OKOSHI ─ jojolion.

015 | gold dust champagne.

★ . . . SHUT THE HELL UP."

"I'm not even saying anything."

"Then drop that goddamn smirk."

Joshu did not drop his smirk. It stabbed at you from the corner of your eye even as you kept your gaze stonily forward. You wouldn't be surprised if your bone dice cracked from how hard you were clenching them.

"Why don't you just take it off?"

"Why don't you just take it off?"

"Because I wore it first and I actually have no problem with unintentionally matching hats with you."

You sank in your seat. Josuke absolutely adored the SBR hat shop and made your promise that you would buy at least one hat on your vacation. The little purple bucket hat made you childishly happy when you wore it, which was why you'd put it on today for some fortitude. The last thing you'd expected was for Joshu to pull up wearing the exact same hat. Since neither of you could swallow your colossal prides to take it off, you were now matching hats. Which might have been cute for any other date, but Joshu had a talent for making things insufferable.

"I'm just surprised you showed you know how to put clothes together," you muttered.

Joshu side-eyed you. "My clothes are always put together. You just don't have taste."

You would have bet money Hato had been the one to throw this outfit together. Instead of his horrendous green shirt and bowtie, Joshu was wearing a boxy blue button-down, a stylized gecko crawling up his side and short sleeves baring his—admittedly nice-looking—forearms. A purple undershirt peaked out over his pants, and the fact that it matched with his bucket hat only further supported the fact that Joshu had not chosen this outfit. Baggy black pants and high-top sneakers completed the look, the blue and black of his sneakers echoing his outfit colours.

"Where are you taking me?" you asked.

Joshu drummed his fingers along the steering wheel. "You'll see."

It was so much harder to talk to Joshu in person. Roasting the shit out of him was way more enjoyable when he wasn't right next to you. When you could actually see him, it felt like your words might actually stick instead of glancing off him. It made you uncomfortable to think you would see if something you said hurt him.

Not for the first time, you wondered if you'd made a mistake agreeing to go with Joshu today. If it turned out to be a waste of a good day, you would kick yourself. The end of your second week was fast approaching, and as prickly as your mother had been, she was right. You really didn't have time to waste. It would have been so much easier to spend today with Tooru instead. You'd been surprised by how well yesterday had gone and actually looked forward to seeing him again.

Admittedly, you had been embarrassed to admit to him that you hadn't remembered him from the fruit parlour, but Tooru had taken it in stride. He had seemed quiet and unassuming, and had pleasantly surprised you with how attentive and perceptive he was. He was a wonderful listener, and had been one of the few people who had actually taken your curse seriously. For someone you had just met, Tooru had a surprising amount of faith in you. Out of everyone you had met thus far in Morioh, no one seemed to get you the way Tooru did. It was too bad you had gotten too caught up in your conversation with him to take out your bone dice. You would've liked to see what number he would've rolled. Some other time, hopefully.

Reluctantly, you turned your thoughts away from Tooru. As much as you wished you were with him, you weren't, and you had to be in a completely different mindset to deal with Joshu. Civilly.

"Can I ask you something?" you said.

"If it's not stupid."

You watched his face carefully. "Do you really want to start something with me? Or do you just want the fortune? Because you realize you can't have one without the other, right?"