Purple Band-Aids (ShinKami)

Chapter Thirty-Four

He wakes up not even three hours later startled from a dream that he doesn't even remember.

After checking the time and telling Shinso good morning, he gets up and gets ready for the day which he's starting off with a run. He wants to be able to run around the entire school at least once by the end of the week, so he'll warm up to it day by day, and yes, he'll be stretching before.

Going on with what he had been planning for today, he ends up being able to run a lot more than he had thought, but not even close to where he wanted to get.

On his way back, he catches Aizawa and he cocks his head sideways in confusement.

He thought Aizawa would be with his partner right now.

"Hey, teach."

"I was going to come back last night, but decided against it. You do know that there are cameras pointed at the dorms and with all the windows on the first floor, I know you went back down after I left. It's all clean down there. More than what we did before I left. I saw what time the lights went out and I saw what time you came out here."

Why does that matter?

"I don't really see a problem. It's summer, lots of teens stay up way passed 2 in the morning."

Aizawa sighs.

"Yes, but they stay up on their phones or out with friends. You were cleaning all night and then didn't get much sleep, if you even slept at all before coming out here to run."

Kaminari bites the inside of his cheek.

"I just couldn't sleep, so I cleaned. It tired me out so I did sleep, but not for a long time and when I realized that I wasn't gonna get more sleep, I decided to start my day."

It's all true, and sure it doesn't sound so bad when he says it, but he feels guilty for some reason.

"If that's all true, why did you hide it from me and wait for me to leave?"

"It is true, I promise, I just feel weird when people know that I can't really sleep," he says.

He wants to be honest, especially with Aizawa. He'll tell Shinso the truth when he's back at the dorms.

"So you didn't want me to know you don't sleep?" Mr. Aizawa asks.

"Yeah, and not because I don't want to sleep, believe me I really do, but I can't, and I just feel bad when people know, so I prefer it when people don't."

"So you feel guilty for not being able to sleep? You shouldn't feel guilty. Have you talked about this with your counselor?"

Kaminari sighs heavily.

"Yes? Kinda? She knows that I have trouble sleeping but not that I don't like for people to know," Kaminari says.

"Because you feel guilty," Mr. Aizawa adds.

He shrugs.

Mr. Aizawa nods and looks around. "Denki, you should talk to your counselor about this. You wouldn't have even realized if I didn't tell you. Do you need to talk to someone? Would you want to see your counselor today?"

Kaminari is taken aback.

It's not a big deal. At all. He just avoided telling people to avoid the guilty feeling. That was literally it.

"No, I'm legit just fine. I don't get why it's such a big problem," he says, confusement way too obvious for his comfort.

What is he not seeing that Aizawa apparently is? He's usually self-aware, but this isn't making any sense.