you hadn't heard from satoru in days. shoko told you to 'just give him time and space', but your worries ate away at you. he answering your texts or your calls, he wouldn't open his door when you knocked - hell, you've never even seen him come out of his room since... 'the incident.'

that's how you preferred to call it.

finally, though, he seems to emerge from his cave.

his hair is messy, he has bags under his eyes, his eyes are bloodshot and red, and he looks so... pale. like he hadn't seen natural sunlight in years. his cocky and confident demeanor is gone, replaced with a version of himself that stares down at the ground and tries to stay out of everyone's way.

the moment he sees you, he tries to step to the side and avoid you. yaga had forced him out of his bedroom and made him come to classes for once. though, in his mind, he was just going to sleep through them.

you grab ahold of the collar of his shirt and start to drag him towards where you assume his dorm is (he's a lot lighter than you remember). you step inside his dorm with him, turning on the light. satoru's eyes instinctively close as he tries to adjust to the light, but you force him to look at you, to talk to you.