Chapter Text
Ryoko Bulanon twisted the pencil in her hand, letting it dance around her fingers. The sheet of paper on her desk was littered with red circles and a note in the upper corner that read ‘good job!’ with another circle that encaged her score. She released a heavy sigh as she overlooked her answers for the upteenth time, particularly bothered by the one red mark that sat in the vocabulary section. With all those circles, she didn’t think to ask herself why she was so anxious over the small red mark in the vocabulary section above her misspelling of the word ‘nauseous.’
“Sobra tanga mo.” She said to herself, leaning forward to rest her head against her fist. She couldn’t even take the make-up test because she got above an 80. Her other hand tapped the desk with the pencil, the repeated clicking reflecting her own mood. She was unaware of the look of concern she received from her deskmate. His short brows were raised as he looked away from his own paper, disappointed but not surprised at the red marks that took over half the page.
“English got to you too, huh?” Gao Hakuba asked. Ryoko let out a half-hearted grunt. If she’s reacting like that then she must have had a worse time with the test than he did. “You can still take the supplementary classes. What grade did you get any…” he trailed off, drifting his eyes down to the corner of her paper where another circle encaged a bright and bold number much higher than his own. “…way.” Bruh.
Ryoko didn’t take note of his pause. “I got a 98. Could’ve been a 100 if my dumbass hadn’t forgotten the ‘u’ in ‘nauseous.’” Stupid mistake for a stupid person. Of course she would mess up a simple word. She’s not graduating high school with stupid mistakes like this. Hopes and dreams you say? Throw it out the window along with her future. Live on the side of the road for forever since she was able to miss that!
Hakuba looked at her incredulously. “There’s no way you’re a dumbass when MY ass is the one that got a 53!” His voice boomed, shoving the paper closer to her face. She reared back, her thoughts skidding to a halt at the new distraction. With a quick scan over the page, she gently took the paper from his large hands instead. A hint of a smile grew over her features as she continued to read it over.
“This is better than last time, you’ve improved! Look,” She turned the paper around for him to see and pointed at all the positives. “Your translations are correct, it’s just the conjugations and punctuations that are holding you back. And if it weren’t for the spelling errors, everything in the vocabulary portion would be right...” Hakuba listened carefully to her analysis, acknowledging her advice while staring at her face. Her round face is framed by short, curly hair. Her almond eyes are almost hidden behind her fringe and her glasses that rested on her bulbous nose.
Ryoko looked back up at her deskmate and he straightened his posture. “You have a decent grasp of English, I think you just need to fine-tune your knowledge.” He stayed silent for a moment, overviewing his graded work with a whole new light.
Hakuba smiled down at her. “You're really good at English! I can’t understand half of what sensei says, but you’ve got down to a T.” He chuckled, amused by his own joke. Suddenly, Hakuba paused, a light bulb flickering on in his brain as he processed his own words.
“Maybe you could teach me!” He suggested. He suddenly gained a conscience as he realized how loud he was being and how close he had gotten to her. He reeled himself back, faking a slight cough into his fist as he tried to ignore the wide-eyed stare she gave him from the sudden jolt. She hasn’t even agreed to it and he’s already scaring her off. It would help him catch up with the material and get his teammates off his back with his grades. More importantly, he’d get to spend more time with her.
Ryoko inched back from the sudden jolt, slightly aghast by the decrease in proximity. She inwardly thanked whatever made him decide to retreat. “…Me?” He can’t be serious, right? “Teach you?”
“Yeah!” She scratched the back of her neck. Can she even teach? Would her study methods even work for him?
“I mean,” She thought it over, not having an excuse to not help him out. There weren’t any disadvantages to helping him. Hakuba is good company and trying to translate knowledge for someone else to understand is good practice. It would definitely help prevent her from making stupid mistakes like that again. Hopefully. Well, she wasn’t certain but it would be a waste not to try. And it’s not like she had other things to do after school. Not since she quit the art club. “I guess I could?”
“You really mean it?” Though he’s the one who suggested it, it was surprising to hear her accept the idea. Although they were deskmates for the last two months and (uncertain) friends, they’ve never hung out with each other outside of class. He’s never seen her hang out with anyone before. Not that he’s been watching her or anything. “You don’t sound too sure.”
“It’s just…” She wasn’t too sure if she wanted to either. Not that he was bad company, Gao’s a good guy. Would he be fine hanging out with someone like her is her concern. She wasn’t exactly ‘fun’ to hang out with, even if it was just tutoring. Did he even want to be around her? Why would he want to, anyways?
“Don’t you have volleyball? Isn’t that pretty tiring? I don’t want you to finish the day in your sports club just to spend a couple hours studying with me instead of resting—assuming we’d be studying after school that is. Unless you want to study at a different time because that’s totally okay too—or weekends. Do you play volleyball on weekends? You should be resting on weekends too actually, wouldn’t want you stressing your mind after already doing that to your body. Not that you can’t handle it it’s just—” She cut herself off before her rambling could continue annoying him, a light blush forming.
To her surprise, he started laughing. It was a loud, boisterous laugh, one that she finds contagious most times. Right now, she was just confused.
With a large smile still plastered on his face, Hakuba tried easing her nerves. “It’s alright, Buranon,” He reassured, unable to properly pronounce the ‘L’ in her family name. “It won’t be any different from my usual schedule anyways. But…” He bit his lip, a cheeky smile stretching across his face, “I take it that that’s a yes?”
She avoided his gaze, a small pout forming. “…Are you sure it’s okay? I haven’t tutored anyone before.”
He nodded. “It’s more than okay.”
Ryoko still had her doubts, but she felt as though she ran out of check-ins. “If you say so.”
The large smile made its way back to his face, a light blush dusting his cheeks. “Yes!” He shouted. She snorted at his over-enthusiastic reaction.