You opened the box to find that it was filled with nicely made peppermint bark. Oh man, I used to love this stuff around Christmas time! "You made this for me? Thank you so much, Seiko!"

You could tell that she was blushing when you thanked her. "Oh, w-w-well, uh, Ruruka gave me some tips on how to make some treats. I thought you might like if I gave you a treat, you know," she told you.

"It's true. I taught her how to do it, but she's the one who did all the hard work," Ruruka said to you. "Well, don't just stare at it, Y/N. Go try it. She made it for you, you know. You wouldn't want to break her little heart, would you?"

"Oh, uh, sure, sure," you told her. You weren't exactly sure why she was trying to guilt-trip you into eating it, since you were going to anyway. You took a look at the colorful box.

"Y-You don't have to eat it right now if you don't want to, Y/N. I know it's not exactly a breakfast food, but I wanted to make that clear," Seiko told you. "You can always have some later."

"I understand, Seiko." You took out a piece of peppermint bark and tried to offer it to Seiko. "Would you like any of this?"

Seiko avoided the treat like poison. "Oh, n-no! Sorry, Y/N, but this candy is for you, not me. Besides, I couldn't eat it even if I wanted to. Sugar is very detrimental to my health. If I even take a small bite, I could get incredibly sick," she explained.

"Yep. I've tried to get her to eat some of my treats, but she can't," Ruruka said to you. "She suffers from some kind of genetic condition, I think. It's a bit long to explain. I'm not sure what it's for, but she has to take a very special kind of medicine to keep herself healthy. If she doesn't, she gets even more sick."

"I keep taking that medicine regularly. The downside to this is that my medicine does not mix well with sugar. When sugar and my medication are mixed, it can lead to threatening side effects. Maybe even life threatening. That's why I can't eat anything sugar related," Seiko said, in a gloomy tone. "Finding food that doesn't contain sugar is harder than you think. Many things have grams of sugar in it. I am able to find some organic food, though. That's why I ate breakfast before we got here. Imagine how long it would take to find something without any grams sugar in it here."

"Well then, if you excuse us, we're gonna go order our food now. I'm guessing you don't want anything, right, Seiko?", Sonosuke said. Seiko nodded in agreement. "Alright then, let's go Ruruka. Y/N, what do you want?"

You only got a quick glance through at the menu, so you didn't take too much time deciding on what you wanted to eat. "I'll be fine with some, uh, bacon and scrambled eggs, if that's possible," you told him. "Oh, and give me some coffee, too! I really need some caffeine." He made sure to write it down and nodded. Both he and Ruruka went to the front to order their food.

While you were minding your own business, you saw that Seiko was acting a little blue. "Hey, Seiko, I didn't hurt your feelings by offering that candy, right? I'm sorry if I did-"

"No, no, it's not that. You didn't know. I probably should have told you earlier. You didn't do anything wrong."

"Thank you. I'm sorry to hear that you can't eat sugar. I imagine it must be very difficult. Look, I'm not trying to make you feel bad about it, Seiko. I just want to know if you're okay, that's all. If you don't want to talk about it, I respect that."

You noticed that she thought about it for a few moments before she spoke. "Just don't judge me for it, okay? It's hard enough that I can't eat sugar without getting sick. It's even worse knowing that I can't even eat my best friend's own treats. Ruruka's been my best friend for years, Y/N. When we first became friends, she offered me one of her treats. I tried to explain my condition to her, but she seemed to understand. At least at first, she did. Since I couldn't eat any of her signature sweets, I decided that I would try to help Ruruka in any other way I could."

"Huh. Interesting. I didn't know you and Ruruka had such a long history with each other. What about Sonosuke?"

"Oh, I met him around the same time I met Ruruka. Funny, isn't it? It's like those two have been together since they were children. Anyways, back to Ruruka," Seiko replied to you. "She's always wanted me to at least try her sweets. Even though she was kind of upset I couldn't eat them, she still considered me to be a good friend of hers. But one day, a little while after we became friends, I felt almost guilty that I couldn't eat her treats. I thought to myself, 'Just take one nibble, it can't possibly be THAT bad, can it?' I felt that it was wrong, but...I... I just wanted to show her that I could eat it. Of course, at that time, my parents said eating sugar was dangerous, but I thought a little wouldn't kill me. That was before I understood how dangerous it was."

You couldn't tell what her expression was. It looked almost angry, or regretful, or sadness, or all of them. She continued to speak. "So on that day, I took a little bite of one of her treats. Just a small nibble, nothing more. For the first few moments, I didn't feel anything. I barely got even a taste of her treat from it. Then I started feeling like my stomach was going to burst. A little while later, my stomach was in more pain than I had ever felt before. Then it got incredibly hard for me to breathe, and m-m-my skin was c-covered in rashes. Ruruka and Sonosuke were able to get me some help, and I was taken to the hospital. The doctors told me I suffered a... s-severe allergic reaction."

She started mumbling her words. You also noticed that her eyes started tearing up. "I-I...*sniff*, I could've died from that. The rest of my family gave me company. I practically scared them half to death. Ruruka and Sonosuke visited me when I was in the hospital, too. I was in that waiting room for weeks, Y/N. *sniff* I-I c-could barely breathe, my stomach was in constant pain, and it hurt when I tried to move. But Ruruka visited me every day I was there. She gave me some comfort while I suffered. *sniff* I f-f-felt so stupid for eating that candy when I knew I shouldn't have. A-Al-l I wanted was to see if I could just have a tiny bit, just a nibble of her treat. And I didn't even stop to think about it! I could've died from just a stupid bite and I didn't even-!!"

You gently placed your hand of Seiko's shoulder. You knew if she kept going like this, she would probably have a meltdown. "Oh my God, Seiko, I am so sorry. I had no idea it was that serious for you. I'm sorry you had to go through all of that," you told her. You could emphasize with her because when you were younger, you had an allergic reaction to peanut butter that sent you into the hospital, too. She was having a moment, so you didn't want her to make her feel worse. I had no idea she was so emotional about this, you thought.

Seiko stared directly into your eyes, silent for a few moments. She had no idea how to react.

"Thank you for telling me, Seiko. I know it must've taken you a lot of courage to say that. Are you... do you need a moment?"

Then she wrapped her arms around you, and started hugging you tightly. You were completely caught off guard by this. You didn't want to break free, so you decided to hug her back. For some reason, you felt something strange going off inside you, some kind of odd yet satisfying feeling. You didn't know how to describe it, yet, you wanted more of it. Seiko kept hugging you for what felt like minutes, but lasted much shorter. You could tell that she was enjoying this. Then, she released her grip on you.

"Thanks. I really needed that. I-I think I feel a bit better now," she said, as she formed a weak smile underneath her mask. "O-Okay, let's try to focus on something better, right? Ruruka should be back in a few moments, so maybe you could learn a thing or two about her."

To be continued...

P.S. - That little piece of backstory for Seiko (the eating the candy part) was something that I slightly based off of a scene from the Danganronpa 3 manga. I thought it would at least be something interesting to bring up.