Kojiken one-shots

<3

Read pls:

This fic is inspired by all those amazing love songs and power ballads of the 80's! I really fancy that age and it's, after all, the one in which Kojiro and Ken spent their teens!

That's why music is a really important element in this fic. I name many songs during it in different ways, and I highly recommend listening to them when they appear. I wrote it while listening to them after all! Plus they are great songs ^^

The ones you really shouldn't skip or that are in some way important to the plot are marked with an asterisk (*).

I also recommend checking out the lyrics of the songs for a better understanding, since I often quote them after stating the song title.

Credit to all the awesome authors, bands, and songwriters that inspired this fanfic and wrote all those great songs <3

All the songs that appear (among some others) are in order in my Spotify playlist named "<3"  https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0sNKXBLepQ8pUNtuwrAb1E?si=b63472673fc4473d (link also in the comments for copy paste)

Btw, ""can either mean dialogue (out loud or hypothetical) or the title of a song. Cursive can either mean thoughts or quoting a segment of the song that has been previously named.

Wordcount: 9582

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Wakashimazu's POV:

I closed the door of my room behind me, and with a dreamy sigh, I flopped onto my bed. The midday sun sipped through the window, washing over my face, the things on my desk, and the football players and rock stars' posters on my walls. As I looked at the ceiling, a silly smile appeared on my face. Everything was perfect. I quickly went to my radio, and, without much hesitation, I took one of my favorite moody cassettes. "<3" was all I had written on the label, but it defined its content pretty accurately. I played it and lied back again. The future would probably be hard, and maybe the next day I would suffer and cry, probably, but, at that very moment, I was happy. That was, under the spell of music on that beautiful afternoon, the only thing I knew to be true.

I recalled the last hours at school, in football training. I recalled how the captain smiled at me and asked me to practice with him after everyone was gone. I recalled how we played, how we laughed, how our bodies touched in little happy accidents.

My room got filled by the intro of Survivor's "Is this love," and as the chord started, I couldn't deny the answer. Yes, yes! It has to be! This that I'm feeling, this that's been keepin' me up all night, it must be love.

Love... I smiled dumbly, probably.

My crush had a new name for the first time, and, you know what? Even if it was unrequired, I didn't care. I got to be with him, by his side, almost more than anyone else, and it felt good. It was fun. Fun to flirt, fun to see what he'd do next, fun to have my heart speed up, and fun to smile like an idiot. It made me feel grown up and at the same time so foolishly young. So, even if it was unrequired, I was glad to spend my high school days fooling around, because adults have no time for such things. Even if it was unrequired, I was glad to have a reason to wake up every morning looking forward to going to class.

Before I knew it, I had fallen asleep. Training was exhausting. Yet, although I had ended up lazing around the rest of the afternoon, I didn't feel bad, because I could wake up early and do the work I had to. It was still dawn when I grabbed some breakfast, my Walkman, and did some running to school. The football field looked beautiful at that hour in the morning, empty and with "Close my eyes forever" as a soundtrack. I chuckled and kicked my football to the goal. I know, I'm not a striker, but I couldn't train anything else alone, plus it's always good to have a fine kick. Mine is the strongest of the team after the captain's, or so he told me.