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Kaminari couldn't sleep. Again.
He wasn't sure why. Ever since his class transferred to the dorms, he'd find himself in a loop of messing up his sleep schedule, fixing it, and then messing it up again unintentionally by not being able to sleep. He was used to it at this point, but he'd still often ask himself why. Not that he minded the nighttime; it was nice to have some peace after a busy day of classes, training, and willingly hanging out with Bakugou. What bothered him was the fact that he had nothing better to do than to wait to fall asleep, and that sometimes meant getting bored out of his mind.
Needless to say, Kaminari was restless. He rolled over from one side of his bed to the other and grabbed his phone to check the time.
1 AM. Great. He thought. Everyone else was probably asleep by now. That meant he had no one he could annoy until he got tired. However, that didn't mean he couldn't send memes that his classmates would wake up to. Kaminari had a bit of a reputation of being the class Memelord , as he called it, and everyone was used to his meme-spamming habits by now. Kirishima and Sero especially, who would always spam back.
After about 10 minutes of mindless scrolling the internet in search of top-tier memes, he started stumbling upon music related ones. They reminded Kaminari of a certain musician classmate of his, Kyouka Jirou. The two were good friends, and he would send her music-related posts from time to time. She didn’t mind it; It'd often result in either short replies, "I've seen this one already" messages, and rarely, if Kaminari was lucky enough, a decent chat that strayed away from the topic of music. He didn't even hesitate in sending the memes to her now, five at a time. He hoped that she'd see them in the morning and like them.
However, he was surprised to see that she saw his messages immediately.
Jirou : heh
Jirou : niceee
For some reason, these short responses made Kaminari smile. It wasn’t much, but Jirou usually texted like that and he was used to it. Besides, it was a pleasant surprise to find her awake at this hour. His thumbs hovered above the screen of his phone as he thought of a response.
Kaminari : ikr!!
Kaminari : so what are you doing up this late?
Jirou : couldn't sleep. Working on a song.
Jirou : you?
Kaminari : same
Kaminari : without the "working on a song" part
He didn’t want to leave it at that. He couldn’t. He wasn’t tired and this was a good opportunity to do something that’d alleviate his boredom.
Kaminari : can i come over?
Well, shit. Out of all the messages he could’ve typed out, he chose that . Kaminari suddenly felt uneasy. He didn't know if asking Jirou to come over to her room was a good move, especially since she was occupied with something already. What would he do in her room anyway? He thought that she'd probably just start scolding him through texts now. Idiot.
Jirou : sure
Not much of an idiot after all.
Kaminari stood in front of Jirou's door, a bit shaky and unsteady. Why did he feel this nervous all of a sudden? He went into her room all the time to borrow one of her guitars, it wasn't like this visit was a big deal. He was going to spend some time in her room doing whatever until he got sleepy, go back to his own room, and call it a night. That's it. Not a big deal at all.
He knocked on the door twice. A few seconds later, Jirou answered. Despite her claim that she couldn't sleep, she looked tired: her hair was a bit messy, and her eyes seemed heavy.
"Hey!" Kaminari greeted her, beaming a bit too much for someone awake this late at night.
"Hey," Jirou replied unenthusiastically, letting him in her room. "Can't sleep?"
"Yeah, it's a thing." He said, sitting on her bed. "What about you though?"
"I just got too caught up in mixing this project I'm working on." The girl said and sat at her computer. What Kaminari could only assume to be a music program of some sort was running, and there was a lot happening on the screen. Maybe. He wasn't sure. He just saw a lot of audio tracks and knobs. "I got carried away, honestly."
"Project? Like an unfinished song? Sounds cool! Can I listen?" He asked, now sitting on Jirou’s bed and trying to get a glimpse of what was happening on the computer.
"Uhh…" Jirou started, suddenly embarrassed. "I mean, it's not done yet, and I'm not really happy with how this guitar is sounding. That's what I'm trying to fix now."
She noticed that he looked a bit sad by that response. "I'll let you know when it's done, though."
"Oh." Kaminari laid on his back and stared at the ceiling while Jirou put her headphones on and went back to whatever she was doing before he came in.
"Just give me a second to adjust this one thing." She said.
Kaminari nodded. Though she wasn't really paying attention to him, he liked this. It was certainly a nice change from his usual night time boredom. Soon enough, he heard music, too. Though it sounded quiet and muffled, he managed to pick up on the sound of drums and an electric guitar riff. It sounded pretty cool.
Well, it was Jirou, so of course it did.
"Are your headphones working?" He asked. "I can hear everything from here."
"Oh, uh, these are open back headphones. That means they let out some sound." Jirou replied.
"Isn't the whole point of headphones to not have people around you hear what you're listening to?"
"Well, these are good for producing because they don't affect the sound as much as regular closed ones, but… I guess you're right." She took the headphones off and shook her head. "I feel dumb doing this now that you're here anyway."
"No, no, no, I didn't mean to interrupt! Please continue! I'll just lay here."
"Okay, give me 5 minutes to adjust the rest of the effects on this track. I'll be done by then." She put the headphones back on and glared at him. "Don’t fall asleep on my bed."
"If it was that easy for me to fall asleep, I wouldn't be here, now would I?"
Jirou shrugged at that response as Kaminari went back to staring at the ceiling. He probably would've stayed like that, but he couldn't ignore the music no matter how quiet it sounded through the headphones. It was basically the same part playing over and over again; the track would start, then stop, then it would play again from the beginning after a bit. Considering the amount of times he heard the guitar riff through the headphones that night, Kaminari was pretty sure he'd remember it for the rest of his life (not that he minded; it was a pretty riff).
He looked over at Jirou. Though he couldn't see her face, she seemed to be focused: her eyes were basically glued to the screen and her head was resting on the palm of her hand. He started wondering about how long she'd been doing this, considering that she said she got carried away. Probably hours.
After a bit, Jirou closed the program and faced Kaminari, who sat up on the bed again.
"Okay, I'm done with this now, as promised." she said. "What do you suggest we do?"
"What were you doing exactly?" he asked, ignoring her question.
"I told you, idiot. Maybe if you listened, you'd know that I was working on a song ."
"Hey! Don't call me an idiot, that's mean!" Kaminari protested. "And I did get that, but I meant to ask what you did to make the music sound like that? It was awesome!"
"Oh… it's nothing you'd understand."
He tilted his head. "Explain it, then. You were pretty good at teaching me guitar."
Jirou sighed. "That's different."
"It can’t be that bad."
"In that case… I first recorded a chord progression on my Stratocaster." She said, pointing at an electric guitar in the corner or her room. "Today, I mean, since I already had this drum and bass loop I haven't opened in forever. Then I went on to EQ it-"
"You what?"
"See, I can't explain this to you because there are a lot of producer terms like these."
"I'll get the hang of it! Just continue."
And so, Jirou went on a 30-minute rant about everything she did on her unfinished song that day as Kaminari listened carefully, occasionally nodding his head and asking additional questions. All the tiredness he felt from her earlier was gone within minutes; his own boredom left him too, now replaced by confusion, but also concentration; though he wasn’t necessarily focused on what was being said. Instead, Kaminari was grateful that Jirou chose to talk about this with him at all, as she seemed to be completely immersed in the topic. He still felt quite overwhelmed with terms like reverb and delay and automation, but at the same time he felt more respect for Jirou and her music skills than he already did. He was impressed enough when she taught him how to play the guitar, but music production was a whole other realm. It seemed way more complex to him than playing an instrument.
It also made Jirou look cooler than he already thought she was.
"…and then I duplicated the track and panned each of the duplicates to opposite sides. Makes the track sound nicely spaced out… and that's pretty much it."
I understood none of that. "Cool! So, you're like, a beatmaker?" Kaminari asked excitedly.
"Technically yes. I like the term 'producer' better, though."
"Man, I wish I could do stuff like that. We should make a song sometime!"
Jirou felt a bit nervous about that suggestion. Making a song? With Kaminari? "Uhhh…"
"It'd be great! You could record me on the guitar, Bakugou's drums, get the class A band back together again!"
"Yeah, I don't think Bakugou would agree to that." Jirou said. "Besides, if you were on guitar, it'd take me days to get something half-decent out of you."
"You were complimenting my sick guitar skills during practice for the school festival, though."
"Please, that was just to hype you up and get you motivated to play. Besides, we are not making a song in the middle of the night."
"Hmph." Kaminari pointed at the computer. "Then I want to hear your songs! Your finished ones!"
"No way!" Jirou exclaimed. She never showed those to anyone in class. Not that anyone ever asked before, anyway.
"Yes way! I know you probably have a ton of songs I've never heard and you're really talented and cool. I want to hear them."
Jirou once again found herself quite embarrassed. Was she really going to let Kaminari listen to her music? She wasn't even sure if she liked her own songs anymore, remembering all the things that she'd hate in her own tracks after she'd finish them: slight mixing errors and things that she thought could've been done better. Fixing those imperfections was what kept her up on nights like these. However, Jirou knew that Kaminari probably wouldn't leave her room until he heard a few songs, and she was actually starting to get tired.
"Okay. I'll play you one EP I did a few months ago. It has 5 songs, about 20 minutes long." She decided.
"Sweet!"
"One condition though: I get the bed and you have to sit on the chair here."
"It's a deal!"
Jirou turned to her computer, looking for the EP she mentioned. It was well hidden among folders upon folders of projects and demos and random vocal takes. Upon finally finding it, she clicked play, feeling a bit anxious. They switched spots, Jirou now laying on her own bed and Kaminari sitting on the chair at her desk, looking around her room. He was a bit too hyped considering the time, but he now had something to do: he was finally going to hear Jirou's music.
"Ah, I actually like this one." Jirou commented as the first song played. "It seemed perfect as an opening song, with this intro."
Kaminari nodded his head. It was a long instrumental intro, a bit spacey-sounding and full of bass. He couldn't really pinpoint a genre just yet… indie, maybe? Whatever it was, he liked it, and the fact that it was all done by one person made it even better. Then the vocals came in, and Kaminari was reminded of how heavenly Jirou's voice sounded. He wasn't even interested in looking around her room anymore. He just stared into the distance, giving his full attention to the music.
This went on for the rest of the EP. Kaminari tried not to talk much, though he didn't mind Jirou giving a comment or two on each of the songs. The indie/alternative vibe stuck throughout, and he thought it all sounded amazing. There was even a guitar solo at one point, which he remembered to ask her about later.
As the last track started though, Kaminari was caught off-guard.
The last song wasn't like the others; it was mostly acoustic, with light guitar fingerpicking and a few piano notes thrown in here and there. However, despite the change in sound, it seemed to wrap up the EP nicely. Not to mention how well Jirou's vocals fit into it, her voice full of intensity and emotion, sounding like a perfectly tuned instrument of its own. To say it sounded beautiful was an understatement.
It was like a side of Jirou Kaminari rarely ever saw, that he often wished he could see more of. As much as he liked her when she was her usual cold and sarcastic self, he also liked it when she was more… soft like this, preferred it even. He'd never say that to her face, though. The mere thought of it made him blush in embarrassment sometimes. It was weird for him to think of a classmate and good friend that way, after all.
Still, the song made him feel things. He clenched his chest, his heart beating a little bit harder than usual. Kaminari liked the rest of the songs, sure, but this was the one that he wanted to listen to over and over, keep on repeat until it made him sick. He decided that he just needed to have it saved somewhere so he could play it and learn the lyrics by heart, as if he was Jirou's biggest fan.
When it ended, Kaminari was left in awe. It was a usual feeling of excitement that came with listening to an album for the first time, mixed with a good amount of admiration. That last song aside, it probably took Jirou weeks, if not months, to put this absolute masterpiece together. It sounded professional too- like producing music was her full time job. She definitely had to send him the mp3 files, no matter what.
"Jirou?" Kaminari called, and looked to her bed to find that she was fast asleep. He'd have to ask her for the files in the morning now. He had to admit though, she looked pretty peaceful when she wasn't making fun of him or threatening to stab him with her jacks. Quiet. Tranquil. Kind of… cute?
Kaminari shook off that thought and went to turn off Jirou's computer for her so he could go back to his room and finally get some rest. Doing so, he couldn't help but notice the numerous playlists on the sidebar of a program she didn't close. He knew that she liked music, but there were so many playlists that he was sure she had one for every life situation and every mood ever. He felt bad for being nosy, but he was so mesmerized that he had to check out the playlists, at least the titles. Scrolling through them, near the bottom of the list, there were playlists named after their classmates. Yao-momo. Bakugou. Uraraka. They probably asked her for music recommendations, based on the songs he found on those.
At the very bottom, however, there was one only titled as K ϟ . Intrigued, Kaminari clicked on the title and found a playlist of about 30 songs, an hour and forty minutes long. He noticed that it was the only one set to private, and he also paid attention to the songs themselves. They were either love songs that he knew didn't fit Jirou's usual taste or songs that Kaminari himself loved, that he asked (begged) Jirou to teach him on guitar.
He peeked over to check if she was still asleep, then took out his phone and took a few pictures of the computer screen as he scrolled, making sure he caught all the songs on the K ϟ playlist. After doing so, he let out a sigh of relief and decided that it was time to leave. He got up and walked into the hallway.
"Goodnight, Jirou." Kaminari whispered as he closed the door of her dorm room behind him. He then leaned on it and took a deep breath, trying to take in what just happened. He thought about her EP and that one song, struggling to remember the melody or lyrics or anything. Then he looked at the phone in his hand, opened up his photos, and sure enough the shots of her computer screen were still there.
Oh well , Kaminari thought, heading back to his room. He knew that he wasn't going to sleep now, there was a playlist to be recreated and listened to. And tomorrow, he had songs to analyze. He figured that it was the only way to find out about all the things she was too afraid to say out loud.