The Strongest | ɢᴏᴊᴏ ꜱᴀᴛᴏʀᴜ

Chapter 37

"And I'll check in on them later," I tell Shoko over dinner. "They shouldn't have to go through this alone."

"They're not, you know?" Shoko disagrees. "They have each other."

I nod. I know that my students have each other to lean and depend on, but having a teacher there who you can talk to and who you know will support you can make all the difference. This isn't the first time they've come back from a mission hurt, but it's the first time something like this happened. Usually, it's only one of them with a small injury, which can't really be avoided in this job, but never did one of them have to carry the other two out.

"I'm sure they'll be just fine," Shoko adds. "They're probably watching a movie together now. I told the girls they shouldn't walk around anymore today."

I smile. "Yeah, I doubt they'd listen to that. The way I know them, they're probably sneaking to the gym right now."

Shoko nods with a smile. I take a sip of my water when she says, "I have to admire their dedication, but really, they're not -"

She doesn't get any farther because I spit out my water when I spot Gojo and can't help laughing. He's walking to get some food, not even looking at me, pretending everything is normal. Which it's not.

"Satoru!" Shoko is on her feet. "Is that my skirt?"

Gojo turns around to look at her as if he doesn't understand what she could possibly be angry about. He's wearing Shoko's old school uniform, from the jacket to the skirt, and let me just say... he doesn't look nearly as ridiculous as I thought he would. The jacket is a bit short on him and reveals just the smallest sliver of pale skin above them hemline of the dark skirt. But when I said that he should wear a dress, I meant it as a joke. I didn't mean for him to actually do it. Especially because Shoko is now chasing him through the cafeteria with a fork in her hand, ready to stab him and rip the skirt off his lifeless body.

I'm laughing, and I can't stop. Shoko finally corners Gojo and threatens him with her fork, but he only raises his hands and tells her it was a good-natured joke. When I look around at the others, I expect them all to watch Gojo and Shoko, too, but I'm surprised when I find their eyes in me instead. I frown until I meet Nanami's eyes, and it dawns on me what they're seeing. They're seeing me. Laughing. About a joke Gojo made. They don't know he's wearing the skirt because of me, and they don't know everything else that's been happening between the two of us. All they know is that our fighting got so bad that we had to be sent away, and only yesterday, we almost bit our heads off multiple times and argued so much that Nanami even had to sit somewhere else.

My laughter fades away, and Shoko and Gojo separate, too. He promises to get changed immediately, and she promises not to stab out his eye. "I wouldn't know what to do with only five eyes," he mumbles as he passes my table, throws me a quick and almost unnoticeable smirk, and walks out the door. My eyes want to follow him, but I force them on Shoko instead as she's making her way back to me and sits down.

She lets out a breath before going back to her food as if nothing happened. "So... Are you going to talk to them right after dinner?"

It takes me a moment to reply. First, I need to process what just happened. Okay. "Yes. I wanted to speak to Hiro earlier, but when I walked the girls to their rooms, they met up with him and the first-years, so I didn't want to interrupt."

Shoko nods. We finish our dinner in silence, mostly because I don't dare to speak anymore. Everyone staring at me made me feel like I was doing something wrong, something I wasn't supposed to do.

Gojo comes back just as I'm done eating, and I give him a smile as I pass him and see him back in his own uniform - pants and all. This feels like a secret romance, but not really. In the sense that this is something secret but it's not a romance. A secret friendship? Companionship? I don't know. I don't have the strength to know.

He has his back turned to me while he's waiting for his food and I'm taking my tray away, but we're standing right next to each other, so when he asks, "I looked good, didn't I?" I can hear him just fine even though he's whispering.

I grin to myself. "You looked ridiculous."

"You lie a lot, do you know that?" he asks and takes a step forward.

My eyebrows rise. I can't let that stand, so I follow him and glare up at him. "I didn't lie." Yes, I did. "And I don't lie a lot." Yeah, I kind of do.

Gojo gives me that ridiculing snort again as if he knows exactly that I'm full of shit. Which, admittedly, I am. "There. Another lie."

"Excuse me, who do you think you are? You lie just as much as I do."

He shrugs and takes another step forward in the line. "So? But I can go a day without lying, at least. You can't."

I laugh sarcastically. "Sure, okay."

Gojo looks down to me. "I'll bet you 5000 yen that you can't go a whole day without lying."

"How would you even know? What if I lie about lying?" This is ridiculous. He has lost his damn mind.

"I guess we'll see if you can be honest with me at least once."

Ouch. "Fine," I snap at him, we shake on it, and I stomp back to the table where Shoko is waiting.

Gojo joins us, and when he sits down across from me next to Shoko, I grunt and look away. Shoko raises her eyebrows. She always knows what's going on, but this time, I'm happy to say that even she is confused. First, we hate each other, then we're away for a few days, and she barely hears from either of us, so naturally, she assumes we killed each other. When we come back, I tell her we had sex, she asks me if I like him, I say I don't know. Then, we've been fighting again, and now... whatever it is that we're doing now.

"Are you guys..." She frowns, looking from Gojo to me. "Is this a foreplay-thing that you're doing?"

My jaw almost drops. "Excuse me?" I get up and ask her, "Can we go now? You're done, right?"

Shoko nods, but she doesn't get up. She's only staring at Gojo as if she's trying to read his thoughts. I'm sure there are no thoughts inside that pretty little head of his. "I thought you guys liked each other now?"

"No," I snap, and only from his side-profile, I can see him grin. Fuck. I  press a 5000 yen bill into Gojo's hand and walk away without looking at his stupid face.

When I knock at Hiro's door, I can hear him and the girls talking behind it and shake my head with a smile. He opens the door, his smile widens, and I'm so glad that this is the reaction I get from my student. He could just as well be annoyed that I'm visiting so late or that I interrupted their fun, but instead, he's glad to see me.

"Girls, you're supposed to be in bed," I remind them over his shoulder, but I'm smiling. I know better than to try being tough.

Akari groans, but when she says, "Oh, please, let us finish the movie," she's wearing the sweetest smile, and I narrow my eyes.

"Fine." I point a threatening finger at Hiro. "Don't let them walk around until they're going back to their own rooms. Straight after the movie."

He nods and bows a little, and I give him a nod. I wish them a good night, and they wish me the same. When I head back to my own room, I smile again. Tomorrow is the weekend, and everyone is always in a better mood during the weekend. When I open my door, it suddenly comes to me that today marks one week since Gojo and I got sent away. It feels like a lifetime to me, considering the development we went through.

I don't even have time to put on my pajamas before someone knocks on my door. It's probably Shoko, wanting to bring by the new book she bought and pick up one of mine. We do that sometimes - exchanging books back and forth until everyone has read everything they like without having to buy it themselves. Or she just wants to ask about what the hell happened at dinner. But that's something I can't give her an explanation to. I have no idea.

When I open my door, though, I'm surprised to find not Shoko but Gojo standing there. I'm so surprised that I stumble back a little until he smiles and asks if I'm okay. "I- Yes. I'm okay. What are you doing here?"