Chapter Text
The campus library is quiet and pretty much unoccupied as usual. As an undercover nerd, you visited it often. Just..tried to make sure no one found out, or you’d probably get bullied.
The orange light streamed in through the windows throughout the library, illuminating the tables and chairs in the corners of the place with a beautiful kaleidoscopic hue.
You search through the science section, searching for a certain book on astrophysics. But, when you finally come across it, it’s.. on the highest shelf possible. You’re fairly short, and so, you can’t reach the top shelf. It’s a pretty tall bookcase, too, so how do the librarians ever even manage to put it there themselves? And why do they do that?—you wonder.
When, you feel an unfamiliar presence near you. You flinch slightly when an arm reaches over your frame and grabs the book from the top shelf. The exact one you’d been reaching for.
“This one?” A soft, deep voice murmurs from beside you. You look over. It’s a tall, white haired man, with black glasses, which are slipping from his nose slowly. His blue eyes are piercing, and you feel yourself almost drowning in them. He has a pale complexion, though you swear you can see a light pink blush dusting his cheeks as he hands the book over to you.
“Oh, thanks…” you huff out quietly, a small, polite smile playing at your lips. “You’re..quite tall.” It just comes out. You didn’t mean to say that. And you couldn’t tell if it was offensive somehow or not. So you just hold your breath, hoping his answer isn’t anything bad.
He looks a little caught off guard for a moment, unused to people being almost as shy as he is. The guy shoves his hands into the pockets of his sweatpants and swallows lightly before answering, his Adam’s apple bobbing in his throat. “Tall enough to reach things from the top shelf.” He flashes a small, bashful smile in response to yours, mirroring your actions.
You can’t help but feel warm inside at this man’s politeness. You skim through the book, then, not wanting to stay around for too long, you turn to leave—not before thanking him, though, of course.
“Wait.” He blurts out from behind you.
Your heart lurches and you turn your body round, quicker than you meant to.
He looked like he immediately regretted speaking, with the way his face twisted awkwardly at his own previous action. He’s not that smooth. He plays with the strings of his hoodie whilst rocking back and forth on his heels, adjusting his glasses every now and then. He avoids eye contact. There’s a moment of silence.
“Uh.”
“You like astrophysics?” He asks.
You didn’t expect the question. You glance down at the book you’d picked—or, rather, what he’d picked for you technically, and back up at Satoru, as if you’d forgotten you even picked it in the first place and you’re checking to see why he knows you like astrophysics.
“Uuh, kinda.” Definitely not kinda. You run through the answer in your head, correcting the faults of how you spoke, how you could’ve worded the answer better or how you could’ve said a little more to stop the conversation from running so dry.
His gaze dips, travelling along the features of your face momentarily. He gulps again. “What’s your name?”
You shift the book in your arms, keeping it pressed to your chest tightly. “(Y/N). What’s yours?”
Satoru makes sure to commit your name to memory, the way it rolls off your tongue. He likes it, the syllables like some sort of poetry. Fitting for your appearance. He pushes the glasses back up to the bridge of his nose for about the millionth time. Pull yourself together, Satoru! A familiar voice echoes in his head. He nods, trying, pathetically, must I add, to seem cool. “Satoru Gojo.”
“Nice to meet you, Satoru.” You reply, before your gaze falls to the dark red carpet floor, like you’re trying to ignore the awkwardness or fill the silence as you look away.
Then, you look back up at his face as you come up with a question. “So..you like astrophysics too?”
His face lights up, surprised to see that someone genuinely likes the same things as him, and that you’re not just getting that book for homework or something.
He nods quickly, eager that he’s got something to latch onto. “Yeah!” He exclaims, way too loudly for a library. He turns the heads of some fierce librarians, which he tries to ignore and just lower his voice to something more casual (he hopes). “I mean—it’s kind of my whole thing.”
He pauses as he glances down at your hands clutching the book named ‘astronomy 101’
“You should come sit with me sometime.” He gestures nervously over to a secluded table in the corner of the room. It contains a girl with short brown hair and a taller guy with long, black hair. “I usually head over there, if you..” he hopes his poker face is good enough to hide his excitement. “want to ever come chat.”
“Yeah, will do.” You reply, trying to keep the matched excitement from your voice, too.
After another short amount of silence, you speak again. “Well, I’m going to sit over there for now.” You gesture with your thumb to the opposite corner of the room, a small table with just one velvet lined chair, and a bag swung over the side of it, that’s probably hers.
“But..” your heart flutters nervously as you come up with a suggestion. You pull out your Nokia phone, as it’s the mid-late 2000’s. “Do you want my number?”
Surprisingly, his answer is quick. “Yes. Uh-yeah, please. That’d be—“ he pulls out his fliphone, just in case she wanted his number. “Cool.” He puts on an awkward, geeky grin.
“Okay.” You smile, relieved that he hadn’t rejected you. You pull a pen from your pocket, then freeze, realising you have no paper on you. “Well—actually, is it okay if I..write it here? I have no paper.” You laugh anxiously, slowly taking his upper arm, close to his wrist.
You can see him swallow thickly before nodding a bit too fast. You holding his arm had him feeling a little lightheaded..
As you begin to write a combination of numbers—your phone number, on his arm, he keeps talking. It’s clear he’s not very trained in the social etiquette category. “Yeah, uh—yeah, go ahead. You know, astrophysics really is great, my favourite theory—“ he keeps going on and on endlessly about theories and scientists and scientific breakthroughs within astrophysics, but you almost ignore him as you write down your number and name in fancy writing. The way he keeps going on does make you grin to yourself though.
“Okay, you can put me into your phone later, and call me whenever needed. Or, whenever you want to.” You say as you draw yourself away from his arm.
Satoru stares down at his arm, almost in a daze. Her number. Imprinted into his skin with ink. He flexes his fingers and hand just to feel the ink press against his skin.
“Uh.” His voice cracks audibly, and it makes you cringe. “Thanks.”
“No problem.” You add. “See you around, then, Satoru Gojo.”
The way you say his name makes him feel weak at the knees. He breaks out into a cute smile. Yeah. See ya.”
Your turn and leave, grinning. Wow. Meeting a cute guy? Honestly, this was a rare experience for you. And he shared your feelings on science!! You secretly hope he calls you later.