家庭教師 - CHAPTER 1
Title: Kateikyoushi
Genre: AU, drama, romance
Rating: PG-13 (it may be subject to changes)
Main characters: Nakajima Yuto, Matsumoto Jun, Sakurai Sho, Yamada Ryosuke* (*Sakurai Ryosuke)
Plot: Ryosuke is affected by a severe disease and he's never been able to attend school regularly. Sakurai Sho, his father, is looking for a solution to provide Ryosuke an high quality education at home, when he bumps into a mysterious guy called Matsumoto Jun, who's been led by his difficult past to live a life on the street. In this past is included a young boy named Nakajima Yuto.
Previous chapters: Prologue
***
CHAPTER 1
Next morning, Sho woke up to find himself alone in his bed. The other half, where Ryosuke had slept for the first time after many years, was empty already. Muffled voices reached him from outside, so he collected all his strength to get up and drag himself to the door, opening it to be hit by noisy laughs and loud talks.
“What the hell- Oh!”
Right, they had a new flatmate, he had totally forgotten about it. Reaching the kitchen, he found an unusual view of Ryosuke laughing his stomach out while trying to swallow his milk, making a total mess of himself and Jun, their guest, sitting on the window sill, holding a cup of coffee in his hands, laughing as well, but trying to keep his composure.
“May I know what’s making you two laugh so much?” Sho asked with a loud sigh and the two younger guys stopped right away, turning their faces to him.
“Dad!” Ryosuke smiled, getting up of his chair and running to reach his father, who wrapped him in a tender hug. “I was telling him about your date of last week with that Horikita-dunno-her-name colleague of yours.”
Sho blushed a bit and furrowed his eyebrows.
“More than a date, it was a disaster, yeah…” he said, making the others laugh again.
“No, but it was quite… err… Sweet. Mh… Nice?” Jun tried, eventually giving up when he noticed that, not matter what, that date had been the worst he had ever heard of. “Ok, it was a total disaster.”
Sho gave him his shiest smile and silence fell in the room for an awkwardly long span of time. Ryosuke muffled a chuckle, noticing they were actually staring at each other, then cleared his throat to break the calm and bring them back to reality.
“Dad, you’re gonna be late…”
“Aah right. Right. Coffee!” Sho gently pulled away his son and walked to the sink, grabbing a cup and filling it with the dark beverage.
Jun jumped off the sill and reached the sink as well, leaving his empty cup in it. His fingers accidentally brushed against Sho’s and both of them startled.
Ryosuke didn’t fail to notice any of their movements, not even a wink or a breath. That situation was getting so interesting, he was thrilled.
“What do you think of my father?” the younger asked.
Jun stopped tidying up the table and looked at him, frowning.
Sho had just left, rushing out without even kissing Ryosuke as usual, because he was far too late.
“What should I think of him? I barely know him…” Jun shrugged, pulling up his specs that were slowly slipping down his nose.
“Yeah, I know. But you two smiled a lot looking at each other and it was only a few minutes ago, so don’t even try to deny it, because it is still clearly etched in my eyes.”
“Mhm. Sure sweetheart. Now, what about taking a shower and then starting to do our homeworks?” Jun smiled and tried to get back cleaning the table, but Ryosuke stopped him putting his hand in the middle of it, obstructing him.
“Don’t ever “Mhm” me. I’m not stupid and I know what I saw and I want to know if there’s a chance you’ll be staying with us even after you’ll have finished with your work as my teacher.”
Jun’s whole body stiffened. He surely didn’t expect it coming. Ryosuke was a smart child, but being always alone with his dad, spending most of his days alone in that house, he had probably grown very sensitive to loneliness.
“Ok, Ryosuke-kun, listen.” Jun pulled a chair closer and sat down right in front of the younger. “You’ve got one whole year of school ahead. Sure, it’s your last one. But one year is a very long time, why are you worrying about it already?”
“I don’t want to be left alone again. I like you and I like having you around, so I thought… maybe you could fall for my dad and…”
“Become your mom?” Jun interrupted him and chuckled. “Let’s stick with this teacher-student thing for now, ok? We’ll learn lots of stuff and we’ll have fun. It’s too soon to think of anything else, isn’t it?”
Ryosuke nodded. “But you’re not excluding it, ain’t you?”
Jun didn’t add anything. He patted the younger’s head giving him a sweet smile and got up, leaving the room.
Sho reached his car, opened the door and threw his bag and jacket inside. After a whole day in that damn school, he was feeling totally depleted of energies. Closing the door, he pulled a cigarette out of his pocket and lighted it up. Exhausted, he couldn’t think of anything else.
It’s not that he didn’t like to be a teacher, but that wasn’t his dream, it had never been. Since his childhood, he wanted to be a pianist, but he had to drop off the conservatory when Ryosuke’s mum got pregnant, then they got married, she died bearing their son and Ryosuke grew sick… He just needed this job as a teacher, but it never was his dream.
He never regretted his choices, Ryosuke was the most precious thing he had and if necessary, he would even die for him. But this didn’t prevent him from always feeling so frustrated.
He breathed a deep mouthful of smoke and let it out of his nose, back resting on the car’s door and head leaning backwards to look at the sky.
Sun was setting beyond the horizon and a strong orange light was reflecting on white clouds, giving them reddish reverberations. Among all the tired and hopeless thoughts, the image of a warm house with two beautiful people waiting for him made his lips stretch into a wide smile.
Who knew that bringing a total stranger in his house would warm his heart up so soon and so easily? If someone told him before, he would have laughed at their words.
And he was laughing after all, bewildered by the sudden realization of what a strange path his life was taking.
He turned to the car and opened the door, ready to throw the cigarette away and leave, but a tall silhouette standing by the other side of his car catched his attention.
“Sensei…” the other person said, smiling to him.
“Oh! Nakajima-kun, how can I help you?” he asked kindly, mentally praying he hadn’t seen him laughing by himself like an idiot.
“I was wondering if I could come with you.” the tall young guy said. “I have a huge problem and I don’t have anyone to talk with about it.”
Nakajima Yuto, this was the student’s name, was probably his best student. He had never known someone so talented at music, expecially at rythm, as much as he was, always tapping around with his drumsticks, using them to practise his drumming skills even on his friends limbs or spending time far from other students only with his headphones and a bunch of very good songs playing in his ears at full volume. Sometimes Sho had joined him in the school’s yard, listening to his MP3 player with him without saying a word and never mentioning about it. They were just very similar, music lovers by nature and without needing any further detail to understand each other and feel comfortable in each others’ company.
“What? Sure, sure. Get in the car, we can go somewhere and talk about what is tormenting you…”
“No, please, no public places. Can we go to your home, sensei?”
The younger’s voice felt very troubled, how could he say no?
“Of course, Nakajima-kun, of course. Come on, let’s go!” Sho just said, without asking anything else and letting him in his car, not doubting even once about his intentions. He could never imagine what kind of mess his careless choices were starting.
The house was uncannily silent when they arrived. After giving his student a pair of new slippers, Sho reached the kitchen and nor Jun neither Ryosuke were there. After checking the other few rooms, he realised that they had probably gone out for a walk. It made him smile a bit, thinking that Matsumoto was going beyond his task as a teacher and was actually trying to give Ryosuke a normal life, bringing him out and spending time with him. All stuff Sho couldn’t fulfill in the past few years because he had grown way too busy with work.
“Looks like we’re alone.” he said, noticing Nakajima had joined him in the kitchen. “Sit down, I’m gonna make some tea and…”
“Oh, no. That won’t be necessary, I’m not going to stay long, I just need to do something.”
Sho looked at him quite confused. “Excuse me?”
Yuto smiled a bit and grabbed a chair, pulling it to sit down, then he crossed his arms and overlapped his long, thin legs and looked at his teacher smiling even wider.
“I’m not gonna pull this farce any further. I don’t have anything to discuss with you, sensei. I’m not here to talk with you, I’m here for my brother.”
Sho was puzzled. He had to press his own chin to close his mouth, while trying to explain to himself what was he talking about.
“I’m not sure I understand…”
Some distinct laughters came suddenly from the entrance. They were back.
Sho couldn’t move though, that behaviour of his student was worrying him. It was odd and baffling, he couldn’t get what Nakajima wanted from him and it was indeed a first. He was used to spending time with Nakajima, listening to music, talking about many common interests, understanding each others so well. And Nakajima had always been the kindest and nicest student he ever had. This unexpected turn of events was certainly overwhelming.
But maybe everything would get cleared up when his son entered the room.
“Dad, you’re here! What about your private lessons?” Ryosuke asked, excited to find his father at home already, then he looked at the guy sitting on table’s right side and blushed.
“Nakajima-kun?”
Yuto’s eyes opened wide and he jumped up the chair, looking at the guy of his same age and then at his father.
“Sensei? Sakurai! Right. I never thought you could be Sakurai Ryosuke-kun’s father.” Yuto’s face looked troubled, other than obviously surprised.
“Yeah, do you know each other?” Sho asked, trying to hide his apprehension.
“We were in the same class two years ago.” Ryosuke answered, turning his eyes on everything, trying to avoid Nakajima’s ones. It had been so long since last time they had met…
“Oh, that’s surprising.” Sho commented, relaxing a bit. So Nakajima wasn’t actually talking about Ryosuke when he mentioned something about a brother, right? How could he even think for a moment that maybe Ryosuke wasn’t his son for real and that his late wife had kept who knows what affair a secret. Of course it couldn’t be possible and he was just feeling like a huge piece of idiot.
“Hi!” Jun said, eventually appearing in the kitchen, entering the room and now standing right by Ryosuke’s side.
“We’ve bought some ingredients to make an apple pie! Do you like apple pies, Sakurai-san?” Jun asked with a chuckle, pulling up a bag full of big, red apples, forgetting to mention that Ryosuke had already supplied him with information about all his and his father’s favourite foods. Jun was very good at cooking and the least he could do to show his gratitude was to cook for them on a daily basis.
“It’s actually my favourite…” he replied, but his voice was covered by Nakajima’s one.
“Jun.” he just said, trying to catch his attention.
What? “Jun” only wasn’t a bit too impolite?
“Oh, don’t tell me…” it was easy for Sho to sum up everythin. Jun was the brother Yuto had talked about only a few moments earlier.
His son’s tutor’s reaction was in fact pretty expected, when the bags in his hands fell on the pavement and his face got painted with an horrified expression.
With a trembling voice, Jun asked Sho what his younger brother was doing at his home.
“He’s my student. And he wanted to talk about something serious and… I didn’t even know you two knew each other, ok, don’t drag me into this, whatever of a mess it may be.” he replied.
“Can you give us some minutes to talk?” Yuto asked, but Jun wasn’t of the same opinion.
“I don’t have anything to tell you, Yuto. Go home. And don’t even think for a moment to tell your father where I am.”
“It’s OUR father, actually.”
“Oh, please, don’t tell yourself such lies. You know that’s not true. He despise me and he kicked me out of your house, don’t even try to say I’m his son, because I’m not.”
“Still linked by blood. And you’re still my brother. Can you even imagine how worried I was? I got home and you weren’t there anymore. IT’S BEEN TWO YEARS, JUN. TWO BLOODY YEARS!”
Yuto’s voice raised and his eyes were filled with so many tears he couldn’t even see his brother anymore.
“Clearly not, since you found me pretty easily as soon as I moved in here.”
“Yeah, spending half of my savings to pay a private detective. He was going to call the police when he found you and you were being beaten up, then Sakurai sensei rescued you and...Oh God, I couldn’t believe what he said. You, my long missed brother, moving into my teacher’s house right when I had just found you. It was crazy, to be honest.”
Yuto seemed to calm down. He sat down and leaned ahead, resting elbows on his knees and hiding face behind his hands. He suddenly looked exhausted.
Jun looked hurt, instead. He was suffering, Sho could tell. He was suffering of a pain he couldn’t even imagine. How sad it could be to be kicked out of your home by your own family?
“Dad, should we…” Ryosuke tried to say something, pointing at the corridor, but he couldn’t finish his sentence. He was suddenly short of breath, feeling all dizzy and Jun, still standing by his side, catched him in his arms right before he’d hit the floor.
“Ryosuke-kun, what is it?” he asked. Sho was worried, but not as much as one would expect. It wasn’t unusual to see Ryosuke faint, as sad as it may seem, he was quite used to it.
“It’s ok Matsumoto-san, don’t worry. Leave him, I’m bringing him to bed. You two, please do what you have to do, but please don’t raise your voices and let him rest. He’s faced too many emotions in two days, he just needs to rest.” he said, while embracing his dear son and pulling him up in his arms, leaving with him to reach his room.
Left alone, Yuto and Jun intensely stared at each other.
“Come home with me, brother. I’m sure father misses you as much as I do. Mum is so worried about you she’s getting sick. Please…” Yuto stood up and walked toward him.
“This is my home now.”
“Oh, come on. You’ve known them for a day, don’t say such inanities.”
“Yeah? And they’ve been my family much more than your father was. Just leave now, Yuto. I don’t have anything else to tell you.”
“Why do you have to treat me as if it were my fault? I love you, Jun. I never stopped missing you, we’re brothers. You can hate him, but please, PLEASE, do not hate me! Not a day has passed, in the past two years without missing you.” his voice was broken and his face was now covered in tears, little sparkling drops, each one of them standing for a painful memory, just one of the thousands days without his older brother.
“I CAN’T.” Jun shouted, before trying to calm down again to avoid waking Ryosuke up. “I can’t. I can’t get my self attached to you again. We can’t meet each other, your father would probably find a way to send me out of this country to avoid any contacts between us. You’re his precious heir now, while I’m just a traitor. And I can’t get my self to love you anymore, because it would be too painful to get used to a life without you again. Please, don’t make things much harder than how they already are.”
“The hell! As if I care of what he thinks. I’ve been preparing myself for months, I’m ready to get kicked out too if he won’t let you in again.”
“That’s what you don’t get! I don’t want to be let in again. I’m fine right now. I’ve found something to live for, which is taking care of that precious child in the other room. I don’t want to do anything else right now, so please, just le--” he couldn’t finish, because in an outburst of affection, Yuto had just grabbed him and was now hugging him tightly.
“Please, don’t send me away. It’s ok, we can do things as you want. Father doesn’t know you’re here, I can just come some time, visiting you… He wouldn’t find it weird, I could just say I’m taking private lessons from my homeroom teacher.” Yuto’s voice was now almost a whisper, still embracing his older, but shorter brother in a hug full of love, delicately caressing his nape and kissing his forehead. He just loved his brother that much, he just wanted him back in his life again, no matter what the cost or outcomes may be.
And Jun eventually gave up. He encircled his younger brother in his arms and closed his fists on the fabric of his clothes, hugging him vigorously, almost clinging on him. Yuto’s warmth, his perfume, the shape of his thin body… Oh God, how much had he missed him?
And they were so much into that long desired hug that no one of them noticed Sho, resting a shoulder on the doorjamb, looking at them with a little smile, but way too worried inside that all that situation could turn out to be too exhausting for Ryosuke.
He couldn’t do anything else, but wish nothing would happen to make him regret bringing Jun into their lives.