Kawaki’s grades in his second year of high school were sinking low enough for him to be called after class by a teacher. It went as expected. Well, not really. The teacher that wanted to talk to him was the only one he didn’t want to disappoint.
“Kawaki, I hope you consider this. You’re in danger of repeating a year if you don’t attend the remedial lessons,” said Naruto, who taught biology. He was the only adult around that had believed in him. Said belief made it difficult for Kawaki to refuse his requests.
If anyone else asked him to improve his grades, Kawaki would’ve brushed them off and told them to shove it, instead he said, “fine. What do I need to do?”
“Study. I asked your Class Rep to tutor you for this entire year. Are you up for the challenge?”
Up for the challenge? With teaching scoundrels in shady alleys their place, Kawaki was always ready to throw a punch or two. Studying? Definitely not.
“Yeah,” he answered instead.
“Great,” Naruto sneakily pumped out his fist in the air. “Sumire, you can come in and introduce yourself.”
Kawaki’s first impression of Sumire when she entered through the door was her graceful way of moving and the swaying of her purple braids with a soft smile adorning her face.
But Kawaki knew first impressions could be deceiving. There was something different about her than him, yet he couldn’t shake the feeling they were oddly similar.
“You’re Kawaki, right?” she slowly reached out her hand for a handshake. “I’m Sumire.”
Kawaki firmly grasped her hand. “You’re sure you’re up to this?”
“Nice to meet you,” she said, a flicker of amusem*nt in her violet-coloured eyes accompanying her earlier expression.
He let go of his hold, finishing the pleasantries. She had the guts to talk to him without showing the signs of being scared. Perhaps that’s why she got chosen as their class representative.
It was one of those times Kawaki regretted skipping classes so often. If he attended them, he would have a better understanding with whom he was facing off against. She was probably seizing him up, too. At least, based on the way, she suddenly was quiet.
A small cough from their teacher followed, diverting their attention to him. “I’m glad your introduction went so smoothly, but let’s move on to other things.”
Right. He was here to give them details for a place where the Class Rep could tutor him at school. Not watch them judging each other.
“You can use the biology classroom during breaks and after school with this permit I’m giving you or discuss other places where you’d want to hold tutoring sessions,” professor Naruto said, handing them over two small pieces of paper. Kawaki put it inside of his pocket, while the girl folded it neatly, then placed it in her bag.
When that was done, Class Rep and Kawaki nodded at him, and the meeting was over.
On their way out of the classroom, the Class Rep lightly tapped him on the shoulder. His body almost reacted instinctively to push the girl away. Kawaki disliked being unexpectedly touched. Despite this, he turned back to look at her. He restrained himself from doing something stupid for the sake of not disappointing his favourite teacher.
Perhaps sensing he wasn’t comfortable with what happened, Class Rep withdrew her hand. Kawaki breathed out a sigh of relief when she did so. “Professor Naruto said our introduction went smoothly, but I can tell you did it only to make him happy. Don’t you think we should get to know each other better on our own terms?”
That relief was temporary. He tensed up again instantly after hearing her out. “Listen, I ain’t interested in getting to know you. Just because I’ll attend remedial classes and tutoring sessions doesn’t mean we’re friends.”
Honestly, he’d prefer not to attend the tutoring sessions at all. He wouldn’t mind repeating a school year, either. School was a safe place for him. Safer than any other place, anyway. Besides, getting into frequent fights with local delinquents that filled out his empty days. The fights weren’t as safe, even if they helped him to feel like he was.
People getting closer to him, or even worse — those genuinely caring about him, especially nice people, should stay away before getting mixed up with the wrong crowd. Pushing them away before they got hurt spared them from a worse pain later down the road.
“Even if you don’t want us to be friends, you admitted you don’t plan on skipping out on our tutoring sessions. That’s an entire school year. Wouldn’t getting to know me be beneficial in the long run?” Her gentle smile never left and Kawaki felt exposed, which was silly since they weren’t close. Heck, he didn’t plan to get closer to her at all.
One thing was obvious, though. He might not plan to get closer to her, but he had a feeling underneath the kind persona she was incredibly persistent. “Have it your way.”
“I’m glad we reached a mutual understanding. That speeds things up.” She clasped her hands. “Would you be okay if some of our sessions happened at my house or outside?”
“Yeah,” he mumbled. Was this the reason she tried to grab his attention by tapping his shoulder? What a weird girl. He didn’t dislike her, since she respected his boundaries, but didn’t like her either.
“Great! I’ll let you know where we’ll go before each session during breaks,” she said, probably sensing he lost interest in their conversation. “See you tomorrow!”
When she left, Kawaki went to let off some steam by picking a fight with a group of delinquents led by Code. The asshole had it coming for invading his territory.
Winning made him feel better. He forgot for a moment about his grades, fellow students avoiding him and not wanting to disappoint the only teacher that was nice to him. That didn’t last long, it was only temporary. Soon, Kawaki would be hollow again, trying to replace the emptiness with another fight.
He almost missed the times when he didn’t live alone. His father and Jigen were a piece of sh*t, but at least living with them gave him a purpose as f*cked up as it was. Now he felt stuck in the hollowness that was drowning him.
─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──
Two months had passed, and Kawaki was right that first impressions could be deceiving. He severely underestimated how persistent this girl would be.
He entered the classroom and walked to his seat. Setting his bag aside on the floor, he pulled his chair to sit on it until the girl who always arrived before him moved her chair to his desk and sat down closer to him with a soft smile.
“Good Morning, Kawaki!” she said cheerfully. A greeting she always directed at him whenever he decided not to skip classes or a particular lesson.
“Morning,” he responded. He won a thousand fist fights, yet a battle of wits with her was the one he was losing. After two months of ignoring her greetings, he gave in and responded.
Her smile widened, and he could see her violet eyes sparkling. They were pretty like a purple-coloured gemstone.
“What was it called? Tanzanite. The gemstone that can appear in shades of purple, violet, and blue. That’s why her eyes are sparkling so often,” he thought, then tried to think about something else. He purposefully was staring at his bag just to have something to focus on.
She reminded him too much of expensive things that were unreachable for someone like him.
“Are you alright with visiting my house for our tutoring session?” she asked.
But unlike the expensive things Kawaki couldn’t have, Class Rep was a person who stubbornly reached out to him for the duration of two months. Her patience towards him was admirable. He sighed, “yeah. Wanna go there straight with me after school?”
“Has something changed? You didn’t ask or offered to do something like this before.” She raised her eyebrow.
“Not really. It’s just more practical in the long run,” he brushed her words off. Nothing changed. It didn’t matter if he thought she was pretty, her getting closer to him wasn’t something he wanted.
However, something told him what he wanted wouldn’t deter Class Rep at all. From the third party point of view, it looked like she selflessly tried to help him out and slowly integrate him into their class. Kawaki knew better.
“She’s just as selfish as I am,” another thought about her invaded his head. “And better at hiding it.”
A truly selfless person wouldn’t want something in return. Class Rep was kind to him because she didn’t give up on the idea of them being friends, regardless of how he felt about it. If that’s not selfish, what is? He was foolish to give in to any of her whims.
“In that case, we officially confirmed our plans for this afternoon!” she said, then moved herself with her chair back to the front of her desk, finishing their minor exchange.
Nothing else noteworthy happened during the following classes.
Just like they discussed this morning, after classes ended, he and Class Rep were walking to her house for the tutoring session. The sessions increased in number because of an upcoming exam.
“It is a known fact that Boruto will rank first and Sarada will be second after the results are posted. So the goal is for you to actually get in the top ten.” Class Rep was usually the one who talked in his presence. That was because he kept to himself. Those two months helped him to know more about her, to know for sure she was like him, despite their obvious differences.
She felt the same emptiness as him. The way she filled the void was vastly different. He got into pointless fights while she preferred talking. The subject of the conversation was irrelevant.
Kawaki didn’t mind listening to her ramblings. Mainly because of that unspoken understanding, only two people who were broken had.
“The exams didn’t even start yet. Maybe you’ll rank first,” he commented. His head was messing with him today, but he paid attention to what she said.
She laughed. ”I already have an excellent position in the rankings. Competing with those two would just give me a headache from trying to keep up. They’re always trying to one up each other.”
“Don’t sell yourself short. Your tutoring lessons are easy to understand.” Kawaki didn’t say it to be nice. He said this because it was true. Not everyone would be capable of teaching him, considering his grades.
“Are you in a good mood today?” That was a question he’d ask himself if he could. His feelings were all over the place.
“Nothing to do with my mood. Just speaking the truth,” he answered, distracted by her swaying braids. Class Rep sparkling eyes were one thing. Maintaining her long, purple hair was another. ka*wki pretended not to notice, but she obviously cherished it a lot.
“Well, you might be right that you’re lucky I’m the one teaching you. Boruto has good grades. That doesn’t reflect how bad he’s at explaining lessons to others,” Sumire glanced at him, then sighed. “I asked him for help with a problem presented in class I had trouble with once. He just wrote a solution in a notebook, then said ‘That’s how it’s done’ without explanation at all.”
Kawaki snickered, “lucky or not, I’m happy he’s not the one tutoring me. Based on your story, I’d not improve my grades with his help.”
“Maybe not, but I’m sure he’d help you eventually,” she insisted. Kawaki barely interacted with his classmates, so she’d know the guy better than him. He didn’t have strong faith in other people she seemed to have.
That’s why she was a weird girl. They both were in pain, yet she could trust people. How? Kawaki couldn’t comprehend it. Trust only got him hurt.
“Now I know why I should be lucky that Boruto’s not the one tutoring me. What about Sarada?” He was curious not about Sarada. His curiosity stemmed from wanting to learn how Class Rep perceived others. It’d give him a hint. A hint about why she was so persistent in wanting to befriend him.
“She goes overboard with her explanations. They’re detailed, instead of getting to the point. Sometimes too detailed.”
Weren’t detailed explanations good? Better than no explanation at all. “And your explanations aren’t?”
“Weren’t you the one who said my lessons are easy to understand? Over-explaining can be as bad as not explaining anything. It results in you focusing on details that aren’t crucial to the main points from the subjects.”
Maybe it wasn’t what he sought from this conversation, but her answer let him help understand her better. “Fair enough.”
“You know I— “ Class Rep wasn’t allowed to finish. She bumped into someone familiar to Kawaki when they were getting closer to her house.
He cursed under his breath. Of course, it was the leader of the delinquents from the rival gang. The one who has a stupid grudge against him. Code. And his cronies.
Kawaki’s gaze lingered on Sumire for a while. He let his guard down. Maybe she wasn’t close to him, but she spent enough time in his presence for Code to think of her as his weakness and get revenge on him after their last battle.
“Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to bump into you,” she said, unaware of the danger.
As if recognising her voice, one of Code’s cronies shrieked and energetically pointed at her. “You are…!”
Code himself ignored Class Rep's words, not giving her the time of the day. That wasn’t the only thing he ignored. Code did not notice the strange reaction from the people he led. Kawaki narrowed his eyes, thinking more about this detail. Typical Code. So self-absorbed. When his target was here, he didn’t need to attack those close to him to draw them out.
Kawaki despised him. The feeling was mutual on Code’s side, too.
Sumire moved away from Code, her gaze suddenly colder and calculating. It was the first time Kawaki witnessed her looking at someone ruthlessly. The dichotomy from her usually warm gaze directed at him was palpable.
But Code didn’t pay attention to her. His attention was on him. “Long time no see, Kawaki. You and I need to have a long chat.”
“I’m not interested,” Kawaki appeared calm, hiding his nerves.
“I didn’t ask you if you’re interested or not,” Code’s words bit back like a venomous snake.
“Didn’t you hear him? He’s not interested. Besides, Kawaki has a tutoring session he needs to attend,” Sumire interrupted their hostile exchange. What the hell was she doing?!
“You’ve no right to interfere, woman,” Code scowled with an air of superiority. “That’s a battle between men.”
Ouch. The guy should write a book on how to offend girls, even Kawaki has better social awareness.
“Oh? It stopped being a battle between men the moment you disturbed Kawaki’s education. As a class representative, I cannot let it slide.” Sumire said, while slowly unzipping her school bag.
Kawaki rapidly blinked. Why was she having a baseball bat inside of her bag and taking it out? For a moment he thought he was hallucinating. The image of a warm, kindly Class Rep was so different to Sumire standing with a baseball bat in her hand and a cold, calculating gaze.
The signs were there. Kawaki ignored them.
“Boss!” One of Code’s cronies shrieked out. “It’s Sumire Shigaraki. She used to rule our territories. Let’s run!”
“What? Why didn’t you tell me that from the start, moron?!” Code replied before a disaster struck him.
“You guys have a lot of nerve doing as you please on one of my old turfs.” Sumire’s words were sweet like honey. The type of sweetness that stung, and you ended up drowning in poison instead. “Don’t worry, Kawaki. I’ll deal with them swiftly without leaving witnesses!”
“It’s not them I’m worried about,” Kawaki quietly whispered. He stayed out of her way. It was a wise move.
Despite not having an advantage, Sumire beat the crap out of Code’s cronies with the majestic swings of her baseball bat. Suddenly, she felt less like an expensive gem. More like an expensive gem that was valuable, but had several cracks diminishing its value for others, but cherished by the person who loved its beauty regardless of any cracks that appeared on it.
The most terrifying part wasn’t that she defeated a local gang of delinquents on her own. It was the fact she was calm doing so. Seeing her like this, Kawaki’s fears lessened. Sumire was already involved in this world before she met him. He’d not drag her into it by being her friend.
This whole situation took such an unbelievable turn that only he, Sumire and Code remained intact.
“You go to our school, right?” Sumire referred to Code. “I’m a good friend of Eida and if she knew about what happened here, she’d surely reject you. If you know what’s good for you, you’ll stop bothering Kawaki from now on and we won’t tell anyone about this incident, got it?!”
“Yes, ma’am!” It turned out even Code wasn’t immune to the power of love. A thought that sounded so ridiculous, Kawaki immediately regretted it.
After this, Code and his cronies peacefully retreated and their tutoring session proceeded like the other ones.
─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──
The exam results got posted. Kawaki barely made it to the top ten, but he ranked higher than usual. Being ninth in the rankings should satisfy a lot of his teachers. What’s important was that professor Naruto would be proud of him.
His days were more peaceful after Cla—Sumire triumphantly defeated Code by being a good friend of a girl he liked. Kawaki didn’t want to make her angry after being a primary witness to the whole incident.
“Morning, Kawaki!” Fortunately, Sumire’s gentle side and attempts to befriend him remained unchanged.
“Morning.” Who was he trying to fool? After three months of them talking, they were already friends. “Congratulations on the fourth place. Did your rank drop because you were teaching me?”
She laughed. “Not at all! Shikadai just bested me and Mitsuki this time around.”
“You seriously underestimate yourself,” Kawaki sighed. He accepted the fact Sumire preferred to blend into the background. “I’m sure if ya took action, you could beat both Boruto and Sarada.”
“Are you sure you’re not the one overestimating me? No matter the case, I’m happy you think so highly of my abilities,” she replied.
In a distance where he could see Boruto and Sarada starting their annoying flirting ritual in front of their classmates near the exam score board, Kawaki decided not to press Sumire about defeating them both if she took a more active approach.
“That so? In that case, want to visit my house today for a change of pace?” He said, instead. Sumire was hinting at being curious about his home life for the past week.
“Sure!” Her demeanour instantly brightened.
Kawaki wasn’t used to opening himself so much to anyone, but it was time to work on that. Sumire reached out to him. It was time to return the favour and Kawaki would let her get to know him better. Because like a tanzanite, the price of getting close to her was worth saving and paying for to bathe in the bright spark of different shades of colour.
