Hajime Hinata had just moved to Tokyo and he'd be lying if he said he wasn't nervous about starting at Hope's Peak Academy. He had trouble making friends because people found him unapproachable. He was a nice person really but he could be a bit harsh with people at times. As his mother drove him to the school that morning he thought about how he planned to make sure he made lots of friends this time.

"Have a nice day sweetie." His mother said as he got out of the car.

"Thanks mom, you have a good day too."

He shut the car door, took a deep breath and walked into his new school. He took the sheet of paper the school had sent to him out of his bag and set about locating his locker. He eventually found it near the end of a long corridor. He was just shoving stuff inside when suddenly he heard a commotion down the hall. He grabbed his things and slammed his locker shut, running to join the crowd. He saw a kid with brown hair and an ahoge similar to his own standing in front his locker with black paint all over his face and down his front. Everyone in the corridor laughed at him as he wiped his face on his sleeve and turned around to speak with a girl standing behind him. Hinata recognised her as the famous model and Ultimate Despair, Junko Enoshima. Hinata thought about stepping in to help but he wasn't really sure whether this was a friendly or malicious prank. While he was thinking about it the boy covered in paint had picked up his things and left causing the rest of the crowd to disperse back to their previous conversations. Hinata decided he should try to find his first class, knowing that by the time he'd worked out where it was he'd probably just be there on time even though there was a good twenty minutes before the bell rang. He looked at the map he'd been given and began a trek down various corridors looking for room 77-A. Of course the map was completely useless, all the hallways looked the same and he was completely lost. He kept walking just hoping he'd find his way eventually. As he rounded yet another corner he saw a boy in a green coat leaning against a wall and reading a book.

"Excuse me?" Hinata said, approaching the boy. He lowered his books and raised his eyes to meet Hinata's. Up close Hinata was able to see his eyes were a greyish green, almost white colour. He also had fluffy white hair and was maybe an inch taller than Hinata.

"Oh, hello." The boy said. His voice was soft and upbeat.

"I'm a bit lost, do you know where class 77-A is?"

"Ah, yes, that's my first class too, it's just at the end of this hall." He pointed down the hallway. "Are you new here?"

"Yeah, guess it's pretty obvious." Hinata laughed nervously. "My name is Hajime Hinata."

"Nagito Komaeda, it's nice to meet you."

"Yeah you too."

"Oh, you don't have to lie."

"Huh?" Hinata was very confused by his response.

"I know you can't be happy meeting such lowly trash like myself, but I understand, you don't have to pretend you aren't bothered by me."

The young man, Komaeda, was still smiling despite all the self-deprecating things he was saying. It made Hinata feel rather uncomfortable.

"Why would you think that?" Hinata asked.

"Hmm?" Komaeda looked genuinely confused by what he said.

"Why would you think you're trash?" Hinata elaborated.

"Because I am." He replied, speaking as if it was obvious.

Suddenly the bell rang, interrupting them. Komaeda began making his way down the hall to the classroom. Hinata followed in silence, unable to think of anything to say.

He spent the next few lessons half focused on what the teacher was saying and the other half watching Komaeda with curiosity. While he was a bit scared he was also intrigued by the strange teen. So when lunch rolled around he decided to ask Komaeda if he could sit with him. Komaeda seemed genuinely surprised by the question and tried to tell Hinata he'd be better off sitting with someone else but Hinata was very persistent and eventually Komaeda gave in. Turned out Komaeda sat by himself during lunch and didn't have any friends. Hinata wondered if it had anything to do with the weird way the boy acted. He decided to just ask him.

"Why do you sit alone?"

"Oh," Komaeda said in surprise. "Well, everyone knows how disgusting I am so naturally they do not wish to be around me anymore than necessary. Speaking of which, you should probably sit somewhere else Hinata, there are far more interesting people than me in this school and if they see you with me they might think you're trash too!"

"Is that why you call yourself trash? Because other people call you that?" Hinata asked.

"I guess…" Komaeda muttered, his smile dropping off his face suddenly. "I've never had a family you see and nobody's ever liked me so I guess I just came to terms with the fact that I'm nothing but lowly trash." He smiled again, taking a bite of his salad. "It's so much easier to just accept things."

"You shouldn't accept something like that." Hinata protested. "I've also had a hard time making friends because people find me too intimidating but I refuse to just give up."

Hinata looked at Komaeda with determination in his eyes. Komaeda seemed to be contemplating Hinata's words when their attention was suddenly drawn to the table behind them as they heard the sound of laughter. They turned around and Hinata noticed Enoshima and two other girls, one with short black hair, the other with long purple hair, all laughing at someone. The person grabbed their stuff and stood up and it was then that Hinata noticed it was the boy from this morning who'd been covered in paint, Makoto Naegi. He watched as the shorter boy fled the room, obviously upset.

"That's Makoto Naegi." Komaeda said suddenly, not realising Hinata had already met Naegi that morning. Hinata turned back to face him. "Enoshima's been bullying him for years, she's a pretty cruel person all-round but for some reason she singled him out as her favourite, no one knows why."

"Well, well, look at this." A high-pitched, sickeningly fake, sweet voice said. Hinata looked up to see Enoshima and her entourage were now circling their table. Some of the other people at the popular table had come over to see what was going on as well. "The freak finally has a friend?"

"Why would you want to sit with garbage?" A childlike girl with blonde pigtails asked.

Komaeda smiled and ignored their comments. Hinata stared at him, wondering how he wasn't affected by this at all, and it was then that he noticed. While Komaeda kept a warm smile planted on his face his eyes were filled with sadness. Hinata realised Komaeda really was hurt by what people thought of him, he just hid it really well.

"Leave us alone." Hinata said, glaring at the group, for once thankful that his stare was supposedly very scary.

"We're just trying to help." Enoshima said. "You should know that Komaeda here has tried to kill himself at least three times now, but he's so useless he always fails."

The group laughed. They actually laughed at what she said. Hinata was completely appalled.

"How dare you?!" He cried, standing up to face Enoshima. She seemed genuinely taken aback by his actions. "That's not funny so just shut up."

"Oh come on, you're actually defending this freak?" She asked.

"Yeah, everyone knows he's a creep, he worships the Ultimate Hope like a god." Ikusaba added.

"Yeah, he probably has a shrine to them in his room." Said Saionji.

"I— b-bet he does b-blood rituals and every-t-t-thing." Said Tsumiki.

Most of the cafeteria was laughing at this point. There was a large number of people, who, like Hinata, did not approve of the bullying. However, a lot of people were okay with it since it was Komaeda. There was a reason he had no friends. He was already a pretty strange individual thanks to things in his past that he'd rather not talk about and thanks to the exaggerated rumours spread by Enoshima he was feared by almost everyone in the school.

Hinata had no knowledge of any of this, as far as he was concerned a slightly strange but pretty nice person was being bullied and he wasn't going to stand for it.

"Don't call him a freak, all of you need to leave us alone, now." He insisted, hoping his intimidating personality might get them to back down. Saionji and Tsumiki did look a bit unnerved but Ikusaba was stone faced and Enoshima looked like she was enjoying every second of this.

Komeada was both hurt and shocked. The things the girls were saying about him were things he'd heard before many times, but deep down they still made his heart ache. He also couldn't believe someone was actually willing to defend him. He'd already told Hinata how disgusting he was and yet the young man still stood up for trash like him? He felt so overwhelmed, he couldn't take this, he just couldn't. He shot out of his chair and bolted from the room with tears streaming down his face. Enoshima crossed her arms and grinned smugly, pleased that she'd finally gotten a reaction from him. Komaeda had kept up his mask of happiness for years now and suddenly he could be reduced to tears again. She knew it had to have something to do with the new kid. It seemed things were finally getting interesting again.

"So, new guy, what's your name anyway?" She asked.

"Hajime Hinata, not that it's any of your business."

"Aw, you really care about Komaeda?" She simpered.

"He's my friend."

"Really? Isn't this your first day here? How can you be so sure you can trust him? How do you know what people say about him isn't true?"

"Well—" Hinata tried to think of a retort but the words died in his throat as he realised she was right, he really didn't know a lot about Komaeda. Enoshima smirked at his silence, knowing she'd hit the nail on the head.

"It doesn't matter how well I know him." Hinata said finally. "You still had no right to treat him or anyone like that."

With those final words he picked up his stuff and left. He attempted to find Komaeda but the young Hope proved to be allusive. All his search amounted to was finding himself lost in a series of empty corridors. In the end he had no choice but to return to his afternoon classes and he was sad to learn Komaeda was in none of them. He was even sadder to find him nowhere in sight when school finished and he was forced to go home having not consoled his first friend here in Tokyo. He swore to himself that somehow, before the year was over, he'd understand the complex individual that was Nagito Komaeda.