The Strongest | ɢᴏᴊᴏ ꜱᴀᴛᴏʀᴜ

Chapter 42

For the whole day, Gojo and I barely see each other. If we do, it's only on passing in the hallways, and we don't even bother pretending to fight. The first time this happened, when we just walked past each other without a stupid comment or starting an argument, Shoko looked at me, then turned around to watch Gojo walking away in the other direction.

"What was that?" she asked me.

I frowned and looked over my shoulder to see what she was seeing, but all I found was Gojo disappearing around a corner. "What was what?"

"You two." Shoko looked as if she'd just seen a ghost, but then again, ghosts might actually be less strange than Gojo and I getting along.

"What?" I genuinely didn't understand what she was on about. We weren't even smiling at each other like all the times I had passed him in the hallway when I had been on my own.

Shoko stopped in her tracks to look at me. "What's going on?"

I only laughed and kept walking. "You're being weird."

But I know she wasn't. After four weeks of working together, today is the first day Gojo and I have managed to be in the same vicinity with no one being screamed at. And it's so peaceful, so nice, and so lonely. Who would have thought the day would come when I would miss exchanging even just insults with Gojo Satoru? But I do. I miss hearing his voice, which is a crazy thing to say, considering I've listened to him talk the entire night.

I am going crazy, I just know it. Everything I'm experiencing must be symptoms of some form of illness, mental or physical, I don't care. When I see him, even just from across the room or when I look out of the window, my heart skips a beat, and my face starts to heat up. That's not normal. It's also not normal that everything reminds me of him. I see a pen, and I'm reminded of how I stared at his hands when he was using a pen to sign us out of the hotel. I see a melon at breakfast and think of the piece I stole from his plate one morning. I can't even go into my room because all the things we bought together are just staring at me. That is crazy.

But all day, no matter how annoying this little Gojo in my head is, I have to keep doing my job. It's even more annoying that the one time I actually want to see him, there's just no chance. I gave an extra lesson to Hiro before lunch, so I didn't see Gojo all morning. During lunch, he was out on a mission, apparently, which I only heard from Nanami. Upon hearing this, I immediately pulled out my phone to text him, "You're on a mission?" Not five minutes later, I got the reply, which made me frown because wasn't he supposed to be busy?

I wanted to come and tell
you but you were with
your student

When will you be back?

You know me, I'm good at
what I do. I'll be back
before dinner

Are you sure?

I promise. I'll even sit
with you.

You don't have to sit with
me, just be there.

I will.

So now I'm standing in the medical ward, biting my nails, and waiting for Shoko to finish her work so we can go to dinner where Gojo will be, too. I'll get to see him again. Speak to him again. Or... probably not, actually, but at least I'll hear his voice. This secrecy thing is harder than I thought. It only reassures me that he can come over to my room or I can come to his. Only this time, we'll have to separate before anyone else wakes up because I'm sure that after a few times, no one's going to believe that we're fighting every morning.

"Alright, I'm done." Shoko's words are like music to me, and I smile. She frowns but walks with me. "You're surprisingly happy."

I drop my smile, but it only stays gone for a second before coming back. I hate lying to her, though. I hate it so much. The first chance I get, I'll ask Gojo about telling her. "I don't know what you mean."