Trapped Behind Words: InuOkko

Chapter 14: Again

"That day wasn't supposed to happen. At least, that is what Toge heard as he drifted to sleep. Soon after the stabbing of Itadori Yuji, the once pink-haired man was declared dead within the hour. Yuta didn't take it well, which Toge anticipated.

It took Yuta several hours of whimpering before he fell asleep with his head in Toge's lap. Gojo was the one to break the news. He was the most qualified out of anyone who could have told Yuta, but Toge was certain the black-haired man knew far before he was told.

That day wasn't supposed to happen. Toge felt his eyes grow heavier before he inevitably crashed. It was too much for Yuta. It was too much for Fushiguro. It was too much for even Gojo, who praised the youth for his boldness. It shouldn't have happened.

Morning came quicker than Toge would have liked. His phone alarm was what woke him up. Instinctually, he reached to the bedside table and slapped the screen of his phone until it stopped making noise. Just as his eyes began to close again, Toge shot out of bed. That wasn't where he had fallen asleep.

He looked around his room, and Yuta was nowhere to be seen. The black-haired man had to be in the bathroom. There was also a chance he had taken Toge to bed after they fell asleep on the couch. The silver-haired man listened for any sound he could distinguish.

"Yuta?" Toge called out.

There was no reply. Without getting dressed, Toge ran through the apartment in search of the man he had grown fond of. There was no sign of him. No clothes were left behind. No signs of life remained other than Toge.

A strong possibility was that Yuta simply left. He was in the midst of a nightmarish crisis. Just as Yuta had begun to make good friends with the people around him, Yuta was seeing that not all of them would remain in one way or another. Even Toge was guilty of sowing seeds of doubt in the pale man.

Toge picked up his phone. It was then that he realized there shouldn't have been an alarm set. He had taken a leave to finish up his application to present to the board of directors. It was supposed to save his family company. That was the plan he had made.

He didn't have a single text other than from his father. It was a familiar message.

"Toge, I was wondering if you would be interested in moving to the creative team? Your manager told me about the different tools you had developed for your job, and I wanted to offer some support."

The only previous message was from early in the month. Then Toge realized, it was the wrong month. His heart rate increased as he felt his wrists begin to tremble. He searched through his texts. Yuta's contract was nowhere to be seen. No texts, no mentions from Gojo. No evidence they had ever met.

Toge looked down; he was wearing different underwear too. The date was wrong on his home screen. There were fewer dirty clothes in his laundry hamper. The doodle from Yuta wasn't hanging on his wall. It was all wrong.

He took a moment to recalculate. Toge closed his eyes. He wanted to picture something calm, but all he could imagine was Yuta's sharp jaw and light pink lips. Those gemstones that Yuta considered eyes were precious as they sparkled like wakes in the ocean. The image of Yuta only made it more difficult to calm down.

Toge checked the date again. Then he realized something new was wrong. Something had happened. Somehow, Toge was back to the day that Yuta had debuted in the group.

Maybe it was all a dream? That would have been an insanely detailed and long dream. No, he had to have gone back in time somehow. It was like a checkpoint in a game. But, that meant he wouldn't be able to change any events that happened. How was he supposed to do that? He didn't even remember everything that had occurred an hour after it happened.