~~~~~~~~
You seem to replace
Your brain with your heart
You take things so hard
And then you fall apart
You try to explain
But before you can start
Those cry baby tears
Come out of the dark
~~~~~~~~
As fast as they had started, the classes have come to an end. Well, it can't really be called "classes" because it was mostly organizational things like giving us our textbooks and student e-handbooks. Just basic first-day-at-a-new-school things.
Most of the people from my class were already seperated into small groups of friends and were going somewhere after school. The same could go for me, but I rejected Sonia's invitation to go out with the rest of the girls saying that "I'm quite exhausted and I will probably head home real soon". Truth is, I just wasn't good at social interactions and preferred some alone time or a tiny group of entrusted friends. These people were still too new to me.
I decided to go to the the library, as I didn't have anything to read recently. When I was leaving the school building however, I felt somebody grab my wrist. I turned around. Of course, I knew it... It was Nagito. He was holding my hand and staring at me with this cute innocent look on his face that reminded me of a small puppy.
"...What is it?" I asked, unsure of how to feel. Nagito was staring at me the whole day in class and it was... kinda creepy. I knew that he was probably happy to see me again after all these years, but he didn't have to stare at me like that...
"W-would you... Would you like to go somehwere t-together? I mean... Uh..." he stuttered. Why was he stuttering like that? Well, things *were* kinda awkward between us... We've both grown up and forgot how to talk to each other. Children always have easier conversations.
Nagito let go of my hand, closed his eyes and let out a deep sigh. He then placed that cute careless smile on his face and continued. "I was thinking that maybe we could sit down in a café and catch up with each other... or something like that. What do you think?"
What did I think? Maybe I didn't like meeting with people as I mentioned before, but this was Nagito. I was really curious about what happened to him during all those years we've been apart. "Yeah, that sounds good. I was going to the library and there's a small café next to it... How about that?" I smiled softly.
"Well... Yeah, let's go!" saying that, Nagito started to walk side by side with me, as we both headed in the direction of the library.
***
"...So that will be a chocolate cupcake with a small cappuccino for [YN] here, and some green tea and a fruit salad for me." Nagito finished making our order as we sat inside a small, cozy café, in one of a few quiet streets of the city. I tried to pay for myself, but he literally shoved the money back into my hands.
"Don't be ridiculous. I invited you here, so naturally I should be the one paying." he said calmly. "...Isn't that what people normally do in situations like that?" he asked this question to nobody in particular. I was kinda embarassed by him covering my bill, but I muttered a quiet "Thank you..." and gladly accepted the offer.
"So... Where do we start...?" he mumbled more to himself than to ask me and examined my figure. "Well... First off, you're... the Ultimate Astronomist, right?" Nagito grinned happily. "That doesn't strike me as surprising at all. You always loved watching the stars at the end of the day..." his eyes turned kinda dreamy as he remembered our childhood days.
"W-well, yeah. But hey, what about you? I never really heard about your talent." I realized. "Oh... Me? My talent is completely useless and pointless..." Nagito's smile turned into a tiny frown. "I was chosen at random in a country-wide lottery to join Hope's Peak Academy as the Ultimate Luckster. See? It's not really much of an ultimate talent... Unlike the rest of you guys."
Surprised at his saddened expression, I tried to give him a reassuring smile. "I don't think that's useless. In fact, luck has really had a big inpact on my life, y'know?" I pointed at the ribbon still wrapped around my wrist. "I think it's really amazing to have such luck that you were chosen to attend Hope's Peak. That's like... One in a millionth chance!"
I saw Nagito's face darken bit by bit. "One in a million, huh..." he whispered. I frowned at his weird reaction. "W-what's wrong?" I asked worringly. I always hated to see Nagito sad - it was like that when we were young, and I guess it hasn't changed even now.
"Well... I guess I'm here to tell you that anyway, right?" his expression instantly went back to his usual cheerful smile and he chuckled. Somehow, it made me even more worried. "So... Not long after we left your town after my grandma's funeral in the beginning of March, we went on a family trip to some island in the summer." he started.
"Unfortunately, the plane we boarded got hijacked. What a horrible case of bad luck, huh? The chance of your plane getting hijacked is possibly... One in a million, isn't it?" he looked up at me with a straight face, the same adult-like expression when I last saw him as a kid. I nodded weakly, as he went back to smiling and continued on.
"Well, thankfully, we were saved! The chances of our plane being hit by a meteor is very close to zero... Yet it happened." he smirked. "The hijacker was killed but then... So were my parents... I was the only survivor."
I gasped and stared at Nagito in shock, taken aback by this sudden reveal of a tragedy. He chuckled. "Hey, that was just a bit of bad luck... But then the good luck that came with it is the fact that I got total freedom after that. No parents, no siblings, no relatives, and a huge inheritance... All that freedom!"
Before I noticed, tears were already forming in my eyes. Nagito most likely didn't notice this, as his continued on. "Well, my life after that has been a constant cycle of good and bad luck... I wandered through life, without a purpose, until I've got accepted into Hope's Peak Academy. And now, I'm here." He finished, smiling.
"I... Don't understand..." I whispered. "Huh?" Nagito looked at me, and finally noticed the tears that have now started rolling from my eyes. "Hey, [YN], why are you crying? Did something happen?" I wiped away some of the tears with my hand.
"...How can you say something so awful so casually and with that smile on your face?! You've witnessed your parents' death and you survived all these years all alone? Why hadn't you come to our town, to us? We could've helped you! We could've--" my outburst was cut off by Nagito laughing softly.
"Ahahaha... Don't be silly, [YN]. I knew I would just be a burden to your family. Staying with you would just be plain stupid on my behalf." I glared at him, a bit offended. He looked down, let out a quiet sigh and looked up at me again. "Please... Stop crying. I don't get why you're crying in the first place." he raised his eyebrow in confusion.
"Oh, I guess I'm just... worried about you, that's all." I whispered. I saw his eyes widen in surprise. "Worried?..." he asked. "Wow! Nobody has ever been worried about me! In fact, nobody even bothered to care about a person like me!" He laughed cheerfully. "You're the first person to say that to me, [YN]!"
After a few seconds of silence, I realized the weight of his words. Nobody has ever cared about him. His parents often didn't even acknowledge his existence... I knew about that all too well. Because one time...
***
I've always remembered this day very well, almost like it happened yesterday. Nagito's parents left him alone with his grandma for a week because of some "buisness trip".
On a cool summer morning, when I was eating breakfast and getting ready to go outside, I heard a doorbell. My mom walked into the living room to open it, so I put my fork down and listened carefully so I could hear who was the visitor.
"Ah, good morning miss [LN]. Is [YN] home?" it was Nagito. He always woke up way earlier than me, so he spent his mornings playing alone until he got bored of it. His grandma was too tired to even move from her room.
"Oh... Uh, yes, she is finishing her breakfast. But... We need to patch you up, first. Please, come with me." I heard a worried tone in my mom's voice. Patch him up? What did she mean?
I jumped off the tall chair I was sitting on and walked from the kitchen to the living room, where mom and Nagito were. And there, I saw why mom was so worried.
Nagito had bruises and cuts all over the place. His legs were all bruised and dirty in the area where his shorts didn't reach, he had a large laceration on his left arm and the palm of his right hand was bleeding.
I let out a tiny squeak, startled at this view. Nagito heard that and turned around. "Oh, hi [YN]!" he smiled at me happily. "N-Nagito, what happened?" I squealed out with noticable tear drops forming in the corners of my eyes. "Oh, that? Well..."
He told me all about how he fell down while chasing an injured fox in the park, while my mom was attending to his wounds. He didn't even flinch when she used the peroxide to disinfect his cuts. I really admired his strenght...
"...anyway, after I'm patched up, can we go out and catch that fox?" he finished his story. "Oh, no, no, no. You've gotta head home and tell your parents about this and stay inside all day. It's not safe for you to head out like this." my mom denied the idea.
Nagito pouted. "But my parents aren't home..."
"Well, fine then." my mom sighed. "You can stay here, with [YN]. Just don't overwork yourself, okay?"
Nagito nodded. We both smiled at my mom and at each other. "Come upstairs, I've gotta tell you my theory about the cows on the moon!" I said excitedly. We both headed up the stairs to my room.
But as we were walking up, I could hear my mom sigh again and say to herself... "Poor boy. Those idiots really don't care about him, do they?