All it took was your dying phone and obsession over a mere video game to get you two to connect. You weren't the type to talk to Kemna. He was one of the quieter guys in class, the one who barely looked up unless a teacher called his name. Always hunched over some screen, face half-hidden by his hair, sometimes an earbud in.

But desperate times call for desperate measures, and your battery was inching toward death in the middle of your longest grind yet. You'd been playing this game for days to get this far and there was no way you were going to let it all go to waste just because of your phone battery. So, you turned in your seat and asked Kenma for a charger, just 'cause you figured he'd be the only one who brought one to school anyway.

Maybe it was the urgency in your voice, maybe it was because he recognized the look of panic only a fellow video game player would understand, but he just blinked and reached into his bag, wordlessly handing over a charger like it was no big deal. The lifeline plugged in with a soft click, and just as you exhaled in relief, he tilted his head slightly and caught a glimpse of your screen.

You weren't just playing some random casual game. You were playing his game. You mained one of his favorite characters. You were on his favorite stage. Your health bar was a pixel away from critical, and your strategy? Honestly, not half bad. Something shifted in the air after that, something subtle and quiet, like the beginning of a side quest you didn't know you'd accepted.

It didn't take long for your occasional game talk to become routine. Whenever teachers gave the class a breather, a free period, anything, you and Kenma would silently migrate toward each other like muscle memory. You'd lean against the wall or settle into the corner desks, screens tilted just enough for each other to see.

Neither of you were sure where when the lines blurred. Maybe it was the way he started waiting for you outside classes you didn't have common with each other. Or how he started offering you the earbud he wasn't using. Or how you started sitting together at lunch. Or maybe when he nearly missed the bus because you were both locked in an intense PvP round and he didn't want to let you lose alone.

It was weird how natural it all became. His dry remarks balanced your reactions, how your skills in any games you played together synced like a second nature, how easy it was to fall into your own little two-player world even when surrounded by thirty other classmates. And Kenma never plays duos, not with anyone. Anyone but you, of course.

It took him a while, but eventually, even Kenma couldn't ignore how he looked forward to seeing that little green dot light up next to your username, signaling that you were online. And he never said it out loud, not unless he had to, but he started noticing things like how your laugh sounded different depending on if you won or barely survived. Like how you stayed using the same character even when the game was updates and new ones came out. He liked that. He liked you.

It's a random afternoon when your last class of the day, another class you had together, ended early and the sky outside was heavy with rain. You sat behind him on the floor near the back of the classroom, the sides of your arms touching, his hair occasionally brushing your face when he turned to look at your screen.

He doesn't look up from his screen when he speaks up, thumbs still moving, hair falling a bit over his eyes. "You're actually kind of good." He comments, and you're not sure if he's talking about your skills regarding the game you both or playing or something else. "I didn't think you'd stick around this long. Thought you jus' needed my charger and would never talk to me ever again."