Chapter Text
Nicholas had five problems in his life.
Don't get him wrong, high school was good. Great, even. Especially after he finally learned how to speak Japanese properly. His parents had called him "overly ambitious" for applying to a merit scholarship at a Japanese highschool. Now here Nicholas was, at said Japanese high school and working towards a spot at one of Japan's prestigious universities.
Maybe he should also give some credit to the brand of extravertedness that he knew came from his dad or the challenge-seeking attitude his mom passed on. That would explain his more-or-less smooth transition into a whole new country with a different culture and mother tongue.
Sure, there were days where he would loathe to speak a word of Japanese simply because his brain was overwhelmed, or days when he would miss his mom's cooking. But Nicholas had found his people in the past two, almost three years of living here.
Still, life wasn't without its downfalls. Currently, Nichoals was stuck with five problems which nagged at him, that he will now describe in...probably greater detail than necessary:
Number five: for a while, he was convinced that one of his dormmates was a ghost.
Nicholas' dorm room this year was sandwiched between two others. His dorm neighbor on the right side just happened to be his friend, Shen Quanrui, or Ricky, as he liked to be called. They had met sometime in Nicholas' first year and quickly bonded over their shared love for basketball and being able to communicate in Mandarin.
However, his neighbor on the left was practically never there. Nicholas had moved in early, planning on settling into the new room at the start of the year and also meeting his neighbors as they moved in.
Yet his mystery neighbor remained elusive. He always woke up earlier than Nicholas did. For the first few weeks of school year, he had woken up to the sound of shuffling and the loud creak of a door closing from beyond the walls at the ungodly hour of 5am. He deduced that he must've had some sort of obligation that early every day. Over time, his mystery neighbor had learned how to open and close his doors quieter, so Nicholas didn't have a reason to keep paying attention to it.
He also returned way later than Nicholas. Even when Nicholas returned from the dance club practice at around 6:15pm, mystery neighbor would unlock his creaky door at around 6:45pm or even 7pm. All this made it impossible for Nicholas to try and catch him outside of their dorms.
Nicholas contemplated trying to stage a meeting once before. Waking up early and waiting to hear the door click open and opening his own at the same time. He could fake needing to go to school early and mystery neighbor's identity would be solved. Simple, right? (And if the door creaked open and no one was there, well... Nicholas respected ghosts. He had practically nothing to be afraid of...right?)
When Nicholas wanted to put it into practice though, he ran into a big problem: he couldn't stay awake that early in the morning. Halfway through listening for the shuffling, Nicholas' eyes would droop and he would sleep until his alarm would wake him up.
One time Nicholas had managed to stay up for a while. Yet he still managed to doze off until the creak woke up him. He had scrambled for the door only to fall on his face. The impact had his nose throbbing but Nicholas didn't have the time to contemplate the pain. He stood, pushing open his door. He caught a glimpse of dark brown hair before mystery neighbor was disappearing down the stairs. His pride was hurt enough by both the fail and the fall that he hadn't had the chance to try and catch him out again. At least he knew there was a living breathing person there, and not a ghost.
Number four: at least five different club presidents had a bounty out on him, solely because he did not want to join their clubs.
You see, Nicholas liked playing sports. He also liked testing his hand in different arts. But he was very much prone to...mmm, trying new things. Once he got good at a certain activity, it just felt right to try something else. That was how he spent his middle school obsessed with badminton, and prior to that how he learned violin and piano. Now he had picked up the guitar on the side, and his current sports fixation was basketball and dancing.
The only issue with that was that Nicholas was obsessive with competence. He couldn't settle with something half-baked, so he tried. Really, really hard. And that resulted in him being more than halfway decent at certain things.
Now most people would be happy with that, as a compliment and as a state of being. But Nicholas? He was being hounded by presidents of different clubs— registration forms in hand— because of it.
"If you practice some more, you can make it as a starter," The baseball team captain had said, desperation in his voice.
"Nicholas, your violin playing is really good, you should perform with us at the concert this year," The orchestra director had said as he clapped him on the back.
And so on and so forth. Even after Nicholas had declined invitations to join many times before, certain clubs were desperate for members with commitment and at least a basic level of skill. And Nicholas definitely ticked off all the boxes.
That's why Nicholas did a lot of hiding. And not in cliché spaces like the school rooftops. Definitely not, he wasn't that much of a nerd to be swayed by animes. (Nicholas had to confess he was lying. That he did try, once. He immediately got caught and reprimanded. Who knew that rooftop doors would be alarmed in real life?)
No, Nicholas liked holing up in one of the more desolate courtyards at their school. The path had fallen into disrepair and the school decided that they would use the allocated funds on inflating the sports teams' budgets. Again.
In the courtyard was a low-hanging tree which provided the perfect shade to take naps whilst avoiding all manner of people. Not to mention a cat sometimes visited the place.
Nicholas had yet to name the cat, opting to call her Mao when he needed— very creative, he knew, naming her after the word for cat in Mandarin. He never settled on a real name because naming her would mean he would own that cat. And the cat was a stray that deserved the freedom to come and go as she pleased.
In any case, the courtyard was his temporary solution whenever those people approached him and he has yet to be found when hiding there.
Number three was a bit more complicated to explain. Nicholas and almost all the students at the school were fully convinced that two of their teachers were in love. And right now, problem number three was that he needed them to start dating. If not for themselves, then to spare Nicholas his sanity.
Koga Yudai-sensei was gentle and way too spirited for someone who was supposed to be an authority figure to highschoolers. He was very easy to get along with and even easier to jokingly rile up. His personality did not fit the fact that he taught home economics out of all things, but Nicholas guessed that was what was unique about him. (And he was Nicholas' homeroom teacher. The teacher always nagged at him to stop switching clubs. Nicholas simply chose not to listen.)
On the other hand, Murata Fuma-sensei was a no-nonsense teacher...at first. He was pretty stony, but it was all a façade to conceal the warm and well-intentioned personality that hid behind his ginormous biceps. (Seriously, the biceps were important to this story, okay? It's not just Nicholas making things up)
And fittingly enough, Murata-sensei taught physical education. It was obvious because everyone with eyes could see how well built the teacher was, including Nicholas. He had the build for it, with muscles that were evidence of all his hard work at the gym. (See? The biceps were super important. And relevant.)
Initially, Nicholas was envious of Murata-sensei, because of how confidently he carried himself. Not to mention how endearingly awkward he got, and how he was able to be stern but kind...and yeah, okay so Nicholas had a bit of a crush on his gym teacher. Sue him. He would not be the first nor the last student. He saw how the girls ogled his muscles whenever he was instructing. At least Nicholas wasn't ogling, he was...appreciating from afar.
Imagine little first year Nicholas' surprise when he saw Murata-sensei's starstruck look when watching Koga-sensei walk down the hall. It felt like his heart was getting crushed. (A gross exaggeration, which you should understand that Nicholas was prone to by now.)
Honestly? Now-Nicholas totally understood that the crush was pretty much mutual. It was easy to see how Koga-sensei coughed and flustered whenever someone brought up the topic of Murata-sensei in any way, shape, or form. (One time someone pointed out Murata-sensei was passing down the hallway and Koga-sensei had somehow poked himself in the finger with not one, but two needles. Seriously, it was crazy.)
There was even a betting pool that the students had set up for who was going to confess first. Most people voted for Murata-sensei because of his confidence. Nicholas had gone against the grain to bet his money on Koga-sensei. He didn't know what it was exactly, but Nicholas could perfectly picture his teacher reaching out, grabbing Murata-sensei and finally pulling him into a kiss. Or maybe that was just Nicholas being delusional. Who knows.
Problem number two went to the three troublesome first-years that Nicholas had picked up during the beginning of the year. It wasn't like he had meant to adopt them. If anything, Nicholas was pretty much roped into it almost unwillingly.
Long story short, Nicholas had went from helping Harua find his way to the auditorium during the induction ceremonies to coincidentally running into him the day after and being introduced to Harua's best friend Taki.
"Takayama Riki!" The boy had proclaimed at their first meeting. "Taki, for short!" It would've been fine if their first meeting didn't consist of Nicholas lending the two a few towels and his extra gym kits after they stupidly got soaked on their second day of school. Seriously, who looked at the grey skies and decided it was good weather to walk to school in?
And the third troublemaker, who was arguably a bigger thorn in Nicholas' side, was Maki. Maki was...loud. He was also younger by a year than the rest of his cohort. Something about skipping a grade when he was in elementary or middle school.
His first meeting with Maki went a little like this: He was walking down the hall when he heard a familiar voice.
"Why do you keep bothering Taki?" When Nicholas rounded the corner, he saw Harua protectively standing in front of Taki whilst glaring at another person. Well, that person was Maki. Harua was apparently glaring because he thought Maki was getting overbearingly friendly with Taki. For all his complaining, Harua was fiercely loyal to his best friend.
Nicholas was going to mind his own business before Harua spotted him and dragged him over. And then Maki was looking at him with sparkly eyes when Harua introduced him as the "cool senpai" of theirs.
Later on it was made clear that Maki was not, in fact, bothering Taki. Instead he was just excited to befriend the person who was also named Riki in his grade. (Maki was just Maus Riki before meeting Taki and Harua. Now he went by Maki. When Nicholas asked, Maki and Taki both waxed poetic about Riki-nickname solidarity. He seriously regretted asking.)
Harua mellowed out around Maki in no time, especially because Maki was good. He was kind to everyone and excitable. And more of a stickler for rules than Nicholas was expecting. Not to mention he treated Harua like a royalty by obediently following his whims.
Taki who was initially intimidated because of how extraverted Maki was, ended up becoming his partner-in-weirdness. Taki would do something weird and Maki would do something weird back, and Harua would judge the both of them. That was how they all worked.
Nicholas was not sure where he fit into the equation. Nor why they enjoyed his company so much. It wasn't like he had the best reputation. The one thing he got right was studying for good grades, but even that was a survival thing as a scholarship student, not a Nicholas-thing.
Actually, he could think of at least one reason why: the fact that he often treated them to snacks or convenience store runs. Sure it hurt his pockets but he liked seeing his friends happy.
"Am I just a wallet to you guys?" Nicholas had joked once. And Maki had grinned before chiming a "yes" just as Harua said "You're not just a wallet."
Only Taki looked at him with round eyes and said, "You're our kind senpai and friend." And that was why Taki was his favorite. (Just kidding. He doesn't play favorites....most of the time.)
And the number one problem that Nicholas was dealing with was a recent addition. Despite that, it shot past everything and claimed the top spot on the "Things That Currently Inconvenienced Nicholas Wang" list.
This problem wasn't just any problem. It was a walking-talking-breathing problem. And that problem went by the name of Byun fucking Euijoo.