in another life
Fandom: You Got Me, Sempai!
Rating: General
Ship: Higuchi/Serina, Mizukawa/Serina, Onesided
AO3 | FF.net
a/n:
I read this manga on a whim and now my entire heart is broken and put together all at the same time 🥹
I really love the ML and FL together, but there's something about Higuchi's story—and how it's handled—that speaks to me. I've always believed that a lot of love happens out of luck, or just sheer coincidence. Who's to say that Higuchi wouldn't have ended up with Serina if he'd met her before Mizukawa did? But also, I feel like Mizukawa and Serina are destined for each other no matter what universe. So you've kind of got this conundrum of how in the world could Higuchi ever be with her? But also, this experience shapes who he is and how he'll see the world going forward. And also there's just something about loving somebody and not needing to be loved in return.
Idk. I just love it so much. It's painful and beautiful and makes the world feel so small and unconcerned.
---
In another life, there is no Mizukawa. There is no desk. There are no lyrics scribbled onto that desk.
In another life, he steps out for that day’s practice and finds her sitting on the bleachers alone, staring up at the clouds. There’s a listless look in her eyes, like maybe there should be something more in this world, but she doesn’t know what. Their eyes meet, and she blinks in surprise before offering a tentative smile and a cautious wave of her hand.
Another girl comes skipping down the seats to pull her up, and then they’re gone.
In another life, her pencil case gets mixed up with his things during their cultural festival. There’s no love letter in the box. Instead, there’s a verse and a chorus—some bland, poppy song about love and life and wondering if it’s out there for you—scratched across the lines. There’s no question who it is; he remembers that look in her eyes on the bleachers.
He grabs her to give it back to her, and she shies away. But he sees the brightness in her eyes, and the hope. He can’t forget that light. He wonders what it’s for. He wonders if he can have it.
And he still has her pencil case.
So he writes his own note—kind of cheesy, don’t you think?—sticks it in, and asks his teacher to get it back to her.
In another life, she’s guarding the bags in the cafeteria as girls try out to be the soccer club manager, and he’s hiding so that they can weed out the ones who have selfish motives.
“The cheesiness is what makes it so meaningful,” she pouts. “Wouldn’t you want to be sure the person you love is someone you love so much that it hurts?”
He’s quiet, pressing buttons for two bottles of tea at the vending machine. “Fair point,” he sighs, then hands her one of the bottles.
She blinks, then takes it with a grateful smile. The cap cracks as she twists it open, and when she takes her first sip, she pops her head back and grins. “So refreshing!”
His heart gives an unnecessarily hard pump, and he has the fleeting thought he would do anything for that smile.
—
They live in opposite directions, but he stops her before she can leave school grounds.
“I like you,” he tells her.
Her mouth falls open in surprise. “I… I’ve only known you for a few minutes, Senpai.”
“I know. But I think I could love you so much it hurts.”
She’s silent. After a beat, she smiles at him. “Why not? What’s a few minutes in the grand scheme of things?”
—
The first year and a half are fast and quick and restless. She’s soft in his hands and on his mouth. The next few months are more rough and tumble, but they make it out alive.
He learns just how much he can love someone.
Graduation comes, then goes. He makes his college soccer team. He’s glad he has her, because as it turns out, friendship and love become only harder to find at the national level.
She’s there for him in the heat of everything, and in the quiet, too. Her smile is just for him. She’s all just for him.
And they travel the world, and they marry, and they have kids with blond hair and dark eyes, and they grow old together, and she tells him, “I don’t care what we are, as long as I’m in the same ocean as you.”
He treats her 10,000 times better than anybody in the world—in any world, in any life, in any universe—could, for just one percent of her love.
—
And yet, in this life, when he opens his eyes and sees the endless, blue sky outside the window, he finds he still wouldn’t change a thing.
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You Got Me, Sempai!
10 volumes (digital only as of 5/15/2023)
Licensed by Kodansha, also on INKR Comics
Serina arrives at school one day to discover her desk has been vandalized—someone’s scratched the lyrics to a love song in it…and that someone turns out to be Mizukawa-sempai, a boy who’s one year her senior. She wants to get to know him better, but if his frosty demeanor is any indication, she doesn’t have a chance! But it seems he might be awkward—not simply mean—and before she knows it, she’s asking him out…! With each passing day, her heart races a little faster!
Status in Country of Origin
10 Volumes (Complete)
Tags:
Blushing Male Lead
Cool Male Lead
Fast Romance
Female Lead Falls in Love First
First Kiss
First Time Dating
High School Student/s
Inexperienced in Love
Kind Male Lead
Level-Headed Protagonist
Love Triangle/s
Realistic Characters
Realistic Relationship
Scary Male Lead
Senpai-Kouhai Relationship
Straightforward Female Lead
Student-Student Relationship
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