Jujutsu Kaisen: False Dawn

Chapter 102—Name Your Price

The TV murmured low in the background, some late-night rerun of a crime doc playing forgotten images in flickering black-and-white. Mei Mei didn't move, still on the couch, legs crossed like she owned the place. The glow of the screen painted soft light across her sharp cheekbones and the small tension in her jaw.

Ren closed the door with a quiet thud behind him.

"Could you sense my cursed energy before?" Ren asked, his voice laced with a kind of relaxed amusement—like he already knew the answer.

He walked toward the couch, not rushing, not dramatic. Calm. Confident. He moved like someone who'd just walked out of a different league and returned with knowledge nobody else in the room had.

He plopped down next to her, leaned back against the cushions, and with a small shake of his head, pulled his hood up again.

Mei Mei looked at him.

"This brat..." she thought, irritated and… something else. She couldn't put her finger on it.

"No," she said. "I mean… yes. I could before, but now it's just like you barely have any. Which is weird. Like, weirder than you pretty much making me yours..."

She trailed off at the end. Her eyes flicked to the side. Her mouth tensed.

Did she just flirt?

Even she wasn't sure.

The words left her before her brain could catch them.

Ren just smiled. It was slow and casual—but carried a kind of quiet weight behind it. A smile that knew more than it let on.

"It's nothing much," he said, eyes half-lidded. "I just got better at controlling cursed energy."

He turned to look at her more directly now.

"Anyway. You didn't answer my question: What are you doing in my apartment?"

Mei Mei blinked, then fumbled for a second—a rare crack in her perfectly composed demeanor.

"Uh—I mean, like, no reason!" she said quickly, sitting a little straighter. "I was just waiting for you! I, uh, kept this place clean while you were gone!"

Ren didn't blink.

"Don't lie," he said plainly, voice still calm but colder. "Speak the truth. Why are you here?"

There was no edge in his tone. No threat. Just a fact. But Mei Mei felt her skin prickle anyway.

She pouted—visibly.

Then she rolled her eyes and sighed in that dramatic way that meant she was finally going to stop pretending.

"Fine," she muttered. "The higher-ups offered me one million per month if I live with you and… become your… girlfriend."

She looked directly at him now, face composed again—like this was completely normal.

But her cheeks?

A faint pink.

Ren let out a short, low chuckle.

"One million a month just to date me, huh?" he said. "Interesting..."

He leaned back further into the couch, still watching her.

"I wonder what you'd do if I offered you a billion. Or a trillion."

At that moment, Mei Mei's expression changed.

Her eyes widened—subtly—and that cool, calculating glint returned with a new kind of intensity. Not bloodlust. Not affection.

Greed.

She leaned toward him slowly, crawling a little closer on the couch. The distance between them closed with deliberate ease, like a cat stalking without needing to pounce.

"Do you even have that much money?" she asked, voice almost teasing—but her gaze deadly serious. "Because if you gave me a trillion right now... I'd marry you. No questions asked."

Ren barked out another laugh.

"Hey, idiot," he said, tapping her forehead lightly with his index finger. "Remember the binding vow?"

Mei Mei blinked once.

"If I wanted you to marry me," he continued, smirking, "you wouldn't have a choice. You'd have to say yes, idiot."

She opened her mouth, probably to bite his finger—or snap back—but he was already speaking again.

"You really are a sucker for money, huh?"

Then he sat up straighter and added, almost offhandedly, "Today's my last day before I head back to Jujutsu High. So go cook something for me, idiot."

Mei Mei's jaw dropped.

"Cook?" she said, scandalized. "Excuse me? I don't cook for anyone."

Ren turned toward the TV and flipped the channel without responding.

"I want pasta," he said.

Mei Mei's eye twitched. Visibly.

She stood with a huff, muttering under her breath, and stomped toward the kitchen in a way that still somehow looked elegant. The sound of drawers opening and the clatter of pots filled the apartment.

She muttered under her breath as she moved.

"Manipulative little bastard…"

Ren stayed behind on the couch, flipping through channels aimlessly, a smile slowly returning to his face.

Inside his mind, the gears were turning.

"Is there something useful that I could gain that Mei Mei has?"

He thought as the faint scent of garlic and boiling water started drifting from the kitchen.

"Combat knowledge maybe? But that's a stretch. Too general. Too instinct-based. She fights with an axe. Not the way I fight, or want to fight…"

His fingers tapped his knee.

He paused.

"Money for sure, though. That's the obvious one. Connections. Financial mobility. Sponsorships?"

A smirk formed on his face.

"Should I buy some stuff for myself? With her money?"

He imagined walking into a cursed tools shop and just handing over Mei Mei's black card. The thought made him snicker.

Meanwhile, in the kitchen, Mei Mei was muttering to herself under her breath, angrily chopping onions like they'd personally insulted her.

"What does he think I am? His wife or something? Coming home whenever he wants, telling me to cook?"

She flipped a pan with unnecessary force.

"And why the hell did I say I'd marry him for a trillion yen? What is wrong with me?"

But even as she grumbled, her face was warm.

She hated how casually Ren had flipped the dynamic. How he could say something completely maddening and then walk off like it didn't matter. That he didn't seem to need anything from her—not her approval, not her power, not even her presence.

Which made her more interested than she wanted to admit.

Back in the living room, Ren finally settled on a channel playing a nature documentary. Some lions in the savannah tearing through a herd of buffalo. It felt appropriately violent.

Minutes later, Mei Mei walked out of the kitchen holding a steaming plate of pasta—buttery, garlic-heavy, with thinly sliced vegetables and cheese melted just enough to string slightly when the noodles moved.

She set it down in front of Ren, arms crossed.

"There. Eat. Don't talk."

Ren didn't move at first. Just looked up at her, then down at the plate, then back at her.

"You're getting better at this," he said with a grin.

"I will kill you," she replied flatly.

Ren laughed and started twirling the pasta while eating it. Ren spoke in a casual tone: "You know, I did not order you to cook this, so you could have just not done it, but you did..." And Ren smiled like he won... 

And Mei Mei muttered... 

"Shut up."