AN: Hello everyone! So this is a one-shot series idea that I've had for a while and I've been procrastinating for about a year and a half or more trying to write it and getting it in my head. I have some rough drafts in different notebooks and whatnot trying to get it right. And finally I decided to write it like this.

There will be two different endings to this fic and for each romanceable character in the game, there will be two different stories for them; one friendship, one romance. So here goes nothing! This is Junpei's story. Enjoy, favorite, and comment! 3

Final Goodbyes: Junpei Iori

The hospital room was bright as Junpei entered to visit her. This wasn't the first time he'd been here and it certainly wouldn't be the last. He had asked the doctor if Minako had shown any improvement in her condition, but he sadly shook his head.

"She's still in a coma." The doctor told him, "We don't know when she will wake up." Junpei sighed as he looked upon his once energetic friend. He walked to a bedside chair and sat down, looking across the hospital bed to a table by the window. There were sunflowers in a vase reaching for the sunlight pouring through the glass window. A small smile spread across Junpei's face.

"Good to know they still visit you, huh?" he said. He took his cap from his head and placed it in his lap. He quietly sat listening to the steady beeping from Minako's heart monitor. What to others may be an annoying sound was quite comforting to Junpei. It told him his friend was still alive. That she could still wake up…

Junpei could hear chatter from the hallway outside of various doctors and nurses talking about what patients to move where and who was here, who had been released. He listened in for a while to hear if there was anything said about Minako. When he didn't hear anything, he began to tune the voices out with his own thoughts. What was he going to say to her now? He tried to visit as often as he could without seeming like he was obsessing over her; without worrying the doctors that he would run away with her. Though, he was sure the others must have shown the same type of behavior. Especially the one she loved. Junpei couldn't imagine how hard it was for him to see her like this. Well, he could. He had been there with Chidori when she was hospitalized, though she was awake through it. He knew it wasn't certain if she could hear him, if she could hear anything in her state, but he had hope. They all did.

"So…" Junpei began. It was always awkward for him to talk to her at the beginning of his visits. He was never sure if she could really hear him or if she was conscious enough to understand. Even though it had been a long time since she entered her coma, he still remembered their conversations together. How Minako would always have a smile for him and make him feel wanted and warm. Like she was always interested in what he had to say even if it was the most unimportant thing. She made him feel like he belonged somewhere after years of feeling alone. And he was sure she still had his house key. He didn't know where she kept it, but he knew, in his heart, it was still in her possession…somewhere.

"How have you been?" Junpei winced as soon as the words left his mouth. What a stupid thing to ask. She couldn't answer him so why would he ask her a question? He was beating himself up in his mind. Then he thought of what she would say in the moment.

Minako would tell him to relax. She would calmly put a hand on his arm and smile, like she always did.

"Calm down, Junpei." She would say, "You just made a mistake. We all do. Just try again." So Junpei did. He took a moment, took a breath. He imagined her soft hand touching his shoulder as gently as she could, her comforting smile and the little giggle she would let out when she saw he was flustered. It never made him feel like she was laughing at him, it made him feel like he was just being silly. After he gathered his thoughts, Junpei tried again.

"I've…I've been okay lately; still in school. I think I told you about that, right? I'm going to college now. I took a year off, but I figured I should do something with my life. Working at the Ramen Shop is great and all, but I definitely don't want to do it forever."

Junpei had started working at the Ramen Shop at the start of his Senior Year. He loved the memories he shared there and figured what a better place to work. It kept him on his toes and made him enough money in two and a half years to go to college. He still worked there to keep a steady income, but he was finally going to make something of himself. He knew how important that was to her. Minako always wanted him to succeed. She convinced him that he was intelligent and good enough to succeed. He would be doing a disservice to her if he threw all that away, wouldn't he?

"I'm doing pretty well." Junpei said, "I mean, I'm not a super honors student, but I'm passing well enough and that's something. I don't know if I told you my major yet. I'm still kinda trying to decide. I still don't really know for sure what I want to do. Maybe something to do with helping people or maybe even working here as a male nurse. That doesn't sound weird or non-masculine, does it?" Junpei chuckled to himself as he thought.

"Heh. They might as well hire me on the spot I've been around so much. I pretty much know how this place works." He knew she would have laughed at that. Maybe if she could hear him she was laughing somehow.

Junpei grabbed his cap and stood, then began to walk around the hospital room. This is often how things went when he visited Minako. He would feel awkward at first because she never answered, she couldn't answer, but as time passed and he began to talk more, he would get comfortable; almost as if it were a normal conversation with her. He could imagine what she would be doing as he spoke, what she would look like. Her facial expressions, the way she sat or stood when he would go on his tangents. The only difference now was, when he stopped talking, there was no one to talk back. But until that realization, Junpei continued his one-sided conversation.

"Sometimes I feel bad, ya know? Sometimes I feel like; well maybe I should know what I want to do…and I feel like I'm being pressured to make the decision." He begins to pace around the room, flailing his arms as he speaks and talking with his hands, "but then whenever I think that, I hear your voice in my head. 'It's okay, Junpei! You'll figure it out. It'll take some time, but you're smart and I know you can do it'! I just…I feel like you're there with me when I get stressed out and want to give up." He smiles, but it soon develops a melancholic quality. Turning back to her, he now realizes that she will not answer; he realizes he is nearly alone in the room with his best friend who hasn't moved in nearly 3 years. As he becomes silent, he hears the voices from outside the door. They're talking again, but this time it's about her.

"Her condition isn't improving." A female voice whispers.

"It's not getting worse." Says another.

"Yes, but it isn't getting better…" This one is a male voice. The doctor perhaps?

"Who is the next-of-kin? We have to think about…taking her off."

"She has no next of kin. Miss Arisato is an orphan, her parents passed in the explosion of '99."

"And no living will?"

"No."

"So then that leaves the decision to us…"

There is a pause and Junpei moves closer to the door. His heart is pounding. The voices resume.

"But what about her friends? They've all visited so many times in the past three years and we can barely get them to leave when visiting hours end. What if they still have hope she will wake up?"

"We can't take that chance, you know that. She's not responding to any of our tests and there are no signs that she is still receptive to stimuli."

"Give her some more time, doctor. I couldn't stand to see those kids lose her. They're all she has…and it seems she's all they have too…"

Another pause…Junpei squeezes his cap in his hands and two drips fall to the floor from his eyes. His breathing becomes choppy; it's taking everything he has to hold back a flood of tears. Once again, the voices resume.

"Very well. We'll give it another week…but if there's no sign of improvement we need to make a decision."

"Thank you, doctor!"

Junpei hears footsteps walking away and the door to Minako's room slides open. A female nurse stands in the doorway, surprised to see Junpei standing so close.

"Oh! Mister Iori I'm so sorry! I didn't know you were there!" she pauses, noticing his expression. Sullen, almost as if he is merely a standing corpse, "Mister Iori, are you alright?" She puts her hands on Junpei's shoulders, causing him to snap out of his trance. He wipes his moistened eyes and takes a step back.

"Y-Yeah…I'm fine." He replies, voice shaking.

"Visiting hours are almost over." The nurse says with a sad smile.

"Just…just give me a few more minutes with her, okay?" Junpei turns to Minako's bed.

"Of course." The nurse says, "I'll make sure they know not to kick you out." She turns back to face the door and closes it behind her as she exits, leaving Junpei alone with Minako once again. Holding back his tears, he walks to the chair on her bedside and sits. He rolls it up as close as he can get to her bed and rests a hand on her arm; it's cold. With a sigh, he speaks.

"I really miss you, Minako. Hell, we all do. You were what kept us all going." His voice quivers, so he clears his throat, "I just…I want to thank you. For everything, Minako. You made me the person I am today. You talked me out of my funk when Chidori…when Chidori got hurt. You even saved her life. I can't thank you enough for that…"

Junpei sighs. He doesn't know what else he can say without crying. Minako was, is, his best friend. She changed his life from the moment he met her and he wasn't ready to let her go; he can't let her go.

"You are the strongest person I've ever met, Minako. I know you can beat this thing…I know you can. I told you I'd have your back whenever you needed me. I still do." Junpei looks down at his cap. He squeezes it again in his hand before gently lifting Minako's arm and placing it under her hand.

"Tell you what." He began, "When you wake up…you bring this back to me. You come to the dorm and you bring it back, dammit! And then we'll have a huge celebration! The biggest one yet, just you wait!" A voice over the intercom interrupts him.

"Attention! Visiting Hours have now ended. Before leaving, please proceed to the front desk and sign out with our receptionist. Have a nice day!"

Junpei stands slowly, patting Minako's shoulder as gently as he can.

"Guess that's my cue to go. Hang in there, Minako…and remember what I said about that cap…I'm not letting you keep this one." He smirks as he removes his hand from Minako's shoulder and turns to the door. When he reaches it, he pauses, glancing back at her. Perhaps he'd hoped in those few seconds, she would wake up and everything would go back to the way it was…Perhaps he wouldn't have to see her at the dorm, maybe he could take her there. But it wasn't so. She was still lying there, motionless, the shell of a once energetic young girl; the shell of his best friend. Junpei hangs his head as he slides the door open, and slowly closes it behind him for the final time…