CHAPTER 10

CHAPTER 10

Fujio was sitting in his office chair, rolling back and forth around his room. He was wearing a polo shirt that was slightly too big to be comfortable and was struggling to sit comfortably because his pants were too stiff, so he moved to distract himself.

It was now 2:57, meaning that in just a few minutes Hikari would be here for tutoring. Fujio was anxious like always, thinking about what he could do to build a better friendship with her. He felt gross because of his profuse sweating, despite applying half a stick of deodorant the night before.

The time was now 2:59, Fujio nervously walked downstairs to the door and started pacing back and forth. This process had become a routine a while ago. Every week Fujio would think of why he was nervous and how he could improve, and he had gotten much better since the first few weeks of tutoring.

He was glad that he was beginning to feel safer with Hikari, but he still had something on his mind. He wanted to ask her about what she said to him the first time they met, about the robot students at the school. He wanted to learn more about those feelings, because they were the same as his.

Fujio checked his watch, it was now 3:02. He knew she would be a couple minutes late, so this was nothing out of the ordinary. He continued pacing back and forth by the door, now attracting the attention of his younger sister, Yuzuki.

“You really like her, don’t you?” Yuzuki said as she walked up to Fujio from behind him. She had a devious grin on her face, the one she used when she was teasing Fujio. F

Fujio was startled by her suddenly talking to him and jumped up for a second. She found this amusing and giggled.

“bro...” Fujio exhaled and looked straight down to mask his massive smile. He had been wondering about the same thing for a few days now. He wondered if he liked her or if he just wanted to be her friend.

“I know you're grinning down there. You don’t have to hide it lover boy.” She bent down to get a closer look at Fujio’s face. Fujio covered his mouth with his elbow and stifled a fake cough before raising his head up again.

Just then the doorbell rang, and Yuzuki scurried off into the living room. Fujio watched her leave and then checked the eyehole of his door. He knew who it was, but he always liked to be safe and check the door.

As a kid, Fujio had watched many horror movies and investigative thrillers because his dad loved them, causing him to be especially fearful of surprise murderers at his door.

He smiled when he saw Hikari through the hole and quickly opened the door. He greeted her with a weak “hey” and they walked up to his room in silence. Despite these sessions becoming routine, the starting awkwardness was always there.

After they entered Fujio’s room, he sheepishly pulled out his math test and placed it on his desk, where they were both sitting. He had taken this test before the break and had completely bombed it. Despite all the studying he did, he could only muster up was a 67%.

Fujio regularly questioned why he was put into his school’s advanced math class. The regular level classes were too easy for him, so he couldn’t go back, but these advanced ones were way too difficult. Still, somehow, he managed to achieve passable overall grades.

He was lucky his parents didn’t put a huge emphasis on academics. They let him do what he wanted, if it was productive. Fujio was very grateful for this, and usually he spent his free time doing productive things.

Fujio started talking to Hikari as she took out a notebook from her backpack.

“So, how aRe you?” His voice cracked in the middle of the sentence, causing him to nearly cringe physically.

“I’m fine... How about you?” Hikari sounded very nonchalant as usual.

“I’m good. Thanks.” A short pause in the conversation made Fujio tense up.

“So... I got my quiz back from last week” Fujio slid the paper across the table.

“Oh! Nice! Alright let’s see...” She examined the paper for about five minutes and then gave Fujio an angry look. Fujio saw her eyes and pretended not to notice, and then he started staring at the ground.

“YOU!!” Her voice grew rather quickly. Hikari got up and grabbed a big eraser off Fujio’s desk. Fujio knew what was coming and ducked for safety. He definitely feared what was coming next, but he was also trying to hide a big smile. This was the more casual tutoring sessions that had developed over the past months.

After she had calmed down Fujio carefully returned to a normal position.

“I tried to study a lot this time... I even stayed up until 10 one day.” Fujio mumbled to her. He felt bad that all her tutoring efforts had gone to waste. He really wanted to just understand math, the way everyone else seemed to do, but he just couldn’t. He felt like he knew bits and pieces of the larger puzzle.

Hikari looked at Fujio intently, clearly listening to him. Fujio usually feared “no-nonsense” teachers since they would never listen to his honest reasoning for a mistake. He appreciated that Hikari wasn’t like that. She seemed to understand that he was very sincere.

“Ok, so clearly whatever we did isn’t working. How did you feel after studying though?” Hikari was staring at the desk in deep thought.

“Uh... I honestly felt great. I thought I knew it well, but then the test was way harder than what I studied... what's more confusing is how everyone else seemed to get it easily.” Fujio was excited to share his thoughts with someone other than Eiichiro, which made him sound weirdly happy about how the quiz had turned out.

Hikari raised an eyebrow at him and then looked down to grab something from her bag.

“Here, do this over this week. Right now, though, let’s go over this quiz” Hikari and Fujio spent the rest of the time reviewing questions, and Fujio felt better by the time they were done.

As she was leaving Hikari started a conversation about what they did over the break, which excited Fujio. He rarely got to talk to her about anything except math. He asked her lots of questions, and she answered extensively.

They kept talking as Hikari started walking away from his house. Fujio decided to keep walking with her, and she didn’t mind. After a couple minutes of walking down the street, the conversation started to die down again.

He had been thinking about what she said when they first met, and he took this as his chance.

“Hey... Remember when y-you walked into the room when I was eating lunch?” Fujio said nervously. He was looking straight down, which he always did while walking.

“Haha! Yeah, you were so awkward then! Nowadays you're a little better, Fujio.” Hikari replied very casually, but not as bright as she normally did. She seemed to be feeling a little bit more serious. Fujio blushed at her comment.

“So... uh... D-do you remember what you said to me? A-about, I think, robots in the school? I don’t remember exactly...” Fujio usually pretended to not remember as much as he did when he brought up topics he was embarrassed about.

“Yeah... why?” Hikari seemed genuinely confused about why he was bringing this up.

“I- uh...” Fujio stopped walking for a minute.

“This is when you stop judging yourself dude, just say it.” He thought to himself. Fujio knew this was a moment he could use to break out of his shell. He nearly started shaking

“I was super excited when you said that. You're the only one who’s said something so honest like that. You’re... different from everyone, like me.” Fujio was blushing again and staring straight down. This sounded like a corny line he would see on tv, and he hated that he said something so stupid. Regardless, he knew he couldn’t change what he did so he tried to roll with it.

“Haha... thanks. I never thought about that.” She looked at him with a warm smile. Fujio saw this and couldn’t hide his own.

“Well, I'll see you later Fujio!” Hikari said and then walked off towards her house.

Fujio was surprised for a moment, since he didn’t notice they had already made it to her house, but eventually he put his hands in his pockets and strolled back home. He took a deep breath.

“I’m glad I did that.” Fujio thought, as he wiped sweat off his palm.