Hope's Peak Academy was a big place. That was what Souda told himself. It was a big place, full of people, and not all of them had time for him. He could accept that. He leaned back in his chair, tinkering with a small mechanical dog. It wound up to walk, but also contained a small circuit board that allowed the machine to move its eyes and make barking noises. He as working on getting the tail to wag, too, without looking. He knew he could, but it couldn't hurt to learn to make it happen just a bit faster.

A couple of other students walked by, laughing to each other as they cast glances in his direction. Souda frowned and turned away, his fingers just working at the small automaton. He told himself he was worrying for nothing, someone would like him…

He earned his place in this school. He had worked hard, honing his mechanical skills, working in his father's garage when he wasn't around starting with lawn mowers and cars and working more and more complicated. Just because his parents said he wasn't good enough, didn't mean that they knew anything. He had made it to Hope's Peak, hadn't he? And though he hope it would prove to his parents that he was worth something, they had mired in the view that his skill wasn't even one that was very valuable, with the other kinds of geniuses that went there. He might was well have been a reserve student, not that they'd throw away money for his tuition.

Souda finished with the tail and wiped his hands on a handkerchief, which he stowed in an inside pocket of his school jacket. He was always careful not to even get the smallest smudge of grease on his uniform, which he kept meticulously clean and pressed. Even if he wasn't worthy of his position at Hope's Peak, he could at least look the part.

A school bell rang for lunch, and Souda stood, gathering the robotic dog in his hands. He walked out of the classroom where he had been in a study hall and into the hallway, which was filling with students on their way to the cafeteria. Souda sank into his shoulders, allowing himself to seem even shorter than he already was, to drop out of the eye level and hopefully the attention of anyone who would bully him.

This did not work, however, as the small machine in his hands was swatted to the ground, where it broke into a few pieces. Souda looked down at it for a moment before glancing up at the person who had knocked it away from him. He almost brushed the imperious boy's hair with his nose, the way it protruded from his head.

"M-mondo Owat-ta…" uttered Souda, feeling himself tremble.

"Hey, bumbly fuck, look at me," said the taller boy. Souda had been averting his eyes, but Mondo grabbed his face and pointed it at his own. Souda could feel his eyes filling with tears. "Fuck, don't cry. Jesus, it's embarrassing…" He let go of Souda's face, shoving him away slightly as he did. Souda wiped away the tears with the back of his hand, but more welled up to replace them, blurring his vision.

"I need you to look at my fuckin' bike later, okay? You're supposed to be the best at that kind of shit, and it's rattling in a way I can't' figure out." Souda responded with a weak nod, and Mondo walked away, toward the lunchroom. "You better fuckin' be there," he said, turning and walking backward as he did, pointing directly at Souda as he did before turning to disappear into the cafeteria.

Unable to hold back the tears any longer, and almost alone in the hallway not that most of the other students were at lunch, Souda slumped against the wall, sobbing. The tears flowed freely, cascading down his cheeks. His chest heaved, and wiping away the tears with his hands did nothing to clear his eyes. He wasn't even respected by his classmates—they were supposed to be his peers, but they didn't care about him. They didn't think his talents were worth anything. He was there to be bossed around and used when necessary. Nobody wanted him there, he just was.

He couldn't even get through a conversation—one conversation, one confrontation—without totally falling apart. How was he supposed to be liked if he was, like Mondo had put it, a "bumbly fuck"? He was useless, and…

He felt a touch on his knee, and he instinctively jerked it back, holding up his hands in defense. He took a deep breath in, stopping his sobbing as a means of defense against whatever touched him.

"Are you okay?" asked a voice. It was soft, and light, and kind. Souda moved his arm from in front of his eyes, slowly, blinking at the girl squatting down in front of him.

"I-I'm…" Souda choked back another sob and wiped away the tears again.

"Don't worry," said the girl. "I've seen you in class. What's your name?"

"K-kazuichi Souda," he said, looking away as he frantically pushed away the last of the tears. When he looked up, the girl was handing him the pieces of the broken mechanical dog.

"Well, Souda, I'm sorry those assholes treat you like this. It's not fair." She placed the broken robot in his hands. "This thing looks really neat. Did it walk?"

Souda nodded, sitting up straighter. He pushed the parts of the dog together, the way that they would fit if they had never been broken apart. "The tail wagged, too, and some o-other stuff…" He trailed off, breaking eye contact as he did. "I've built ones like it a million times," he said. "It's fine that it's broken."

"It's not fine that he broke it, though," said the girl. In an instant, she had leapt to her feet. She held a hand down to Souda. He stared at it for a moment before taking it and allowing the girl—who was stronger than she looked—to help him to his feet. "I'm Junko Enoshima," she said. "And you just stick with me. Trust me," she looked him in the eye, with a sly smile. "You'll do great things." She took him by the hand into the cafeteria, and by the time they got inside, Souda realized that he even had a smile on his face.