NO, THAT'S WRONG! ~~Naegami~~

Chapter 11: I Got It

"I'm sorry."
   And with that, Byakuya had done the one thing he hadn't wanted to do today, which was to make a fool out of himself. Naegi looked utterly shocked, mouth hanging open and eyes wide, like the face you make when someone asks you to pretend to be surprised. Except Makoto wasn't faking it. Had Byakuya really been that cruel to him, where two simple words confused him to this level? He felt an unwelcome rush of guilt, which only served to fuel his anger. Why the hell did Naegi get to make him feel guilty? He didn't have to act perfectly to everyone, did he? He was entitled to not liking someone, wasn't he? What right did Makoto have to make him feel like this? These cruel questions careening around his cranium, he crudely called,
   "Are we done here? Because I'm bored, and I want to pick someone else." At this, Naegi finally spoke. For the first time all evening, Naegi spoke to him. And what he had to say wasn't kind.
   "Hell fucking no we're not done here! What kind of half-assed apology is that? Two measly words doesn't offset the shit you've done, you know. I know this might be hard for you, since you've never given a single shit about anyone but yourself in your entire fucking life, but either apologise correctly, or don't talk to me. Got it?"
   Byakuya couldn't believe his ears. Was this really Naegi, speaking so callously and cruelly? Is that how much Byakuya's words had affected him? The guilt washed over him in waves, crashing into his fortifications like a tsunami. He didn't trust himself to speak, because he knew his voice would sound broken. Yet even as he thought this, his lips rebelled against him.
   "You're... you're right." Byakuya spoke softly, but clearly.
   "I am?" Naegi sounded taken aback. "I mean, hell yeah I am! So are you gonna apologise or what?"
   "Naegi, I-" Byakuya's voice caught, but he kept speaking. "I fucked up. And I'd love to give you an excuse, to show you that it wasn't my fault, but I can't. The best I can do it explain it to you. Not to shift the blame, it falls squarely on my shoulders, and I've accepted that. Just to... clear things up.
   "The Togami family has a peculiar inheritance system. Before you say anything, yes this is relevant. You see, I wasn't always the heir to the corporation. The head of the family never takes a wife, instead he couples with extraordinary women the world over to bear as many children as possible. And then? He makes them fight for the right to be the heir to the family.
   "As you can see, I won. The first time the youngest male has ever won in our family's history. And as for the other siblings? They're dead. Not literally, at least not most of them, but dead to the family. I was forbidden from contacting them entirely. I was forced to block their numbers from my phone, forced to break off all contact with our mutual friends. I didn't think anything of it at the time, of course. They'd had their chance, and they'd failed. This was the way things were meant to be, and I was fine with it. At first.
   "But as the days went on, I became more and more lonely, and I missed my half siblings more and more. Until eventually, it was too much, and I made... a mistake. A mistake that had long lasting ramifications. And to distance myself from those repercussions, I put up walls. I made up a persona for myself, someone who truly didn't care about his siblings, someone who was cold and ruthless, someone who was fit to lead the Togami Corporation one day. And, over time, that persona stuck, until it became my actual personality. And that's the person you met in the main hall three days ago.
   "But you, Naegi, you were a crafty little bastard. You managed, in just 48 hours, to start cracking down some of those walls. I was ready to consider you a friend, my first real friend. But then that message from one of my siblings came through, and I realised how weak the I was without my persona. So I did the only thing I could think of. I put the walls back up. I became the person you knew me to be, and I was cruel, cold, and rude. And I'm so, so sorry. I know those words mean nothing, but they're all I can say. I wish I could take every bit of it back, but I know that I can't.
   "So that's it. That's the whole story. And I'll say it again, I'll say it as many times as I need to: I'm sorry Naegi. I really am."
   Byakuya had disappeared so completely into his story, that he had forgotten that there were people besides him and Naegi in the room. The other eight students looked at him in stunned silence, and when Byakuya gathered the courage to look at Naegi, he was shocked to see a small smile on his face. That smile gave Byakuya the courage to continue.

***

Togami finished his story and Makoto was shaken out of his stupor. He fought against the smile forming over his lips, but ultimately he failed. He felt so much better now that pretty much everything was out in the open. He looked into Togami's ice blue eyes and found them to be less harsh than they had been 10 minutes ago. Togami cleated his throat and continued.
   "So, is that that? Is my Dare officially completed to your highest standards?" Hagakure could do nothing but nod. "Excellent. In that case, I believe it is my turn? Hmm... I choose... Naegi. Truth or Dare?" Now this was a shock. Makoto has been pretty sure that Togami had only been saying that to complete his Dare. He wasn't confident in the slightest that Togami had meant any of it. But did this mean that he actually did? Ugh, this boy was so hard to read, it caused him physical pain. Despite this, Makoto still gathered up enough calm to respond.
   "Me? Uh, ok then. I pick Truth."
   "Ok. Naegi, the question which you must answer is: do you forgive me?"
   What?! There was no way Togami actually cared enough about him to seriously ask that question, was there?
   "Well? We're all waiting!" Enoshima said irritably.
   "Fine then." Makoto began, "I'll tell you. No I don't. There's no way I can forgive that just because you had some family trouble in the past. You could have talked to me about it, Togami! Like that first night. All you ever had to do was talk to someone. So no, I'm not going to forgive you. However, since you apologised, I am willing to put this behind us, and move on. But you're gonna have to promise me you're not gonna pull that kind of bullshit on me again, ok?"
   "Ok, I got it. And Naegi?"
   "Yeah?"
   "Thank you."

Word count without A/N: 1187

A/N: so I'm writing this at midnight because I can't fuckin sleeppppppp and it's really annoying, but it's fine because I got to finish this. To be completely honest, I'm not particularly sure where I'm going to take the story from here. I mean, I have some vague ideassss, but nothing really set in stone. So uhh yeah the next couple chapters might be a long way away. Alternatively, they might be shittttttt. Or maybe both, idk. But in the meantime, thanks so much for the absolutely insane number of reads I've gotten on this fic, it really does mean the worldddd to me. Be sure to tell me how I can improve! Alr peace.
—Winter