Old Beats | Gojo Satoru x Reader

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2007

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"Shit" you whispered as you looked at yourself in the mirror. You kept tapping the cloth-wrapped ice over your eyes, but you knew it was a losing battle. They were so swollen and red that no amount of ice could change it.

The night before had been a disaster. Your best friends had a fight, Suguru disappeared, you also fought with the other one, and then... You didn't want to think about it anymore. To be honest, if it wasn't for you having the exchange event pre-training meeting, you probably wouldn't even have gotten out of bed that morning.

But you couldn't stop thinking about it, and about him.

Every few moments the scene you had seen in his room flashed before your eyes, and you were consumed with pain, followed by the worst kind of shame you had ever felt. It was an embarrassment that didn't come from the moment you interrupted, nor what you saw in his room.

What embarrassed you were the emotions that vision had aroused in you. Rage, disgust, and a pain in the stomach that you could not turn off in any way. That pain had a meaning, you knew very well, and it was precisely that meaning that you wanted to block from your mind. It was a real catastrophe, and you weren't ready to deal with that problem right now.

But the problem was waiting for you just outside the door, in the room where the meeting would take place. You had hardly slept, and you were a mess. If you didn't fix it soon, all of your classmates could see it. You rubbed the ice over your face one last time and dressed in your uniform. At least you had done all you could.

The clock on your phone marked the hour on the dot. Shit. You were late. You took a single deep breath, flung the door open, and sped down the room's hall.

You went through it as fast as you could, and you didn't turn once. Still, your heart skipped a beat when you walked past his door. It was the moment you had been dreading for hours. Go past his door and meet him coming out. Or worse, her.

Luckily no one came out into the hall.

Are you afraid of running into him? Your best friend?

You slapped your forehead to silence the obnoxious voice that spoke from the back of your brain and snorted indignantly as you walked down the stairs to the central building, where classes were held. Sometimes your mind was your worst enemy.

"A rough morning?" A boy's voice asked at the bottom of the stairs.

You covered your mouth with your hands to keep from cursing out loud. You were so caught up in your own thoughts that you didn't realize you weren't alone. At the bottom of the stairs, leaning absentmindedly against the wall, was your dark-haired friend.

"I fell asleep," you said acidly under your breath as you walked past. "The special categories are not going to the meeting or what?"

Suguru grabbed your arm and forced you to stand in front of him, while he went over every inch of your face with narrowed eyes.

"You were the last to arrive, I was coming to look for you." He responded absently, his analytical gaze piercing your skin.

You knew exactly what he was doing: damage control.

Suguru had left before anything happened, and yet he knew something was wrong. At times like this, you hated that he knew you so well. Or maybe the other one had told him? No, you didn't think that was it. The two boys also had problems, and you doubted that they would have solved them in one morning. They were the two most stubborn people you knew.