Chapter Text
This was the first time in a week when Makoto wasn’t late. It was almost ridiculous, how his alarm clock refused to wake him up for four days in a row. And their student activity coordinator said the first week of school was the most important for building the collective. Well, great, now his new classmates probably think of him as that chaotic happy-go-lucky irresponsible guy with wrinkled clothes. On the bright side, the mad dashes into the classroom every morning (even if he was left without breakfast) did some wonders to his constitution.
But today, he woke up on time and had this warm feeling that today will be a good day. He headed to the cafeteria at normal, walking speed, grabbed a sandwich, ate it (again, at normal, not-a-choking-hazard speed), and then headed to collect his few books and into the class.
“Good morning Naegi!” Sayaka Maizono, his former middle school classmate and currently his only friend, lit up as she saw him enter the half-full classroom, and waved at him. He smiled happily and waved back, heading over, not registering the few confused or annoyed stares from the other classmates.
“Good morning Maizono! How are you today?” he asked and placed his bag on his seat, behind hers.
“I slept great, and since you also seem to have woken up on time, I think today will be a great day!” she trilled and happily chuckled, as Makoto’s cheeks reddened slightly. “Yeah, it seems my "luck" finally kicked in!” he agreed with her, air quoting. In the next second, he was blinded by a heavily hair-sprayed tuft of pink hair.
“Makoto! You came on time for once! How cute!” Junko Enoshima purred into his ear, as she hugged him with one hand around his shoulders, leaving him unable to back away from her.
“Ah, yes, good morning Enoshima…” he tried to at least get the hair out of his eyes, but Junko shook his shoulder, and he almost lost footing.
“I thought you’re this confused, but a low-key badass guy who ignores clocks in a badass way, not in a dumbass way Hagakure does. What happened with that?” Junko asked, and Makoto flushed again. This time it wasn’t a pleasant type of embarrassment.
“Ah, these four days were all on accident. Sorry to disappoint,” he almost lost his footing again when she let go of him, no, almost shoved him in the direction of his desk.
“Well, that you did, Naegi,” she told him as he looked her in the face. On her high heels, she towered over him like an omen. She popped a bubblegum bubble in her mouth and grabbed a phone from her own desk. “That’s boring.”
Makoto sat down, choosing to ignore his alpha classmate. That was always the best approach for him, an omega. Sayaka seemingly had the same thought, because she leaned toward him with a wide smile again. “It seems the spare breakfast sandwich I grabbed for you during breakfast wouldn’t be needed this time, hm?”
Makoto felt his mood becoming better again. This was a good day. And he wouldn’t let anyone, especially not Enoshima, ruin it. “No, sorry. But we can share it during the break if you want!”
Sayaka eagerly nodded and then went on about some funny video her bandmate sent her in the evening, and Makoto was happy to listen.
Until he came into the class.
Byakuya Togami, the alpha that left Makoto astonished by his looks the first time he’s seen him, until the alpha opened his mouth, that is. Makoto was quick to figure out Togami would forget his existence the second he wasn’t in his immediate field of vision, therefore he had no chance of even holding some sort of memorable conversation with him, let alone becoming his friend. But that wasn’t stopping him from pining from afar.
“Pst. Naegi,” Sayaka’s face was so close to his ear he could feel her breath on the earlobe. He startled, almost turning over his desk. “Yea?”
“Don’t stare,” she warned him with a playful smile. “Or at least close your mouth while doing so.”
Makoto flushed bright red. “I wasn’t staring!”
“Is there something that seems to be the problem?” Togami’s strong voice rang out, and Makoto flushed even darker red. “N-” he started to answer, but it quickly died out when he realized Togami wasn’t registering his omega classmates at all. He was turned to Oowada and Kuwata, who were arguing about something right beside his desk, therefore blocking the way.
“Why so sour right in the morning, Togami?” Oowada laughed and threw a hand across Kuwata’s shoulder.
“I can already see that answering that question is a waste of time because that would engage me in the conversation with you, which I absolutely don’t desire to do. So just move out of the way,” Togami said in a stern voice, which earned him a laugh from the other alpha.
“You use all of these big words as if that made you something more,” Oowada commented, earning him a quirked eyebrow from Togami.
“Which was the big word this time? Engage? Or the desire?” Togami asked, the sheer sarcasm sending chills down Makoto’s spine. Oowada looked like he finally took some offense from the question, but before he could answer, Ishimaru stood up.
“Togami is right, please do not block the corridor during the morning assembly, Oowada. It’s not efficient!” their beta class representative boomed, and it seemed Oowada had nothing to say to that because alpha (surprisingly, considering his already famous temper) just rolled his eyes and went to sit down at the back of the class.
Makoto let out a breath he didn’t realize he was holding and relaxed his shoulders. Fights between alphas in any way were stressful.
The last of their classmates came in, and finally, the student activity coordinator came in.
“Good morning you all!” he greeted them. If Makoto correctly remembered from his speech on the first day, he was some upperclassman from the Student Council, who was in charge of their first week, until the homeroom teacher would be assigned to them. “Today is the last day of your introductory week. We toured the whole campus, you settled in your dorms, attended the introductory classes and maybe there are some friendships already forming! You know the school, but do you know the other students? No, that is the last piece of the puzzle, and you will experience that today!”
No one in the class cheered, which obviously upset the coordinator because the dramatic pause he left between the statements was blatantly obvious.
“As you know, since last year, Hope’s Peak High School adopted the new policy, which promotes students cooperating and forming a functional and supportive society on their own more than ever before. People with talent are more isolated according to the nationwide population research, and the school aims to tackle those statistics! The school reformed the dorms to include students of all genders, primary and secondary, into one building and came up with the introductory week - all of the activities you’ve been doing this week belong under this policy. You’re pioneers, in a sense!”
Again, no one cheered. To Makoto’s left, Enoshima had her legs propped on a desk and typed something into her phone, the clicking of her gel nails against the screen being the loudest sound in the room. Behind Makoto, Yamada was scribbling something with a pencil, but Makoto didn’t dare to turn around and take a peek. The last time he did that, he was heavily traumatized by the VERY pornographic sketch. On the other side of the room, both Fukawa and Kirigiri were reading books. Makoto could only see a portion of Togami’s face, but he was giving the coordinator a heavily unimpressed stare.
“Today, the last day of your introduction week, is reserved for the community picnic. No classes, lots of food, games, and lots of opportunities to talk to your upperclassmen!”
Various hands shot up, but the coordinator immediately followed up with a statement: “The attendance is obligatory,” and all of those hands lowered. “It will be held in the backyard, near the gym. It will begin in an hour, so you have plenty of time to return to your dorms and change into your free time clothes. See, even the uniforms are omitted! We are really aiming to form real bonds between students here, in a fun environment. Any questions?”
That was a bad thing to ask because Enoshima immediately jumped up. “So, we have to come, but our uniforms don’t? It sounds like a big load of bullshit. For how long do we have to be there?”
Many heads nodded, and Makoto frowned. Do his classmates really think it is such a bother? Truth be told, he was a bit excited. More nervous than excited, but it seemed like a fair deal to him. They could at least see their upperclassmen, and free food was always a good thing.
The coordinator seemed unphased by Enoshima’s strong language. “It starts at 10 and ends as lunch starts, so around 12. There are no classes after lunch too, which leaves you the free time to hang out with your new friends.”
Enoshima grumbled something about “bullshit school” and “waste of time” and “boring” and sat down heavily. Few other questions were shot, such as if there were any penalties for not attending (Ludenberg seemed also unimpressed by the idea). The answer was detention, which was, in Makoto’s opinion, not very friendly and free-spirited, but he kept his mouth shut. The coordinator then left them to their own devices, and the whole class spent a moment in silence.
“Well, that seems like an even bigger waste of time than a conversation with Oowada, but since it is obligatory, I guess there is no other choice,” Togami said bitterly, to which Oowada reacted with a “Hey!” and Fukawa nodded eagerly. “Yes, there is no other choice, we should all go!” Togami shot her a nasty look, and she shut up immediately, melting back into her seat.
“At least we can see our upperclassmen and talk to them, find out more about the school than from these quite forced and artificial introductory events,” Ludenberg remarked, always sober and straight to the point. Ishimaru stood up.
“Yes! Even though I don’t agree with your reasoning, Ludenberg, I think we should get to know them! It will be good for our spirits!”
Half of the class groaned in anguish, others still looked unimpressed, but Makoto agreed with Ishimaru. He smiled at his classmate.
“Let’s go change, then, and prepare for the event! Use your best free time clothes!” Ishimaru commanded and began to gather his belongings from his desk. The rest of the class slowly followed his excited example.
Sayaka stood up first from the two of them, having a smile on her face. “It seems like fun, though,” she told Makoto in a hushed voice. “Maybe we can get to know more omegas around here.” Makoto nodded. The safety was in numbers, and even though it was unheard of, something terrible happening to omegas on Hope’s Peak, one could be never too safe or prepared. Old fears from middle school still lingered in all of them.
And he already told himself, this was going to be a good day. What could go wrong on a picnic?