When we walked into my house, Chiaki was kicking Kazuichi's butt at Super Smash Bros, as per usual. Though, this time, he was getting better at it. "Oh, oh, oh! Fuck! Damn, Hajime," Kazuichi exclaimed, jerking back to face me, "did you see that? That was the furthest I've ever gotten at beating her."

"It was impressive," I chuckled. "Nagito, this is Kazuichi, and that's Chiaki."

"Hey, man, it's nice to meet you," Kazuichi smiled.

"Welcome, Nagito," Chiaki greeted. "We're glad you were able to come tonight."

"Thank you," he beamed.

"Come on. You can put your stuff in my room," I said, leading Nagito upstairs to my room. It was very basic. The walls were painted dark gray, and the floors were hardwood with a large white carpet. The bed was pressed in the middle of the wall with dark blue covers, and I had my desk next to the window, which could see into Makoto's room. My black dresser leaned against the wall across the bed with a TV mounted on the wall. On my dresser were a bunch of pictures of all my friends throughout the years.

Nagito placed his bag at the edge of my bed, looking around in awe. "You have a nice room."

"Thank you."

Looking at my dresser, he scanned all the pictures. "These are all my neighbors. We all grew up together, so we're all very close."

Pointing at a picture of Aoi and Sakura at Prom, he said, "That girl looks familiar."

"That's Aoi Asahina. She lives in the house at the end of the cul-de-sac with her girlfriend Sakura's family."

"Why does she look so familiar though? I feel like I saw her on TV."

"Oh, she's an Olympic Gold Medalist for swimming."

Jerking his head to me, he gawked. "And you just grew up with her?"

"Yup. She's one of my best friends. She now helps run the gym in town that's connected to Sakura's family's dojo. Sakura is one of the best MMA fighters in the world."

"Wow," he murmured.

"And that's Kyoko," I added, pointing to a picture of her at Makoto's eleventh birthday party. "She's currently away at boarding school but will be back soon. We're all excited to finally have her come back home. And that's Ibuki. She lives in the light purple house. She's in a punk rock band that's currently getting really popular. She already had her debut EP at 23 on the punk charts, and it's still continuing to rise."

"What's her band's name?"

"Band Aid."

"Sounds like a punk band," he chuckled. "You have a lot of amazing friends."

"I'm proud of all of them," I shrugged. "I grew up with them, and they've all worked hard to get to where they are now. I'll do anything to help them out. After all, I'm their biggest supporter."

"You're a good friend, Hajime," Nagito giggled. "What about your friends downstairs?"

"Kazuichi is a very gifted mechanic, and Chiaki is a popular gamer. You can go against her in any game, and she will win every time. She's incredible."

Glancing at the door, Nagito bit his lip and shoved his hands in his pockets.

"Don't worry," I assured him, placing my hands on his shoulders, "they're some of the nicest people in the world. They're already super excited to meet you, and I know you will all get along great. If I didn't think you all would, I wouldn't have invited them."

Nagito's face relaxed, and he went back to smiling.

The doorbell rang, and I walked downstairs with Nagito trailing behind me. "Pizza is here," Kazuichi called out as he carried the boxes into the kitchen. "Nagito, we weren't sure what kind you liked, so we got peperoni and a plain cheese."

"I'm good with whatever," he replied.

Chiaki grabbed the plates from the cabinets and placed them on the kitchen island, and I opened the fridge, pulling out a can of Spite for Kazuichi and a bottle of lemonade for Chiaki. "What would you like the drink, Nagito?"

"Oh, uh...I'll also take a lemonade?"

I handed him a bottle and filled a glass of water for myself.

Everyone walked to the table and sat down. "My parents have a rule against eating messy foods in the living room," I explained to Nagito. "Chiaki and I used to make a mess all the time, and my parents were sick of constantly cleaning up."

"Hey, I did my best to get the stains out," Kazuichi stated.

"And they greatly appreciated it," I chuckled while turning to Nagito. "Kazuichi used to babysit Chiaki and I when we were in elementary school. He also used to look after Komaru for a while, but she eventually started hanging out with Sakura and Aoi more."

"How old are you?" Nagito asked Kazuichi.

"Nineteen."

"Oh, I thought you were going to say you were in your late twenties," he chuckled with relief. "You still look young."

Smiling cheekily, he said, "Why thank you."

"So, Nagito, tell us about yourself," Chiaki said.

"What, um...what would you like to know?"

"Well, what do you like to do in your free time?"

"Not much. I usually will watch movies or read. I'm pretty boring."

"I'm sure that's not true," Kazuichi replied, taking a bite of his pizza. "What are your favorite genres?"

"I usually read a lot of romance novels," he blushed, "and I like rom-coms."

"You've got to love love, right?" Chiaki smiled.

"I do," he nodded, glancing at me, and I smiled back. "Hajime mentioned you're a gamer."

"I am," she replied. "I'm about to enter the Smash World Tour for the third year in a row."

"Which will also be your third year winning in a row," Kazuichi replied.

"I can't help it if I'm good at the game," she shrugged. "Playing games is the same way as living life. You have your tasks, your inventory, and your overarching goal. If you're good at games, you're good at life, and vice versa."

"So never go against her, cause she'll beat you," Kazuichi jokingly said to Nagito.

"It's true," I nodded. "She loves games so much she's planning to go into programming to develop her own game. Oh, that reminds me. I met someone in the Ultimate Club, Chihiro. They happen to be a programmer, and I mentioned how we're going into programming as well-"

"If they are interested in my game, I'm interested in working with them," Chiaki nodded.

"Next time I see them, I'll let them know."

"You're going into programming, Hajime?" Nagito questioned.

"Yup," I beamed. "When Chiaki mentioned her game to me, I knew I wanted to be part of the development team. We've been planning this RPJ for, I don't know, four, five years now?"

"It has been a long time," Chiaki said, tapping her chin as she thought back on its beginning.

"That's amazing," he gushed.

"It's one of the reasons I entered the lottery for Hope's Peak. If you graduate there, you're practically set for life. I want to make sure I get into the same college as Chiaki, and she'll get into whichever one she wants based on her merits alone. So, I thought Hope's Peak would help set me up."

"Yet you're in the Ultimate Club," Nagito sighed, "instead of studying."

"Hey, it's okay. Studying comes easy to me, so I'm not too worried about falling behind or anything. Besides, I enjoy being in the Ultimate Club. It's nice spending time with everyone."

Blushing, Nagito smiled back at me.

"Since the RPG is going to contain multiple worlds, I'm always interested in hearing about new character ideas. If you've got any, let me know," Chiaki said.

"Hmm," Nagito said, lifting his hand up to his chin. "How about an orphan that everyone passes on the street and all people believe to be worthless?"

Chiaki gasped. "But in the end, he's actually a very important key to a mission. If you're rude to him, too, you don't get special weaponry. However, if you go against what everyone says and treat him with kindness, then you get a special weapon."

"And all the NPCs, make it known that he is worthless to make it seem like he's not worth talking to, so you have to go out of your way to talk to him," I added.

"I'm writing this down now," Kazuichi added as he pulled out his phone, most likely sending it as a text to Chiaki to write in her journals once she went home. "That's a great idea, man."

"Oh, uh, thank you," Nagito sheepishly replied.

Glancing back at him, I watched him stare at his empty plate with vacant eyes. I hoped that wasn't how he viewed himself. I knew he was an orphan, but I could never imagine anyone ever considering him to be worthless. Out of everyone in my class, he had the kindest heart. Whenever he noticed I was feeling uneasy, he checked on me and offered to help me. Not to mention he was super kind to me throughout the Ultimate Club, offering me to look at him to make me feel less nervous whenever I was working. How could anyone consider him as worthless or trash?

Placing my hand on his knee, he jumped, lifting eyes to meet mine. I tried my best to give him a comforting smile, which thankfully seemed to ease his nerves since his eyes softened.

When we all finished eating pizza, we played more video games. Nagito did try to go up against Chiaki, and though she still won, he got further than anyone else ever had against her. Eventually, we decided to watch a movie. Since Nagito was the guest, we let him pick a movie while we popped popcorn.

"I think he's super nice," Chiaki whispered as she placed the bag in the microwave. "I also think he might have a crush on you, too."

I scoffed. "Don't let me get my hopes up. He's been calling me his friend all night."

"He might also want to start as friends before becoming something more," she suggested. "Haven't you seen the way he's been looking at you and smiling at you all night. If your parents walked in, they'd think you two were dating."

Blushing, I quickly looked away from her. "We-we're just friends."

"There's nothing wrong with that," she assured. "I'm sure the two of you will eventually confess and start dating. I know it."

When the popcorn was popped, we emptied the bag into two bowls. Chiaki and Kazuichi laid on the floor while Nagito and I sat on the couch. He smiled as I sat next to him, grabbing a handful of popcorn. He chose the cult classic Xanadu. Once we were all settled, Kazuichi pressed play.

Halfway through the movie, I felt Nagito's head drop onto my shoulder. Glancing down at him, I smiled when I saw he was asleep. Leaning my head against his, I closed my eyes. 

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