TO LOVE A MONSTER ❪ jujutsu kaisen ❫

x: movie nights finally accepted.

TOKYO JUJUTSU HIGH, NOVEMBER 2016.

Today is a day of celebration. Half way into the month, they've managed to convince Kaori to join their movie nights. They hadn't actually expected her to agree, but her growing friendship with Maki had seemingly softened her. It looked like it plagued her too. Sometimes, Yuuta caught her looking at them with furrowed eyebrows and a worried expression. It made her look severe, as if she was holding onto the weight of the world with trembling arms and delicate shoulders. It made Yuuta's own stomach roll in discomfort, remembering the same expression on his own face when he looked into the mirror after a hard day of refuting his parents and sister. Maybe his friends had noticed too. They were more perceptive than Kaori gave them credit for, picking up on the girl's conflicting moods and trying their best to make her relax in different ways. Maki making her train, Panda showing her things he found online, Inumaki talking to her in a low but comfortable voice. The strain in her eyes never quite went away but it softened every time one of these soothing situations occurred.

Perhaps that's why, when Panda pleaded for Kaori to join them, she sighed aggravatingly but nodded. They found themselves huddled in Inumaki's room with bowls of microwavable popcorn balanced on their laps as they looked through the Netflix account Gojo paid for ❪ stolen by Maki weeks ago. The man had gotten them back by changing the name of the account they used into 'babies' much to Maki's rage ❫ for something to watch. Kaori, dressed down in an over sized hoodie and sparkling clips in her hair, blinks as they argue over what to watch.

"Horror," Panda insists, raising his voice and slamming his hand onto the floor.

"No fucking way. You guys always end up hiding behind me and the movies don't even have good effects, or a good plot," Maki refuses, waving her finger like it's a weapon. Yuuta doesn't doubt her ability to turn it into one. "I'm saying action,"

"Fish flakes," Inumaki says, pointing to an American movie.

"No. We are not watching Legally Blonde again just because you like the scene where Elle tells Warner off,"

"Caviar,"

"How is Rocky trash? It won an award! Multiple awards!" Maki argues back and, when Inumaki sticks his tongue out at her, tries to crawl over Panda to swipe at the boy.

"How about we let Fujiwara-san pick a movie?" Yuuta breaks their argument, turning to smile at the girl who stares back at him. Her expression twitches, and the First Years stare as a new emotion is unlocked on their 'Kaori emotion scale'; embarrassment.

"I haven't really seen any movies," she confesses and Panda gapes.

"Mustard leaf?" she shakes her head, explaining.

"There weren't any TVs in the clan compound, and I wasn't really allowed to go outside," her cheeks tint pink and she lowers her head. Yuuta would like to find Fujiwara Tooru and throttle him. His friends' expressions show that they're probably thinking the same thing. "There is one thing I saw though, but I was really young back then," her eyebrows twist together as she tries to recall the far off memory of sitting and watching a movie with Haku. "Right, it was called something's delivery service?"

"Kiki's Delivery Service," Maki corrects. "By Studio Ghibli. Miyazaki Hayao's are really popular among sorcerers. They think that he could see Curses too since a lot of his movies involve Curses,"

"Then let's watch a Studio Ghibli movie!"

"Salmon," Inumaki agrees and leans forward to start flipping through the animated movies section. They settle on My Neighbor Totoro after Kaori stares with wide eyes at the hulking figure of Totoro depicted in the preview frame. Somebody turns the lights off ❪ probably Panda since he claims that movies are 'best seen in the dark' ❫ and Kaori shifts close to Yuuta as she peers at the movie, a nostalgic smile on her lips at the art style of the movie. She stays silent throughout the entire movie but Yuuta notices that, even as the others doze off at the warmth of the room and the sweetness of the movie, her eyes don't stray away from the screen. When the movie finishes, she blinks like she's coming out of a daze and turns to look at the other First Year's sleeping figures with a blank expression. Something like distress covers her expression and she bites her bottom lip before glancing at Yuuta. The look darkens before she stands up.

"I should go," she says abruptly, and Yuuta feels like something has gone wrong. He stumbles to his feet, following her.

"Fujiwara-san!" she turns to look back at him, expression still stilted and stiff. "Let me walk you back to your room,"

"It's not that far-" Kaori tries to brush him off but Yuuta interrupts her.

"Please," he insists. There's something in him that feels like if he doesn't follow her there'll be something twisted in her the next morning. He's on edge, nervous by the panic and hate in her vivid eyes, but she nods. Yuuta breaks into a relieved smile, catching up with her and starts chattering about the movie. She doesn't say anything but he knows from the way her left side is slightly tilted to face him that she's listening.

"This is my room," she says when they finally stop in front of the door.

"Right," an awkward silence settles over them, and Kaori twists and untwists the door handle before she opens her mouth.

"Thank you for walking me back, Okkotsu-san-"

"You can call me Yuuta," he interrupts her a lot, he realizes, but Kaori doesn't seem offended. The statement makes her wince, but she smiles weakly and nods.

"Yuuta-kun," she echoes and it's unfair how good his name sounds in her sweet voice, making him resist the urge to shiver. "You may call me Kaori then. It's fair," he nods, aware that if he says her name he might do something stupid like confess the way she makes his stomach flutter with her pretty appearance and calm demeanor. "Please thank everybody for the movie night. I really enjoyed it," she says before disappearing into the darkness of her room. Yuuta stares at the dark wood, feeling like he's severely shifted the scales on something but not knowing on what.