gojo satoru sits three rows behind you in physics at a perfect diagonal. he insists to suguru on the daily that it’s to see out the window that is just coincidentally to the left of you. the lie is blatantly obvious, and he is betrayed by the pink tinge that spreads across his pale face every time suguru pokes fun at his little staring habit, gazing at you in a way that can only be described as a "lovesick puppy", in the wise words of shoko ieiri. however, as much as his two best friends tease him, satoru settles for admiring from afar, because, after all, why would a pretty, popular girl like you even think about getting anywhere near a guy whose idea of a good weekend consists of getting lost in the dynamics of astrophysics?
the bell rings at the end of another one of professor yaga's lectures that just seem to drag on, and while you messily pack up your things in desperation to leave, he attempts to raise his voice over the class that has already erupted in chatter.
"some of you ought to remember that mid-terms are rapidly approaching," he announces sternly, "and some of you need to pull something out of god knows where if you want to keep studying here."
with his timely reminder, he incites a unanimous frustrated groan from the class, save for satoru, who has already covered the entire syllabus twice and probably knows it better than yaga. satoru spares a glance towards you and takes in the hint of the worried frown that crosses your face, before it vanishes when you're dragged out of the classroom by one of your friends, presumably off to lunch.
satoru is forcibly pulled out of his daze when he gets a harder-than-necessary slap on his back by suguru, as he sniggers:
“stop pining, romeo, let’s meet shoko in the library.”
in all fairness, it was a fairly convincing offer for satoru, who finds himself in the library more than his dorm, so he reluctantly drags his eyes from you as you disappear down the corridor, and follows suguru down to the library.
the college campus library was a large, gothic building, though quite cozy with its warm lighting. for a thursday afternoon, it was quiet, with the faint hums of whispers from students to each other and the occasional clicks from keyboards. satoru finds himself sat in his usual spot in the corner, cheek slumped against the palm of his hand as he scrawls down the answers to various equations, disinterested in whatever club suguru and ieiri are talking about going to this weekend. his focus on said equations falters when the library doors creak open and he sees you.
you walk into the library, bag slung over your shoulder and beverage in hand, without, for once, talking to at least three different girls that make it impossible for satoru to merely consider approaching you. he’s okay with this, though. he’s always been fascinated by things that are out of his reach - black holes, dark matter, you. his friends’ voices diminish into background noise as he watches you approach a shelf, fingers skimming over the spines of the books as if you’re searching for something in particular, before your eyes land on a book just high enough that you aren’t able to reach it. much to his own surprise, something in satoru’s body decides that he is done daydreaming from afar, and his legs carry him towards you, as if acting on instinct. his fingers barely brush against yours as he leans in and grabs the thick book you were grasping for.
“this one?” he asks softly, holding it out to you with one hand while using the other to push his glasses clumsily up his face in an attempt to hide the flush the has spread across his cheeks because jesus, satoru, pull yourself together.
“oh! thank you!” you grin, half-surprised and half-amused as you take in the flush across his face. “satoru, right?” you ask, but you know who he is. of course you know who he is - the boy in your class who doesn’t get shy of 95 at least on every assignment, and he’s also really cute, in your opinion.
“oh, uh, yeah, yeah that’s me,” he replies, stumbling over his words as he fixates on the way you say his name. “and you are…?” he asks, internally cursing himself for pretending not to know who you are, because of course he knows who you are - the girl he has single-handedly been obsessed with since the first semester.
“i’m y/n, we have our lectures together.” you smile warmly back at him, and he swears you can hear how fast his heart beats when he sees that your smile is directed at him in what feels like a fever dream. “you should talk to me in class, y’know. i don’t bite.” you tease.
satoru freezes up the moment those words leave your lips. somehow, in that big brain of his, he never considered that you would be able to see him looking at you.
“oh, i, uhm, yeah,” he manages to get out, though they’re not really words. you giggle at his awkwardness, and the pink tint to his face gets a shade darker.
“i’ll see you in class, satoru.” you smile at him, taking the book from his hands, fingers brushing against his as you do. almost as suddenly as he’d walked over to you, you’d walked away. satoru groans internally at his absolutely abysmal attempt to win you over, or whatever he thought he would achieve by going up to you. instead, he just watches your figure retreat like a homeless romantic, and becomes suddenly aware of suguru’s muffled cackling at him, and ieiri’s amused expression. reluctantly, he slumps back in his seat, placing his head into his hands as suguru chokes out a laugh, before getting violently shushed by a librarian. ieiri is struggling to keep her laughter to herself too, whispering out:
“real nice one, satoru. real smooth. i’m sure she’s fallen head-over-heels after that.”
and all satoru can do is grumble out a weak “shut up.”
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