Chapter Text
“Jojo!” One of the many obnoxious girls said cheerfully, running up to Jotaro. Joining the swarm of girls around him.
The girls stuck to Jotaro, despite the many rude remarks he’s given them to leave him alone. He never really understood why they continuously followed him so frequently. The school bell rang, sending all of the students into the building, which erupted all of the girls pushing and shoving each other, debating who would walk to Jotaro’s class - of course they knew his schedule like the back of their hands. Jotaro took that opportunity to keep walking and head straight for his classroom. Thankfully, only the odd two or three followed behind him. Some of the girls begged the front office to switch to the same class as him.
He sighed in relief when he realized the swarm of annoying girls were all heading to their own classes, noticing that he had already made a head start to his class. Though, there were those in his class who constantly breathed down his neck. He grabbed his bag from the ground, taking out a notebook and pencil, trying to ignore the girls behind and beside him.
Jotaro had biology, he fairly enjoyed the subject, though it was hard to really enjoy it if he couldn’t do any of the work on his own, with all the girls asking if they can do his homework, or walk with him after class, his attempts to say no were useless as they would do it anyways.
The lunch bell rang. Jotaro put his pen and notebook away, clearing his throat before sitting up from his seat, followed with the girls in his class doing the same. When he walked out of the class he was met with an even bigger group wanting to eat lunch with him. For whatever reason, the crowd was bigger than it normally is, maybe because it was Friday.
Jotaro had to get away from the group, though he hates to admit it, but he was getting a bit claustrophobic, not being able to have his own bubble. He walked through the halls when he noticed the bathroom, a perfect opportunity to get away from the girls. He angled his walk and pushed his hand on the bathroom door, some girls wanted to go in with him, but others protested, saying that they can wait.
He sighed when the bathroom door closed, rubbing his eyes, and lifting his cap up to run his hands through his hair. When he opened his eyes again and turned to head to a urinal, he saw a man with cherry red hair, holding his wet green gakuran in his hand, with a weird black binding wrapped around his chest. He looked scared.
Jotaro dismissed it, and didn’t really think much of it, “Oh sorry, didn’t know someone else was in here.” He walked passed the man, and over to the urinal.
He could hear the rustling of clothing behind him, must’ve been that guy putting his shirt. When he was done, he walked over to the sink, seeing the man just standing there, he couldn’t really tell, but he swore he saw some tears welling up in his eyes.
Jotaro quickly washed his hands, and walked over to the hand dryer before walking to the door and sighing again before exiting the washroom. Leaving the man by himself again.
Jotaro was back with all the girls swarming him, and continued walking to where he was going to eat lunch, when he heard the sound of the bathroom door opening from behind him.
“Hey you!” The man from the bathroom said with a weaker voice, and before Jotaro could answer, the man was plowing through the girls surrounding him and pulled Jotaro into a janitor’s closet.
The two of them were in close proximity. A bit too close for Jotaro’s comfort, but he couldn’t move since the man was on the side of the door with the handle.
“What?” Jotaro said trying to shift himself to a more comfortable position.
The man took Jotaro’s collar, pulling them to be even closer. Jotaro couldn’t really see the man, just lines of light from the door reflecting slightly off his face. Jotaro noticed that the water from his gakuran hadn’t fully dried. The tears that Jotaro thought he noticed were definitely there, mixed together with the cracked voice. Yup, this guy was clearly upset. There was no answer coming from the man after his action towards Jotaro.
“You better start saying something,” Jotaro said moving his head a bit farther back so he wouldn’t be too face to face with the man in front of him. “Or people might think somethi-” Jotaro was cut off by a hand being placed over his mouth.
“If you tell anyone about what you saw in the bathroom,” The hand that was over Jotaro’s mouth was now pointed at Jotaro’s face, “I’ll kill you.”
Jotaro chuckled a bit, “Ooh, scary threat.”
They stood in an awkward silence for a bit longer, the man giving Jotaro a deadly glance, before Jotaro sighed and continued speaking.
“Tell them that you were shirtless in the bathroom?” Jotaro tilted his head slightly before brushing off the man’s grasp on his collar. Looking away, “Besides, who would I even tell?”
The red haired man scoffed, “Oh, I don’t know, maybe your thousands of girlfriends following you 24/7?”
“They are not my gir-“ Jotaro cut himself off, “They’re just shadows to me, I never talk to any of them - apart from the occasional get away - but aside from that, they just follow me everywhere I go.”
The red haired man stepped back, a small bit confused. “Oh..”
Jotaro cleared his throat, “Yeah.” There was a small pause, “Now can you let me have my lunch?”
The man shook his head, snapping out of the small daze he was in, “Y-yeah.” He opened the door, letting the flood of girls go and retrieve Jotaro, asking him what that was about.
Jotaro and the red haired man made quick eye contact before he was dragged out of the closet, letting Jotaro get a good look at the man - strange purple eyes and a faded scar going across his right eye, strangely not interfering with his vision.
Walking down the hall, Jotaro tried dismissing the girls, but as always, to no avail. All he could do was eat surrounded by them.
The day went on how they always do - Jotaro being bombarded by the girls, and Jotaro hating it. He’s been putting up with it for so long, it’s become a regular to him.
He thought about what the man said in the closet. Do people really think I like this attention? It made him really think about how he actually doesn’t have any friends in the school. Maybe he would benefit by having one, maybe if he was paying attention to someone else, just maybe the girls would back off, and he could be in his own space again, like it was for him back in middle school.
Who could he ask? In his next class, he scanned the room, but everyone was already grouped up, and he doubted that they would want an additional person to join them. He sighed as the girls around him asked what was wrong, and in response he gave nothing.
The final bell rang, and everyone packed up all their belongings. Jotaro wasted no time and was already heading for the door, hoping not too many girls would follow behind him. Jotaro stopped in his tracks when he noticed the red haired man walking by himself, head down and isolated by everyone around him. He thought for a second, could he be a friend?
The red haired man walked a bit faster than everyone, maybe to get home faster? No. It seemed like he was trying to avoid someone.
Jotaro shook it off, and walked home, with a smaller group of girls ghosting behind him. Once he got to his house, all the girls who followed him told him to have a good weekend, and how they can’t wait to see him on Monday, and how they’ll miss him over the weekend.
Jotaro got into his house, and was met with his mom,“Hi Jotaro” She smiled, “How was your day?”
“It was average.” He took off his shoes, hanging his backpack up on the coat hanger.
Holy looked out the window, and saw the girls walking away from the house, she sighed, “Those girls are still following you?” She walked up to Jotaro, looking up at him, “You have to do something about that.”
He shrugged, “I don’t really mind it.”
Holy brought her hand up to Jotaro’s cheek and whispered, “I don’t believe that.”
Jotaro shooed away her hand, “What’s for dinner?” He looked over into the kitchen to see vegetables being cooked.
“Just some yakisoba.” She backed away, walking back into the kitchen. “It should be ready in a half an hour, you can wait in your room. I’ll call you down when it’s ready.”
“Sounds good,” Jotaro said walking past the kitchen and headed to his room.
Jotaro walked into his room to find his dog sleeping peacefully on his futon. He walked over and sat beside his dog, “Hey Iggy,” He said petting his head, “Did you miss me?”
Iggy squinted his eyes open, before letting out some gas, jumping off the bed and running out of his room.
Jotaro coughed and waved his hand around the air, “I guess not.” He got up and opened a window, “Jeez that dog stinks.” He said under his breath before heading back to his bed.
He pulled his phone out of his pocket, sighing when realizing there were no notifications. Just as he thought. Why did he even have the phone if he barely used it? It would’ve been nice to at least have someone check up on him. But who…
Thoughts flooded his mind, could that man who dragged him into the closet be a friend? There’s no other way to know then to ask him on Monday. So that’s what he was going to do.
“Jotaro!” Holy called from the kitchen “Dinner’s ready!”
“Coming!” Jotaro said, getting up from his futon.
The rest of Jotaro’s weekend was laid back, as all of the weekends that came before, since, evidently he didn’t have many friends, he spent most of his days with his mom, playing stupid board games or some MLB games he had on his switch. Though he started off not being that good at it, once he learned to play, he thoroughly enjoyed it.
His alarm rang on Monday morning, he groaned, moving to turn off his alarm clock. Stretching his arms out, and getting out of bed.
Jotaro got dressed and headed to the kitchen, to find his mom making herself a coffee. “Good morning Jotaro,” She said taking a sip of her coffee, “Do you want one too?” She stuck the hand she was holding the coffee in out to Jotaro.
“No thanks, I’m gonna be heading to school early today,” He said grabbing something quick out of the fridge, and headed for the door, “Cya.”
“Oh ok, well have fun!” Holy started saying to Jotaro but halfway through, the door closed.
Jotaro had decided over the weekend that he was finally going to talk to this mysterious red haired man, he didn’t know when, or how, but he just knew that he was going to. He didn’t even know where this guy would be, but he hoped that he would show up to school early. That was one of the main reasons he decided to leave for school early than he does - that and to avoid the girls, so he could get some quiet.
Once he approached the school, he noticed the man with red locks and a green uniform laying on the floor, with a couple guys towering over him, bickering about something, but he was too far away to hear clearly what they were saying.
Jotaro sped over to him to hear something about.. Money?
“Get away from him!” He pushed one out of the way. He was definitely more buff than any of the guys there, and intimidating enough to scare them away.
Once they were all gone, Jotaro knelt down, grabbing the scattered papers and sketchbook around the man, and piled them together before lending out a hand.
The red haired man took his hand, getting up. Jotaro handed him his papers and sketchbook, “Here,” He gave a faint smile.
The man was reserved, and hesitant to take his belongings back from Jotaro.
“Thanks,” The red haired man quickly grabbed his things from Jotaro’s grasp, rushing to get into the building.
This was his chance. This was his opportunity to ask the man. Jotaro thought to himself before he blurted out, “Wait!” Reaching his arm out.
The red haired man slowly turned back around, “Yes?” He said quietly.
Jotaro retracted his hand and brought it to the back of his neck, “I - Uhm..” He cleared his throat, “I was wondering if maybe you wanted to hang out after school?” He said, immediately dropping his head to look at the ground.
After those words were said, Jotaro heard the sounds of girls approaching behind him, he turned his head slightly and sighed.
The man looked past Jotaro, noticing the swarm running up to him. He thought for a second, maybe he could use a friend too? “Sure.”
Jotaro looked back up, hope glistening in his eyes, “Really?” The girls latched themselves onto Jotaro, which he only gave a stern glance for them to slightly back off and fangirl amongst each other. “I’ll meet you here after school?”
The man chuckled to himself lightly, walking away into the school.
“Sounds like a plan.”