The Eden Project was the largest greenhouse in the world, at a size of 22 000 square meters. It was home to rainforests, tropical gardens and waterfalls. A tourist attraction that attuned man with nature...before its destruction.

The Gofer Reserve was modeled in memory of that grand achievement. A hexagonal-framed dome built to protect the forest inside, sectioned off from the rebuilding city that surrounded it on the all sides. Preserving nature and wildlife was one of the first steps to rebuilding.

The reserve wasn't located in England, and calling it Japan wasn't right either. Those distinctions no longer held meaning.

The forest inside encapsulated a clearing the size of a small field. It was a park; thus, it wasn't surprising to see toddlers present. Two to be exact.

The legs of a spiky, brown-haired boy dangles in the air. His hands grip the thick rope connecting the seat and stand as he swings back and forth. A white surgical mask covers the bottom half of his face. His expression is downcast, eyes were pink-tinted. A common sight if you'd ask a common passerby, assuming they'd stop to spare a glance. The extraordinary case was that the other child did not wear a mask. The girl with short red-hair, digging in the sandbox a few feet away. A short distance divides two worlds, disparate as night and day.

Children commonly believed the world revolved around them – that others were extension of themselves. Hence, the boy can't shake how unnatural it was for the girl to ignore his existence entirely. Jeers, pity, irritation or even consolation would have sufficed. She offers none. The shovel - much too large for her - is more worthy of her attention.

Curiosity overwhelms hesitation.

Was digging so much fun? She'd been at it before he arrived. Dirt and sand mar her body from head to toe.

He, Makoto Naegi, jumps off the swing and breaks down the walls separating them.

"H-Hello."

She doesn't reply at first, still focusing on her task. He can see that she wasn't digging but piling clumps of sand onto one area.

This time, Makoto taps her shoulder.

"Hi, watcha want?" Her friendliness catches him off guard, considering she'd ignored him for so long. Even more surprising, were the layers of bandages and wrappings on several parts of her body.

It hurts to look at, but not enough to refrain from asking. "Are you okay?"

She blinks at first, leaving seconds of silent staring in wake. Finally, she nods. "Mhm. Why?" She speaks with such clarity and assurance that he feels silly for being concerned.

"Uh…no reason." If she wasn't hurt, then it was fine. Maybe the bandages are decoration, or she was playing a game. There were lots of people like that. "What are you playing?" He points to the sand

"Hide and seek."

"Eeeh?" Makoto's head sways in every direction. They were in an open field, with nobody else. "Who are you playing with?"

She raised a finger to her lips. "That's a secret."

The boy pouts, feeling left out. "Okay…are you hiding?"

"I'm in plain sight, dimwit."

"I-I'm not a dimwit." He argued back, spouting the final word with an off-beat tone. He didn't even know what the word meant, but the delivery meant it couldn't have been a compliment. Put off by the mocking giggles, he asks. "Then you're 'it'?" The seeker.

"No."

"Wha? H-How are you playing?"

"I'm making the game, someone else will play. I already picked who's hiding though."

"I don't get it." He slumps

She latches onto the shovel, the edge stuck in sand. She smiles. He thinks it's pretty. She's pretty. The grime won't stain her natural shine. They only made her more distinct, and foreign. Not many people smiled like that. Not anymore.

"Then, do you want to play? I can swap who's hiding for you." She offers, tightening the grip on her shovel

Makoto declined. "No thanks. I don't want to play." This game didn't have an 'it'. If he hid, then nobody would ever find him. It sounded boring and lonely.

He didn't like being alone.

The girl nods and returns to digging. For a while, he watches her practice diligently. Right up until the rumble of her stomach

'Is she hungry?' His assumptions prove correct when she placed a hand to her stomach and grimaces.

The boy made a round trip to the swings and back to the sandlot. Only this time he brought with him a boxed lunch. The contents were too much for him to finish alone but were made with care.

"What's this for?" She asks.

"You're hungry, aren't you? I'll share."

She returns with the same look she'd given him when he'd asked about her injuries. Utter bafflement.

"Okay."

He beams as brightly as the sun used to.

The two eat in silence. Well, he does after pulling down his mask. She's both loud and graceless in her eating. It's not hard to notice when she abruptly stops.

"Aren't you going to finish?" He asks.

"…Could I share some with my sister?"

A chord strikes at the mention of a relative. His heart beats, slow and pained. "Sure." He says, with distinctly less cheer.

It doesn't go unnoticed. "Did your mom and dad make these?" His red-haired companion enthusiastically inquires. Unlike moments before, her eyes dissect him like a curious student having their first go at a frog.

She must like the food – He thought.

But she was wrong. "They went away." Came his sullen reply.

"I see." Her mirth lingers. "Then we're the same. We're both alone."

He tilts his head. "But you said you had a sister..."

"Yup. I have a mom and dad too. But I am alone." She confuses him, repeatedly...but he couldn't deny her words. He felt they were the truth.

That's even stranger. Maybe she meant something else? "Don't you love your family?"

"Love?" Her eyes drift and settle on him once she finds an answer. "Daddy says he loves me a lot." She beamed upon arriving to that conclusion.

"That's…not what I asked."

She sighs exaggeratedly. "This is boring." As if to end the conversation, she stands, turns away from him and returns to work after the break.

"I shouldn't have said anything." Makoto quietly admonishes himself. He doesn't know how much time passes until she finally speaks to him again.

"You." He perks up when addressed. "Is it a big deal? To love someone?"

"I…don't really know," More precisely, he didn't know how to explain. Loving someone, being loved in turn, and everything in the middle – All of that was felt than conveyed through words. "but I feel warm inside knowing someone out there likes me, and I like them." In this case, there were only two people like that in the world now for him.

"Will I be happy if I said I loved you?"

Makoto splutters. "… I think it works better when you love each other." He scratches his reddened cheeks. "But…if you said that for real, I'd be really happy." He finishes with a wide, infectious smile.

She presses a finger to her chin. "Then...it would be fine if we both said it to each other?"

"Sure." He nods.

"You promise?"

"I promise."

...

She approaches him, her hands motion to cup his cheeks.

Makoto's breath hitches at the closeness, however she makes no further movements, instead analyzing him.

"Pretty. I've never seen that color before."

The brunet flushes. "H-Huh?"

She unhands him, replying with a question of her own. "What's your name?"

"M-Makoto Naegi. Yours?"

"Not telling~" She retorts with a teasing smile.

He shoots her a betrayed look "Why? That's not fair!"

"Because..." Her hands press against his small chest "I'm mean." She pushes harshly, sending the brunet falling back into the sand with a yelp.

Giggles burst into laughter when she sees him clumsily try to stand. Now, he's as dirty as she is.

Tears fall from Makoto's eyes, quickly followed up by explosive cries.

The laughter freezes and her smile thins to the point that she might as well have not been wearing any sort of expression.

"Makoto!"

Alerted by his cries, a timely, blue-haired girl came running. She stopped by and picked the boy up, wiping the tears and sand with a handkerchief. "Dad and I were looking all over for you."

"Sayaka..." His cries dim.

"Huh?" Blue turns to face Red. The former finally expanded horizons beyond Makoto. She looks to the sand, the shovel and the other girl's form, namely her hands. Then finally back to Makoto's shirt and her cloth.

The bluenette bows. "…Sorry if he was bothering you. We'll be going." Sayaka said, grabbing Makoto by the hand without waiting for a reply.

As he's dragged along, Makoto looks back at his acquaintance and waved goodbye, forgetting the cause of his tears, moments earlier.

"Makoto...was she your friend?" Sayaka grips his hand tightly.

"I dunno."

"...don't go off on your own again. And um…let's get you a new shirt." She warned.

Makoto couldn't see her face. He looked down to his shirt, noting spots of pink. "Where'd this come from?"

Back at the sandbox, the girl stared at the path they'd exited through. A shade of a smile on her features.

"Not quite alone, are you?" She said to nobody. The red-haired girl picked up the shovel and the remainder of the lunch box, hoping she wouldn't stain the cover with the pink blotches on her palms, matching the stains on the shovel's tip.

She resumes digging, lost in her own world until she's ready to leave.

The girl tip-toes home. It takes some time before she exits the edge of the reserve. What awaits her is a scenery far removed from the dome. Everywhere she looked, men, women and children wore surgical masks, moving about lethargically.

She inhaled the toxic air and breathed a sigh. She looked up to the 'sun'. A dome of a dizzying size circling the city. It's design identical to the one surrounding the reserve. If one were to step outside, all they would see when looking up at the clouds, was a poisoned, red sky.

The faceless drones were the furthest thing from her mind. She was thoroughly preoccupied with the boy from earlier, who'd said all those strange things to her.

The girl who would call herself Junko Enoshima clutched the lunchbox tightly against her chest. Her lips curve upwards at the memory of his most distinct quality.

"He had cool eyes."

A striking gold.

Author's note: This fic is inspired from Arcawolf's As Old as Time. If you've read it, expect to see some similar plot threads. If you haven't then this will be new to you. I recommend looking AOAT over. Not only as a good read but a chunk of this story's enjoyment will come from dramatic irony, based on AOAT and canon. As one example, Junko won't be watered down from her original, which might spell danger for an unsuspecting Makoto.