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In the first few days of college, you managed to find and terrorize an introverted programmer, Sai Nanami. In your perspective, you were only admiring his works, but to him, you were a leech he couldn't get rid of.
You did nothing but hover and ask him stuff multiple times at once with insane energy for a college student, leaving the poor boy overwhelmed by your beaming personality.
“Sai!!! What are you doing? Is it another program? A game? Are you making Doom again?” You bombarded him with questions as soon as you stepped up in front of him. He winced at your volume and grabbed his laptop tightly on his lap.
“Leave! Me! Alone!” He gestured with his one free hand dramatically.
“Oh come on! I want to see what my dear programmer is doing.” You teased, moving closer to his space.
“It's 8 AM on a Tuesday! Don't you have anything else to do?” He whined.
“Nope! I want to see what you're working on.”
You were rather… awfully persistent for his taste. It reminded him of his half-brother, Ryusui. He couldn't believe he's dealing with two people with the same ambitions of pushing his limits.
He begrudgingly gave in, worried you might shout at him more if he refused to answer your questions. “Yeah, I'm making another program. Yes, it's a game, but it's still a work in progress! And no, it's not Doom… for now.” He answered hesitantly.
“That's interesting, can I watch you while you work on it? Pretty please?” You pleaded with your hands pressed together.
“Fine… just please don't bother me too much!”
“Thank you so much dear genius!” You squealed in excitement, immediately sitting down a little too close beside him. He felt a bit flustered at the nickname and your close proximity, but he decided to ignore that.
You watched with intent and focus, asking him questions every now and then about his work, and he would happily answer them immediately. He enjoys talking about his gaming programs, which is the only hobby he loves the most. He slowly began to accept your curious nature towards his interest.
This activity became a routine between you two in the following weeks, you watch and he creates. You could say you started to become great friends with him, you were a lot closer to him now — Sai, that was once your fan admiration, was now someone that brought you comfort and happiness. He still felt intimidated by your overly-joyful personality, but he was getting used to it bit by bit. Nowadays, he always expects to see you first when he arrives at the campus’ gates.
You kept your word on never leaving him alone. Quite literally staying by his side everyday like a clingy koala. That is until one day, something began to shift.
Sai arrived at the campus early as usual, but he noticed something was off. You were nowhere in sight at the gates, you always waited for him and it surprised him that you're missing. He decided to look for you inside as he walked through the hallways. His eyes shifted left and right, wondering where you went.
His gaze finally found you, but you weren't alone. You were talking with a guy slightly taller than you with hair standing up like crazy — it looked like one of those spring onions at the supermarket. You giggled at something he said, but seeing it made Sai feel an ache in his chest. He couldn't tell what feeling that it was when your eyes shifted to his direction.
“Sai!!” You called out as you ran to him.
“Good morning! I was just having a chat with Senku-sensei.” You pointed out to the leek-head behind you, his expression held boredom.
“Senku?” Sai asked, unfamiliar with the guy.
“You know, the incredible scientist! Of course you don't know him since he's in a different class from us.” You explained.
“I see…” Sai muttered with skepticism.
“Yeah! But unfortunately I won't be with you for now since I need some tutoring sessions in math. Although his specialty is science, he's beyond average in advanced calculus as well. Honestly, I was going to ask you for some help, but I didn't want to bother you, so I opted on asking someone else instead. I think you deserve some personal space!”
Sai should feel relief that you'll stop annoying him as he works on his programming, that you wouldn't burst out in his ears and make him deaf, that you wouldn't overwhelm him with silly questions. Instead, he felt the opposite, he's disliking the thought of you spending time with another man but he isn't sure why.
‘Why did you ask him? Not me? Is my knowledge not enough?’ His thoughts spiraled. That familiar ache is coming back to his chest, even more painful than before. His throat felt tight, he wanted to protest your decision but his words died in his mouth the moment Senku started to speak up.
“Oi, we can't just stand here all day dummy. We got work to do, your brain will ten billion percent won't learn anything unless we move our asses at the library.” He exclaimed, clearly getting frustrated that his time is being used at a pointless conversation.
“Oh right! Let's get going then, see you later Sai!” You waved him off a good bye and began walking away with Senku at your side.
He felt speechless, unsure what to do now. He decides it's best to use his time on making a new gaming program, he wants to do anything other than letting his thoughts think about you and Senku. He moved his legs in silence, his eyes drifting down at the floor by unknown feelings — several students went unnoticed by him, he could only think about the tightness in his heart and the lump in his throat.
‘Why am I feeling like this? Why am I this bothered? What do I even feel about them? Is there something my mind isn't telling me?’ His train of thought was slowly killing his soul. He's really overthinking everything now.
…
Hours passed by, he's not feeling any better. If possible, he's feeling 10x worse than before. His eyes stared at the unfinished coding script in his laptop; fingers stopped working on the keyboard for a full 20 minutes. He couldn't start working again when he thought about your missing presence.
He's wondering why it's affecting him so much, why is his heart making a big deal about it, why can't he feel peace today. Usually when he's alone, he's happy because he gets all the time in the world to work on his coding hobbies. But today, it felt like torture to him, feeling like he committed a heinous crime.
What once was comfort to him, is now something he despised. He prefers the warmth you brought to him, admittedly, he liked being near you. Aside from his brother, you were actually interested in him. Not just a math genius, not just a programmer, but as a person worthy to be with. And he can't possibly deny that he liked that you liked him for his true self.
He's feeling like an absolute fool, wishing that he should've said something. He should've been the one tutoring you, not him! You told him yourself that he's the best at math in the whole campus, so why did you choose someone else? Why did it make you feel like you were bothering him? Sure he was annoyed by you in the first days of meeting you, but he changed that! You no longer bothered him before, and he didn't feel that again when you two became closer, so why?
He was so deep into his mind, that he didn't notice you were approaching him.
“Sai, are you okay? What's up?” You asked with concern leaking in your tone. Your face leaned down to his a few inches away
He jumped from surprise as he found your eyes that expressed worry towards him. He didn't expect this sudden proximity from you, hell, he didn't even notice you were walking towards him.
“I-I'm fine!” He stuttered, fumbling over the simplest two words.
“You don't look fine at all.” You puffed. You moved away to sit down beside him, your shoulder brushed against him.
“I am fine, I swear!” He stubbornly insisted, but the tight grip of his hands on his laptop said otherwise.
“You can spill it out, it's only me. I can tell something is bothering you a lot.” You reassured him with a soft tone.
His hands gripped tighter around the laptop, his knuckles turning white from the pressure. Slowly, he closed the screen with one hand, his head turning to you.
“I… well…” His voice tainted with hesitation.
“Take your time.” You softly grasped his shoulder to anchor him, which was enough to tear the cracks of his walls that kept his real feelings inside.
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath to gather the courage to speak up. “I just… to be honest, I'm not exactly sure where to start. But what I do know is that, I thought hard about you, about us.” He opened them again to glance at your reaction.
He sees how your pupils slightly widened for a second from surprise, but it doesn't show any signs of negativity, which helped him gather the courage to find the right words to say.
“These past weeks have been really amazing, you were always with me, always curious with my own interests. And, I liked it a lot that you truly got to know me. Which is why I may have felt upset that you chose… someone else to help you out. I want to ask, why did it make you feel like it was going to bother me a lot?” His face turned red from the question and quickly shifted his eyes away from your face.
You went silent for a few seconds before you finally spoke up.
“Well, I remembered when you were bothered multiple times because of me. I was oblivious to it until I looked back into the past, I wasn't sure how you put up with my attitude. When the exams were finally coming up next week, I was afraid that you were going to feel annoyed again, so I went and asked Senku for help.” You explained with a sad tone.
“Did you… like him helping you?” His voice cracked as his eyes shifted to look back at you.
“Of course not! His explanations are incredibly long! I could barely catch up to him, and he makes me feel like an idiot. I regretted asking him of all people!” You whined.
He giggled at your response, finally feeling at ease by a bit. “You at least learned something from him right?”
“Barely one thing, which is why I told him I'll find someone else that could help me, he agreed since apparently it's a ‘waste of time to teach a fool like me’. How come such a scientist like him is such an asshole!” You ranted, your arms gestured wildly as if you're speaking with your mouth.
“So, who are you asking then?”
“You. I know you would make a great teacher!” You said abruptly.
“Really? You think so?” He felt a faint blush on his cheeks.
“Why not? After all, you're the math genius. I have no doubt that you will teach me better than that spring onion!” You joked.
His eyes shined brightly at your words, his mood has definitely lifted higher than before. “Then I'll make sure my lessons won't disappoint you. I want to help you as much as I can.” He said with a soft smile.
“Thank you so much my genius, I know I can count on you!” And before he knew it, you planted a quick kiss on his cheeks; his face turned into dark shades of red immediately. And you? You giggled at the sight of his extreme flustered.
“Y-you can't just do that! I-I wasn't ready!” He quickly hid his hot blushing face in his hands with a squeal. His heart is racing like crazy as if it's going to explode, you're going to be the death of him.
“Think of it as a gift for helping this loser.” You grinned at him, his brain still short-circuiting at the silly stunt you pulled.