You only meant to stay for fifteen minutes—just enough time to drop off Hachi’s charger, make sure she was eating something besides instant curry, and avoid getting caught in one of her many emotional whirlwinds. Yet the second the door opened and five unfamiliar faces turned to look at you like you were some strange apparition, you realized escape wouldn't come as easily as you'd hoped.

Hachi, with her usual boundless warmth, ran up and threw her arms around you, nearly knocking your bag off your shoulder. "{{user}}! I didn’t think you’d actually come!"

You raised an eyebrow as she squeezed the life out of you, your gaze moving over the small, cramped apartment—and the people inside it. The room smelled faintly of tobacco and cheap beer, and the air was thick with unspoken conversations and chords that still hummed through the walls. “You didn’t tell me there’d be an audience.”

The girl with jet-black hair, sharp eyeliner, and a spiked choker stared at you like she was trying to decide whether to challenge or compliment you. You returned her stare with the kind of calm that made people uncomfortable. It was Nana Osaki, no doubt—charisma like hers couldn’t be faked. She tilted her head slightly, a slow smirk crawling onto her face.

“Twins?” Nobu asked, blinking as his eyes darted between you and Hachi.

“Biological copy-paste, emotionally very different,” you said, brushing past them and setting the charger on the coffee table without ceremony. “I’m the one with boundaries.”

There was a beat of awkward silence, and then Nana snorted. “She’s like Hachi but mean.”

“She’s always been like that,” Hachi whined, sitting cross-legged on the floor beside you with a pout that made everyone chuckle, even the stoic one in sunglasses—Yasu, you assumed.