Need help?

A day goes by, it's the 27th of March. Eliza is still motivated and ready to study at the library again, hoping she can get help from the same janitor. After she arrives, she sits at the same spot as last time, takes her supplies out of her burdensome backpack and admires the calm peaceful mood surrounding her. The janitor spots the girl from before and walks up to her, she turns her head to see the person interrupting the silence. She realises who it is and waves in a jovial manner, realising that she doesn't know his name.
"May you remind me of your name, sir? I may have already forgotten," she asks while trying to keep her volume down.
"I'm Shizyō Kuroseki, also you can drop the unnecessary formalities, we are already introduced after all."
Eliza assumes that Shizyō is his first name as she is unaware of the culture in Japan.
"Well, as I have told you mine, what is yours?"
"My name is Eliza Avery, it's nice to see you, again," she answers while trying to maintain her soft voice. "When would you be available to help me with my studies?"
"I'm quite busy with my shift," he says with a blank expression and in a flat tone. "But I will come back as soon as my shift's over. I promise I'll help once I finish this"
Eliza looks him dead in the face and pouts in disappointment. He then waves at Eliza for a second, and walks away in a rush, making loud footsteps with his cheap trainers. He puts his headphones back on and listens to Japanese Pop, picks up the mop, and starts cleaning.
Eliza is not happy about being alone but decides to try studying by herself. She keeps trying and trying but fails every time an attempt is made on every question, it feels futile.
"What the heck even is this question about, is it even possible?" she mutters under her breath.
After attempting to answer the questions in her textbook for a while, she lays her head down in disappointment. The tranquil environment of the library puts her mind at ease, for a moment her eyelids almost close, but Kuroseki taps her shoulder, and she suddenly raises her head. Eliza is wide awake as if she just dipped her head into a bowl of ice-cold water. Kuroseki takes a look at her empty notebook, and wonders how she even lasted this long alone.
"Would you like some help on these questions?"

"Yes please!"
Eliza shows him her to-do list that includes everything that she needs to get better at. Every time she opens the list on her laptop, she gets overwhelmed by the amount of work she needs to do. The three main subjects are maths, Japanese and science. She finds those subjects the most difficult.
"Oh, that's going to be easy", Kuroseki says with a smirk on his face, as he is also at the top of his class. "I can teach you this in no time."
Eliza's eyes light up. A few seconds later, an employee calls Kuroseki over for support.
"My break is over now; you will have to wait until my shift is over"
Eliza pouts and then sighs in disappointment. She lays her head on the desk again, accepting the fact that she has to wait longer. Without his help, she's not gonna go anywhere. He apologises and then walks away. An hour goes by, and the library closes in a few minutes. Eliza has long fallen asleep from waiting.  Kuroseki walks up to Eliza and taps her on the shoulder again, waking her up once again.
"Your shift is over now?" 
"Yeah, if you don't mind, we could stop by my place, and I can teach you this stuff, I mean we are neighbours after all."
She seems ecstatic about it and accepts the proposition. She packs everything into her backpack and follows Kuroseki to his home. As they're walking together, Eliza feels like the silence is too loud.
"So, how old are you? Because personally I am sixteen!" She states with her hand on her chest.

"I'm sixteen years old as well," he replies with a poker face.

Eliza, surprised by the lack of emotion Kuroseki has, decides to just stay silent for the rest of the trip back. After arriving at Kuroseki's home, he immediately lights a cherry blossom candle. Eliza can already smell the nice, serene scent. She takes her shoes off and sets them aside, follows Kuroseki into the living room and he pulls a chair back for her, she smiles and sits down. He opens a drawer to search for a pen he can write with.
"You can use my pens!" She projects from across the room, "I have a lot of them."
Kuroseki sits next to her and takes a look at the Japanese textbook.
"Tell me, what don't you understand here?" Asks Kuroseki, checking her abilities.
"Almost everything!" 
Kuroseki sighs, knowing that he will be working on her skills for a while. They work for a few hours, and while they work Kuroseki checks the time on the clock.
"It's getting late, if you want, you can stay over for dinner today?"
Eliza looks at him for a second, then smiles.
"Sure, I don't mind," she says while nodding.
After hearing the confirmation, he sets off to the kitchen with only one goal in mind, to make the greatest omelette rice she will ever eat. He gets the pan ready and begins to cook, he makes swift moves as if he were a professional chef from a world-class restaurant, as Eliza watches him from a distance. A short while later, he finishes up his cooking and serves the meal on the dining table. Despite her lack of knowledge of cooking, Eliza gets one look at it and immediately realises it looks high quality with no errors made. After Kuroseki takes his seat, the two begin to feast, Eliza taking the first bite of her meal.
"This is amazing, are you sure you made this?!" Eliza asks in shock.
"Have you been doubting my skills the entire time I was cooking?" Kuroseki states proudly.
While eating, a sudden question pops into Eliza's mind that she wants to ask.
"By the way, what school do you go to?" She questions
"I go to Kenshu High, the one around the corner"
Eliza's eyes immediately focus from the food to Kuroseki.
"No way, I plan to go to that very same school when it opens!" She says with her mouthful, barely being able to hold her excitement. "I made a school friend before school even started!"
"Don't talk with your mouth full, you could choke," he exclaims. "Also, it's nice to know that the two of us are going to the same school."
While Eliza's eating happily a sudden question comes to Kuroseki, a question he has to ask as his soul will not forgive him if he doesn't.
"So, what school did you go to before this one if you don't mind me asking", interrogates Kuroseki. "I don't think I've seen you at Kenshu high before?"
"Oh yeah about that... I only came to Japan a few weeks ago because my dad wanted to do some sort of business expansion, I'm quite iffy on the details myself but he said we might have to stay here for a few years. But before I lived in England!"
"Then how come you live alone?" asks Kuroseki, in a confused tone. "Why not live with your parents."
"Well, I did have a choice to live in the main home, but I decided to live alone, and this was the nearest apartment," Answers Eliza.
After hearing about Eliza's situation, Kuroseki was trying to decide what the best move would be and what the starting point was. He has never truly tutored people before, not counting his little sister, he is quite inexperienced in the field.
"Tell me, how much Japanese do you truly know," he says with a usual tone "because that introduction on my front door when we first met was truly terrible."
"I told you before, have I not," She sighs " I am completely illiterate, but I still have confidence that I can learn enough Japanese to fit in."
Kuroseki could see the determination in Eliza's eyes and restored his faith in Eliza learning Japanese. Suddenly a question sparks Kuroseki's mind, which starts to make him worry a little bit.
"Do you know anything about the culture here; it can be a bit problematic here if you don't?"
"Well of course not, bold of you to presume I know anything about this country other than anime," Eliza says, embarrassed. 
"You’re making this seem like a good thing, listen saying or doing the wrong things can make you seem disrespectful due to the culture here," He says while putting his hand on her shoulders to get her full attention. "Let's start with basics, do you know how to do that?"
"Of course not, how would I know"
Kuroseki began to panic while feeling a bit embarrassed.
"Is Eliza your first or last name?" He asks calmly, keeping his cool.
"Well obviously it's my first name, why would I give you my last," States Eliza, giving Kuroseki a confused look.
"Listen in Japan you must always give someone your last name, only people close to you like your parents or your boyfriend can call you by your first name," he says calmly, not trying to make it seem he is angry or upset.
Eliza sat there dumbfounded and confused, but eventually, it clicked in her mind on what he meant. Despite the announcement, Eliza seemed heavily calm.
"I'm sorry if that makes you feel uncomfortable, you can call me by my first name and I won't mind" says Eliza.
Eliza looks at the time and realises it is beginning to be quite late. She packs her things and decides to go back home. The second she stepped out of Kuroseki's apartment she felt an overwhelming amount of embarrassment and regret for not doing research. She takes a deep breath and clears her head and hopes this bad memory will fade away soon.