thats a tough situation to be in. My advice is to do whatever it takes to go see a sports medicine DOCTOR. If you are starting to have issues now at 24, something is not right. 9 times out of 10, a quickie in physical therapy will take care of it. Dont continue to do things that hurt your knees. You do not want to start developing arthritis. You are at a point right now where you can break the cycle of whatever is going on. Letting it go on for a long period of time, and you will find yourself in a very bad place.
When our bodies hurt consistently, that means that something is wrong. You do NOT want to let this go, and end up getting bilateral knee replacements by the time you're 40!!!! (Just kidding, im sure you will be fine, just get it checked out asap!)