Love, Always (A Kamijirou Story)

Still Here

(Kaminari's POV)

"Good work today, I'll see you all back here on Wednesday."

Everyone starts gathering their things and leaving the lecture hall. No one really sticks around to talk or socialize.

As I leave the room, I put in my earphones. This is my last class today, so I'm heading home. It's a bit of a walk from here to the bus stop, so I'll enjoy some music on the way there.

I pull my hood up over my head to shield myself from the cold breeze. The semester is almost over, which means the winter weather is on its way.

On the bus, I sit and lean against the window. I start thinking about the holiday season coming up. I want to see my family and my friends, but that might be a little difficult this year.

I stop by the convenience store to grab some dinner. I eat alone in my small studio apartment.

It's quiet almost all of the time here. I guess I could turn on some music or something to watch, but for some reason, the silence is kind of comforting to me.

I work on some school work for a few hours before washing up and going to bed.

I feel like it's the same thing every day.

I haven't had the chance to hang out with my friends in a while. Some of them go to different schools, and our schedules rarely line up for us to arrange something.

I'm kind of lonely.

At least, compared to how things were just a few years ago.

I'm always thinking about the past, but we can't go back. I miss those days.

It was so convenient how we all lived together. We could just hang out in each other's rooms whenever we had free time. We saw each other all of the time. But now, I haven't seen my friends in a long time.

I've made a few new friends since I started at this school, but everyone's always busy, it seems. I tried making friends with a few other people, but they ended up being not who I thought they were. I don't wanna surround myself with that kind of energy, if you know what I mean.

I laid awake in bed. The only noise being the noise from cars driving by on the street down below. I couldn't sleep.

Already in a somber mood, I decided to take a stroll down memory lane. I had a whole album in my photo gallery dedicated to high school memories.

My old friends.

I'm still friends with Kirishima, Sero, and Mina. We still keep in touch through our group chat, but they're all doing their own thing.

About halfway through scrolling, there was a big chunk of photos centered around one particular person.

Jirou.

Kyouka Jirou.

I had the biggest crush on her back then. I never told her, but we became really close friends by the time we were third years. I wonder how she's doing.

Everyone thought we were dating because we hung out with each other so much. Just us two. We always told people we were just friends, but in the back of my mind, sometimes I liked to pretend that we were more than just friends.

After high school, I know she went to study at a university too, but she's quite far from here. I only see what she's up to through occasional updates on her social media.

Whenever she posted, I'd think the same thing.

She's still single.

What if I called her up and told her about how I felt? Would it make her feel weird?

If, somehow, that led us into something more, though, what good is that? We're still hundreds of kilometers away from each other. I better just keep it to myself.

I don't know if I have those same feelings for her anymore. I kind of suppressed them during high school because I didn't want to ruin our friendship. It's been so long. I don't know if it's the same.

But hey, at least I'm doing good in school. It's my second year in university, and I seem to be on a good track. I guess not socializing as much has given me a lot of time to focus on my studies.

I've had so much time to study, I'm surprisingly good at math now. I used to be the worst at math in high school, but maybe that's just because I didn't want to put the time into it.

I'm so good now, I'm thinking about becoming a tutor. I could put up ads for people to hire me, and maybe I could make some extra money.

When I'm not at school, I work part time at a local cafe. It's close by and the pay is good enough for me to keep living here.

If I could get some tutoring jobs, I could finally buy those things I've been eyeing. Stuff to spice up my apartment.

Right now, it's real boring. I might be there for a while though, so I might as well make it feel like home.

I was about to put my phone down to try to sleep again, but it started to buzz in my hand.

Kirishima was calling. I answered it after letting it ring a few times.

"Kiri? What's up?"

"Kami! Dude, how are you!"

"I'm good, I'm good. What's up?"

He was calling to ask if I wanted to hang out this weekend.

"Mina and Jirou are gonna be in town, so we wanted to meet up with everyone." He explained.

"That sounds great. I'll be there for sure, just send me the details."

"Awesome. Thanks, Kami. I'll see you soon."

He hangs up the call.

Mina and Jirou?

What are they doing here?

I guess I'll find out when I see them, but oh man...

I haven't seen Jirou since high school.

I need to get my mind under control. I don't want my feelings to hit me like a pile of bricks when I see her again.

We're just...reuniting with some old friends.