tomodachi - II. Troubled Disappointment
~友達~
~tomodachi~
II. Troubled Disappointment
Ohkura lay quietly on his stiff mattress of a bed that night, listening to the music of the soft, chirping crickets. In the dimly lit darkness, he looked over at the boy sleeping across the room from him in the cramped dorm.
“Are you awake?” he asked quietly, shattering the peaceful night with his whispered words.
A faint grunt answered his question, coinciding with the muffled sound of Ryo shifting his position under his bedcovers in his sleep. “What do you want?” he mumbled impatiently.
“I… I was wondering, do you wanted to walk to Calculus together? We’re both going to the same place from here,” he reasoned sheepishly.
“Whatever,” a gruff voice muttered half-heartedly.
“Does that mean I should wait for you in the morning, then?” Ohkura asked hopefully. He was still trying his best to make a friend.
“Go to sleep, Ohkura,” Ryo whispered softly.
Ohkura smiled happily to himself in the darkness.
I’ll take that as a “yes”.
~~
I hope he’s ready to go, or else we’re going to be late! Ohkura prayed silently as he walked on his way back to toward their dorm room. Opening the door, an abrupt grin broke out on his smile. Ryo was standing in the middle of the room, ready to leave, with his book bag slung over his shoulder. Both his expression and his posture clearly reflected his impatience and irritation at Ohkura’s tardiness.
“I thought you were supposed to wait for me,” the older boy rolled his eyes in exasperation.
“Sorry,” Ohkura mumbled, rushing to gather his things.
“Come on,” Ryo grunted, not bothering to close the door behind him on his way out of the room.
“Hey!” Ohkura called, following the older boy out into the hall in a rush.
“Hurry up, or do you want to be late?” Ryo yelled from ahead. Ohkura soon caught up, reluctantly shuffling quickly along the hall to where Ryo had stopped to wait for him.
“Sorry,” Ohkura apologized once more, his tone notably more irritated and less feeble than before.
“Just stop saying that,” Ryu sniffed, turning away before Ohkura could say anything more. “Hurry up.”
Their empty footsteps knocked and echoed heavily against the marble floors. No words were exchanged, but a strange sense of peace enveloped around them both.
Is this how it feels to have a friend?
~~
The Calculus teacher grinned. “I can’t believe you still can’t get this right, Mr. Nishikido. You’ve been learning trigonometry for how many years already?”
Ryo grunted in reply.
“Oh, I’m sorry, I meant to ask, how many years have you been failing trigonometry?” A booming laugh resounded from behind the teacher’s smirk.
“Why don’t you try teaching it to me, then?” Ryo growled.
“I can’t even help you anymore. It’s no use! There’s no point. I refuse to waste my time re-teaching you something so simple.”
Ryo slammed his hand onto the desk. “I refuse to just sit here and let you constantly insult me like this!”
The teacher’s smile fell sharply to a grimace. He sighed melodramatically. “Disappointed, Ryo. I’m so very disappointed in you.” The teacher shook his head in mocking shame. “Why don’t you just sit down like a good little boy and accept your failure as inevitable? That plan seems to have worked out for you for the past couple of years now, hasn’t it?”
“What?! No! It’s not like I-”
“SIT. Or I WILL get you expelled. All the teachers already know that you’re no good student. One word from me saying you threatened me like you almost just did, and I can get you exiled from this campus for the rest of your life. And we all know you wouldn’t want that, now would you, little Ryo?”
Ohkura’s eyes widened. The whole time, he had been sitting beside the enraged Ryo, jumping slightly when the older boy’s had struck down heavily on the desk, cringing when the teacher raised his voice. But this… this teacher… how could he say these things to his own student?! Ohkura wished he had the bravery to stand up for his roommate, to protest against the injustice of their teacher’s intimidation. But he didn’t.
He merely watched as Ryo kicked his desk in fury, the thundering crash sending shivers up Ohkura’s spine; he flinched as Ryo’s blow barely missed one of his legs.
The teacher merely clicked his tongue and smiled. “Still going to be this way, Ryo? Still haven’t learned your lesson? Then I suppose this is going to be another long year for you…”
~~
Ohkura ran up to meet Ryo outside the room once the bell rang to dismiss the class. Putting his hand on Ryo’s shoulder, he asked gently, “Are you all right?”
Ryo shook his hand off. “Do you think I’m all right?” he muttered, anger flaming dangerously in his eyes.
“I was just trying to-”
“Yeah, I get it.” Ryo cut Ohkura off before he had a chance to finish his sentence. “You’re trying to help. You’re trying to be nice. You’re trying to make sure I’m okay. No matter what you were going to say, it doesn’t matter. There’s nothing you can really do to help. Niceness never really helped anyone.” Ryo turned his back to Ohkura, his eyes staring expressionlessly at the ground. “I appreciate you trying, though. But… he’s right, isn’t he? Our teacher… He said… he said it’s no use. It’s true, I just never understood basic trigonometry… but all my teachers just gave up on me. And since math is so cumulative, everything’s just kind of slipped downhill from there.” An airy sigh fled unwillingly from Ryo’s lips.
Ohkura whispered silently, “Wait…” as he saw the older boy begin to walk away.
Ryo stopped suddenly in his tracks, as if he had actually heard his inaudible plea. He turned around to face Ohkura straight on, his dark eyes’ gazes penetrating Okura’s once more. “Oh, and I’m sorry I almost kicked you in there… I didn’t mean to. It was just… I let my anger take control of me… I’m sorry if I scared you. I’m really sorry,” he nodded his head down to Ohkura.
The younger boy was shocked by his sincerity. “I-It’s okay. I’m still worried for you, though.” Ohkura took a defiant step forward. “Please, let me help you. I can tutor you in trigonometry… I think. At least let me try. Please?” Pity ached in Ohkura’s heart for the genuine Ryo Nishikido that had been so cruelly victimized by their teacher.
Ryo shook his head. “I wouldn’t want to trouble you… plus, you’d probably just laugh at me once you realize how stupid I really am,” he mumbled, breaking his gaze to avert the kindness shining in Ohkura’s eyes.
“No, I promise. I won’t judge you. I just can’t watch him treat you this way. It’s just not right for a teacher to demean his student so viciously. Let me help you, please,” Ohkura implored again.
“I… I mean, if you really want to…” Ryo murmured; his voice was so quiet that Ohkura could barely hear his reply.
Ohkura took a deep breath and smiled confidently. “I want to.”