your sight started getting glassy and the figure of the pink haired boy now standing out of the cart was getting blurry too.

with your hands still in front of your mouth, you started shaking a little. inumaki who was standing besides you noticed this.

he reacted quite surprised, in the time he had known you he had never seen you this upset. it broke his heart to see you like this when he couldnt do anything about it.

nobara had tears swell up in her eyes as well but wouldnt dare to show herself crying. she pouted and looked anywhere else besides yuuji.

the boy from the cart started being confused at the reactions too. megumi was just staring at him with widened eyes, his mouth slightly open. while nobara and you were on the verge of crying.

he had expected happier reactions such as, 'yuuji yay, youre back, lets go kill some cursed spirits now!" but he should know better as he disappeared into thin air after you assumed he was death.

your mind was clouded by a million thoughts, was that really yuuji in front of you? how is he still alive? you definitely saw sukuna rip the heart from the poor boy out. why didnt he say anything if he was alive? is it not just a hallucination? were you going crazy?

your breath started speeding up while yuuji was standing there, talking to gojo as he seemed unsatisfied with the reactions he got.

thats when something in inumaki snapped. he couldnt take it seeing you like this anymore, he couldnt take it if any of his comrades were this upset. and so, he stood in front of you.

he let you take your time to look at him and once you did, he put both his hands firmly on your shoulders, letting you know this wasnt a dream.

looking straight into your eyes, he spoke up in the softest voice he could muster. "l/n." is all he said. but it was enough for you to push all the thoughts in your head away.

you looked at him in the eye and listened to his calm and soothing voice. your trembling had stopped slowly and you swallowed thickly. speaking up and saying, "inumaki-sen-"

before you could finish your sentence, he had wrapped both his arms around your waist securely and pressed himself against you, in hopes that you would calm down.

your eyes widened at the gesture but you calmed down from what yuuji pulled not too long ago. after about 5 seconds you finally got your thoughts all in order again so your head was no mess anymore.

without hesitation, you wrapped your arms around inumakis neck and hugged him back. you buried your face softly into the crook of his neck.

he took this gesture as sign that you were okay now and silently smiled to himself as he closed his eyes and enjoyed the warmth of you, he then raised one hand, which was around your waist and used it to gently stroke your hair.

smiling to yourself at the peaceful moment, you pulled him even tighter by wrapping your arms more around his neck. his face now buried on your shoulder.

he smelled so nice, like an evening around 5PM in december, when it would already be dark, where there would be a refreshing blow of wind that pierced your lungs while the snow was slowly falling on the streets.

but he felt warm too and it put you on ease, it was the perfect combination and you loved it. you closed your eyes and enjoyed his embrace a bit more.

you breathed in and out deeply and spoke out in a whisper, "inumaki-senpai, thank you." you said silently, you were glad that his ear was close to your mouth otherwise it wouldnt be audible.

feeling so at ease with him you added on, "maybe we could do this more often. if you'd like to." you spoke again while whispering close to his ear.

the off white haired boy was at a loss of words and nodded against your shoulder. you smiled to yourself after he apperantly liked it too.

"... are they done?" you heard a certain girly voice call out. you had completely forgotten about your surroundings and came to realize you were not alone with inumaki right now.

your eyes widened slightly and so did inumakis, the both of you let go of each other at the same moment and stood straight again.

"mai! you ruined it!" you heard your female senpai say to her sister. you looked down at the floor and tried to hide the upcoming blush.

inumaki seemed to do the same as he was looking upward to the sky, inspecting the super interesting clouds. you saw his cheeks and tips of his ears being tinted with a soft pink as you too a quick glance at him.

looking back in front of you, you spoke up in a quiet tone, "its.. its good to see you again yuuji." you said to the boy who looked at you intensely, wondering what happened between you and your senpai in the course of 2 months.

you gave yuuji a small smile and continued. "although it couldve been nice if you didnt fake your death." you said while tears where slowly swelling in the corners of your eyes.

this time you were fortunately calm, thanks to inumaki earlier. your smile grew at the fact that your comrade was alive and well now. "im sorry for keeping quiet about being alive." yuuji spoke up.

rubbing the back of his neck and smiling while he was a bit embarrassed, he now faced nobara who seemed angry at him too, which was understandable.

megumi breathed in heavily after he barely showed his shock, but he too was happy that yuuji was alive and well now. "well then." he spoke up while clearing his throat.

he showed a small smile too yuuji, "let the exchange event begin."