#i haven't written using italics like this in a million years

[ikemenomegas]

stop, myy oc's former classmates offering to set them up gave me an idea. so what if they had this super pushy classmate who just wont take no for an answer and pesters them about setting them up with someone they know every time they see each other at reunions. So so like what if the day before their reunion, gojo sets the myy oc's wallpaper to something that shows that myy oc is not single but in a super discreet way. Maybe a picture of myy oc at a cafe that gojo took and gojo's glasses or cup of coffee or anything that suggests the presence of a second person in the picture is shown and gojo makes that the myy oc's wallpaper

oh no T.T this is so cute anon. It's also the perfect mix of subtle and blunt haha, which suits him

"I can't believe it's been ten years already," you murmured.

"From what?" Satoru asked.

He plucked the piece of paper you were looking at from your hands and peered at it.

"My junior high school reunion."

"Didn't you just have one of those?"

"It feels like it sometimes," you said softly, taking the paper back.

"You gonna go?"

You tapped your foot against the arm of the couch. "I don't see why not." You were planning to go. Some old friends from back then had already messaged, insisting they wanted to see how you were holding up. It was really just an excuse to drag you from the outskirts of Tokyo and into the city.

Even after all this time, they had some impression that you were some kind of ultra industrious hermit. You never told them about all your journeys around the country. You wouldn't know how to answer if they asked what you were doing there, what kind of work could let you travel that much...

"Go and show off your new wrinkles," Satoru nodded.

You just sighed up at him. Disappointed.

He pouted, sticking out his lower lip ridiculously.

"... I don't have wrinkles."

"Sure," he agreed, and then bounced off to whatever little project was keeping him occupied these days. Or to bother Megumi.

You rolled off the couch.

You rushed into the restaurant where the reunion was kicking off while trying not to look like you'd been rushing. The start of curse season this year had been as unpleasant as usual, and you'd just finished a last minute call.

You'd changed clothes in the car, lucky that the auxiliary knew you well enough to simply clear their throat and not ask any questions when they dropped you off at a train station.

Someone called your name in bright, cheerful tones that cut through the noise.

"Hirose-san," you said back, waving and making your way over to that part of the table.

"We were worried you weren't going to show up," Oda Konoka said immediately, leaning forward across the table.

"Sorry," you apologized. "Someone from work called..." you offered a easily interpreted truth.

"Work, work, work," Maeda Hikari all but slammed down a mug of something like it was a beer stein, making Konoka jump. "The last time we saw you it was work, this time it's work. All you do is work!"

"That's normal," Hirose Asami said placidly, smiling at you over her folded hands. "For most people."

You gave Hirose-san a slightly embarrassed smile back, dipping your head in thanks for her coming to your defense.

A waiter caught your searching eye and came over. Soon the table devolved into a flurry of words, menus flapping around as people started ordering around the part of the room at which you sat. Looked like you had been a bit late then, probably one of the last to arrive.

After a somewhat clumsy-feeling start, at least from your point of view, everyone in your little cluster of familiar and less familiar faces was more or less caught up, starting to chat with their neighbors or old friends, eating well.

And as it often seemed to at these kinds of things, conversation eventually turned to dating life. It was funny, listening to Hirose-san complain about something for once. Apparently the last person she dated told her she was too scary to stay with, which made Konoka start laughing ... and not stop.

"It's really not that funny," Hirose-san was saying, a slightly cross look on her face.

Hikari was failing to stifle a snicker, mostly at Konoka but also at Hirose-san. "It kind of is. Didn't someone you met at that expo you told us about also say something similar?"

"That's not fair," you protested, a light smile on your own lips. "That was years ago, and only because she was yelling at one of the interns--"

For some reason that set Konoka off again, clutching her stomach with one hand as tears sprang to her eyes.

Oh, right. She'd been there... oh well.

"I think you're lovely," you said earnestly. "It's really not your fault. I'd go out with you--"

"If," Hikari turned towards you suddenly, cutting you off. "I'm sensing an if. And my if sensor is never wrong."

"There's no--" you backpedaled immediately as Hikari honed in on you like a shark scenting blood in the water.

"I don't believe it. All the rest of us have met someone. Even permanently intimidating Hisa--"

"Please don't call me that."

Konoka laughed harder.

"-- single to the end-of-life Hisa--"

"Worse," she said mildly while Konoka leaned helplessly on her shoulder, tears at the corner of her eyes.

"--and I refuse to believe that someone like you hasn't even gotten a confession."

"I've gotten confessions before," Hirose-san protested.

"Yeah and you always turn them down," Hikari shot back. "My point is I have a perfectly nice little someone who could be just your type--"

"Oh here we go," Hirose-san said, but she no longer looked interested in saving you. A familiar glint was in her eye which said she was settling in to watch the show.

"I really don't need--"

"But you do," Hikari said. "You see maybe one of us every six months and you went to that tiny high school out in the sticks--"

"It was still in Tokyo."

"--barely, but how many people did you say were in your graduating class? Three? No. There's no way. That's what friends are for, meeting people, getting you out of the usual wandering blah of normal life."

"Have you taken a breath at all?" Hirose-san asked, amused and still unhelpful.

Hikari waved her off and lifted up a finger. "Flexible work schedule so you can't pretend not to have any time to meet up." A second finger. "Dresses well, smells nice. The people we meet are constantly asking about perfume and cologne, it's a ridiculous amount of people." Third finger. "Kiiiind of a weirdo," although this was said with a grin.

"Hikari," Konoka finally gasped, sitting up. "You can't just say that. And to someone's face!"

Hikari grinned at Konoka's mild outrage. "It's the only thing left at our age. So many people have already given up or decided they don't want to be paired off or--"

It was such a rookie mistake, taking your eyes off of a threat just because it came from a non-sorcerer. As your eyes turned towards Konoka's sudden movement, Hikari lunged, plucking your phone from the table.

"--and I have their number right here, and I bet you haven't changed your code since high school at least."

That was not true. You'd changed it three years ago because Satoru kept breaking into your phone and installing weird games on it.

Hikari fell silent, squinting at the screen.

Konoka leaned over to see what was the matter.

"What?" you finally asked. They were just starting at your lock screen.

Hirose-san craned her neck as well. "It looks like a very nice cafe," she offered. Laying out the bait for Hikari.

"What?" you asked again. The image last you checked had been one of you and Shoko, leaning over the rail of some stupid expensive hotel where you'd stayed as her guard when a minor emergency had required her presence.

Hikari leered.

"No one I know uses pictures of themselves, alone. Two cups of coffee. The chair opposite you is out of place, flowers on the table, two forks with the cake. There's a reflection in the window. You clearly didn't take this picture and from your reaction, you didn't put it on here either. Which means the change is recent and someone you trust enough to leave this lying around did it."

You," Hikari concluded, " have been lying to us." Dramatic, melodramatic. Satoru would love this old little crew of yours if you hadn't long ago made the decision to never let the two parts of your life mix.

You scrambled for an explanation. "That doesn't mean it's a date."

You knew exactly which cafe that picture would have been taken at. It would have been ten months after you'd married Satoru and it was very much a date. And the flowers had been an apology because a mission had forced him to stand you up at the nine month anniversary. The cake had been your apology for not being able to hold out and wait up for him.

Hikari's smile was downright evil. "I never said it was a date you were lying about."

Konoka turned a very scary look your way. "It's like Sherlock Holmes," came the slightly awed, slightly taunting whisper.

Satisfied, Hikari returned your phone. "Sooo. Name? Age? Blood type? Job? Favorite color? Where'd you meet? How long have you been hiding it from us?"

Stunned, you decided to look at the picture while you decided whether or not to lie.

You were sitting by the window at the cafe, leaning down to stiff at the flowers, the cake slice untouched in front of you, the box just visible on the ledge behind your thighs, the coffees still with steam curling from the cups. Golden light flooded in from outside.

"Oh," you said with some surprise. "That's actually a good picture."

Konoka burst back into giggles.