Saiki thought as he took another spoonful of coffee jelly.

The moment the familiar sweetness hit, the tension quietly left his shoulders, and a small smile found its way onto his face before he even noticed it. Coffee jelly had always been his one glaring weakness.

Beside him, Teruhashi Kokomi let out a quiet, almost amused laugh as she caught the small smile on his face. (Saiki-kun smiled...! It really is coffee jelly, isn't it? How adorable... Ah! Calm down, Kokomi. Don't stare.)

Saiki didn't bother looking up. He already knew whose laugh it was, and as long as she wasn't making a fuss over it, he saw no reason to react.

"Hairo..." Kuboyasu sighed, scratching the back of his neck. "We've been playing for less than five minutes."

Across the board, Nendou was absentmindedly pushing his tiny plastic car around the track with quiet "vroom" noises under his breath. "Heh! This thing's awesome!" he laughed, completely forgetting it was supposed to stay on the spaces.

Kaidou leaned over the board, studying the rules with narrowed eyes as though they hid some deeper strategy. Yumehara, on the other hand, seemed far more interested in watching Kaidou than the board itself.

"That's... not really how you're supposed to play," Toritsuka laughed, shaking his head as he reached for the dice. "At least wait until you land on a space before celebrating."

Nendou blinked.

"There's a right way to play?"

"...Are you serious?" Kuboyasu deadpanned.

"Dude, that's literally your own game," Toritsuka said with a laugh.

"...It's mine??"

"BRO—"

The ceiling light gave a sharp flicker. Toritsuka didn't even have time to finish what he was saying before the power gave out completely. The TV in the background blinked off with it, plunging the room into darkness.

"Kyaa!"

"Ah!"

"Whoa?!"

"Huh?"

"WHAT IS THAT?"

"IM SCARED"

For a few seconds, everyone talked over one another as someone bumped into the board game, sending several plastic pieces skittering across the tatami.

A citywide blackout, Saiki noted. Judging from the countless thoughts echoing throughout the neighborhood, a transformer had overloaded nearby. Power probably wouldn't be back for at least a couple of hours. 'Great.'

"D-Don't panic!" Kaidou blurted out before hastily clearing his throat. "BUT this isn't an ordinary power outage!"

Kaidou continued "Dark Reunion has finally made its move!"

"Think they'll come after us too?" Kuboyasu asked with a straight face.

Kaidou's eyes widened. "Stay behind me."

"Sure," Kuboyasu replied with a shrug. "If Dark Reunion shows up, you can handle it, Shun."

"Leave it to me, Aren! "

Beside Saiki, Teruhashi let out a small and kinda nervous laugh. "Kaidou-kun... that's not really funny.."

"I-I'm not joking!" Kaidou protested.

"U-Um..." Yumehara glanced uneasily toward the dark window before instinctively (Or maybe it was entirely intentional. Her mind had already moved on to formulating increasingly elaborate excuses to get closer to Kaidou) scooting a little closer to Kaidou. "Don't say things like that..."

Digging through his bag, Kaidou triumphantly pulled out a battered box of matches along with several half-melted candles.

'...Why does he even carry those around?' Saiki wondered.

Nevermind, I don't want to know.'

Rasc.

One by one, the candles came to life, their flickering glow replacing the harsh ceiling lights. Long shadows stretched across the walls, and the room suddenly felt much smaller than it had a moment ago.

"Well... since we can't play board games in the dark," Toritsuka suggested, leaning forward with a grin, "how about we tell ghost stories?"

"G-Ghost stories?!" Yumehara squeaked, instinctively pulling her knees up to her chest.

"Hmph. If you insist on challenging the darkness, then allow me to share the ancient lore of the abyss," Kaidou declared, doing his best to sound intimidating despite the slight tremble in his hands as he placed a candle in the center of the circle.

"I'll go first," Toritsuka volunteered, resting his chin on one hand. As soon as he glanced toward Saiki, he was met with an utterly expressionless stare.

'Don't overdo it.'

Toritsuka gave the tiniest nod.

(Yeah, yeah. I know! I'm not gonna tell them anything real. Besides, it's not like they'd believe me anyway...)

'Just don't say anything stupid.'

Toritsuka cleared his throat, the grin on his face turning just a little too smug.

"Alright... this happened to my cousin's friend. He was walking home late at night when he heard footsteps behind him..."

"That's such a cliché," Kuboyasu muttered.

"Shh! Let him finish!" Kaidou whispered, immediately leaning closer to the candle... despite claiming he wasn't scared.

Toritsuka shot him an offended look before continuing, embellishing every pause just enough to make Yumehara flinch whenever the floorboards creaked.

"...And when he finally turned around..."

...

"...There was nobody there."

A brief silence settled over the room.

"...And?"

Toritsuka frowned. "And what?"

"...That's it?" Kuboyasu asked.

"What do you mean, 'that's it'?!"

Yumehara let out a relieved breath, pressing a hand to her chest. "Th-That wasn't even that scary... haha."

After a moment of hesitation, she glanced around the circle. "But... Actually... this kind of reminds me of something that happened at our school."

Everyone turned toward her. Even Kaidou, who had been trying very hard to look fearless, leaned in slightly.

"Do you guys remember Arisu-chan right...?"

"...The girl from the Occult Club?" Teruhashi asked, tilting her head slightly as the candlelight danced across her features.

'Good grief,' Saiki kept his eyes on the opposite wall. 'I have a bad feeling I know exactly where this is going.'

"She got... really absorbed in it for a while. She even spent months making these creepy dolls out of human hair!"

'You make it sound like you weren't right there with her.'

"Human hair?!" Kaidou squeaked.

"Mhm..." Yumehara nodded uneasily. "The club room was full of weird stuff. And all kinds of creepy decorations!"

She continued after a brief pause "...We were doing a ritual with this doll called Sayaka-chan..."

"Hold on," Kuboyasu interrupted. "Why were you doing a ritual in the first place?"

Yumehara froze.

"...W-Well..."

"Research!" she blurted out. "It was... for club activities!"

Toritsuka raised an eyebrow.

"...In the Occult Club?"

"Y-Yeah! So, it was Arisu-chan, Saiki-kun, and me..."

'Convenient how I'm suddenly part of the story.'

Every pair of eyes turned toward me.

'Good grief.'

"Saiki-kun?" Teruhashi echoed.

"H-He..." Yumehara laughed awkwardly. "He kind of got dragged into it."

'Dragged into it' is one way to put it.

"So you were helping with the ritual?" Kaidou asked, suddenly looking at Saiki with newfound respect.

'No.'

"He wasn't!" Yumehara waved her hands frantically. "Saiki-kun just... happened to be there."

'That's closer.'

She hugged her knees a little tighter. "It had a baby's face, was covered in paper talismans, and had a pendulum hanging from its mouth."

Toritsuka's expression subtly stiffened.

"...That's a pretty creepy-looking doll," he admitted.

"Then..." Yumehara swallowed. "The lights suddenly went out."

The room fell silent.

"...Just like this."

Kaidou immediately went rigid. "Y-You're kidding..."

"I wish I was!" Yumehara insisted, her eyes widening as she drifted back into the memory. "It was completely pitch black. And then... we heard this horrible crunching sound. Sayaka-chan had fallen right off the table, and her head shattered into pieces on the floor."

Teruhashi let out a quiet gasp, her fingers tightening around the fabric of her skirt. Almost without realizing it, she began inching across the tatami.

Little by little...

Until her shoulder came to rest lightly against mine.

'...I'm not moving.'

It's not because I care. Moving away would only make her notice. Then she'd assume I was uncomfortable, spend the next twenty minutes overthinking it, and eventually decide she needed to make me say "Offu" to restore her confidence.

Remaining still is simply the most efficient option.

"And then..." Yumehara whispered, her voice dropping into an eerie rasp. "The lockers started rattling. A voice in the darkness started crying... 'It hurts... Why did you break my head...?' We tried to run, but the door wouldn't open. And when we looked back... the broken doll was gone."

Kaidou held his breath, trembling violently.

"And then..." Yumehara leaned in closer, "something whispered right next to my ear..."

"'Then die.'"

"GAAAAAH!" Kaidou shrieked, bolting backward so fast he slammed right into Aren.

"EEEEEK!" Yumehara screamed right after him, hiding behind his back and grabbing his uniform.

"Hey!" Aren grunted, bracing himself. "Watch it, you two are practically sitting in my lap!"

Kaidou didn't seem to hear him. His eyes darted around the room, scanning every dark corner. "D-Don't let your guard down! A blackout is the perfect cover for Dark Reunion to launch an ambush!"

Aren glanced at the hand gripping his sleeve, then at Kaidou, who was practically glued to his shoulder.

"...Right," he said with a faint smirk. "And hiding behind me is part of your strategy?"

"I-I'm not hiding!" Kaidou protested immediately. "I'm securing the perimeter!"

"...Sure you are."

Yumehara, still clinging tightly to the back of Kaidou's shirt, squeezed her eyes shut. "I don't care about ley lines! Just don't let the ghost baby get me!"

Aren glanced at the pair of them. Yumehara was practically hiding behind Kaidou, while Kaidou was trying very hard to look like a fearless protector despite looking just as terrified.

"...You two done?" Aren sighed.

Neither of them answered.

Aren shook his head with a quiet chuckle and leaned back against the wall, deciding it wasn't worth separating them.

Then...

A cool draft swept through the room.

The candle flames flickered violently. An unexpected gust of wind slipped through the room, making the tiny flames tremble as eerie shadows stretched across the walls. The atmosphere grew darker by the second.

"A-Ah! The candles!" Kaidou yelped.

"E-EEEK!"

"Who opened the window?!" Hairo called out.

No one said a word. 'Had someone opened the window...? But who-'

A heavy silence settled over the room for a few seconds, broken only by the faint chirping of a cricket somewhere outside.

Kaidou stood perfectly still, his fists clenched tightly against his chest, his wide eyes fixed on the darkness beyond the window. The bandages wrapped around his arms seemed to tremble in sync with his shallow breathing.

"D-Did you guys hear that?!" Kaidou whispered, his voice cracking halfway through.

Suddenly, the sharp snap of a branch breaking in the backyard echoed through the silence, followed by a muffled dragging sound.

"AAH!" Yumehara jumped so high she nearly hit the ceiling, immediately ducking behind whoever happened to be closest and covering her face with both hands.

At that exact same instant, the distinct mechanical sound of a switch echoed through the room.

Click.

A strong yellowish beam of light sliced upward through the darkness, illuminating a ghastly figure standing directly in front of Kaidou. The light cast grotesquely deep shadows beneath the person's eyes, accentuating an alarmingly prominent chin and a closely cropped mohawk.

"BUUUUAAAH!"

"GAAAAAAAH!"

"KYAAAAAA!"

The room exploded into screams.

The figure let out a booming laugh.

"Boooooooo! Did I scare ya, buddy?! HAHAHAHA!"

The light revealed Nendou, holding the flashlight beneath his own chin with the most blank expression imaginable, wearing an empty potato chip bag on his head for some completely inexplicable reason.

"N-NENDOU?!" Kaidou shouted, his heart practically leaping out of his chest as he desperately tried to recover what little dignity he had left.

"You idiot!"

Kaidou had practically jumped into Kuboyasu, Toritsuka toppled backward over a cushion, and even Kuboyasu instinctively raised his fists before realizing what was happening.

Even I flinched. Nendou is one of the few exceptions to my telepathy. I had absolutely no warning.

Before I could stop myself, I instinctively leaned back.

At the exact same moment, Teruhashi, startled by the sudden jumpscare, lurched in the opposite direction... straight toward me.

The result was an inevitable collision.

The pale, unsteady beam of the flashlight bounced off the ceiling, bathing the room in a dim, uneven glow. Teruhashi ended up practically pressed against me, her fingers tightly clutching the front of my school uniform as she instinctively tried to steady herself.

She was still breathing hard from the scare. We were close enough that I could feel the warmth of her breath with every uneven exhale.

For once, there wasn't a trace of her carefully maintained composure. Her Ocean Blue eyes were wide with genuine surprise as they met mine.

For one brief, agonizing moment, Kaidou's screaming, Toritsuka's complaints, and everyone else's panic faded into the background.

(S-Saiki-kun...?) Her inner voice came out small, completely stripped of its usual confidence. (He's... right here... W-Wait... is he...?)

'Good grief.'

Before either of us could react —

The ceiling lights crackled overhead and flickered twice.

Then, without warning, they blazed back to life, flooding the living room with harsh white light that left everyone blinking after so long in the dark.

The silence that followed was absolute.

Just as quickly as the panic had erupted, it vanished, replaced by eight pairs of eyes slowly adjusting to the sudden brightness. Nendou still stood in the middle of the room with his phone flashlight tucked beneath his chin, looking as ridiculous as ever, while Kaidou remained latched onto Kuboyasu's shoulder like a startled koala.

And then, almost in perfect unison...

Every gaze in the room settled on exactly the same spot.

Teruhashi was still practically pressed against Saiki's chest, both hands tightly clutching the front of his uniform, her face only inches from his as a vivid blush spread across her cheeks. Beside her, Saiki remained perfectly still, wearing the most neutral expression humanly possible.

"A-Ah..." Yumehara was the first to break the silence, blinking slowly. Only then did Teruhashi's mind finally catch up with reality — the lights, the room, every single pair of eyes fixed on them, and the impossible closeness between them.

(W-WHAT AM I DOING?!) her thoughts exploded so loudly that Saiki almost considered covering his ears. (The lights are back! Everyone's staring! I'm clinging to Saiki-kun right in front of everyone!!)

With a startled yelp, Teruhashi sprang backward so abruptly she nearly stumbled over her own feet.

In one frantic motion, she smoothed down her skirt, tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear, and desperately pieced her flawless "perfect girl" smile back together. "S-Saiki-kun!" she blurted, her voice cracking ever so slightly before settling into its usual gentle tone, though the blush burning across her cheeks betrayed her completely. "I-I'm so sorry! Nendou-kun startled me, and I accidentally... leaned on you. A-Are you alright?"

Saiki merely adjusted his glasses with one finger. 'I'm fine.'

Silence. Again.

A heavy, unmistakably awkward silence settled over Nendou's living room.

Kaidou slowly released Kuboyasu's shoulder, cleared his throat, and stared intently at the ceiling as though the light fixture had suddenly become the most fascinating object in existence.

Toritsuka quickly covered his mouth with one hand. (Don't laugh. Don't laugh. If I laugh, Saiki's gonna kill me. ...Man, this guy's ridiculously lucky.) His shoulders trembled as he fought to keep a grin from escaping.

Even Hairo, who always seemed to have something encouraging to say, remained frozen in the exact same fighting stance he'd taken moments earlier, blinking once as his brain struggled to process what he'd just witnessed.

Teruhashi folded her hands neatly in her lap, lowering her gaze to the tatami with a small, carefully composed smile that did little to hide the embarrassment written across her face. Behind that smile, however, her thoughts were still hopelessly spiraling in search of a dignified way to recover from the situation.

Saiki let out a sigh so faint that no one else noticed. His eyes drifted down to the bowl of coffee jelly resting beside him. It had somehow survived. Small miracles do happen.

'Good grief... I should've just stayed home.'