Chie considered Yosuke one of her closest friends. After Yukiko and Souji, he was probably the person she trusted most. Sure, they didn't always get along, and he could be frustrating as hell, but after all they had been through in the TV world, their bond had become pretty strong. So when she got a text from him on Sunday morning, she wasn't at all surprised.

Yosuke: hey u shud come 2 my hose 2nite 4 games n stuff

Later, she found herself outside the Hanamura residence, with a backpack full of video games and junk food. She knocked twice and then let herself in, knowing that the door would be unlocked. She already had her shoes removed by the time Yosuke arrived to let her in.

"You shouldn't just waltz into someone else's house," he said.

She rolled her eyes, "It doesn't count if it's you."

"Yo, Hanamura!" another voice – one that definitely wasn't either of his parents – called from the other room. "Is that the pizza we ordered?"

"No, it's just Chie!" he yelled back. When he turned back to her, his grin was a little too big for her liking; she decided right then that he was up to something. "You brought your own controller, right?"

"Yeah…" Chie said, her suspicion lingering as she followed Yosuke into the living room. There, she was surprised to see Kou Ichijo and Daisuke Nagase seated on the sofa, controllers in their hand and eyes fixated on the TV screen in front of them. Daisuke looked exactly like he always did, wearing the blue Yasogami sweats that were practically his second skin. He looked comfortable, like he was ready for a night of scarfing down pizza and chips and playing video games with the guys.

Kou, on the other hand, looked very put together, just like he did at school. His slacks appeared freshly ironed, the collar of his shirt was perfectly straight, and his socks matched – which was more than Chie could say about her own appearance.

"Dude, you pick Zelda all the time," he was saying as they entered the living room. "Isn't that a little gay?"

"N-no way, man!" Daisuke said. "She kicks ass! Her up-smash is fucking insane."

"And she wears a dress," Kou added, smashing a couple of buttons in frustration. "Ahh, damnit!"

Daisuke snickered, "Told ya."

"Shut up."

Chie cleared her throat, interrupting the conversation, "Uh… hey guys."

"Chie-san!" they said, in a creepy sort of unison that made Chie take a step back unconsciously.

"Come on, sit down!" Daisuke said, scooting over to make room for her. Chie hesitated for a second, but sat down anyway, putting her backpack on the ground in front of her. There was nothing to be worried about… right? She'd known these guys for years, they weren't creeps or something.

"Y-you, uh… want in on the next round?" Kou asked, smiling a bit too widely. He almost looked nervous… But what was there to be nervous about? Was he that worried about getting beat at Smash Bros by a girl?

"Sure," Chie said, leaning forward to get her controller out of her bag. "Which characters are free?"

"You can be anyone you want!" Kou said.

"Except Snake," Yosuke said, settling down into his arm chair. "I get dibs on Snake."

"Of course…" Chie said, rolling her eyes. Not that it mattered much, she could whip his butt no matter which character she picked. Besides, Lucario was her favorite, anyway.

After a few rounds – all of which were won by Chie – the doorbell rang once again. Yosuke went off to answer it, leaving Chie alone with the other boys.

"You're… really good at this, Chie-san," said Kou.

"Yeah," Daisuke agreed. "Like… good good, not just good-for-a-girl good."

"Thanks…" Chie said, smiling nervously. Sure, compliments were nice (if you could even count what Daisuke said as a compliment), but it wasn't something she was used to. Especially from guys…

"The pizza's here!" Yosuke announced, returning with several large pizza boxes, which he placed on the coffee table in front of Chie. "It's all-meat; help yourself."

"Sweet!" Chie said, throwing open the top box. It smelled heavenly. Grinning from ear to ear, she grabbed a slice and started eating. It took her a few bites to remember that Kou and Daisuke were sitting on either side of her, and that if she didn't want them to think she was a total slob…

But they were already staring at her, she realized; all three of them. None of them had touched the pizza yet. All eyes were on her.

"Uh…" she said, ever so eloquently. She could feel her cheeks heating up, and was vaguely aware that the cheese on her pizza was dripping off onto the floor. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Well, um…" Kou murmured, instantly averting his gaze.

"Daisuke has something he wants to ask you," Yosuke said, patting him on the shoulder. "Isn't that right, Daisuke?"

"Uh, well… Chie-san, I was wondering…" Daisuke said, looking everywhere but at her. His ears were turning bright red, and his breath quickened.

Wait, is he going to ask me out? Chie thought with a gulp. Is that why Yosuke invited me over here; he's trying to set me up with Daisuke-kun? Ugh, what was he thinking, doing something like that without telling me?

"Daisuke-kun, I…" Chie trailed off awkwardly. Crap, she'd never had to turn someone down like this before; Yukiko was the one who had to deal with that on a regular basis…

"Please join the soccer team!" the brunette blurted out.

"Uh… what?"

"We really need your help. The team is horrible," he said, almost frantically. He even bowed to her; Chie wondered if it was really out of respect, or because he was too embarrassed to look her in the eye as he made his request. "And when I saw you kick that ball the other day… It was the most incredible thing I've ever seen!"

"Y-you saw that, huh?" Chie said, remembering exactly what Daisuke was talking about. She never got in trouble for the incident – even though she heard that the student who she hit lost a tooth – so she was hoping that no one had seen what happened.

"It was epic," said Daisuke, looking up at her with wild admiration. "If we had someone on the team who could kick like that, we'd never lose!"

"Yeah," Yosuke agreed. "The other team would be too terrified to go out onto the field."

"Shut up," she said, giving Yosuke a shove.

"So, will you do it?" Daisuke asked eagerly.

"I don't know…" Chie said, skeptical. "I mean, isn't it an all boy's team?"

"It's not like we play a lot of big games, anyway," said Daisuke. "It's mostly matches against schools in the area. No one's gonna care."

"Could I… maybe think about it?" asked Chie. Part of her wanted to do it, sure; Daisuke seemed pretty desperate. How bad could it be? But then again, she had never been very good at team sports…

"Yeah, alright. Cool," Daisuke said, smiling at her. "We're practicing on Tuesday after school. You should come by and play with us. Y'know, to get a feel for it."

"Okay," Chie agreed. That sounded reasonable enough. She could try it out, and if she didn't like the game, she could back out. "Sure, Tuesday after school."

"Thank you so much, Chie-san," Daisuke said, overflowing with greatfullness.

"Alright!" Yosuke said, clapping his hands together. "Now that we've settled that, let's eat!"