Chapter Text
October 2008
No matter where you went on campus, everyone noticed you.
Being the vice president of your sorority Tau Kappa Phi played a role in your notoriety, but mostly your reputation was appraised because, well, you were you. The once stuffy and judgmental caste system of college seemed to bend at your every will, things seemingly always working out in your favor.
Perhaps it was your bubbly personality, how you were always quick to offer a smile and converse with anyone…
or the fact that you were also considered one of the hottest chicks in the Class of ‘08.
Men had always vied for your attention, competing against each other in a strange one sided competition to see who could get you in their sheets first. With enough distinction, you had fucked a few boys on campus but the story ended the same every time.
They all bored you shortly after, perching you on their arm like some kind of prize hunt instead of the dazzling treasure you perceived yourself to be.
So you quit. Swore off of boys for a few months. And of course, within the first few weeks of your unsaid pledge to celibacy, people noticed (to several men’s total devastation).
So when you started toting around a slouchy, disheveled white haired nobody, the collegiate social world shifted. It had begun early on in the semester with you following the boy to the library, to the dining hall and wherever else you could possibly tail with him.
Satoru Gojo was different in comparison to the others.
He was passive, booksmart, and naive in a way that was oh so awkwardly charming (well, at least to you, others were a bit weirded out by the socially inept guy).
Some attendees of a random Tau Kappa Phi party a month ago noisily gossiped their alibis of witnessing you happily dragging the guy everywhere you went in the house, eyes trained solely on him.
Something must have happened within the next few days after that, because you two had started growing rather close.
Eligible men across campus attempting to earn your favor began to mourn the sight of you macking on the lanky mess of a boy in public, thick glasses fogging up whenever your lips pressed against his cheek and you cooed in his ear.
The final nail in the coffin was a photo you had uploaded on MySpace; a selfie of you looking up at the lens, half of your face hidden in the guy's shoulder as your free hand wrapped around his pale neck. His back faced the camera but his shock of soft white hair was so distinct that it couldn’t be mistaken for anyone else.
-
It was the weekend before fall break officially began and Suguru was heading home early, his suitcase and guitar propped on top of each other by the door frame of his and Satoru’s dorm.
“Still down to play World of Warcraft tonight once I get back home?” the black haired boy asked as he slung the instrument over his shoulder. “I can use my dad’s PC, my laptop runs that game like dogshit.”
Satoru didn’t look up from the stack of Digimon cards he was organizing on his bed, meticulously sliding them into the assigned plastic caddies of his trading card binder.
“I told you to just update your graphics drivers and overclock the CPU.”
Suguru scoffed, rolling his eyes at the anything but obvious reply.
“Do you wanna play or not, dude?”
He caught the little smile on Satoru’s face, his stare hidden by his thick glasses as he wiped his nose with the back of his wrist.
“Sure.”
Suguru threw his hands in the air in a sarcastic display of gratitude before turning to grab the handle of his black suitcase.
“But,” Satoru continued, making Suguru begrudgingly turn back around, “I have to finish my midterm project for my coding class.”
Suguru wrinkled his nose. “Couldn’t you just get that shit done after we’re done playing? You’ve got ‘til 11:59.”
The white haired boy shook his head in due diligence, ignoring him. “I finish the project then Warcraft, or nothing.”
“Pfft. Nerd-”
Satoru’s phone suddenly went off, his ringtone being the opening of the 1999 Digimon anime.
He bristled at the disruption of his very important self appointed task of reorganizing his cards but he paused, gingerly setting down the Metalgreymon card in his grasp.
He lazily wiped down his smudged lenses with the pads of his thumbs to see the Caller ID as the phone vibrated on his bedside dresser. After his neck begrudgingly craned to register the name on the screen, Satoru’s disposition completely changed.
“Oh sh-!”
Suguru amusedly watched as his best friend lunged for the phone, dropping it twice in a row on the wooden surface before finally bringing it to his ear.
“Hello?” he confidently started but quickly realized he hadn’t accepted the call as the ring tone obnoxiously continued to blare.
“Nice,” Suguru muttered teasingly. Satoru glared at him as he pressed the green button and turned his shoulder away, lips pursed in embarrassment with his pale cheeks growing a fierce red.
“H… hi!” he said into the phone, swallowing hard as he thumbed with the cuff of his Spiderman print pajama pants. Suguru psst for his attention, jutting his thumb upwards in a miming gesture to turn up the volume.
Satoru wrinkled his nose, biting back a tiny smile as he tapped the speaker phone.
“Hey Toru!” he heard a familiar girl’s voice coo into the phone. He felt his face burn even hotter, making his friend snicker.
It was you.
In the background he could hear ambient music and your sorority sisters giggling away amongst each other as they gossiped and lamented about their school affairs.
Satoru sat straighter at the sound of your sweet voice, running a hand through his white hair while clearing his throat. Forcing some bass into his voice, he lifted his chin.
“Sup…?”
The attempt was instantaneously regretted as Satoru fell back on the bed, cringing at his attempt at… whatever that was.
Your phone was currently tucked between your shoulder blade and ear as the woman doing your manicure sanded down your old acrylic pointer finger.
“The girls and I catch our flight to Cabo tomorrow afternoon and I’m totally stuck in town until then,” you began, and Satoru could practically hear the smile in your voice. “Are you heading home today?”
“Me? No. I’m not going home until Sunday. Suguru is though.”
A drawn out silence fell between you two. Suguru pursed his lips, trying to determine whether he was going to regret asking for Satoru to put the convo on speaker.
“...really?”
“Yeah.”
Your head cocked to the side, glancing at your girls who were pretending to not eavesdrop on your conversation. Shoko smirked at you while Utahime- with a cucumber face mask on, nudged her on the shoulder before turning her back and pretended to make out with herself.
Scoffing, you crossed your legs and tucked your face closer to the phone.
“Whatcha up to tonight?”
“Well uhm,” Satoru tugged at his hoodie, gesturing to the black haired boy with the phone as he spoke. “I’m finishing up my midterm project for coding class but Sug and I are playing World of Warcraft after that once he gets home.”
“Oooh, sounds fun.” You managed to work in some enthusiasm to your voice, though your unseen expression was hilariously deadpan.
Your head tilted as you watched the manicurist work. “And before that?”
“I was organizing my Digimon cards before you called.” His eyes widened at how harsh that sounded. “Not that I didn’t want you to call me. I mean- I wasn’t expecting you to anyways. But it’s welcome. It’s very-”
He had seemingly been cut off by a thud and another boy’s voice, making you smile at the muffled sounds of chastisation.
“Is that Suguru?”
“... yeah it's me!” the black haired boy called from across the room.
"And I'm on speaker...?" you asked, more to yourself as the guys fell into a squabble that you were used to by this point.
You couldn’t see the aftermath of the hanger he had chucked in Satoru’s direction to shut him up from his blabbering, its pointed hook lodged between the two pillows on Satoru's bed like a ninja star.
The white haired boy was currently hunched over, arms shielding his face as he stared at his best friend incredulously like he’d almost been shot.
“Hi Sug! Does Toru mind if I come over after I get my nails done? I wanna hangout,” you innocently inquired, like Suguru was Satoru’s personal guardian of some sort. “I would hate not being able to see my Toru until next week…”
Maybe it was a good thing Suguru had basically snatched the phone from his hands at this point in the conversation, as Satoru felt like he was going to overheat and pass out like an outdated computer from your sweet words.
“‘Course! We won’t be playing till much later.” Suguru glanced at his friend who had flopped back once more onto the twin mattress, staring at the ceiling with practically steamed up glasses. “He’s got nothing but time.”
You smiled, bouncing your slippered foot happily as you readjusted your hold on the phone with the side of your cheek.
“Hot. I’ll see you in a bit, ‘kay Toru? Have a good break Suguru!”
“Thanks, you too.”
Suguru nudged his friend, urging him to respond. The white haired boy sat up, grasping for the phone and holding it close to him with whitened knuckles.
“Y… yeah, see… you.”
The two boys could hear your best friends teasingly ‘ooh!’ in the background, making your own giggle reverberate over the phone before hanging up.
“It’s like it’s the first time with you every time, dude,” Suguru sighed, clasping his friend on the back. Satoru yelped at the sharp feeling, shoulders hunched as he thumbed the upper curve of his blue phone case.
"Y-You don't get it..." Satoru quickly replied, trying to sound snarky about it but it came out all soft instead.
His best friend paused, glancing at him before shaking his head with a smile.
“Alright, well I’m outta here. Call me when you’re ready to hop on the game,” Suguru announced, saluting his friend before grabbing his suitcase handle once more and wheeling it towards the door. “Don’t have too much fun in here."
Satoru rolled his eyes behind his smudged glasses.
"She wants to hang out," he insisted, the conversation growing much too explicit for comfort.
His brow wrinkled in annoyance as Suguru muttered something about how he was the biggest non-virgin to ever virgin.
"I swear if there’s a smell in here when I get back I’m gonna-”
It was Satoru’s turn to chuck the plastic hanger in Suguru’s direction. He missed, miserably at that, smacking the wall a good three feet away from his friend. He could hear Suguru cackle evilly behind the door as he slammed it shut, the hanger pitifully clattering to the floor as he did so.
-
Satoru opened the door about an hour later, peering down at your form. You were cutely leaning against the doorway in your cropped fur lined puffer, arms folded around themselves.
One hand held a bright red half drunk slushy, the condensation around the bottom beaded and fell onto your dark wash low rise jeans that barely hit your v-line, the silhouette decorated with a blinged out studded belt that sparkled teasingly with every movement.
Bright eyes blinked up at him from your hot pink phone, frosted eyeshadow sparkling under the fluorescent hallway light.
You looked impossibly pretty.
Satoru felt himself grow hot from a crude thought that flitted through his head as he managed a tight 'what's up?' that sounded cringily put on.
“Toru!” you cheered, sliding your rhinestoned sunglasses onto your forehead before starting to gab about something that happened during the day.
The abrupt shift from total silence to the sound of your constant chatter gave Satoru whiplash, but nonetheless he was overjoyed to see you, practically biting down on the smile prying itself on his face. Due to the scheduling of midterms, he hadn’t seen you all week.
“Shoko and Hime wanted to go get slurpies after mani-pedis, I hope I'm not late,” you explained with a little shrug, fully entering the dorm and making yourself at home.
Satoru watched as you spun around to survey the room, blissfully humming to yourself as you observed the collection of Digimon paraphernalia on his shelf- your favorite.
“O-oh yeah! You're fine,” Satoru replied, though he quickly slipped to your side to pluck the expensive MetalGarurumon figure from your hands.
It didn't deter you, simply moving onto the next queued up subject like a relentless ball of energy. You hung your purse on a spare hook next to the door and set your cup atop of the microwave, drumming happily on the metal with your fingers, obviously admiring your new nails.
"Ohmigosh, look," you lifted your fingers to Satoru’s face, wiggling them back and forth as you showed off the new pink and black star designs on your acrylics. The bangles around your arms jingled brightly as you did so, making him smile a bit.
“Tadaa! You like?”
The smell of your sweet perfume flooded his senses from the gesture as you stared back up at him expectantly. Satoru nodded, a soft blush dusting his cheeks as he did so.
“Very pretty,” he managed to get out, making you grin and stare back down at your fingers admirably.
“Eek! Shoko and 'Hime wanted to join me, you know," you remarked, glancing back at him. "They say that I'm always talking about you and coming over here so they were curious.”
Your eyes playfully rolled upwards at the somewhat exposing information, though you didn’t mind Satoru knowing that.
Satoru straightened up a bit. You were talking about him like that? To your friends?
“All good things, duh,” you added. “But I said no this time around. I want all the alone time I can get with you.”
You didn’t give him much time to dwell on that as you then went curiously thumbing through the Coding section of his bookshelf, lamenting about how you couldn’t even understand the “flippin’ titles” on these books.
"You've got a lot of energy today," Satoru observed, watching you. Your eyes didn't leave the code you were attempting to decipher, shoulders shrugging in response.
“It's ‘cause I finally get to see you. It’s been a long week and we haven’t gotten to hang... I like hanging with my Toru."
There was that funny way of addressing him again. It made his stomach flip.
Satoru couldn't dwell any deeper than he wanted to with that as you interrupted the moment once more, setting the book down and pointing happily. His eyes followed the gesture to the Nintendo DS charging on his desk.
"We should so play Legends of Selda again," you gasped. "You played that last week and it was totally adorable."
"Zelda," Satoru gently corrected.
"That's what I said," you half-answered, squealing happily as he unplugged the mini console and sat down on his bed. He knew that he needed to get that project turned in, but how could he resist making you happy?
“I can’t play for too long,” Satoru warned, folding just a bit for you. “I’ve gotta turn in my coding class’ midterm.”
“I know, I know, I heard you on the phone. Total bummer.”
Satoru shrugged. “Shouldn’t take too long.”
While he powered on the game, you kicked off your cozy boots and crawled on the mattress with him, draping your legs beneath yourself so that you could lean over and see the screen. Satoru held in a breath as your head propped against his shoulder, eyes still on the game as you did so.
You watched Satoru play for a while, occasionally offering your personal thoughts on the game, like 'he's hot' and 'I like her dress' or his favorite; 'what's even happening?'
Link let out a triumphant cry on the Nintendo DS as he completed another mini puzzle within the game.
"I hate hate hate that I haven't seen you all week, ugh,” you mumbled, turning the backs of your palms and studying your nails.
“You totally ditched me during the stats midterm and then there was no class on Wednesday and no study group, lame…”
A small laugh escaped Satoru’s lips, though it waned as your thigh tapped against his as you adjusted your form.
“That's because the midterm wasn’t difficult.”
“To you,” you teased, tapping his bicep lightly. “You were only there for maybe thirty minutes, which is like, insane.”
He beamed towards the simple praise, readjusting his glasses with his free hand as he shrugged.
"Ah. Thanks."
He caught himself, realizing he hadn't returned your appraisal. "And uh... I-I missed seeing you too."
You smiled, realizing that this was a perfect window to scoot closer to him.
"I guess we have to make up for lost time before I go again, right?"
Satoru only chuckled at the flirtation, making you frown.
Lowering your voice, you tilted your head slightly, gesturing towards the game. Oh well, you could always lay it on thicker.
“What if I tried?"
Satoru glanced in your direction with a confused smile but it quickly fell back on the screen, completely submersed in Link's adventure.
"You never play," he objectively pointed out while pushing his thick glasses onto his nose.
"I'm full of surprises," you replied flirtatiously.
"I mean, sure," Satoru happily chirped, failing to read the OBVIOUS implication in your voice. Your smile grew a little tight as Satoru continued.
"I'll finish this next puzzle and then you can. I’ll be quick, promise."
"Not too quick, right?" you tried once more, practically on all fours and leaning into him.
"Well, the game description said that the total playing time is-"
Seriously? It had only been a WEEK. Was he seriously back at square one with picking up what you were putting down? Your eyelids boredly drooped before throwing in the towel, sighing before bracing yourself.
Realizing that you needed to get borderline expletively cheesy with your advances, you dredged one up and almost dry heaved from preparing to deliver the ridiculous flirtation. Wetting your lips, you sighed.
"If you lose... I know another controller… you… can… handle…"
You delivered the pick up line in a monotonous tone towards the ceiling, cringing as it came out of your mouth, but you saw him perk up a bit.
So hey, result.
"Haha. Yeahhh..." Satoru chuckled, eyes glued on the screen, attempting to dismiss the innuendo. Unless...
Keeping his face forward, his blue eyes slid to the side and squinted as he attempted to gauge your expression. You were side eyeing him right back with a smirk.
His brows raised in a nonverbal confirmation of what he hoped to be true- which you did right back, making the boy realize how poor of a job he was doing at being suave and discreet by practically holding a conversation with you in his head.
"O... oh!" Satoru finally gasped, getting it.
His full attention turned towards you.
"Yeah?"
"Yeah, Satoru," you emphasized, dropping your shoulders in relief despite how long it took for him to meet you there.
Satoru watched you smile, head tilting to the side in a way that was all too familiar.
The game beeped dutifully in his hand, while all thoughts of his project had essentially been compartmentalized in the back of his head.
“But only if you want to lose all that progress…” you added, biting lightly on the inside of your lip as a playful hand drifted to his inner thigh.
Satoru’s eyes widened.
He thickly swallowed, shifting his weight so that the bulge growing in his boxers wasn’t so prominent.
You glanced down at his groin. Smiled. Glanced back up.
Satoru didn’t even look twice at the Nintendo DS screen, pressing the down arrow and walking Link right off the edge of a cliff, killing him instantly with a tiny digitized screech.