You are currently on a small bridge above a small running body of water. The sun was slowly setting and you watched the beautiful scenery with a bored gaze while leaning your against the rails with your cheek on your palm. Your mind is busy thinking about the events that happened today.
Junpei's face flashed into your mind, and you immediately pushed the memory away and thought of something else instead, anything just to not remember his face.
You look down at your palm, clenching it every now and then.
"Why...Are the gods playing a joke on me?"
You grumbled with furrowed eyebrows.
"I hate this day. I don't want to be in this mission anymore"
You complained before you looked back at the beautiful sunset.
•••‖⁜‖•••
'I want you to watch over Itadori and tell me if there are any strange changes in his behavior'
•••‖⁜‖•••
Gojo's demand crosses your mind and you can't help but click your tongue in annoyance.
You were left in your own thoughts when two voices caught your attention, you followed the direction of the sound with your gaze, and the moment you realized who the voices belonged to, you immediately regret being curious about them.
'The gods are really playing with me!'
You thought angrily with gritted teeth while you looked down at Itadori and...Junpei. They look like they're enjoying their conversation, given by their smiles and laughs.
'I just hope they won't notice me'
You carefully took steps away from their line of sight, but things are not really going to go your way today.
"Oh! (Name)!! What are you doing over there?"
You jumped on your spot when Itadori called out to you in his usual loud voice. You grumbled incoherent words as you closed your eyes tightly.
"(Name)! Come over here!"
Itadori invites you and you contemplate. You outwardly grimaced at the thought of being with them, especially Junpei, but in order to regain Junpei's trust in order for him to cooperate and not appear rude, you begrudgingly complied with Itadori's friendly request. With a loud, tired sigh, you descended down the bridge and approached them with a forced friendly smile.
Junpei sweat drops at your arrival while you try your best to not look in his way. You sit beside Itadori and remained quiet.
"Why did you suddenly leave earlier, (Name)?"
"That's a secret"
"Oh, okay! But do tell me later"
"K"
Itadori noticed the drastic change in your behavior, you seem to be in a foul mood ever since you met Junpei and he can't think of any reason why you would react this way. But knowing you, it's best if he doesn't pry into it now.
Instead, he turns to Junpei and does the introduction instead.
"Junpei, this is my friend (Name) Sunako! I'm sure you two already saw each other earlier. She's a bit shy at the moment, but she's just as cheery as I am!"
'I don't think she's being shy at all...'
Junpei thought as he subtly looked at you.
"O-okay..."
Meanwhile, you focused your gaze on the waters not far from you. Hoping that Itadori can handle this by himself instead of dragging you into it and forcing you to do something you don't like. Although, bringing you along was never his decision in the first place. It was Gojo's.
You clench your fist.
'Why does it have to be him of all people!...Just please get this over with, I wanna go home...'
Just when you said those words, an adult woman's voice reached your ears.
"What? Is that you, Junpei?"
"Mother!"
'Thank god. His mom is probably going to ask us to go home and then I wouldn't have to see Junpei again!'
You mentally sighed in relief as Junpei's mother technically saved your day, this should be your cue to leave. You watched Junpei's mother stop in her tracks to speak with her son, she appears to be holding a small plastic bag of groceries. And she's smoking...you squint your eyes at the cigarette in her hand.
"It's rare to find you here. Are they your friends?"
"I just met them"
"We just met, but we can be friends!"
You sweat drop at Itadori's outgoing reply. You had kind of expected him to reply that way, he is a friendly guy after all. An overly friendly guy.
"Really? Please play with him more"
You glance over at Junpei and you can see that he is a bit flustered. But his flustered expression suddenly turns into a displeased one.
"Mother!
"What?"
"Cigarettes...Didn't I tell you not to smoke?"
You and Itadori watched Junpei chastise his own mother. However, you find it a good behavior of his to chastise his own mother for doing something wrong. Not many children has the guts to do that to their parents.
'Hmm...he reacted quite strongly about it. Did it have an impact on him in the past?'
You wondered as you looked at his mother who apologized to him as she disposed of the cigar.
"I'm sorry. We agreed not to smoke in front of you"
Junpei's mother descends the stairs carefully.
"What're your friends' names?"
Itadori raised a hand, like a child, and introduces himself. While you simply stood up and put up a gentle smile in front of her.
"I'm Yuji Itadori"
"I'm (Name) Sunako, nice to meet you, ma'am"
"Ma'am, the green onions don't suit you"
Itadori suddenly said out of the blue.
"Wow, you can tell? My goal is to become a woman who doesn't suit green onions"
Junpei's mother replied, you were only left looking at them in confusion.
'What on earth are they talking about??'
"What are you saying?"
"What are you saying?"
You and Junpei said in sync, causing you two to glance at each momentarily before instantly looking in the other direction.
You furrowed your eyebrows in annoyance, Junpei does the same, but he was more nervous than embarrassed. Probably because he got the sense that you don't like him, which he finds confusing because he's pretty sure he didn't do anything that offended you. You barely spoke to each other today.
Junpei's mother obviously noticed such minor details in the interaction between you and his timid son, she's glad that his son has befriended new people, more so, strangers that he just met today. She is aware that her son is going through some things in his school, but he never told her about it, only her mother senses did.
"How about it, Yuji? Do you two want to come over for dinner?"
'Shit'
"Hey! You're causing trouble for him!"
Junpei tried to object to his mother's idea and you hoped that he'll be able to convince his mother to change her mind, but his mother only seemed annoyed at what he said.
"What? Is it troublesome to eat my cooking?"
"Uh, there's no nee—"
You tried to intervene and find an excuse to not come over to their house for dinner, when you were cut off by a loud growl of someone's hungry stomach.
Itadori's stomach.
You glared at the back of Itadori's head, and now your chance of leaving is thrown out of the window thanks to Itadori non-verbally saying that he's hungry. You held the urge to break your kind facade and be angry, but you kept your cool.
'I guess we're going over to their house for dinner then...'
You sighed tiredly. In the end, you and Itadori came over to Junpei's home and they prepared dinner for all of you. Junpei's mother, Nagi Yoshino, is a very kind woman, her personality reminds you a bit of your mother.
'Come to think of it, mother has not contacted me for about a week now...as well as dad'
You sighed and continued to eat politely beside Itadori, who was busy making jokes that cracked up Junpei's mother. She was drinking at the same time, so she easily gets a laugh out of Itadori's jokes.
Meanwhile, you and Junpei were quiet. Though unfortunately, you are sitting beside him and the both of you have been avoiding eye contact. Mostly because you won't even bother to look him in the eyes when speaking.
However, you noticed a very important detail during the dinner. One that proves Nanami's suspicion of Junpei being involved in the cinema incident.
'There's cursed spirit residuals on him'
You thought as you continued to look down at your plate calmly. You noticed this small yet important detail when you got into a closer distance with Junpei, unlike before when you always kept a distance from him. Itadori didn't notice it of course, since he's still not good at detecting cursed spirit residuals.
And also because he's busy coming up with jokes.
Despite finding out that Junpei really has connections with a cursed spirit, you kept a composed demeanor to not give yourself away or be too obvious with what you have found.
You ate dinner properly and elegantly, just as how your clan strictly taught you. You can't afford to make a mess in someone else's home and create a bad impression on your eating attitude. Unbeknownst to you, Junpei unconsciously found himself looking at the way you eat. This was the first time he saw someone eat in such an overly gentle manner and it confused him. He eats the same way but it's more of a timid one than elegant.
"Are you a princess or something?"
Junpei accidentally spoke out of his thoughts, causing everyone at the dinner table to look at him in surprise.
You looked up at him with a blank face, you two looked into each other's eyes before he realized what he just said. He became flustered and stumbled on his words as he tried to explain what he meant by those words.
"I-I mean, that way you eat is s-so—"
"I get what you mean"
You stop him by holding up a hand in front of him.
"I have been taught to eat this way. Especially in someone else's home. I apologize if it bothered you, Junpei"
"U-uhm no, it didn't bother me or anything! I was only wondering"
Junpei explained but you only nodded in reply. Junpei's mother then speaks up.
"My, I feel kind of embarrassed that we have such an elegant lady eating dinner over at our home"
"Oh, please don't be, Ms. Yoshino!"
You told her with a small smile, and Junpei watched you smile at his mother.
'She smiles?'
Minutes later, Itadori continued making jokes and there was one joke that made Junpei laugh genuinely. You only chuckled a bit at Itadori's silliness. After a lot of laughing and talking, Nagi fell asleep on the table, drunk and happy. Junpei carefully draped a blanket on her back with a gentle smile on his lips.
'I hope we can go home now...'
"Your mother is a good person"
Itadori said, causing Junpei to smile in agreement before asking a question.
"What kind of person are your moms, Yuji and (Name)?"
Itadori replies first.
"Well...I've never seen her before, and I have a vague memory of my father. But I do have a grandfather"
Itadori bashfully said while Junpei looked at him with a hint of pity in his eyes.
'I would feel pity for him as well'
"As for my mother, she's a hardworking woman and...a bit like your mother. Extroverted and kind"
"I see"
Itadori pulls out his phone and sais that he must answer the call. That means you and Junpei are left together in the same room. There was silence until Junpei finally spoke up.
"(Name)...you're a Jujutsu Sorcerer, right?"
"Yes, was it obvious?"
"The buttons on your uniforms gave it away"
'I guess there's no point lying any further to this boy. But more importantly, how did he know that this button belongs to a Jujutsu Sorcerer? I'll just play dumb to see how this ends'
"Okay, then. Is there something you'd like to ask about it?"
Itadori returns from the call and stands beside you.
"Have you ever killed anyone?"