“This pair is determined from the results of the teacher's meeting. We pair children who will complement each other's shortcomings so that you can teach each other, understand?” Nakamura Sensei fixes his glasses on his nose bridge. The sharp glint of determination strikes the nervous students - affirming that his decision is inviolable.

‘Sensei what if my partner is annoying?’

‘Yes Sensei, what if they don’t want to study, how should I convince them?’

‘Sensei, what if this causes my grade to drop even more?’

‘Sensei I don’t want to pair with boys!’

Nakamura Sensei hits his giant ruler against the table to shut the hullabaloo “I know that the struggle for university seats is an individual competition, but despite all that, I don't want my students grow up to be selfish individuals who are indifferent to their friends. I want you to help each other and reach goals together; Don't you want to reunite after 10 years with your classmates and all become successful people? I want you to treasure the precious feeling of helping others, remember that feeling whenever you hesitate to lend a hand to others.”

Their homeroom teacher always has words to flip his student's hearts and opens up their minds; the complaints are no longer to be heard.

Ignoring his student’s sulking face, Nakamura Sensei announces the pair, he also tries to explain the reason they’re pairing together.

Masao Paired up with Asahi; because Asahi is surprisingly good in science while Masao will help him with English. Yuuta’s dad whose literature teacher would agree for helping his son’s friends study Korean and Haruki, despite his peculiar antics he’s really good at memorising and will be in charge of history. 

Kaito becomes more self-conscious when his name isn’t called yet, not just him - Ren also can sense his heart about to leap into his throat the longer his name is announced.

“Kaito Sato will be paired with Ren Hasegawa” 

Like being struck with thunder, Kaito springs up from his chair; he doesn’t know if he should be grateful, or if this is the atonement for his sin. He can’t look at Ren’s face without feeling guilty. If Ren becomes suspicious and knows he’s eavesdropping on his secret, what plea should he tell him? 

‘Sorry I was curious and can’t help myself’ Kaito shakes his head ‘Sorry I know you like boys because I was so rude and fussy about someone else's business so I can’t stop myself; God, Kaito hopes he will just disappear.

He had intentionally left a bad impression on Ren so the latter would never approach him ever again. Kaito picks on Ren’s nerves in hope that will discourage him to get involved with him since the more Kaito sees Ren’s face the more guilty he feels.

“Sato, don't be too excited yet!” Nakamura Sensei's chide eyes pierced at him like a hawk aiming for its rabbit.

“I’m not-”

“Your grade is the worst in the class” He stabs Kaito right on his weak heart “science, literature, history and oh god; even my shoe number is higher than your maths score” Like being hit by a brick of harsh reality, Kaito almost can’t even lift his head.

“Sensei, can I jump out of the window now?” Kaito grimaces. “One famous samurai warrior said; a man without dignity is no better than dead”

Everyone laughing like his crucifixion is their entertainment.

Nakamura sensei groaned, no one dares to argue with him except Kaito. Strangers would see it as a normal bicker between an uncle and his bratty nephew. “Which samurai warrior were you talking about? This is why you shouldn’t learn history from manga”

The laughter erupted from the class; it was always funny to see their homeroom teacher arguing with the most rebellious kid in the class. Both of them act like old friends who have known each other for so long. While the quiet Kaito makes a joke which is only once in a blue moon, Nakamura sensei never actually looks offended, if anything he looks less stern than usual, especially whenever he makes fun of Kaito.

“But miraculously you are not only good at fighting…Your art and music score is the highest in this class” His homeroom teacher continues, “And unexpectedly you also want to pursue music in college. You are also quite greedy about that, let’s see…you wish to enrol in Kyoto University for Music and Art.” Nakamura sensei smirks when he opens Kaito’s academic records. “Luckily, since your goal is a private university then your high school grade in your first year - which barely passes - can be overlooked. All you need to focus on is how to get a sufficient score in the entrance exam. And if you don’t start to fix what you lack now, it will be too late. In short, just use this chance efficiently and don’t make trouble for Hasegawa”

“You don’t have to tell me that, Sensei,” Kaito reluctantly goes back to his seat and accepts his fate. He has nothing to argue about after his homeroom teacher leaked his academic record which is usually only privately talked about inside the counselling room.

“And for Hasegawa” Nakamura Sensei turns his face to see the boy, “In contrast, your grade is all perfect, straight-A except for your music. It’s below average. If you’re aiming for the scholarship in a public university you should enrol through a school recommendation and the school can only recommend the best candidate, in order to become one of them your report should be clean”

A murmur of wonderment and disenchantment ran through the class. Nobody expects the genius Ren Hasegawa to actually have one shortcoming. People really look up to him as someone who has no flaws, then when they eventually find one, they can’t stop making a fuss about it.

Kaito thinks the laughter of his classmates who make fun of his grade is nothing but a harmless joke, he can laugh with them. But it seems to be a different case with Ren. The laughter visibly rubs Ren in the wrong place. After the buzz of whispers dies down, Ren's shoulders still hunch down and his head hangs low. He covers his disappointment by pretending to scribble something in his notebook while it’s obvious nothing can be written down yet from the whiteboard.

Kaito told himself he shouldn’t feel obligated to Ren’s situation. Everyone has their own problem; if there’s someone who should be worried about college entrance, it’s no one but him. The last-ranking student.

/Getting C in art doesn't mean he will die tomorrow, right? What is he stressing about? If he is already discouraged after failing in one subject then there's no future for someone like me!/ Kaito clicks his tongue while looking outside the window.

Loud smacks land on Kaito's back head; it stings like hell. "What the-" Yuuta has glaring at him, his kind eyes suddenly turning into the eyes of a predator.

"Quiet!" He spits indignantly.

"What did I do????" He fires back.

"This is your 5th time clicking your tongue! Do you even realise how damn loud your clicking tongue is? I miss what sensei said!”

Ren still engulfs in the bubble of his little sombre world, tapping his feet anxiously. The same gesture Kaito did whenever he was waiting for lunch break bell rang, the difference is this time Ren is still pondering about his grade. What an ironic contrast; Kaito sighs.

He doesn't know what he's thinking but he can't stand watching Ren keep squirming on his chair, it makes him anxious too, even worse there are still 4 hours until lunch break.

Kaito also has decided that if nothing he can do about this situation, he might as well take this opportunity to seriously study. It was not like he didn't have a will to do that, in fact, he was genuinely having a hard time digesting the lesson the teacher taught him; memorising, calculating, everything just too fast for him to properly understand. So, this study group could be the perfect solution for him. Moreover, he’s paired with the smartest guy in the class - his other classmates would fight each other to get this opportunity. Kaito considers the whole situation not as bad as he thought. As long as he can watch his mouth, that’s it.

He can’t say the same thing about Ren, though.

Their gaze meets for a split second but Kaito swears, Ren throws him a dagger through his sharp glare before turning away. Kaito scoffs incredulously. 

/Ha..ha..ha! Was he just blatantly showing that he doesn’t like to be paired with me??? So Mr smiling-face can also threaten people with his face, huh?/

Kaito ripped one piece of paper from his book, folds it into an Origami aeroplane and sends it flying away to land atop Ren's desk. 

Ren is a bit floored. He looks at his surroundings to find who flew it there. But Kaito is pretending to read his book, hiding behind them. With hesitation, Ren opens the folds carefully to find a messy scribble that is more similar to a doodle of a toddler. 

'Don't worry, You’ll be matched with Beethoven in no time. Ganbatte~’

Seeing Ren trembling on his chair while turning the innocent aeroplane into a ball of fury, Kaito has to bite his lips from holding his laughter. This semester is going to be fun, he thought.