"-and then Ibuki started running as she heard weird gurgling sounds!" Yelled the girl with the weird hair, making sound effects as she was telling her story.

Some people in the cafe looked at her strangely, but considering the last 30 minutes had consisted of this, they seemed to get more and more indifferent by the second.

Even so, Hajime was seriously regretting his life choices. Namely, the one where he agreed to hang out with 3 ultimates. He tried refusing, he really did, but puppy eyes were strong and dangerous weapons. Especially when used by a certain gamer.

So, try as he might, he ended up agreeing to hanging out with them. And now he was subjected to Ibuki's strange and bizarre stories, not to mention the embarrassment of being stared at by every person in the cafe at one point or another.

The person that got him into this wasn't even paying attention to the loud girl, tapping away on their phone with a small smile on their face. Hajime thought that it would be only fair if Chiaki was put through the same grueling situation he was in, but it seems that would not be the case.

The albino sitting next to him and listening to Ibuki's stories with attentiveness wasn't helping either. Hajime wasn't sure if anything embarrassed Nagito, and he also wasn't sure if he wanted to know what those things could be.

What he did know very well, however, was that the boy was not embarrassed of making weird comments on hope and luck, while also complimenting the other ultimates at every opportunity. Like now.

"As expected of the Ultimate Musician, you heard the sound of danger and evacuated before anything could happen!" Said Nagito with an amazed look on his face, beaming at Ibuki who grinned back.

Hajime could say that the luckster might've had good intentions, but Nagito was undeniably weird. He was an okay guy though, (at least, when he started to not insult Hajime every 2 seconds. The first time they met was rough...) so Hajime shrugged it off, like always.

The comment only got more looks from everyone, and it didn't even stop the girl from continuing. Hajime could only sigh in misery.

"Ibuki ran into the hallway, and as she looked back to the toilet- BOOM!" She raised her volume suddenly, making Hajime and some of the surrounding people flinch. He shrunk back as the customers glared at his group, but the trio didn't seem effected in the slightest.

Nagito's cheerful expression was still in place and Chiaki glanced up for a moment, but her eyes fell back on her phone soon enough.

Hajime's eyebrows furrowed at the sight, and he unconsciously blocked out the continuation of Ibuki's story.

Chiaki was the Ultimate Gamer, so it should have been normal for her to look at her phone all the time, right?

Well, that's what Hajime and (unknown to him) the entirety of class 77-B had been telling themselves these last 4 weeks. And whenever they asked, she did say she was playing video games.

But that didn't really sit right with Hajime. He was no Ultimate Detective (or any ultimate) but the expression she had when she'd play games was different than the one she had while looking at her phone. She seemed less focused and intense, and more...

"Whatchu smiling at, Chiaki?!" Apparently done with her story, Ibuki leaned in close to Chiaki's face, asking the million dollar question.

Chiaki, who had been staring at her phone since the beginning of their little get-together, jumped at Ibuki's loud voice and looked at her in confusion.

"Helloooooo?! Don't tell me you're going to ditch my fantabulous stories to talk with your boyfriend?!" Ibuki said with a scandalized gasp. It was obviously exaggerated so they all knew she wasn't serious (when was she, really?) and the gamer only looked at her blankly before looking back at her phone.

After an awkward pause, "...he's not my boyfriend." Chiaki said calmly, going back to (apparently) texting.

"So you are talking to someone?" Nagito asked with a tilted head, looking everything like a curious puppy.

Chiaki nodded wordlessly, and ignoring Ibuki's shouts of "I was half right?! Ibuki was half right!" Hajime raised an eyebrow at the quiet girl.

"Well, if you were, why did you lie before?" He asked, feeling a bit grumpy that she was willing to lie for some guy.

Chiaki tapped her phone a few more times, and without averting her eyes, she answered. "..I wasn't lying, I met him on a game called LOLOL. A stubborn player that has been trying to beat me since forever introduced me." Chiaki seemed to get a bit fired up as a smile found its' way on her face. "He was... really good. I had a ton of fun fighting him."

Hajime expected the conversation to end there, but surprisingly, she kept going. Something which Ibuki seemed to like, judging by her excited expression. He suddenly had a bad feeling...

"He's not online much but... he managed to beat me a few times. I eventually became the number one player, but he was still really fun to play with and talk to." Chiaki continued with a soft smile. Hajime was glad she was making new friends but...

Wait, but?

"They must be an extremely talented player to be able to beat you, Chiaki!" Nagito said with a wide smile. "Do you know their name? Maybe they're an ultimate!" Leave it to Nagito to search for ultimates. Hajime felt like the guy was doing more work than Hope's Peak, honestly...

Chiaki tilted her head in thought. "I dunno if he's an ultimate but... his in-game name is Hacker God, so it might have something to do with that... maybe."

Nagito looked like he was gonna make a comment on that, but Ibuki beat him to it. "If he is an ultimate, maybe we can meet the lucky man that caught Chiaki's eyes?!" The cone-haired girl seemed excited about that, but Hajime wasn't too keen on the suggestion. "Ooh, Ibuki wants to play wingwoman!"

Chiaki blinked at Ibuki with a blank face, saying "That's... probably not gonna happen, Ibuki." The musician wasn't deterred, but whined nonetheless.

"Whyyyy, Chiaki? Any person would like you with that cute face!" As if that was an actual defense, Ibuki said it anyway.

"..No, that's not what I'm talking about." Chiaki said before pursing her lips, stealing a glance at her phone.

Hajime frowned in confusion, asking "Why wouldn't it happen?" Not that he wanted them to date.

That thought actually made him blink, but he didn't have time to dwell on it as Chiaki answered.

"He lives in South Korea."

Oh. That made sense.

Ibuki flopped on the table, thankfully dodging their somewhat forgotten drinks, and groaned in disappointment. That clued Hajime in on the fact that, oh yeah, they were still in a cafe with people around them. The embarrassment came back full-force and he felt grumpier than ever.

"You shouldn't have been that excited to meet this guy in the first place, Ibuki..." He muttered as he frowned at her slumped form. He hoped his bitterness wasn't too obvious, but seeing as Nagito shot him a glance, maybe he should have worded that differently...

Ibuki shouted something that was muffled by the table, but before Hajime could even try to decipher it, Nagito perked up, seemingly in realisation.

That wasn't a good sign.

"Actually, weren't some classes planning on going to a different country by next month? They were allowed to choose where to go..." Reminded Nagito with a bright smile.

Ibuki's head snapped up and Chiaki's face lit up at the news.

He was talking about the trip that was supposedly made to cheer the ultimates up, even though Hajime was pretty sure it was only to observe rival schools from other countries.

How convenient, right?

"Yahoooo!!!" Ibuki whooped in excitement. Chiaki also had an excited expression, and Nagito seemed pleased that hope had returned to their faces.

"But isn't class 77-B one of the ones not going?" And with that sentence, Hajime crushed all their hopes in one fell swoop.

"A-Ah... that's... right..." Nagito sweatdropped as the mood of the table seemed to plummet. Nagito shot a disapproving look at Hajime, as if he was at fault, and the ahoge-haired boy could only raise his hands in defense.

Chiaki just sighs before saying "I didn't really expect to meet him in the first place, but it would have been nice..."

Ibuki is more dramatic about being let down as she flops on the table face-first once again. Her words are still muffled but the trio can hear them as "Oh mighty gods, please send us an angel, will ya?! Preferably one with plane tickets!"

Something in her statement seemed to catch Nagito's attention, as his eyes glazed over, but Hajime was pretty sure that this was the end of the conversation.

Of course, nothing ever went Hajime's way.

"Will this... contribute to your hope?" Hajime heard a faint whisper from the albino next to him. He really should've heard the alarm bells earlier, but now...

"Hmm... how about I buy some tickets for you?" With an innocent tilt of his head, Nagito sealed Hajime's doom. The poor brown-haired boy could feel his face pale. He only meant the girls righ-

Ibuki's head snapped up (again) as she fixed Nagito with an intense expression, cutting off Hajime's thoughts for the time being. Then she, quite seriously, asked "Are you the angel?"

Yeah, he should have expected that.

Nagito only chuckled and waved his hands in the air in response, saying "Oh, I'm no angel. I'm but a stepping stone for all of your hopes to shine even brighter! After all, this trip will make you happier, yes?"

Hajime groaned. He should have expected that, too.

Chiaki glared slightly at Nagito for calling himself a stepping stone, but seeing as he wasn't budging, her expression turned into a hopeful one. "Is that... really okay?" She tried to keep her expectation out of her voice, but it was obvious she wanted to go.

That made Hajime groan (this time mentally) considering this was happening over some random guy. And Chiaki looked so excited, too...

"Why, of course! Actually..." The luckster side-eyed Hajime, specifically his furrowed brows. Nagito paused for a few seconds, trying to figure out why Hajime looked frustrated.

While Ibuki and Chiaki cheered (obviously different in volume) and Hajime sighed, Nagito suddenly seemed to come to a grand realisation. Looking like he's got everything figured out, he said cheerfully "Why don't I buy tickets for the whole class?"

And after that, Hajime wanted to bang his head onto the table hard enough to slip into a coma.

Obviously, Nagito (who looked extremely pleased) had misunderstood just why he was upset. An explanation like "Hajime was frustrated that only the 3 of them could experience the hope of exploring a whole new country!" was apparently completely reasonable in the luckster's eyes.

Hajime, judging from his 'Kill me now' expression, whole-heartedly disagreed. Not only was he getting roped into going to another country to meet a random dude he wasn't sure why he disliked, he was also going with ultimates which... was still something that made him uncomfortable. Sure, he'd met everyone in class 77-B, and it's not like he disliked them... (Well no, he disliked some of them, but still.)

It just didn't feel right, hanging out with them like that. It took a bit of convincing to get him to hang out with this particular group, after all.

Hajime absolutely didn't wanna go, but before Chiaki could even turn to him, he knew he'd end up going anyway. And he had no doubt that the entirety of the girl's class would be coming, whether it be because of Chiaki, Chisa or both.

The next morning, class 77-B decided they were going to Korea. Some willingly, some with a bit of pressure from their lovely teacher...

(Those desks needed to be replaced.)

And he could only hope that this wouldn't be disastrous, but with this class of ultimates, (or any of them for that matter) he really shouldn't have expected anything to go normally in the first place.

And of course, he shouldn't have expected the mysterious guy who started all of this to be remotely normal, either.

Seven looked away from his monitor as a notification popped up on his phone.

||Hey, do you think we could meet up?||