#but nagi as gaming buddy sounds really fun writing wise. like i could go on. but for now here it is.

[popponn]

as classmates, it starts. [nagi seishiro x f!reader]

note: a.n. at the end. still in nagi phase, yes. warning: none, just the start of classmate to something pipeline in slice of life esque kind of approach. fluff.

It was by coincidence you ended up in the same high school and class with Nagi Seishiro again, after sharing the last three years in middle school with him too.

If the two of you were close, you would call it fate. But you only spoke to him nine times, with his total spoken words probably only counting up to 20 words or less in total. It was funny how few of them were despite the years the two of you spent around each other, in a way, so you remembered them. If anything, this is truly a textbook example of ‘meaningless happenstances’.

In each interaction, it was the same story being repeated. You, the designated class representative for 3 years in row, was needed to talk with Nagi Seishiro, the kind of problem child who kept sleeping in the class. It was the classic scene of the teacher pet with scholarship being ordered to ask, remind, or give something to the lazy boy.

In mangas, these kind of interaction would usually let to romance or friendship, at least. The romantic in you pitied the fact that Nagi was probably too lazy for that. Meanwhile, the realist in you accepted that as an unsurprising fact with how different the two of you were.

With that, one thing remained as a constant—both you and him simply exist as each other’s background characters.

And then, the tenth time happened.

Inside Hakuho where the elites reign, without any surprise you faded into the background. You were simply smart, but too plain and boring. Thus, the curse of being the class representative for three consecutive years was broken. It was refreshing and felt like a graduation from something.

On the tenth time, you were not a student with responsibilities. You were simply a student who left the class a bit too late for no particular reason.

Three seats towards your back, two seats to the left, Nagi Seishiro slept on his desk yet again. A book stood upright in poor attempt to cover his habit that was well known within the school despite it only being the first month of the first year. You spared yourself a few seconds to watch him slept before looking away, chuckling inside at the familiarity.

Three years ago, you once thought he was a waste of good brain and good face. But after spending three years with him, perhaps you got an immunity for whatever miracle or antics he pulled.

Perhaps, that was why, at that moment, you simply thought that he really didn’t change after all these years.

Perhaps, that was why you gathered your belongings to your back and walked towards the door in the back of the class, thinking to shake Nagi awake as a good long-time classmate. An act of mindless kindness. When you arrived beside him and was about to touch his shoulder, your eyes strayed towards his phone.

It was unlocked and muted, displaying a familiar sight of a mobile game doing an auto run. It was a game you played religiously since its launch a year ago. Without much time spent, you recognized the boss you could only encounter after a far progression into the middle part of the game and a new character with a DPS you managed to get to 10000 easily yesterday.

Then, you saw a meager 5000 thousand critical damage from said character and mindlessly, thoughtlessly, out of reflex you said, “Yikes. That build sure is terrible.”

It was a thoughtless comment, really.

Yet somehow, it was enough to wake up the sleeping prince himself. Your eyes glanced down and met Nagi Seishirou’s wide, grey one. Instantly, you thought, “Uh.”

Like a good child you were about to apologize, but not before Nagi said, “Huh. Really? That sucks.”

Then, as if foretelling an execution, he continued sleepily and pushed himself to stand slowly. Sleepy eyes unmoving from you, even as he stood fully with his slouching tall stature.

“What’s the good build then?”

a. notes: the idea is about 'two people who wouldn't interact but did' and the classic 'lazy guy and the tryhard student' but it went into the 'gaming buddies' direction, for some reason like 'hey maybe the tryhard student wants to rest and just play gacha games' while 'the lazy guy didn't want to get his build commented on like that because he is secretly competitive and more than what meet the eyes'. then it goes 'oh. being with you is fun? and makes me happy?? why didn't we do this sooner? like three years ago?' and the rest i don't know. i also don't know what game they are playing here. clearly, due to a writing block it went nowhere. maybe one day i will revisited this idea again. think of this as a more polished blurb than my usual madman rambling from 2 am.