It has been only a couple of months since Shuichi Saihara and the rest of the students woke up from the Killing Game, everyone was reunited and nobody actually died, and after some time recovering in the hospital, everyone was free to carry on with their lives, though everyone chose to keep in close contact.

Shuichi has been living in an apartment with Kokichi Ouma, it was very difficult for the both of them, they were both hurt from the Killing Game and both purposefully left things unaddressed between them, even Shuichi himself was guilty of avoiding being in the same room as him. Eventually this tension was noticed by Kaede who immediately tried solving it by making Shuichi and Kokichi talk, but Kokichi hadn't been around for a while by the time Kaede was going to initiate this plan.

Shuichi put his detective skills to work and found out that Kokichi had run off into the nearby forest, and after a long search with Kaede, he found Kokichi’s checkered scarf tied around a post of a pier in a pond. Shuichi assumed the worst and had been grieving ever since believing that Kokichi wasn’t alive anymore, that he could’ve prevented this if he just made things right with Kokichi.

It was currently at night months later and Shuichi was walking back home when he noticed someone who looked very familiar. After a few minutes of unintentional stalking, Shuichi was able to identify that someone as Kokichi, and he couldn’t help but rush up to him.

“I-I thought you died..!” Shuichi hugged Kokichi tightly from the side while tears dripped down his face as he held back some choked sobs.