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The room is filled with loud chatter from the students at the back, popular kids talking about fashion styles, paper balls thrown everywhere, and a lot of the usual chaotic activity from the immature boys. Nobody noticed the class door opening because of the unnecessary noises until the adviser yelled out.
“Settle down everyone! We have a new student joining us for this school year.” The whole class fell silent as soon as they walked up to their desk. “Okay, you can come in now.” They gestured a hand to the wide open door. You took it as a sign to march inside right up front.
With a confident smile, you bowed to them and began introducing yourself with no hesitation. “Hello everyone! My name is ______, and I'm the transferee in this class! I can't wait to get to know all of you!” You spoke in English with your lively American accent. A lot of perplexed expressions were visible among the crowd because they didn't know a thing you said.
“Right, everyone! I forgot to mention that they are from the US, the language barrier may complicate your communication with them. So, I'll be picking someone here to guide them.” Everyone looked at each other, curious as to who will be the victim at helping you with the huge language barrier.
Then, they pointed out someone with spring onion-like hair who's sitting at the corner, reading a book with a title that speaks about aerospace engineering. “Senku Ishigami, as far as I'm aware, you have decent English-speaking skills. You'll be assisting them until they are capable enough to know simple Japanese.”
“Tch, I learned English for the sake of getting professional solutions in building an acceptable spacecraft from NASA, not to become a real-life Google translator. If they want to learn in this obviously Japanese only school, they should know the basics of our native language first before they decide to enroll. That's illogical.” He placed down his book and dug a pinky in his ear out of frustration that he's been disturbed.
“As your teacher, I have the right to decide who'll help who. You need to learn some basic human decency yourself. Do you think scientists have no sense of empathy?” They retorted to his rude remark.
“Fine, fine. I'll help, as long as they don't piss me off.” He picked back up his book and went back to his own world after giving a half-ass effort of an agreement.
They shut their eyes and sighed in annoyance but slightly relieved that he dropped the argument. They lead you to the direction of your seat, which just so happens to be next to Senku's. He felt your energetic aura when your presence approached the available desk and gripped his book unreasonably tighter.
“Sooo, you're my seatmate huh? It's really nice to meet you Ishigami!” You greeted him, oblivious at the fact he's clearly busy. It brought some attention from the students nearby towards you guys.
“Call me Senku. And tone it down, you'll ten billion percent rupture my eardrums before I get the chance to become your spokesperson.” He gave you a sideways glance as he muttered to you curtly.
“Ten billion percent? Don't you think it's redundant?”
“It's my way of exaggeration, you idiot.”
“I'm not an idiot!”
“You two, silence! I don't allow any rackets during lessons! If I hear another word, expect to find yourselves out the door!” The ruler slammed against the whiteboard, making both of you jerk on your seats from the bang and the harsh scolding of your teacher.
“This is going to be a long day.” He mumbled with a click of his tongue.
…
A sudden ringing of the school bell greeted your ears like a heavenly choir. It's a melodic sound to the starving students that survived on water and formulas for hours. Jumping from your seat, you aggressively placed your hand on Senku's desk. “Come on partner! We don't want to be the last ones in the line.”
“When the hell did I become your partner? Go by yourself, I'm gonna visit the lab to check on the materials.” He stood up stiffly and stretched his limbs that went numb after spending so much time sitting still.
“Laboratory? Let me go with you then! Forget snacks!”
“No way in hell am I letting you go with me!”
“But you're my translator! I need to stay by your side!” You whined like a child begging for candy. After many awfully persistent attempts, he gave in to you bitterly.
“Just don't touch anything!”
You squealed in excitement and grabbed his hand, immediately invading his personal space in physical touch. “Then let's go!”
He flinched a little from the contact and tried to squirm his hand away. “Oi, don't touch me!” But you didn't listen to him and dragged him with you anyway, leaving him grumbling as he trudged behind. Yet, he goes quieter and quieter the longer you hold him, he starts to acknowledge the way your palm felt warm against his. It was, surprisingly, not unpleasant for him. In fact, it made him soften a little. He shook his head when he realized what he's thinking.
It's just hand holding. Nothing more.
A booming voice erupted at the hallways, following a much calmer one. Taiju and Yuzuriha spotted you two — his two closest friends — and saw you holding Senku's hand. He finally used all his strength to take his own back away from your grip, it was unbelievable that the moment they saw you two that's when his weak physical abilities got a power-up.
“Senku! We didn't know you finally got in a relationship!” Taiju gushed from the discovery that their loner of a scientist found someone to be with.
“Yeah Senku-kun, who would've thought you would find someone.” Yuzuriha followed with a gentler tone, contrasting against his intense comment.
“No you fools, I'm with them by force because they speak English. Since I'm the only capable jackass that understands it, I became the victim.” He denied it instantly.
You didn't have a clue what they're talking about, so you decided to greet them and placed your hand out. “Name's ______, nice to meet you guys! You two must be his friends!” They don't know what you just said, but they can tell you're introducing yourself.
He dismissed your outstretched hand with a smirk. “Basically they're saying they want to form a friendship bond with you two.” He translated in his own way, fortunately nothing too bad that he could've come up with.
“I see! So they're a foreign transferee?” Taiju spoke up with fists high.
“Ten billion points to you for stating the obvious.”
“They should come with us! The more friends the merrier, right Yuzuriha?” He nudged her arm gently with expectant and bright eyes.
“Of course! It would be nice to have another one with us.” She clasped her hand against the other.
“For you to comprehend their replies, they want you to join us.” He glanced back at you with a smirk, he knew you would agree. And just as he predicted it, you bounced in your spot in glee.
“I would love that! We're gonna have so much fun together!”
“As much as I'm happy, the language barrier would be a problem without you though Senku.” Yuzuriha commented.
“No worries. It was a crazy coincidence that Sai programmed an app just for that, although it's still being tested, it doesn't hurt to make you try it yourselves. Here I'll send you guys the link.” Senku picked up his phone in his pocket and sent something in their group chat. Their phones buzzed and they opened it at the same time.
“Woah, what's this for?!”
“Be quiet geez. It's a digital translator for you two to use on them.” He covered his ears and backed an inch away from him out of instinct. “Try it out. It would be exhilarating to see how it works.”
Yuzuriha spoke something unknown on the app and directed the screen towards you.
“Can you understand me?” The device's speaker emitted the sound in a robotic voice, replicating what she said but in a way that you understand perfectly.
You nodded aggressively and she took it as a sign that it works. Looks like you found a new way to communicate with your new partners. Four-person friend group acquired!
…
A serene and soothing atmosphere greeted you and Senku in the library with open arms. The floorboards creaked faintly against the footsteps, pages occasionally flipped and made that crisp sound, pens tapped on the wooden table rhythmically. It's the perfect place to learn Japanese with your new buddy.
“This is too difficult…” You grunted as you tried to memorize the foreign letters.
“Oh please, this is just the beginning of your hell.” He highlighted another character with his index finger on his notebook.
“Why are there thousands of kanji characters?!”
“You don't need to know all of it so relax. Just learn the basics and you're good to go. Plus, I can only help with a thing or two, I'm not that great for teaching stuff like this.”
“How come?”
“It doesn't interest me by a millimeter.”
You gritted your teeth and muffled a groan, begrudgingly began to write down each letter on your scratch paper with Senku's spare ballpen. The ink overflowed a little, but you managed to write — poorly — on the clean lines. Hesitant and shaky strokes were all you could do with your little experience, and he snorted at your horrible penmanship. “You can do better than that.”
“In my defense I barely picked up a pen!” You moaned and emphasized your point by showing him your fingers struggling to hold it right.
“Geez, I'll help you then you baby.” His calloused and slender hand positioned over yours. He subconsciously takes a mental note at the size difference and the radiated warmth that filled his sensors again. He pushed those thoughts down when it began to invade his brain like a parasite, you're just a friend, he's only helping a friend.
He gripped you tight enough to guide your movements on the sheet with precision. Your lines drastically improved with his help. It was pretty humiliating for you. After a few writing practices, he let you go, but his finger lingered to you a second longer than needed.
You moved the pen 10x better than earlier now, it looks readable than your drafts before. “I'm finally getting the hang of writing these characters!” You beamed a little too loudly which earned you a shush from the librarian.
“Kukuku, just practice more and you'll get that muscle memory.”
“Of course, soon enough I'll learn how to talk in Japanese.”
“Sure you will.” It sounded sarcastic, but his mouth curled upwards into a small and genuine smile. He doesn't know that though, he's too busy observing you put in your all on grasping his mother tongue.
…
“Senku! Perfume gone! Is discontinued, help is me!” You started to speak some essential Japanese weeks ago thanks to multiple study sessions with Senku, but your grammatical structure goes poor when you start to spout words in a panic.
“Calm down fool, I can't understand shit.” Even though he can't decipher your exclaims, he's glad that you understand his native tongue more, he's finally free from talking in English all the time.
“Discontinued per- ah forget it! Senku please help me! My favorite brand of perfume stopped production, it got discontinued!” Whenever you can't say the words the way you want it to, you resort back to your roots.
“Ah that. The one you practically bathe yourself in for the sake of smelling like pure botany. Its scent was so intense I could tell you were in the vicinity in a 30 meter radius.”
“I'm gonna be sick! It was something I used for years now it's gone for good…” You dramatically hovered a hand over to your chest as you grabbed the empty bottle from your pocket and clutched it tightly like a vice, shoving said bottle to his face. “Look at it! Only drops remained!”
“Tch, you're doing too much.” He took it away from your grip with no hesitation.
“Hey, that's my memorabilia!” You yelled out and rushed to get it back from him, but thanks to his height, he managed to hold it as high as he could.
“Relax short ass. You won't need this.”
“Why would you say that?!” You're still struggling to reach it despite being on your toes.
“Because I made you a new one. In fact, it's ten billion percent better than your last one. I can assure you it won't invade anyone's nostrils and suffocate their lungs from that crude toxin you call a perfume.” He stepped back and extended his hand to his school bag, a glass tube emerged from the inside, glinting a shine in a specific angle. It contained something suspicious, but the color was almost transparent. “Take this instead.” With unusual gentleness, he handed it over to you.
Snatching it away, you immediately popped open the cork and sniffed out the contents. To your surprise, it wasn't bad. No, that's an understatement, it got you smelling it for a whole minute without any break. “This is… incredible.” You whispered under your breath, a sign you finally calmed yourself down.
“Kukuku, I told you. And you don't have to worry about the supply, the recipe is jotted down in my head and notepad, not saying I can't do it mentally but in case you're ever curious at the raw ingredients.” He played it off casually.
He's just helping a friend out.
Nothing more.
“Thank you so much Sen!” You rarely spoke Japanese because you're still learning, however, hearing your gratitude in that way felt nice, the new nickname was the cherry on the top. Sen. He doesn't dislike it.
It's only a name though.
…
You've been improving your communication skills a lot lately. You got the hang of your accent and pronunciation, you sound like you truly belong with them.
Many students noticed how you put in your effort to understand them, making you quite known among the school as the lively foreigner.
It also meant they know the way your friend acts around you.
They've never seen him be so close with someone before, not even Taiju or Yuzuriha. It was the first time they witnessed him not just tolerating your ongoing behavior, but feeling genuine fondness over it. The way he gazes at you when you weren't looking at his attention was one of the signs. They could've shrugged it off as just analyzing you.
But then, more and more flags appeared.
Remember the perfume he renovated himself? He recreated more things you brought up once like a chocolate and a keychain.
He would ramble about quantum physics and thermodynamics to you more than his other friends for hours. Every now and then, he would glance at you to check if you're still listening, and he will always find you paying attention to him with curious eyes even when the topics give you little to no understanding at what it is about.
The last one was the most shocking thing. Most of the time, you weren't the one clinging onto him, he's been the one moving much closer to your personal space. The distance becomes much more obvious, slowly growing non-existent as days go by like you have some sort of gravitational pull on him.
His presence with you screamed love.
His actions were a way of showing you his affection.
He finally felt the peace he never expected to have from you. It gave him the same feeling just like how he would look at the vast stars of the growing universe.
Yet after all of that, he was clueless about his true feelings, he only acknowledged these weird actions when some random person pointed it out to him. Despite being the smartest guy in the whole school, he's the dumbest when it comes to his emotions.
He simply replied by saying it's only casual with his smug smirk. He foolishly convinced himself that it's normal because humans are social species, attachment is natural. It's normal.
.
Is it really normal that his heart beats faster with you?
Is it really normal that his hands sweat a little when you're with him?
Is it really normal that you're always on his mind even when he's doing mental calculations?
He's a genius. He's supposed to know the answer to this. But sentimental thoughts are something he can never fully master himself. It's the biggest hurdle he has. He needs to confront you now, to finally understand everything.
…
“Senku? What's up? I got your text message that you want to meet up here.” At a park bench, Senku sat with an unreadable expression.
“Look, you know damn well that you're one of the closest… friend I have.” He blurted out, making you jump from his sudden words.
“Of course… what about it?” You were about to inch closer to him but he stood up abruptly and marched towards you himself. He forcefully grabbed you by your shoulders, you stared at him bewilderedly with your mouth agape, unsure what to say from his uncharacteristic demeanor.
“This is inefficient as hell yet here we are. I'm a dumbass when it comes to… this. But I want to tell you something that will change everything between us.” He paused for a moment to look at you, his eyes pleading for permission. Closing your mouth, you nodded weakly, allowing him to continue. “Look, we've been friends for a while now, but our time together flooded my stupid neurons full of dopamine and oxytocin. I never calculated this possibility before, although it doesn't mean I dislike it.”
You blinked twice. Is this supposed to be a confession?
He sighed when you didn't understand quick enough, he moved his hands to cup your face carefully. Without any warning, he crashed his lips against yours. You gasped softly against his mouth, and soon enough, you melted your body onto his. The world around you stopped moving, only the sensation of his plush mouth and the warmth of his palms on your cheeks clouded your mind.
He pulled away after exactly 15 seconds (he counted that in his head) and took deep breaths in sync with you. Neither of you spoke. The tension around you finally broke into something more vulnerable. Something only yours to call.
You giggled nervously, unsure where to go about this. “This was unexpected.”
“Yeah. I didn't mean to.” He dropped your face to rub the back of his neck sheepishly. “It's just way too new to me. I'm sorry if this ruined something-”
“Idiot… I'm glad you did it. This didn't ruin what we have, rather it gives us an opportunity to see where this will go. Unless you're planning to avoid me by burying yourself in your experiments.” You cut him off teasingly.
“Shut up. Let's just get together already, it's been driving me insane.”
“Of course,
darling.”
His face grew into deep shades of red like a chemical reaction.