Mika relaxed and for the next two hours, they both reviewed, worked, and corrected several math problems. Whenever Gen had a serious question about something Mika had already covered, he went over it again, patiently, until Gen understood better. They ended their first session going over Gen’s homework one more time until Gen was comfortable turning in what he had. It wasn’t perfect, but it was a damn sight better than what he first handed over.

When time was up, Gen stood up and stretched, his back popping. He shouldered his full backpack and pushed his chair back in. Mika yawned and did the same. They left the room, flipped the sign back to VACANT, and walked quietly through the library, each checking their phones which they had turned to “silent” while they worked.

Mika’s brows knitted together and he started chewing his bottom lip, eventually just letting it get caught with his crooked tooth. 

Once outside, Gen asked, “Everything okay? You seem worried about something.”

“Hm?” Mika looked up from his phone. “Oh, um…yeah. Everything’s fine.”

“Uh-huh.” Gen didn’t hide his disbelief and Mika sighed.

“I forgot to tell my mom about today and she’s upset that I’m not home when I normally should be.” He slid his phone back into his hoodie pocket and kept his eyes forward, his hair curtaining his face.

They walked across the darkened campus, heading to the front where the main student parking was. Gen pulled his keys out of his pocket by one of two lanyards that stuck out, and flipped open his truck’s key. 

“Do you have a ride?” Gen asked.

“I usually take the city bus,” Mika said. “I didn’t even consider that they don’t run this late.”

“I can give you a ride, if you want,” he asked out of the blue. What the hell? Where did that come from? “No point in making you any later than you already are.”

Mika looked up at him, his eyes wide, almost pleading. Why do you look so scared? “N-no, it’s okay. I can just call my mom to come get me.”

Gen stared down at him, not sure whether to believe him or not. Or much less to leave him alone. It was dark and the campus was empty. There was no telling what lurked in the shadows when the classrooms were locked.

“I’ll wait with you,” he said. Mika turned his blue eyes from his phone up to Gen who was looking the other direction. He could see the tips of his ears reddening under his mohawk as it swayed in the wind.

“I’ll be fine,” Mika said. “Really.”

Gen shook his head. “It’s fine, Mika. I don’t mind.” 

Mika’s breath caught in his throat. That was the first time Gen had ever said his name. Even when he texted him the other day, all he said was, hey it’s gen from class, all lower case. He gave a small smile and called his mother. She answered almost immediately, telling him she would be right there. He told her someone would be with him and she said that was good. 

“You shouldn’t be alone,” she said.

He swallowed. All of a sudden, he had a desire to go back to the library and stay there.

He held the phone in his hand once the call ended, and just stared off into space. Gen tapped him on the shoulder, jolting him back to reality. Gen hooked a thumb behind him.

“There’s a bench over there.” Mika nodded and they walked over and sat.

Gen leaned forward, phone in hand, scrolling through a manhwa, while Mika sat slumped beside him, hands in his pocket, hood up, his hair hiding his face. When Gen glanced over, all he could really see was the tip of Mika’s nose and the nervous chewing of his bottom lip.

He looked back at his phone, fighting the urge to ask what was wrong. Normally, he wouldn’t care. Other people meant nothing to him, yet something about Mika’s change in attitude bothered him. He tried to ignore it, to focus on his comic and on what the hero was about to do next to the monster he was fighting. But that look in Mika’s eyes wouldn’t leave him alone. He turned off the screen and let his wrists hang between his knees.

He looked off in the distance, waiting to hear the sounds of an approaching car. There was none coming. Just how far did Mika live, anyway? He asked himself why that also should matter. The wind blew his hair around his face and he ran his free hand through it, leaning back as he did so. His gaze dropped to his right where Mika sat, their bags between them. He was still staring into space, troubling his bottom lip. Gen hated that he couldn’t see his face behind his hair. And that bothered him, too.

Why did he care so much? Mika was just another person, another body floating around his sphere that he had to get around. Somehow, though, he was allowing that body to touch his sphere, to break into it.

He looked up to the sky, to the stars that broke through the darkness above them. The moon was off to their right, a half crescent. He folded his hands, his phone between them, staring at the moon, and sighed quietly. He enjoyed staring up at the night sky. There was a slant in his ceiling with a skylight above his bed where he could do this very thing every night. It was different when it was on a bench sitting next to someone else, though.

“It’s pretty,” Mika’s soft voice said quietly.

“Hm?”

“The moon,” he replied. 

Gen just nodded, his gaze still upon the bright crescent hanging above them. “Didn’t even know you were looking at it,” he finally said, his own low voice quiet in the darkness.

“I wasn’t,” Mika shook his head. “Until you did.”

They sat together in silence once again, each lost in his own thoughts. One thought in particular came to Gen’s lips.

“Question,” he said, his volume still low. Neither of them wanted to break it with anything loud, not even their own music.

“Yeah?”

“How did you know I needed to borrow a calculator that day?”

Mika’s head turned just enough for Gen to see his left eye staring through his curtain of hair. He looked at him a moment then turned away again. “I heard you say ‘shit’ when everyone else was taking theirs out.”

Gen didn’t realize he’d said anything at all, especially not out loud. But that wasn’t the most curious part. “You heard me?” he asked, so quietly he wasn’t sure he said anything at all.

Mika lowered his hood and tucked his hair behind his ear, the worried expression gone, replaced by a bemused grin. He took up the same pose as Gen, hands folded between his knees. His legs just weren’t as long as the other’s. 

“That surprises you?” he asked.

Gen nodded. “No one ever hears me,” he confessed, looking down at his hands, his long fingers turning his phone over and over. “I’m sure that’s not the first time I’ve said ‘shit’, or really anything else in that class.”

Mika nodded. “I won’t lie and say I’ve heard you before but…I did that day. To be honest, I didn’t even know you had joined our class before then.”

Gen grinned. “I’ve been there since the beginning.”

Mika sat up straighter. “Wait, really?”

The taller boy chuckled and nodded. “Really. I usually get there first so I don’t have to talk to anyone. Or if I do get there when others have arrived, I walk around all the desks so no one sees me.” He glanced down at Mika. “I do that in our other class, too.”

“We have another class together?” Mika was so surprised, he couldn’t help it when his voice rose.

Gen had to laugh. “Yeah, our English Lit class with Professor Redkin. Kelly knows I’m in that class, too. She just ignores me like everyone else does, which is totally fine.”

Mika fell back against the bench, genuinely stunned. They had two classes back to back and he hadn’t noticed him ever in either one. He covered his face with his hands. “Uuuugh!” he moaned. “I feel so dumb.”

“Why?”

“Well, ‘cuz, I should know these things,” Mika said lamely. “You’re my student, after all. I need to know all the places I can harass you to make sure you get your work done.”

Gen shook his head and put his phone in his pants pocket and refolded his hands loosely between his knees. “Don’t worry about it, Mika,” he said. “Seriously, you can just forget I even pointed it out.” He looked back down the road, expecting to hear a car arrive. Still nothing.

“Can’t do that,” Mika said. Gen turned back to him. “The curtain’s been lifted. I can see you now.”

Gen’s heartbeat sounded loud in his ears. He wondered if Mika could hear it, too. The smaller boy gave him a soft, friendly smile. One he’d not received from anyone since he was a kid. He didn’t have a clue how to respond in a moment like this. Did he say something funny? Ask to hang out together sometime? Say “fuck it” and take him to the lake instead of wait for his mom to show up? What did they do in anime or in manga? He tried to think of all the manhwa he read, even the BL’s…nothing clear was popping up in his mind.

Right then, headlights appeared out of the dark, sliding over them as a small sedan pulled up in front of them. Mika’s face fell and he grabbed his bag. 

“There’s my mom,” he said, almost sadly. “Guess I’ll see you later.”

“Yeah,” Gen said, somehow equally as disappointed. 

Mika opened the passenger door just as Gen stood and shouldered his own bag. As Gen began walking away, Mika called out to him.

“Hey, Gen?” Gen looked back at him, the wind catching his hair. Mika’s long, black hair billowed out, some of it waving in front of his face. “Thanks for staying with me. Let’s hang out sometime.”

He disappeared into the car and it took off, leaving Gen speechless in the dark. A moment later, his cell buzzed with a notification. It was a text from Mika.

I’m serious. Let’s hang out soon. You’re pretty cool.

Gen stared at the phone, not fully comprehending what he was seeing. What did he even say? Did he want to do that? Hang out with Mika Torino?

He tapped his phone.