Forgive And Forget (Kamijirou)

Chapter Eleven: Sweet Escape

"Kaminari-" Jirou muttered irritably. "What are we doing here? It's late," she stated with worry seeping into her tone.

"Somewhere cool," he trekked ahead of her, disappearing beyond the corner of a building.

"Wait-" Jirou hissed, and begrudgingly, trailed him.

Jirou leant around the corner, glancing up the scaling, concrete pillars of the building they passed. It was unfinished, abandoned, and overgrown with beautiful vines and teeming plant life. The sun was setting, it was around 6 PM, the early spring weather meant the sun would've been fully down around 7:30.

She noticed Kaminari pause, look around, then step into the wall-less building, dragging his fingers along each concrete column he passed.

"Isn't this considered trespassing?" Jirou raised a brow.

"I see no signs," Kaminari replied innocently. "And I never intend to vandalize anything," he added. "Besides, I don't think anyone's ever made a law that said city gazing was illegal."

"City gazing?"

He turned back to give her a questioning look.

"You live in Tsyoni, you've never city gazed?"

"Like I'd have the time," she scoffed.

"Huh, you're missing out," he tapped another concrete structure with his fingers. "This way, come on," he gestured for her to follow along a staircase with metal piping as railings.

"This is pointless. Kaminari, Kaminari! We're only wasting time," she called to him, keeping up with his pace as he fled up the stairs.

"Sorry, say that again?" He peered down over the railing from the floor above, taking this time just to tease her.

"Kaminari! If I had those damn keys-" she huffed with grit teeth, hurriedly tapping up the stairs. That only made Kaminari flee faster.

"Good luck getting them," his voice echoed throughout the spacious building.

Jirou paused to stare up the spiraling staircase. The roof to the building hadn't even been fully constructed, the sunset painted sky looked like a gradient of mauve and gold. She glanced down at the railing she gripped on to, faintly rusted, black and copper looking. It was like this place had lost its funding and was never completed.

"Hey, you still got 5 more floors," Kaminari's voice startled her from above. "If I dangle the keys dangerously over the building edge, would that convince you to run faster?" He started laughing.

"Even I know you're not stupid enough to do that," Jirou craned her neck to look back at him.

It was so weird.

There was a sparkle in his eyes that felt so nostalgic.

She knew that look, she knew she did. It was a look she'd remembered so many times in the past that it was hard to ignore.

"Oh, you must have lots of faith in me," he took the car keys, swinging them around his pointer finger just several stories up. Even if it did fall here, she'd probably catch them, or better yet, go back down to the ground floor and grab them before he did.

"You're fucking infuriating," Jirou seethed, quickening her pace and tramping up the stairs. She could hear him continuing to laugh from above. The building only had 8 stories, so it wasn't that much of a trek, but just being here was time consuming. She could've been working. She could've been doing something productive. She could've been with anyone other than this idiot.

She stepped onto the top floor, a faint breeze shifted her hair and she pulled the loose strands behind her ear. She looked back at the staircase, empty. She glanced to each of the unfinished concrete columns, creating shadows that stretched along the floor in the dim, dusk light. There were metal rebars that surrounded the edges of the top floor. Curling along cracks and certain sides of the structure were vines that had invaded the place. She heard a faint clinking noise, following it, she found Kaminari still holding onto the keys.