Chapter Text
September 2008
Satoru Gojo pushed open the doors to the lecture hall, glasses immediately fogging up as the cold air from outside clashed with the warm classroom.
He assumed his usual spot right in the front, free of distractions before unzipping his geeky paraphernalia covered backpack. He fiddled with his Nintendo DS until class began, occasionally stealing a glance as the doors opened and a student walked in, the cool fall breeze hitting him every time. It wasn’t like he was waiting for anybody. Suguru was his only friend and he was a Philosophy major so he wasn’t enrolled in this Advanced Statistics course.
Growing up socially inept and a bit sheltered, Satoru was destined for his future of being a total loser. His hygiene wasn’t horrid but he definitely had things to brush up on; disheveled hair, unkempt fingernails and so on.
The lumpy clothes he wore were always a size too big and ill fitting, plus his glasses were thick and always seemed to be smudged. Striking up a conversation with the guy was borderline painful and suffocating, making people end the interaction as quickly as it started.
Many would equate the product of small talk with Satoru Gojo to wanting to take an old limping horse out back and put it out of its misery.
Girls didn’t approach him, and by some god given chance a woman attempted to flirt with him, he wouldn’t pick up on it. Even if she wrote ‘hey you! Yes, you! Want to go out with me?’ on a giant billboard and shoved it in his face, he still wouldn’t get it. And yes, if it wasn’t obvious by now, Satoru was a complete virgin through and through.
But somehow, for some unknown reason many would fail to comprehend, Satoru was okay with his solitude. As long as he had his Digimon, video games and anime, he was blissful. A sad life to some, practical to him.
“Shut up, oh my god!”
Two girls entered the room, loudly gossiping as a burly black haired guy walked behind them, shrugging like he’d said the most controversial thing on earth and was standing on it ten toes down.
Satoru vaguely recognized them all of course, due to their typically raucous entrances into class. Plus the girls both regularly engaged in the subject material, and to Satoru’s pleasant surprise, were pretty smart.
In more detail, Shoko Ieri was on the left, senior secretary of Tau Kappa Phi, and the other was you, senior vice president of the same sorority.
You rolled your eyes at Toji Fushiguro before rebuttaling against the fraternity brother while the three of you climbed the stairs to the back row of folded seats.
Satoru was familiar with you the most, but that wasn’t by much. You had gone to the same high school together, albeit your social circles never crossed, but he remembered hearing your name sprinkled in conversations during club meetings and such.
A few minutes later, class had begun. Satoru hunched over his dented notebook, scribbling notes on things he already understood because this was the kind of stuff he would do for fun in his free time. Occasionally he could hear the low vibrations of Toji’s voice mutter something that made the two girls playfully shush at him, like he was an adolescent and couldn't keep himself quiet.
At the very end of class, the professor went on about assigned study groups due to the class’s rigorous structure and expectations. He taped printed sheets of paper against the marked up blackboard, each one lined with names.
For extra credit, students could meet for thirty minutes in their assigned study groups once a week for at least a month to be rewarded.
The professor had Satoru at the words extra credit.
Class was dismissed briefly after, students shuffling down to the blackboard to find their names and respective groups. Idle chatter buzzed through the room as huddles of people planned their ideal meeting times.
Satoru idly waited on the edge for his turn, not wanting to shove through anyone. Fortunately, he didn’t have to search far, his name printed just two feet away from where he stood.
“Fuck that I’m not doing this shit,” a male grumbled behind Satoru.
“You actually can't be serious, Toji,” a sweet voice said, close to Satoru’s ear. A sugary perfume filled his nose as the wearer craned over the blackboard, practically caging him into their conversation. He could have chirped a simple ‘excuse me,’ but his social anxiety took over, leaving him trapped.
A hot pink leopard print acrylic nail intercepted his lens-covered vision as it ran down the line of names, stopping just above his own. It was you. You hummed softly as you looked at your name, pleased.
Shoko scoffed, selecting the post class cig she was going to smoke after they left the hall from her purse.
“You’re already gonna fail this class because you don’t do shit. Might as well put some work in.”
“We throw every weekend and I spend every evening besides that at practice or hungover. Chill on me bro.”
You scrunched your brow.
“You act like we’re not busy too, hello? I have to plan the mixer coming up this Sunday with your frat. Plus we’re all split up so it’s not like you’ll get FOMO…”
your voice trailed away at the recognition of a name on the board.
“Sa…Satoru…Gojo…?”
Satou’s ears perked up at the sound of his name, though his eyes stayed glued to the floor.
Your head turned slightly and the white haired boy was caught in your peripheral. Satoru glanced at you before swallowing thickly and looking down again.
Your face immediately brightened as you finally acknowledged his existence.
“Oh my god, waitttt. Satoru? Satoru Gojo? Ohmigosh I know you!”
Satoru felt himself go rigid, mouth drying out as he realized all three sets of eyes were trained on him.
Toji grunted while peering at the lanky boy, unamused.
“How exactly?”
“We went to high school together! This is so awesome, we’re gonna be study buddies!”
You tapped the back of your soft hand on Satoru’s arm, a cute and bubbly gesture as if to say long time no see!
“How’ve you been? Are you still hanging with Suguru Geto? How is he? Ugh, it’s just so great to see a fellow alum, y’know?”
Satoru hadn’t said a single word and yet the conversation was steadily flowing. Shoko smirked as you rambled. You could talk the ears off a brick wall if given the chance. Gently, she placed a hand on your shoulder to shut you up for a second.
“We’ve got a board meeting in like thirty minutes, babe.”
You hummed at Shoko quizzically, knitting your brows together. You whipped out your IPhone 3GS with a hot pink case to check the time before widening your eyes.
“Oh my god-! Okay, uh,” you wracked your brain for a time to meet. “The main campus library at four this Thursday works for me. Let everyone else in the group know! So good seeing you again, we should totally catch up-!”
Shoko grabbed your shoulders, pushing you out the door with Toji following closely behind.
Satoru remained glued to where he was right by the board before pressing a hand to where you touched him. It still felt warm.
-
The first study session was on Thursday just as you requested.
The team was composed of four junior Data Science majors, leaving both you and Satoru as the only seniors. The group morale was fortunately high, with each person putting in the work accordingly.
Things were really steady for the next two weeks of meeting. Studying for thirty minutes or so wasn’t too much of a killer in your sorority, school and social life (see Toji?) plus you enjoyed gabbing with your new friends for the time being. The only person you couldn’t get to open up was Satoru Gojo, unless it was strictly about the subject of statistics or an occasional okay.
It was a particularly cold day at the end of September that you decided to buy coffee for your group to celebrate the great work you all were doing. The group expressed gratitude, and even Satoru mumbled something like a thank you.
After the study session concluded, you waved your classmates goodbye before grabbing your purse, turning to leave. You flipped the study room light off and suddenly heard a small voice.
“Uh… sorry, I’m still here. S-sorry.”
You turned around to see Satoru still hunched over the table, papers, pencils and books sprawled about. The glint of the hallway lights reflected in his glasses, hiding his eyes. His coffee sat next to him untouched.
“Oh! I literally thought everyone left! My bad, I’m such a ditz sometimes,” you quickly apologized, flicking the light back on.
You watched as he fumbled around in his backpack, pulling out a little game console and powered it on.
Curiously, you leaned against the doorframe.
“Whatcha up to?”
Satoru looked up at you like he wasn’t expecting you to still be here.
“I uh,” he gestured to the console. “Nintendo DS.”
You tilted your head and grinned, charmed by his awkwardness.
“I know what a Nintendo DS looks like. I’m not that ditzy.”
Satoru felt his ears grow hot in embarrassment but you ignored it. It was nice to finally hear a casual non-mathematical sentence come out of his mouth.
Even if it was three words and nonsensical.
“What game are you playing?”
You pushed yourself off the entry way and grabbed a seat next to him. Having time to bother the boy today, you were determined to connect on some level.
That sweet perfume whelmed his senses. You smelled good. Satoru kept his eyes glued on the game, trying to ease his nerves by taking a deep breath.
“Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. It’s new.”
He pushed his glasses further up his nose.
“Hey look at that, I know Star Wars too! You underestimated me,” you joke, but are rewarded with silence.
Right…
A prolonged void of nothingness hangs thick in the air and frankly, you’re about to get up and leave. You shifted in the chair and fixed your lips to announce your departure but Satoru beat you to it.
“Have you seen Revenge of the Sith?” he quietly asked.
You glanced at him for a second, a small grin spreading on your lips as you settled back into your seat.
“The movie from three years ago? Totally! My dad loves that stuff so he took me to the theatre to see it during summer break. It was pretty dope.”
Satoru whipped his head toward you, eyes shining.
Woah.
You’d never noticed how blue his eyes were.
To top it all off you sighed sadly, feigning anguish.
“Poor Anakin, am I right?”
You bit back a grin as Satoru snapped his Nintendo game shut, facing you completely.
Boom. You were in.
A few weeks later, the month-long requirement to meet with your study group came to a conclusion, much to you all’s disappointment. Fortunately, the group collectively voted to still show up optionally to do some homework and get ahead on next week's assignments if they were available. The increase in your grades were quite noticeable ever since you started meeting, so you decided to stick around as well. Plus it was nice to get away from the swirling noise of sorority life for a second.
When the votes were casted and a decision was made to continue the study group, you had glanced at Satoru. You weren't sure he was going to show up anymore and frankly, you enjoyed listening to him geek out on things you’d never heard of a day in your life after study sessions. It was cute.
He hadn't said anything about the idea, scratching harsh dark lines into his notebook as everyone else voiced their opinion.
So when he silently walked in the next week, pulling out his textbook and scribbling something on a post it note, you couldn’t help but smile contentedly.
-
Satoru sat shrimp backed in his desk chair, tongue poking out as he button mashed his Game Cube controller, his Digimon hitting max crit before dealing heavy damage.
“Oh fuck off,” Suguru muttered- more to the game than his friend- before taking a swig of his Mountain Dew.
The glow of the tv was the only thing illuminating the boys in their dorm. The sun had set ages ago but they had continued playing well into the night. Chips and half drunk sodas littered the floor, occasionally rustled by one of their hands.
“I went back to the study group today,” Satoru said, eyes glued to the screen.
Suguru made a noise of acknowledgment at his best friend’s words, too focused on the game to give a proper reply.
“They’re good people. Really nice.”
“The idea of you willingly going to a study group is so funny to me.” Suguru chuckled. “What exactly do you need to study for, dude genius?”
“Nothing. But being there was originally for extra credit… but I think it’s become a social thing.”
“And you’re… social during..?”
“No, but I like being there. I dunno.” Satoru shrugged.
Suguru waited for an expansion on the topic, but that was all he got for the night.
Satoru didn’t mention you, or the conversations after everyone else left that you had. But that’s what he was completely alluding to.
Social inadequacy made thorough communication really difficult with the guy.
Suguru himself forgot the brief conversation even happened the second he was absolutely destroyed by Satoru on the Digimon battlefield, concluding the game’s round.
“Can you hand me the Doritos,” Satoru plainly stated, wiping his nose and pushing his glasses further onto his face.
-
You had caught Satoru leaving his dormitory on the way to the gym. Turns out your sorority’s house was a mere three minute walk from his place and coincidentally shared your route on the way to the study group.
“We should totally start walking together to the library,” you offered, strolling alongside the lanky boy. His strides were long and quick, forcing you to practically jog to keep up.
“We could make it a whole thing. Study group first, then grab a coffee or lunch? That would be so sweet!”
Satoru made a noise that sounded like agreement… maybe? You couldn’t quite tell. He always mumbled through his words, but it was cute so you can’t complain too much.
It must have been some kind of confirmation though because that’s exactly what had begun to happen.
You would walk to Satoru’s dorm, find him sitting outside on a bench or stairway. Talk his ear off on the way to the library. Arrive. Talk your study buddies’ ears off. Go get food, and talk his ear off even more.
Your favorite days were times when Satoru had discovered a new anime or video game that he couldn’t help but explain anything and everything about to you.
Soon enough, visits to a cafe or the dining hall became regular occurrences outside of study group days. It felt like every time he was outside, there you were, hollering his name and running over. Satoru just couldn’t get rid of you.
Not that he was complaining. Anyone that would listen to him go on and on about the complexities of New Age Digimon lore could approach him all they wanted.
Suguru was on his way back to the dormitory from his Ethics class when he heard a girl’s laugh, followed by his friend's name.
Hold on.
Those two things didn’t go together. His head whipped around to see Satoru in the distance with you.
Suguru’s jaw dropped, watching as you waved Satoru goodbye, tucking your purse under your arm and sliding on blinged out sunglasses as you continued walking.
“So what the fuck was that?!” Suguru shouted the second their dorm door closed.
The moment Satoru had reached the entrance of the building after bidding you goodbye, Suguru grabbed his shoulder and pushed him all the way up to their room.
“What do you mean?” Satoru genuinely asked, stone faced.
Part of Suguru wished he was being sarcastic.
He exclaimed your name like it was something to be revered.
“That's… that’s her. Aka the hottest chick on campus. Aka THE girl every guy on campus has wanted since freshman year.”
Satoru stared at him blankly.
Suguru stared back. “I should punch you.”
Exasperated, he scrambled around his desk, whipping open his MacBook. He typed in a comically long password before opening a browser, clicking on MySpace and entering in your account name.
A well thought out page full of animal print and lipstick pngs filled the screen. The account profile picture was sure enough you, tongue touching your front teeth and eyes hidden by sunglasses. Your follower account was well into the thousands.
Suguru motioned to the page expectantly. Satoru sniffed, brows scrunching as he stared at the screen.
“She’s my study buddy.”
Suguru was mid-running a hand down his face but paused at the foreign vocabulary.
Satoru chewed on his lip. “Her words, not mine. We get food and stuff sometimes.”
His friend laughed out loud, falling back onto his bed.
“Dude there’s no way!”
Satoru scratched his head.
“We went to high school with her, Sug. You’re acting like you’ve never seen her till today.”
“Yeah, but she’s hot now.”
“She wasn’t hot in high school?”
Suguru sat up and shrugged. “It’s different though. Nuance.”
Satoru didn’t quite get that, but he could acknowledge that you were easy on the eyes. Very easy… and you smelled good.
“We’re acquaintances, what’s the big deal?”
Suguru shook his head.
“Man, this whole time I thought you were at some lame study group. Meanwhile…” he looked at Satoru, smile waning. This wasn’t sticking the way he thought it would.
Shaking his head, he grabbed his shower caddy and towel, ceremonially clasping his best friend on the shoulder.
Satoru yelped at the sharp feeling.
“I’m gonna go shower.” Halfway out the door, Satoru could hear him chuckle out words of disbelief.
“No fucking way…”
Satoru pursed his lips as he set his backpack down. He still didn’t get what the big deal was.
And yet, he does find himself stealing a glance at Suguru’s still open laptop, searching the screen for your account name.
xsw33t.4ngelx
Satoru scooted onto his bed, typing the user into the search bar on his phone. His fingers wavered over your profile for a second, contemplating. Over what, he wasn’t quite sure.
Without any more hesitation, Satoru quickly sent a follow request before turning his phone off and tucking it into his lap, staring into space.
About five minutes later, his phone buzzed.
Fumbly hands scrambled for the device, lifting the phone up and dropping it twice before he could even look at the screen. Finally, clammy hands steadied themselves to see two notifications.
You had accepted his request and followed him back. Satoru bit back the teeniest, tiniest hint of a smile.