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The rooftop of Hope’s Peak Academy’s school building is a sacred place to you and Junko-chan. You have a special ritual, just the two of you: every Friday evening, you smoke on the rooftop, dangling your legs off the edge.
Fridays, you’ve learned, are days that you can be “you.”
You’ve got a cigarette in your left hand and Junko-chan's arm in your right. You wonder which of them is the unhealthier habit. Which of them would be harder to quit? You aren’t sure. You know that you hate the taste of both.
“Kaz-chan,” Junko-chan laughs, “Why are you clinging to me so hard? It’s like you’re scared that I’ll fall.”
Maybe I am, you think.
It was one particular Friday evening, maybe a month or two ago, when she asked you if you’d ever attempted suicide.
“What?” you laughed. “Junko-chan, what the hell kind of question is that? We just got here.”
“Yeah, well.” She jutted out her lip, forming an exaggerated pout. “I wanted to know. So tell me.”
“You want the honest answer?”
Her eyes narrowed. “No, I want you to lie to me,” she deadpanned. “...Dumbass. You're lucky I love you, otherwise I wouldn’t keep you around,” she said.
She said that she loved you. It was getting easier to believe these days. “Whatever. If you gotta know, then...fine.”
She looked at you expectantly. Hungrily.
“I was 12. My dad beat the shit out of me over some stupid crap I don’t remember. I don’t know what it was that made me snap, but I did. Decided I wasn’t gonna take shit from him anymore. Teach him a lesson, that kinda thing.”
Junko-chan hummed.
“So I jumped in front of a car. Wasn’t going fast enough to kill me, though. I just fucked up my leg.”
“Did you tell anyone what happened?” she asked.
“I didn’t look both ways before crossing the street.”
“Is that what you told your dad?”
“Yeah, well... he’d have liked the truth even less.”
“Was he upset?”
You chuckled. “Of course he was upset! Gave me hell for it.”
“Like he didn’t learn a thing.”
“Yeah. I guess so... What about you, Junko-chan?”
“What about me?”
“Have you ever...?”
She laughed. “What do you think?”
“I’m not,” you finally reply. “But sometimes, the way you look down makes me wonder if you wanna jump.”