Naegi sat alone in the cafeteria after all the others had trickled out, staring down into a cup of tea. It was strange to realize it, but for the first time since he'd found himself trapped here at Hope's Peak, he had nothing to do. None of the others had looked like they wanted to spend any time with him – well, except Togami, of course, but Naegi couldn't let himself think about that.

Yesterday had been bad enough, after everyone in the school had confronted him. When Togami had left the chemistry lab in a rage, Naegi had hoped that would defuse the situation enough that he'd be able to talk to the others and explain what had happened – but it hadn't worked. Kirigiri had swept out just moments after Togami had left, acting like she couldn't even hear Naegi's attempts to get her attention, and Hagakure had bolted when Naegi tried to approach him. Fukawa had sent him a poisonous glare – but Naegi knew he probably should have expected that, after kissing Togami right in front of her.

Asahina had been the only one who'd waited to talk to him, and that had only been to ask him one question. "So now that you don't have him hanging over your shoulder, are you still going to accuse Sakura?"

"I'm not accusing her!" Naegi had protested. "I don't think she wanted to betray anyone, and I believe her now that she says she's on our side!"

It had been the wrong thing to say. Asahina had glared at him again, clenching her fists. "So you're still sticking to that story you and Togami made up together. Fine." And with that, she'd stormed off, too.

Thinking back on it now, Naegi could think of a hundred different things he could have said – not just to Asahina, but to all of them. If he'd said or done something else, maybe it wouldn't have turned out like this. He hadn't even considered that the others might get suspicious if he and Togami started spending so much time together – but maybe he should have. Maybe he should have realized what it would look like from the other side, and tried to make sure they would all understand.

Maybe he shouldn't have done it at all. Starting up a romance in the middle of all this killing – it was a little selfish, wasn't it? Everyone else had been worrying about the murders and the trials and the mastermind, and he'd been thinking about Togami. He'd even been repeatedly late to the one daily meeting everyone had agreed to, because he and Togami had been together. They'd all probably been afraid something had happened to him, just because he'd been too caught up in his new feelings to let them know he was okay.

No wonder Kirigiri was so angry with him. She'd been working so hard to try to find out more about the mastermind, and he'd just stopped helping. And then when he'd finally had a new piece of information that she could have used, he hadn't told her about it.

He'd thought that telling people about the possibility of a spy without asking Ogami first was wrong – but after everything that had happened, he wondered if maybe he'd been mistaken. Maybe if he'd told Kirigiri and Togami everything from the start, the situation could have been resolved without all the fighting. Or if he'd been so sure he shouldn't tell anyone, then maybe he should have stuck to his principles and refused to tell Togami anything, either. If he'd tried to talk to Ogami alone, like he'd originally planned, then Monokuma wouldn't have been able to make it look like he and Togami had been keeping secrets from the others.

Naegi sighed, taking his undrunk cup of tea to the kitchen. With all the what-ifs and worries churning around in his head, the thought of adding any food to the nausea in his stomach was too much to bear. He might have been able to drink some of that calming herbal tea Togami had made him yesterday – but when he pulled it off the shelf and caught the soft scent of the tea leaves, the sudden memory of Togami handing him the cup nearly brought him to tears.

The whole cafeteria suddenly seemed too oppressive to stand another minute, and Naegi turned away and hurried out. He couldn't just sit there all day.

He wasn't sure what he could do, though. On his way to breakfast, he'd thought that maybe he would try to get Kirigiri to talk to him for a minute, so that he could try again to apologize for making her so angry – but that plan had been dashed when she'd gone off with Togami. Asahina had left soon after, looking miserable, and Hagakure had run out hot on her heels, muttering something about not wanting to be alone with a suspicious person.

It didn't seem fair that no one would talk to him – not when that had been their threat to make him separate from Togami. But on the other hand, Naegi supposed he couldn't really blame them. He'd been the one to lose their trust, just like Kirigiri had said, so he had to earn it back. He just wished he knew how he could.

At a loss for anywhere else to go, Naegi drifted back to his dorm room, wondering if maybe a short rest would give him some inspiration about what to do next. But when he opened the door, he frowned at the sight of his bed. It was still a mess from a couple nights ago, when he'd slept in it while covered with dirt and blood from the hidden room. He'd forgotten about it until after curfew last night, and since it had been too late to do anything about it with the water turned off, he'd ended up sleeping on top of the blankets.

He probably ought to do something about it now, though, before he had to go through another night with filthy sheets. He could just hear Togami's outrage and biting remarks if he found out about it. Naegi smiled a little as he gathered up the dirty sheets. As an afterthought, he grabbed the clothes he'd been wearing that day, too, since they were equally dirty. Might as well do it all at once.

No one was in the laundry room when Naegi headed in – which made sense, since Kirigiri wasn't sitting in there waiting on Alter Ego any longer. It was a little disappointing, but at least he wouldn't have to wait to use one of the machines. He dumped his clothes in a washing machine and sat down to wait.

At least the machines didn't take too long to run. By the time Naegi had skimmed through a couple articles in the magazine abandoned on the table, the washing cycle was done, and he could throw everything into the dryers. At the last moment, he remembered that the last time he'd done laundry, it had taken a long time for everything to dry together, so he pulled out his fluffy hoodie and put it in a second machine to dry faster. Since no one else was using any of the dryers, he figured he might as well. Then he sat back down and picked up the magazine again.

This time, instead of reading the articles, Naegi flipped open one of the fashion spreads. Junko Enoshima smiled back up at him, lovely and vibrant, and it made him sad to see. She'd been the very first one to get cut down, before he'd even had a chance to get to know her. What would she have been like? She hadn't wanted to play along with Monokuma's games – maybe she would have been a stabilizing influence on the rest of the group. He supposed they'd never know now, though.

Finally, the dryers buzzed, alerting him that they were done. With a sigh of relief, Naegi went over to retrieve his belongings.

First, he pulled out his hoodie, giving it a critical examination. While his room had, rather disturbingly, come equipped with several versions of his original outfit, he'd only had two of the hoodies. He supposed that made sense, since they were technically outerwear, but that did mean he'd prefer to keep them both in decent condition. And unfortunately, while the dirt had come off of this one, Naegi could see that it was still torn along one arm, where he'd hit the floor.

He sighed and tossed it onto the table to deal with later, turning to the second machine instead. But when he tried to open that dryer, the door stuck under his hand. He frowned, tugging at it again. No result.

He bent down to squint at it, trying to figure out what was wrong. It was hard to tell, but it looked like one of the buttons on his jacket had gotten tangled in the door, clamping it closed.

Naegi groaned, leaning his head against the top of the dryer. How had that even happened? Broken machines, broken clothes – it seemed like everything he touched was getting destroyed. He was even leaving broken trust and broken hearts in his wake, like a walking disaster infecting everything around him. Lottery or not, he didn't think he had any business being called the Ultimate Luck – not with the way everything was going for him right now.

There was really nothing for it, though – if he didn't want to sleep on a bare mattress, he was going to have to figure out how to get the dryer door open. He gave the door another yank – but no, it was still stuck. What he needed was a way to untangle things. If the gap in the door were just a little wider, maybe he could reach inside. Or maybe if he had something long and thin –

And then the obvious idea occurred to him. A screwdriver would be about the right size, and he did have one of those conveniently to hand. It was only the work of a moment to run back to his dorm room, grab the unused toolkit from his drawer, and hurry back.

The screwdriver was a little bit thicker around than Naegi had expected, and it only slid partially into the gap in the dryer door. He tried to wiggle it around to knock the tangled button loose, but it didn't seem to be working quite the way he'd hoped. Well, of course it wasn't – what was going the way he wanted these days?

In frustration, he kicked the dryer, trying to see if that would do anything to help. It seemed like the button might have moved a little, so Naegi tried it again, hitting the dryer repeatedly with clang after resounding clang, rattling the screwdriver around in the door.

"What are you doing in here?"

Naegi jumped at the sound of Asahina's voice, dropping the screwdriver with a clatter. He spun around to see her standing in the doorway, looking rather puzzled, and he went a little red at the realization of just how much noise he must have been making.

"I – uh – I was trying to get the dryer open," Naegi said, gesturing at the machine. "It got stuck. Sorry, I didn't mean to be so loud. I'll try to be quieter."

"That would be good." Asahina looked like she was about to turn to leave, just like everyone else had every time they'd been faced with the possibility of being alone with him – but then she hesitated, looking back. "Do you want some help?"

Naegi brightened. It wasn't exactly an offer of friendship and renewed trust – but he would work with what he could get. "That would be great!"


Author's Note: As I went to post this, I came to the shocking realization that this will be the 50th chapter of this story. I can't believe it's been going so long! I definitely did not expect this story to continue this far when I began, but it's really taken on a life of its own.

I normally try not to put too many notes in these chapters, but I wanted to take a moment to thank everyone who's been following along with me during the story so far. This story is a lot of fun for me to write, and I really love seeing that other people are enjoying it as well. Thank you!