Archive of Our Own

Summer was a season that everyone looked forward to. It was a time for hanging out with friends and enjoying the weather. Yet, despite the yellow sun rays and pleasant chatter floating through the air outside, here Akashi was, tapping a rhythm with his pen onto the dining room table in front of him while Aomine and Kise stared back in anticipation. As much as he wished this was just a normal hangout session, he knew there was work to be done.

With the three of them recently starting their second year of high school, their curriculum only continued to get more difficult with each passing day. It was nothing Akashi couldn’t handle, of course, but when it came to his friend circle, there were always… outliers.

Aomine and Kise’s abysmal grades were no secret. When they were still in Teiko, Akashi and Midorima always had to act as the de facto tutors for them (and sometimes Murasakibara) to ensure that nobody would miss practice or games being stuck in remedial classes, but that was back then. Now that they had graduated from Teiko and scattered across the country, it was much more of a laborious task to keep each other in check. But they were getting older and soon they wouldn’t have any upperclassmen to hold accountable those that needed to study. So, after catching wind from Momoi of Aomine and Kise just barely scraping by in their midterm exams, it didn’t take long for Kuroko to reach out to Akashi, asking (more like pleading) for him to pay the two a visit on the weekend before their final exams and do something. It was their only hope if they wanted to play each other in future tournaments.

Not one to shy away from helping his friends, Akashi agreed to Kuroko’s request and made arrangements to stay at the Tokyo estate for the weekend so that he could see Aomine and Kise. They decided to do the study session early that Saturday at Kise’s house, holed up in the dining room with textbooks and stationery strewn across the table.

Kise’s mother, who they had greeted after Kise opened the door, was very kind and welcoming, especially to Akashi, who she thanked repeatedly for having Kise under his tutelage. She even brought them snacks to eat while they were studying, wishing them a quick ‘good luck’ before disappearing upstairs. Soon, it was just the three of them, a clock ticking away in the corner of the room while Akashi attempted to work a miracle.

“Do we really have to?” Kise wheedled for maybe the fifth time since they entered his house. “Studying on a day like this is practically criminal, Akashicchi!”

“Yeah, just look how sunny it is,” Aomine chimed in, pointing to the window with a half-eaten pocky stick. “Can’t we just figure this out later?”

Akashi stared them down, not taking the bait. “Absolutely not. You guys are already behind as it stands, and it will only get worse from here on out. When that happens, not even I can save you from the grades you’ll receive.”

“But studying is so boring,” said Kise.

“Boring as it may be, it’s still our duty as students,” Akashi countered. “In any case, I promised Kuroko that I would get you two up to speed before our final exams, so that’s what we’re going to do.”

Aomine clicked his tongue at the mention of Kuroko’s name. “Tetsu… he’s such a snitch.”

“Call him what you want. Sooner or later, your exam results would have told on themselves.” Akashi outstretched his hand toward them expectantly. “Hand them over.”

Before meeting up for the study session, Akashi requested Aomine and Kise to bring their placement test results to see exactly what he was dealing with. It would give him a good frame of reference for where to start so he wasn’t just making guesses as to how much of their curriculum they knew. However, as the two of them reluctantly handed over their graded exam papers, Akashi couldn’t help but make a face.

This was Aomine and Kise, so he was expecting low scores, but it had been such a long time since middle school that he forgot just how badly they used to do. As he flipped through their papers, Akashi became more perturbed with each score written in red pen.

Thirty-four points here, fifteen points there, and even a couple of zeros, which Akashi felt was arguably more difficult than getting full marks. It took a few deep breaths and several mental repetitions of ‘They’re your friends, don’t kill them’ before he finally mustered up the energy to address the now trembling culprits of these poor results.

“I’m sure both of you know what I would like to say about these grades. However, since we clearly have a lot of ground to cover, I’ll spare you for the sake of time.” At that, Akashi heard twin exhales of relief, and he rolled his eyes before flicking them back down to the papers in his hands.

“What’s the next step then?” Aomine asked hesitantly, trying not to set his former captain off. “You have our grades. Now what?”

Akashi thought for a moment and grabbed his notebook from the table, flipping it to an empty page. He then took a pen and used it to make a two-column table, where he put Aomine’s name in one header and Kise’s in the other.

“I’m going to make a list of every subject you wrote exams for. The subjects with the lowest scores will be at the top,” Akashi explained. “Those subjects will be our priority, and we will spend most of our time today going through what you don’t understand until you can grasp the concepts better.”

“You mean… we’re gonna go until we know everything?” said Kise, already beginning to go pale.

Akashi shook his head, effectively silencing his concerns. “Aiming for you two to completely flip your grades around during the finals is unrealistic, so we’re going to do this until you know enough to get by with average scores.”

Aomine huffed, folding his arms. “I don’t see why we have to do all this. I could just read through Satsuki’s notes and I’d be fine.”

“Momoi may be kind enough to always do that for you, but at some point, you must learn how to study without her,” Akashi chided. “What will happen if she chooses to go to a different university than you after we graduate?”

“I don’t care about university,” Aomine retorted. “I wanna play for the NBA after I graduate high school, anyway.”

“The NBA has a preference for those that complete at least one year of university. So, either way, you have quite a bit of studying in your future,” Akashi said matter-of-factly, watching with the slightest bit of satisfaction as dread washed over Aomine’s face at the realization. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some lists to make.”

Akashi’s next few minutes were spent taking note of which subjects Aomine and Kise were the worst at and ranking them in order. When he was finished, he concluded that the most problematic subjects for both of them were Math and Science, followed by Japanese Language, Social Studies for Kise, and Foreign Language for Aomine. It was a lot to work with, but Akashi had faith that he could improve their grades.

Somehow…

The first order of business was reviewing math problems since it was the highest on the list in terms of priority, and Akashi was already losing Aomine and Kise within the first ten minutes.

The moment Akashi opened his mouth, Aomine’s eyes immediately glazed over like he was in some sort of trance. In some cases, Aomine zoning out was a positive thing. However, that was only in the context of basketball when it meant he was excited for an upcoming game. In the context of studying, this was just Aomine not paying attention, and Akashi could practically see his words enter through one of Aomine’s ears and exit out the other.

And Kise, bless his soul… Kise was genuinely trying to pay attention. But even with the concentrated effort he was making, Akashi knew that he was struggling to follow the explanations. Every so often, Kise’s brows would furrow, but then he’d catch Akashi’s gaze, fix his expression, and look back down at his math textbook, almost as if he didn’t want Akashi to know he was confused. The longer this went on, the harder it was to keep his attention as well, and soon Akashi found himself fighting not to descend into madness.

“This is wrong. Do it again,” said Akashi, tapping his pen on Aomine’s notebook where he had tried to work out a trigonometry problem.

“How?!” Aomine argued back. “I literally followed the formula!”

“You mislabeled the triangle. Uppercase letters are for the angles and lowercase letters are for the sides. That’s why your numbers are mixed up. Now as for you…” Akashi swiveled his head to look at Kise’s work, “I don’t know how you got this answer from the numbers you were given.”

“I followed the formula, too, Akashicchi!” Kise whined.

“You wrote twenty degrees as the angle instead of ten degrees like you were supposed to.” Akashi realized, instantly spotting the issue after looking harder at his calculations. “Didn’t I tell you to read the question properly?”

“It’s not my fault, there are too many numbers to look at! How am I supposed to remember that the angle was twenty—”

“Ten.”

“—ten degrees? Sometimes it’s hard to catch mistakes.”

“That’s why it’s important to leave yourself enough time at the end of your exam to go through your answers so that you can catch your mistakes before you submit your paper,” said Akashi. “Even the slightest miscalculation can cost you the answer to the question, and you two can’t afford to lose any more points on exams than you already do. Now, let’s try these problems one more time.”

True to his word, the three of them sat there and redid trigonometry problems again…

And again…

And again...

Aomine and Kise became more frustrated with each mini-lesson they received, and by the time Akashi moved on to the next topic in the textbook, he was dealing with more than their short attention spans.

He was in the middle of explaining another mathematical concept when he heard a muffled giggle from across the table. Glancing up from the textbook and quirking a singular brow in question, Akashi saw Aomine and Kise sitting there with neutral expressions, seemingly paying attention. He regarded them for a few more moments before looking back down and continuing talking.

It wasn’t even ten seconds later before Akashi heard another giggle and looked up again, mild annoyance flaring up inside him.

“What exactly is so funny?”

“Nothing. We’re just taking notes,” said Aomine, trying to be nonchalant but clearly failing, judging by his quivering lips and Kise sitting next to him looking as red as a tomato with the way he was trying to hold in laughter. On top of that, Aomine’s hand was conveniently blocking a part of his notebook page like he was trying to hide something.

Before either of them had time to react, Akashi snatched the notebook from Aomine’s grasp and quickly found the source of their laughter on the bottom of the page, which just so happened to be a crudely drawn picture of what Akashi assumed to be himself, dressed as a professor and pointing to a bunch of nonsense scribbles on a whiteboard.

His left eye twitched.

“So, you have time to fool around while I’m trying to help you study, do you?” Akashi began in a low voice, not missing the way Aomine and Kise tensed at his words. Good. They should be afraid. “May I remind you that if you don’t start doing better in school, you could be stuck in remedial classes? If any of them happen to fall on the day of an important basketball game, you can’t play. Why aren’t you two taking this seriously?”

“We were trying to,” said Aomine, putting his hands up in defense. “It just… gets boring after a while.”

“Well, sorry for not jumping through rings of fire and juggling bowling pins while I explain the quadratic formula, but we don’t have the luxury of taking things slow or making this study session entertaining,” Akashi shot back, not quite being able to remove the snark in his tone. “We’re days away from taking our final exams and both of you have too many gaps in your knowledge for this to be anything other than a crash course.”

“We get it. Seriously, Akashicchi,” said Kise with a nervous laugh. “It’s just hard to pay attention sometimes.”

“Then at least humor me and pretend like you care,” said Akashi. “With how distracted you two are, we’re getting absolutely nowhere.”

“You’re right, we are getting nowhere,” Aomine agreed. He was slouching so much that he was halfway out of his seat, clearly reaching his own limit. “Let’s take a break and come back to it.”

“A break?” Akashi repeated slowly, trying to process what he just heard. “Aomine, there’s no time for—”

“Yeah, let’s take a break!” said Kise, jumping onto Aomine’s response before Akashi could even get a word in. “I think after all this, we should destress a bit, right? There’s a park not too far from here.”

Aomine picked up on the subtext of that straight away because he shot up from where he was sitting, a grin lighting up his face. “A park?”

Kise returned the smile just as brightly. “I’ll go get my basketball.”

Akashi sat there speechless as their study session was derailed in an instant, watching Aomine and Kise put their textbooks and notebooks to one side and polish off the rest of the snacks. Eventually, their things were organized into a haphazard pile, and Akashi—still rooted to his chair—found himself being offered a hand by Kise, who was giving him a pleading smile.

“Come on, Akashicchi. We’ll just play for a little bit and then we’ll get back to exam prep for real. We promise.”

Akashi stared at his hand for a long moment before sighing in resignation. While they really should have been studying, he couldn’t deny the growing excitement buzzing under his skin at the thought of basketball, especially on a clear summer day like this.

“Alright,” he relented, taking hold of Kise’s hand and hoisting himself up from the chair. “We can play basketball for a little while.”

Without another second wasted, Akashi followed the other two to put his shoes on, and then they were out the door.

…

The walk to the park was uneventful in itself. A lot of it involved lighthearted conversation about anything and everything. How warm it was outside, the sound the cicadas were making in the trees, how perfect it would be if they got popsicles from the convenience store on the way back, it was so opposite from the conversations back in Kise’s house that Akashi had almost forgotten what brought the three of them together in the first place. Was everyone really that on edge from the study session?

Ever since switching back during the Winter Cup, Akashi tried very hard not to get too worked up when things weren’t going smoothly, but it seemed that getting rid of his habit was harder than he originally anticipated. He was just exasperated because there was so much material to go over and Aomine and Kise weren’t getting it. But now that they were crossing a street and Akashi’s expression softened as he watched Kise snicker at something Aomine said, he realized that maybe it was good that they took a break when they did. He didn’t even realize how wound up he was until he stepped outside.

A few minutes later, they arrived at the park, and Aomine pumped his fist in the air when he saw the empty basketball court ahead.

“Alright! No one’s there!” he exclaimed. “Let’s hurry up.”

Kise nodded enthusiastically. “Okay! Let’s go, Akashicchi!”

They ran ahead and Akashi shook his head in amusement, jogging to catch up to them. It seemed like no matter how old they got, they still behaved like excited puppies whenever basketball was involved. There was a small comfort he took in that.

By the time Akashi reached the court, Aomine was already practicing layups on one side, alternating with Kise for every shot he made.

“So, what’s the plan?” he asked when Aomine and Kise were finally within earshot. “How are we going to do this?”

Aomine caught the ball that Kise threw to him, shrugging his shoulders at the question.

“Dunno,” he replied. “I thought we could play a few mini-games or something.”

“Mini-games?” Kise parroted, not following his logic. “But there’s three of us, so the teams would be uneven unless someone sits out every round…”

Aomine faltered, realizing the flaw in his plan. “Crap, you’re right.”

“No matter,” said Akashi. “I can play against you two.”

Both Aomine and Kise let out noises of confusion, turning to face him with identical puzzled expressions.

“Are you sure you can handle us both, Akashicchi?” Kise asked. “Even for someone as good as you, that’s a pretty big handicap.”

“I wouldn’t suggest it if I wasn’t confident,” Akashi responded, a small but devious smile creeping across his face. “If anything, I should be asking you if you can handle me.”

Aomine’s interest was definitely piqued now, and he matched Akashi’s smile with one of his own.

“Oh? Those are fighting words.” He tossed the basketball over and began walking toward the two of them. “I hope you’re ready to put your money where your mouth is.”

Akashi caught the ball with ease and gave it a couple experimental bounces on the court before nodding to himself. He exhaled deeply through his nose and crouched into an offensive stance like it was second nature, letting his eyes flutter shut. When they opened once more, they were now laser-focused on his two opponents, heart pounding against his ribcage in anticipation as his smile grew a bit more wild, a bit more unrestrained, and, for the first time that day, he allowed himself to get lost in the moment.

“Come at me.”

 …

The mini-games turned out exactly how Akashi predicted they would. Given his track record, that was about as synonymous with “successful” as one could get.

Perhaps it was because Akashi’s basketball skills had gotten better in a very short time or because he felt the urge to blow off steam from their study session, but he found himself doing very well against Aomine and Kise, unexpectedly so. The extra energy he had pent up from sitting on a dining room chair for two hours ended up getting released while he was playing, and Akashi caught himself on multiple occasions doing maneuvers that he normally wouldn’t chance in an official match without ensuring they would work.

When Aomine and Kise started getting fast, so did he. When they started getting unpredictable, so did he. Soon, they were nothing but colorful blurs running up and down the court, completely losing track of points after a while. But when Akashi managed to ankle-break Kise and then fake a jump shot with Aomine before going for a dunk just to show off, they decided that there was just no coming back from such a massacre and called it quits.

“Alright, we give up,” Kise surrendered. He was bent over with his hands on his knees, panting for air like he was at high altitude. “I can barely move.”

“Honestly, how are you so quick?” Aomine huffed, flapping the hem of his t-shirt up and down to try and cool himself off. “The way you move, we might as well have been playing against two people.”

“I suppose you were playing with two people if you want to be technical,” Akashi joked. Somewhere in the back of his mind, a muffled voice that was his own but also not quite muttered a very unimpressed “not funny” in response. “Either way, you played valiantly until the end, and I commend you both for your efforts.”

“That one drive you did against me, though, how did you do that?” Kise asked. “It happened so fast that I barely caught it.”

“Oh, that’s easy,” said Aomine. “When you fumbled the ball, he managed to grab it with a low pick-up and cross you when you tried to reach for it.”

He plucked the ball from the ground and, to the best of his ability, recreated what he saw during the mini-game, finishing the display with a layup.

When the ball swished through the net, Akashi turned to Kise and saw he was watching intently from where he was standing. Then, as if a switch was flipped, something clicked, and he reached for the ball. Aomine placed it into his awaiting hands, and Kise stepped out onto the court, copying exactly what he just saw Aomine doing down to the last detail.

When his own layup went through the net, Kise turned to Aomine and Akashi, a wide smile of victory spread across his face. “I did it, guys!”

“Very impressive, Kise. And you too, Aomine,” Akashi complimented. “For all the times that you praise me, I am surprised each and every time I see you guys in action. It must take a lot of effort to observe others to such a degree that you can instantly imitate their movements.”

Kise and Aomine exchanged looks before giving half-hearted shrugs.

“It’s not really that hard for me,” said Aomine.

“Same here,” said Kise. “I guess I’ve just always found it easy to copy by watching other people. Pretty easy to learn when you have a demonstration, right?”

At Kise’s words, Akashi stopped dead in his tracks, an epiphany striking him like lightning in the sky.

That was it.

That was why Kise and Aomine couldn’t absorb any information during the study session.

They were visual learners.

This entire time, Akashi was trying to talk at them, hoping they would pay enough attention to his words so that they could retain at least some of the information he was trying to teach, but the answer was right in front of his face the whole time. It was clear that they learned through visual examples that were relatable and more understandable to them. However, instead of trying to play to their strengths, Akashi forced his way of learning onto them, and Aomine and Kise ended up getting nothing out of studying as a result. How could he have been teaching them wrong this whole time?

And Akashi was only able to have this realization because of this unexpected trip to the basketball court that he so vehemently tried to prevent. If it hadn’t been for him letting Aomine and Kise drag him outside, he would have never figured out the solution to his problem.

It seemed that just as much as Akashi was trying to tutor his friends, he was learning his own lessons from them at the same time. How very ironic.

“Anyway, I think I’m ready to head back,” said Kise, stretching his arms. “What about you, Aominecchi?”

“Yeah, I’m cool with that. I guess we can go back to studying…” said Aomine, visibly deflating at the mere mention of it.

“Actually,” Akashi interjected, “when we get back to the house, I’d like to try something different.”

Aomine and Kise perked up at that, turning to him with intrigue.

“Something different?” said Kise. “What are we trying?”

Akashi only smiled, picking the basketball up and walking ahead of them. “You’ll see.”

…

After coming back from the basketball court, Akashi decided to implement his findings right away. He completely switched up his teaching methods and stopped making Aomine and Kise sit through long explanations, instead focusing on giving visual examples of how the concepts they were learning could be used; for some subjects, he even found ways to help them understand by using everyday items around Kise’s house.

Whenever there was a chance for Aomine and Kise to observe and copy, Akashi let them. He didn’t stick so strictly to the textbooks and allowed himself to be flexible in how he explained the curriculum. Aomine and Kise were allowed to understand the material on their own terms, and giving them that agency made them so much more engaged in the idea of studying.

Most importantly, whenever Aomine and Kise looked like they needed a break, Akashi gave them one. He realized that not everyone worked at the same pace, and he was wrong for trying to force them to work the same way that he did. Some people are able to work for three hours straight before taking a break and some are able to only work for twenty minutes. By letting them decompress when they needed to instead of when Akashi thought it was appropriate, everyone was in high spirits and there was no frustration or tension like there was earlier in the day.

From Math to Science, to Japanese Language, to Social Studies, and to Foreign Language, they breezed through each subject like it was nothing. By the end of the day, when it was time for them to part ways, Akashi was proud of how far they had come.

“Well, I must say, I’m really impressed with you guys.” He and Aomine were standing by the front door, shoes on and ready to go. “You worked very hard today, and the studying session went better than I expected.”

“Does this mean you think we’re gonna pass the finals?” asked Aomine.

Akashi nodded. “Without a doubt. You are far more intelligent than you give yourselves credit for. I’m confident that as long as you remember what we went over today, you’ll do just fine.”

“You think so?” said Kise, his expression hopeful. “Looks like we’re out of hot water this time, Aominecchi!”

Aomine barked out a laugh. “Passing the finals is only half the battle, though. We still have to keep these grades up for the rest of the school year.”

A smile bloomed on Akashi’s face. “Well, if you ever need a study partner, you know where to find me. Anyway, it’s about time I started making my way home. I still have to pack my things for my train ride back tomorrow. Good luck, you two.”

Kise waved at the two of them. “Bye, guys! Thanks for coming over, and good luck to you, too!”

…

The finals came and went in a blur. Even though everyone was stressed to various degrees, there was an undertone of eagerness that was palpable in the classrooms. The exams themselves were long, and it was a bit of a pain to slog through, but Akashi eventually came out on the other side with the grades he wanted, safely ending the first semester of his second year of high school with a bang. However, after he got his grades back, his biggest concern was now with Aomine and Kise’s results. And with the way their Teiko group chat was blowing up all of a sudden on results day, Akashi was certain that he was not alone in his concern either.

[The Kisekis 🏀 ]

Kuroko: 🕴🏻🕴🏻🕴🏻

Midorima: What’s with this mysterious message?

Momoi: Isn’t it obvious, Midorin??

Midorima: No. What could possibly warrant the use of these emoticons?

Murasakibara: hm…

Murasakibara: oh

Murasakibara: didn’t we get our results back today or something…?

Momoi: I knew I could count on you to get it, Mukkun! 🥰   Testu-kun’s obviously waiting for Dai-chan and Ki-chan to post their results  ^_^

Akashi: You seem pretty excited, Momoi.

Momoi: Of course I do! O(* ￣ ▽ ￣ *)o

Momoi: After the exams, Dai-chan said he actually understood some of the questions!

Akashi: Oh?

Kuroko: Oh? x2

Murasakibara: Oh? x3

Midorima: I will admit, hearing this took me off guard. And what about Kise?

Kuroko: I spoke with him after the finals, too. He said it was okay.

Akashi: Then I have faith that everything went well.

Aomine is online

Kise is online

Kuroko: 👀

Momoi: Dai-chan! Ki-chan! \(0^◇^0)/

Aomine: yo

Kise: Hey guys!^^

Akashi: We were just speaking about you. How are your exam results?

Murasakibara: send pics

Aomine: oh okay

Aomine: [sent an attachment]

Kise: [sent an attachment]

Murasakibara: woah.

Kuroko: I’m stunned...

Momoi: NO WAY??? 🤯🤯🤯

Momoi: THESE MIGHT BE YOUR BEST GRADES YET

Midorima: A lot of these scores are over 50. I never thought I’d see the day…

Akashi: Congratulations, you two. These results are amazing.

Kise: It’s thanks to you, Akashicchi! 😁

Aomine: yeah you saved our asses

Akashi: It’s me who should be thanking you two. It’s because you guys were so dedicated to studying that you were able to achieve these grades.

Kuroko: Wow, so diplomatic.

Murasakibara: aka-chin for prez ✊🏻

Midorima: Well, I suppose I should congratulate you both for this historic feat as well. Now that finals are behind us, you can enjoy the last two weeks of the semester in peace.

Momoi: Oh yeah, summer break is coming up soon! Any plans? 🩷

Aomine: nah

Kise: Not that I know of!

Kuroko: I have nothing planned either.

Murasakibara: you guys plan this stuff?

Midorima: I don’t have any plans.

Akashi: In that case, would you all like to meet up when school is out?

Kise: Ooh! 🤭 What should we do?

Akashi: I’m open to anything. Suggestions?

Murasakibara: candy shop

Midorima: Must everything involve candy? Pick somewhere else.

Murasakibara: ice cream parlor

Midorima: …

Murasakibara: 🍦🍦🍦

Midorima: Someone else pick.

Kuroko: A new escape room just opened up recently in Tokyo. We could try it out.

Aomine: that sounds like a pain

Momoi: No it doesn’t! I love it, Tetsu-kun! 🤗 🩷 😘

Aomine: whipped.

Momoi: Shut it, Aomine-kun. 😇 ️🔪

Momoi: Anywayyy, I’ll look up their operating hours and come back with some tentative dates and times we can put to a vote. 🫡

Murasakibara: 👍🏻

Aomine: okay

Kise: Sounds good to me!

Midorima: I’m fine with this arrangement.

Kuroko: Me too.

Akashi: Thank you for taking the initiative, Momoi. I hope to see you all very soon.

Momoi: No worries! Will text the group chat later! ( •̀ ω •́ )✧

Akashi chuckled to himself as he put his phone back on his desk and went back to the book he was reading. It was almost unreal that he was able to talk with his friends on a regular basis like this. After everything they had been through, it was hard to imagine even half a year ago that their dynamic would end up being this good. So much had changed since then.

Either way, the past was the past and the present never looked better. So, Akashi tried to focus on the positives, like how much closer he had gotten to his friends since the Winter Cup and the plans they were now trying to make for the summer holiday. At the end of the summer holiday came the Inter-High, and maybe after the Inter-High would come other important events that even Akashi couldn’t predict, but he was okay with that. His study session with Aomine and Kise helped him understand the importance of being flexible and willing to adapt to new situations.

After all, there are always lessons to be learned if one is willing to pay attention.