⤷ 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩. 𝟎𝟑
I'm awoken by a loud roar.
I jolt awake immediately, feeling sore on my back and shoulder. I'm on my couch with the blanket kicked off onto the ground. Shit. I must've fallen asleep. I look up to the TV screen which is featuring some lions on a nature documentary. What the fuck? It must've autoplayed onto another strange show. That lion roar did certainly awake me, though. I rub my eyes groggily and reach for my phone to check the time.
1:04 pm.
Fuck. I wanted to be up at 10, the lastest. Goddamn it. Why don't I ever set alarms for myself? I groan and stretch out my body. God, my neck is sore as hell. This couch may be comfy but not for sleeping in. Especially if you fall asleep watching TV. I shuffle out of the couch and head directly towards the kitchen to feed myself.
Making a small and somewhat healthy breakfast, I realize I'm probably going to get to work at 3 at this rate. And everyone goes home by 6. So what's the point of going? I'll probably go tomorrow.
Or maybe later than that. I do have the whole of my apartment to explore. Hell, this part of the city. Maybe I could meet up with Mei. Meet some neighbors of this building?
Preferably skipping talking to the neighbor next to me.
Mei has told me all sorts of things about Satoru Gojo. Over some FaceTime calls and voice calls, all of her outrageous tales in the campus have involved Gojo. Warned me about how much of a player he is; a womanizer, essentially. The only thing she seemed to like about him was the fact he gave her money. I've never quite known why money was Mei's thing, but who was I to judge? We're both millionaires as far as I'm concerned.
And after meeting the guy myself, he's definitely a flirt. The kind of guy who does look like he's bring another woman home every week. I despise men like that. I despise most men though, so I can't really tell much difference.
Whatever. I'll just avoid him. I'm brilliant at avoiding people, even if they may be my next door neighbor. I clean up my plate of food and dart towards my bathroom to get ready for the day, even if I'm not going to work.
✧ ˚ · .
I might as well go meet some neighbors, right?
I've got a casual outfit on, definitely one more preferable to relax in. I decide that I should at least greet myself to other tenants in the building. There's two apartments that are currently on sale, so there's only really two other neighbors to meet. Better for me.
I click open my front door and step out, half forgetting the hallway is still white and blinding. There's a woman however in a purple bandage dress that hugs at her curves that's fixing her hair in front of the mirror in the hallway. She noticed me and whips around so quickly I thought her blonde hair was going to whack the vase off the drawer.
She says nothing and just blankly stares at me. Huh. "Hello," I say politely.
"Hi." she answers back and goes back to fixing her hair. Okay then. I turn on my heel towards the elevator to go to the second floor. Why the purple dress though? I think to myself about the woman. She looks like she's just come from a night club.
Wait a damn minute.
My suspicions are answered from the sound of a door opening behind me.
"Baby, your purse." a male voice calls out, taunting. Oh sweet baby Jesus. I turn around to see the blonde woman walk up to Gojo's door retrieving the purse.
Gojo is leaning lazily on the frame, same sunglasses he had in from last night. But his polo shirt is now fully unbuttoned, exposing the front of his bare chest. He's got black sweatpants on, loosely hanging in his hips.
I would by lying if I said he didn't look attractive. Which is another thing Mei warned me about.
"He may be hot as hell, but if you meet him don't let it get into your brain. He's still such a womanizer." Mei had scolded me over a FaceTime once.
"Why are you so worried about this? You're warning me like I'm going to actually meet him one day." I asked her.
"Hey, you asked for it. May I quote you on saying 'Well, if I met him what should I look out for?'" she mimicked me.
"Okay, fine I might've said that. But whatever, I highly doubt I'll get near this guy."
Oh, how wrong I was now.
Gojo notices me by the elevator waiting for it. He smirks at my evident gaze and winks slightly so the blonde didn't see. Yup, total flirt. It's disgusting. I decide to deliver him my middle finger in response. He pouts falsely pretending he's hurt. The elevator dings and the blonde waits behind me expectedly to ride it, too. Hell no. I'm not riding an elevator with Satoru Gojo's one night stand.
"You take this. I'll take the stairs." I offer her and step aside. She doesn't even mutter thank you before stepping inside and hastily closing the doors. What a rude bitch. Is everyone in this city irritating and rude?
"Morning, Moriai-san. Or afternoon, I should say." Gojo taunts behind me.
"Afternoon, Gojo." I reply without turning my head.
"What happened to 'san?'"
"You've lost my respect." I say simply.
"Wow, and all I've done is be nice to you." I turn my head at that and cross my arms. He's still in the same position against the frame as before. What is it with this guy and door frames?
"Do CEOs not work or something? Seems quite late in the day to be going to work." he notes.
"For your information, I'm not going to work. And yes, we do. Unlike some people." I answer.
"Was that targeted towards me?"
"Yes. How smart you are."
"I am smart, aren't I?"
I scoff and decide to just leave this conversation. "Come on, where you going Moriai-san?"
"To find where you get the audacity." I reply and push open the door to the stairs before he can reply. Man he's annoying. I'm still tired from waking up an hour ago. I make it to the second floor after several flights of stairs and push the door open. I'm greeted with a hallway which looks identical to the one on the third floor, the only difference being the numbers on the door. I skip door 204 because that's the one that's currently empty. I trot up to 203 and knock softly. It's a few seconds of silence until a door opens. A man in his forties or so opens the door. He's wearing a gray shirt of Yosemite National Park tucked into cargo pants.
"Hello there, miss." he greets.
"Hi." I reply. I'm cut off my a woman's voice calling behind him.
"Dear who is it?" she calls out.
"Oh, I'm sorry—that's my wife. You must be the tenant in 306, yes? Ms. Moriai?" he guesses.
"Yeah, that's me. I just thought I'd go around and introduce myself to the neighbors." I explained.
"Ah! How nice of you. I would invite you inside but it's a bit crowded at the moment. Our kids just came home from school."
"Oh, that's not a problem. How old are they?"
"One's 11 and the other 8. Sisters. They may not seem like a handful but they're certainly loud." he jokes. I stifle a small laugh at that.
"How nice. I didn't know there was a family in this building. I just figured that everyone was just.." my voice trails off.
"Rich single people? Yeah, it would seem so. It's mostly my wife that's the rich one. I'm a screenwriter and she's an actress."
"Really? That's so cool! What's her name, I might've seen something with her in it."
"Mano Rikyu."
"Oh, yeah I know her! She was in that apocalypse movie, uh, what's it called—"
"Shoot Around?"
"Yup. She was the lead, right?"
"Mhm."
"She did a really great job."
"Oh, yeah she really did." he smiled to himself proud of his wife.
"Anyway, I'm glad I stopped by. Have a good rest of your afternoon."
"You too, Moriai-san." he bids goodbye, but I tell him to call me by my first name instead. However, he insists on using my last name. What a nice man.
I'm 99% sure it's safe to use the elevator now and that it's empty, but it's just another floor so I take the stairs again. I could use the small exercise.
I make it to the bottom floor and head for door 102 since 101 is empty. I knock on the door softly, hoping I'll get a greeting as pleasant as the last one.
A woman who looks around my age or older opens the door. She has short red hair tied with stubby pigtails at the back.
"Hello!" she answers cheerfully as she takes her lollipop out of her mouth. "May I help you?"
"Hey, I'm a new tenant in the building. I just moved into 306 upstairs." I greet.
"Oh yeah, you're the CEO! Moriai, right?" she recognizes.
"You can just call me by my first name. " I smile. She's got such a carefree attitude, I bet we'll be friends. I only really make people use my last name if it's serious shit. And if their name is Satoru Gojo. "I love your hair, by the way." I compliment pointing to her hair.
"Thank you! I really like your outfit. Well, no wonder; you're a fashion icon."
I wave a hand in front of her face. "Oh, shut up I'm not really. But I'll take the compliment." I add with a wink. She smiles and licks her lollipop again.
"How you liking the building so far? You been here long?"
"No, just moved in last night actually. And the layout is beautiful."
"Right? Even though I'm on one of the lower floors it's still really nice."
"Especially at night."
"Truly." she then widens her eyes like she's realized something. "You live next to that white haired guy, right?" Oh great, more of him.
"Yeah.." I say slowly.
"I'll take that as an uneasy response. He a dick or something?"
"Somewhat."
"Ugh. Too bad, he's one fine looking man. When I saw him moving in I half wished I had taken the top floor. I can't handle heights unfortunately." she laughs. I cant deny that he is attractive. If it weren't for all of the previous information I'd received about him and his flirtatious manner I could view him as a man I'd fan over. But nah, bullshit guys like that who think they can woo any woman become instantly unattractive.
I get the woman's name; Kuga Jori. I learn she's a popular streamer and singer under the alias "Orange Crush." Pretty dope if you ask me. We talk for another minute or so at the door before we depart.
And that's that. Meeting all my neighbors was easier than it seemed. This time I take the elevator back up to my floor. I'd definitely need to go grocery shopping sooner or later but it could wait. I still needed to get familiar with the whole second floor to my apartment for christ's sake.
I reach the top of the floor and look around for any sign of anybody else in the hallway. Thank God, no other woman walking out of Gojo's apartment. I let out a sigh of relief.
That is, until Gojo's door swings open. God fucking damit, why did he always need to swing his door open whenever I was outside it?! But he's changed his apparel from what I'd seen before. Now his white hair sticks up like fucking Gon from Hunter x Hunter, wearing a black blindfold. His signature, according to Mei. He's decked out in what seems like the school's uniform. He notices me trying to hastily enter my apartment.
"How'd meeting the neighbors go, Moriai-san?" he calls out behind me. Ugh. Great. I have to respond or else I'd seem like the asshole here. I stop fiddling with my door handle and turn to meet him. He's got his hands in his pockets leaning downwards expectedly. He stands a good six feet away from me—as he should.
"Pretty good." I say honestly.
"Why does that look on your face so otherwise, then?" he points to my plastered scowl. Or it might just be my resting bitch face, I've been told I have that.
"How can you even see through that blindfold?" I dodge the question, gesturing to his blindfold.
"Six eyes. I thought you would've known that." he says pleasantly surprised. I didn't know he possessed the six eyes. Then again, I have no clue what they are but I'm just going to pretend I do.
"Forgot." I shrug. "You going to Jujutsu Tech?" I ask.
"I am indeed." he chuckles. I expect that the conversation is over so I just back up a bit to my door. But he stays where he is staring at me. At least I think so, I can't tell. This is getting awkward. Uhm...
In literally one stride Gojo makes his way up to me. I nearly stumble into my door from the sudden closeness. Our bodies are literally a mere inches away from each other. Like 5.
Probably the same size of his dick. And that's me being generous.
He towers over me, looking down at my face.
"You still haven't answered my question." he repeats from last night. Oh please, not this again.
"Sweet snow below, you're still on that?"
"Of course I am. You're a jujutsu sorcerer in Tokyo. And yet I've never heard of you. Are you a transfer student Yaga didn't tell me about?"
"Huh? Yaga? Like the witch?"
"What? Witch? No, he's a sorcerer."
"No, Baba Yaga. The woman with the—you know what, never mind. I don't know of this Yaga you speak of."
"Oh, I highly doubt that." He dips his head further down to me. If he doesn't back the fuck up I'm sending him a knuckle sandwich. Infinity or not.
"You from the Kyoto school?" he eggs on.
"No."
He sighs irritated like I'm lying to him.
"Look dude, yeah I'm a jujutsu sorcerer. I just know who you are because doesn't every jujutsu sorcerer? I don't know what you want from me."
"Every jujutsu sorcerer that knows who I am has attended one of the schools. Unless you aren't human yourself..."
"Did you just suggest that I'm a curse?"
"It's possible. You're not giving me any information."
"Maybe that's because I don't want to give some random guy in his late 20's my background information."
"I'm not random, I'm your neighbor. And how'd you know my age, sweetheart?"
Sweetheart?
I'm about to gouge my eyes out with a fork.
"The realtor that sold me this place. And don't fucking call me that." He sighs but still smiles. Does this guy ever give up? "Look, loved our chat. As I do our other ones." I say with sarcastic emphasis. "But I should go back to my apartment now."
"Love our chats, hm? Could've just said you wanted to ask me out." I scoff and want to spit in his face with enough force that it soaks through that stupid blindfold.
"Don't you have somewhere to be, Gojo?" he chuckles and leans further to me. His face is literally two inches away from mine. I want to back up more but I'm already pressed against my door. But I don't falter. There's no way I'm letting a straight, white, cis-gendered man get the beat of me.
"Come with me." he speaks softly.
"Uh...huh?" I ask quizzically.
"I'm heading to the school. You go see Yaga yourself—might spark some memory."
"I didn't ask to go see this Yaga dude. Can we just end this conversation?"
"What, so you can go fall asleep on your couch again?" What the—
"How did you know about that?"
"Your stupid TV was autoplaying shit all night. These walls are thing, you know."
Ah. Thin walls.
How flipping fantastic for me, huh?
"No one asked you to listen."
"It's kind of difficult not to when it's blasting right next to you." he clicks his tongue in annoyance. "We're getting off track, sweetheart. Come with me to the school. You can meet my students."
"Wow, what a big step for us. What's next, your proposal?"
"It can be done if you'd like." His smile pulls into a tighter grin.
"Ugh. Forget I said anything. I'm going inside." Gojo turns and backs away. Thank fucking God, I can breathe clean air now that doesn't smell like overly expensive cologne.
"Suit yourself. If you'd rather lounge around all day than meet some mentally ill teenage jujutsu sorcerers, be my guest." he holds his arms out and swings on his heel to click the elevator button.
I really should just get inside and ignore this Himbo.
But where's the fun in that?
I groan and join his side right as the elevator doors open.
"Glad you could join, sweetheart." he says as we enter the elevator.
"Shut it, you cauliflower head."
✧ ˚ · .
authors note
this isn't really anything important but gojo's favorite song is most definitely "church" by chase atlantic
try proving me wrong
he prolly fucks every girl to this song💀
"hey mamacita lemme just get chase atlantic going rq"