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[lapidarius]

"This is Kakyoin Noriaki. Please leave a message, I'll contact you as soon as I can."

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[lapidarius]

I-...

[He shook his head, looking at the floor.]

...sorry. You're right, it's probably not fair of me to look at it that way.

[starmark]

...What's really bothering you? It's not just about me teasing you, is it?

[lapidarius]

I like this, being able to talk to you like we're normal kids. I just don't...want to ruin it, you know what I mean?

[starmark]

You're not gonna ruin it.

[...]

And you don't look like a delinquent. Or if you do, you look like just enough of one to be cool.

[lapidarius]

...I really am happy with it, Jojo.

[He smiled a little hesitantly.]

Thanks.

[starmark]

...Happy birthday.

[Said the awkward prince of awkward, awkwardly.]

[lapidarius]

...

What day in February?

[oh you're in trouble now]

[starmark]

The eighth. It's annoying because it's right before Valentine's Day, and someone always finds out or remembers.

[lapidarius]

I won't tell anyone. But you should expect that I won't leave it alone, either.

[starmark]

Well, you're not a shrieking girl, either, so it's fine.

[lapidarius]

...

[hm.]

Is it okay that I call you the same thing they do? I just realized that I never thought about whether or not it would be annoying.

[starmark]

...You mean "Jojo", right?

[lapidarius]

Yeah. I do at least remember how annoying it sounded, to listen to them arguing over you.

[starmark]

...

[He fell quiet a minute, eyes a little narrow in thought as he seemed to mull over the question.]

It's different when you do it. It doesn't bother me.

[lapidarius]

...

[Kakyoin tugged on the jacket's collar again, half hiding his face before hesitantly continuing.]

I kept calling you that when we were fighting, but that wasn't...me. You and I both know I wasn't the one speaking back then. When I was myself again, I switched to calling you 'Jotaro' for the most part.

But before long I thought that...I wanted to be able to call you that because I chose to, rather than out of compulsion or mind control. I didn't want it to be irritating, so I only did it on occasion--but you never seemed to mind it, so I guess it's become a habit by now.

[starmark]

Taking it back for yourself, huh?

[lapidarius]

Yeah. It's...pretty minor, all things considered. But it was something small that I could take as my own after all of that.

[starmark]

...For what it's worth, Dio never called me anything but "Jotaro".

Even with everything going on, I would've noticed if he'd used something different.

[lapidarius]

I'm not too certain why it was different for me, then.

[...]

Honestly, there's no way for me to explain much of anything I said or did back then.

[starmark]

You don't have to. We both know what it was.

[lapidarius]

Yeah. I know.

[...]

...It's not really 'okay' or anything like that, but I...think that I can talk about it at this point. If you ever--I don't know, if you thought I was hiding from it or anything like that, I'm not.

[starmark]

I didn't think that.

[...]

Do you worry a lot, about what I think about you?

[lapidarius]

...I suppose that I worry about what most people I like think about me. Doesn't everyone, once in a while?

[starmark]

...Yeah. I guess I'm that way, too.

Like with Jonathan, and Giorno, and them.

[lapidarius]

It's...normal to want to make a good impression with friends, right? I know that I don't want to be seen as someone unreliable or fragile, and I guess that...after everything that's happened, I worry that I'm going to end up coming across like that.