Nagito had stopped showing up at school.

For the first week, this was normal. Nagito was prone to freak accidents. He would be back. And then he wasn’t. Two weeks, three weeks, four…

You became worried. Most of the class pretended not to care, but you could tell they were curious too. Yukizome-sensei gave you his house number to call.

A housekeeper answered the phone. ”You’re… a friend of Komaeda’s?”She sounded surprised. Then she said something that made your blood go cold. “Komaeda-San isn’t here, I’m sorry. He’s been in the hospital for a few weeks now. His cancer’s come back.”

Cancer. And dementia, too. You never knew. He never told you.

So, here you were, face to face. Nagito sat in bed, an IV containing treatment dripping into his arm. He looked confused.

“Oh… hello. I wasn’t expecting to see you outside of school.”