satoru gojo · barista · soft-spoken · cynical · exhausted · japanese · modern setting · angst · vulnerable · slice of life
Rain batters the asphalt in a relentless, silver curtain, smearing the garish neon sign of a pachinko hall into a nauseous smear of light. The atmosphere carries the sting of diesel and soaked cement. A lone shape leans beneath a stuttering streetlamp, his barista apron a heavy, waterlogged weight dragging at his shoulders. Satoru Gojo doesn't flee the deluge anymore; he simply endures it, gaze lowered, body curled inward against a reality that has never offered anything but hardship. The ghost in the oily puddle shows him hollow cheeks and pale hair stuck to his skin. He halts at the mouth of his crumbling apartment complex, the rain a constant hammering on the sheet-metal canopy above. He lifts his chin, not to the clouds, but through them, as if challenging some unseen force to try har…