The Reservation (Nanami Kento || JJK)

The Reservation

A whole year passed without my brother. Four seasons, no Yu.

Sometimes I could trick myself into thinking he was just on a mission, and he would come home soon with a souvenir of some sort. Usually something sweet, because I always asked for that.

Other days the heartache was unbearable, and I wanted to curl up and never do anything else ever again. What was the point of winning awards at school if Yu wasn't going to tell me how proud he was afterwards? What was the point of pretending I was normal when I wasn't even a little bit normal? My friends couldn't see curses, and I didn't belong in this world pretending like everything was okay.

Yu was killed in a car accident. That was the story for everyone else who didn't know about the world of curses.

It was a lie, and I hated it.

A few months before the anniversary of Yu's death, I reached the anger phase of grieving. Or rather, I had cycled back to it, since I seemed to come back to the anger phase quite often.

To really stick it to my brother for dying, I tried to enroll at Jujutsu High. I filled out the form, sent in my aptitude tests, and wrote a heart wrenching essay about why I should attend to help other sorcerers in honor of my brother.

I received a big fat rejection letter less than a week later.

No explanation.

I was certain Nanami had something to do with it. He never texted me after we exchanged numbers, and his promise to uphold my brother's wishes was the last thing I remembered us discussing. That and our deal to meet up once a year.

Two weeks before the anniversary, I was laying on my bed, staring at the ceiling, trying to think of what I wanted to draw for my term project. Nothing came to me, and I had circled back to angry thoughts about getting rejected from the school I knew I belonged at.

That jerk Nanami probably had something to do with it, I thought ruefully.

Thinking about the devil seemed to summon him, because my phone buzzed with the first ever message from Nanami a heartbeat later.

NANAMI: I made the reservation. Is 5 PM good for you?

I gaped. No hello. No explanation. Just right down to business after eleven months.

MAE: Yeah. Five's good. I'll be there.

NANAMI: I'm paying.

I scoffed through my nose. Of course he was...

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Eighteen looked good on Nanami, I had to admit.

He cut his hair, grew two inches, and was starting to broaden out in his shoulders. He still needed a little help with styling, but the uniform wasn't bad.

Tucking loose strands of hair behind my ear, I silently cursed myself for not putting it all up in a ponytail. Summer was back in full swing, and I could feel the sweat beading on the back of my neck as I stood with Nanami at the counter, waiting to be seated.

We'd barely said more than hello to each other. Nothing else. And then he lapsed into awkward silence since we hadn't exactly spoken to each other in a year.

While waiting for our food to come, I couldn't take the silence any longer. "So... How have you been? How's school and curse hunting?"

"Fine. Fine. And....fine."

My shoulders slumped, my face shifting from polite smiles to withering glares. "Seriously?"

"What?"

"That's all you have to say? Fine, fine, and fine?" I wanted to swat him with my shoe, but I had a feeling it would be rude to the other dining guests if I did that.