"Alright Komaru, see you tomorrow."

"Yeah," the girl nodded weakly. "See you later."

Another normal school day.

Another normal afternoon.

At this time of the day, she would be going to the convenience store to buy the latest weekly magazine, get some drinks, and stayed there for a while without doing anything noteworthy. But somehow, today she didn't feel like doing any of it.

She'd rather think.

Komaru Naegi was just an ordinary middle-school girl. Her whole life she had been in a constant life of normalcy, yearning to be just who she wanted to be as long as she was happy. Her favorite music would be what would be trending right now, and her favorite clothes consisted of which clothes were in season this month. Generally speaking, Komaru Naegi sounded like the epitome of a boring girl, or at least, that would appear to be in her own eyes. The standard was just too high for everyone in the world she was living in today. If you were not born, or worked hard to be an ultimate since birth, you had almost no chance of true love.

Everyone was secretly gunning for the recent ultimate added to the list of students in the roster. Sometimes, normal people couldn't even gun for an ultimate, because laws of nature seemed to dictate that two ultimates were made for each other. Her brother Makoto Naegi and her new big sister Junko Enoshima for example, were made for each other, even though she felt that they were total opposites of each other.

Her feet took her somewhere quiet and tranquil. A fountain circled with benches around it. Five roads led to the fountain, and at each side of each road were planted with various trees and plants, it was as if she had arrived at a garden inside a mansion. As her mind wandered off into the thoughts of trespassing, she saw someone hidden behind the fountain's shadow. It was evening already. Time seemed to fly by when you were not paying any attention. From the back, she saw a boy sitting weakly, slumping his shoulders as if defeated. Peeking cautiously, his eyes were almost devoid of life. The boy was in a state of constant pondering, and probably wouldn't have stopped if Komaru hadn't asked him what was wrong with him.

"Hey, are you okay?"

The boy's head jolted back in surprise and his eyes blinked, confirming the situation.

"Yeah, I'm alright," Hajime took a deep breath. "You shouldn't scare someone like that."

"Oh, did I scare you? I'm sorry."

"N-No, it's fine, really," the boy laughed weakly. Noticing something different, he looked around his surroundings. It was already evening. Accepting the fact that things hadn't went as he had planned, he sighed. "Well, I have to go home now."

"Oh, alright then," Komaru nodded. "Are you sure you're fine already? I'm a bit worried here."

"Yeah," the boy nodded, smiling. "Yeah, I'm fine now. Thanks."

The boy gathered his bag and picked himself up. Righting himself, Komaru hadn't noticed it before, but the boy before her was taller than her. In awe, Komaru was tripped by the sudden gust of wind and was caught by the tall boy, making the middle-schooler blush uncontrollably for a second and panicking. Her hand went crazy and pushed the boy in the black blazer with so much force that the tall boy tripped on the bench and flew into the fountain's pond. To the bafflement of the onlookers.

"Great, just my luck," the boy sighed. He inspected his sleeves first, but then realized that his wallet and smartphone were now submerging on green water. With a quick movement, he pulled out both of them in an instant and threw them at the dry girl outside of the pond. "Think fast!"

"Whoa!" Komaru screemed as she reflexively tried her best to caught the launched objects. The wallet was caught in one try, but the smartphone needed some extra movement because somehow, it always tried to bounce itself uncontrollably in her palm. "W-What do you think you're doing!?"

"Well, what do you think you are doing!?"

"I-I'm sorry. I was not used to touching with boys," the middle-schooler looked down. "F-For now, let's get you out of the water! Come on, take my hand." With quick movement, she placed her knee on the pond's pavement and stuck out arm as far as it could, palm wide open.

The boy blinked for a while before chuckling. He took the girl's hand and pulled her inside the pond, making a big splash. As the middle-schooler surfaced from the water, she quickly turned her head to the now laughing boy and growled menacingly. The onlookers were now moving away from them as they felt that they would ruin the mood... or because they didn't have time for any crazy shenanigans. Either way, Komaru Naegi was pissed.

"Why the heck did you pull me inside the pond!?"

"Because now we're even," the boy turned to the girl, saw something as he focused on her head, and began to grin. "There's something on your head."

Komaru reached for her head and found a frog croaking in her palm. Instinctively, she squeaked and tossed around in the pond, her mind in a state of constant panic and confusion. "Get that frog away from me!"

"It already jumped," the boy's laugh became louder and louder. Komaru grumbled as she stood up, scooped a plant into her palm, and threw it square into the boy's face as it made a loud "splat" noise. As the plant slid down from the boy's face, he cracked a smile and rushed for the girl and splashed water straight into her face with both of his hands. "Oh you're going to get it now!"

"Bring it on!"

And thus, began a war for water superiority. It was a contest of both endurance and skill. They were both hit by a constant volume of water, and there would be a time where they should avoid hitting the other party too hard with water and avoid making any body contact. It was the most basic of psychological warfare. Whoever ran out of stamina to hit the other party first, or whoever made a body contact first, will lose.

In the end, the contest ended with both of them too tired to move and opted to just float on the still water instead. Without them knowing, the sky had already turned night with stars adorning the sky. The cold wind had set in on them, but they both didn't care for their adrenaline had been keeping them warm for a while, even in cold temperature.

"Hajime Hinata."

"What?"

"That's my name," Hajime sat. "You're pretty good, miss."

"Komaru," the girl sat beside the boy, grinning from ear to ear. "Komaru Naegi."

"You're pretty good at this, Miss Naegi."

"Oh please, just call me Komaru," laughing, the girl slid closer to the boy. "In return, I'll call you Hajime."

The moment was right and tender, and Hajime seemed to realize it as he slowly slid away and focusing his vision somewhere else. At that moment, Hajime realized that the girl before him was, well, a girl. He wouldn't say it out loud, but she was a cute girl. Judging from her uniform, she would still be in middle-school, and he wouldn't want their relationship to go past this point, but... but there was something at the back of his head that seemed to goad him into thinking otherwise.

It was loneliness.

It was worthlessness.

It was his lack of self-worth.

Maybe, just maybe.

Hajime looked at Komaru again. His gaze focusing intently on her eyes. Noticing that, Komaru flinched and looked to the side. Even though her sight wandered off for a while, she was surprised when she looked at Hajime again and her eyes met with him. At that instant, she could feel something warm beginning to race faster and faster inside her. She began to lean closer into Hajime and so did Hajime into Komaru. Slowly and steadily, their distance became closer and closer, until it was only a hair's breadth away.

"Alright, stop right there."

Both of them instantly jumped and turned around.

"Good grief. High-schoolers shouldn't be easy and try to score a kiss from a defenseless girl like that. You should have at least take her to dinner first before you bed her in the pond. Talk about having no class," it was a voice Komaru knew far too well. "And you, Komaru, I thought I told you to have more class with who you want to shag with," it was the voice of big sis Junko Enoshima herself, now in her very annoyed mood. "Come on, let's go home and dry yourself. You, fuck-boy. Come with us back home. We'll have a talk there. And don't you try to feign ignorance, Hajime Hinata, I won't let you desecrate my little sister without my consent."

Komaru gazed at Junko, realization kicking in as she mumbled.

"Junko..."

"Come on, stand up both of you," Junko tapped her feet irritably. Hearing that, Komaru and Hajime stood up and went to gather their stuff. After they were both ready to go, Junko sighed as she lead the way. "Makoto's been worried sick about you, you know. And here I am, finding you playing water-flirt with fuck-boy."

"Um... I'd appreciate it if you would stop calling me that."

"Oh?" Junko turned around, grinning evilly. "So, would you like to be called a lolicon instead?"

"Hey!" Komaru screamed.

"I-I'm sorry."

"You don't have to apologize for that!" Komaru turned to Hajime with an expression as if she was at the edge of tearing up. "My body does not look like that of a grade-schooler!"

"Well, your chest does look like that of a grade-schooler," Junko said with full intention to stab her self-esteem. "Face it Komaru, if you don't start rubbing them now, they won't grow to be as big as mi—"

"Shut up, shut up, shut up!"

Junko Enoshima chuckled.

Their long walk home should be savored as long as she could.

People saved: Chisa Yukizome