❤︎ 1422 𝚠𝚘𝚛𝚍𝚜, 5.5 𝚖𝚒𝚗 𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚍𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚝𝚒𝚖𝚎
❤︎ 𝚃𝚆: 𝚑𝚘𝚖𝚘𝚙𝚑𝚘𝚋𝚒𝚊

═══════════════

That birthday, my 16th, was equal parts painful (literally and figuratively) and cinematic. Or perhaps it was painful and therefore movie-esque. Or vice versa.

Having left the hospital, we all headed to McDonald's.

"It's your birthday and you can choose to do whatever you want–we'll follow you!" was what Shoko said to me. I looked over at Nanami and then at Geto–I couldn't fathom how Shoko convinced them into this all-day celebration fiasco.

When I announced my wish to mark my birthday with McDonald's ("Wooohooo McDonald's!!" reacted Gojo and Haibara) and the arcade ("Oh my god arcades???" screamed both), Nanami's face was of a stoic monk's after receiving enlightenment while Geto simply smiled, the way you would when a younger sibling showed you a primitive drawing.

At the kiosk, I couldn't decide my order. The last time I remembered being at one of these, staring at overblown menus displaying burgers of dramatic proportions, was when Mom and Dad were not dead. I ordered chicken nuggets with fries and a juice box–but do I still like those?

Shoko said it was their treat so I should order anything I wanted. Who exactly counted as they in the group, I knew not.

In the end, I got a cheeseburger like Gojo. Well, I got one but he had five, plus an extra side of fries. "My Jujutsu expends energy," he explained. Geto, however, clearly wasn't buying it, as he rolled his eyes and sipped on his singular order of diet coke.

I bit into my burger and the grease welled up on my tongue as I watched Haibara and Shoko bicker over who should get the last one of Nanami's fries. "It's not even your–" Before Nanami could finish, Haibara took away his last yellow, oily stick. I swallowed my mouthful of pleasant greasiness.

As we were leaving for the arcade, Gojo stuffed the last two of his burgers into his pockets, albeit squishing and flattening them beforehand. My staring eyes met his and he gave me a big smile accompanied by a peace sign. I smiled back–how could I ever get mad at him?

The arcade was my idea but with my bad ankle, I was already beat upon arrival. Nonetheless, I volunteered to exchange our coins for tokens with Shoko.

"Neh, neh, y/n," she nudged.

"Hmm?" I furrowed my brows from the kaleidoscope of lights and music.

"You're gonna make the move tonight?"

"What move?"

Shoko jerked her head towards Geto's direction. Gojo was in the same corner as him, wafting his flattened burger into Geto's face. I chuckled at Geto's disgusted expression.

"I don't know, Ieiri Senpai. Gojo Senpai really likes him."

"So what? It's what Suguru thinks that matters, y/n," she winked. "He likes the both of you equally. Maybe even you more, now. Now after, you know, the mission,"

"Sure you don't like either of them, senpai? What about Nanami and Haibara?"

"Ew, fuck no. Kento's weird and Yu's loud. Don't you know I have a crush on someone else?"

"Who?" I thanked the clerk as he handed me a red plastic plate of tokens.

"Utahime," Shoko whispered into my ear. Utahime the second-grade sorcerer...? My eyes widened involuntarily.

"Keep it a secret," she winked again and walked towards the boys with the tokens.

For the duration of our stay, I couldn't get into the mood to play any games. I largely sat and watched the rest of them destroy each other in an infinite cycle of Street Fighter. I started nodding off when a tap landed on my shoulder. I opened my eyes to Geto wiping sweat off his forehead.

"Geto Senpai? Did you win?"

"I lost. Three to one."

Behind him, Haibara shrieked as Gojo won yet another round.

"Hey. Uhm. Shoko told me you like photo booths?"

Do I...? I looked over his shoulder at a smirking Shoko giving me two thumb-ups.

"Oh, uh, yeah. Yeah... I love getting my photos taken!" I lowered my face and wiped some drool away.

"There's one right there. I still got two tokens left if you wanna..."

And so in the tiny booth: 1, 2, 3, flash...

"Haha, I think I blinked," he said.

"Lame!"

1, 2, 3, flash... "Boo!"

"Oh fuck you!" I laughed loudly.

1, 2, 3, flash... This time, I wanted to scare him, too.

He already saw it coming and instead, I fell into his sweaty arms.

1, 2, 3, flash...

I felt the both of us growing red and warm.

"I–" We blurted out.

Thank you for capturing your memories with us today! Don't forget your photos–

Two strips with pastel-hued frames slid out into the concave above our ankles. I let go of Geto and he bent down to pick them up.

"Your ankles... they're still hurting?"

"Only sometimes."

"But... clubbing–you'd be good for that later?"

"Of course!"

I couldn't tell the truth. It was throbbing and I wished nothing more than to head back to my dorm room... with Geto.

***

The club was... not what I expected. In those YA movies–The Perks of Being a Wallflower, say– drinking and partying and dancing never for a minute felt uncool. Even when they didn't seem cool, they were.

Yet that day, I only hopped on my less swollen ankle the entire night, sipping on one glass after another of alcohol mixed with who-knows-what (which tasted like glorified hand sanitizer) and endured music that alternated between being full of cheese and loaded with corn.

I did, however, look on with amusement as an endless string of girls went up to Gojo, to dance, to talk, to flirt, to attempt to hook up or to achieve something else beyond my comprehension. Gojo humoured all of them and was excessively polite even when a few of them asked to touch his snow-white hair. Haibara, Shoko, and even Nanami couldn't laugh enough at Gojo for being simultaneously a minor and an unreluctant womanizer.

I, too, laughed but lost my balance and landed on my bad ankle.

"Whoa, whoa, there..." As always, Geto caught me. "Is it your ankle?"

"Yes," I answered with my eyes half closed, almost pushing my glass off the table.

"Hey, you don't look okay... How about I get you back to school, hmm? We'll sneak in through the back gate, Yaga would never see us." He caught the glass, just in time.

I looked up. Beneath the disco lights, he was just like a fairy. A haloed pixie, with hair braided with fragrant stardust, with eyes dangling with glitter, with velvet lips sinking from the weight of perfumed dewdrops.

Sinking. His lips were sinking, from lips of my own, from my ignorant tongue, from the shameless timidity that came only with a first kiss.

He didn't push me away but lightly brushed his fingers against my lower back.

I tangled my fingers in his luxurious hair.

His hair was laced with tufts of cigarette smoke surrounding us and his mouth tasted of cheap beer.

Beer never tasted better.

But then, there was a sudden commotion behind us.

Shoko screamed, Haibara yelled, and there was whooping, cheering, and clapping. We parted, confused. I squinted.

Gojo was entangled with another person. kissing a man. Nothing about their features stood out to me. In my eyes, that other person was but a blank figurehead melting into Gojo.

Some woman?

Gojo's partner retreated an inch from him. How lucky of her. A woman with tufts of hair so dense, they crowded even around her neck. A woman so hairy...

No...

It was...

"Fags!" Someone from the crowd yelled.

...some man.

A man. A masculine, bearded dude.

The next thing I knew, Geto stepped up to the pair. "Suguru, stop!" Shoko shouted.

Too late. He's already pulled the man away from Gojo and punched him, straight in the nose.

The music transmuted into a sugary pop ballad and the lights turned pink. I opened my mouth but couldn't hear myself.

Geto pinned the man onto the floor, toppling chairs around them. I could tell Geto was not straight in his head when he started retching at a table's feet. That's when the man thrusted his knee into Geto's side–his left side, his bad side. Geto fell on his back and clutched his ribcage.

Shoko, Haibara, and Nanami all ran towards the two. I still couldn't hear myself.

Did they break them up or were they joining the fray themselves?

I can't remember.

I don't want to.

All I know is that I stood.

I froze.

I did nothing.

═══════════════

Author's note!

imagine going to get burgers and to the arcade with these five... ૮₍˃̵֊ ˂̵ ₎ა

what's yalls go-to Mc order and what arcade games to yall like?

i like nuggets and do enjoy my cheeseburgers too (also arcade dates are so cute)

btw i am moving my updates to every sunday instead of fri! so i can have more time to rest during work days!

as always, thank you so much for reading and sticking around--means the world to me

take care & b safe
ikari
2024, sep 8