Not Alone Anymore

Goro didn't intend to make friends with anyone in the dorm. He'd let Ren be a little closer, but that was it.

He didn't want to get attached. It would only make it hurt more if they ever parted ways or betrayed him. He had made the mistake of trusting others before…

But they were all so… Persistent. Makoto was the one who kept his distance the most, and he barely even talked to begin with.

Naoya didn't seem too good at being social either, but would talk to Goro much more often than Makoto.

Tatsuya talked a lot more, but still didn't seem too sure of exactly what to say to him. He still tried, a lot.

When Aigis tried talking to him, he almost felt annoyed. He understood that she still didn't know much about being human, but it still got on his nerves that she'd try so much to use her robot logic on him.

Ryoji wasn't the best at it either. He seemed to understand him a little better, and he wasn't annoying. But Goro kept his distance regardless.

Maya was… A little more pleasing. She was a very loud and positive person, sure. But she more like an older sister around him.

He had a bit of a hard time around Yu. He seemed to be very anxious about getting closer to Goro, but still tried to keep that in check and show his more cheerful side. Goro didn't want to make him feel bad, so he wasn't so hard on him.

Ren… Goro didn't want to admit it, but he liked Ren. He hated him, too, but part of him still liked him as well. But getting closer to him felt… Scary.

Getting closer to any of them was scary, in a way. He hadn't let himself be vulnerable around others in so long, he wasn't sure he'd even know how to do it anymore.

And then there was Hamuko. And Hamuko… She had surprised him. He had thought of her as the most obnoxious and annoying of the bunch for not giving up on trying to be friends with him. But he had been surprised when she was the one who decided to get serious with him.

" You're not alone anymore. " She had told him in private. She had hit a bullseye with that. He didn't know how she had seen through his fears so easily, or if she even realised it, or if she had just been the only one to speak up about it. But it almost made him mad…

And yet, he still had to admit that she was right. He had been alone all his life, and he didn't know how to react to people being nice to him with no second intentions. People who genuinely cared about him and his own happiness.

It was scary, but he still decided to at least try lowering the walls he had built around himself. If something bad happened, he could just learn from it and never think about putting them down again.

When Hamuko had asked if anyone wanted to be her "assistant" when it was her turn to make dinner, he saw it as an opportunity. Everyone was surprised by his choice, but Hamuko still looked absolutely delighted.

"What are we even making?" He asked her once they had entered the kitchen.

She smirked at him. "Well… Everyone's been having a pretty tough week with exams and all that. So I thought that instead of having a "real" dinner, we could just make some pancakes instead!"

He frowned, but took a deep breath. Of course she would do that. He hadn't forgotten that she loved poking fun at everyone. "Are you mocking me?"

"Maybe." She giggled. "But that doesn't mean I haven't always loved making pancakes. Everyone loves it when I make them, too." She started pulling out a bunch of cooking supplies from the drawers, then gestured towards the fridge as she talked to him. "Go grab me some eggs and milk, please."

He kept doing as he was told, grabbing any ingredients or tools she would ask for. And he even mixed them with her. It faintly remembered her of the few times he got to cook with his mother as a child… But he pushed those memories away. He didn't want to get so emotional around her.

And then she started to actually cook the pancakes. When she had to flip them, he was surprised to see she could do the trick of flipping them just by making it jump, with no spatula.

“I didn’t know you could do that.” He said.

She smiled proudly. "Well, I've practiced a lot over the years. I've been doing it ever since we were little." She sighed. "It was always just me and my brother, so we had to get by on our own. But I still wanted to make things a little entertaining."

"Must have been pretty lonely."

"I was… For all of us."

Goro raised an eyebrow at that.

"Naoya's family is… Messy. Tatsuya's parents are also dead. Yu's parents are always working and never supported him. Ren's parents haven't even called him the whole year. And then… You already know what you went through. But, y'know… I don't really feel so lonely anymore ever since we started living here…" She shook her head. "Oh, sorry, I got a little sentimental there. This one is done."

As he gave her the bowl with the pancake dough, he couldn't stop thinking.

Maybe it wasn't just that he wasn't alone anymore, but that he wasn't the only one who had felt so lonely and hurt. Maybe that was why they were all so welcoming despite what he had done. Maybe they could understand why he had started hating the world so much.

He stopped thinking about it, or else he would start crying. But if that was true… Maybe opening up wouldn't be so bad.