"You got this, dude."

Chihiro tried to share the supportive smiles of the four other boys at his back, but he could only manage to muster an awkward upturn of his lips at best. Even with Mondo's closed eye grin, Leon's playful wink, and Hiro's completely unaware yet still ecstatic smile at his back, he couldn't stop the quivering in his shorts and struggling to swallow the building lump in his throat, nor could he quell the cold pit in his stomach.

The only saving grace in the moment was the fact that Taka wasn't able to help add on to the pressure with his boisterous laughter and unintentional insistence to do his best. It wasn't much better then the overwhelming pressure of the boys overpowering support, but it was mildly better.

And what exactly was it they were trying to optimistically encourage him to do? Well, like a bunch of parents trying to push their child to socialize with the random neighbors kid, they were trying to get him to go into the cafeteria where Junko was sitting to talk with her. Normally, that wasn't a problem. She was normally very receptive to conversation and he liked to believe that they got along well enough. However, this time the things his friends wanted him wanted him to say were the reason that he was so overwhelmed by trepidation.

For you see, the conversation they were pressuring him into doing wasn't exactly a topic that he was comfortable with. Nay, if anything it was even farther from his comfort zone then anything he'd dealt with before.

As he glanced at the flash cards that Leon had gifted him, and tried to restrain his urge to cringe with unrestrained dismay that he was being expected to say these things with a straight face. For written on these cards was a series of quips, jokes, pickups, and come-on lines.

So, basically, flirting. They wanted him to flirt with her.

A burning red ran across his face at the very idea. Him? Flirting? With Junko? The very idea was ludicrous. He barely knew how to speak with girls, much less flirt with them. And with Junko? Someone so far out of his league that he might as well be on Pluto to her beautiful Sun? Ludicrous.

Why, oh why, did they think that he could do this? I mean, it would be one thing if he was talking to someone who didn't know his secret, but Junko had known about him for a good while now. It was awkward knowing that he would have to interact with her afterwards if he failed to impress or humiliated himself.

Worse, he'd never just flirted to begin with. He'd always been to caught up in his own insecurities to even begin thinking about the opposite sex, much less try and earn their affection. The fear of being found out had long tempered his idea of even having a friend in the first place, much less find a potential girlfriend.

So, why exactly did they think that this would work? Well…


"Dude, she's totally into you."

Chihiro wasn't sure if the burning was from his injuries acting up and causing a fever, or if it was the shear embarrassment at being told such an outlandish idea, but whatever the case was, his face was hotter then a laptop worked overtime in the summer sun. He could only stammer in befuddlement at the ball player as he stood at the entrance to the Nurse's office with the biggest, smug grin Chihiro had seen on his face yet. It was a sort of smug that he'd only seen on a person when they had fully convinced themselves that they had figured something out that had been overlooked, but was obvious once you had time to look at it from an outsiders perspective.

It hadn't been long after they had arrived and had finished getting their injuries treated that Leon had suddenly sprung this idea on them just as they figured out how to finish getting him wrapped up. It had been an...interesting experience to be topless in the presence of fellow guys as Mondo and Leon wrapped his torso up, but it was necessary. Yes, Monokuma had insisted that he not be wrapped so that his ribs could heal naturally, but after the scare with the hole and all, they decided to be safe then sorry.

Back on the moment, Chihiro was at an utter loss for words as the all-star grinned at him knowingly. There was no way, right? Yet, as he looked from the smug look of Leon to the somewhat jealous yet supportive gaze of Mondo, it was clear that they were both very serious.

"W-What?" He managed to stammer out as he looked between them both in shock. "W-Who…? N-No, wait. What are you talking about?"

"Ah, don't play dumb with us, you little Cassanova!" Leon said as he winked suggestively. "Back up there with Sis? They way she was holding you? She's totally got the hots for you!"

It took him a half second to realize who he was talking about, but the moment he did, his eyes widened and he shook his hands in denial. "W-Wait! What!? M-Me and Junko!?"

"Much as I hate to admit it, I'm jealous." Mondo stated begrudgingly. "How'd you manage to get the hottest chick in the school after you?"

Chihiro stammered in shock at the accusation, but continued to deny it. "N-No! You've got it all wrong! We were just trying to stop you guys from fighting anymore, a-and she was just worried about us! She's not...we're not like that at all!"

Seriously, they weren't that close. Yes, Junko had figured out his secret early on and hadn't judged him on it, and yes she had tried to help him with his insecurities, and yes she had been worried about him when he'd been hurt, and had even saved his life once before when he'd nearly drowned…Okay, so she had done a lot for him thus far, but that didn't mean that she was interested in him like that.

"She's just...really friendly." He explained her actions as best as he could. It was the only thing that made sense to him. There was no chance that she would be interested in someone like him romantically, it made no sense to him otherwise.

Clearly, Leon disagreed. "Nah, man. I've seen what a friendly girl's like, and brother, that's well beyond just friendly. She's practically all over you man!"

"N-No, really!" Chihiro continued to deny the claim. "She's just trying to help me with my weakness. Honest! There's nothing else going on between us!"

His heart seemed to ache as he said this, but he dismissed it as the injuries he'd been sustaining throughout the past few days. What right did he have to think that he could get with someone as amazing as her? What would she find him that was interesting enough to pursue? How would she even consider him a candidate for her love and affections when even out of all of their classmates he was the weakest twiggy runt.

That's exactly right, she wouldn't.

Leon sighed heavily before clapping his hands together. "Okay, see, that. That right there is your first problem, dude. You are way to caught up on all of, this."

"You just gestured to all of me."

"Right!" Leon pushed through. "That's the thing that's holding you back from trying. You are the only thing stopping you from trying to fight for your happiness right now, because you're so caught up on what you don't have, that you can't see what you do have."

If he were a more confrontational person, he would have given the baseball pro a lidded glare and demanded him elaborate. As it was, he only sighed and drooped his head, sarcastically muttering, "Right, because I'm such a catch. Everyone just wants a peace of me."

Leon swung his arm over the smaller boy's shoulder and smiled at him. "Hey man, I get it. Taking the first step is hard. That fear of rejection does hell on your confidence starting out. Trust me, my first few times…Woof. That's all I can say. I was trash, like, straight up."

""Was?"" Mondo quipped, to which he was given a bird and a statement to, "Suck my dick, Motor-ass."

Mondo returned the hand sign. "You first, ball-bitch."

"Point is, I stuck to it and I got better at it, and I'm sure that you can to."

Chihiro tried not to let the words get to him, tried to keep his humble belief that he didn't want to potentially ruin the budding relationship that'd been building between him and Junko. He tried to keep his expectations low, to just accept that he had been fortunate enough to stumble into her vision by virtue of being an interesting enough diversion from her boredom. It took a toll on his self esteem, but it kept him from making any stupid assumptions about their relationship.

... However, he couldn't deny that he hadn't had a few invasive thoughts momentarily slip through the cracks before he could throw them behind his strongest mental firewall. Between the past few days of nightmares, he'd had vivid dreams of them hanging out in various casual environments, like in a proper school classroom together, in a snowy park, on the track field, all sorts of little places together where they could just hang out and talk about various topics together. Worse yet, they were so vivid and realistic that he could almost swear that they were real. Throw in the fact that these also featured the others with them made it feel even more realistic.

The fact that he could imagine them all together so realistically was astounding. If it wasn't for the nightmares that would follow, he'd just about swear that these were really happening. He wished that was real, but then he'd wake up to this waking nightmare that was the killing game.

Mondo interrupted his negative spiral with a thought. "Hang on. Ain't you after that Sayaka chick?"

A deep grimace formed on Leon's face. "Not anymore, dog. I mean, yeah she's hot, like really hot. She got great tits, that's for sure." Chihiro and Mondo raised a brow at that remark, but let him continue anyway. "But, it's just...Look, it's hard to think about being with someone that literally tried to kill you. Believe me, I've tried."

Leon intentionally ignored the judgmental raised eyebrow of the biker as he put his hand on the back of his head and sighed. "And, I mean, I get it. She was in a panic because of Monokuma and his bullshit, and she freaked out a bit. I get it, any of us could have been in that situation, we aren't any better. So, I can handle being friends, but as far as I'm concerned, that ship has burned and sank when she brought out the kitchen knife."

Mondo nodded in approval as a tenseness seemed to leave him. Chihiro could only guess that it was because the biker gang leader had concerns that Leon would do something stupid to impress her or earn her affections. Not an unreasonable concern considering what had happened once before, but he couldn't help but think that it was a little harsh of the biker to bring up such a sensitive topic on the wannabe rock star. However, it kept the discussion off of his own love life momentarily, so he kept silent.

Sadly, it seemed that Leon had other ideas, as he slapped his cheeks, and then turned back to him with that large grin full of misguided support for him. "Eh, doesn't matter. Point is, I'm going to get you hitched tomorrow, or die trying."

"You...really don't need to do that." Chihiro tried to dissuade the idea, his face shifting against his will to show just how uncomfortable he felt about all of this. Sadly, despite his best effort, Leon clearly completely misunderstood what his expression meant though as he stepped close and threw his arm over the smaller teen's shoulder again and flashed him a wink, a smirk, and a light nudge to his sore ribs.

"Don't think you need the help, eh little cassanova?" Leon playfully nudged. "Don't worry man, I get you. No need to say anymore. No wing man required for this little dude."

"That's very much not what I'm saying."

"We'll get you all set up and ready to woe the tiny skirt off of her." Leon stated as he completely ignored the remark. "I'm telling you, by this time tomorrow night, you'll be sharing a night under the covers with Junko, this I swear."


And that was what led him to this point. Him staring down the way to see Junko, dressed as uncomfortably as he could possibly be, and about to try and woo her with the most ridiculous lines he'd ever had the misfortune to read.

Speaking of dress, he wished he had his right about now. Instead, he was now wearing one of Mondo's shorts; though with their height difference they might as well have been regular pants on his much smaller legs. His blazer had also been removed to hang loosely on his shoulders, and his remaining dress shirt had been completely left open to show off his bandaged torso to the elements.

The final change to his appearance was that his mop of hair had been slicked back in what he was told was the wind-blown look, held in place by the hair gel that Mondo had lent him. To make things even more uncomfortable though, Hiro had lent him some kind of cologne that smelled god awful and forced his face into an uncomfortable sneer whenever he caught a whiff of it. No doubt it had been price gouged excessively under some ridiculous scam the clairvoyant had fallen for.

Taka had been somehow both the most and least helpful out of all of them as he had been the one to supply Leon with the cards in his hand and had spent a good amount of his night shift helping the all-star prep them for this. Of course, Leon had made it out to be a lesson plan that he could teach the lonely teen males to improve their dating game. That might have been the only reason that the normally moral teen would allow such a ridiculous thing to happen on his watch.

Regardless, now here he stood, hand full of flash cards, head full of disorganized tips to the current task, and a stomach feeling like it was full of bricks. Yet, the only thing filling his heart right now was an overwhelming dread and the doubt in pulling this off with even a modicum of success. His hands felt somehow clammy and cold, yet covered in sweat at the same time, and his face was even worse. He had no belief that he could do this.

Yet, he couldn't not try with the overwhelming feeling of the three boys encouraging eyes on his back. He didn't want to disappoint them now, not when they had gone out of their way to do all of this for him.

That, and he was pretty sure at this point that Leon wouldn't even hear of the idea of him running from this.

So, swallowing the lump in his throat as much as he could, he took a deep breath to steady himself and stepped into the lioness den.

As promised, sitting at the table with Sayaka was the girl who'd swiped him up at his lowest and given him the steps to begin his journey of self improvement. Junko, sitting there with her head resting on her propped up hand with a look of boredom on her face as she idly leaned her crutch back and forth on it's rubber foot with her unoccupied hand.

He tried not to make any sudden movements as he studied her side profile, or rather, his body locked up as he tried not to draw attention to himself. Like an actor trying to avoid drawing attention from a giant predator animatronic, he instinctively froze in place so as not to alert her to his presence as his mind once more tried to think of a way out of this situation he'd found himself in.

Sadly, it seemed that he was too late. Before he could do anything else, Junko's eye's darted his direction, alerted to the feeling of his eyes firmly locked on her. Sayaka's followed shortly after, but where Junko's filled with confusion at the sight of him, hers filled with mirth nearly instantly as she took in his new look. She covered it near immediately after, but she couldn't hide the pursed smile on her face or the slight jolt of her shoulders as she restrained her laughter a second too late.

Mukuro stared at the sight of Chihiro in his new attire with confused eyes, not having expected this development of all things. She had come out of her dorm at the behest of Leon under the pretense that there was something that he needed to talk to her about. He'd then lead her here, but then took off under a pretense of forgetting something and she had been waiting with Sayaka for the ball pro since. So, for Chihiro to appear instead, and more over looking like that, she had to admit that it certainly threw her for a loop.

She's certainly seen him in outfits outside of a skirt, the school's gym and swimming uniforms came most readily to mind, but this was such a stark departure from what she was used to that she couldn't deny that it had her stunned. He almost looked intimidating if it wasn't for his skinny frame undercutting the delinquent image by a lot.

Was this something of Leon's doing? Or was this something Junko had caused? A quick subtle glance at the entrance revealed Mondo, Leon, and Yasuhiro peeking their heads through as if trying to see something, and being terrible at hiding that fact.

She scowled ever so slightly. What were they playing at? Well, all she could do was wait and play along for now and see where this goes.

It took every ounce of his will to not curl up like a kicked puppy after that blow to his already bruised pride and flee with his tail between his legs. The only thing that stopped him was the fact that Junko held her expression still as she stared at him in confusion, not a hint of laughter on her face.

Sayaka was quick to recover thankfully, and welcomed him with, "Good afternoon, Chihiro. That's a...new look for you."

He resisted the urge to cringe and hightail it out of there. Instead, he tried to focus on what Leon had said.

"Alright, first step is to keep calm and act confident. Keep your back straight, but keep yourself relaxed like you know what you're doing. Make yourself look like you are in charge of the situation and you'll feel like you're in control."

So, he tried his best to follow. He forced himself out of the natural curled in position that he normally stood in, and pushed himself to keep his arms at his side, forcing his chest forward as best he could without aggravating his injuries. It was the least relaxed looking relaxed posed he'd ever felt in, but the others had assured him that he looked better and more confident like this, so he did he best not to let it crumble despite overwhelming urge to curl up and hide under the table.

"Next, you gotta keep your voice level. None of the stammering thing, you gotta say things like you mean them. Pick your words and stick to them, no take backs, no apologizing after. You say it, and you mean it."

"Oh, I was thinking that it was time for a change." he stated as he tried his hardest to keep his voice from cracking under the pressure. "Gotta show off the man inside on the outside, if you know what I mean."

It took far too much of his will to not let the grin on his face crunch at that awful line, but it was the least likely of all of the lines on his flash cards that he felt would get him slapped. It didn't feel like anything like what he would even remotely consider saying about himself, but...

"A big ego mean a lot of confidence, and confidence is a very seductive trait. Doesn't matter is it's a bit exaggerated, girls respect certainty. You gotta show them that you have a little love for yourself, that you're a catch and you aren't afraid to show it. Assume you are desired, and it will be so!"

That was why he bit the bullet and said such a stupid line.

"...Sure?" Mukuro tilted her head as she tried to make sense of what was going on, her eyes momentarily glancing at the closed eye smile of Sayaka for guidance. This was well out of her field of training, she had no idea what was happening anymore and she had no idea how she was supposed to react to this; either as herself, or as Junko. Instead, all she got was a waved hand and further confusion for her effort.

While Junko was doing that though, Chihiro tried his best not freak out. He was already loosing her attention, he needed another line, quick!

"If you're in the same place as someone, you already got something in common; location! Everywhere can be it's own inspiration to woo someone with the right words. Remark on goings on, bring on jokes about foods, quip about time; anything can be a pick-up line if it all comes back to you and your target of affection."

Taking a split second glance at one of the cards, he cringed at the line, but then stepped closer then he felt comfortable and stated, "Is this seat taken? Because it looks like the perfect place for you and me to share."

Junko looked at him completely bewildered even as he used every bit of power in his strangled will to keep from running for the hills as he waited for her go ahead. Fortune favored him though as she eventually gave him a tentative nod. Trying not to sigh in fragmented relief, he took the chair next to her, and then inched it slightly closer. She didn't pull away, which could be a good sign, but she hadn't stopped staring at him.

He glanced at the table, and saw Sayaka hold up her cup of tea to her lips. She wasn't drinking it very fast though, if anything it looked like she was just using it to hide her mirth. Another blow to his ego, but he could work with it.

"How's your tea?" He asked with a slight gesture of his eyes. She glanced down at her own cup, but replied, "It's alright, I guess. A bit too sweet."

Mukuro hadn't really had much of a sweet tooth even before her time in Fenrir. If anything she was more used to the bitter instant coffee or the blander tastes of the rations. She would still take what she could get, she didn't have the luxury of being picky on the battlefield after all, but it still wasn't her preference.

Taking a gulp, Chihiro leaned in slightly closer and stated, "Not nearly as sweet as you."

The sound of a sudden spurt of pressurized liquid came from Sayaka's side of the table, but it went ignored.

Mukuro blinked not understanding what he meant. Sweet? What was sweet about her? Did he mean sweat? No, that didn't make sense. He clearly meant sweet. Was he saying she tasted sweet? Did he taste her at some point? No, she would definitely remember something like that. What did he mean by that then? Why was Sayaka spiting out her tea?

"...Totally!" She could only roll with it with a plaster smile and move on.

Chihiro withheld a sigh of relief. Okay, that one worked, now to try something else. Leaning ever so slightly closer, he briefly glanced at the cards for another line to consider as he thought back to the advice he'd been given.

"I'm not a big fan myself, but every self built person loves compliments about their profession. Just, the validation for the time put in to perfect their craft can do amazing things to loosen the gears."

He wasn't sure what exactly that meant, but he did know that he liked it when people complimented his own work as a programmer. So, now the question was, how best to do that?

He tried to think of something to say, but then the worst thing happened. As he was about to speak, she put her forehead against his own and asked, "Hey, are you, like, feeling alright? You're looking really red. You don't have a fever, do you?"

Seriously, this was beyond unusual now. Mukuro couldn't think of anything else that could explain why Chihiro was acting so strange. Had his injuries been more severe then they'd all thought and caused a mental break? She didn't think that minor level of pain could cause this, but then again she was used to trained soldiers instead of civilians, so who knows how good their mental fortifications were?

She normally didn't care all that much about the others, aside from Makoto she wasn't really close to any of her classmates. Their well beings weren't her concern, nor did she care to make it her concern. However, Junko made a point to make it look like she cared, so she had to play her part.

Plus, the way he was acting was rather weird, especially considering how timid he normally was.

"I-I...duh...It...u-uh." his mind shorted out at the sudden closeness. He had been slowly working his way to reach something like this, but actually being here when he hadn't been mentally prepared to be shorted out his plans.

He glanced back at the entrance hoping for some kind of clue from the other guys, but all he got was a bunch of thumbs up; which, while encouraging, was not helpful in the slightest.

"I'm fine." he eventually managed to strangle out as he leaned back a bit.

His throat clenched painfully, but he tried to ignore it and gave her a shaky grin and turned back to the table where Sayaka was doing everything in her power not to hurt his feelings by suppressing her laughter at his horrible flirting attempts. She wasn't doing very well at it, but the attempt was appreciated.

"…Okay?" Mukuro shrugged, before turning back to her own cup, but was subtly keeping a side eye on him. There was something going on here, she was certain of it, and she would find out sooner or later.

He glanced at Junko momentarily and when she took a sip of her tea, he began rapidly flipping through the flashcards looking for something that could help fill the gaps between his ears. Sadly, it would seem that he'd already exhausted all of the normal sounding ones because all that he was finding were lines that made his cheeks burn all the way to his ears.

'Well, this one looks okay.' the flustered boy thought as he found one that started out fine enough. He didn't get to fully read it though as he had to quickly hide it under the table as she finished her sip and turned with a questioning look.

"What's up?" she questioned, but her saw that her eyes weren't exactly on him. It didn't take an expert to guess that she wanted to know what he was hiding.

"S-So, did you design your uniform yourself?" he tried desperately to divert her attention. If she realized that or not, she did still glance down at her clothes questioningly.

Of course, Mukuro could tell what he was doing. Distracting her from whatever it was he was hiding. Yet, at this point, she figured that, in for a penny, in for a pound. Might as well see where this goes.

"I think they would look better…" He paused to glance at the card and read aloud without thinking. "… on the floor of my… dorm room…? Wait."

A deep crimson ran across his face as he finally registered what he'd just said, and he completely froze. 'Leon! Why would you write this!? Are you trying to get me killed!?'

Mukuro didn't understand what he'd meant by that. Her clothes would look better on the floor? She wasn't an expert on fashion, but she was pretty sure that they didn't look good on the floor. And why specifically in his dorm room? Was he saying that he wanted to try on Junko's clothes and wanted her to leave them there for him to collect later? It wasn't that she minded, but couldn't he find a less roundabout way to ask?

"I mean, I guess I don't mind." She shrugged, but then turned to glare when she heard both Chihiro and Sayaka make a choking sound as well as three sets of hands clapping coming from the entrance way. What? What was their problem? Why where those three idiots giving each other high fives?

Sayaka was the first to recover, and she stared at Junko with wide eyes full of shock. There was no way she meant that like...that...right? No, that wouldn't make sense. One look at Junko's face told her that she truly had no idea what she had offered the poor sweet boy and had clearly misunderstood somehow.

Speaking of whom, Chihiro whole face was burning as he crumpled in on himself. There was no way she didn't know what she was saying, right?

"D-Do you mean that?" he didn't want to believe, he didn't dare dream that it would be going this well. There was no possible way that Leon was right and all it took was a few stupid lines to get a girl to be that interested, right?

This was too soon, too sudden. He wasn't ready, his heart was running a hundred miles a minute and his face was burning. His brow was soaked in a thick coat of sweat and his hands shook like he was having a caffeine overdose.

"I mean, why not? If you want to borrow them, I don't mind." Mukuro shrugged. It was just clothes, she didn't understand why Sayaka was suddenly sighing in relief and the three guys in the hall suddenly groaned. Yet, it seemed to calm Chihiro down a bit.

Chihiro blinked, not fully aware of the world as he came back into focus on her words. "I...Wait, what? Borrow? Borrow what?"

"My uniform?" Mukuro tilted her head, not understanding the confusion. "You asked me to lend you my clothes? I mean, I don't know why you'd want me to leave them on the floor, but hey, I don't judge."

Chihiro didn't understand why, but he deflated at her statement. Oh, she thought… He felt conflicted. On the one hand, obviously there was no way it would be that easy to earn her affections. Especially not her desires, it would be way too simple if that was the case. If it was truly that easy, then anyone could get a girlfriend in a matter of moments, and there wouldn't need to be all of those dating sites out there.

Yet, for some reason, he still couldn't shake the twinge of disappointment, unreasonable as it may be. He didn't know exactly what he was feeling it for, but he could tell it was there.

Putting a hand on his chest, he tried to simply will his heart to calm down. This conversation was bad for his health. If he kept this up, he might actually pass out.

He turned to the entrance one last time, hoping beyond hope that he could stop humiliating himself like this and leave with what remained of his shattered dignity. He oh so desperately wanted to just lock himself in his room, go to sleep, and pretend this day never happened.

Sadly, his friends somehow still believed in him after all of this, With Mondo and Hiro flashing him their supportive grins and Leon giving him a wink and wiggled his eyebrow suggestively as he waved a few empty flashcards expectantly.

Swallowing a sigh, he glanced at Sayaka, hoping that she would offer an out from this nightmare he'd trapped himself in. Sadly, he got no such luck as she swiped her good hand at Junko and mouthed, "Go on." encouragingly with a sweet smile.

For the first time in his life, Chihiro sincerely wondered if having friends was worth it right now.

Never the less, he supposed he was in too deep to just get up and walk away now. Besides, there couldn't be anything in these cards worse then what he'd read so far, right? Surely Leon wouldn't give him any lines more foolish then what he'd said so far… Right? RIGHT!?

He took one glance at the next card, and didn't even stop to actually internalize it before reading aloud.

"...It's too bad about your leg. If we had the chance I would..." it took every ounce of his will power to not vomit as he ground out the next words. "...give you a…different reason to have a limp."

He couldn't even mutter up the will to hide his burning face as Sayaka politely turned away with her good hand covering her own face as her shoulders shook in silent laughter. Turns out, Leon would in fact write something worse. He turned to apologize for saying something so stupid when he froze.

Junko was glaring at him. It was a cold glower, threatening and disturbingly still. His heart that had once been pounding in his ear suddenly felt like it leaped into his throat. He felt like a puppy about be scolded for marking something he wasn't supposed too.

Sayaka froze as well, the mirth that had coated her expression suddenly evaporated like steam on the wind. She didn't know what about that cheeky line had set the fashion model off, but she felt like she was standing before a minefield and forced to watch as clumsy child unfortunate enough to wonder in try to traverse it on their own.

Out in the entryway, the three observers were frozen as feeling of dread washed over them. The air in the room that had once been so lighthearted and even humorous had turned so cold and laced with an air of danger that they had been rendered mute, holding their breaths for fear that they'd set off some unspeakable horror if they made so much as a peep.

Hiro quivered as he felt something eerily familiar about this feeling was over him like an icy tide. He felt like he'd seen something like this before, something that had once filled him with this horror at one point. But like trying to hold the ocean in his hands, it slipped through his fingers no matter how desperately he tried to catch it all.

In stark contrast to them all, Mukuro was completely calm as she considered the situation. Clearly there had to be a mistake, right? There was no way that someone as meek and quiet as Chihiro would say something so… suicidal, right?

"Are…are you threatening me?" Mukuro assumed as her brows creased, very confused. There was no way, right? Even crippled as she was, she knew full well that she could easily snap his neck before he could blink, and while she knew he had no way of knowing that, she knew he had to have enough self awareness to realize how much of a difference in their strength there was. Unless he was trying to throw his life away, he would never do something that asinine normally.

Immediately Chihiro's eyes widened and he all but threw himself back with hands waving in denial. "N-NO! Nonono no! I-I was saying…I-I mean, I was trying to…I mean I didn't…!"

Unfortunately, while he was busy trying to gather his wits and properly explain himself without saying what the implication he'd said actually meant, he'd made the mistake of standing up too quickly and knocked the pile of flash cards onto the floor. Panicked, he tried to grab the cards, but the pain in his ribs stopped him from getting them fast enough before Junko could reach down and swipe a handful of them.

"What's this?" Mukuro questioned as she quickly glanced at the cards. She held out a hand against Chihiro's face as she sat and read, headless of his panicked cries and demands not to look at them.

'Damn girl, you have more curves then a racetrack.' 'I don't care if they're real – they're magnificent.' 'Just call me a light switch, 'cause you turn me on.' 'Are you a pirate, cause your booty is a treasure I want to plunder.' 'You have a boyfriend? Well, if you want a manfriend, I'm open to bring you into my arms.' 'The girls back home all call me an ass kisser. Would you like to see how I got that title?' 'I'm working on my endurance, would you be able to help me in my dorm?' These were just a few of the lines she saw on the cards, and it only served to make her more confused. What in the world was this nonsense? She recognized the handwriting as Leon's, but why did Chihiro have these?

Before she could fully process what she'd seen, Chihiro managed to squirm past her outstretched hand and lunged for the cards. She allowed him to take them, she'd seen all that she needed. She stared as he clutched the flashcards to his chest protectively in an iron grasp.

"I-I… well, t-this is… u-um, I'm… I-I..." Chihiro squirmed on the spot, trying to compose himself and failing miserably. His head felt like it was spiraling and his vision was fogging from the tears building in his eyes. His blood pressure had grown to an unreasonable high and the twisting churning in his guts had grown unbearable. Worse of all though was the overwhelming feeling of shame.

Shame for fumbling so badly at the end.

So, he did what he always did when he couldn't take it anymore.

He ran.

Ran from the girl he'd humiliated himself in front of. Ran past the concerned faces of the friends that had pointlessly hyped him up with unrealistic dreams. Ran into a startled Toko who'd picked a very bad time to leave her room and then passed her bewildered face with barely more then a mutter apology before she could get a word in edgewise. Ran all the way to his room and slammed the door behind him and throwing himself onto his bed before covering his still burning face.

Back in the hall, the three boys looked at each other with cringes full of remorse and more then a little bit of shame. Leon ruffled his hair with a sighed, "...Honestly, he did better then my first time."

"Same." Mondo muttered with a sympathetic nod and scratched his neck as shameful memories came back.

"I hear that." Yasuhiro sighed as well as he put his hands on his hips in disgrace. The three teens sighed once more, bonding silently at their mutual failing to woo the female species.

"…Think we should talk to him?" Mondo finally asked as he jabbed a thumb towards the dorms.

"Probably should, yeah." Leon admitted, and as one the three teens stepped away, bound for the dorms to offer their embarrassed friend words of encouragement and reassurance.

As they passed where the flummoxed writer was still struggling to process what had just happened, Toko sputtered in confusion. She'd just left her room to get something to eat to tide of her body's demands for sustenance so that she could focus on her next opus, when she'd found herself assaulted by a cute little man dressed like an absolute delinquent, smelling like some cross between burnt kitchen grease and freshly vomited cheep booze, and then pushed aside with barely more then a word of apology. She felt that she should be outraged, positively livid even.

However, for some reason, she found herself unusually calm about the situation. As in, a completely irrational amount of composure. Maybe it was the person in question to consider, as she could never find it in her to be mean to Chihiro normally as that felt like getting mad at a puppy, and it was rare to find someone as almost bad off emotionally as she was, so her sympathies were with him. Possibly it could be something about that smell she caught a whiff of that had drug up one of her oh so few good memories of times with her father. Or maybe she had become so irrecoverably furious that she had just come full circle.

Whatever the reason though, she found her face forming into a small smile as a whirlwind of ideas began to form in her mind. A line of drool began to roll down her chin as dozens of story plot lines began forming from the brief encounter and sparking some ideas that couldn't be written down without affecting an age rating.

She hurriedly rushed to wipe off the drool before anyone could see it, and then quickly rushed back to her room, her hunger momentarily forgotten in favor of writing down these ideas before they could flee her mind.

"...What was that about?" Mukuro turned to look at the giggling idol. Instead of answering, her though, it seemed that only made Sayaka laugh harder as she used her good hand to try to cover the worst of it. Mukuro's eyes only grew further confused as she stared in complete befuddlement, completely in the dark as to what could be so funny.

Eventually, Sayaka managed to compose herself enough to speak, and with laughter tickling at her voice, asked, "Did you not get it?"

Mukuro blinked, her head tilted ever so. "...Get...What?"

"He was flirting with you!" The idol smiled as she placed her hand on her chest. "Though, I guess it's more like he was flirting at you."

Flirting with...? Her? Him? What? Her brain struggled to connect the dots and somehow ended up with one plus one equaling pie. It was such a ridiculous mismatch of incompatible parts that the puzzle looked like a mess of pieces from multiple different sets jumbled together.

The first hurtle was that it was Chihiro doing it. Yes, he'd clearly been prompted into it by the boys which would explain the flashcards, but the idea that he would have the courage to go through with it even with that support was so unbelievable that she would have sooner believed he'd throw a live grenade down the barrel of a tank. He was not someone she thought capable of such things, no matter the support.

Second, the fact that he had tried it on her. Or more likely, that he had tried to do it with her sister and had the misfortune to get her instead. A protective part of her mind grumbled in jealous indignation at the idea of having to share her younger sister's attention with another guy, however, she was vastly more confused as to what in the world Junko did to get the small boy to not only build such feelings in the first place, but to try to confess them like this.

That, and a much smaller more traitorous portion of her mind, wanted to know so that she could maybe try using it to earn Makoto's attention.

Third, the fact that she was being flirted with in the first place. If you ignored her time in Fenrir where most of the troops were mostly men far out of her age range to even consider, she hadn't really much experience with guys wanting her attention. Even then, they had mostly be more interested in the thrills of combat and the glory of battle then wasting their time with flirtations beyond a couple very explicit invitations aimed towards the more mature soldiers. Not even specifically the female ones either.

Even when she was in school she hadn't really had to deal with potential suitors because either her demeanor or her title kept people at bay most of the time, and the fact that she was a known murderer usually kept the rest away. The only time she had to deal with this kind of thing were the times that she was doing what she was right now, dressed up like Junko, and at those times she at least had a script or could use Junko's status of being in a relationship to get them to back off.

If they didn't, well, the black market was always available to take unwanted pieces away.

"I take it you didn't realize?" she gave Sayaka a nasty side eye and decided she didn't appreciate her pitying tone whatsoever.

"Gee, did your psychic powers tell you that?" Sayaka just giggled at her scathing sarcasm.

"Oh, I didn't need powers to figure that out."

"Then why didn't you tell me!?" Mukuro snapped with an indignant slap on the table. "Why didn't you say anything!?"

"I didn't want to impose." Sayaka smiled endearingly, which only made Mukuro's scowl deepen. "He looked like he was trying so hard just to keep standing half the time, I didn't want to step on any toes. If anything, I'm surprised you didn't realize."

Mukuro growled as she scowled heavily, and for some reason she felt her cheeks heating up as she crossed her arms in a huff. "I don't get… 'flirted' at a lot, okay?"

Seriously, the only thing she knew of flirting was the passive-aggressive backhanded talk that Junko got into with that neurologist, and the borderline insults and physical punishments she and many of those Junko found entertaining experienced. Hardly the innuendo laden dribble that Chihiro had been parroting at her.

"Clearly." Sayaka agreed, but then tilted her head as a thought hit. "That's surprising though. I thought you would have all kinds of people trying to earn your affections."

'Well, it's not like I was getting the attention.' Mukuro had no idea where that thought came from, but she couldn't deny its accuracy.

"Leave me alone." She whined pathetically. "If you like it so much, then why don't you go after him?"

Seriously, cute as he was, Chihiro just wasn't her type. Well, it wasn't like she actually had considered a "type" to have to begin with, but he wasn't the one that she was interested in. Let someone else have him, she had her own problems to deal with.

"Oh, I couldn't do that to you." Mukuro could just feel the teasing tone on Sayaka's voice. "Besides, I'm not interested in dating at the moment."

That was something that caught Mukuro off guard. "Wait, I thought you were trying to get with Makoto?"

"No, not really." Sayaka sighed as she stared into her cup of tea with a look full of guilt. "He's a great guy, don't get me wrong, but I know that we wouldn't be a good match. Especially not after I used him like that. He might be willing to forgive me, but I don't think I could ever forgive myself."

Unforgivable as it might seem, Mukuro couldn't help but feel a small bit of relief since that meant that it was less competition for her to deal with whenever she tried to make her move. Now the only ones she realistically had to worry about were Asahina and maybe Kyoko.

"And you don't think you would go after Leon?" She offered, and just like that all emotion left the idol's face.

"Not even if I hadn't tried to kill him." Sayaka stated bluntly. Not maliciously, but in a matter of fact sort of way. "We would never work out. He's...nice enough, but he's too invested in this idea that he can get whatever he wants without putting in the effort. Plus, I don't even need to be an esper to tell you that he only really wants to get close to me because he likes my body and wants to use my talents to get him a booty call. I'm a means to an end in many ways to him."

Mukuro couldn't deny that. Say what you will about Sayaka's attitude and personality, but she was incredibly attractive. To the point that she could have easily been a model like her sister and amassed a massive following. Hell, Mukuro didn't even involve herself in fashion culture and even she was aware of how many people who wanted the two of them to do some collaborative photo shoots before the Tragedy.

"Even without that, I'm not looking for a relationship like that anyway." Sayaka continued unprompted. "If I somehow managed to make a comeback in the idol scene, I would have to maintain my status as single if I wanted to keep my fan base. It sucks, but Toko was right when she said the fact is that purity is what sells best. And, if I couldn't get back into the idol scene, I would need to focus on my career regardless. I can't just be a stay at home mother, I'd never feel satisfied living like that."

"I hear that." Mukuro couldn't help but find herself nodding in agreement. She was much the same, she could never see herself willingly doing that either. Being stuck at home was just asking for disaster as far as she was concerned. The idea of settling down just wasn't something she would ever consider unless she had absolutely no choice. She was a front line fighter and she embraced it, lived for the battlefield, loved the thrill of dancing with the reaper, relished the sound of blood pounding in her ears. She didn't think she could ever give that up unless it was for someone she truly felt a bond for.

"So…" Sayaka suddenly leaned forward with an expectant look.

Mukuro raised a brow. "…What?"

"Are you going to ask him out?" Mukuro blinked and her mind momentarily tried to figure out who she was referring too.

"Who? Like, Makoto?" She asked, and Sayaka giggled.

"Nooo, Chihiro!" She stated excitedly as she smiled giddily with a small sound that reminded Mukuro of a squeegee on glass.

"Chihiro…?"


"… I hate teenagers and their stupid hormones."

I groaned as I covered my face with my hands as I slumped my head against the desk of the monitor room. Well, I say that, but the reality was that I'd been slumped over ever since Chihiro first stood next to Mukuro and started slinging Leon's stupid pick-up lines at her. Partially it was because of the second-hand embarrassment I was feeling for him in the moment.

Seriously, what the hell was Leon thinking giving him those stupid lines? Oh, who was I kidding? I knew exactly what that moron was planning to do. He was trying to get his friend laid, that was the long and short of it.

And of course the others would be dumb enough to help because they were now all brothers in arms, bonded by a near death experience. Even if they knew it was absolutely stupid, they would go along with it because they wanted to help their bro get the girl.

Maybe it's because I had never had that kind of bond, but I really didn't understand why someone would be so stupid. Why would you humiliate yourself to impress a girl? Why would you let your friends convince you to do something that you knew was stupid and would only get you hurt in the end? Why were we as a species so quick to fall to peer pressure to maintain bonds even when we knew it wasn't worth it?

Most of all though, how the hell am I supposed to respond to this new turn of events?

Chihiro had feelings for Junko? How? Why? What was the possible reason that he would ever develop an attraction for her? I mean, it's not like she ever acknowledged him before, comforted him when he was sad, supported him in his times of hardship...made him feel like he could do anything.

"… Dammit." I did that. I sighed, but as much as I wished otherwise, I couldn't deny the truth. Hindsight, you are such a bit.

"Uhhhhhh!" I groaned as I dragged my hands down my face in frustration. If I had an observer, I would have probably have looked quite a sight with my eyes rolled back and my lower lids pulled down with a deep scowl.

Now what the hell do I do? I was not prepared for this kind of situation to begin with. All my plans were focused around saving their lives, but now I was stuck with having to wrangle a bunch of teenagers with their complicated emotions and hormones like a bunch of chickens.

I was just trying to be his friend, not this!

Is this what girls have to go through on the regular?

"God. Damn. It. All." I stated as I repeatedly slammed my head on the desk in frustration, the force causing the monitors to bounce ever so slightly away.

I had no idea how to deal with teens and their feelings. I barely understood my own feelings a majority of the time. The one time I'm certain someone had any form of romantic attraction for me, I mistook it as her just being friendly and didn't piece it together till she had all but told me a full year later. I am terrible at figuring out people's feelings in the moment.

Well, positive ones at least.

The real question now is, now that I do know how he feels, what do I do with it? I would have to think really hard on the matter.

I could ignore it. Put it off to the side until I had time to process my own feelings on the matter. It would be the easier option. Safer too since that would mean that no one would have to be hurt by any rejection or misplaced feelings.

I sighed and slumped in my chair. "… But, I can't do that to Chihiro."

He was so brave. Stupid, but brave. Even I could see that he was trying really hard to keep it together and break out of his comfort zone to do that. Even though it ended up with him bursting into tears, he really tried his best. He should be given something for that much at least.

Do I try and reciprocate the feelings? I don't know. I don't even know what my own feelings for him are, so how can I possibly return them?

Then there's the fact that I don't even know if I'm technically single or not since I don't know if Matsuda is even alive. I assume he's dead since he only shows up in a side novel and I believe he dies in it, but without knowing for sure what past me changed I have no way of proving it one way or another, and it would be incredibly awkward to start dating someone only for him to turn out to be alive somewhere.

Then again, I don't even know if I was that close to Matsuda either. Even reading what I have in his journal only proves that he thought I was interesting to him from a scientific standpoint. That, and the fact that I was stuck inside his actual girlfriend was a sticking point.

"… Screw this." I finally decided as I pushed my chair back and stood up. "I'm never going to figure this out sitting on my butt."

I know well enough that if I just sit around stewing alone I won't be able to figure anything out. I needed to talk to someone if I was going to evaluate this situation properly.

I quickly made my way through the vents and into Mukuro's room to gather up the other crutch, then stepped out into the hall. As I expected, the three dimwits were all gathered in front of Chihiro's dorm trying to figure out the best way to cheer up their friend. Thankfully with their backs towards me. Carefully I closed the door as silently as possible to avoid drawing attention, and silently snuck behind them and their little group huddle.

"… Maybe we should grab him some beer and have a boys night?"

If the other two weren't giving Hiro a lidded glare, I would have been. No, wait, I was before I even realized it.

"Dude..." Leon deadpanned, and it took a stupid amount of time for Hiro to piece together what faux pas he was talking about. When he did though, he at least had the decency to look ashamed.

"Oh, right… there's no alcohol here." Never mind, he's still an idiot.

"I'd be down for a boys night." Mondo wisely pushed on. "We could get the other dudes and just spend the night in one of our dorm rooms, make a time of it. Might cheer the little dude up."

"Yeah, but what would we do about the drinks?" Leon countered. "We got a crap ton of chips in the warehouse and the store, but it's not the same without soda. And I'm not going to ask Monokuma for some."

"I hear that." Hiro sighed despondently. "He'd probably get some of the cheep store brand stuff, or some off brand drink that tastes like cough syrup."

"Think we should get Makoto to talk to him?" Mondo suddenly offered, and the other two gave him a look.

"I don't think even he could get that bear to do anything." Hiro stated, and Mondo gave him a small bop to the back of his head in response.

"Not the bear fuck, I meant Chihiro." Mondo turned back to the door and crossed his arms. "Dude seems to be pretty good at this kinda thing."

That was as good an offer to interrupt as I was going to get. "Nah, move over. I'll talk to him."

"Oh, thank goodness… wait." Hiro sighed in relief, but then they all froze up as they processed my voice and their wide eyed gazes snapped to me as one.

"J-Junko…!?" I rolled my eyes at their panicked confusion and immediately covered Hiro's mouth to preemptively shut down any stupid comments.

"Move." I stated plainly and clearly. That was all they needed to hear, as the other two wisely stepped to the side and left plenty of room for me to drag Hiro to the side by his face.

On an unrelated note, his stubble has started to soften. Just something I'd noticed.

Anyway, I brushed past them with nary a word further and opened the door. Limping my way in, I stopped for a second to give them a quick glare, stopping them in their tracks. They'd looked like they were going to try and follow me in and attempt to help, but I didn't want to deal with their nonsense right now.

Closing the door, I quickly latched the door behind me, and turned to look at the sorry sight that waited for me. There he sat on his bed, his back to me as he slumped over with his face buried in his pillow on his lap, so lost in his own little world that he hadn't even heard me coming in. I exhaled, but I pushed past the irritating feeling of guilt and stepped closer.

Keeping the crutch close, I allowed the carpet to muffle the sound of my steps as I walked over. I stared for a short while, awkwardly shuffling as I waited for him to notice, yet also not wanting to be noticed at all. I opened my mouth to say something, but froze before I could utter a sound.

I definitely jumped the gun coming here so soon. I didn't know what to say. I barely had any idea on what I was even supposed to do in this situation. Maybe I should have just left it up to those three to figure this out, let them suffer the consequences of dragging Chihiro into this ridiculous stunt to begin with.

Yet, as I looked at him I couldn't help but feel like I should be the one to do this. I don't know why I felt that way, Mukuro was the one who made him break down and those fools were the ones who'd pushed him to begin with.

Yet, with nothing to say, all I could do was sit down and wait for him to be ready. There was a good four feet between us, yet I couldn't help but feel like I was too close even if moving further away would result with me flat on my butt on the floor.

Chihiro slowly pulled his head out of his hands at the bed's sudden shift, and he slowly turned his head to look at me. My stomach clenched at the sight of his red eyes and puffy cheeks, a result from heavy crying. I could feel my expression soften sympathetically as he stared through me for a good moment before suddenly giving me a double take and then stared at me in panic.

"J-Junko!" He stuttered as he rapidly glanced to the door and me in an unspoken question.

"You left your door unlocked." I explained plainly. He sighed in embarrassment at forgetting, but then began to squirm uncomfortably.

"W-what are you doing here?" He finally muttered, turning away with shame.

"I wanted to make sure you were okay. You did kind of take off after all." I stated softly.

"Oh. Right." he went silent after that, and he turned away with his thoughts. I allowed him to, my own thoughts still muddled and unfocused.

Eventually though, I couldn't handle the silence anymore. "Wanna talk about it?"

He shook his head, and I honestly couldn't fault him. It's hard for him to talk about his feelings at the best of times, and now he had to talk about something personal and toward the person he had feelings for.

… I couldn't do it. I thought that it would be best to say it now before it could get to this point, to tell him the truth about me and my tentative status of being in a relationship. Yet, looking at him like this, I couldn't bring myself to do it. I knew that I should cut this off before it could get out of hand, part of me just saying that I should rip the bandage off and get it over with.

However, I knew I couldn't do that when I looked at that depressing sight of him sitting there, looking fit to cry from all of the bull he'd been dealt today in such a short time; and I for one don't blame him for it. Boy's been put through the ringer both physical and mental several times these past few days alone, and today might have been the worst of them so far. So, who am I to kick a man while he's already down?

I sighed, and laid back on the blanket with frustration with an ungraceful flop. He glanced at me with in confusion, but said nothing. I tried to keep myself quiet as I stared at the roof, but I eventually got sick of the silence. So, I just said the first thing on my mind.

"… How do you tell if you're worthy of love?" I could feel him shift and stare in confusion and shock, but continued. "How do you know if you should be loved in the first place?"

"I… What do you mean?" He asked, but I didn't have an answer for him. I feel silent as I thought to myself. What did I mean by that? It was just the first thing that popped into my head. But, now that it was out there, I probably should talk about it.

"… I thought I was in love, once, and there was a time I never realized that I was loved once. When I was…" I tried to remember the details of Junko's story. "I think I was eight. I met this boy on the beach close to my house. He was really sad, and he looked really lonely. I didn't see any parents, so I thought he was there all alone. And, like, no one should be sad and lonely at the beach, right? So, I asked him to help me make a sand castle based on the Sagrada Familia church. He said he didn't want to, but I dragged him into it anyway, and after a while he was more into it then even I was. It was so much fun, and he had a cute smile."

I didn't actually know if that was the case, it had been a while since I had read the novel so I could be misremembering some details. But I was pretty sure that was somewhat close to the right details.

"Sadly, we both had to go home before we could finish, so I made him swear to come back tomorrow so that we could finish it together." I held up my pinkie finger and wiggled it for emphasis. "He grumbled and said he'd have to think about it, but he still did the promise with me."

I let my smile fall, "But when we showed up, it was gone. Completely destroyed."

"What?" he whispered in horror.

"We were young, so all I could do was cry. But him? He saw footprints in the sand, and guessed that someone must have stomped it out. He got so angry that someone would do that, that he swore he would find them. He and I spent almost all day asking around, trying to find who did it. But we couldn't find any witnesses. Eventually, the sun started to set and we both went home, but he felt so bad about wasting our time together that he promised me that he would come back and help me build it all again."

I moved my hands to weave my fingers together. "He did it too. Even went out of his way to get his own pail and shovel. So, with a healthy layer of sunscreen we went to work building it up again, only this one would be bigger and better then ever. We put in so much effort, I think one of us started to bleed."

"That…" He was clearly trying his best to decide whether that was cute, or sad that we would have to put in that much work to redo our work like that to that level. That or questioning how we could end up bleeding from making a sand sculpture.

"Sadly, we still couldn't finish it. We both planed to come back in the morning and finish it together… but when we got back, it was destroyed again."

He startled and leaned closer in offense for us and our undermined efforts. "Again!? That's horrible! Why would someone do that!?"

"Eh, it was what it was." I shrugged. "For all we knew, maybe the tide was washing it away and no one could tell afterward. We were kids, no one was going to care about some silly sand castle."

He finally turned to look at me fully, his eyes so sorrowful and sad. "I'm sorry that you had to go through that."

"Hmm? Oh, don't be. I was the one destroying it." I said it so nonchalantly that it took him a while to process what I'd said.

His head snapped up and he stared in shock. "W-what!? You were… Why? Why would you do that!?"

"To get him to keep coming back." I smiled back as his jaw dropped. "After all, he promised to keep coming back until it was finished. So, if it's never finished, then we get to play everyday, right?"

He stared at me in shock as I snickered. Of course, that was what Junko did after all. She was willing to destroy her own work if it meant pushing forward another plan. Setbacks were just another way to build the foundation of something else.

"But, there was another reason." I admitted as I looked back at the ceiling. "It was to help him grieve."

"Grieve?" he asked, and I gave a sad nod.

"Yeah. See, his mom had just passed away a few days before." He gasped, but I continued. "I never met her, but I heard some of the gossip mongers at the beach talking about it. Something about a brain tumor or something, I don't know. Something in her brain I know for sure. Point is, she'd died, and he wasn't handling it very well. So, I wanted to do something to take his mind off it for a little while. That's all."

"Oh." He relaxed a bit after that, but then he decided to unintentionally stab me where it hurt the most. "So, you've always been nice."

Oh, you sweet summer child. You don't know how wrong you are. "I'm not that nice. I've broken a person's heart before too."

"How?" He asked, and I sighed. Well, I showed him a side of Junko's and it didn't seem to set off any alarm bells, might as well show him a side of myself and see if it could get him to see the darkness.

"It was stupid. See, I used to go to karate classes growing up, parents wanted me to learn self control and all that, and there was this girl I would be partnered up with a lot. She was taller then me, thin as a rail though, but despite being older she always had this whole air of self consciousnesses."

He sat up a bit straighter, but I pretended I hadn't seen it. "I'd like to think that we got along pretty well. Despite being older then me, I was a higher belt then her, so I was always taking the lead during class. But she didn't seem to mind, in fact she really liked giving hugs before we'd depart. I thought she was just a nice sweetheart."

I put my hands behind my head to help support my neck, it was getting uncomfortable laying like this. "Then one day she suddenly invited me to come visit her place. The way she described it made me think that we were going to be just having a hangout with her friends at her apartment, and to be fair, they were there for a while. Asked me about myself, my likes, dislikes... my relationship status... But then they suddenly left for the mall about an hour in and left the two of us alone."

"Why would they do that?" He asked, not understanding, and I don't even blame him.

"Oh boy, I wish I'd asked that question then. But, back then I was just so happy to have a friend that I didn't think about it too hard. We even had a whole karaoke night with some musical movies. It was fun."

I sighed, "Honestly though, I should have realized what was happening when she asked to cuddle up against me for warmth despite it being, like... twenty eight Celsius." I almost used the Fahrenheit measurement there. Had to really stop and think for that correction. "But I still had this idea in my head that we were just being friendly."

It took him a few seconds to piece together, but once he did, his eyes widened and he covered is mouth in shock. "Wait… You mean, she…!?"

"Well, you figured it out faster then I did." I smiled bitterly. "It took me an embarrassingly long time to realize. I'd even gone home that night, still had a curfew after all, and my parents asked how the date was, and all I said was, "What date? It was just a friendly get together.""

His jaw dropped, but I still had one more bombshell for him. "I never pieced it together till months later. The Dojo I was in moved locations shortly after, and I couldn't keep going. So we stopped seeing each other for a long time. The next time I saw her was at one of our sensei's funeral where she had a month year old in her arms, and she briefly mentioned how much she missed me, and thought I would have made a good parent for her child. That was when it finally clicked. It took over a literal year, and her holding a baby, for me to piece it together. Talk about blind, right?"

"O-Oh…" He faltered, but then tried rather sweetly to justify it. "Well, at least you were still trying to be her friend."

"Oh, it gets dumber. Before I left the dojo, she approached me and told me that she and her mother would be moving to a cheaper apartment. Said that she'll really miss me and that she thought it would be cool if the two of us could have been roommates. And you know what I said?" He shook his head and I bitterly laughed. "I said, "Well, I hope it works out for you."… guess I'm what Hifumi would call the oblivious lover troupe, huh?"

He stared at me with a drooping jaw and I didn't even blame him. "I still remember her heartbroken expression to this day. At the time, I didn't think twice about it. I only thought she was sad to part ways with a friend."

"I would have been too." He sighed and put his hands together. "I've never really had any friends, so I probably would have thought the same."

"Right? It's so hard to make friends, and there's always that fear that one of them will jump to conclusions and try to turn it into something else before you're ready." He nodded along for a moment, but then he blinked as he fully registered what I was talking about and then a fresh wave of embarrassed shame painted over his face.

"I-I'm sorry." I waved off his apology with a lazy hand.

"Eh, don't even worry about it. Even I could tell that those three stooges out there were the ones to set you up to that."

"Y-Yeah, but still..." He trailed off for a moment, falling silent for a moment as he gathered his thoughts. Then, he apparently decided to bite the bullet, as he took in a deep breath, and started to monologue.

"I've… never had any real friends growing up. I did have a few people who'd talk to me and we'd hang out at school, but we'd never really… do anything together. I was so weak that couldn't play outside with them much either."

"Yeah, you don't seem the outdoorsy type." I commented, and he nodded.

"That's when I discovered that I was good at programming computers. I had so much fun doing it too, I would spend hours of my free time just experimenting with coding, testing algorithms, figuring out ways to improve upon the existing codes and even making my own." The soft smile that started to form suddenly faded. "But… it also made it harder to find time to improve myself."

"I'll bet." I quipped. "Can't really build up muscles and get swol sitting in front a computer screen all day."

"No, you can't." He agreed sadly. "I was only ever happy when I was working on some sort of program, and after a while, I just started to... stop spending any time with people. I would rather just… escape into my work then deal with people… deal with the bullies."

"Ah, you too, huh?" I sighed. Honestly, children are so cruel sometimes for all the wrong reasons. There is never a good reason to tear someone else down, but they'll do it anyway because they think it'll make them feel better about themselves. They'll prop themselves on a pillar and try to knock others off of their own pillars. It's revolting, but that's just what happens.

He stared at me, clearly shocked by the idea that I would ever have to deal with bullies. "… Don't give me that look. I'd be more surprised to learn someone didn't get some jack-a-hole picking on them at some point in their life."

"… Jack-a-hole?" He asked with a raised brow, to which I held up a pair of fingers.

"Put two S's on the solo A." as I let my hand lazily flop onto my stomach, he took a moment to do as I said. Once he did though, his face flushed slightly as his hand flew to his lips guiltily to cover a laugh.

"Junko! Nooo!" he tried to admonished me, but the laughter on his voice betrayed him. I couldn't deny that it made me smile back in return.

"There's that smile." I teased as I poked his side and caused him to giggle and jump as he lightly swat at my finger.

However, fun as this was, a whiff of his body caused my nose to curl as I was reason I was here in the first place. "Woof! So, want to tell me why you're dressed like a dollar store hooligan and smelling like a dude-bro after he rolled in ambergris?"

Seriously, what the heck was that? I know that some people claim that cologne makes guys smell good, but I have never once met someone wearing that stuff that actually smelled even decent. And that's not even mentioning the women who feel like they have to put on half of the freaking perfume bottle. It smells revolting!

And Chihiro clearly agreed as he barely lifted his arm before slamming it back down with a grimace. "Uh… I don't know. It's dumb. Everyone seems to think that I needed to get into a… they thought that I wanted… I don't know..."

"Hey, don't stress." I patted him on the back. "You can talk to me about anything. Just take it one word at a time. Gather your thoughts. Relax."

He tensed up a bit when I touched his back, but he still followed my instructions and took some deep breaths before slumping a bit.

"I just… I wanted to change myself to become something… I don't know. I wanted to be someone stronger. And they were trying to help me, so I just..."

"Went along with it?" I offered, and he could only nod. "Yeah, sounds about right. I swear those three have the dumbest ideas some times. Let me guess, they said that the best way to boost you're confidence is to get a girlfriend, right?"

Once again, he could only nod with a burning red coating his face. I sighed exasperatedly. "Ugh."

"S-sorry." he muttered sadly.

"Hey, don't sweat it." I nudged him as I made to sit up and grabbed my crutch as I went. "And hey, I might not know what the future holds, but I know that right now, you're fine as you are. Don't be so quick to change that you forget what makes you special to start with."

He nodded, but it was pretty apparent that he didn't quite believe that there was anything special about himself at all. I understand that, it isn't easy to shrug off the weight of years of people harping on about your insecurities. You could have all of the talent in the world, but it doesn't mean anything if you don't have any confidence to use it.

Hmm. Well, I didn't want to do this so early, but he clearly needed some sort of win today. I sat up straight, and then leaned to my side and all but flopped into him. He sputtered in shock and nearly fell over from the sudden weight of a taller girl on him, but to his credit, he managed to hold up for the most part. His face was inflamed by the sudden closeness, but he managed to hold up.

"W-W-What…?" he sputtered, but I pushed on.

"Keep quiet." I whispered into his ear. "We don't want our peeping tom to know what I'm about to say about your little electronic ace up your sleeve, do we?"

He stiffened up, but gave me a small nod in understanding. "Good. Now, the next chance you get, go and see them. I think you'll find something amazing waiting for you."

Once more he nodded, and I gave him one in return. With that, I pulled away, ignoring the way he shuttered and I stood up with my crutch in hand. I smiled and gave him a little wink.

"And hey, if we make it out of here, I wouldn't mind getting a coffee somewhere… Now, do us all a favor, and go take a bath. That shit freaking reeks." I limped off towards the door with one hand waving in front of my nose even as he sputtered at my back. Like many other things I've had to deal with thus far, I ignored the guilt for lying to his face like that as I left.

I might not know their futures, but I knew enough that I wouldn't be in it.

Yet, that didn't stop me from staring death when I opened the door and the three stooges all collapsed to the floor. They at least had the decency to look guilty from their prone positions. I stared at them disappointingly all the same though.

"O-Oh, hey Junko!" Leon tried to play it off by posing naturally. Or as naturally as he could being sandwiched between a hobo and a biker. "Come here often?"

"Considering who's room this is, I wouldn't think so." I quipped before stepping past them. I considered using them as a rug and stepping on them, but at this point I think they would have enjoyed it.

Thwack "GAH!"

Didn't stop the foot of my crutch from smacking Leon in the knee though.

"Oops." I deadpanned. "Maybe next time you try showing someone the ropes, try showing them by example so they don't repeat this traumatizing nonsense again, all right? Or better yet, be a proper wing man and get in there yourself instead of standing around like a creeper, you limp noodle."

"R-Right." they shrunk under the pressure of my glare and Leon turned to Chihiro sheepishly. "Sorry 'bout that, dude."

"Yeah, that's our bad." Hiro muttered sadly.

"Still did better then I ever did." Mondo grumbled as he sat up with a hand on his head. I gave a light slap to the back of said head, and though he glowered at me for it, he did turn to Chihiro and apologized as well. "Sorry."

"N-No! It's okay!" Chihiro waved his hands in denial. "You were just trying to help. I'm really happy."

"Okay, I'm done." I through up my hands. "I'm washing my hands of this nonsense. You guys can do your circle jerking apologies without me."

As I walked through the door though, I quickly turned and snapped my finger towards them. "Speaking of which, I mean it, go and take a freaking bath you degenerates! It smells like someone died in here!"

I slammed the door behind me with a grunt. I somehow knew that once they got over the shock of being called out like that, they would go right into trying to get Chihiro to start spilling the details of what happened and making outlandish claims of what they think went on between us. Yet, I refused to care any further.

I was going to go back to my room, and pretend that this situation never happened. Maybe grab myself a coffee, talking about it made me kind of crave a cuppa.

"Oof!" I was suddenly cut off mid thought when I bumped into someone. Stepping back, I made to apologize when I saw who exactly I ran into. "Whoops. Sorry Celeste, wasn't watching where I was going."

"Think nothing of it." She slapped on her fake smile without a thought, but I could see the way her eyebrow twitched. "You seemed to be rather preoccupied."

"Something like that." I decided right there that I don't like her fake grin. On the screen it was annoying, but tolerable because I didn't have to interact with it. In person though, where I could tell it was fake, it made me feel like grabbing her face and pulling it off to see if there was another face underneath it.

Of course, then she had to put on a very poignant gaze at where I'd just come from. "If it isn't an issue, might I inquire as to why you're coming out of Chihiro's dorm room?"

I on the other hand was not impressed with her so called inquiry, and made sure my face reflected as such. "Chihiro has had a bad day, in no small part thanks to the three stooges as I'm calling them now. and I was just cheering him up a bit."

Her eyes widened and a very cheeky grin formed on her face. "Oh my! I knew you were close, but I didn't think that you were so… intimate with one another."

I heavily rolled my eyes at her teasing and groaned loudly as I limped past her. "Not. Like. That. God, you've been hanging out with Hifumi for too long. You're starting to become as filthy minded as he is."

Seriously, why is everyone so quick to think randy today?

I was so pissed now that I didn't even think about why she would be in the dorms so early in the day. I didn't care that she seemed stiff or that she was so quick to defect my attention with accusations. I just went straight back to the dorm, dropped the crutch, and went back to my computer room without much thought else wise.

I would come to add that to my long list of regrets later.


Welcome back everyone. This might be the last chapter before we start getting to the real danger of a new crime. I wonder what Celeste is planning? Her old plan has long been scuttled by now, so how could she possibly cause problems down the line? We'll have to see.

One thing I feel should be addressed is that fact that people seem to be thinking that I'm one to ship without thought. That isn't the case. While I do enjoy the idea of seeing possible non-cannon relationships happen, I still prefer there be a level of connection that seems reasonable. I get that things like love can be rather erratic, but I also believe that there has to be a connection for it to go anywhere. There has to be trust.

I don't know about the rest of you, but I don't think I could hold any real trust with someone that tried to murder me, nor would I expect them to trust me in the vise-versa. There might be some lingering lust if we got that far, but I very highly doubt I would let them get close ever again.

In any case, who wants to see some of the lines that never got into the script?


Omake: Chihiro's many alternate Flirtations.

"Um...Your father must have been a mailman…because you've got a great...p-package."

"No. He was a soldier actually."


"Okay...I want to wash my...laundry on your...abs..."

"That doesn't seem very practical. I think you should stick to the washing machine, they're much more efficient."


"If it weren't for the sun...Oh come on…You'd be the hottest thing ever created."

"I'm actually not, I checked my temperature this morning and my fever is doing much better. Thank you for asking though."


"Would you...Oh, jeez…caress me so that I can tell my friends I've been touched by an angel?"

"I don't have any feathers on me at the moment, but if you can find a feather duster I guess I could use that."


"I hope you know CPR, because you...take my breath away."

"Didn't we already establish this already?"

"Oh, r-right." He turned away with burning ears.


"I don't know you, but I think I love you."

"Did you hit your head again Chihiro? It's me, Junko."

"N-no, I..." Chihiro sighed despondently. "Never mind."


"You know, I'm licensed to carry these guns."

"Oh, good. I thought I was the only...Oh, wait. Never mind."

"What?"

"What?"