Chapter Text
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2005.
Satoru is a 1st year
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☯︎ 𓆟 𓆞
“You’re so childish”
Satoru couldn’t recount the amount of times those words were thrown at him. Whether it was a playful joke or a serious statement, he never seemed to escape from it.
“You’re. So. Childish.”
It was kind of ironic because personally, Satoru didn’t think he had experienced enough of the “canon childhood events” to be able to even act childish. Or maybe he was mentally aging backwards. Maybe he acted like this in an attempt to make up for all the experiences he missed as a child.
Satoru honestly didn’t care about what anyone else thought of him (At least that’s what he always told himself). During his sixteen years of life he had adapted to never seek validation from others, and to never get attached to anyone. Although, right now, he couldn’t really say he kept to that “never get attached to anyone” rule, because miraculously, he was somehow able to make friends. Two, to be precise.
He always managed to bring a faint smile to his face whenever he imagined his younger self’s reaction if he was told his was going to have friends. “Probably wouldn’t believe it,” he always thought to himself.
Although Satoru knew that he would probably never tell it to their faces, he really was grateful for them. However, he would rather show his love by annoying them every single day. That’s just the way he was.
Snap.
Satoru’s mind dazed out of whatever void it fell into, and saw Shoko peering at him. The sound most likely came from her snapping her fingers so unnecessarily close to his face.
“How long are you gonna just sit and stare at the wall for??” Shoko mocked.
“My bad, just…thinking,” Satoru mumbled, barely conscious of what he was saying.
“Wow, Satoru’s thinking of something of something other than food. That’s new,” Suguru chimed.
“Ha ha, aren’t you a funny little guy,” Satoru rolled his eyes.
“I think we should return back to school, we’ve been out for a while,” Shoko brought up.
The other two nodded in agreement. They had originally gone out for lunch, but based on the view of the sun setting from the window behind them, they had stayed longer than they had planned.
As the three of them leveled from their seats, Satoru playfully kicked Suguru’s leg from under the table, as a revenge for his earlier statement.
Suguru let out a yelp. “You’re so childish,” Suguru joked.
There it is again.
Satoru wasn’t even aware his expression changed until Suguru mentioned it.
“Why do you always do your face like that when I call you childish?” Suguru questioned.
The way Shoko turned her head around plainly told Satoru that she had been wanting to ask that same question, but didn’t want to come off as rude.
“Wha-“ Satoru stuttered. For some reason all the words he had ever learnt had escaped from his throat at that moment.
“I mean, I could stop saying it if it bothers you, but I honestly wouldn’t expect someone like you to be offended by a simple joke,” Suguru said with all honesty.
Satoru didn’t know what to say. No one had ever called him out like that. He figured it was time to pull out his overused technique.
“Yaga-sensei is gonna crack all our heads open if we don’t head back now don’t you think!” He said cheerfully, putting on his famous enormous smile.
Shoko and Suguru both cast unsure looks at each other, but they both knew better than to question Satoru too much.
☯︎ 𓆟 𓆞
“Where have you three been?” Yaga questioned. He was speaking in a cool manner, but his face looked like he really was going to crack their heads open.
“Lunch,” Shoko said unsurely.
“Maybe I’m just too old school, but people don’t normally have their lunch at dawn,” Yaga said.
“We lost track of time. Honestly,” Suguru was the one who spoke this time.
Satoru didn’t even bother butting in. He was still wondering how Shoko and Suguru managed to pick up such a small trait about him. Were his mood changes really that obvious? Satoru always thought he did a good job in hiding his imperfections. It was a trait he picked up from childhood.
“Never show your imperfections to anybody,”
He had always been so good at doing just that, so what suddenly changed?? Would Shoko and Suguru start to think that Satoru was an insensitive loser who couldn’t take a simple joke?
“And you don’t have anything to say Satoru??” Yaga huffed.
“Mhm?” Satoru muffled.
Shoko and Suguru clearly looked like they were holding in the biggest laughter. Satoru had a look on his face that looked as if he had never seen Yaga before.
Yaga however, looked unamused.
“Get your head out of the clouds young man. It looks like you’re getting too soft. Extra training tomorrow, Suguru and Satoru,” Yaga ordered with no regret, walking away from the trio without waiting for a response.
Satoru heard a long groan. Probably from Suguru. Shoko didn’t bother herself with combat training
“Thanks a lot Satoru,” Suguru said, rolling his eyes.
Satoru knew that Suguru wasn’t actually mad at him, but he honestly thought he should be. He wasn’t supposed to be letting his unregistered trauma get in the way of business, that was a sign of weakness.
“Aren’t you coming?”Shoko asked.
Satoru snapped out of his gaze. Shoko and Suguru had clearly moved a few inches from where he last saw them, which told him that they had started walking back to the dorms, and had assumed that Satoru would follow right behind them.
“Oh right sorry…I zoned out a bit,” he gave a genuine smile, hoping that they wouldn’t peer anymore.
“You’ve been acting weird all day y’know, what’s wrong?” Suguru asked.
“How have I been acting weird?? There’s nothing wrong with me, seriously, just drop it,” Satoru retorted, a little more aggressively than intended. He just seemed to always lose it when the two of them noticed something off about him. He honestly didn’t know why. Maybe it was because he worried that his friends were going to find out someone as stuck-up as him had childhood trauma.
“Alright, alright, I was just a little worried,” Suguru defended. He had his eyebrows a little furrowed. He didn’t like it when Satoru got so defensive whenever they were just looking out for him. Satoru knew this of course, but he didn’t think he could care less.
Satoru heard Suguru muttering something about “Who the hell pissed in your cereal”
Suguru and Shoko had started walking again, and Satoru walked closely behind them.
Like said before, Satoru really was grateful for both of them, but no matter how close they would get, there were just some things about him that he could never let his friends find out of.
☯︎ 𓆟 𓆞
Satoru never liked the smell of mint. It reminded him of the Gojo estate. He didn’t even know why it did…it just did.
And he hated everything that reminded him of that stupid place.
Sliding doors, servants,
Bitter tea, empty rooms,
Vases, broken glass,
Traditional Kimonos.
He never wanted to be reminded of that hell pit.
But for some reason, he couldn’t get rid of the daily flashbacks. They’d been appearing more often for some reason, and Satoru was more than aware that Shoko and Suguru both knew something was up. Especially Suguru.
He knew they could tell from the way his eyes would lose focus, and the way he could never tell when someone was speaking to him unless they snapped their fingers in his face.
Suguru was watching him like a hawk.
Satoru figured that Suguru was probably just annoyed with Satoru for keeping secrets. Satoru obviously found that outrageous. So what if he was keeping a few secrets?? Suguru had his too, and so did Shoko. Why was it suddenly unacceptable when Satoru was the one keeping secrets-
Did he just hear a knock on his door?
“Sounds like it’s Suguru,” he thought.
Satoru knew this would seem a little odd to people, but Satoru could always tell when Suguru was the one behind the door. But this should be normal yeah? Especially since they’ve known each other for almost a whole year.
Satoru was caught off guard a bit, when Suguru barged into his room without waiting for an answer.
He knew it was kind of his fault for taking too long to answer, but he still wanted to call Suguru out just to ignore him. Again, that’s just the way he was.
“No one ever taught you to never barge in on someone??” Satoru sneered melodramatically.
“So when you break down my door just to talk to me, it’s perfectly normal, but this isn’t?” Suguru retorted, with a slight grin on his face. “Besides, you took too long to answer. It’s like you didn’t even hear at all. Although nowadays, you don’t seem to be hearing anything unless you’re screamed at in the face. Are you sure you don’t have APD?”
“In what universe do you think I would know what ‘APD’ means? How can I be sure you’re not making it up Sugu?” Satoru taunted.
“First of all, don’t call me Sugu, it sounds awfully weird. Secondly, you really are an idiot,” Suguru cautioned.
“Aww, would you prefer if I called you ‘guru’ instead?” Satoru teased.
“I don’t have time for your stupidity big head, I came here to get my hair ties back. I really don’t understand why you keep taking them to slingshot things at people, grow up,” Suguru said.
“I was forced to grow up faster than you, idiot,”
Obviously, Satoru didn’t say it out loud. That would just lead to more questions being thrown at him.
“Oh right, your hair ties, I forgot about those. Hold on, let me get them,” Satoru said, trying his hardest to not sound like he was just offended.
While Satoru was reaching for Suguru’s hair ties from his drawer, Suguru sat on the edge of the bed and took his time to observe Satoru’s room. It was messy (as always), clothes he had never even seen Satoru put on were scattered across the floor. The window was fully covered by personal black out blinds (as if it wasn’t already the dead of night). And of course, Suguru’s eyes settled on the brown hinged door that made Satoru’s dorm stand out from all the other dorms with sliding doors.
While Satoru was still searching for Suguru’s hair ties (he had actually lost all three of them yesterday, but he wanted Suguru to think he still had them), he shot a quick glance at Suguru, and saw him staring at the hinged door he had demanded for.
It became a little awkward when he realized that Suguru probably thought Satoru had asked for a different door just so he could stand out. But obviously, that wasn’t the reason. The sliding doors reminded him of where he came from. And half of the reason he came to jujutsu high, was because he wanted to have freedom from the Gojo estate. He came to start a new life.
“You just love being the center of attention don’t you?” Suguru teased.
“Mhm?”
“Did you really have to get your own special door?”
“I had a reason,”
“Which is what?”
“I only answer questions I want to”
“You’re so damn full of yourself,”
“I’ve been told,”
“Have you found the hair ties yet?”
…
☯︎ 𓆟 𓆞