Merry Christmas, everyone! I had some trouble writing this chapter, but here I am with another update! XD

Remember how I said I was dreading writing Komaeda? Well, I found another character I have no idea how to portray: Chiaki. I was completely stuck on what to make her say. Heck, how do I portray any of these characters? DX

Well, on with the story.

With the reality and sheer ridiculousness of his situation crashing down on him at full force, Hajime decided it would be best to lock himself in his cottage until he managed to collect his thoughts and think of a plan. Unfortunately, pacing around the room while thinking, "What the hell am I supposed to do?" did not seem to be the best way to think of a solution, and eventually Hajime slumped down onto his bed, his head low.

The only other plan he could think of was to get Monokuma to turn everything back to normal, and Hajime was pretty damn certain that had an even lower chance of success than asking Usami. Monokuma wanted to cause murder, despair, and he wasn't going to stop his insane plan just because Hajime asked nicely.

Hajime decided, sighing, that locking himself inside and worrying for the rest of the day wouldn't solve anything. He didn't like the idea of just sitting around and waiting for the worst case scenario to hit him. It was too soon to give up, after all.

Going for a walk seemed like a good idea—the fresh air would help clear his head, and at the very least Hajime would feel like he was being productive. Now with something to do, Hajime stood up and made his way to the door.

After walking aimlessly for a few moments, Hajime found himself at the ranch. The cow that had once been a chicken was grazing in its usual place like any normal cow would, and it paid Hajime no mind as he wandered past it.

A crash and a series of swears came from the left, and Hajime turned to see a clearly furious Fuyuhiko, glaring as he dusted himself off and stumbled to his feet. Various materials were scattered along the ground; Hajime could only assume Fuyuhiko had been carrying them back to the restaurant but tripped and dropped them.

"Are you going to stand there all day or are you going to fucking help me with this?" Fuyhiko had noticed Hajime's stare as he knelt down to pick up everything he had dropped, and Hajime, deciding to forget about his Monokuma related problems for a second, sheepishly hurried forward to collect the fallen materials. Fuyuhiko seemed to have found much more than him today, a wide range of flowers and grass and some odd things that Hajime couldn't identify. They agreed to both carry the materials, and they started on their way to the restaurant in silence.

Though he tried not to notice, Hajime knew that Fuyuhiko was staring at him. He wasn't being completely obvious, simply looking at Hajime for a few seconds at a time and turning away when he felt his gaze had lingered too long, but the reason for his stares was clear. Hajime sighed inwardly.

"Hey, Hinata..." Fuyuhiko finally said. "You look, um, different today."

"I've been told."

"Did you do something to your... face?"

"No."

"Really?" Fuyuhiko seemed confused. "But you're— I mean you look really—" He shook his head. "Forget it..."

Hajime had to admit, he was starting to feel a little bad for Fuyuhiko. The yakuza heir obviously had no idea why he was suddenly attracted to Hajime, and if Monokuma's words were true then it was only going to get worse.

An idea came to him, and Hajime began to wonder how plausible of an idea it was. As far as he was aware, hardly anyone had paid attention to Monokuma at the party besides himself. While everyone had probably heard a few bits and pieces of Monokuma's 'make everyone fall in love with Hajime' threat, it seemed Hajime was the only one to hear the whole thing and now understood what was happening. So, what if he told everyone about Monokuma's plan? It would let them realise that whatever they were feeling was fake, and even if that didn't stop the problem completely they could try to consciously fight their change in emotions. Maybe that would buy them more time. Hajime was surprised he hadn't thought of this before.

"Kuzuryuu,do you remember what happened last night?" he asked, turning to Fuyuhiko, but before he had a chance to continue another voice came from behind.

"Kuzuryuu!" It was Kazuichi, sounding more than a little nervous. He had hurried forward and was now walking at their pace. It might have been his imagination, but Kazuichi seemed to be trying his hardest to avoid Hajime's gaze. "I'm glad I ran into you. Can we talk?" He glanced towards Hajime, and his cheeks took on a slight pink tone. "Um, alone?"

"If you haven't noticed, I'm busy right now," Fuyuhiko said, nodding towards his armful of materials.

"Yeah, but... Please? Something weird's going on and I really really need to talk to someone about this."

After a few seconds of silence and pleading stares from Kazuichi, Fuyuhiko relented with a sigh. "This better be important," he muttered, and he pushed his materials into Hajime's already full arms, ignoring his squawk of indignation.

"How am I supposed to carry all of this back?" In response, Hajime only received an apologetic, "Well what else am I supposed to do?" look from Fuyuhiko. With that, Kazuichi all but dragged Fuyuhiko somewhere in the opposite direction of the restaurant, and Hajime was left to to his increasingly difficult struggle of not dropping any of the items. He gritted his teeth and trudged forwards.

With arms weary arms, once Hajime arrived at the restuarant he dropped everything onto the nearest table he could find, not caring if anything delicate could break. He was so relieved at having somehow made it inside without losing everything that he didn't even realise he wasn't alone.

"Oh, Hinata-kun." Chiaki was sat at the other side of the room, looking up from handheld game console. "You finished early."

"Yeah," Hajime said, unable to keep a wary tone out of his voice. "Are you the only one here?"

"Yep. I wanted to wait for everyone to get back," Chiaki said, and her attention immediately fell back to her game, surprising Hajime. That was nothing like how the others had been acting.

"Hey, Nanami," Hajime started slowly, "do I look any different to you?"

Chiaki looked up at him again, squinting as if trying to find a genuine answer to that question. She tilted her head.

"Is your hair supposed to be more spikey?"

"No, it isn't." Hajime stared at her, feeling a growing yet tentative sense of relief. "You're not falling in love with me."

She blinked, obviously confused, but Hajime was too deep in thought to explain his words. Chiaki seemed unaffected by Monokuma's spell. Of course, there was always the possibility that the spell affected some people slower than others, but Hajime was willing to grasp at whatever good news he could find. Why, then, didn't it work on Chiaki? She had gone to the party like everyone else—

Hajime remembered Monokuma's words: "Every person in this room will slowly start to fall in love with you." Did that literally mean that only the people who were in the room at the time were falling for him? After all, Chiaki had been downstairs, fast asleep, when Monokuma enacted his plan, and now she was the only one Hajime had seen so far who was acting as she usually did.

It seemed Hajime had found a loophole, a flaw, in Monokuma's plan. Anyone who wasn't in the room was not affected by Monokuma's spell. Hajime smiled to himself. If this was true, it was reassurring to know he would have some help in this situation.

"Nanami," he said, "I need your help."

—Chapter end.