Chapter Text
His cell phone warns him again with a notification tone that money has been transferred to the bank. He checks his account to see if everything is in order, it was. Good, he says to himself as he takes out some folders from his bag, before going to his classroom he passes next to his clients lockers, the recess had just ended, some students were actually putting effort to entering their classrooms to be on time, others just didn't care that much. He has the object in his hands, he knows that it’s dangerous to make the delivery at school, especially in the eyes of everyone, but he gains more customers this way and is less suspicious than waiting after school hours to make the delivery in front of the establishment.
He checks his phone one last time to verify that the locker number is correct. When he looks up, he sees the captain of the basketball team with a cheerleader, probably they were talking about some superficial subject. He makes a sound clearing his throat for the young man to turn around, but he is still focused on his conversation, Keiji touches his shoulder and he turns around.
"Open your locker," he says to the captain. It was not the first time that he had hired Keiji, so he does it without protest. "Here you have" he says as he places it in the locker.
"Next time I will pay you after receiving the grade, I will not keep losing my money to get an 8"
He just looks at him. "You know how it works, if you don't pay me then there is no delivery and I think it would be a little bit suspicious for your grades to go from a 4 to a 10, you have to be careful." He still hears protests from him when he turns to enter his classroom, he doesn't bother turning around.
No, Akaashi Keiji did not sell drugs at school, he only sold reports, essays and homework’s. He doesn't know how it really happened, one day he was in his first year in English class, he had finished his homework after the first ten minutes, he was looking at the boring clock and the teacher was almost snoring at his desk. The girl who was sitting next to him touches his hand, Keiji quickly takes his hand away, he didn’t like people to touch him, he looks at her irritated for not respecting his personal space and she grimaces and points to her paper that she had on the table, he looks at her without knowing what the girl was asking and sees how the girl rolls her eyes at him and with a whisper she asks him for his homework. Keiji lets out a small mocking laugh and says no. She again insisted indignantly telling him that she will repay him the favor later with a provocative tone. Are you humiliate yourself for a simple school assignment? He wanted to say to her, but he thinks about it and he was really bored.
"Money, if you're going to pay me, do it with money." It took him seven minutes to finish it, when he was saving the money on his bag, the two boys who were sitting in the back offered him the same deal, in the end he ended up doing the homework of almost the entire class, he left with a good amount of money in his pocket. That was it, is what he had thought at the beginning but the following week in the same class his classmates again offered him money in exchange for his knowledge, from there it escalated to other subjects and then even to other courses.
Keiji wasn’t stupid, if he wanted to continue with this then he needed a plan, so he had a blackboard in his room with all the jobs he had to do and all the assignments of the week were scheduled on his phone, he was someone quite organized, so he didn’t want to get confused or mix jobs, when he didn’t have time available and people asked for his services. Keiji simply refused unless he was offered more money, but he was never going to sacrifice his own grades for his work. One of its main rules is that, first he received the money either by bank transfer or face to face, it didn’t accept any other payment method. The product would be delivered in the next few minutes after receiving the payment. He would always seek for his clients to drop the product, they didn’t have to go for it, it was prohibited and obviously the deal was between buyer and provider but they were allowed to recommend him.
That’s what he started doing two years ago. Next year he would enter college, it was still not clear for him what to study or to which university he would go to, but he was already saving for this great step. Both of his parents work most of the time, he considers himself a person who lives comfortably but he never asked money from his parents, after the first year he realized that he really liked having his own income. So, this is what he was doing now, exchanging money for the laziness of his classmates.
He kept going down the hall, he was going to be late for class but it was worth it. When he enters, the teacher doesn't say anything about his delay, he just keeps walking until he reaches his seat, he listens to the class carefully for the first five minutes then he dedicates himself to finishing a chemistry report that he has to deliver tomorrow, apparently it was more easier than he thought because he finishes it before the end of the class. With the extra time he checks his social media, he doesn’t have any new messages. He rests his hand against his cheek and looks out of the window, the day is sunny and there was no cloud in sight, a sign of a good day. When the class ends the teacher talks about a new history report, he feels the looks of his classmates on him, there were too many to do them all and they knew it, they would have to fight for Keiji to accept to do their homework. By the time the teacher leaves the classroom, the other students quickly approach him, at the end he chose to make seven reports, he would have a busy weekend.
He uses his lunch time to finish the homework of a couple that he had to deliver at last period, it was for a girl who is a cheerleader and for her boyfriend, a basketball player, they were idiots, so he tries not to do it perfectly. As he wrote, with his free hand he took some grapes to eat, he looked up at the other tables, everyone was sitting in groups and making a lot of noise. He tries to look for him with his eyes but he didn’t always come to lunch at the school cafeteria. He gets a message from the cheerleader asking about his homework, he fixes some minor details and leaves the room to deliver it.
"Thank you" the little blonde says when she hands him the money.
They met at the gym, he was counting the money when he realized that it was only a part of if "Half is missing."
"Yes, you have to ask Naoki" she says disinterestedly with her hand outstretched to receive the folder.
"I made the deal with you, I can't give it to you if you don't hand me all the money," he replies with a serious tone.
"Like I said, Naoki is going to pay you the missing half, just give it to me, I have to deliver it in my next class."
"I don't even know who that is, I'm not going to hand it over if you don't give me what we agreed" he takes the folder from her hands and turns around.
"Wait!" He turns and the girl takes her wallet out of her bag, she hands him the missing part so he gives her the folder after counting the amount. "It better be a 10 or you will deal with Naoki."
He doesn't look at her face when he walks away from the place, he gets irritated just thinking of the girl receiving her grade, Naoki will not dare to do anything to him, after all Keiji does all his homework for him. He crosses out the name of the cheerleader on his list, he doesn't want to work with her ever again, he didn't appreciate her rudeness. He was walking outside the gym when he heard someone shouting, it was his name the one it was being shouted and he clearly recognized the voice of a man. Oh no, Naoki was coming for him. He could run, he went out every morning to run so he was good at that... he was going to look pathetic and the other was an athlete he was going to catch him and it would be worse. What if he calls a teacher for help? even worse, his small business could be at risk of being discovered. "Shit" he was going to have to take the beating, he could hear the noise of sneakers on the floor, I hope it’s not in the face, he would not know how to explain it to his parents, he turns around to face his destiny.
"Akaashi, right?" The boy in a uniform of the volleyball team asks.
This would be worse, he looks like a bully with his arms and legs defined, with his great height, his messy hair style and that smirk on his face. He had his name on the tip of his tongue, he was captain of the volleyball team, he was popular with the girls, he heard that he go out with a different one every week, he has been kicked out of the classroom several time, he heard that he went out to big parties every weekend and there was even a rumor about that he had been arrested for causing riots. He didn’t share classes with him and they had never spoke to each other before, nor had he asked for his services.
"Yes, can I help you with something?" He will most likely ask for an essay.
"Actually yes," he says as they stand face to face in the hallway, the tall man looks both ways. "I need a favor, I mean, uh, a job."
He lets out the air that he was holding relieved, obviously he wanted his services, "I’m busy this week so I don't have time, I'm sorry."
"But it's short, just a page" he says quickly.
"A page? What class is it for?"
"Ehhh ha ha you’ll see it’s not for any class" now he was confused. "It is- I want you to write a letter".
Keiji frowns "A letter?" Does he want me to write a letter for college admission?
"Yes, a love letter."
“...”
Keiji turns around and continues walking his way.
"HEY! Wait," the boy says running after him. "I know it's not what you usually do, but a friend of mine paid you for a literature report and when he showed it to me I found it incredible, not all of us have that talent, dude," He kept walking behind him "I tried to write a letter myself but it's very difficult and if maybe you did, I don't know, please I'm desperate."
He refuses to write a stupid confession letter, he has not reached such a point of desperation. "Sorry as you said, it is not what I do" he replied respectfully.
"Please! I'll even pay you double" Keiji looks at him curiously but shakes his head again. "It will only be this time, it will be easy money, come on." Keiji analyzes his options, the letter would not be difficult to do, he just needs creativity, it’s a challenge and lately he has been bored.
"All right, just this time only, one page maximum and I want the triple of my usual rate."
"Deal" the young man says extending his hand.
Wow he must be really desperate, Keiji shakes his hand "I need your phone number" he says as he writes his number down on a piece of paper to give it to him "you can write to me so I can schedule you, as I said I'm busy so I will deliver it on Monday in school, money has to be deposited before that."
"If you want you can send it to me by mail, I will put it in the envelope, let me know when you have it and I will send you the money."
Even better for him, "Okay, what's your name?"
He smiles and doesn't answer for a long minute, then replies "Kuroo Tetsurou".
He had heard that name a thousand times through these hallways "Well Kuroo, what do you want me to write about? What's the girl's name? What do you want to tell her in the letter?"
The boy opens his eyes nervously "ehhh, you don't need to write her name, I will, you can write anything, just tell her I like her and that I want to go out with her."
He rolls his eyes, he will have to do everything, surely the girl already has a boyfriend "Okay, if you won't tell me who she is at least tell me how she looks like and what she likes."
Kuroo gets nervous again "I-ehh I can't tell you, just don't talk about her physical appearance and I don't know what she likes, I don't know her that well ... but I want to! put that. Also, this has to be strictly confidential, no one can know. "
This will not be easy if he doesn't give him any information that will help him "Of course it is confidential, you have my word", he sees the relieved face of Kuroo "I will see what I can do with the vague information you gave me" he says irritated.
"Thank you" Kuroo says with a big smile on his face "I owe you one dude."
"What you owe me is money" he says as he walks away and hears Kuroo Tetsurou's laugh.
It will not be so difficult, he can visit some sites that talk about love and he had read hundreds of books that talk about the subject so he has a slight idea about romanticism. Of course, that is the only way he can learn, his parents are not a good example, he never sees them being affectionate with each other and they seem more like coworkers than spouses from years, both work in a prestigious company where they have to constantly travel to different parts of the world. And well, Keiji hasn’t meet love yet in his almost 18 years, he has not even give his first kiss. He has never been someone who makes many friends or to make friends in general, with a good book he was fine, for what he remembers he received dozens of confessions in his life but he never accepted them, he didn't bother on reading the letters. He didn't wanted the girls to get excited, of course he didn’t know that he was being rude, at the time he found that it was better to be honest immediately than accepting the chocolates.
Besides he found the subject a bit superficial, he never spoke to any of those girls for more than ten minutes. Why would they be interested in him? He had a little bit of confidence, he was not an unattractive person but he was someone... flat, too normal, he didn't attract attention, although he considered himself tall being 1.83 centimeters tall, with his black hair carefully combed but with his curls getting messier as the day passes, with his dark blue eyes that almost looked like black, if he asked his classmates with closed eyes what color their eyes were, nobody would know how to answer, they simply were not memorable. His teeth were what he liked the most about him, they were always extremely white and his upturned nose was also to his liking, he never did a lot of sports as growing up, he did athletics for two years because he liked to run but he didn't like not going at his own pace, it relaxed him to go jogging in the morning while listening to his classical music playlist and that helped his body to look more toned, a little skinny though, but he has no idea why because he was always eating.
The last time he received a confession from a girl was at the beginning of last year, she sat next to him in most classes and they had exchanged a few words, he was surprised when she left class to take him away of the classroom to confess her feelings, he highly doubted whether to accept it or not, it’s not that he liked her but he saw her as a potential friend.
After rejecting her politely she didn’t sit next to him ever again. It was not her personality or her appearance, in fact she was very attractive, it’s just that some years ago he had realized that he was not attracted to women. He didn't like any boy he knew either, he wasn't really looking for a boyfriend or something like that, his parents would kill him and he refused to think of any boy from school in that way, he would wait to explore with boys in university who are not immature.
But someone had caught his attention, Keiji tried to ignore his feelings at first, but it was difficult, his damn brain was always looking for him with his gaze. They shared some classes and when they did they sat together, once when he was totally focused on his homework during lunch he suddenly saw him sitting in front of him, so they used to have lunch together sometimes, they also messaged each other, Keiji still didn't know if calling him a friends is right, he wanted to but his feelings prevented him of doing so and in less than six months he would be on his way to university. What good does it do to form a relationship now?
The last hour had passed quickly, Keiji wrote some romance lines for the letter but he felt that someone could see it, he didn't want to lose his reputation for a love letter, it would be embarrassing. He waited in his seat for a few minutes as everyone stormed out of the classroom when the bell announced the end of school hours, he was walking down on the deserted hall, it was Friday after all and everyone wanted to enjoy it to the fullest, he had heard that the president of the class would celebrate her birthday party, his entire class would go plus some students of other classes, he doesn’t know if he was considered a guest. He was only thinking about it because it would be a pool party and the heat was already affecting him, he wasn’t crazy enough to go to a party with the troglodytes he knows. His parents were at home, that meant a delicious dinner, then he would advance with his own homework to start with the others, he thought about going to buy some new expensive running shoes that he had seen, he deserves a treat after all and that was his entertaining plan for the weekend.
"Akaashi" his heart almost jumps out of his chest when he heard that soft voice.
"Kozume" he responds when he turns around. The boy was walking behind him, he had a game console in his hands.
"Hello," he simply says as he walks beside him and Keiji greet him back. "Did you have to clean the classroom?"
"No," he says puzzled. Did he smell like cleaning products? Should he use more perfume? "Why?"
The boy walks beside him without taking his eyes off his game. "The bell rang more than five minutes ago."
"Ahh yes, I don't like getting out at the same time as everyone else, they get truly desperate and start pushing, it seems like a jungle." How pathetic, now he will think that he is someone who doesn't like people and even if that’s true, he doesn’t want him to think like that of him.
"Really?" He says looking up. "I always wait a few minutes longer than necessary to avoid the crowd." Good, he says, they are more similar than he thought.
They were walking together out of the school, maybe he should try to make conversation "Where are you heading?" The boy walks by his side without answering, thank goodness he didn’t hear him, he feels embarrassed now, this thing of socialize with others is not his forte.
"To the station."
He was listening. "Me too" he says as they walked together in silence, it’s not an uncomfortable silence but his mind is screaming at him to make conversation with Kozume. He looks at his right side where Kozume is walking, he was shorter than Keiji so he lowers his eyes, apparently his game was about a battle between characters. He didn't even have to look at him to describe him, his image had stuck with him a few months ago. The first time he saw him was on the first day of school this year, he sat two seats behind him, he immediately stand out with his blonde hair and quite noticeable black roots that went beyond his cheeks, but what caught his attention the most were those big golden felines eyes, his eyes shine and his color is very intriguing, his nose was more uptight and delicate than his, his lips looked soft and... Why the fuck was he doing looking at his lips? Keiji turned to look at the front of the road.
The first time they spoke was when they were in their second shared class, they only had three classes together so they saw each other three times a week in classes, Kozume had shyly touched his shoulder, he was sitting in front of him and when he turned around he looked a little nervous. "Ehh my pen fell under your feet could you kick it to me?" He didn't even hear the noise so he bends down to pick it up to give it to him. "Here you have" he says, the blonde nods and thanks him, he doesn't know why he felt his heart that way.
From there he began to notice him more often, when once the teacher announced that they had to work in pairs, Keiji practically turned his head 360 degrees to ask him if he wanted to be his partner. When he turns around he can see the other clearly nervous, he offers him to work as partners and he immediately accepts, they work well together, Kozume was smart and he only spoke the necessary, when they finish it leaving time to spare they exchanged only a couple of words. The boy was always distracted by his portable game, the only thing Keiji knew about games was that Mario was the red character and Luigi the green.
He begins to sit beside him more often, as he was always alone and decided that it was time to form a friendship. When he did it, the other didn’t speak to him but he was not uncomfortable so he continued to do so, then the small talks started, they were about homework, classes, weather, things like that. Kozume was someone extremely shy but he was opening up more and more, he was someone funny and had similar tastes as him. Then one day they exchanged numbers and started having lunch together at school, suddenly he would appear sitting next to Kozume or he would come and sit next to him. Definitely he talked more by messages, once he sent him a game, Keiji downloaded it and he spent two hours losing.
They had never walked together after school, Kozume had asked him something about whether he had done the chemistry homework, Keiji mentioned that yes and that he had to do a few more. He knew about his “work”, several times he witnessed when someone spoke to him about the subject, he thought that he was going to judge him, but he never said anything to him and he even laughed at how idiot people were, he offered him to do the same, he could help him, he was someone incredible smart from what he could tell but he refused. I am too lazy to do even my own homework, the blonde replied.
"What train are you taking?" Keiji asked while they waited at the station, he was disappointed when he answered and it was not the same, he waited for him to leave first and they said goodbye waving their hands lightly.
He came home and greeted his parents, they talked even less than he and Kozume. He went up to his room and started doing his work, the history report was more difficult than he thought, it took almost the whole weekend to do them all, it was Sunday afternoon when Kuroo wrote to him asking for his letter. Shit, he had forgotten, it seemed so small and easy that he didn't even write it down in his schedule, he replied that it was almost ready while he was actually starting it.
He didn't know what to do, he went blank for an hour, he bangs his head on the desk and stayed in that position for a good five minutes, he won't do this again he told himself, he was tired and he wanted to sleep so he looked for a love song and practically copied and pasted it by altering some lines, he received the money before sending the email to Kuroo.
He forgot about the letter until Kuroo approached him on Thursday. "I already told you I would only write once." he said as he closes his locker.
"Oh yeah?" He says as he gives him a crumpled piece of paper. "You scammed me, the deal was that you would write a letter not a damn song," he says, almost whispering, "I could have done that myself and saved me the money. Now she will never speak to me again."
Keiji looks both sides, a teacher was passing near them with her books, "Not here" he says as he guides him to the bathroom.
He read the letter's answer over and over. "You are what I'm looking for - Rooney" it said with the name underlined. Well... shit. He could swear that nobody knew that song.
"Ehhh, this worked to break the ice, now she will definitely write you again" he says to the tall.
"Really? After almost a week without responding," he says, rolling his eyes, "I want my money back."
He couldn't let his reputation be ruined like that, he was the captain of the volleyball team and he was very popular, although on the other hand he doubted that he would tell anyone if he was so afraid of people knowing it, still he paid for a service and Keiji deliver it worse than mediocre, he was used to delivering quality and high standards products.
“All right, this is good, without a doubt you caught her attention and so as not to seem that interested, she took her time to write back" with the small investigation of romance that he had done, all indicated that she was playing hard to get and they were on the right track. He was also beginning to like this challenge "I will write a second letter more deeper and I will deliver it to you tomorrow."
Kuroo looks doubtful but he assures him that the letter will be so good that by Monday he will have an answer and with that he will have already won the girl's heart so they would no longer need silly letters to communicate.
He had been sitting in his room for two hours with a pen in his hand and a completely empty page. Writing about love was more difficult than he thought, he didn’t want to inspire himself with any of his books with fear that she would discover him again, if that happens, she would never answer him again. He exhales deeply.
"Hello"
It was a good start, he says crumpling the paper and throwing it in the trash, he didn't want to give up so easily but he was seriously thinking about returning the money to Kuroo. A message arrives on his phone at that time, it was from Kozume, he opens it after counting sixty seconds, it was a meme of a cat, he’s used to send them and Keiji found it charming.
He replies with a "hahaha" no, no, it’s a lot of laughs it will look fake, he chooses to remove some letters "haha" he looks even more fake, he takes a deep breath and sends him a natural "hahha", that will do. He would like to send him another meme back but he didn't know where to really get them from and what if they were boring? He was not going to embarrass himself like that. He waits about ten minutes close to the phone in case the blonde answered him but there was nothing really to answer to that laugh, so he sits at his desk and begins to write the letter on his computer. He thinks of Kozume and he sees himself finishing the second paragraph easily, at the end he manages to write a cute letter, he changes some things so that it looks like Kuroo's personality and also adds some misspellings.
He says things about him being really nervous when writing to her, so he decided to find a song that best reflects his feelings, the girl's beauty was so great that it prevented him from forming coherent sentences, he constantly dreamed with his eyes and that he wanted nothing more than those eyes to look only at him, he compared her beauty with a work of art and her personality as lovely and charming, in the end he humiliate himself a little so that she would accept to go out with him. He assumed that Kuroo had no problem getting girls, but perhaps she knew about his reputation and she was afraid he would break her heart, so he had to say that he only cared about her and no one else and that she could trusted him and blah blah blah.
Poor girl, Keiji thought. What would Kuroo Tetsurou do with the girl's heart after getting it? He felt a little bad but he still sent a message to Kuroo saying that the letter was ready and had already been sent to him. After a while he replied that the letter was magnificent and he hoped it was not another song, he said that he changed some things and mentioned some spelling mistakes. You're welcome he had written at the end of the message with some emojis.
What an idiot Keiji said to himself. Well, at least he was done with this, he hopes to never hear about the letter again.