Failing For You - Gojo x Reader

Chapter 28

I tap my pen against my teeth, staring at Gojo, who stands in the front of the lecture hall. It's the first day he's been back due to his little forced hiatus (my fault). Without him, class was horribly boring.

Finally, we're wrapping up the French novel.

I didn't like the ending.

As it turns out, Delphine and Michel's inability to communicate and open up to each other properly had ultimately lead to their downfall. Michel was called back to the warfront after a particularly nasty fight between the the two and died, his body abandoned on enemy territory, lost forever in a sea of dirt and mud and corpses. When the war finally ended, Delphine searched for him, but her effort was in vain. No one could give her the information she wanted: that Michel was alive...or at least somewhere to be found. She had discovered what he'd meant to her too late. The loss of him left her less alive too, as if a part of her had simply disappeared. Alone and depressed, the newly widowed Delphine became reclusive and turned to alcohol for comfort. She poisoned herself with it, dying only a few months later.

To make matters worse, Michel's body was discovered after she died. In his pocket, he'd written a letter to her begging her to forgive him. He'd confessed his affection and love for her bluntly, which is something he'd never attempted before. The letter would never be sent and she would never receive it.

It was a terrible story.

"Y/n?"

I zone back into the classroom discussion. I stare at Gojo.

"Yes?"

"How about you try to answer this question," he says, a cocky smile playing on his lips. "We'll finish up class after that."

Whispers spread throughout the room. It seems like some fucked up dream, maybe nightmare, that Gojo and I have become the it couple. Or at least the couple everyone loves gossiping about. I let out a deep breath and rub a hand over my face.

"I'm sorry, could you repeat the question?" I ask tiredly. Of course he had to call on me. Of course.

"I asked if the ending of the novel felt satisfying to you."

I tap my pen on my teeth again. "No, it was obviously not a satisfying ending."

"Why?"

I raise my eyebrows. "I think it was much more tragic than satisfying."

"And tragic endings can't be satisfying? Wow, what would the Greeks say to that?..." He shakes his head, baiting me.

Always baiting me.

"To me, no, a tragic ending is not satisfying," I double down on my opinion. "It felt like we were promised something that we never got. Like it was held out to us and then taken away at the last second. I think that is incredibly unsatisfying."

Gojo nods, mulling over my words with a thoughtful expression. "That's true. There is definitely a sense of loss for the reader. But isn't there value there as well? There's a hard lesson with hard consequences and it makes us uncomfortable because it forces us to confront the fact that not all stories have a happy ending. Not all books are read for pleasure. Not all the heroes win."

A student in the front raises his hand. "So the author made them lose each like that to teach us a lesson or something?"

Gojo shrugs. "Who knows. He's a long-dead French guy. I don't know if he wanted to teach us a lesson or if he wanted to piss us off for hundreds of years to come. Let's not put too much stock into what the author intended. Your interpretations and takeaways are just as valuable. At least to me and to this class."