Chapter Text
Monday is a nightmare for most university students — after all-night drinking with friends, heavy hangovers, and dreadfully long lectures that no one asked for, especially when the morning starts with a class that has nothing to do with your career but is mandatory for grade points. It was the most dreadful of mornings for most people.
But not for Rika.
For Rika, this was the best part of her day. Why you ask? Because she got to ogle her professor for a whole hour with zero interruptions.
Rika leaned forward with unholy interest as Professor Fushiguro bent to pick up the chalk that had fallen on the floor.
Thank you, Chalk-sama, she thought, her eyes not leaving her professor's ass. God. Look at those muscles — his shirt was impossibly tight, showing off every muscle possibly known to mankind. Who knew Humanities class could be so interesting?
She heard a scoff to her right.
"That man is married, Rika," said her one and only best friend, Gojo Satoru. Despite the disapproval in his tone, he had a huge grin on his face, clearly enjoying her blush.
Rika rolled her eyes. "There is nothing wrong with looking."
Satoru leaned close enough that she could see his beautiful blue eyes and those ridiculously long eyelashes. "Not the way you're looking," he whispered, then added, "You know, I have better muscles. Just saying."
Rika ignored him with some effort. Her best friend was annoyingly good-looking and he knew it, flaunting it every chance he got. She couldn't honestly say she was completely unaffected — but that was a problem for another time.
Unfortunately, their chatter was heard by Toji Fushiguro-sensei. He looked up and pointedly fixed his gaze on them. "Is there something more important you'd like to discuss with the class?"
The focus of the entire room — most of whom had been sleeping — shifted to them. Rika flushed under his intense gaze and stammered, "N-no, sensei," while Satoru cheerfully said, "Yes, actually — Rika here was just discussing—"
Rika slapped a hand over his mouth.
Fushiguro-sensei looked between them with faint amusement, the scar on his lip pulling as he smiled. "Gojo, this is expected. But I expect better from you, Tachibana-san. Any more noise and I'm adding assignments — and keeping both of you after lecture."
"Not assignments," Satoru groaned.
Rika, meanwhile, only heard: keeping her back after lecture. He could keep her back as long as he wanted, honestly—
Satoru knocked the back of her head.
"Ow—"
He gave her a look of profound mock betrayal. "I will not have you mentally cheating on our Suguru."
Rika blinked, then nodded seriously. He was right. She couldn't believe she had just mentally cheated on their boyfriend, Suguru Geto.
Satoru's expression softened with approval. He slung his arm over her shoulder and pulled her close. "That's my girl."
Rika felt his warmth and firmly redirected her thoughts to the love of their lives: Geto Suguru.
Who is Suguru Geto, you ask?
He was the star ikemen of their university. Basketball player on a sports scholarship, psychology student, and despite being jaw-droppingly handsome, he was humble, focused, and unfailingly polite. He had a fan club. Rika and Satoru were proud members.
Rika hadn't noticed him at first, despite sharing the same major. That changed because of Satoru.
Satoru — who was openly bisexual in their highly conservative Japanese university and somehow universally beloved by the entire engineering department anyway — had dragged Rika and Shoko to a basketball game two months ago.
"We might actually win the All Japan Intercollegiate Championship this year," he'd announced, hauling them both by their wrists toward the sports complex. "New player. My kohai Haibara won't stop talking about his senpai. I need to see this with my own eyes."
Shoko had gone along because she had nothing better to do. Rika had gone because Satoru gave her no choice.
She hadn't expected to care.
But then the game started, and her eyes kept drifting to the same player — long dark hair pulled in a tight bun, calm expression, moving through the court like he had all the time in the world. The opposing team taunted him. He didn't react. They played dirty. He didn't even flinch. He had just waited, read the game, and scored anyway. It was like no one could stop him.
Rika found that patience more attractive than she knew how to process.
Then came the second timeout.
Geto had pulled the hem of his shirt up to wipe the sweat from his forehead, and Rika's brain simply stopped working. The sight of those abs — gleaming, very real, very much there — had her gripping Satoru's sleeve without realizing it and then if that was not enough, he had poured water over his face from the bottle handed to him by his team manager, and Rika had felt like she would actually die from the heat of it all.
She turned to him with completely dazed eyes and said, "I think I'm in love."
Satoru, who had also been staring, turned to her with the same expression. "Me too," he said softly.
Then his face changed.
He stood up.
"I LOVE HIM FIRST," he announced, loudly enough that the entire surrounding section turned to look, "SO HE IS MINE."
The silence that followed was profound. Rika wanted to dissolve into the bleachers. Shoko was already laughing. And Geto Suguru, toweling off at the sideline, glanced up at the commotion with mild curiosity.
Satoru stormed off.
Satoru had then proceeded to ignore her for two weeks, calling her a traitor and a thief. Rika was actually confused for most of it. Satoru never fell in love before, Satoru had flings and strings of boyfriends and girlfriends but never love. Only after Rika nearly broke his dorm door did he open it and let her in.
Satoru had sat on his bed, pouting, his white hair all messed up, in a t-shirt and shorts, glaring at her. Rika had patiently told him that if he did not get his head out of his ass, she had no problem dissolving 10 years of their friendship and Satoru had protested and then finally opened up. He was scared of losing her and also because he genuinely seemed to like Suguru. He felt Rika had betrayed him because she had never shown interest in him before. Rika had to explain that yes, she had not shown interest but that was because she was not aware of his existence and she would back off now that she knew Satoru liked him. Satoru had brightened immediately and said Okay and then they had cuddled and ordered lunch.
That was before Satoru had taken encouragement from Shoko and finally gone to talk to Geto Suguru at his practice, only to be blocked by their team manager Utahime Iori and sent away for being annoying. This happened eight times over the course of two months – Satoru tried everything, sneaking into the building, stalking his Instagram profile, actually following him around, and every time Utahime would appear and block him and tell him not to bother their star player before Satoru went away defeated and sulked. Finally Satoru came up with a master plan to distract Utahime using Rika's social skills but Rika had refused. 'Why would she help her rival?'
Although she had backed off, that didn't mean Rika had stopped liking Geto. She was even more aware of him now than before. They shared classes and Rika had been silently observing him for two months and found him more and more her type. His calm nature seemed to have some effect on her and because of the back off promise, and also her shy nature combined with him always being surrounded by people, she had never once spoken to him.
Satoru had looked betrayed and after an intense debate over drinks, Shoko had come to a conclusion for them — why not help each other? They could always share. In Shoko's defense she had said it to stop them from fighting and who would have thought these two would actually agree. They had hugged each other and vowed all dramatically.
Drunk Rika had looked into Satoru's eyes and said, "I love you, Satoru and you are my best friend. I will share anything with you, even my love. Let's do this."
Lightweight Satoru had looked at her with his eyes all soft in a way she sometimes couldn't read and nodded, "You are my one and only, I will share as well. I can't live without you so let's conquer him together."
They had both chanted like it was a war cry, "Conquer him."
Shoko had watched her friends losing their minds and was too sleep deprived to say anything, so she went outside to smoke instead, leaving them to their ridiculous plans.
That had happened two days ago. Now Satoru was dragging her to the basketball court.
Standing in front of the huge basketball court – the university was big on all sports – Rika felt like she couldn't breathe. The game was going on and they could both see Geto Suguru's handsome self practicing and they were both having difficulty breathing. Satoru pushed Rika forward with a look and Rika shook her head. She was so not ready. Crushes were meant to be admired from afar, not talked to. And what was she even supposed to say to him?
Satoru knew exactly what was going on in her head and shook his own, "Ask him out on a date and I will join it." Like joining someone else's date was completely normal. He continued, "You can do this! For us! Stop hunching, you are a beautiful girl with a beautiful ass, repeat after me."
Rika would have laughed had she not been so nervous. She simply repeated, "Beautiful girl with beautiful ass."
Satoru's eyes gleamed mischievously as he leaned into her personal space, "You are beautiful sweetheart, any guy would be lucky to talk to you." His eyes briefly dropped to her lips and he whispered, "Now go get his ass for both of us." Rika couldn't stop the shiver that ran down her spine.
"What are you doing here again?" said a sharp voice.
Utahime Iori stood at the court entrance with her arms crossed and an expression that could curdle milk, her dark hair pushed neatly back from her face with a simple hairband, a few strands escaping around her temples. She was pretty in a sharp, no-nonsense way, the kind of pretty that made you straighten your posture automatically. She was looking at Satoru, carrying the specific weight of a woman who had run out of patience several weeks ago. Then her gaze shifted to Rika and her entire expression changed, softening almost immediately. "Is he bothering you? Should I send him away?"
Rika stifled a laugh and shook her head, bowing slightly. "No, Iori-san. I actually came to see you." She gestured to Satoru and said, "He is my friend and he was telling me what a great singer you are. I wanted to invite you to karaoke sometime."
Satoru nodded along to her lie – he was used to them by now – while Utahime's expression brightened, completely ignoring Satoru as she pulled Rika by the hand to take her inside the basketball court. "Yes! I would love to! Do you love singing as well?" and Rika nodded, "I do."
Behind Utahime's back, Satoru kept mouthing, "ASK HIM! ASK HIM!"
Utahime chattered excitedly about how she was always surrounded by boys and rarely had time to make girlfriends and how happy she was about Rika's invitation, and Rika felt genuinely guilty. Guilty enough that she stopped walking and said, "Iori-san, I actually — also came here for another reason."
Utahime nodded like this was expected and said, "You are not the first one. Is it Suguru-kun?" Rika felt ashamed and nodded. "I apologize." She and Satoru would find another way. Iori-senpai was too genuine and she didn't want to hurt her. But to her surprise Utahime didn't tell her to leave. Instead she pulled her to the clubroom and said, "Help me and I will think about it."
After making her work for half an hour, Utahime looked up and said, "Okay, I will help you. Ask me anything."
Rika blinked. "Just like that?"
Utahime cracked a rare smile. "You are the first person to be upfront with me and sincere about it. And you are loads better than that Gojo."
Rika defended him anyway. "Iori-san, Satoru seems like a lot but he is a nice guy." Utahime raised a brow. "The same boy who is flirting with everyone out there right now?" Rika glanced through the window. Satoru was already in animated conversation with a group of girls who had come to watch practice, all of them looking at him like he was something extraordinary.
Rika had nothing to say to that.
Utahime continued, "Suguru-kun is a nice boy. He is kind, polite and focused on his goals. We have real expectations for him. We don't want him to have any distractions." The pointed look she gave in Satoru's direction said everything.
Rika turned back to Utahime and started asking questions — Geto's likes, his dislikes, his habits — and Utahime answered honestly. Finally Rika asked with some hesitation, "Iori-san, is Geto, by any chance, into girls or guys?"
Utahime blinked, then considered it genuinely. "I'm not sure. I haven't heard him say anything about his type."
Rika nodded slowly with quiet satisfaction. Not a no.
She exchanged numbers with Utahime-senpai, bowed sincerely, and left.
What she didn't see was the gaze of Geto Suguru himself.
He had noticed this girl in his classes before, always slightly apart from the crowd, kept to herself, quietly attentive. He had been surprised to see how she was friends with someone as loud as Satoru Gojo. He knew about Satoru of course — everyone knew about Satoru Gojo and his many, many flings. When Geto had first noticed him he had found him attractive and had wanted to talk to him more but Nanami-senpai and Utahime-senpai had both warned him off and so he had kept his distance. But it surprised him that someone as quietly reserved as Tachibana was close to someone like that. She was a shy little thing, someone Geto found himself drawn to in a way he couldn't quite explain — the same kind of draw he felt when he watched Gojo, which was its own confusing thing entirely. They were an amusing pair. He found himself genuinely wanting to know them better as he chuckled quietly to himself.