Closed starter for @calystegiaidol
It’s been a strange day from the beginning. Despite ostensibly becoming a member of the Investigation Team, none of them could completely forget Yu’s previous behavior. None of them except, apparently, Kanami Mashita. The brunette has suddenly decided, after the Scooby Doo gang rescued her, that she wants to be his friend. Despite his best attempts to drive her away, she’s been completely implacable, to the point of refusing to let him stay at Junes by himself after a team meeting.
Whether by fate or coincidence, that’s why she’s present when Yu is approached by someone he never expected to see again: his best friend from his old school, a tall, handsome senior named Shouta. Calling one-another Natto-kun and Dorayaki-paisen, the three of them eat and sit and talk for hours on end. Yu opens up in a way he hasn’t since coming to Inaba, showing a quiet kindness and dry wit.
And then the other shoe drops.
“What about you? Did you finally get University-senpai to notice you?” Yu smiles wryly, resting his chin on his fist.
“...actually, Natto-kun, I wanted to talk to you about that.” Shouta’s voice is quiet, but there’s a measured tone to it. Rehearsed, almost.
“About what? You didn’t get expelled for cheating, did you?”
“C’mon, I’d have to get caught before they could expel me. I passed the exam with flying colors. It’s... something else.”
“What kind of something?”
Shouta looks down at his hands, and squeezes them together, his face a mask of... something hard to read.
“Come on, Paisen, don’t leave me in suspense.”
“Dad got laid off a few months ago, and I had to break into my savings to help keep us afloat. Tuition’s due next week, and I’m thirty-thousand short.”
Under the table, Yu clenches his hands into fists. He swallows, trying to keep his tone casual, but there’s a sudden strain in it that there wasn’t before. “...what are you asking me?”
“I’m not expecting you to just give me that much money, I’ll get you back before the end of the semester. You know I’m good for it! Remember the bike? The one you-”
“Stop.” Whatever casual humor was in his voice before is gone without a trace. This is the Yu Narukami that Inaba know. Cold, terse, and almost completely emotionless. “Is this why you came to Inaba?”
“It would have been pretty shitty to just send a text, right? I wanted to see my favorite kohai again, I-”
“I think you should go.”
“Come on, you know how important this is to me. I’m sorry we fell out of touch, we can-”
“I’ll think about it. Leave.”
Shouta opens his mouth to respond again, but wilts under Yu’s glare, and departs. Yu stays perfectly still, staring at the empty space where he’d been sitting.
“You, too, Mashita. Nobody wants you here.”
