Chapter Text
Nagatoro, now a third-year student, walked quietly down the hallway to the old art club room. Usually, she'd be running, eager to just barge through the door and surprise her Senpai.
But that wasn't the case. Naoto moved away after his second year ended. He would've ended his high school career with a third year at Kaze High, but his father received a huge job offering in Los Angeles. He was looking forward to spending his third year with Nagatoro and her friends, whom he had viewed as family since, but all that never came to be when he was forced to pack up and leave for the states.
Nagatoro didn't take that news lightly, neither. She was excited to make her Senpai's third year the best in his life. She and Gamo planned beach days, karaoke nights, and parties. She wanted a chance to tease a third year student as a second year student, but when word that Naoto was leaving hit her.. Boy, did it hit her hard. The poor girl remembered tearfully begging him to not go; to try and convince his parents to at least let him stay here by himself in Japan. She knew it was unreasonable, but she wasn't willing to let her Senpai go. Nagatoro was fortunate enough to at least keep in contact with him through his number and Instagram, but for the most part, she ended her second-year completely without her Senpai.
One year later, the girl started her final year, her third year, without Naoto again. Nagatoro had arrived at the art club room and slowly slid the wooden door open, before stepping in. Simply not seeing her Senpai sitting down in the middle of the room, drawing or painting something stupid made her frown. Sure, if he was still in Japan, he wouldn't even be in the room anyways, because he would've graduated by now. But at least she got to see him after school! The art club had long been discontinued since. After the former President had graduated, Naoto was supposed to take over. The school decided that, because its only remaining member had left, it would be best to just shut the thing down. Besides, it wasn't like any more students were looking to join, anyways. The room itself had been cleaned since then, but some of Naoto's old works were still hung on up the walls.
That didn't help the poor girl, however. As sad as she was for being in this room, she would come here every day to eat and relax. It was her way to still feel 'connected' to her Senpai. They used to spend time here together, and Nagatoro felt obligated to honor that tradition. It was clear as day that Nagatoro still missed her Senpai very, very much, even though he had left a year ago.
Nagatoro found herself wanting to check Instagram to see what Naoto's been up to lately. His profile wasn't not the most active, with only about six hundred followers (compared to Nagatoro's a-thousand-something, but was still impressive for a socially inept kid like he was) and only a single post that was posted a few months ago.
Being the overly curious girl she is, Nagatoro tapped on the oldest post on his page. It was a picture of him wearing casual clothing, walking in a parking lot at night, his back facing the camera. In front of him is a big arena of some sorts with the words "ASTROWORLD" clearly written at the top of the building in a playful font, illuminated by colorful lights. She could faintly make out a large poster with more words in a white font.
"Travis Scott?" Nagatoro muttered quietly to herself. She had heard of that name before from a couple other kids at her school. She knew that he was some sort of musician, but she had never listened to his music before. She read where it displayed the location of the post.
"The Forum," with the caption underneath the post reading, "#wishyouwerehere". Nagatoro was perplexed. Was he referring to her? Did he wish she was there..?
"Must be a concert.." she whispered. "Senpai was never the concert type, though.." Indeed he wasn't. In fact, Naoto was never the most social kid to begin with. He must've changed a LOT in the past years. He was doing things that Nagatoro never even imagined him doing. Concerts? Taking pictures? What the hell was Astroworld?
She decided to do a bit more digging in his profile, and noticed that he had just posted a story yesterday. Wanting to see what that's all about, she opened it up with a tap of her finger and saw that it was a video of him driving on a freeway at night. The camera zoomed into the center console screen, and then looked up to see the steering wheel and the red rear lights of the cars in front of him, before panning to the right to get a beautiful night-time view of LA's city lights in the distance.
Nagatoro was drawn to the music. She was completely unfamiliar with the song that was playing in his car. It was loud and really energetic-sounding. Nagatoro instantly took a liking to the beat, but was perplexed by how the singer was just repeating sounds. And when the singer began to actually say words, they were singing too fast for Nagatoro to understand them. What kind of music is Senpai listening to? She played the story back and held her finger on the screen to pause the frame on the center console to see the title of the song.
"LIL UZI VERT - OF COURSE." She never heard of that before. Indeed, what the hell kind of music was Senpai listening to?
Nagatoro didn't take Senpai for the music type, neither. She had never heard this type of music before. It sounded way different compared to the rock songs that Gamo-chan introduced her to, and it sounded nothing like the "ascended hip-hop art" those two annoying boys tried making her listen to over and over.
At that moment, the wooden door slid open, and Nagatoro saw her friends walk into the room. The leader of the friend group, the well-known, orange-haired, and stunningly beautiful Gamo-chan immediately sat herself down next to Nagatoro with a big smile on her face.
"Sup, Hayacchi! Feeling lonely again?" The orange-haired woman jokingly said.
"Lonely!" exclaimed Yoshi, the blonde, childlike, pig-tailed girl.
"Shut up," Nagatoro fired back at her friend. Gamo giggled as she patted her back..
"Ahaha, it's okay, Hayacchi," she chuckled. "I miss Paisen too."
"None of the boys can compare to Senpai-kun," said Sakura, the lazy, laidback, yellow haired woman. "We tried hanging out with those two guys again. You remember them."
Nagatoro knew exactly who she was referring to. "Wait, didn't they graduate?" she asked. "They were second year students when we met them, like Senpai."
"Yeah, they were. They got held back." Sakura giggled, and Nagatoro merely rolled her eyes.
"Gee, that's so surprising." The tanned-girl said with the most sarcasm one can possibly cram in one sentence. All things considered, it was expected for those two delinquents to be held back from graduating. They were laziest guys in school. They routinely skipped club practiced, and even got suspended one time for drinking alcohol at a party. Anyone with common sense would know that those two had it coming.
"Do they even care that they can't graduate?" Gamo asks, to which Sakura shook her head no.
"They're still as boring and annoying as ever."
"Annoying!" Yoshi happily exclaimed.
"And I can't believe you tried setting me up with them before." Nagatoro irritatingly said.
"When was this?" Gamo asked.
"This was way back during our first year." She clarified. "Sakura and I met up with them for this weird double date or whatever. One kept trying to make me listen to his music and the other told me he never touched a girl before." Nagatoro shudders at that memory.
Sakura only laughed at that. "Hehehe, sorry, Toro-chan."
Gamo decided to be real with her best friend. Sure, she can be a pain, even more so than Nagatoro sometimes, but when it came to something serious, her motherly side is shown, and she becomes the most supportive friend one could ever have.
"You know, you can't keep spending your time alone here, Hayacchi."
Nagatoro merely looked at her. "You know that Senpai and I would always be here every day." She looked down at the ground in sadness, before looking back up at her best friend. "I come here because I feel like he's still here."
"Hayacchi, you said that like he's dead! He only moved away." Gamo giggled before affectionately placing her hand on her friend's shoulder. "But for real. Paisen wouldn't want you to waste your third year in this room just because he's not here."
Nagatoro stared at her, thinking as Gamo smiles at her warmly. "We all miss Paisen, Hayacchi. This is our last year here at Kaze, and I'm sure he'd want us to spend it by having the most fun in our lives."
"There's no other guy in school that I'd rather hang out with.." Nagatoro softly retorts, to which Gamo giggles softly again.
"I know, but we don't need another guy in our group! And to be honest, I kinda don't want another guy." She laughed. "We had fun together before we met Paisen, right? Remember those karaoke nights we would do every day?"
"Yeah.." Nagatoro couldn't help but smile as she remembered the fond memories of the fun times she had with her friends. She remembered always talking about stupid stuff with her friends in the library, the times her and Gamo-chan would compete every day to see who's the better fighter, and the times she spent during her swim club. But her memories began to fill with thoughts of her dear Senpai. She would begin to remember the time she spent trying to teach him how to swim at the beach, and the time they all went skiing together. She decided to keep those thoughts to herself, however.
"Now come on." Gamo smiled before standing up. "Let's go."
After school, the group of girls found themselves under a gazebo in a park, the very same gazebo where they had abandoned the two delinquent boys in favor of the nervous Senpai. Just like before, the group came here just to hang out. They had a bunch of snacks all on the table as the girls gossip about homework, their clubs, how strict a certain professor was, and how they just can't wait to be done with this school. Of course, the gang wouldn't be complete without Yoshi repeating every last word that comes out of someone's mouth.
But even with the positivity going around the group, Nagatoro couldn't help herself. Every few minutes or so, she would take quick glances at her Senpai's Instagram page. She would constantly refresh, refresh, and refresh, hoping that at any moment, he does something. Post a story, a picture, or a video. Anything! She knew it would be much easier to just shoot him a quick text message, but she also knew that it's night time on the other side of the world.
"He must be asleep.." She thought to herself. Part of her wanted to just text him, but she didn't want to risk the possibility of ruining his sleep just because she craved attention. Before, she would've done it any way, but in the years since her dear Senpai had left, she had become much more mellowed out. And not to mention, much nicer to her Senpai.
History repeats itself. The two delinquent boys had located the girls under the gazebo and made their way towards them. They've been talking to them much more often ever since Naoto left, especially to Nagatoro. This time however, the girls have no Senpai to take them away from the duo.
"Yo!" The boy with the bowl cut greeted the girls. None of them showed any interest in him, with the exception of Sakura. It could be argued, however, that she was merely leading the boys on.
"Hey." Sakura gave them a coy wave. The boys, as clueless and dumb as they were, did not even think of the possibility that Sakura was playing with them.
"What's up? Mind if we take a seat with you ladies?" The boy with the short, spiky hair asked. Sakura gladly scooted over to allow room for the boys. Nagatoro, on the other hand, was the unfortunate one to have the bowl-cutted one seated next to her. She hesitantly scooted over as well, with the rest of her friends showing the same reluctance.
"You know, my band's been gainin' some traction." The one with the spiky hair then pulled out his phone and a pair of earbuds. "You guys should really give us a listen."
Nagatoro rolled her eyes. They've skimped on classes, suspended from school, and then ultimately prohibited from graduating, and yet these two idiots still insist on putting more focus on their band. They've been at this even before they met Senpai. Gamo-chan, tapping the wooden table with her finger out of sheer boredom, turns to the boys.
"It's been.. How long, now?" She rolled her eyes. "And you guys are barely getting anywhere with that?"
The boys, dumbfounded and offended, completely brush off Gamo. "..Anyways." The girl could only laugh at that. Before, she would've been saddened, and quite jealous that the boys were talking to everyone except her, but she'd been at this school for a few years now, and she was at the point where she was just done with the boys.
The bowl-cut kid then turned his attention to Nagatoro. "Yo, Hayacchi." He grins.
"What." She responded, already annoyed at this guy.
"Your Senpai-friend or whatever still isn't here?" He asked, having an idea.
Of course, Nagatoro isn't stupid. She knew exactly where he was trying to go with that. "No, he's still in the United States. Why?" She asked, irritated.
"We should hang out later. Me and you." The boy had guts. Nagatoro knew very well that they were only doing this because Senpai had left, even though he wasn't the most physically imposing guy before. "I was thinking maybe.. The beach. Or wherever you want to go. Hehehe."
"Yeah, no." She refuted very directly, causing the boy to get a little upset.
"Ahh, come on, Hayacchi!" He tried to change her mind. "That weirdo kid isn't here anymore. What's stopping you from branching out a little?" He smirked.
His buddy came to his defense. "Yeah, come on, Hayacchi! Besides, you could do so much better than that dork." He smirked. "Like, ya' got us."
Having had enough with their nonsense, Nagatoro angrily slammed the palms of her hands down on to the wooden table before standing up. "Don't you dare talk like that about MY Senpai. Idiots." With one last glare, the girl had grabbed her things and walked away, her friends beginning to follow her as the two boys look at them, dumbfounded.
"..I wish Senpai was here." Nagatoro said with both anger and sadness in her tone. She had refreshed Naoto's Instagram page one last time to see if he had done anything, and to her dismay, he hadn't.
"Me too." Gamo nodded as she shot a death stare at the boys behinds them. "I didn't realize how sucky things were without Paisen, sometimes.."
Their wishes were granted, however. On the other side of the world, sat Naoto in the darkness of his room, reviewing a page on his computer. He was home alone as always; his parents had become even more busy ever since they arrived in LA. He had filled the silence of his dark room with the melodic beat of Travis Scott's Yosemite, having grown fond of the song's amazing use of a smooth acoustic guitar. Naoto clicked a few options on the screen to finalize what looked like a transaction page.
Transaction complete. One ticket for Naoto Hachioji - Los Angeles, CA to Tokyo, Japan.
With a smile on his face, Naoto pushed himself off of his chair and flipped the lights to his room on, before plopping himself down in front of an empty canvas next to his bed. Then, he grabbed a pencil, and began to draw.