Lost and Found | Jujutsu Kaisen Insert

Chapter 5: Tension

"We all work on the same boat as fishermen, so we're basically coworkers, if you can call it that." I added, trying to avoid prolonged eye contact with her.

"I see..." was all she could say, I noticed she was awkwardly fidgeting her hand, probably because she was nervous?

I felt Minato looking at me, then out of nowhere, he stood up from his seat, "Ahem, excuse us, but we still have a few things to get from our 'shopping list'. We need to make sure we have them before heading back."

"Oh, of course, I wouldn't want to hold you back for too long." Hatsuko replied while gently waving both her hands in the air in front of her.

Minato gave her a smile, then looked at me, "Will you be alright, Aya-san?"

I looked away with my arms crossed "I'll be fine.. I can handle myself." I replied reluctantly, trying to stay polite.

"Okay then! We'll pick you up on the way to the junk shop. Come on, Shinobu-kun." pulling on Shinobu's arm.

"Hang on a minute, I'm not done yet!" he said while almost inhaling the last of his ramen, then gives Hatsuko a bow before thanking her again for the meal and greeting me farewell.

All I could do was sit and watch them closing the door behind them. As they left, I swear I saw Shinobu smiling and giving me a thumbs up through the window. Then they were gone...

Minutes passed by in silence

Uggh.. dang it,  Minato-senpai

Instead of having any real conversations aside from small talk, we ended up walking awkwardly besides each other around the park. I think we've circled around the place three times already without making any progress.

Trust me, I'm usually more straightforward than this, but only in cases when I can talk back in a some kind of witty manner... so far, we've only went through the cliche weather talk.

Welp, I'm not one to chicken out on things anyways, I sighed in my head. I might as well go through this to salvage both my pride and sanity. What do I have to lose?

I cleared my throat then shoved the words out of my mouth.

"So--" we both said at the same time, to my surprise. After that, we both stuttered and ate our own words, basically tripping on who should talk first.

"Ahem, sooo" I went on to take the first step in the conversation, "I- is your.. flower shop business still up?"

Hatsuko finally managed to actually look me in the eyes, "Y- yes actually! I'm still running it."

I swear I saw her eyes sparkle when I brought up the subject. She always gets like that every time we talk about her botany shop even when I was little.

As extension, she even talked about how she also started selling tee in the same shop. I thought it was a good addition, knowing that she loves making her own brew.

"I'm happy that it's going well." I said, catching myself smiling.

"Mm, that wasn't always the case, but.. as I should, I pushed through..."

"Hmm.. maybe I can--"

Hatsuko tilted her head a little, waiting for what I was about to say.

"N- never mind..." I almost got ahead of myself again, got too excited, but I had to believe that this might be the only chance I get to see her like this.

I can't expect things to go back to the way we were.. it's impossible now that I've changed so much. I looked away so she couldn't see how much I was frowning.

Then I tried to think of anything that I can say to change the subject, but before I could find any,

"It suits you."

I looked at her and blinked in confusoin. "Hm?" was all I could say in reply.

"Your hair, I mean..." she elaborated, "Purple looks good on you."

I tried to come up for a response, but decided not to overthink it, "T- thanks, you look different too..." I said, leaving behind the gloomy feeling. "Your hair was way shorter back then."

"Mhm, I decided one day that I wanted to try something new."

"I can relate.." I commented with a chuckle.

To be continued...

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Note: to avoid confusion, when a character gets introduced or their full name is stated, I write the last name followed by the first. It's something I thought to apply since it's part of Japanese courtesy.

-- SleepyPanda