ayame's flower realm . JUJUTSU KAISEN

four . (not) a trip to the bookstore (1)

i am going to switch to past tense starting here, to avoid confusion upon myself LOL

also very lovely to see you guys thirsting over gojou in the last chapter. the comments really made my day PFFHAHAH

this is another two part chapter! i'll post the next part soon... hopefully (+ extra chapter, so more doodles :D )

happy reading!

-

"you're going already, ohashi-san?"

ayame's hands full of books paused as she looked up from her desk. riku, her trusty classmate, stood in front of her with a smile on her face. ayame reflexively copied her expression as a polite gesture.

"yes... do you need anything?"

"ah... i was wondering if you could give a hand? we're sorting out the storage today, more help would be better."

ayame furrowed her brows and glanced at the clock hanged in front of the classroom. it's almost 6, and she had a lot of things on her plan after school. buy ingredients for her mom who wanted to try a new recipe, stop by the bookstore and get a copy of horimiya's latest volume and maybe even grab some VT21 merch -

"i can't." she blurted out. "no... not today. today's not good..."

"oh - oh! okay. that's fine then."

"sorry..."

riku quickly shook her head. "no - no, it's okay! i think we're also getting other clubs to help so it's fine."

and so ayame, heart heavy with guilt, left the school grounds with her bag over her shoulder and a piece of paper in hand.

in her defense, she had already planned this out yesterday. her mom asked to get some stuff, and horimiya just released a new volume three days ago. the perfect excuse to run around the city and do some window-shopping.

...okay, maybe not a good defense, but she's didn't have that much free time either.

'yeah, it's fine. i've got my own stuff to do too. i don't have all the time in the world.'

riku understood, so it's fine. quit overthinking.

ayame stopped by a bakery shop to get the ingredients listed on the piece of paper she had. some vanilla essence-thingy, a special flour that she couldn't even pronounce the name of (it's in english...), and other complicated stuff that wasn't worth mentioning.

after all of that, she finally made her way to the bookstore to grab the other items on her list. she was about to make a turn when -

"ohashi-san?"

ayame stopped in her tracks. she turned around at the familiar feminine voice as guilt began to bubble up in her heart once more. "...riku-san."

"what are you doing here -" riku glanced at the plastic bag in the girl's hand," - oh, were you getting ingredients for your mom?"

"ah... yeah." ayame turned her body to fully face her classmate. "what are you doing here...? i thought you were helping at school..."

"we finished already. it didn't take that much."

"oh..."

now this was quite the predicament.

would ayame continue her way to the bookstore despite the fact that she bumped into her classmate, riku, or was she going to change her plans?

'knowing riku, she'd probably want to come with me...'

ayame hardened her face as she asked,"are you... going home now?"

"yes. and ohashi-san?"

"...let's walk home together then. i'll go with you."

it didn't take much for riku to agree.

the two girls walked together in silence through the streets and into a neighbourhood. ayame was a bit disappointed because she didn't manage to grab her manga, but it's fine. there's always another time.

and plus, she couldn't just let riku go home alone at this hour, right? obviously it's still early so there wouldn't be any problems but - but the little speck of righteousness in ayame couldn't just... let her go like that. anything could happen.

"help!"

and that 'anything', well, happened.

the two girls flinched at a cry. a cry that sounded like a child's.

it had came from a small, one story building right up ahead of them. a small, grey building with broken windows and pavement that was full of cracks.

like, one of those building you see in horror stories, but it wasn't that scary since the street lights were doing a good job at lighting up the place.

"ohashi-san, did you hear that?"

"...uh-huh."

ugh... it hadn't been 5 minutes and something already happened? this is... this is wack. ayame had the sudden urge to punch a nearby lamp post.

riku pulled out her phone. "let's call the police first, and then we'll check it out ourselves."