OMGGGGG hi! i will take that as a compliment. i'm committed lmao

yeah i can dig up the specific stories i like to recommend, but yes performance is the big one and then generally speaking it's es main story and theater club stories (though those generally are much more focused on tomoyas relationships.)

bolded are stories i think are really important, unbolded is stuff im including that i also like that isnt AS big.

Main Story Kingdom Chapters 26+ wataru's first appearance, hokuto pov on them specifically

Main Story Ensemble Chapter 30 + 31 the stuff with hokuto's grandma's letter/wataru convincing hokuto to leave fine and rejoin trickstar. i recommend reading the chapters that follow these but theyre the ones with their actual conversation and not primarily others talking about it

Rocket Start! has... iirc 1 or 2 chapters with first year hokuto at the theater club that are really instrumental to like. understanding what hokuto was like back then and the general dynamic there. theres also a scene between wataru and natsume in this, but those (for the most part) got adapted into the element anime, so they're not strictly necessary

SS is a really big one! theres a bit where i think all trickstar members have an interaction with one of their upperclassmen before facing eden, and hokutos is with wataru! this got adapted into the anime but iirc weirdly split between two episodes and i recommend reading the full thing. they talk about the war here and idt context of the plot of kiseki is necessary, just ctrl+f "wataru", its just two chapters but they're really good

as a prelude to ep:link: phantom thieves vs detectives and transparancy & masks. imo those those three stories kind of form their own narrative around wataru leaving yumenosaki. ptvd doesnt have any hokuto in it, and both are much more about Wataru and Tomoya than wataru and hokuto, but i feel like theyre relevant to bring up

EP:Link watarus relationship to hokuto is just as important as watarus relationship to eichi throughout this entire story and is basically like a parallel happening at the same time.

Burning Azaleas is the story in es2 where watahokke gets like brought up again. i dont think it says anything that hasnt been said before, but its still very fun!

Dramatica IF you have access to it, dramatica act 1 and 2 specifically (wataru isnt in act 3 and iirc hokuto is BARELY in act 4). Not important in a lore way-- dramatica act 1 especially iterates a lot on themes that are also in performance.

Performance for completionists sake and like as The Big One for anyone else reading this list. read performance, sound of the summer!