So Minoru and Hiro didn't work out. It was a real shame. You thought they would be so happy together... If he came around to the idea of letting her micromanage every aspect of his life, that is.

Next up on the list of the best Good Ends Hiro could achieve was Hinata's. So long as he could forgive some creepy and illegal things, he could make the relationship work.

And Hinata deserved a little sunshine anyway. She's had a hard life. You could do this for her.

...

First impressions could be tough. You knew this. So you tried to make Hinata's first impression of Hiro the best it could be.

You didn't force things to go exactly according to the game script, because that didn't turn out so well with Minoru. Events had changed too much for the script to still apply. So you used it more for reference rather than as a step-by-step guide.

In the game, Hiro and Hinata bonded over books, just as you and Hinata had. So, you brought him with you to Study Hall one day and sat him down next to her before sitting across from the two. "Hinata, this is Hiro. I thought I would introduce the two of you, seeing as you both have a love of books."

"It's nice to meet you," Hinata whispered, although the look on her face said the surprise was an unwelcome one.

"Likewise," Hiro replied with a charming smile. "Sooo... What are you reading?"

You waited for a beat, then another, before turning to her. She didn't say anything, didn't look like she was planning on saying anything either. Instead, she was looking at you like a kicked puppy. You sighed before answering for the both of you, "We're reading a romance novel right now."

"I don't mind a bit of romance from time to time," he said with a wink in her direction. She blushed and sputtered a little, seemingly not knowing what to do with herself when a boy was blatantly flirting with her. "What's it called?"

"The- Ummm... The Duke and I," she said at last.

"Oh..." His enthusiasm wavered. "That sounds like chick lit." You kicked him under the table. It was as if he picked the wrong speech bubble in the game. Having played this game so much, you could practically read the words on the screen. Intimacy down!

"It is not chick lit! Don't call it that." Hinata snapped, now red for a different reason. You blinked, taken aback. You didn't know she had it in her to get angry and snap at people. Maybe she was just really comfortable with Hiro.

"That's okay," you said, quick to smooth things over so you could move past his ignorance and her hurt feelings. "Hinata and I are already a good ways into The Duke and I, so you can't really join in. What new book should the three of us read?"

She made no suggestions, just turned her perfect copy of The Duke and I around in her hands. He finally spoke up. "Aina, you like horror and romance, right? Have you ever read Tomie?"

"Tomie? No. What's it about?"

Hiro wandered over to the graphic novel section of the library and pulled out a thick black tome. Then he casually tossed it to you. It was a good thing you caught it or Hinata would have been pissed. She hated it when books got damaged, especially library books.

"Read the back," he instructed before sitting down across from you again.

"Murdered again and again, one girl always comes back for more... Tomie Kawakami is a femme fatale with long black hair and a beauty mark just under her left eye. She can seduce nearly any man, and drive them to murder as well, even though the victim is often Tomie herself. While one lover seeks to keep her for himself, another grows terrified of the immortal succubus. But soon they realize that no matter how many times they kill her, the world will never be free of Tomie."

"Is it scary?" She asked in a shaky voice, pale and wide-eyed.

"Not particularly. It's more body horror than anything else. Although I've read a lot of Junji Ito, so maybe I'm not the best judge," he answered with a half-hearted shrug.

You turned the manga around in your hands, feeling its weight, and ran your fingertips down the waxy cover. She watched you silently, seemingly transfixed by your fingers.

He sat waiting for either of you to say anything about his choice of books.

"Let's give it a shot," you hummed at last.

...

Tomie was a mistake.

Everything was going so well before you started reading. The three of you were packed together like sardines, with Hinata in the middle cradling the book between her thighs. She was tomato-red, practically sitting on both of your and Hiro's laps.

You should have known better. You should have suggested another book when you heard the words body horror. But you were so sick of plain old romance that Tomie sounded intriguing.

You didn't make it past the first story. It wasn't particularly long, a mere thirty pages. You liked the story so far. You didn't like reading about a girl getting hacked into pieces when you yourself were hacked into pieces in another life, but it wasn't too bad... Then the body horror Hiro warned you about appeared in the last panel on the last page.

Hinata was such a sensitive girl. You should have guessed she would have a sensitive stomach.

You didn't get to look at the page for more than half a minute when suddenly vomit was ejected all over it. You recognized the remains of her lunch pretty easily. You watched her eat it, after all.

"Fuck!" Hiro yelled, scrambling away before any more got on his pants. Hinata fell to the side, into the space he had just vacated.

"Are you okay?" You asked her in the nicest way you could when you had someone else's throw-up in your lap. She looked at you, her eyes already beginning to flood with tears, and shook her head. "Let's go get cleaned up."

...

"I hate him!" Hinata cried from inside a stall as you washed the bile off her skirt for her. Once you were done, she would do the same for you. That way, no one walking into the girls' bathroom would see either of you in your underpants.

"He didn't mean to make you sick," you reasoned with her. She was still too emotional for that reason to get through to her, however.

"Of course, he did! He knew, he was just making fun of me!" Her voice had a wobble in it that made your heart hurt.

"Not everyone is out to hurt you, Hinata."

You listened to her sniffle on the other side of the door. "No... No, you would never do that. You've always been real nice to me. So why did you bring him with you today?"

You sighed and wrung out the skirt to the best of your ability before passing it off to her over the top of the stall.

"I thought you'd like him." Not a lie, but not the whole truth either. You thought she'd become obsessed with him the moment he showed her the slightest bit of kindness and interest. Apparently not. You were wrong. Again. "Forgive me?"

There was a rustle of clothing behind the door. Then Hinata stepped out in a wet but mostly clean skirt. She was still wiping tears off her face. "Of course... Just never bring him around here again. Promise?"

"I promise."