karma has always been a pretty kid. you've known this since the very first moment you laid eyes on him. maybe it was his good looks that helped you take a liking to him, you'd always been fond of pretty things and he was a good kid, maybe a little too quick to anger at times, but he was always nice to you.
you'd both been introduced to each other by your parents even though neither of you seemed to have had a close relationship with them. perhaps that was what really brought you closer. through lonely nights you'd peek out your bedroom window and be greeted with the sight of solemn child, eyes gold and hair ruby. the start and catalyst of everything. though sleeping with another person felt strange and foreign at first, it quickly grew on you and the familiar warmth of another body became a soothing reminder of your un-lonesomeness.
for majority of your childhood, karma would be your only companion, your one and only trusted friend who'd hold and comfort you on nights in need of comfort. and although he rarely showed you faces of vulnerability, you knew it too and comforted him. your house was not quite as lonely as his, sometimes your parents would stay for months and leave for a few weeks on a business trip. workers always greeted you in hallways and there was always some form of life inside, whether the workers or your mother's fat cat. karma's house was empty compared to yours, parents rarely home and no workers besides him to tidy up and care for it.
the two of you found that you preferred to be lonely with just the two of you in that house.
junior high was a thing. your parents had allowed you to attend the same school as karma and it was as great a comfort as anything to be able to spend so much of your day beside him. the school you went to was a prestigious school, renowned for graduating students that would end up in top notch universities. kunugigaoka junior high school was a school that followed a very particular hierarchy. with your smarts, you and karma had easily placed yourself in a-class, but it was after karma's first fight at this school when things started going downhill for him.
karma was smart and observant; and he had enough street smarts to know how to handle just about any situation. he had a short temper but his morals were strong and his character never wavered. he'd been booted to d-class by the end of your first year for 'behavioural issues'. you'd followed him after a series of 'accidents' that damaged school property. during your second year of junior high, karma took to a small boy. he was very pretty, and his features were feminine enough so that he shifted to a side of androgynous that with his hair down, made it a little difficult for you to to tell if he was a boy or girl at first glance.
his name was nagisa, he preferred his first name over his last and you and karma shared a knowing glance. it was the first time you'd ever seen karma approach another person with the want to get to know them. you were glad he was finally branching out and the three of you became a trio of sorts. halfway through your second year, karma stopped talking to nagisa, and nagisa, having noticed this, stopped approaching him in turn. the two of them grew distant and with that, your friendship with nagisa became estranged. you'd greet each other when you pass by and maybe share a few words, but the boy would hesitate and keep himself scarce.
you lost contact after he was sent to e-class.
"why'd you do it?" you had asked once. but karma didn't respond for a long time, and just as you were about to drop the subject, he'd said,
"it's fine with just the two of us, isn't it?"
and you wanted to be upset with his treatment toward nagisa but you really couldn't bring yourself to after hearing those words.
there was a teacher that karma really trusted. you'd stopped bothering with the people at this school long beforehand but karma seemed to crave the attention of an adult after being neglected by his parents for so long. the teacher would say that he'd always be on your side as long as you were in the right. it brought a great deal of confidence in karma and you were happy that he was feeling better after the whole nagisa thing.
