1

26.2K 322 514
                                    

'Fuck.' Megumi swore loudly as he woke abruptly from his deep slumber and glanced at the alarm clock beside his bed. It was nearly seven-thirty, which meant he was gonna be late for school. Great.

Megumi was never late to school.

He jumped unceremoniously out of bed and swore colorfully once more as one of the bones in his hip gave a nasty backward jerk, almost feeling a painful sprain beginning to form, one that would haunt him throughout the day. Ignoring the stinging pain, and groaning inaudibly as every step made him flinch, he dragged himself to the bathroom. He brushed, threw on his school uniform and ran a hand through his curly hair. No time to take a shower: he'd take one in the afternoon.

His father was fast asleep in the living room, dead to the rest of the world. He was still passed out after he came home completely drunk and hammered last night, and Megumi just let him be as he grabbed his school bag (one that he had packed the night before, as always) and left the house. It was a ten-minute walk to school, and he had to be there by eight positively, and it was already seven-forty-five. He decided to take a taxi, even though it meant squandering the little bit of what was a poor excuse for pocket money he had left. Today was the first day of school, after all. He couldn't afford to be late. Plus, he was in no position to walk all the way to school with his recently dislocated (and still aching horribly, by the way) hip.

Once safely settled inside the taxi and roaring past the already up and busy streets of Tokyo, he threw his bag of books into one corner and whipped out his cellphone: there were about a dozen missed calls from Nobara and more than a hundred or so messages from Yuuji. He sighed and checked the messages first, knowing Yuuji would barely give it a second or two's wait before new messages.

Yuuji: oi

Yuuji: brooooooo

Yuuji: tf are u?

Yuuji: me and nobs here been waiting since ages

Yuuji: even snagged the first seat for u, nerd

Yuuji: get yo ass here man

Yuuji: u better not be late on the first day of school

Yuuji: i just realized i sound like u wtf

The next ones followed in a similar strain. Megumi texted him a quick 'my alarm rung late, sorry, reaching soon,' and shoved the phone inside his pocket. Then he lay back on his car seat, chewing on his lower lip and frowning hard. It was sheer bad luck for this to happen on the first day of school- high school, to be precise. Especially to someone like him. He was a topper, dammit. He wasn't supposed to screw up stuff like this on the first day, especially since he'd badgered Yuuji and Nobara the entire day before to reach school early and bag the first seat in class especially for him. Don't get him wrong, he wasn't the type of kid who enjoyed getting called on too much by the teacher. It wasn't his fault if they did call him out too much- he was a pretty decent student, after all. But this was his first year in high school, and he had sworn to do his best. Not that his dad would care, or anybody, for that matter- he simply wanted to do his best. He wanted his grades to be the highest and he wanted to be the top student, the one who won all the prizes and achieved top honours and was known throughout the school- just for the heck of it and just because it made him feel good and maybe just because- it made him feel like his life was worth something? Anything? That he wasn't completely worthless?

The taxi finally pulled up in front of the school and Megumi sprang out, hurriedly throwing the  driver the money and hauling his bag out with himself. He looked at his watch and swore- it was eight-five, fuck. Of all the few and far between times he could have been late to school, why today?

He ran quickly up the steps leading to the enormous building, his bag nearly sliding off one shoulder, and was barely past the gates when he bumped into someone large. He stopped only for a moment, apologizing hastily to the person he had bumped into, and then started making his way past them, but the next second felt a searing pain in his right shoulder as it was seized- and he was pulled back.

His initial exclamation of surprise and pain was quickly replaced by anger, as he looked to his side and saw the guy holding his shoulder in a gorilla grip- no wonder the person had seemed so large. Of course, who else in the school was that big and tall? He screamed internally, biting his lip in frustration. Today really was the worst. Of all the people in the world he could have bumped into, why, why, oh why did it have to be Ryoumen Sukuna?

'Fushigoro Megumi,' Sukuna said in his deep voice, and Megumi jumped. Sukuna's voice sometimes scared the living crap out of him, it was so deep and dark and....big, just like the rest of him.

'Hello, Sukuna,' Megumi smiled brightly up at him, trying to suppress his annoyance. 'Could you let go of my shoulder, please?'

The hold on his shoulder only tightened and Megumi winced slightly from the pain. 'Why should I?'

Cause it's getting late and you're hurting me, asshole! Megumi wanted to shout, but he only smiled and spoke to Sukuna in a sweet voice, as though he were a child. 'Because, Sukuna, we both have to get to class, don't we? It's already eight-five, and we're both five minutes late, and you wouldn't like to be late on the first day of school, would you?'

'Don't you use that voice with me,' Sukuna said irritably. 'I'm not a kid. Also, I don't give a damn about getting late to class, so there.'

Yeah, but I do! Once again, Megumi held back, putting a hand gingerly around Sukuna's large wrist that held his shoulder in a vice-like grip. 'What do you want me to do, then?'

'I want you to apologize,' Megumi hated how unbearably smug Sukuna sounded as he said it, 'for bumping into me.'

Megumi stared wordlessly at the guy. What did he think he was in, some third-class Disney movie where he was playing the rich arrogant bully? Or one of those crappy Wattpad stories teenage girls read? He was clearly fucked-up in the head. He, Megumi, had already apologized to him once and it was crystal clear he had bumped into Sukuna by mistake and there was no way on earth he was apologizing to him again, but he was also getting late to class, and yet there was no way he was going to let this asshole bully him into apologizing to him twice. He never apologized for anything twice. Megumi could be really unreasonable at times, especially when it came to people like Ryoumen Sukuna.

'I said I'm sorry before,' he said, quietly, looking up into Sukuna's now grinning face, 'and I meant it, but I was in a hurry and I still am, so could you please forgive me and let me go now so I can get to class?'

'Nope.'

Megumi only stood there for about two seconds contemplating his next action before he put it into motion- he gripped his bulging bag tightly with one hand, and stepping forward, swung it as hard as he could, right into Sukuna's ribs.

'Wha-aaaaaoooooooahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!' Sukuna's ringing scream of betrayal and agony pierced the air and Megumi would have liked to imagine it scared quite a few birds off the surrounding trees. He didn't hang around to confirm the hypothesis, though- even if he would very much have liked to do so- picking up his bag immediately and rushing off in the direction of the school building, towards his class. He did not stop to look back at the still-bent, hunched-over figure of Ryoumen Sukuna, screaming as though he were mortally wounded, nor to see him glance over his shoulder and glare at Megumi's rapidly retreating figure, shake a powerful fist in his direction, and swear, 'I'll get you, you feisty little tiger cub.'



I Don't Like Him! (SUKUNA X MEGUMI)Where stories live. Discover now