──── 𝙉𝘼𝙊𝙆𝙊 𝘾𝘼𝙈𝙀 𝙊𝙐𝙏 from her room in the zenin household where she lived the first couple years of her life. she wore a black dress for the party. her promotion party. her father stood outside her door. "naoko, it's time to greet the guests, come with me?" he walked towards the door of the house, naoko eventually following behind.
"father." naoko said making him stop in his tracks right before he reached the door as she talked from behind him, "after the party there's something i would like to talk to you about. something important." he didn't respond, just a nod of the head as he walked forward with naoko following behind him.
upon opening the door, naoko could see loads of people walking into the courtyard of the home. this was truly a huge party. the zenin clan hosted this party to celebrate naoko's promotion to a special grade. but in all honesty, it was really just to boast to all the other clans that their next clan head was a special grade.
naoko wasn't really looking forward to this party. in fact, she already wanted it to end before it even started. and she really didn't want to see her boyfriend right now knowing he'd be at the party because the gojo clan was invited for some reason.
as naoko walked around the grounds outside the zenin household after greeting every clan that entered. she was tired and honestly, she wanted to go home. while looking through the crowd of people she could see a certain white-haired boy.
not her boyfriend. but rather her childhood friend. uchiyama toru. she hadn't seen him since she saw him at the hospital after that mission.
she approached him with a smile on her face, "toru!" she exclaimed hugging him. she hadn't seen him since that mission when she ended up in the hospital. and she missed him. her best friend. they were always the type of friends that didn't talk to each other every day, but she knew he'd always be there for her and the same went for her too, she'd always be there for toru.
they caught up on things. toru told her that he'd finally gotten over her, that he was really focusing on himself now and he'd been training a lot. and naoko had told him all that was going on in her life; missions, training, and everything in-between. even everything that's been going on with satoru.
toru wasn't too happy with the situation, "are you doing ok?" is what he asked first, naoko started to frown. she really wasn't. she tried to hold her tears out throughout the day, but when she came to her room she always broke down.
toru patted her on the back in an attempt to comfort her. "yea i'm trying to find a way to fix this. tonight is the first step towards fixing this."
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"so, tell me what is the great gojo satoru doing here drinking away like he just got dumped or something?" a girl with long black hair approached the boy. gojo looked up noticing the scar on her face first. "ah, hirano-san, was it?" he asked remembering her face from the kyoto school event.
she nodded her head at his question still standing, "you didn't answer my question." she said coldly as she took the seat next to him at the bar ordering a few shots.
"right. i didn't get dumped, not yet at least." he mumbled that last part. "what are you doing here then? came to drink away your problems like me?" he said holding up his glass for another sip.
"yes actually, i'm here to just forget about naoya." she answered sending the shots down her throat, the bartender filling the glasses once again.
gojo scoffed at her answer in a laughing way, "good. that dude's a jerk. almost became my brother-in-law too." the bartender filled his glass once more. taking a big chug, he finished his second glass and soon got a third one.
akira watched as the boy next to her put his head down onto the table still looking behind her. "well since you weren't dumped why are you here, gojo?" she asked. gojo sighed picking his head up to take another sip, "same as you. came here to forget about someone."
"and would that someone be zenin naoko?" the girl made a guess taking the shots in one go. he chuckled "you caught me. how did you know?"
"you've been staring at her the entire time you've been talking to me." she answered. she noticed this the second she got to the bar.
"right. sorry." it was silent. the boy took a few more sips of his drink. now on his third glass. he continued to talk to the girl. a few jokes were made with the help of the alcohol which started to fill his system. the two of them drank and laughed while speaking to one another as hirano began to become touchy with him. probably another side-effect of the alcohol.
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naoko was talking with other people from different clans. going on the rounds. she shook hands with many people and conversed as much as she could. right now, she was talking with the head of the kamo clan.
zoned out. she wasn't listening to a single thing this old man was saying, but right over the old man's shoulder she could see her boyfriend. he was at a bar probably drinking his problems away.
but she noticed he wasn't alone. he was talking to someone. laughing. it was a girl. and she was laughing too. he was flirting with her, and it was obvious by the way she had her hand on his arm.
naoko widened her eyes at the sight as her heart broke into a million pieces right on the spot. she choked on her tears as the old man finished talking to her. she quickly left to the bathroom to recollect her thoughts. 'surely he was just talking to her, nothing more, right?' she tried to gaslight herself, thinking it was nothing, just so her heart could be at ease.
