Chapter Text
Geto Suguru took a tortuous flight from Buenos Aires to New York, and then back to Tokyo. By the time he got home with his suitcase and equipment, he was exhausted.
When his phone finally got a signal, Geto checked his missed calls, some were from his editor Suda Mnami, but all the rest were from Gojo Satoru. He scrolled up a dozen pages of missed calls and realized something was wrong: Gojo's earliest call came three months ago, not too early, not too late, but when he was on a boat from Ushuaia to Antarctica. For the next three months, Gojo hadn't heard from him at all, as if he had disappeared.
Geto didn't have the guts to count the number of missed calls from Gojo, so he called his editor first.
Suda was waiting for him to call back, asking if he had settled in, and then asking about the shoot after receiving a reply that he had arrived home.
"It was a surprise trip," Geto told him, "and I got a shot of a colony of about six orcas, and they were teaching their young to hunt."
"That's fantastic, Mr. Geto!" She said tiredly and excitedly on the other end of the line, "Take a couple of days off, and we'll get the designer together next week for the selection."
"Okay."
Geto nodded as he discarded his suitcase on the walkway, took off his punching boots and headed for the house.
"Ah yes, Geto-sensei," Suda suddenly added, "Yesterday the editor of the medical magazine Health, Yamashita, asked if there was any interest in getting together recently, one of the research doctors in his charge of is about your age, and I heard she is a great beauty …"
"Not Ieiri Shoko," Geto interrupted with a smile, "I don't think so, it's not like I already know her since I was fifteen. And don't introduce me to these blind dates again, I won't go. "
Suda was speechless, she stammered for a while and say, "But you are still single, we all agree a good man like you should find a couple sooner …"
Geto sighed, "No, but I have an agreement with someone, if we have not found a partner of our choice by the age of 28, we will be with each other. So I can't really be considered single, right?"
He didn't care what she mumbled about "this agreement is too childish", he just said he had to rest and hung up.
++
Geto changed into his pajamas and sat down on the bed, putting a cushion behind his back，then he started calling Gojo back.
It was around eleven o'clock at night and he was pretty sure Gojo was still awake - the man was always a night owl and the two of them usually had long phone conversations to make.
Now, the first problem he had to face was how to explain to Gojo the missed calls for the past three months.
The phone was picked up on the fly after the second ring, and the voice on the other end sounded decidedly angry.
"Suguru, where have you been for the past few months!" Gojo's voice projected sharply through the receiver onto Geto's eardrums, "I've called you at least a hundred times! At least a hundred!"
More than that, Geto thought to himself, there must be more than two hundred.
"Satoru, I've been in Antarctica for the past few months, and there's no signal there."
"Antarctica, is it?" Gojo was almost immediately interested in what he had to say, "What did you go to Antarctica to shoot? Did you see any white bears?"
"Satoru, white bears are in the Arctic, there are none in the Antarctic."
"So …" Gojo said disappointedly.
He changed the subject quickly, "But that's no reason for you not to contact me! Suguru, even the Antarctic should have a satellite phone, right?!"
Geto apologized, "I was wrong not to tell you where I was going before, but you know me, I'm used to being isolated when I take pictures …"
Gojo obviously didn't take too well to this explanation, but there was no other way.
He grunted and stammering again, "But I … really have something important to tell you."
"What is it?"
At this point, Gojo stammered again. He seemed to be brewing for half a day, and finally opened his mouth at a rapid pace.
"I'm getting married in four days, and since you're my only friend, I need you to be my best man."
Geto only felt the sky spinning, suddenly unstable and unstable weight, arm side slipped to the side of the bed, a violent roll over and fell under the bed, the kind of four on all fours.
"Suguru! Suguru, what's wrong with you？ Suguru?"
Gojo asked with concern.
However, Geto was oblivious to this, he only felt the ceiling bloom an ugly flower, the organs of his are emptied by someone, they were tied into knots carved on the words, and then put into his brain, the only words are:
Satoru is … getting married?
"Suguru, are you okay? Say something?" Gojo was still yelling on the other side. Geto finally felt some clarity and he straightened up on the floor and reopened his mouth.
"Nothing, I knocked over my tripod."Geto blurted out, ignoring he had just returned from Antarctica, and have no reason to unfurl his tripod indoors.
"Oh," Gojo said without question, "you're fine， that's good."
Geto took the opportunity to change his guard, "Satoru, what did you just say? You're getting married? In four days?"
"What the hell?" He rubbed his forehead anxiously, " Married? To who? I remember there's …"
Geto turned back to the calendar on the bedside table.
"... Four more days until your twenty-eighth birthday."
His hands and feet went cold at once.
"Yeah," Gojo said matter-of-factly, "I found someone before I turned twenty-eight, as promised."
"Satoru, where did this guy you're married to come from again?"
Geto said, "You were still single when we met in Tokyo six months ago."
"Yeah, yeah," Gojo argued, "I met him right after you left…" His voice was getting smaller and smaller, as if he knew how little breath he was saying.
Geto only felt his temples bursting, he straightened back on the bed, talking just like teaching a teenager, "Satoru, I know you're always being casual, but I must remind you - people can't marry someone they've only known for three months."
"Why not!" Gojo shouted, "I'm so sorry, I don't have someone I've known for ten years who can marry me."
The words made Geto's heart beat wildly again: what did he mean by that? If he says it out loud, then isn't there a chance that he might still have something to offer… ?
However that's when Gojo added, "Come to Kyoto, Suguru, I really need you to come and be my best man."
Geto was suddenly silent.
Gojo was breathing softly on the other side, and he sounds like he's nervous. What is he nervous about? Geto thought, the upcoming wedding? Or the betrayal that doesn't exist for each other?
Geto felt his intestines and stomach all churning together, his mouth dry and bitter.
"Suguru, are you still there?"
"I am," he responded with a sigh, "I'm just, I'm just tired, Satoru."
"Really?" Gojo said genuinely, "Then I'll say quickly and you can sleep soon - Suguru, come to Kyoto tomorrow, please. I'll pick you up, I really need you right now."
Geto started frantically rubbing the non-existent wrinkles on his forehead again.
Finally he had to compromise, "Okay …. I'll come by Shinkansen tomorrow."
Then they said good night to each other and Geto hung up and stared straight at the lighted ceiling.
His muscles were sore, exhausted from jet lag and the long, cold days outdoors; but at the same time, his mind was blank and sleepless.
Satoru … is getting married.
Four days before his twenty-eighth birthday.
With someone he didn't even know.
Geto thought aimlessly: Will that person know that Satoru is afraid of cold in winter and sleeps in bundles at night; that his mouth will taste like pistachio-flavored gelato when he kisses …
This is really not certain now.
Who knows if the gelato flavor he likes now is still pistachio.
Geto thought, he can't believe he hasn't seen Satoru for half a year; his "best friend", with whom he made such a ridiculous promise, is getting married unnoticed.
He was left alone in bed, with his chest empty, as if it were a joke.
Satoru … is getting married …
Geto suddenly sat up from bed violently, he turned on his cell phone and dialed Suda Mnami's number.
The editor was clearly sleepy, and she responded vaguely to Geto's exuberantly intoned greeting.
"Ms. Suda, can my vacation be relaxed to four days?" he said in a rapid-fire voice, "I have a big job to do."
"What's the big job, you asked?"
"I'm going to beat up a man I don't know and get the love of my life back before his wedding."
After Geto finished, he hung up the phone hard and fell back to sleep.