Chapter Text
Another day, another music session.
That was just what Kyoka Jirou decided to do as soon as she opened her eyes. She sat up, rubbed her eyes and stretched as she let out a loud yawn.
After a brutal week of class full of training exercises left and right, Aizawa was kind enough to give the students a two-day break. The days that passed by were increasing in difficulty level as the term was coming to an end. Everyone was doing their best to recall the lessons they had this term: They weren't making the same mistake they did the last time exams came and they had no recollection of anything they studied, fortunately, Yaoyorozu descended from the heavens and provided study sessions. Jirou was especially thankful for her tall friend.
But now, Jirou, and a couple of her classmates didn't wanna trouble Yaoyorozu. They knew that she was gonna be busy studying as well, so they decided to take initiative and study on their own. Of course, there's a few exceptions to this that came in the form of the pink-skinned girl, Ashido and everyone's favorite electric man, Kaminari, or as Jirou liked to call him, Jamming-yay.
Jirou knew that studying for the finals was important, everyone knew that, but she decided to just let off some steam for a while. She could spend the day until noon to herself and use the rest of the day to study. Besides, her only problem in class was math. Everything else, she was fine with.
She turned to the clock on her desk and was surprised to see that she had woken up very early. The clock read '7:12'. "Huh... that's weird..." Jirou said to herself. She rarely woke up at this time during weekends or on days-off. "Oh well, might as well get up and get going..." She stood up and headed for the bathroom to get cleaned up. Once done, she changed into some casual clothing, consisting of a 'Deep Dope' t-shirt and black pants. She then grabs an acoustic guitar hanging around in her room and leaves.
Since her quirk picks up the faintest of sounds, Jirou is able to hear every single thing going on in the rooms of her classmates. However, since it was still early in the morning, all she heard was the shuffling of bodies on a bed and snoring. The only rooms she weren't able to pick up sound in were Iida's and Midoriya's rooms. Figures... those two were always up early no matter what. It wasn't Iida if he didn't wake up early. In Midoriya's case, Jirou knew that the green-haired boy follows a strict routine.
This leaves Jirou to wonder what else Midoriya does in his time, other than study and analyze pro heroes, which Jirou thinks MIdoriya does 24/7. Don't get her wrong, she praises and respects the boy's work ethic, it's just that outside of that, she can't help but feel that the boy is just as plain as can be. He even looks the part of a plain boy. There has to be something that he does in his spare time. Maybe he likes to draw or sketch sometimes? She's seen his notebooks at least five times now and from what she could gather, everyone in there looked very realistic. One that managed to catch her eyes was a drawing of Yaoyorozu. Suffice to say, Jirou was impressed at how Midoriya was able to draw her friends... proportions...
Now rubbing her face to remove the blush that grew, Jirou finally made it to the common area. The place was perfect: No one was around and she could just play her guitar in solitude. She sat down on the couches, making sure to get comfy, closed her eyes, and let herself get lost to the music as she strummed away.
The acoustic sounds bouncing around the room filled Jirou with a sense of nostalgia for something that she didn't even experience. She always felt like this whenever she played privately. Just every single sound being picked up by her ears, harmoniously creating earworms for her to enjoy. She leaned her head back as she unconsciously plucked the strings of her guitar gracefully, as graceful as a figure skater does. This continued for a solid ten minutes until Jirou heard the door open and two people conversing.
"Midoriya, you've been practicing your legs! You nearly had me beat there." Iida said. Jirou can practically see Iida's robotic hand motions as he talks. She continued playing her guitar but now had her eyes opened. The zen-like atmosphere had dissipated.
"Thank you, Iida... I'm glad someone else noticed it other than me. It shows that I've improved." Midoriya replied. For Jirou, it was weird not hearing him stutter while having casual conversation. Since Iida is one of his closest friends, she can see how Midoriya is able to ease into the idea of having small talk with the class president.
The two finally entered the common area and see Jirou casually playing her guitar. As soon as Jirou sees them, she stops playing to greet the two. It seemed like the two had a little race during their workout session. Both were drenched in sweat and Jirou could hear their hearts beating faster than usual.
"Yo." She said.
"Good morning, Jirou. Nice to see you up so early." Iida said. Sure enough, his hands were all around the place.
"A-ah, good morning as well, J-Jirou..." Midoriya meekly greeted. Jirou took note of Midoriya eyeing her left hand that was currently making a bar chord on the guitar neck.
"I happened to wake up early today... Thought I'd just go downstairs and play something." Jirou replied as she stood up and leaned her guitar on the couch. "I'm gonna grab some cereal." She walked towards the kitchen to prepare herself some breakfast.
"Very well. That run sure took out a lot from me, I'm starving. Are you coming as well, Midoriya?" Iida asked the green-haired boy.
"Thank you Iida, but I'm not that hungry now. Plus, I have to do something today." Midoriya said.
"Ah, I see. Alright then, I'll see you later." Iida waved at him and Midoriya made sure to wave back at both him and Jirou.
Jirou and Iida soon finished their breakfast without saying much. Jirou wasn't exactly buddy-buddy with Iida, but when he left, he said his goodbyes and Jirou returned them as well. Jirou was once again all alone in the common area, so she continued playing for about thirty minutes. It was over soon and Jirou stood up to head back to her dorm room. She decided to use the stairs going up, a little exercise wouldn't hurt. She decided to use this to her opportunity to once again hear whatever was going on in her classmate's rooms. Once again, she hears the same old sounds. There was snoring and shuffling. Alarm clocks going off and being snoozed. Jirou heard Ashido talking in her sleep, something about pickles. Cellphone notification sounds. Guitar strumming.
...
Wait, guitar strumming?
As far as Jirou knew, she was the only person in the entire class who had an instrument in their room. Nobody would even try to enter her room, besides, she made sure to lock it when she left earlier. Based from the sounds coming from the guitar, it was acoustic. Jirou was carrying the only acoustic guitar she had with her. Now feeling curious, she fishes out where the strumming came from. She noticed how the sounds coming out were a bit amateur-level, but the melody being created was pleasing to her ears. Whoever was playing this guitar had been doing so for a while now, and she was dying to know who it was. Jirou was thinking that it might be Kaminari or Tokoyami, since the two knew how to play and were a part of the band at the cultural festival. So she went ahead and checked. When she went to Kaminari's room, all she heard was snoring on the other side. next up was Tokoyami, and all she heard from there was Tokoyami shuffling in bed. Yet, she still heard the guitar strumming. She turned towards the direction of the sound.
Now obviously, Mineta wouldn't be playing the guitar, he said it himself, his body wasn't built for it. It couldn't be Aoyama either, Jirou can hear him snore. The only other person was... Midoriya?
Sure enough, when Jirou stood in front of his door, the sound was definitely coming from him. This definitely answered her earlier question about what Midoriya did outside of the usual stuff, but the girl felt that she was given more questions than answers. Why would Midoriya even play guitar? Since when? Was she a direct influence on him?
"Alright, let me try this..." Jirou heard Midoriya say to himself. Soon, Jirou heard an awful sound coming from inside. This continued for a solid fifteen seconds.
"Gah, what the hell is he doing? It was going well earlier." Jirou whispered to herself. Now invested in whatever Midoriya was doing, she plugged in one of her jacks on the wall of his room. Once again, she heard those same sounds she heard him do earlier.
"Ack... My finger's already hurting... well that's to be expected, I've only been doing this for two months." Midoriya said. That's when Jirou realized that Midoriya had been trying to do a bar chord, and failing. Midoriya eyeing her hand earlier had definitely triggered the boy to try doing so on his own guitar. Jirou somehow felt flattered by this. After a couple of seconds, Midoriya finally let out a decent bar chord.
"Alright, enough messing around..." Midoriya uttered. Jirou raised a brow at this statement. Five seconds later, she heard Midoriya plucking the strings. The weren't that great, but it was pleasant enough to hear. Jirou noted that Midoriya was playing a song from centuries ago and it was a soft song. Jirou was already impressed with Midoriya's skill. At such a short time, he had already sounded like an indie artist. Imagine Jirou's surprise when Midoriya suddenly sang lyrics.
"Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away.
Now it looks as though they're here to stay.
Oh, I believe in yesterday..."
Jirou was amazed. So much so that she moaned quite louder than she imagined. She only realized after one second that Midoriya had stopped playing and it was because he heard someone outside.
"Shit!" She whispered. She turned around to run away before Midoriya could see who it was. She wasn't sure if Midoriya was fine with someone snooping around and listening in on whatever he was doing in the privacy of his room.
But of course, the gods above were a bit too swift hitting Jirou with that karma, as she forgot to pull back her earphone jack from the wall. All she felt was a tug on her earlobe before the pain set in.
"Ah!" Jirou uttered. She stopped for a split second to grab her earlobe back, but she stopped moving altogether when she realized Midoriya had already opened his door to see the girl in a really weird position. Thankfully, Midoriya didn't look pissed off at Jirou for her practically eavesdropping, but what freaked her out the most was that Midoriya had a worried expression.
"Uh... h-hey, Midoriya..." Jirou simply said in defeat.
"J-Jirou! Wh-what are you d-doing here?" Midoriya was shaking a little bit.
"N-nothing! I swear, I just happened to pass by and..." Jirou looked at him and she could tell he wasn't buying into any of it. "Gah, screw it... I... I was listening to you play." Jirou said as she grabbed her earlobe back.
Midoriya looked very pale. Jirou knew she had to say something to help the boy ease his mind.
"I like it..." Jirou said. Seconds later, she yelled at herself internally for saying something like that. She knew that Midoriya wasn't too used to getting compliments and such, she's seen it first hand.
"R-really?" Midoriya asked.
Jirou nodded. It wasn't a lie, she legitimately liked every second of his playing, well, except the part where he was trying to do a bar chord.
"T-thanks..." Midoriya rubbed the back of his head as he sheepishly looked away, with a very obvious blush. Jirou noticed that the boy turned to look at her guitar. "Would you like to come in?" Midoriya asked.
"Uh... sure." Jirou said as Midoriya opened the door wide enough for her to enter. Once inside, Jirou still couldn't believe how much All Might memorabilia the boy had in this room. She was certain that he had other collectibles back at his home. She sat on the edge of his bed and positioned her guitar on her lap. Midoriya simply sat on the chair in front of his desk. There was an awkward silence that followed.
"So, uh, how long have you been playing?" Jirou asked. Kind of a stupid question, she thought, considering she just eavesdropped and heard it already.
"Oh, uh, I-I actually started playing two months ago... just a few days after the c-cultural festival." Midoriya said.
"Wow... you know... for someone who just played that long, I'm really impressed with how well you sound. Sure, it can be improved, but it already makes me giddy." Jirou chuckled. She looked at him and noticed he still had that distraught look on his face. Then she realized that probably no one else knew about this hobby of Midoriya. "Uh, Midoriya, I'm guessing I'm the first one to know about this?" She asked.
"Y-yeah... It's something I've been doing without telling anyone... I'm not that c-confident in doing this around e-everybody just yet." Midoriya admitted as he looked at his feet. Jirou felt a bit heartbroken at his statement. She's been in his position. Sure, everyone thought she was great, but she wasn't really sure of herself up until the cultural festival.
"Don't worry. Your little secret's safe with me." Jirou said with a smile. This caused Midoriya to perk up and look at her.
"T-thanks... I really appreciate that." Midoriya chuckled. Silence once again cut through the air until Midoriya asked a question. "How did it feel performing in front of that many people?"
Jirou was a little surprised at the question, but answered soon enough. "Well, it's exactly how you would expect. I was nervous. My fingers were a wreck. I feared that I'd make a mistake out there, but as the song went on, I got in the mood and just lost myself in the music." She replied.
"I-it feels nice to know that p-people like to listen to your songs, isn't it?" Midoriya said.
"Definitely. And I meant it when I said I enjoyed you playing, especially when you started singing." Jirou said. This caused the freckled teen to start blushing.
"A-ah..." That was all he could say while Jirou giggled. Soon after, Midoriya joined in on the giggling as well. "By the way, how do you do a bar chord perfectly?" Midoriya once again inquired.
"Oh, that's simple... all you have to do is this..." Jirou ended up giving Midoriya an impromptu lesson that lasted for an hour. Needless to say, both enjoyed it and Jirou would be lying if she said she didn't want to spend more time with Midoriya.