Chapter Text
In some regards, going to Hope's Peak was a refreshing change. People may have known of her there— she was aware of the somewhat-creepy forums that people talked about her and her classmates on— but they didn't know her. They didn't know her weak spots, the points to hit that would activate her ‘flight’ response (she didn't, ever, choose ‘fight.') Chihiro could fly under the radar.
And yet, in spite of this, she still wore her skirts, her blouses, and her Mary Janes; she still went by ‘she’ and ‘her’. It was her crutch. It was her armor. It was probably something she should've taken as a sign that maybe ‘boy’ wasn't quite the right term to describe her. Hindsight is 20/20.
The point was, in spite of Chihiro wishing to stay quiet, she was different. Different made you a target. Different made you prey.
It was some rude remark— mocking how she spoke, maybe, or the way she fidgeted, she can't quite recall— that made Junko step in.
“Ugh, you guys are total morons,” she sneered at them. “Are you jealous because she's not flunking out of this place or what?”
Chihiro couldn't see herself in that moment, but the look on her face was likely one of awe. Junko had stuck up for her. Junko. Beautiful, popular, fearless, Junko. She didn't even think Junko knew she existed!
The bullies left; they knew Junko was higher up in the food chain than they were, and that wasn't a fun fight to pick. She turned to Chihiro. “Do those guys bother you often?”
“Um…” Chihiro's brain had to catch up to the fact that Junko was speaking to her. “Only during lunch…”
“I'll hang around during lunch, then.” Junko smiled wide, throwing up a peace sign.
“Oh! Um… okay!” Chihiro smiled back, small but just as happy.
Chihiro was chewing on her pen when Junko sat down next to her, she remembered that. It was odd, what you remembered and what you didn't. Her hair wasn't tied back, because she didn't dare tie her hair back then. Now, she'd throw it into a messy ponytail so it'd stay out of her face while she worked. It felt like it should be tied back in the memory. Junko sat next to her, and complained that Chihiro was always working on something during lunch. Chihiro giggled and said, “It's for my talent development credit. I have to do it.”
“O-M-G, if my talent development involved that much work it’d, like, super overload my brain. You don't even have time for lunch?”
“Well… I guess I technically do, but…” she hid behind her notebook as best as she could. “I really like to be able to use my nights for stargazing.”
Junko smiled at her. “I guess we'll just have to stargaze together, then.”
Chihiro flushed. “Wh-what?”
She held up a peace sign. “‘Cause I wanna hang out, y’know? With the off-the-clock Chihiro. I mean, we've been eating together for, like, months and I still barely know a thing about you. Like, what makes you tick!”
Chihiro, somewhat stupidly, had thought of this as a mostly parasitic relationship, where she hid from the bullies behind Junko and Junko just sort of… existed. But that wasn't fair, she had realized. “Well… okay, yeah.”
When Junko had started getting touchy-feely with Chihiro, she felt like it was time to come clean. She had known, by that point, she wasn't a normal boy. And in fact, with some aid from the internet, she had known that what she really wasn't was a normal girl. But understanding that and explaining that felt like two wildly different worlds. She had practiced with Alter Ego dozens of times; but he wasn't a perfect replica of a human yet. He was just a replica of her— to the point where he came out as transgender after she did. She highly doubted Junko would do that.
Eventually, after extensive practice and a not insignificant amount of hyping up from, of all people, Leon Kuwata (who didn't even know what he was hyping her up for), she came out to Junko.
Junko looked at her with concern when she said that they needed to talk.
“I… I was born a boy,” she admitted as they sat outside in the cherry blossoms. “I thought I was too weak to be a boy, but… it turns out, that's not it at all. I'm something called transgender. I'm not too weak to be a boy, I'm strong enough to be a girl. When I think of women like you, or Hina, or Sakura, I think, ‘I want to be like they are.’”
Junko smiled. “Oh, that's all,” she laughed. “I was worried for a sec, y’know? Of course you wanna be a girl,” she held up a peace sign, “Girls run the mother-effin' world!”
Chihiro giggled, giddy and relieved. “They do!” She paused. “I hope one day, I can be like you all.”
“Hey,” Junko took on a rare serious tone. “As far as I'm concerned, you're one of the gals. I mean it.” She gave her a half hug.
Chihiro smiled softly and leaned into the touch.
Junko leaned over, wrapping her arm around Chihiro's shoulder. “Hey, girlfriend!” She smiled widely.
Chihiro laughed. “I know you're just trying to see what I'm working on.”
Junko sighed dramatically. “Is it so wrong to take an interest in my friend's lives?”
Friend. The word felt good and bad in Chihiro's chest. On the one hand, she was perfectly content with being Junko's friend. On the other…
Well, the gender crisis getting resolved had sort made room for a sexuality crisis to occur.
Junko was pretty, and strong, and nice, and surprisingly smart, which was probably something Chihiro shouldn't've assumed was not true initially. She had her own biases to work against. It was natural that, if you liked girls, you'd like Junko. And Chihiro did, undeniably, like girls. She liked them so much she wanted to become one. Was it so strange to like them enough to want to date one?
“Well, if you must know…” Chihiro looked around, then sat closer conspiratorially. “The school has asked to use Alter Ego on a new project they're doing. It's like, sort of a therapy VR thing? I'm supposed to keep it on the down-low because Gekkogahara in the year above is doing it for her capstone talent development project and they don't want pressure on her from outside the school but… it's kind of insanely cool.”
Junko listened gleefully. “That is insanely cool. And probably, like, going to be super life changing for people. O-M-G Chihiro you are so cool.”
Chihiro flushed. “I-I don't know if I'm necessarily cool…”
Junko rolled her eyes. “You're cool, admit it.”
“I'm… cool?”
She smiled, throwing up a peace sign. “Heck ye-ah!”
One of the last nights Chihiro remembered with a clear sky, she and Junko spent together. Well, in truth, the whole class was there, but it really felt like just the two of them— wrapped under a blanket by Chihiro's telescope, watching the stars twinkle as their classmates played with sparklers in the distance.
“Chihiro… can I tell you a secret?” Junko whispered, strangely serious.
Chihiro looked up from her place against Junko's shoulder. “Y-Yeah, of course.”
Junko smiled down at her, then turned her head to look out at their classmates down the hill. “I love you guys.”
Chihiro waited. It sounded like a complete thought, but it didn't seem like such a secret.
Junko turned her attention back to Chihiro. She smiled again, and gave her a tender kiss.
Chihiro didn't quite know what to do, other than melt. She was sure the kiss was awkward and that Junko must have had a dozen other, better kisses; but Junko didn't complain.
They didn't kiss again. They just sat there and watched the lights dance.