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“I’m pretty sure that we shouldn’t have added iodine…” Makoto mumbled, squinting as he read over the lab instructions. Why did the teacher have to write in such tiny font? Makoto didn’t realise that Hope’s Peak would also require its students to have Super High School Level vision as well! “Kuwata-kun, can you read this? You’ve got pretty sharp eyes, right?”
“Eh, who cares?” Kuwata mumbled, throwing his own lab notes (crumpled into a ball) up in the air, “Just wing it. Not like we’re gonna actually use this crap in the future, right?”
Makoto frowned, wincing as Kuwata threw his ball of paper and hit Oowada, of all people, on the back of the head. Luckily enough for him, Oowada was too busy arguing with his lab partner, who happened to be Ishimaru. Makoto was starting to think that the teacher’s decision to randomly partner everyone up was a huge mistake, especially as Oowada and Ishimaru looked about two seconds away from throttling each other.
Makoto sighed, picking up his paper and trying to decipher it. He heard a smashing noise in the distance, and hoped to god that Ishimaru and Oowada hadn’t resorted to throwing lab equipment at each other.
“How much longer d’ya reckon it’s gonna be before they kill each other?” Kuwata asked, flicking an empty beaker idly.
“Hopefully, they won’t...”
“You’re no fun, c’mon! Loosen up a little,” Kuwata complained, flicking the beaker hard enough it fell off the table and shattered, “Whoops.”
“Kuwata-kun!” the Nishimura-sensei snapped, looking up from her book, “Clean that mess up at once! Don’t you know how dangerous broken glass is?!”
Kuwata choked on his words for a few seconds, eyes flickering between Ishimaru and Mondo (the latter of which was attempting to punch the former) and the teacher.
“You can’t be serious,” Kuwata deadpanned. Nishimura-sensei scowled at him.
“That’s it! Detention for you, Kuwata! I won’t stand for any misconduct in my classroom.”
Makoto couldn’t help but snigger slightly at the baffled expression on Kuwata’s face. He looked like he’d just been punched in the gut, and kept gesturing wildly over at the bickering pair of students. Nishimura-sensei ignored his non-verbal protests, and stared down at her book again.
“This is bullshit, man!” Kuwata moaned, sweeping up the glass shards from the floor. It was 5 minutes after class had ended, and Makoto couldn’t help but silently agree. Ishimaru had ended up storming off to go to the nurse’s office after Oowada had nearly smashed his face in, and Kuwata was the person who got punished?!
“Are you sure you didn’t do something else to make her angry? Maybe she heard you complaining that you’d ‘never use this in the future’, or something…”
“That’s ‘cause it’s true! You think rockstars like me spend their entire day thinking about if Iodine forms a convoluted bond with Hydrogen or whatever?!”
“It’s a covalent bond, actually…” Makoto mumbled, scratching the back of his neck awkwardly, “Have you been handing in your homework and everything?”
“Nah. Like I said, not gonna need this shit!”
Suddenly, Nishimura-sensei’s seemingly unfair treatment of Kuwata was starting to make more and more sense… Makoto knelt down next to Kuwata, pointing out a couple shards that he missed.
“Well, maybe you should! It’d at least make her treat you more fairly… next time she’ll probably give Oowada a detention before he ends up breaking Ishimaru’s nose, instead of focusing on you...”
Kuwata rolled his eyes, standing up and dumping the shards of glass in the trash.
“If I spend time doing homework and shit, I won’t have enough time to play my guitar! Which is something that’s actually going to be useful to me in the future, y’know?”
Makoto blinked in surprise. He didn’t know that Kuwata actually owned a guitar, let alone one he was willing to actually dedicate practise time to.
“I thought you just did vocals?” Makoto asked, “When’d you get a guitar?”
“I snagged one at a yard sale,” Kuwata explained, grinning, “I mean, I suck at it, but that’s why I gotta spend so much time trying to play it! I’m not gonna get any girls if I sound like shit, am I? Besides, playing guitar is like, twelve times cooler than just singing.”
Makoto nodded, not really understanding Kuwata’s logic (wasn’t being a famous baseball star enough to get girls anyway?), but appreciating that he was finally growing up a little and learning to practise at something. Not that Makoto could really judge- he hardly had any hobbies of his own besides watching TV and doodling a little bit when he was bored.
“You should come hear me play it sometime!” Kuwata continued, “I mean, when I don’t sound like shit, y’know… I’ll make sure to practise extra hard and stuff as well! Now I gotta run, I promised to meet Hagakure-kun at lunch time- he promised to give me one of his stupid romance readings ‘cause I helped him find that shitty crystal ball of his.”
Before Makoto could say goodbye, Kuwata was running down the halls, evidently milking as much freedom as he could while Ishimaru was holed up in the nurse’s office.
Makoto sighed, fiddling with another beaker. The last week had been a mess- and his chemistry classes were probably to blame. For some reason, ever after the Glass Shattering Incident, Kuwata had been avoiding Makoto. He was still his assigned lab partner, but he would freak out whenever Makoto tried to talk to him. This weird behaviour was second only to the even weirder behaviour of Ishimaru and Oowada- one day they’d gone from threatening to kill each other, to best friends in the whole world. It was creeping everyone out.
“Hey, Kuwata-kun, could you hand me the sulphur?” Makoto asked, nose practically touching the instructions to make out the text. Who in the world seriously wrote instructions in a 5 point font?! Maybe he just needed glasses… Makoto looked over to the pair next to him, Oogami and Asahina (how’d they luck out on the random partnership thing?!), and they looked to have a similar difficulty reading it, so it probably wasn’t that…
A couple minutes passed before Makoto realised that Kuwata had never passed him the sulphur. He glanced over to his partner, who was staring out of the window, rolling a test tube underneath his fingers. Makoto tapped him on the shoulder, causing him to jump slightly, and send the test tube rolling off the table. Makoto winced in sympathy as he heard it shatter, Nishimura’s book slamming onto her desk a second later.
“Leon Kuwata, this is the 3rd time you have broken something in my classroom!” she roared, “You’re lucky I don’t fail you on the spot!”
“Uh, actually?” Makoto piped up, his caring nature getting the better of him, “I was the one who broke it, not Kuwata-kun.” Makoto felt bad about lying, but it was technically his fault, and he didn’t think that Kuwata could handle another detention.
“I… see…” Nishimura-sensei mumbled, sounding slightly unconvinced, “Well then. Sweep it up, Naegi-kun.”
“Will do, Nishimura-sensei. I apologise for breaking it…” Makoto grabbed the dustpan and began sweeping the glass up. Kuwata stared down at him in bemusement, a faint blush darkening the tips of his ears.
“Uh, Kuwata-kun?” Makoto asked, “Could you add the sulphur while I sweep this up?” Makoto asked, just as the bell rang. He sighed, dumping the glass in the bin, while the rest of the class filtered out. Was it ever going to be possible to finish at least one project in this class?!
“Uh, Naegi-kun?” Kuwata asked, as Makoto was heading to leave the room, “You got a sec?”
“Hey, if this is about the test tube thing, I just didn’t want Nishimura-sensei to crucify you-“ Makoto began, but was cut off by Kuwata’s (rather flustered) question.
“Are you doin’ all this nice shit for me because you have a crush on me?”
“W-what?!” Makoto gasped, shocked to his core. Kuwata thought he had a crush on him?! Was that why he’d been acting so weird around him?! It certainly explained why he kept blushing whenever Makoto looked at him… but why? Makoto hadn’t flirted with Kuwata or anything…
“Hagakure-kun told me you had a crush on me, alright?!” Kuwata snapped, face almost as red as his hair, “I was just askin’ if it was true or not!”
Oh. That explained it.
“Uh, Kuwata-kun, you know that Hagakure-kun is only right 30% of the time, right…?”
“Yeah, exactly! That’s like, super accurate, right?”
“It also means he’s wrong 70% of the time. This is one of those times, uh…” Makoto awkwardly scratched the side of his face, and Kuwata smacked his forehead with the palm of his hand.
“Duh! I’m a fuckin’ dumbass!” he yelled, dragging the hand down his face. He sounded sort of… disappointed? Wait… did Kuwata have a crush on Makoto?! Was that why he’d been so excited to show Makoto his guitar skills? The thought was simultaneously weird and flattering.
“I mean, no offense! You’re a great guy, Kuwata-kun… but I just don’t have those feelings for you. Or, at least I’ve never thought about it…”
“Yeah, no, I get it,” Kuwata mumbled, heading towards the door, “I get it. I’m gonna give Hagakure-kun shit for not giving me an accurate reading, though!”
And then he was gone.
Him having a crush on Kuwata, huh… that was a weird thought. Makoto tried to imagine dating him- going out to watch Kuwata’s games, cheering him on from the sidelines, going to a restaurant afterwards and watching Kuwata fiddle with his chopsticks as he told Makoto about his latest crazy idea to make it big in the music world… the two of them holding hands, sneaking kisses after school, making out in one of their dorms…
Oh no. That actually sounded appealing… did Makoto have a secret crush on Kuwata after all? Secret even from himself?! Hagakure must have been a better fortune teller than Makoto gave him credit for…
Well, at least Makoto could depend on his chemistry lessons as a way to talk things over with Kuwata. It really was a stroke of luck the two of them had been paired up!