The street was full of people, and any of the passers-by could hear your conversation. But none of the three seemed to care in the least. Satoru warped the both of you to that same place the second you had received Shoko's message, and to your surprise, Suguru had not fled. He was standing in front of you, his dark hair flowing down his back.
You haven't seen him in months. Not a single message, call, or explanation. Suguru Geto had disappeared from your lives overnight. From his actions, you expected to find a dark and rabid version of your close friend. However, his face only showed a sincere smile.
"What is wrong with you?" Gojo asked, his voice trembling. At that moment, you decided not to try to decipher what was he feeling. Whatever it was, it would only serve to make you snap. "Are you even aware of what you have done?"
Suguru's smile widened, and a shiver ran through you from head to toe. Who was that person in front of you? It had nothing to do with the boy from a year ago.
"I've decided how I want to live. So now I'll just do what I can for the sake of it." He shrugged. "But that doesn't mean we have to be apart, you can join me too."
Gojo stiffened, right next to you. Was he seriously considering it? No, he would never hurt anyone. A trail of cold sweat formed on your forehead when you realized it. You would have put your hand in the fire thinking Suguru wouldn't either, and look at him now.
"I don't even recognize you anymore Suguru." You spoke in a barely audible whisper. "Come back please."
Out of the corner of your eye, you saw Gojo turn to look at you, but you didn't take your eyes off Suguru. All three of you knew that was a meaningless prayer. If Suguru returned to Jujutsu Tech he would be executed. There was no turning back what he had done, but you refused to accept that reality. It was simply too painful.
"Just come back, Suguru, please..." You repeated, with a trickle of tears running down your cheek.
You sat up abruptly with the bitter taste of the scene you had relived in your dreams. It was not the first time that you dreamed of that day. It was a nightmare that visited you frequently. Propped up on your elbows on the bed in your room, it took you a few seconds to realize you weren't alone.
"You were talking in your sleep again." Gojo was lying on the sofa in your room, dimly lit by the first rays of the day. It couldn't be later than 6 am.
What the hell did you say? You hoped it wasn't the last sentence you said in your dream. You looked at the man uncomfortably, but you didn't ask him and he didn't say anything either.
"I wouldn't bother anyone if there was no one in my room at dawn. I've told you a thousand times not to show up here unannounced." You grumbled.
Satoru raised an eyebrow and shifted on the sofa to face you. He lifted a thumb and pointed at the wall behind him.
"Even if I was in my room I can still hear you, you know." He said with a smile, and a wave of embarrassment ran through your body.
"Whatever. I don't care if you're here, but let me know beforehand, please. One day you will give me a heart attack."
"Don't be like that, I am very considerate. I even brought breakfast to the best teacher in the school."
"I'm sure they are very grateful to you."
"You have it there, idiot." He replied with a lopsided smile. With a nod, he pointed at your desk, where there was an extra-large cup of coffee.
You got up from the bed and brought the cup of coffee to your nose, intoxicated with the sweet smell of your favorite kind of coffee. "Hmm. It smells so good." You muttered with the scratchy voice of just getting up. "Thank you very much, Gojo."
You began to swallow sips of coffee, feeling how little by little the caffeine took its effect. It wasn't the first time he brought breakfast to your room, but the "best teacher in school" part sounded suspicious. He was probably sweetening your ears to ask you for a favor, but you decided that if he wanted something from you he should use his words.
You looked up, more awake now, and realized that Gojo was staring at you. The blindfold hid his eyes, but you'd known him long enough to guess his behavior. You looked back at the cup, a little nervous under the intensity of his gaze.
"Are you having nightmares again?" The professor asked, his voice an octave lower.
They first appeared after the day you last spoke with Suguru. After that conversation, you locked yourself in your room, lying in your bed staring at nothing until night fell and you fell asleep. But it wasn't long before the memories of your time together appeared as a sad reminder in your dreams, and the spasms shook your body violently.
Gojo listened from his room, next to yours, as you pleaded loudly with a broken voice, and warped to your room in a split second. His face contorted as he realized that the word you looped like a prayer was his name. Suguru .
He leaned toward you and shook your arm urgently until you opened your eyes. "Are you okay?." He said in a whisper.
You ran a hand through your hair, embarrassed that he had seen you in such a state, and started to mumble an excuse, but he cut you off before you could speak further.
"I can stay here if you feel safer." He said, pointing to the sofa.
"Thank you." You whispered into the night, looking into his dull eyes.
You would have loved to tell him to sleep in your bed and hug you, hoping that the warmth of your bodies would soften the infinite pain that both of you were feeling. But Gojo was also going through his own grief, and you didn't want to push him too much.
For the next few weeks, this became a ritual. Nightmares haunted you every night relentlessly, and Gojo came to wake you up and waited on the couch for you to fall asleep again. After a few days, when it was bedtime he would come straight to your room.
You had never retailed the content of those nightmares to him, but he had also known you for too many years not to know what it was that haunted you even in your dreams. The most obvious sign that he knew was that he had never asked you about them.
You nodded."It hadn't happened to me in months, I don't know why they come back now." Stay with me , you mentally begged. But the words did not leave your lips.
Gojo braced his elbows on top of his tights and stared at you through the blindfold. "Maybe the trigger was your disastrous Tinder date."
A warmth spread from your chest to your neck and face. In a second, you grabbed the pillow from your bed and swung it hard at Gojo. The cushion stopped a foot from his face as if he had hit a wall, and fell to the ground accompanied by a laugh from the white-haired man.
"I can't believe Shoko told you this." you groaned. A few weeks ago you tried your luck with the dating app and met a guy in a coffee shop in downtown Tokyo. Contrary to what his profile said, he was not a 29-year-old lawyer. He looked twenty years older than you, and he showed up with his clothes wrinkled and smelling tobacco. It was also nothing like the photos. You only confessed to Shoko how you had spent three hours in that cafeteria because you couldn't come up with a good excuse to get up and leave.
Gojo grinned so wide you could count all his teeth. "Maybe if you lowered your standard you wouldn't be so lonely? The man even paid for the two coffees." He added and whistled pretending to be impressed
You winced hearing that. Gojo was joking, but there was some truth behind his words, though he didn't know it. Your standard was high, yes. Your standard was the handsome, smart, strong man who was sitting on your couch at that very moment. How could you want another man? But he would never know that.
"Fuck off. Do I look lonely to you?" You asked defensively.
Gojo raised an eyebrow and leaned back on the sofa, stretching both arms above his head. You forced yourself to look away from his body when you almost sighed at the sight of the muscle in his shoulders contorting under his uniform with that movement.
"I thought so until I heard about this hidden side of you. I thought there were no secrets between us." He said, pressing a hand against his chest.
You snorted after hearing that. No secrets my ass .
"Yeah sure. You can't expect me to tell you about my dates if I haven't heard a word of your love life in a decade." You said calmly, while you finished your coffee.
"C'mon, y/n. You know I don't have a love life." He answered with a laugh.
"What do you mean?"
"That I haven't been with anyone in years. You would have known." He answered as if he was the most obvious thing in the world.
"No relationships?"
"Nope."
"No dates?"
"Nope."
"No s--" You cut yourself off mid-sentence, a little embarrassed for asking him so directly about such a topic.
"Go on, ask me." He invited you, with a predatory smile. Your friend was gloating over your shyness.
"Not even casual sex?" You asked trying to sound nonchalant.
"Nope." He answered, flexing his arms under his head.
"What the fuck, Satoru."
Not in a thousand years would you have imagined this. Why did it feel so good to hear it? It was true that he had stopped talking about his conquests after everything that happened, but you thought it was because of the gap that had opened up in your friendship back then, not because there was nothing to explain. But you knew it was true, Gojo had never been in the habit of lying.
"You all go around assuming I'm a whore, but nobody asks, Gojo, how are you?" he joked.
"How are you, Gojo ?" You joked.
"Fresh as a rose." He answered, dismissing the question with a smile, as you expected.
You got out of bed and tossed the empty cup into the trash can next to your desk. The sun was already rising steadily on the horizon and soon you would begin your duties as a Jujutsu High teacher. You went to your closet and opened both doors, looking for a black school uniform outfit. Behind the cover of the wooden doors, hiding your body from Gojo's view, you discarded your pajamas on the floor and began to change.
"Which reminds me I wanted to ask you for a small favor." He said, still from the sofa.
There it is.
"Huh." you hummed to the sound of clothes sliding up your skin.
"They want to send me today to do an inspection in Shinjuku. They suspect that there is some low-level curse, and there seems to be no one else available."
"Uh-huh." You repeated, as you buttoned the white shirt of your uniform and tucked the hem inside your skirt.
"But in an hour I have an appointment with Megumi's teacher. He has gotten into fights with his classmates again."
You laughed under your nose.
"To say that he fights with them is very generous. Didn't he just knock out ten guys the other time?"
"And without a single scratch." Gojo stated a note of pride in his voice. "But his teacher wants to talk about his behavior. Can you go to Shinjuku, please?" He said pleadingly.
His commitment to Megumi's education softened your heart a bit.
"It's okay." You agreed. "Today I only have training in the afternoon with the first years. I can drop by in a bit."
You closed the closet doors to find Gojo standing over you, grinning from ear to ear. He took your hand in his, in exaggerated gratitude.
"Great, I'll bring you dinner tonight to make it up to you." He said happily, and your cheeks turned pink at the sudden contact.
"Okay, but bring something normal, unlike last time. A cake cannot be considered dinner."