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satoru makes it to class early, he always does. he prefers it that way, everyone stares at him and never wants to listen to what he has to say; they always view him as other. he watches as all of the students flock in with their group of friends, chatting amongst themselves. he sighs and ignores them as he pulls out his supplies for the class. as he finishes pulling his items out and setting them neatly in front of him, he notices a new face walk in. he is tall, his black hair tied back half way with a bun that has a pencil sticking through it. the student is wearing a dark purple pull over sweater on top of a black button up that has the collar pulling over, paired with some black chino pants and combat boots. satoru looks back at his face, noticing his narrow glasses that compliment his face shape, along with a lip ring on the bottom left of his mouth.
satoru looks down, and starts messing with the sleeves of his long sleeve button up. he feels his stomach begin to flutter just from looking at the new student. he then fidgets with his glasses as he flips open his textbook to the chapter written on the board in the classroom. he wants to be invisible; but of course, satoru somehow fails and the new student sits right next to him. the other students in the class turn their heads slightly and stare at each other as the new student sits next to him. he can hear the students murmuring to each other and laughing.
“what’s their deal?”
satoru turns his head to see the student pulling out his items from his bag, “sorry?” the student gestures to them subtly and repeats his question. satoru purses his lips and shrugs, not saying anything in response. the student nods and prepares for the class. they sit in silence as they wait for the teacher to walk in and begin the class. satoru can smell hints of bourbon cologne whenever his new seating partner moves around in his chair. ‘who is this guy’, satoru asks himself, confused as to how someone like this just happens to exist in the same timeline as him.
the teacher walks in, and starts the class shortly after. before the teacher begins the lesson, she starts to introduce the student. “we have a new person joining us today”, she pauses and gestures to satoru’s area, “his name is, suguru geto, please give him a warm welcome as we get to know him for the rest of the school year.” the class nods and does nothing else; but satoru turns to face him and finally says a full sentence, “it’s nice to meet you, suguru.” he turns away before suguru can face him, “it’s nice to meet you too”, suguru says as he slightly leans in his voice quiet enough that no one gives either of them any attention.
“today we are going to be covering, black holes”, the educator states as she begins to write on the board. she starts writing down definitions, and the class follows suit. she then turns to face the class, “now, can anyone tell me the name of the largest kind of black hole?” the class is at first silent, but then satoru raises his hand.
“yes?”
before satoru can say anything, he hears suguru start to speak. “that would be a supermassive black hole, ma’am”, suguru says as he drops his hand, a small smile forming on his face. the students snap their heads to face where the two of them are sitting. “wonderful, and can anyone tell me how these kind of black holes are created?” the class is silent again, not until suguru speaks again, “it’s not entirely known, but it is said that there are tons of mechanisms, such as stellar or direct, some even say they might have been around during the big bang.” the class murmurs to each other and satoru is still just in shock. he does not find himself filled with anger or frustration that someone can finally beat him to it, more so just confused that someone else is willing to proudly show their intelligence.
the class continues on and the teacher eventually pulls up a 20 minute video regarding black holes. the lights are dim now, and the room is completely silent aside from the video playing on the projector. “that’s really cool that you know those facts about black holes”, satoru whispers to suguru, an excited tone littered in his voice. suguru turns to him and smiles, “thanks, they’re actually what got me into science altogether.” satoru lets out a sigh of relief, and grins before turning back to watch the video. throughout the rest of the video, satoru would turn to see what suguru was doing. he watches how suguru reacts to the video, noticing that suguru would eagerly start writing information down. satoru thinks about how he would love to pick at suguru’s brain to learn more from him.
or, to just get to know him as a person, of course.
class starts coming to a close and the students start packing up and talking amongst themselves. “i’m satoru gojo”, satoru says from his seat, packing his stuff up alongside suguru. suguru turns his head, a strand of hair slowly falling in front of his face, “it’s nice to meet you satoru.” satoru can feel those same butterflies in his stomach from when suguru first walked in. “hey, uh, i usually eat outside for lunch, at the park bench near the football field”, satoru begins to say, the words falling out before he can even think. suguru silently chuckles, “yeah?” satoru shyly looks down, and then back at suguru, “yeah…” suguru nods and the school bell blares loudly at them, “i’ll see you there, satoru.”
they walk and go opposite directions in the hall, satoru walks away and turns back to see suguru heading to his class. for the first time in a long time, satoru will have someone accompanying him for lunch.
—
satoru sits down at the private park bench under the tree and watches as big friend groups sit at the football field. as he waits for suguru to arrive, he pulls out his lunch from his bag. as he takes a bite of his fruit sandwich, he hears a voice emanate from a few feet away, “sorry i’m late.” satoru turns his head and smiles with his mouth closed, finishing his bite quickly. “all good, you haven’t missed anything.” suguru sits next to him and pulls out a bento box from his bag. “do you usually sit out here?” satoru nods as he finishes his bite, “yeah, i sit out here a lot, it’s been that way for a while now.” suguru asks another question before starting to eat, “how come?”
satoru begins to explain, “well, people usually give me a hard time for rambling on about pretty much anything”, he pauses taking a sip from his water, “it got to a point where i noticed the others would only bring me around for help with homework and only be nice to me when it was for their personal gain.” he stops and takes another bite of his sandwich, huffing through his nose. suguru finishes his bite and turns to him, “that’s really unfortunate, satoru.” he puts a reassuring hand on satoru’s back, which makes satoru slightly jolt. “honestly, i didn’t think you’d show up”, satoru admits as he turns to face suguru.
a sad look forms on suguru’s face from the admission. satoru continues on, “i mean, i have invited so many people to have lunch with me and in some way people convince them not to”, he pauses again as he looks over at the football field, “and it’s all for the same belief that i just love hearing myself talk and that i think i’m better than everyone else.” he shakes his head and looks down, “it’s not true though, i just love sharing what i know in class and outside of class.” the two of them sit in silence for a moment, as they take a few more bites of their food. satoru feels silly; he questions internally if he self-sabotaged a potential friendship. it does not help that satoru thinks he is attractive. it makes it worse for him.
“you know, i think i would enjoy hearing you talk about your favourite subjects.”
satoru turns, his brows furrow in confusion, “really?” suguru nods, “yeah, for sure, i mean i got to talk about black holes earlier, it’s only fair that i get to know what got you into science.” satoru blinks quickly as he thinks about the question. he scratches his head as he makes another admission, “no one has ever asked me that before.” suguru smiles empathetically back before satoru continues. satoru then turns to face him, setting his lunch on the open spot on the bench between them, “i think the big bang is what did it for me.” suguru nods as a way to ask for him to continue. satoru tilts his head and looks up, as if he were scanning an invisible wall of information, “well, isn’t it fascinating how you and i are even here now; the big bang was such a precise expansion of life that for all we know came from a singularity that we do not have all the answers for.”
he smiles and goes after his backpack. satoru opens it and pulls out a cosmology book by the author, carl sagan. “sagan is one of my favourite authors, and astronomers”, he excitedly states as he hands over the book to suguru. the book has different coloured sticky notes sticking out at different angles, and when suguru opens it, he sees different parts highlighted and circled. “he helped out on a lot of space missions in america, and even showed interest in the idea of alien life”, satoru exclaims with enthusiasm as he notices suguru reading through his notes. suguru looks up at him, “your notes are amazing”, he says in awe of satoru. suguru flips through more and adds on, “i’d love to read more from your notes, your mind works in such an incredible way.”
satoru blushes, “thank you, suguru.” suguru reads through more of his annotations, and satoru happily watches. the school bell alarms everyone to get ready for their next class, and the two of them groan. “ugh, this is so unfair”, suguru complains as he hands the book back to satoru. “well, i’m going to be studying at the library after school today for a little bit, you’re welcome to come along”, satoru offers as he packs his stuff back up. suguru does the same and replies, “are you kidding,” he stands up and looks at satoru, “i would absolutely be interested.”
the two walk to their classes as far as they can together before they eventually break apart.
—
their library date is going well. satoru and suguru have not connected the dots yet, but the longing stares as one of them goes in depth about space travel or stars exploding, would have anyone know what was going on. “i love being able to talk about this with someone who understands where i’m coming from”, satoru says with a sigh of relief. suguru chuckles, “me too.” satoru adds on, “seriously, i haven’t been able to talk to anyone about this stuff in so long without them eye-rolling.” suguru chuckles, “i don’t know how anyone could do that, you get so cute when you’re passionate.” suguru puts a hand over his mouth as he realises what he just said. satoru slow blinks, his brain completely buffering at what suguru said. “i- i’m sorry uh”, suguru stammers out from embarrassment.
satoru shakes his head, “no, no don’t apologise, i was uh”, he pauses as his hand goes to his glasses, readjusting them at the side, “i was thinking something similar.” suguru is now slow blinking at satoru with confusion, “wait, wait, what?” satoru can feel his own face turning red and cups his face with his hands, “sorry, i’ve never done this before.” suguru puts a hand on his back and rubs it in a circle, “no, i’m sorry, i shouldn’t have blurted it like that.” they go in circles apologising as they try to recollect themselves.
they both take a deep breath and satoru starts to reintroduce the topic, “so, earlier when you first came in, i thought you were really cute, but i was very nervous.” suguru slightly nods, “so was i.” satoru continues, “i then was shocked to notice that not only are you super good looking, but also intelligent which made you that much more attractive to me.” suguru blushes and pushes his glasses up with his finger, “really?” satoru chuckles, “yes really.” the two sit in silence, both of them feeling as if their hearts could beat out of their chest.
satoru feels a hand slowly go over to his hands that are sitting in his lap. suguru’s hand grabs one of them, and he begins to hold it. they both start giggling at how surreal all of this is. suguru starts to look around to see if anyone sees them, and notices it is just them in the library at the moment. he then looks back at satoru, studying how his clear rimmed, square glasses sit on his face. he looks at his outfit, analysing how the dark blue slacks compliment his white button down. suguru compares his combat boots to satoru’s worn oxford shoes. his eyes finally make their way back to satoru’s dashing blue eyes, that are already looking right at him.
the two of them find themselves inching closer to each other. their nervous energy turning more giddy by the second. until, finally, their lips meet for a short and sweet kiss. it is so innocent and gentle. they back away and look at each other, noticing each other’s faces have turned red from the kiss. they take turns looking at each other’s lips and eyes, both of them unsure as to where to focus their attention. “you’re really cool, suguru”, satoru says as he squeezes suguru’s hand. satoru snickers and squeezes back, his smile growing bigger.
“and i think you’re really cool, satoru.”