linguaphile | bl | jjk | ✓

3: Pickled Plum (ume)

3: Pickled Plum (ume)

Gojo Satoru glanced at his student who just came back from a mission.

At midnight.

"So," he hummed and approached Inumaki Toge before nudging the extra person's (who his student carried on his back) head with a finger. "Who's this?"

Toge released one of his hands supporting this... little acquaintance of his. He gestured for his teacher to bring out his phone since his own was currently out of power.

Gojo hummed and lent Toge his phone.

The sound of tapping could be heard in the middle of the night. A few seconds later, Toge showed the screen to his teacher.

"He was there at the scene when I exorcised the curse. I couldn't get him away in time. He's not hurt though but he fainted at the end. I didn't know where he lived and I didn't want to look through his stuff so I brought him back with me."

"... you know that's basically kidnapping him, right?"

"..." It's not like I could just leave him there.

The words Toge wanted to say were basically written on his face, causing Gojo to snicker. "Fine, fine. I'll open up a spare room at the dorms. He can stay there for the night."

"Shake."

.

.

In bed, sleep seemed to evade him no matter how much Toge wanted to rest.

His mind kept going back to the moment he realized that that person understood him despite his lack of elaboration. After all, what could his kombu mean when a stranger hears it? What would they think if all he responded to them were basically onigiri ingredients?

It was the first time, outside of his clan, that someone else could understand him.

And he couldn't properly explain what he felt back at that moment.

Ecstatic? Yes. Who wouldn't be happy in that kind of situation?

Nervous? A bit. There was finally someone he could talk to without wasting time on typing in his phone or writing his words on paper.

Afraid? Yes. Toge was afraid that after what happened, that person wouldn't want to be his friend at all. It was obvious he didn't know about curses when Toge mentioned it to him.

Although he was happy being friends with his schoolmates and teachers, the feeling that person gave him by talking to Toge like a normal person was something no one could replicate.

Words flowed out of his mouth, strings of sentences formed one after another, and the way that person spoke made him look animated. With that brief conversation they shared, Toge noticed that the other loved talking.

Just like him.

Can I... his lashes flattered, eyelids growing heavy as a wave of sleepiness hit him. ... be friends with him?

.

.

"This is the guy you brought back last night? He... doesn't look like a wimp to me."

"Maki, don't be harsh on him. He probably hasn't seen a curse before."

"With that stern face and tall build? It's wasted on him."

"Maki."

"Alright, alright. Aren't I just stating facts?"

Panda and Zenin Maki had heard from their teacher that their classmate, Inumaki Toge, brought back a man last night.

Out of curiosity, they followed Toge when he decided to wake up the man before breakfast.

After all, Toge remembered how the stranger said that he had to get up early today.

But no one answered the door when they arrived. Toge hesitated at first but he decided to enter the room, his friends following close behind him.

When Maki's eyes first landed on the stranger, her first words were to slander him and Toge couldn't help but lower his face further into his collar.

He was a little embarrassed for the man he wanted to be friends with.

After all, he didn't seem like that much of a bad person.

"... I know you're aware I'm awake but you still said that, Maki?!" The supposed sleeping stranger jumped out of the bed, cheeks flamed up as he pointed an accusing finger at the bespectacled sorcerer.

"I take back all the discounts I've given you this past month! Pay back what you owe the store, dammit!"

Maki sneered and tapped the man's forehead. "You're the one who willingly gave me discounts, remember? And you're actually saying you'll take it back? Which part of you is supposed to be a man? I can't see it."

"My crotch." The moment he said that, Maki comically slapped him on the face.

"Watch your mouth; there are minors in front of you."

The familiarity in their interaction dumbfounded Toge. They... know each other. He, who had been afraid that the person he saved last night would be afraid to be friends with him, took several moment to process what he had just witnessed.

Seeing the dazed look on Toge's face, Maki swung an arm around the taller man, forcefully making him bend down so that she wouldn't have to get on her toes. "Inumaki, this guy's Ito Shunsuke. You might have been worried that what happened last night traumatized him but he's just a big fat scaredy cat."

"Ack Maki, my back's hurting. Let go."

The teen jabbed her elbow into Shunsuke's side, causing the poor man to bend down even more while he wrapped his arms around his sides to soothe the pain. "Oh my god, Maki—" he hissed under his breath.

Maki rolled her eyes at him before looking at her classmates. "Last night wasn't the first time he encountered a curse. We met last month the same way but I saw his work place so I dragged him there instead when he fainted. He repressed the memory of that time on purpose."

When Maki drops by at the store he works at to make sure he didn't suffer any long term effects after that encounter, she found out that Ito Shunsuke was the biggest scaredy cat she ever met.

He even avoided talking about that night and probably forgot the things she told him on purpose.

Ito Shunsuke must have given Toge the idea that he was as ignorant as any other non-sorcerers.

"... shake?"

"Yes, yes. When I woke up earlier, I remembered the things Maki said. Cursed Sprits and that whole mumbo jumbo."

"Ume?"

"... I already woke up when you guys knocked on the door earlier but I didn't want to acknowledge what happened last night. So... I feigned sleeping."

"... yaki shake."

"You actually remembered that after all the things I said? You have a great memory, uh, what's your name again?"

"Shake."

"Right; you have a great memory, Inumaki-kun!"

At the side, Panda and Maki shared a wide eyed look.

Toge and Shunsuke were too busy talking to each other that they didn't notice the looks of incredulity sent their way.

They're... really conversing like normal. Panda conveyed his thoughts to Maki with a glance.

I'm more surprised that Ito-san can actually understand Inumaki's words. Maki scratched the back of her head, dubbing this moment as a supernatural episode in her life.