Chapter Text
They never got anywhere during their time in high school.
One would’ve thought that they’d matured enough by 18 to deal with the issue at hand in a rational manner, but 18-year-olds are rarely mature anyway. Besides, they had other areas of potential self-improvement to worry about. Not that this dreaded problem was never thought about by either of them (on the contrary, actually), it was just ignored for other things such as college entrance exams and student council work and gaming. Pushed to the side, mulled over, worried about, but it was obviously never enough to make anyone actually do anything about it. Everyone at Shuchi’in Academy knew about it on the surface level, very few of them had some details down, but only they knew the full story.
Matters of the heart are oftentimes confusing.
No one knew this better than Miko Iino. The 69th Shuchi’in Academy student council president had spent the past year listening to various rumors of the other students about her love life, and she felt… weird about it, to say the least. She didn't really appreciate the fact that they were talking about her behind her back, but on the other hand she sometimes wished these students were right about their assumptions (honestly, she also enjoyed her popularity). The fact was though, Iino's love life was incredibly uneventful, stagnant and seemingly one-sided. She was single, but she was also unavailable to anyone if they were to ask her out.
With one exception.
That exception was her own vice president, Yu Ishigami. Iino could've never given a logical answer as to why or how she was drawn to him, but it was something that had gone on for quite some time by then. Was it his manner of dealing with things, or maybe his thoughtfulness? Was it the attention that he gave her when no one else did? His kindness? Iino didn’t know. Either way, her feelings grew deeper over time and as she learned how to handle them properly, she started dropping hints that often got little or no reaction out of him. But then he'd do something for her like give her a genuine compliment or look at her a certain way or do something for her that was thoughtful and for a moment, she'd forget all the hardships of yearning. Without his attention, it was only that pain all over again.
What do I do…
Iino was especially feeling it now, sitting in her room the day before her graduation. She was happy about getting her diploma and starting her college classes, sure, but she was thinking about other aspects of her future as well. For example, school was the only place where she'd see Ishigami, and the student council was merely an excuse to spend time with him (one which backfired, in a way). What would be of them after graduation? Would they even talk, or would they just drift away from each other as if nothing ever happened? There were no excuses she could make anymore.
Was it all for nothing? Do I just move on? How… I’ve done everything I could and I’ve dropped every hint and now it’ll be over, just like that?
Iino rested her head on her tucked-in knees, her gaze on something in the distance. She sighed.
Was I wrong to think that he should’ve done something? I put in way more effort into this than him! If he cared, he would’ve, right? But I think he cares.
…does he really though?
Jumping to conclusions, Iino started to cry. She felt stupid for it, but the truth was that it wasn't really all that stupid.
Yu Ishigami felt hopeless. Yep, that'd be just the word to describe the past three years (if not more) of his life.
He must've been cursed, somehow. He was convinced of it. It seemed like life was one problem after the other and he couldn't catch a break, all starting with that goddamn middle school incident. Maybe his life would’ve been better if none of that crap ever happened; getting involved in the love lives of others will only ever get someone fucked over. And holy hell did Ishigami get fucked over, time and time again. Even with his philosophy of silence and pretending not to know about certain things, his life was still anything but easy. The only good thing that ever came out of these problems were the improvements they forced him to make, like working out and actually studying for once. Joining the student council, too. That was a big one.
Okay, there was one more good thing about it. Something specific. Though whether Ishigami would describe it as good was another topic.
He technically had no romantic experience up until that point, but his love life still managed to be turbulent and confusing on the outside. He tried to have a thing with a senpai of his for a bit, but things didn’t work out for reasons he didn’t understand then. Thankfully, Ishigami thought about it (more than he probably should’ve) and understood them now: he was an idiot (even by his own standards), plain and simple. And now, two years after it all ended, the whole thing only left a bittersweet taste in his mouth. He remained friends with her, but with time even that started slowly fading away. No one was to be blamed, though; relationships of every kind drift apart and return naturally, as the universe sees fit. Also, life got kind of busy for both of them. He was okay with that.
And then amongst all that, well, there was her.
Miko Iino.
Ex student council president and financial auditor, discipline committee member since forever.
He's known her ever since he enrolled in Shuchi’in, and in the past year or so he has been consciously in love with her. Consciously, because things between them were a bit more complicated than that. No one could've ever forced information regarding his complete feelings towards Iino out of Ishigami no matter what, and it seemed like he'd hide it from himself, too. There was a reason for that: to admit that he had always kept an eye on her to a certain extent, and to face the fact that it was possible that he'd never feel so strongly for anyone as much as he did for her, it was a bit terrifying for someone trying to confess without guaranteed success. On some days he'd think that he was a fraud for trying to date anyone else in the past, too, despite knowing that he truly did have a crush on Tsubame. Like it was all fake; he led her on while having feelings for someone else. How shitty can he be?
It was also possible that his feelings turned romantic when he thought they did, but sometimes he'd consider other options, all of which sounded too deep for him to accept. Like something stupid out of a shojo manga. Except, these options all made him sound like a douchebag too. As far as Ishigami was concerned, these were nothing more than intrusive thoughts. If he admitted it, that meant admitting that there was a slight chance Iino thought something similar, and therefore there'd be a chance that Iino thought he was a douchebag and she deserved better and she'd remove him from her life forever. And she wouldn’t be wrong about it. Now that was the scariest to him.
This was Ishigami's train of thought. And now, the day before his graduation, he was aware of the fact that he had no reason to call up Iino or talk to her in general and that everything that happened in high school between them would probably just fade away with everything else.
Just like that, huh.
Without anyone thinking that he was a douchebag, she'd still be bound to fade away from his life. Ishigami didn't want to let that happen, damned be the universe. But it'd also be stupid to just act like they were good friends who should keep in contact just because. Another alternative would've been to simply confess, but there was no way that would ever happen…
Then, Ishigami got an idea. It was a bit much, but it'd work.
Graduation day was a lonely and empty scene. The cherry blossoms were yet to bloom, and the weather itself made for a day where it was unsure whether there’d be rain or not but either way most people were bound to get barometric pressure headaches. Gray-ish clouds bombarded the sky and it appeared that they were bound to stay there for a while.
However, despite the gloomy skies and even after all that crying the day prior, Miko Iino was mostly happy. She was happy to get her diploma and out of high school. She enjoyed her time as a student, sure, but sometimes some things were hard to deal with. She was glad that those things were going to be behind her.
“SENPAIII! CONGRATULATIONSSS!” For example, her precious ex-Student Council members.
Iino had fond memories of the 68th student council, Shirogane’s council. Though there were times where she’d suffer even there, her experience was still overall positive due to her seniors. President Shirogane, vice president Shinomiya and secretary Fujiwara were all lovely people that she kept in touch with even now, and this was one of a few of Iino’s reasons to become student council president herself; a part of her felt as if she owed it to them. She thought that she’d have an easy time as president due to Ishigami agreeing to be her vice president, but she was way off.
Like, way way off. Villain origin story off.
“Oh my god! I’m so happy for you!” Iino knew that her ex-secretary, now second year problem child Mitama Tono, was being genuine now, but the sound of that girl’s voice still made her want to throw up. They were standing in front of the entrance, where people were talking and congratulating one another left and right.
“Thank you!” Iino faked her excitement. As an ex-president, she expected people to come up to her like this, but she was also somehow hoping to avoid this .
“Where’s vice prez? I want to congratulate him too.”
“I don’t know.” Iino said sharply. She really didn’t, but even if she did her response to Tono would’ve been the same. She knew damn well that that demon was going to try to bother Ishigami again by talking about how ‘he should get into a relationship already’ and she ‘wanted to marry him’. “He’ll be here soon though, and I doubt he’ll stay for the graduation party.”
“Aw, that’s such a shame, and I thought I’d finally get him to let his guard down today so he can confess to me. It’s his last chance.”
This bitch. Iino knew that she wasn’t being serious, however due to Tono’s antics all of her own hint-dropping and subtle flirting methods were largely dismissed. She was sure that if it wasn’t for her kohai messing things up, Ishigami would’ve confessed by now. Therefore, though Iino was usually kind-hearted, she couldn’t have said she only had good things to say about her ex-secretary.
“Yeah…” She trailed off.
“Hey, senpai?” Tono continued. “On a serious note, I hope things work out for you two.”
“!”
Tono was mischievous, true, but it didn’t take her long after joining the student council to figure out about her senpai’s crush. In her mind, though it’d seem cruel to everyone else, it made messing with her vice prez even better. It became the most obvious to her when Iino directly approached her a few months prior to tell her to knock it off. Not because she was jealous or anything, no, but because it was borderline sexual harassment. Unfortunately for Iino though, Tono didn’t stop; she just started including Iino in her distorted fantasies and proposals. It made everyone (except for Tono) very uncomfortable, to say the least.
“I mean, it was obvious that there was something going on from the beginning. Do you really think you could stay behind with him in the student council room every day after we’ve left and not have us think that you’re secretly hooking up or something?”
“That’s not what was going on…”
“I know, I was curious so I had a look at the security camera footage. Pretty lame if you ask me." Tono nodded her head. "I owed Taikoku good money for losing the bet.”
“Huh?”
“Anyway, I hope you get to seduce him properly one day. You deserve it.”
Iino didn’t know how to feel. “Tono…”
“And you know that all of my attempts have been unsuccessful, so I’m pretty sure that he only has eyes for you.”
Iino thought about it. She blushed. “You think so?”
“Oh, yeah. Congrats again senpai, I’m going to miss you. Now I’m off to look for Ishigami.”
Little did Tono and Iino know, Ishigami was hiding behind the corner of the building like some sort of creep. He had just gotten his own diploma and he was trying to calm himself down so he could properly execute his plan. Graduating seemed like a minor thing in comparison to what he was about to do. Frankly, he didn’t have the time or energy to deal with Tono either, so he was kind of avoiding her too. Now seeing that Iino was all alone in the crowd, he made his move. Taking deep breaths, Ishigami approached Iino from behind and tapped her shoulder.
“Hey, Iino.” He said.
The girl turned around. “What’s up?”
“Um, there’s kind of something I wanna ask you and there’s a lot of people here, care to come to the student council room with me?”
Iino’s heart almost started beating out of her chest. He seemed way too serious. “…yeah, sure.”
Thankfully, the student council room was empty. Iino stood in the middle of the space as Ishigami leaned on the president’s desk: an obvious set-up for a confession, one would think. Iino had experienced too many disappointments to assume that that was going on here, however there was a final glimmer of hope deep inside her that told her, this is it . She stared at Ishigami in anticipation.
“So… it’s finally happening.” He started.
“Graduation? Yeah. It feels kind of emotional.” She looked around the room. “I’m going to miss this place.”
“Tell me about it. I guess this is how Shinomiya and the rest must’ve felt a year back.”
“Definitely.”
A silence washed over the room quickly after. Iino didn’t want to let the idiot take his time anymore, as she was already growing impatient.
“So, you wanted to ask me something?” She asked, as calmly as she could in that moment.
“Yeah, yeah. So, um…”
Please just spit it out already , she thought. Ishigami closed his eyes.
“I’ve decided to move out soon for college, and I was wondering if you wanted to be my roommate?” He opened his eyes again. “I know it might sound weird but I figured that you’re all alone most of the time in your apartment and we’d split the rent and-”
“Okay.”
“Huh?”
“I’ll move in with you.” Iino said, with very little emotion in her voice.
“Are you sure? It’s a big decision.”
“Well, if you turn out to be a lousy roommate, I can just go back home, right? I think it’ll be good to live independently, though that’s what I’ve kinda been doing for a while, in a way, so…”
“Gotcha. It’s settled, then.”
Another wave of awkward silence hit.
“I’m going to the bathroom.” Iino said, walking towards the door. “I guess… this is the end of an era, and the start of a new one?”
“Something like that.”
Leaving the student council room, Iino ran towards the bathroom but stopped somewhere halfway. She stood against a wall in the hallway and banged her head there a few times.
LIVING TOGETHER? YOU CAN’T CONFESS BUT YOU CAN ASK ME TO LIVE WITH YOU? OH COME ON!
Calming down, Iino continued to think. As roommates, they’d probably have plenty of alone time, and without any other pesky distractions…
Actually, this was kind of a smart move. I’ll take it.
And in the student council room, Ishigami sighed out in relief. He smiled.
There was no confession, nor did he ever plan on it; Ishigami thought that it’d be more reasonable to ask Iino something more unrealistic like moving in together. On one hand, he had already expected a rejection since it did sound weird for him to invite a girl to live with him, and on the other if she were to actually accept (like she did) she would stay in his life and hopefully feel less lonely with someone actually being there most of the time. Also, he could continue to stall his confession until he hit a Perfect Moment for actually doing it. He thought that he’d get such an opportunity in high school, but he did not.
He hoped that there’d be an opportunity in college.