Chapter Text
It’s the day Suguru Getou had been dreading for a long time now: move-in day. Not in the way that he wasn't ready to move into college, but nervous for whom he would be placed with roommate-wise. Initially, Suguru was to live in a single-bed dormitory, placed on the honors floor dedicated to incoming students who had exceptional grades in high school—a quieter hall so these students could keep up their grades. This was perfect, the ideal scenario, almost too perfect.
A couple days away from moving in, he was sent an email indicating what the school named a “glitch in the system” took that living in solitude from him. When he tried to complain about it to the housing administration, they had simply told him that there was nothing they could do about it, that there were no singles left on the honors floor. This was just great. The last thing he wanted was to get an obnoxious roommate whom he would have to spend the next nine months living with. When he first arrived at school, he hadn't had much: a couple boxes filled with some books and school supplies, a couple band posters for decoration, clothes, and whatever other basic necessities you could think a college freshman would need on move-in day.
The room layout was nothing special, he thought. Two beds, parallel to one another, about 10 feet away from each other; two desks at the foot of each of the beds; and a small, but doable bathroom attached to the room. Nice, he thought at least he didn't have to deal with communal bathrooms, a worry he had as he made the drive down. There was a big window that took up a majority of the entire back wall. The view was quite good, definitely would make for some good sunsets, he thought to himself. Despite the room's small size, he was satisfied. Seeing that he was the first to arrive, he set his stuff on the right bed, grabbing a pair of scissors to open the minimal boxes he had brought with him.
A couple hours later, he had set up a majority of his side of the room. His bed was made up nicely, clothes were stored underneath the bed, folded and organized by color. His books, varying in size and genre, were stored alongside his clothing. An IKEA storage cubby for his pens and notebooks, standing next to the school-provided desk, was assembled, which took longer than he would like to admit to assemble, good thing he wasn't an engineering major, to which he took a step back to admire after it was built. He only had a couple of posters to hang up before he would call it a day to try and find out where his classes were at.
As he went to grab the tape to hang up some of the posters, he heard the door unlocking. It had been so long that he had forgotten he was to have a roommate, thinking maybe he just got lucky or the school took pity on him and gave him the single he was meant to have.
“AH FUCK,” the person came stumbling into the room, dropping what appeared to be an Eiffel Tower of luggage and boxes. Great, Suguru immediately thought to himself. This was going to be a year. “Sorry, man, traffic was hectic,” the man said, seemingly out of breath despite being on the second floor. “Yo, how long have you been here? You got the whole place decorated already? Damn, must've been running later than I thought.” He said, hands on his knees, still panting, boxes scattered in every direction, including the space that was meant to be his own.
Suguru didn't know how to respond to the man.
“Did you run here?” he asked, simply not knowing what to say.
“Nah, man… it's just… the stairs… took me out… and these boxes are heavy. Do you see the size of them!?” a breath in between each word. It was only one flight of stairs; however, Suguru didn't question him or anything. The man didn't look unathletic; in fact, he looked quite the opposite. Extremely tall, standing at a good 6’3, extremely muscular, with white hair and the bluest eyes he thought he had ever seen, wearing an athletic black top with the sleeves cut down to his hips, red athletic basketball shorts, and a black backwards hat, to which he soon finds out reads “I love hot moms.” The man was quite attractive not that he would ever admit that aloud. If it wasn't for that stupid hat, which he didn't comment on.
He must have been too quiet, or staring, because the man asks him,
“You good? Or am I just that attractive that you have nothing to say?”
Yeah, this was going to be a long year. Whatever thoughts he had about him being attractive were now washed away by the reveal of this man's massive and ever-growing ego.
“HAH, just joking, not into that gay shit. Anyways, the name’s Satoru,” he responds, not giving Suguru any time to think or respond to him.
“Suguru,” he responded, not giving any attention to his previous comments. If there was one thing he learned about today, it was that he should have fought tooth and nail for a single on the honors floor. He had also learned that his new roommate, Satoru, was going to be the biggest pain in the ass, and clearly not gay.
The man immediately pulls out a speaker and, without asking, starts blasting music as he opens all his boxes. Mountains of clothing and expensive-looking cologne are what a majority of the boxes contain. The other ones contain a multitude of beers that Suguru had never even heard of, and very minimal school supplies.
Suguru tries to pay the man no attention, putting in earphones of his own to block out whatever bullshit Drake song Satoru was playing, which had minimal effect, even with noise cancellation turned on.
About an hour passes as Suguru says nothing, figuring out his schedule and classes he has for the semester. His class schedule includes a majority of science classes; given he was a bio major, this made sense. He was also taking a couple GE’s, including things such as communications and general statistics. He could never make sense as to why a bio major has to take a communications class, but at least he would get credit for the class that he has been told is an extremely easy A. As he is doing this, he hears Satoru yelling “HEY!” at the top of his lungs. Startling Suguru, he takes out his headphones, pausing his music. He notices that Satoru had also turned off his own music.
“Jesus, man…” Suguru starts. “What do you want?” he finishes.
“Jeez, man, I was just trying to get to know you, you know, given we are living with each other for the next nine months. No need to be rude,” he says, slightly annoyed by Suguru's response. Clearly, this man has never been talked to with a slightly passive aggressive tone or been told no. He seemed used to people giving him attention whenever he pleased. Suguru noted this, this realization making him a little pissed off. Also, the reminder that they would be living together for the next nine months didn't really help. It hadn't even been there for five hours, and Suguru was already annoyed by his new roommate. Was it too late to put in a room transfer?
“Fine. What do you want to ask me?” Suguru responded with the same flat tone. Satoru made a face, seeming annoyed. This pleased Suguru, just a little.
“I asked your major,” Satoru said, matching Suguru's flat, sarcastic tone in an almost mocking way. Suguru rolled his eyes before responding.
“Bio… you?” Suguru responded. He was curious, he couldn't lie, as to what Satoru’s major was given the absence of school textbooks and books in general.
“Mechanical engineering,” he responded. This caused a reaction in Suguru. To say he was surprised was an understatement. He must've made a face because Satoru clearly noticed a reaction.
“What?” he retorted, obviously not happy with Suguru's reaction, folding his arms. “Just because I know how to have fun and am not a total ass doesn't mean I’m stupid, you know that, right?”
Suguru felt a little bit, and only a little bit, bad. I mean, Satoru did have a point. He shouldn't have assumed anything. It was really just the lack of anything, well… school-related that had him thinking that maybe his major required fewer textbooks and readings.
“Whatever,” Suguru said, still monotone, before putting his headphones back on. The room went silent. Satoru didn't turn back on his loud music; he continued unpacking in silence. Finally, Suguru thought, maybe this guy got the hint.
It was a few more hours until Satoru finished unpacking. Suguru noticed that while disorganized as he was, with his bed barely made, accompanied by a singular pillow on the bed, and the minimal pens he had scattered on the desk, he had decorated his side pretty nicely. While he would never admit it to Satoru himself, his choice of music posters was not bad, Suguru even liking some of the bands himself. While scanning his decor, he noticed a blue flag with an American flag pattern and Greek letters on it. Satoru noticed him looking at it, Suguru confused as to why math-related symbols were on the flag.
“What does that mean?” he asks, pointing to the flag.
“Oh wow, he speaks,” Satoru rolls his eyes. Suguru ignores him. “I’m in a frat,” he responds, not really with any kind of enthusiasm.
“Oh, okay,” Suguru responds before going back to whatever he was doing on his laptop.
“Would it kill you to have a personality?” Satoru says, not making any kind of eye contact with Suguru.
Wow, is all he could think. This was going to be a long year.