“This is Elias. You said you could tutor me in calculus.”

Ryan shot up from the bed he’d laid on in an instant, and couldn’t believe this unknown number was actually Elias. Just when he was about to forget about that whole exchange, Elias called him! 

“Yes! I said that!”

“…” A grumble on the other side of the phone. “Does the offer still stand?” 

“Of course, yes! I’ll help you right away!” 

“How much?” 

“Huh?” Ryan picked at loose threads on his flannel, too confused to understand. 

“How much do you charge per hour, you airhead! Seriously, why am I …” Elias stopped himself, and hissed right into Ryan’s ear, through the phone, bringing him cold chills down his back. “Do you want cash, or should I transfer it to you? Though I’d rather cash, so I don’t have to exchange more contact info with someone like you.”

“S-Someone like me?” Ryan felt oddly offended, but let it slide. In a shy mumble, he responded: “I said it’d be free, didn’t I? I don’t mind.” 

Another sigh followed, but no words were spoken this time, making Ryan all the more nervous. 

“See it as a favor, then,” Ryan whispered.

“Favors usually want to be returned. I’m not doing you a favor later on.”

Holy crap. That serene, but sharp voice was about to freeze Ryan to death, and he rubbed his neck, wishing to ignite some kind of heat back into his body. A nervous chuckle escaped him, and Elias patience was long running thinner and thinner. 

“Does fifty sound good?” 

“F-Fifty?”

“Per hour, you dipshit. What are you, stupid?”

“I—Fifty seems like a lot, doesn’t it? I really don’t need any money,” Ryan mumbled helplessly, but this was a forever back-and-forth that Elias would not back down from. He did not want this tutoring for free, under any circumstance. 

“I’ll pay up front for four hours. I have an exam next week.” 

“Four hours? Next week? Uh—“ A tutoring session, every single day, to try and catch Elias up with calculus enough for him to do well on the exam? Since Ryan had no idea about what Elias knew and didn’t, it was hard for him to estimate whether that would even be possible. 

And he really, really, really did not want any money from Elias. After eavesdropping, and forcing his number onto Elias, it didn’t feel right. 

“You can just treat me to a meal after, and then we’re even. Fifty is too much.” 

“…” Elias couldn’t wrap his head around this random guy, who refused to take money for his time. “Why would I want to eat with you?” 

“We don’t have to eat together,” Ryan pouted right away, his plan having gone up in flames. “See it as payment, for the tutoring! The meals at the cafeteria are getting more and more expensive these days, you know?” 

“You want a meal from the dining hall?”

“Yeah.” And just as Ryan was about to admit how much he liked them, he was once more crushed by Elias’ blunt attitude that knew no bounds.

“Yuck. You sell yourself for that cheap?”

“H-Hey…” 

Elias moved on, when Ryan continued to shy away in embarrassment. “Tomorrow, at 1. Are you free?” 

“Oh, that’s perfect! My lecture finishes at 11:30, and it’ll give me enough time to go and rent a study room over at the library, and—“

“I don’t need your life story. Bye.” 

Already, Ryan heard the beeping on the other end of the line, and he gulped. 

“See you tomorrow,” he sighed to himself, feeling as if he’d just talked right against a brick wall that couldn’t care less about anything he’d just said, or wanted to say. 

That next day, Ryan meticulously prepared for the tutoring, even going as far as to print out a cheat sheet he’d made the year prior for himself, hoping it would help Elias to study by himself, too. 

In the study room, where they’d be all alone and able to focus on calculus, he set out everything ranging from his pens, to the calculator, to the book already opened to a perfect page with example exercises. 

He was ten minutes early, but that didn’t matter to him. Since he had nothing to do, he waited. 

Ten minutes passed, and Elias didn’t show. Giving Elias the benefit of the doubt, Ryan scrolled through his phone. He’d never struggled with patience, and he was sure Elias was a busy student just like he was, drowning in assignments all the same. 

But then, half an hour passed, and Ryan’s initial excitement about helping Elias began to fade. At first, he’d been so enthusiastic about helping Elias, simply because he was so intrigued by him, but now … he continued on waiting, checking his phone every few seconds, wondering if he’d missed a message.

There was nothing. Elias hadn’t called, nor had he texted, nothing to let Ryan know he’d be late. 

“Should I call him?” Ryan mumbled to himself, but before he even reached for his phone, he shook his head. “Don’t be crazy. He’ll be here soon.” 

The clock struck two in the afternoon, an hour after their designated time. He already began packing up all the stuff he’d laid out for the tutoring session, since he’d only rented the study room for an hour, and other students had every right to use it, as well. Especially since Ryan wasn’t exactly using it, anyway, the way he sat there completely stood up.

“I guess he forgot,” Ryan whispered, tucking his phone into his jean pocket, when the study room’s door miraculously swung open a bit faster than Ryan would have expected. In hurried steps, Elias entered, arms wrapped around multiple rolled-up, painted-on canvases, too many to tug beneath his arm, too many even for both his arms.

They were so long, they even hid half his face behind; giant papers he must have worked on and set out to dry, only to roll them up and take them home right after. 

With big, glowing eyes, Ryan stared, and Elias dropped the canvases onto the desk, smudges of paint along his jaw he was oblivious about. Again, Elias wore a black turtleneck, and once again, Ryan thought they suited him a little too well. 

Ryan readied himself for an apology, was ready to blow it off. Oh, don’t worry about it. I worked on some homework and stuff, so all good. 

But that apology, as Ryan dropped his book into his backpack, never came. 

“You’re not wearing your ugly flannel today,” Elias realized, eyes barely glancing past him. “Now, I don’t know what’s worse. Are you an otaku, or what?”

“… Eh?” Ryan looked down at himself. “I like this anime…” 

Even his graphic tees, Elias disapproved of? At this point, there was nothing Ryan could wear that would be to Elias’ liking. Well, anything seemed to annoy Elias, so who knew if it was truly the clothes he was bothered by, or Ryan’s existence altogether.

Ryan could only pout.