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tangiblewhimsyTitle: Credentials
Universe: Promenade
Pairing: Aiba/Jun
Author:tangiblewhimsy
Rating: PG
Genre: AU Romance
Summary: Ninomiya Kazunari and Matsumoto Jun are students at a prestigious arts academy where Ohno Satoshi has been invited to act as a guest instructor for dance. Aiba Masaki is a young man who has recently gotten an interesting part-time job at the same school, much to Jun’s despair.
Notes: Nishikawa-sensei is Nishikawa Ayako, who should be familiar to many of you from her appearances on Mannequin 5. Thankhonooko for that, because I couldn't think of her name or face for my life.
Warnings: Self-beta’d.
Additional media: Jun's Sketchbook: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5
Jun shifted, crossing his legs one way and then the other. He wasn't uncomfortable or necessarily impatient, but waiting was not something he did well. It didn't help that he wasn't very familiar with being in trouble, however slight. He'd never been the best student, but he had managed to stay off the radar of teachers for most of his school career.
"Matsumoto-kun?"
Jun stood immediately, shouldering his bag and giving his math teacher a bow.
"Sorry to keep you waiting."
"No, it was nothing," Jun waved a hand, following the woman into her office.
Nishikawa-sensei wasn't old, but she wasn't exactly young, either. Jun wasn't sure what to make of her as an instructor, but for the most part she seemed like a good person. If not somewhat terrifying. Nishikawa-sensei had a beautiful face and a sweet look about her, but she tended not to humor anyone. Which was one of the many reasons why her kindly smile was making Jun even more nervous.
"Have a seat," Nishikawa-sensei motioned for Jun to be seated at a chair beside her desk. There weren't many people left in the teachers' office, a few lone instructors making corrections or working on lesson plans. Jun felt somehow even more self-conscious than he would have been if the meeting truly had been one-on-one.
"How're you doing?"
Jun did his best not to fidget as he answered.
"Okay," he nodded, his chest already tightening with anxiety.
"Really? There's not anything new or stressful going on?" Nishikawa-sensei pressed, and Jun wasn't sure if he should be comforted by the gentleness in her tone or not.
Other than this meeting? Jun thought bitterly but what he said instead was, "No, nothing comes to mind."
"I was wondering because you seem to be having trouble lately," Nishikawa commented, and for the first time Jun noticed the open file of papers on the instructor's desk. Most of the visible pages were littered with red strikes the whole way through and Jun could admit that he'd be pretty shocked if they weren't his.
"I've fallen behind," Jun admitted with an apologetic nod. "I'm doing my best to try and get back on top of the work, though."
The sympathetic look Nishikawa gave him filled Jun with dread. He knew that look. That was the look you gave someone who didn't seem to understand how out of their depths they were. It was a look of pity given to someone about to receive incredibly bad news. The pause in their conversation that stretched an eternity didn't help any and Jun braced himself mentally.
"Jun-kun—Can I call you that?" Jun nodded, though his anxiety only spiked. "You've never had the best marks in the technical courses, but you've at least managed to maintain passing grades before. This is a little more drastic than missing a homework assignment or two or slipping on a quiz. Repeatedly you've turned things in late or incomplete, or simply not at all. You're present for all of the tests and the quizzes but because the work isn't getting done the results don't help you at all."
"I know I've been kind of distracted, but it was just adjusting getting back from summer break," Jun said in a rush, his face growing hot. That sickening look of pity stayed on Nishikawa-sensei's face and Jun was afraid he may snap and scream at her to stop looking at him like that.
"It's not just math. I've spoken with some of your other instructors and it's the same story in several of them." Jun wished she wouldn't speak so nicely, because it really wasn't helping. "It's not uncommon to make it to your last year and find that you've taken on too much. There's a lot of pressure regarding the senior showcase and the extra practices and lessons can be exhausting. But that's not an excuse to let your main academics drop so sharply. Unless you can make a dramatic improvement over the next few months you may be looking at repeating this year—"
"And I'll be dropped from the showcase," Jun interrupted, panic mixing with realization in a dizzying cocktail that left him feeling suddenly and achingly hallow.
When she didn't correct him, Jun's stomach bottomed out.
Jun had convinced Nishikawa-sensei not to call his parents, though only barely. The agreement was that if Jun could manage to keep up with homework in the future and pass all of his finals that they'd revisit the conversation after the New Year. This gave Jun a little more than a month and a half to work with, roughly six weeks to pull himself together. It didn't seem like an insurmountable task until he actually tried figuring in hours for homework and studying into the hours he was already spending on dance practice and voice lessons. Jun had also intended to get started on applications for talent agencies, but those were going to have to be pushed back yet again.
He supposed he could give up what little free time he'd been enjoying. Jun wasn't entirely sure what he'd been doing with his time, because it honestly felt like he hadn't had any to waste since the school term had resumed. In all fairness he really ought to cancel his after-school plans with Nino. While normally that wouldn't be anything other than inconvenient, the fact was that Jun had been looking forward to it. They were perfectly capable of going a few weeks, sometimes even months without any social contact. The difference tended to be that Jun usually wasn't feeling neglectful in those times. He also usually didn't feel in need of contact and support from his friend the way he did right now.
"—Mattsun?"
Jun jumped slightly, his entire horse scooting noisily on the flat stone floor. Aiba jumped as well, bursting into nervous giggles before leaning in again, his loosely belted blue terrycloth bathrobe draping forward from his chest.
"You okay?" Aiba asked, looking Jun's face over carefully.
Jun frowned softly and shook his head.
"It's nothing," he said, and while he was sorry that he sounded a little gruff he mostly couldn't be bothered to care. Besides, if Aiba was rebuffed by his tone at all he didn't show it.
"Doesn't look like nothing," Aiba noted, reaching out and even as Jun made to jerk back his hand advanced until he could press the pad of his index finger against the tense line between Jun's eyebrows.
Batting Aiba's hand away, Jun rubbed his forehead and sighed. He really didn't feel like divulging all of his woes right in the middle of class, even if they were on break and probably no one was paying attention to them.
"I hope you're not getting sick," Aiba pouted, dropping to a squat and crossing his arms over his knees, looking up at Jun. "I used to get sick a lot when I was younger and sometimes it still happens. It always takes me a long time to get better, too, so it's doubly crappy."
"That'd just be the icing on the shit cake this week," Jun grumbled, though when he looked up and saw the open alarm and concern in Aiba's expression he felt bad about saying anything.
The art instructor gave a one minute warning to let everyone know that the break was coming to a close. Aiba looked up, likely knowing he had to go. He lingered by Jun for a moment, biting his bottom lip tightly enough that Jun could see the way the skin turned slightly white.
Jun turned to his essentially blank tablet of paper, trying to force himself to give a shit about what he was doing this morning. Figure Study was, miraculously, one of the few things he wasn't failing, so it seemed a bad idea to start slipping now just because he was having a bad morning. Then again, maybe he was doing well enough in this class that he could afford to have at least one bad day.
A warm hand closed around his wrist firmly and and Jun turned and stared at Aiba in surprise.
"Hang back after class?" Aiba requested and though Jun's lips parted he remained mute.
The instructor called an end to the class recess, breaking the momentary spell. Jun nodded before pulling Aiba's hand from his wrist and encouraging him back towards his place at the center of the raised platform before all of the students.
Picking up a shard of charcoal, Jun poised the pigment over his page and did his best to pay attention. They were supposed to be doing movement gestures again today. Getting down vague swipes of shapes to indicate motion and life. At the end of the period all Jun had to turn in were several skeletal sketches of hands.
After turning in his sheet of newsprint, Jun went back to his workspace and took his time packing things up. Aiba had his customary chat with the instructor before heading behind his screen, pulling on a pair of sweats and a shirt. Today it was a too-large hoodie that read "JUICY" in large, bright orange letters across his chest and while normally Jun might find that hilarious he just wasn't in the mood today.
Aiba came out from behind his screen and waited, waving to, smiling at and bowing out the rest of the students for the class. When the last one was out the door and it was just down to Jun, Aiba ventured over again.
"I didn't mean to be an ass," Jun said by way of apology, running a hand through his hair and gripping it so tightly he felt his scalp begin to sting.
"It's fine," Aiba said, brushing off the entire interaction with the wave of a hand. "But are you? You seem upset."
Jun wasn't sure whether or not he was annoyed with himself for being so easy to read or relieved that someone who actually seemed to give a shit had noticed he was having a hard time. Dropping his hands to his sides with a lifeless flop, he decided it was probably a mixture of both.
"I'm completely fucked," Jun admitted out loud for the first time, the sick feeling of panic starting to creep into his chest the way it had the night before. He hadn't been able to push it away long enough to eat last night either, so he was also hungry on top of everything else.
Aiba took a seat on one of the abandoned benches, not saying anything. He seemed to be waiting for Jun to continue. Figuring it couldn't make things any worse, Jun sighed and decided to oblige.
"I'm failing some stuff. And normally that wouldn't be so bad if it was just one thing, but it's a bunch of subjects," Jun confessed, face flushing with humiliation. Aiba continued to say nothing, his expression open and seemingly without judgment. While most of the time Jun would have left the story off there he dropped down onto his horse and continued.
"I've never been great at the academics part of school," he said, fairly certain it had come up in vague conversation before but he'd never really come right out and admitted he was a bad student. "I've been able to get by with passing marks, for the most part, but even I can admit that I've always been more focused on the talent classes. They were the reason I even came here in the first place. But I let it get out of hand and now there's a chance..." Jun paused, taking a very slow breath and staring at a spot on the floor between his feet.
He couldn't say it. He wasn't sure why, he'd filled Aiba in on everything else, but admitting that there was a chance he might lose his shot at the senior showcase was a step too far. Jun couldn't force the words out of his gut and into his mouth, his throat tightening around the syllables in protest.
Aiba didn't ask him to elaborate, instead choosing to push the conversation forward. "I guess something like cram school wouldn't work, huh?"
"I just don't have the time," Jun sighed, hating how helpless this situation was making him feel. And he had no one to blame for it but himself and he knew it, so even telling others that there was a problem felt wrong. It felt like trying to get people to be sympathetic for him, which they shouldn't be because he didn't entirely deserve it. There were plenty of other people at St. John's who managed to balance both the senior showcase and their academics, there was no reason Jun shouldn't be able to manage the same.
"I have a few scattered hours through the week to work on studying, I couldn't commit to a cram school schedule on top of everything."
"Makes sense," Aiba nodded slowly, and Jun couldn't tell if he was serious or just being nice. Though when he looked up his companion appeared to be thinking very hard, so it felt wrong to assume that Aiba was just listening to be polite.
Jun was about to call the conversation to a close and propose they go get something to eat and forget about the entire situation for a little while when Aiba sat up very quickly.
"What about a tutor?" he offered and Jun frowned slightly. He'd considered the option, but he honestly hadn't looked into anything yet. He'd only just gotten the news the night before, the fear and despair were still fresh in his heart.
"It'll probably have to be like that," Jun agreed with a nod. He chose not to point out that it was probably going to be hard to find a tutor who'd be willing to keep such sporadic hours. He didn't need his pessimism to rain on someone who seemed to want to help him.
"Leave it to me!" Aiba declared, his previously somber expression taken over by a forcefully bright grin.
Jun didn't want to be rude, but he couldn't even fake enthusiasm.
"Didn't you say you weren't any good at math?" Jun asked, fairly certain Aiba had pretty much blatantly told him that he wasn't any good at school either.
Aiba giggled, seemingly unfazed.
"Not me. But I know some people, I'm sure I can find someone to help you out," Aiba assured Jun cheerfully, standing and giving Jun a pat on the shoulder.
Jun felt himself frowning in hesitation but forced himself to drop the expression. He knew Aiba meant well. Aiba always seemed to mean well. And it was entirely possible that Aiba did know people who might be able to help get Jun up to speed and on top of things. It was just difficult for Jun to see any way that this could work out well. Rather than put that on Aiba, though, Jun gave his friend a tired smile (that was only the littlest bit forced).
"I think you've earned lunch," Jun said, picking up his box of art supplies with a grunt.
Aiba let out a whoop of delight, practically dancing over to his duffle bag behind the changing screen and Jun managed a laugh that, while tired and short, wasn't faked in any way.
For some reason, Jun hadn't actually expected Aiba to come through. He'd appreciated just having someone listen to him, even if he wasn't usually the type to share. He'd felt somewhat relieved and by the time he'd gotten home after meeting up with Nino after classes, Jun's mood had lightened. He still wasn't doing great, but he'd started to get himself organized enough to at least begin the hunt for a tutor. He'd anticipated needing probably a week before anything could be settled upon. He hadn't anticipated that Aiba Masaki could apparently work magic.
"Is this the Matsumoto residence?"
Jun stared. He knew it was rude and he knew he ought not to, but he couldn't help it. The man standing on his doorstep took a step back and looked over at their family plaque hanging by the door, clearly double-checking. Jun couldn't remember the man's name, but he recognized the face—it was a hard one to forget.
"You're Aiba-kun's roommate... right?" Jun blurted out stupidly, still not connecting why, exactly, Aiba's handsome roommate was in front of his house.
The man grinned and gave a surprised laugh, rubbing the back of his neck.
"Have we met already? I'm sorry, I'm really bad with names," he bowed and Jun returned it, still standing in his door. When he realized that he was being a clod, Jun turned and made room for the man to come in from the chilly Sunday afternoon air.
"I saw you at the school once, giving him a book or something," Jun explained, stepping back and out of the genkan to give a polite amount of room.
"I'm Sakurai Sho," the handsome man bowed again, and the name struck a chord in Jun and he recalled Aiba had told him the guy's name.
"Matsumoto Jun," Jun answered automatically, though it seemed superfluous considering the fact Sho had to know who he was if he was here. Then again, Sho had said he was bad with names and he seemed about just as confused as Jun felt.
"I'm guessing Aiba-chan didn't mention I was coming?" Sho asked and Jun shook his head. Sho laughed but shook his head. "That guy! Well, I'm here to help with some studying? I hope that you at least need that, because otherwise he is just being weird again and I have to have a talk with him."
Jun's eyes narrowed and though he didn't glare he definitely felt his confusion waning in light of some annoyance. He didn't much care if Sakurai Sho was Aiba's roommate and had probably known him longer than a bunch of other people (Jun included) it sounded like he was making fun of Aiba, and not in a friendly teasing way.
"I think he was just too quick with working things out to keep all of the points connected," Jun said, nodding for a set of guest slippers that Sho could use.
If Sho picked up on Jun's annoyance he didn't show it, and that just annoyed him more.
"Sorry for showing up unannounced. Aiba-chan just gave me the address but neglected to provide your mobile number so I couldn't warn you ahead of time," Sho said, setting his shoes on an empty spot on the shoe rack so that they wouldn't take up too much space before stepping up into the house.
"It's alright. I didn't realize he was asking for it so he could send someone over," Jun confessed, and in doing so he had to wonder what he had expected Aiba to do with the information. He hadn't exactly asked for details, simply provided the information without a second thought. Which was likely the last time he was going to do that.
"Well, since you didn't know I was coming, I hope now is an okay time," Sho said, giving Jun an apprehensive once-over. At which point Jun realized that his bangs were currently tied back out of his face with a fuzzy pink hair tie and probably looked completely stupid.
"Now's fine," Jun nodded, motioning Sho in to follow him through the house. Not like he could just turn the guy away. If he didn't turn out to be any good as a tutor Jun would at least be able to thank Aiba for trying.
Jun trudged his way through the empty house, climbing the stairs up to his room. It was a bit messy, but not the worst it had ever been and there at least wasn't anything super embarrassing laying around. He dumped his book bag on the floor to free up the spare chair that never seemed to get use, pulling it out and closer to his desk before plopping down himself.
Sho looked around the room and while he didn't seem to be overtly judging him, Jun couldn't hep feeling scrutinized just the same. Pulling the girly hair band from his bangs, Jun tossed it on his desk and finger combed the hairs out of his face. It was less effective but didn't look quite so juvenile. Jun wasn't exactly sure why that was important, but it felt important so he was just going to go with it.
"So, um... I guess the best place to start would be getting to know one another a little and try to figure out what you need help with," Sho said, setting his attractive leather messenger bag down on the floor next to his chair.
"Okay," Jun nodded, not seeing anything unreasonable about the proposal. Although it did take him a moment to realize that Sho actually expected him to start that conversation. Sitting up straighter, Jun crossed his legs and did his best to collect himself.
"Um... Well, I guess I need the most help with math and related subjects like physics. I'm also not great at writing essays," Jun listed, looking around the room as if he'd get a clue about something else there was to remember. There were other subjects he was struggling with, for certain, but they wouldn't be as difficult to cope with and so it didn't feel worth it to discuss with a potential tutor.
"What's the difficult part about essays?" Sho asked, leaning forward and resting his elbows on his knees, chin on a fist. It was incredibly casual and not really what he'd expected but Jun tried not to get distracted.
"They eat up so much time," Jun frowned, resting an elbow on his desk chair armrest.
"But when you manage to write them you get fair grades on them?" Sho prompted curiously.
Jun had to think a moment but then gave a nod. "I actually get better grades on essays than most things. When I manage to get them done and turned in on time."
"Okay. So that sounds more like a time management problem," Sho said and Jun frowned. He knew he wasn't exactly in a position to be defensive and resist criticism, but it seemed a little sudden.
"With math and physics, is it a matter of not having the time to do the work as well?" Sho asked, either oblivious to Jun's offense or apathetic towards it.
"No, I just don't get them. I've never been good at math and physics is just like... Math on steroids, trying to pretend it's not really math," Jun said and his prickliness melted into a bitter pout in spite of himself.
Sho's laugh was loud and full and caused Jun to jump slightly. He hadn't been trying to be funny, he honestly hated these subjects! Though he supposed that Sho wasn't laughing at his pain so much as his description.
"Physics is trying to use math to explain how things work," Sho restated, still grinning wide. Jun noticed, not for the first time, that he had a really, really good smile. Jun kind of hated him for it, but it was difficult to hang on to that when they were actually talking about something somewhat important.
"Yeah, but, like... Who cares? I mean, really!" Jun pointed out, honestly wanting to know. There were plenty of things that seemed useless to him, but few things seemed quite so useless as math and physics.
"Well..." Sho hummed, sitting back and crossing his arms over his chest and it was difficult for Jun not to be shocked by the sheer size and shape of the man's deltoids.
"Ah, well! Masaki told me you're in the theater department, right?" Sho said, leaning forward a little. When Jun nodded, he grinned and continued. "So think about things like special effects or props, or designing stunts. All of that is physics. You have to worry about weight, speed, force, and so on to make sure that nothing collapses under a bunch of people dancing. You also have to understand how light functions so that you can manipulate it to set the atmosphere for different scenes, right?"
Jun considered Sho's points. He definitely had some sound logic, but Jun still couldn't help feeling like the topic was still mostly useless to him personally. It wasn't as though he engineered stunts or props. He could come up with ideas for things sometimes, but he'd never seen a point in (or had the opportunity to) making them come to life.
"I guess..." Jun conceded, though he remained reserved.
For the first time he actually saw something cross Sho's face that wasn't just the same vapid smile and it only made Jun frown harder. Had that been... Annoyance? With Jun? What did Sho have to be annoyed with? Although as Jun seriously considered that question a number of things came to mind in an instant. He was doing a favor for a friend, coming over to the house of a kid he didn't know to try and help out, using his own free time to do it, and now the kid he was helping out was being a pissy bitch. Suddenly Jun felt even more self-conscious, realizing he'd been less than a gracious host. Regardless of how much or how little he knew about Sakurai Sho, the man had come over to help him without even really knowing who he was. And if he was friends with Aiba, he couldn't be all bad, right?
Though Jun quickly pushed that thought right back out of his head because considering Sho's closeness to his roommate kind of pissed Jun off for no logically sound reason.
"Here's what we're supposed to be working on," Jun decided to change the topic, turning to pick up a packet from his desk and handing it over to Sho. "I don't remember learning any of it in class, and I don't skip things so I really just... Have no idea where to even start."
Sho silently studied the pages of the packet, one by one. Jun shifted, unsure what to do with himself while Sho familiarized himself with the subject. Should he say something? Explain? Though he'd just said that he didn't know how it all worked, so there wasn't much he could really contribute. Before he could land on something to say, or whether or not he should say anything at all, Sho sat up again and pushed the papers back onto Jun's desk.
"Well, in your defense it is kind of complicated," Sho said, and Jun wasn't sure if that was supposed to be reassuring. "Before we get into all of that, though, I'd like to see a schedule if you have one."
"Schedule?" Jun repeated, twisting to start shifting through his desk. "Well, there's this," Jun frowned, handing out the list of classes and times he'd made for his own purposes while he tried to find the chart he'd actually found from the beginning of the year that blocked out all of his classes for the term.
Sho stood, leaning forward over Jun's shoulder and resting a hand against the desk. Reaching over Jun's hand and scanning through the mess of papers on the desktop, he eventually reached for the salmon colored paper at the same time Jun did and they drew it forward together.
"This gives a better look of what my days look like through the week," Jun said, dragging a finger down the first few columns.
"So what's on here that isn't on here?" Sho asked, pulling the handwritten list up again and resting it next to the daily schedule.
"Saturday, for one thing," Jun said, picking up a pencil and adding a rough sixth box to the chart. "I have dance workshops until the afternoon, sometimes later. Then... Afterschool rehearsals Monday through Thursday and extra vocal training on Fridays."
Sho nodded, examining the schedule as it filled up even more. His brow furrowed and he seemed to be sincerely considering the matter at hand. Jun turned back to the crammed paper in front of him. He didn't feel the same doom he'd felt earlier in the week, but he could still admit that it didn't look good.
"How long does it usually take you to get home once everything is done?" Sho asked, pulling the salmon colored paper over and picking up Jun's discarded pencil.
Jun chewed the inside of his mouth thoughtfully. "About an hour and a half," he estimated.
"Can you read on the train?"
"Yeah, I guess," Jun nodded. He didn't usually do much but vegge out on the train these days, but he supposed he'd lost that privilege.
"That's at least an hour of study time you can use every day," Sho pointed out, adding the blocks to the schedule and tapping them with the pencil tip. "You can either read assigned text or even work on essays."
"How?" Jun stared, not resistant to the idea but honestly baffled. He didn't have a laptop and the family only had a single computer to share. What was he supposed to write on?
"You have a phone with mail capabilities, right?" Sho said, and Jun couldn't help staring.
"You want me to type essays on my phone?" Jun asked, unable to truly believe that this was being given as a serious recommendation.
"You can at least get a rough outline accomplished, mail it to yourself, then finish it on the computer. It cuts down on the overall writing time considerably," Sho explained reasonably, and Jun had to admit that the logic seemed fairly flawless.
"Why haven't I ever thought of that?" Jun wondered, looking back down at his clustered mess of a schedule.
"You probably would have eventually," Sho shrugged and Jun couldn't help the spark of surprise at the comment. That was a vote of confidence he hadn't been anticipating and it seemed oddly out of place for the image Jun had been building up in his head. Then again, Jun could admit he'd been doing a lot of conclusion-jumping, so maybe he could afford to calm down a bit.
"Okay, so that can help with essays," Jun agreed, focusing on the scattered, unattractive chunks of open space in his evenings and mornings.
"I have my own classes, so I can't come over every day, I'm afraid," Sho said, turning to pull his chair closer to the desk and taking a seat. "But I don't have classes Wednesday mornings, so I can come over on Tuesday nights if that's doable for you? I know you have to get up early, so I probably wouldn't stay too late, but it should help a little to get through the week. I can't do Saturday nights because I have dinner with my family, but it looks like we both have Sundays free, right?"
Jun had nothing to contribute but a nod, so he did but kept otherwise silent. Unlike Aiba, who tended to stay quiet unless engaged in conversation, Sakurai Sho seemed capable of carrying an entire exchange completely on his own. It was baffling, but also a bit fascinating, especially because it seemed to Jun that he was hearing the man think out loud more than actually have a conversation.
"Do you think you'd need tutoring more than just twice a week? If you think that you need a bit more than that I can probably move a few things around..." Sho hummed, tapping the eraser of his pencil against the desk distractedly.
"I think twice a week should be okay," Jun nodded, reaching out and gingerly taking his schedule back. "I mean, if we have almost all of Sunday then there's not really any reason I should need something more than once in the middle of the week."
"True. But Tuesday isn't that far from Sunday and I'm just worried that you'll get something on Wednesday and be stuck until the late weekend before you can really start working on it," Sho frowned, still looking intently at the mess of boxes and blocks of time, some cleanly printed and others hastily written in with pencil.
"You don't have to go out of your way, I know you're just doing Aiba a favor," Jun said, though Sho's expression of shock was enough to make him wonder if maybe he shouldn't have.
"...You mean I'm not getting paid?" Sho asked, blinking at Jun in disbelief.
All Jun could do was stare back. Pay? Well, okay, he had been planning to pay anyone he'd hired, but he hadn't really hired Sho. The guy had just appeared on his doorstep and was talking to him about schedules and physics and Jun was so very confused. The fact that Sho burst into laughter didn't help matters at all.
"I'm kidding," Sho shook his head, sitting back down with a wide grin. "Of course you can pay me if you'd like, but I don't really need it."
"That must be nice," Jun commented, though he realized immediately it was not exactly appropriate. Thankfully, all Sho did was laugh again and shrug.
"I work and do alright for myself. You're right that I'm doing Masaki a favor, but that doesn't mean I don't genuinely want to help," Sho hummed, nodding in agreement with his own statements and relaxing in his seat.
There it was again, Aiba's first name used so casually. Rather than get caught up on that detail, though, Jun frowned and turned to face Sho properly.
"Not that I don't appreciate it, but... Why?" Jun asked. He felt it was a legitimate question, all things considered.
"Hmm, I wonder?" Sho's head tilted to one side in thought and his arms crossed over his chest again. "Probably because everyone deserves a chance to succeed. Though it likely helps your case that my best friend has spent the last few years trying to make it through school to his dream, too. Aiba-chan's very sympathetic to your situation, and I can't help but be sympathetic towards him."
Jun's mouth opened but he had no idea what he was going to say. So many things had been included in that answer that felt like they needed to be addressed, but was at a loss for where to start. Jun was thankfully saved from having to stare at Sho like a mentally challenged goldfish for very long as the front door opened and Jun heard his mother.
"Jun-chan! Ah. Is Nino-chan here?" her voice drifted up from the ground floor and Jun stood and rushed to his door immediately.
Opening the door he was halfway out of it before remembering to turn back to Sho. "I'll be right back," he promised, giving a slight bow.
"Take your time. I'll try to make a new one of these, only neater," Sho waved him on, shifting to the desk chair and leaning over a clean piece of paper so that he could begin copying out the work-in-progress schedule.
Jun lingered only a moment more before finally heading downstairs to help his mother bring in groceries, trying to think of the best way to explain the strange man sitting in his bedroom without arousing any suspicion or worry.
<< First | Last >>
Chapter 13: Well Versed | Chapter 15: Raw Deal
Universe: Promenade
Pairing: Aiba/Jun
Author:
tangiblewhimsyRating: PG
Genre: AU Romance
Summary: Ninomiya Kazunari and Matsumoto Jun are students at a prestigious arts academy where Ohno Satoshi has been invited to act as a guest instructor for dance. Aiba Masaki is a young man who has recently gotten an interesting part-time job at the same school, much to Jun’s despair.
Notes: Nishikawa-sensei is Nishikawa Ayako, who should be familiar to many of you from her appearances on Mannequin 5. Thank
honooko for that, because I couldn't think of her name or face for my life.Warnings: Self-beta’d.
Additional media: Jun's Sketchbook: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5
Jun shifted, crossing his legs one way and then the other. He wasn't uncomfortable or necessarily impatient, but waiting was not something he did well. It didn't help that he wasn't very familiar with being in trouble, however slight. He'd never been the best student, but he had managed to stay off the radar of teachers for most of his school career.
"Matsumoto-kun?"
Jun stood immediately, shouldering his bag and giving his math teacher a bow.
"Sorry to keep you waiting."
"No, it was nothing," Jun waved a hand, following the woman into her office.
Nishikawa-sensei wasn't old, but she wasn't exactly young, either. Jun wasn't sure what to make of her as an instructor, but for the most part she seemed like a good person. If not somewhat terrifying. Nishikawa-sensei had a beautiful face and a sweet look about her, but she tended not to humor anyone. Which was one of the many reasons why her kindly smile was making Jun even more nervous.
"Have a seat," Nishikawa-sensei motioned for Jun to be seated at a chair beside her desk. There weren't many people left in the teachers' office, a few lone instructors making corrections or working on lesson plans. Jun felt somehow even more self-conscious than he would have been if the meeting truly had been one-on-one.
"How're you doing?"
Jun did his best not to fidget as he answered.
"Okay," he nodded, his chest already tightening with anxiety.
"Really? There's not anything new or stressful going on?" Nishikawa-sensei pressed, and Jun wasn't sure if he should be comforted by the gentleness in her tone or not.
Other than this meeting? Jun thought bitterly but what he said instead was, "No, nothing comes to mind."
"I was wondering because you seem to be having trouble lately," Nishikawa commented, and for the first time Jun noticed the open file of papers on the instructor's desk. Most of the visible pages were littered with red strikes the whole way through and Jun could admit that he'd be pretty shocked if they weren't his.
"I've fallen behind," Jun admitted with an apologetic nod. "I'm doing my best to try and get back on top of the work, though."
The sympathetic look Nishikawa gave him filled Jun with dread. He knew that look. That was the look you gave someone who didn't seem to understand how out of their depths they were. It was a look of pity given to someone about to receive incredibly bad news. The pause in their conversation that stretched an eternity didn't help any and Jun braced himself mentally.
"Jun-kun—Can I call you that?" Jun nodded, though his anxiety only spiked. "You've never had the best marks in the technical courses, but you've at least managed to maintain passing grades before. This is a little more drastic than missing a homework assignment or two or slipping on a quiz. Repeatedly you've turned things in late or incomplete, or simply not at all. You're present for all of the tests and the quizzes but because the work isn't getting done the results don't help you at all."
"I know I've been kind of distracted, but it was just adjusting getting back from summer break," Jun said in a rush, his face growing hot. That sickening look of pity stayed on Nishikawa-sensei's face and Jun was afraid he may snap and scream at her to stop looking at him like that.
"It's not just math. I've spoken with some of your other instructors and it's the same story in several of them." Jun wished she wouldn't speak so nicely, because it really wasn't helping. "It's not uncommon to make it to your last year and find that you've taken on too much. There's a lot of pressure regarding the senior showcase and the extra practices and lessons can be exhausting. But that's not an excuse to let your main academics drop so sharply. Unless you can make a dramatic improvement over the next few months you may be looking at repeating this year—"
"And I'll be dropped from the showcase," Jun interrupted, panic mixing with realization in a dizzying cocktail that left him feeling suddenly and achingly hallow.
When she didn't correct him, Jun's stomach bottomed out.
Jun had convinced Nishikawa-sensei not to call his parents, though only barely. The agreement was that if Jun could manage to keep up with homework in the future and pass all of his finals that they'd revisit the conversation after the New Year. This gave Jun a little more than a month and a half to work with, roughly six weeks to pull himself together. It didn't seem like an insurmountable task until he actually tried figuring in hours for homework and studying into the hours he was already spending on dance practice and voice lessons. Jun had also intended to get started on applications for talent agencies, but those were going to have to be pushed back yet again.
He supposed he could give up what little free time he'd been enjoying. Jun wasn't entirely sure what he'd been doing with his time, because it honestly felt like he hadn't had any to waste since the school term had resumed. In all fairness he really ought to cancel his after-school plans with Nino. While normally that wouldn't be anything other than inconvenient, the fact was that Jun had been looking forward to it. They were perfectly capable of going a few weeks, sometimes even months without any social contact. The difference tended to be that Jun usually wasn't feeling neglectful in those times. He also usually didn't feel in need of contact and support from his friend the way he did right now.
"—Mattsun?"
Jun jumped slightly, his entire horse scooting noisily on the flat stone floor. Aiba jumped as well, bursting into nervous giggles before leaning in again, his loosely belted blue terrycloth bathrobe draping forward from his chest.
"You okay?" Aiba asked, looking Jun's face over carefully.
Jun frowned softly and shook his head.
"It's nothing," he said, and while he was sorry that he sounded a little gruff he mostly couldn't be bothered to care. Besides, if Aiba was rebuffed by his tone at all he didn't show it.
"Doesn't look like nothing," Aiba noted, reaching out and even as Jun made to jerk back his hand advanced until he could press the pad of his index finger against the tense line between Jun's eyebrows.
Batting Aiba's hand away, Jun rubbed his forehead and sighed. He really didn't feel like divulging all of his woes right in the middle of class, even if they were on break and probably no one was paying attention to them.
"I hope you're not getting sick," Aiba pouted, dropping to a squat and crossing his arms over his knees, looking up at Jun. "I used to get sick a lot when I was younger and sometimes it still happens. It always takes me a long time to get better, too, so it's doubly crappy."
"That'd just be the icing on the shit cake this week," Jun grumbled, though when he looked up and saw the open alarm and concern in Aiba's expression he felt bad about saying anything.
The art instructor gave a one minute warning to let everyone know that the break was coming to a close. Aiba looked up, likely knowing he had to go. He lingered by Jun for a moment, biting his bottom lip tightly enough that Jun could see the way the skin turned slightly white.
Jun turned to his essentially blank tablet of paper, trying to force himself to give a shit about what he was doing this morning. Figure Study was, miraculously, one of the few things he wasn't failing, so it seemed a bad idea to start slipping now just because he was having a bad morning. Then again, maybe he was doing well enough in this class that he could afford to have at least one bad day.
A warm hand closed around his wrist firmly and and Jun turned and stared at Aiba in surprise.
"Hang back after class?" Aiba requested and though Jun's lips parted he remained mute.
The instructor called an end to the class recess, breaking the momentary spell. Jun nodded before pulling Aiba's hand from his wrist and encouraging him back towards his place at the center of the raised platform before all of the students.
Picking up a shard of charcoal, Jun poised the pigment over his page and did his best to pay attention. They were supposed to be doing movement gestures again today. Getting down vague swipes of shapes to indicate motion and life. At the end of the period all Jun had to turn in were several skeletal sketches of hands.
After turning in his sheet of newsprint, Jun went back to his workspace and took his time packing things up. Aiba had his customary chat with the instructor before heading behind his screen, pulling on a pair of sweats and a shirt. Today it was a too-large hoodie that read "JUICY" in large, bright orange letters across his chest and while normally Jun might find that hilarious he just wasn't in the mood today.
Aiba came out from behind his screen and waited, waving to, smiling at and bowing out the rest of the students for the class. When the last one was out the door and it was just down to Jun, Aiba ventured over again.
"I didn't mean to be an ass," Jun said by way of apology, running a hand through his hair and gripping it so tightly he felt his scalp begin to sting.
"It's fine," Aiba said, brushing off the entire interaction with the wave of a hand. "But are you? You seem upset."
Jun wasn't sure whether or not he was annoyed with himself for being so easy to read or relieved that someone who actually seemed to give a shit had noticed he was having a hard time. Dropping his hands to his sides with a lifeless flop, he decided it was probably a mixture of both.
"I'm completely fucked," Jun admitted out loud for the first time, the sick feeling of panic starting to creep into his chest the way it had the night before. He hadn't been able to push it away long enough to eat last night either, so he was also hungry on top of everything else.
Aiba took a seat on one of the abandoned benches, not saying anything. He seemed to be waiting for Jun to continue. Figuring it couldn't make things any worse, Jun sighed and decided to oblige.
"I'm failing some stuff. And normally that wouldn't be so bad if it was just one thing, but it's a bunch of subjects," Jun confessed, face flushing with humiliation. Aiba continued to say nothing, his expression open and seemingly without judgment. While most of the time Jun would have left the story off there he dropped down onto his horse and continued.
"I've never been great at the academics part of school," he said, fairly certain it had come up in vague conversation before but he'd never really come right out and admitted he was a bad student. "I've been able to get by with passing marks, for the most part, but even I can admit that I've always been more focused on the talent classes. They were the reason I even came here in the first place. But I let it get out of hand and now there's a chance..." Jun paused, taking a very slow breath and staring at a spot on the floor between his feet.
He couldn't say it. He wasn't sure why, he'd filled Aiba in on everything else, but admitting that there was a chance he might lose his shot at the senior showcase was a step too far. Jun couldn't force the words out of his gut and into his mouth, his throat tightening around the syllables in protest.
Aiba didn't ask him to elaborate, instead choosing to push the conversation forward. "I guess something like cram school wouldn't work, huh?"
"I just don't have the time," Jun sighed, hating how helpless this situation was making him feel. And he had no one to blame for it but himself and he knew it, so even telling others that there was a problem felt wrong. It felt like trying to get people to be sympathetic for him, which they shouldn't be because he didn't entirely deserve it. There were plenty of other people at St. John's who managed to balance both the senior showcase and their academics, there was no reason Jun shouldn't be able to manage the same.
"I have a few scattered hours through the week to work on studying, I couldn't commit to a cram school schedule on top of everything."
"Makes sense," Aiba nodded slowly, and Jun couldn't tell if he was serious or just being nice. Though when he looked up his companion appeared to be thinking very hard, so it felt wrong to assume that Aiba was just listening to be polite.
Jun was about to call the conversation to a close and propose they go get something to eat and forget about the entire situation for a little while when Aiba sat up very quickly.
"What about a tutor?" he offered and Jun frowned slightly. He'd considered the option, but he honestly hadn't looked into anything yet. He'd only just gotten the news the night before, the fear and despair were still fresh in his heart.
"It'll probably have to be like that," Jun agreed with a nod. He chose not to point out that it was probably going to be hard to find a tutor who'd be willing to keep such sporadic hours. He didn't need his pessimism to rain on someone who seemed to want to help him.
"Leave it to me!" Aiba declared, his previously somber expression taken over by a forcefully bright grin.
Jun didn't want to be rude, but he couldn't even fake enthusiasm.
"Didn't you say you weren't any good at math?" Jun asked, fairly certain Aiba had pretty much blatantly told him that he wasn't any good at school either.
Aiba giggled, seemingly unfazed.
"Not me. But I know some people, I'm sure I can find someone to help you out," Aiba assured Jun cheerfully, standing and giving Jun a pat on the shoulder.
Jun felt himself frowning in hesitation but forced himself to drop the expression. He knew Aiba meant well. Aiba always seemed to mean well. And it was entirely possible that Aiba did know people who might be able to help get Jun up to speed and on top of things. It was just difficult for Jun to see any way that this could work out well. Rather than put that on Aiba, though, Jun gave his friend a tired smile (that was only the littlest bit forced).
"I think you've earned lunch," Jun said, picking up his box of art supplies with a grunt.
Aiba let out a whoop of delight, practically dancing over to his duffle bag behind the changing screen and Jun managed a laugh that, while tired and short, wasn't faked in any way.
For some reason, Jun hadn't actually expected Aiba to come through. He'd appreciated just having someone listen to him, even if he wasn't usually the type to share. He'd felt somewhat relieved and by the time he'd gotten home after meeting up with Nino after classes, Jun's mood had lightened. He still wasn't doing great, but he'd started to get himself organized enough to at least begin the hunt for a tutor. He'd anticipated needing probably a week before anything could be settled upon. He hadn't anticipated that Aiba Masaki could apparently work magic.
"Is this the Matsumoto residence?"
Jun stared. He knew it was rude and he knew he ought not to, but he couldn't help it. The man standing on his doorstep took a step back and looked over at their family plaque hanging by the door, clearly double-checking. Jun couldn't remember the man's name, but he recognized the face—it was a hard one to forget.
"You're Aiba-kun's roommate... right?" Jun blurted out stupidly, still not connecting why, exactly, Aiba's handsome roommate was in front of his house.
The man grinned and gave a surprised laugh, rubbing the back of his neck.
"Have we met already? I'm sorry, I'm really bad with names," he bowed and Jun returned it, still standing in his door. When he realized that he was being a clod, Jun turned and made room for the man to come in from the chilly Sunday afternoon air.
"I saw you at the school once, giving him a book or something," Jun explained, stepping back and out of the genkan to give a polite amount of room.
"I'm Sakurai Sho," the handsome man bowed again, and the name struck a chord in Jun and he recalled Aiba had told him the guy's name.
"Matsumoto Jun," Jun answered automatically, though it seemed superfluous considering the fact Sho had to know who he was if he was here. Then again, Sho had said he was bad with names and he seemed about just as confused as Jun felt.
"I'm guessing Aiba-chan didn't mention I was coming?" Sho asked and Jun shook his head. Sho laughed but shook his head. "That guy! Well, I'm here to help with some studying? I hope that you at least need that, because otherwise he is just being weird again and I have to have a talk with him."
Jun's eyes narrowed and though he didn't glare he definitely felt his confusion waning in light of some annoyance. He didn't much care if Sakurai Sho was Aiba's roommate and had probably known him longer than a bunch of other people (Jun included) it sounded like he was making fun of Aiba, and not in a friendly teasing way.
"I think he was just too quick with working things out to keep all of the points connected," Jun said, nodding for a set of guest slippers that Sho could use.
If Sho picked up on Jun's annoyance he didn't show it, and that just annoyed him more.
"Sorry for showing up unannounced. Aiba-chan just gave me the address but neglected to provide your mobile number so I couldn't warn you ahead of time," Sho said, setting his shoes on an empty spot on the shoe rack so that they wouldn't take up too much space before stepping up into the house.
"It's alright. I didn't realize he was asking for it so he could send someone over," Jun confessed, and in doing so he had to wonder what he had expected Aiba to do with the information. He hadn't exactly asked for details, simply provided the information without a second thought. Which was likely the last time he was going to do that.
"Well, since you didn't know I was coming, I hope now is an okay time," Sho said, giving Jun an apprehensive once-over. At which point Jun realized that his bangs were currently tied back out of his face with a fuzzy pink hair tie and probably looked completely stupid.
"Now's fine," Jun nodded, motioning Sho in to follow him through the house. Not like he could just turn the guy away. If he didn't turn out to be any good as a tutor Jun would at least be able to thank Aiba for trying.
Jun trudged his way through the empty house, climbing the stairs up to his room. It was a bit messy, but not the worst it had ever been and there at least wasn't anything super embarrassing laying around. He dumped his book bag on the floor to free up the spare chair that never seemed to get use, pulling it out and closer to his desk before plopping down himself.
Sho looked around the room and while he didn't seem to be overtly judging him, Jun couldn't hep feeling scrutinized just the same. Pulling the girly hair band from his bangs, Jun tossed it on his desk and finger combed the hairs out of his face. It was less effective but didn't look quite so juvenile. Jun wasn't exactly sure why that was important, but it felt important so he was just going to go with it.
"So, um... I guess the best place to start would be getting to know one another a little and try to figure out what you need help with," Sho said, setting his attractive leather messenger bag down on the floor next to his chair.
"Okay," Jun nodded, not seeing anything unreasonable about the proposal. Although it did take him a moment to realize that Sho actually expected him to start that conversation. Sitting up straighter, Jun crossed his legs and did his best to collect himself.
"Um... Well, I guess I need the most help with math and related subjects like physics. I'm also not great at writing essays," Jun listed, looking around the room as if he'd get a clue about something else there was to remember. There were other subjects he was struggling with, for certain, but they wouldn't be as difficult to cope with and so it didn't feel worth it to discuss with a potential tutor.
"What's the difficult part about essays?" Sho asked, leaning forward and resting his elbows on his knees, chin on a fist. It was incredibly casual and not really what he'd expected but Jun tried not to get distracted.
"They eat up so much time," Jun frowned, resting an elbow on his desk chair armrest.
"But when you manage to write them you get fair grades on them?" Sho prompted curiously.
Jun had to think a moment but then gave a nod. "I actually get better grades on essays than most things. When I manage to get them done and turned in on time."
"Okay. So that sounds more like a time management problem," Sho said and Jun frowned. He knew he wasn't exactly in a position to be defensive and resist criticism, but it seemed a little sudden.
"With math and physics, is it a matter of not having the time to do the work as well?" Sho asked, either oblivious to Jun's offense or apathetic towards it.
"No, I just don't get them. I've never been good at math and physics is just like... Math on steroids, trying to pretend it's not really math," Jun said and his prickliness melted into a bitter pout in spite of himself.
Sho's laugh was loud and full and caused Jun to jump slightly. He hadn't been trying to be funny, he honestly hated these subjects! Though he supposed that Sho wasn't laughing at his pain so much as his description.
"Physics is trying to use math to explain how things work," Sho restated, still grinning wide. Jun noticed, not for the first time, that he had a really, really good smile. Jun kind of hated him for it, but it was difficult to hang on to that when they were actually talking about something somewhat important.
"Yeah, but, like... Who cares? I mean, really!" Jun pointed out, honestly wanting to know. There were plenty of things that seemed useless to him, but few things seemed quite so useless as math and physics.
"Well..." Sho hummed, sitting back and crossing his arms over his chest and it was difficult for Jun not to be shocked by the sheer size and shape of the man's deltoids.
"Ah, well! Masaki told me you're in the theater department, right?" Sho said, leaning forward a little. When Jun nodded, he grinned and continued. "So think about things like special effects or props, or designing stunts. All of that is physics. You have to worry about weight, speed, force, and so on to make sure that nothing collapses under a bunch of people dancing. You also have to understand how light functions so that you can manipulate it to set the atmosphere for different scenes, right?"
Jun considered Sho's points. He definitely had some sound logic, but Jun still couldn't help feeling like the topic was still mostly useless to him personally. It wasn't as though he engineered stunts or props. He could come up with ideas for things sometimes, but he'd never seen a point in (or had the opportunity to) making them come to life.
"I guess..." Jun conceded, though he remained reserved.
For the first time he actually saw something cross Sho's face that wasn't just the same vapid smile and it only made Jun frown harder. Had that been... Annoyance? With Jun? What did Sho have to be annoyed with? Although as Jun seriously considered that question a number of things came to mind in an instant. He was doing a favor for a friend, coming over to the house of a kid he didn't know to try and help out, using his own free time to do it, and now the kid he was helping out was being a pissy bitch. Suddenly Jun felt even more self-conscious, realizing he'd been less than a gracious host. Regardless of how much or how little he knew about Sakurai Sho, the man had come over to help him without even really knowing who he was. And if he was friends with Aiba, he couldn't be all bad, right?
Though Jun quickly pushed that thought right back out of his head because considering Sho's closeness to his roommate kind of pissed Jun off for no logically sound reason.
"Here's what we're supposed to be working on," Jun decided to change the topic, turning to pick up a packet from his desk and handing it over to Sho. "I don't remember learning any of it in class, and I don't skip things so I really just... Have no idea where to even start."
Sho silently studied the pages of the packet, one by one. Jun shifted, unsure what to do with himself while Sho familiarized himself with the subject. Should he say something? Explain? Though he'd just said that he didn't know how it all worked, so there wasn't much he could really contribute. Before he could land on something to say, or whether or not he should say anything at all, Sho sat up again and pushed the papers back onto Jun's desk.
"Well, in your defense it is kind of complicated," Sho said, and Jun wasn't sure if that was supposed to be reassuring. "Before we get into all of that, though, I'd like to see a schedule if you have one."
"Schedule?" Jun repeated, twisting to start shifting through his desk. "Well, there's this," Jun frowned, handing out the list of classes and times he'd made for his own purposes while he tried to find the chart he'd actually found from the beginning of the year that blocked out all of his classes for the term.
Sho stood, leaning forward over Jun's shoulder and resting a hand against the desk. Reaching over Jun's hand and scanning through the mess of papers on the desktop, he eventually reached for the salmon colored paper at the same time Jun did and they drew it forward together.
"This gives a better look of what my days look like through the week," Jun said, dragging a finger down the first few columns.
"So what's on here that isn't on here?" Sho asked, pulling the handwritten list up again and resting it next to the daily schedule.
"Saturday, for one thing," Jun said, picking up a pencil and adding a rough sixth box to the chart. "I have dance workshops until the afternoon, sometimes later. Then... Afterschool rehearsals Monday through Thursday and extra vocal training on Fridays."
Sho nodded, examining the schedule as it filled up even more. His brow furrowed and he seemed to be sincerely considering the matter at hand. Jun turned back to the crammed paper in front of him. He didn't feel the same doom he'd felt earlier in the week, but he could still admit that it didn't look good.
"How long does it usually take you to get home once everything is done?" Sho asked, pulling the salmon colored paper over and picking up Jun's discarded pencil.
Jun chewed the inside of his mouth thoughtfully. "About an hour and a half," he estimated.
"Can you read on the train?"
"Yeah, I guess," Jun nodded. He didn't usually do much but vegge out on the train these days, but he supposed he'd lost that privilege.
"That's at least an hour of study time you can use every day," Sho pointed out, adding the blocks to the schedule and tapping them with the pencil tip. "You can either read assigned text or even work on essays."
"How?" Jun stared, not resistant to the idea but honestly baffled. He didn't have a laptop and the family only had a single computer to share. What was he supposed to write on?
"You have a phone with mail capabilities, right?" Sho said, and Jun couldn't help staring.
"You want me to type essays on my phone?" Jun asked, unable to truly believe that this was being given as a serious recommendation.
"You can at least get a rough outline accomplished, mail it to yourself, then finish it on the computer. It cuts down on the overall writing time considerably," Sho explained reasonably, and Jun had to admit that the logic seemed fairly flawless.
"Why haven't I ever thought of that?" Jun wondered, looking back down at his clustered mess of a schedule.
"You probably would have eventually," Sho shrugged and Jun couldn't help the spark of surprise at the comment. That was a vote of confidence he hadn't been anticipating and it seemed oddly out of place for the image Jun had been building up in his head. Then again, Jun could admit he'd been doing a lot of conclusion-jumping, so maybe he could afford to calm down a bit.
"Okay, so that can help with essays," Jun agreed, focusing on the scattered, unattractive chunks of open space in his evenings and mornings.
"I have my own classes, so I can't come over every day, I'm afraid," Sho said, turning to pull his chair closer to the desk and taking a seat. "But I don't have classes Wednesday mornings, so I can come over on Tuesday nights if that's doable for you? I know you have to get up early, so I probably wouldn't stay too late, but it should help a little to get through the week. I can't do Saturday nights because I have dinner with my family, but it looks like we both have Sundays free, right?"
Jun had nothing to contribute but a nod, so he did but kept otherwise silent. Unlike Aiba, who tended to stay quiet unless engaged in conversation, Sakurai Sho seemed capable of carrying an entire exchange completely on his own. It was baffling, but also a bit fascinating, especially because it seemed to Jun that he was hearing the man think out loud more than actually have a conversation.
"Do you think you'd need tutoring more than just twice a week? If you think that you need a bit more than that I can probably move a few things around..." Sho hummed, tapping the eraser of his pencil against the desk distractedly.
"I think twice a week should be okay," Jun nodded, reaching out and gingerly taking his schedule back. "I mean, if we have almost all of Sunday then there's not really any reason I should need something more than once in the middle of the week."
"True. But Tuesday isn't that far from Sunday and I'm just worried that you'll get something on Wednesday and be stuck until the late weekend before you can really start working on it," Sho frowned, still looking intently at the mess of boxes and blocks of time, some cleanly printed and others hastily written in with pencil.
"You don't have to go out of your way, I know you're just doing Aiba a favor," Jun said, though Sho's expression of shock was enough to make him wonder if maybe he shouldn't have.
"...You mean I'm not getting paid?" Sho asked, blinking at Jun in disbelief.
All Jun could do was stare back. Pay? Well, okay, he had been planning to pay anyone he'd hired, but he hadn't really hired Sho. The guy had just appeared on his doorstep and was talking to him about schedules and physics and Jun was so very confused. The fact that Sho burst into laughter didn't help matters at all.
"I'm kidding," Sho shook his head, sitting back down with a wide grin. "Of course you can pay me if you'd like, but I don't really need it."
"That must be nice," Jun commented, though he realized immediately it was not exactly appropriate. Thankfully, all Sho did was laugh again and shrug.
"I work and do alright for myself. You're right that I'm doing Masaki a favor, but that doesn't mean I don't genuinely want to help," Sho hummed, nodding in agreement with his own statements and relaxing in his seat.
There it was again, Aiba's first name used so casually. Rather than get caught up on that detail, though, Jun frowned and turned to face Sho properly.
"Not that I don't appreciate it, but... Why?" Jun asked. He felt it was a legitimate question, all things considered.
"Hmm, I wonder?" Sho's head tilted to one side in thought and his arms crossed over his chest again. "Probably because everyone deserves a chance to succeed. Though it likely helps your case that my best friend has spent the last few years trying to make it through school to his dream, too. Aiba-chan's very sympathetic to your situation, and I can't help but be sympathetic towards him."
Jun's mouth opened but he had no idea what he was going to say. So many things had been included in that answer that felt like they needed to be addressed, but was at a loss for where to start. Jun was thankfully saved from having to stare at Sho like a mentally challenged goldfish for very long as the front door opened and Jun heard his mother.
"Jun-chan! Ah. Is Nino-chan here?" her voice drifted up from the ground floor and Jun stood and rushed to his door immediately.
Opening the door he was halfway out of it before remembering to turn back to Sho. "I'll be right back," he promised, giving a slight bow.
"Take your time. I'll try to make a new one of these, only neater," Sho waved him on, shifting to the desk chair and leaning over a clean piece of paper so that he could begin copying out the work-in-progress schedule.
Jun lingered only a moment more before finally heading downstairs to help his mother bring in groceries, trying to think of the best way to explain the strange man sitting in his bedroom without arousing any suspicion or worry.
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Chapter 13: Well Versed | Chapter 15: Raw Deal
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Date: 2013-07-21 01:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-07-21 06:46 pm (UTC)