My Fair Tomboy
This was a mistake. She thought that with every step she took as she weaved her way through the not-so-difficult hedge maze toward the gazebo at the center: the agreed meeting spot for her and her new 'tutor'. Nothing seemed more lame and pathetic than actually asking someone for advice on how to make herself more appealing to guys. Wasn't the
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When he finally arrived at the gazebo, he slowed his pace and quickly surveyed the area. Dangit, he hadn't meant to be late...! Hopefully she hadn't left by now. Really, that'd be more embarrassing than anything else at the moment. Pressing his lips, Kon inspected the area again and ran a hand through his hair.
Noticing her - finally! - Kon approached her and offered a weak smile. "Hey," He said, trying his best to appear as if he hadn't held her up for about five minutes or so, "Sorry I'm late. You're... Chie, right?"
Now that he'd gotten a good look at her, Kon began to slightly wonder why she'd even signed up for lessons in the first place. She was pretty cute, even if she seemed a little tomboyish.
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Chie's head lifted in surprise at the sound of footsteps crunching on the gravel path. She was even further surprised at the sight of her tutor. He was supposed to be close to her own age, but she'd never encountered any guy that well-built before amongst her schoolmates! What did they feed those American guys?
Well, at least he was good-looking, which meant that he probably knew a lot about dating and relationships. No way a guy like that could be new or uneducated in that particular field!
"Hey!" she returned his greeting brightly, straightening out of her slump and standing to her feet. "Yeah, that's me." He even pronounced it right, which was fairly impressive. "And you're the tutor, I take it?"
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"Yeah," Kon grinned, nodding as he pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. Maybe he could actually handle teaching after all. "I'm Conner Kent. Since we're like, the same age and all... just Conner's fine."
He awkwardly stood there for a moment before folding his arms, "So what do you want to learn? I'm kind of failing to grasp why you wouldn't be able to get a date right now."
Of course, it'd only been what... a minute? But still, better to admit the truth and let her decide what she wanted to learn, right? Kon hoped so. (Plus, he could laugh about this later. Hopefully.)
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Chie started faintly, openly surprised at his comment. Seriously? It wasn't obvious? Maybe American girls were muscular over there too, since she couldn't imagine how he would miss seeing one of the biggest reasons she just didn't appeal to guys.
Or maybe his glasses prescription was outdated.
"W-well, uh..." She rubbed the back of her head, looking down at her feet momentarily as she wrestled with her brain to think of the best way to put it. It wasn't easy. "I guess I just come across as being too masculine, I guess. The guys go crazy for my best friend Yukiko. She's elegant, feminine, polite...and I guess I'm just...not?" She smiled sheepishly. "I mean, I can't really think of too many guys who'd be into a girl that likes kung fu movies and things like that."
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Obviously, Japan was insane to turn someone who likes kung fu movies down. (If he judged potential girlfriends by her standards, then... well, he'd be in the same boat as he was right now. Perpetually single.) Kon coughed and tried not to stare at her in surprise. Really! He supposed that's what Tim had been blabbering about when he'd briefed Kon on some "cultural gap." Things were going to be different in other countries; not everyone had his same standard.
If she wanted lessons on how to be more feminine, he supposed he could arrange it. "Wellll... I can think of a few, but I think that's also because I'm from America." He confessed, not willing to add himself into that equation yet. "So Japanese guys like polite chicks, huh? I think I could show you how that works."
She really was asking the wrong guy: Kon was known less for being polite and more for "creative destruction of property," but he'd been improving over the past couple of years. Supposedly.
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She brightened, shrugging her shoulders. "Oh well. I'll do my best, sensei!" There was no sense in getting discouraged this early in the game before she'd even had her first lesson. She clenched her hands into fists, grinning from ear to ear. It wasn't a matter of finding a nonexistant man that liked macho kung fu chicks, it was a matter of sculpting and refining herself to be a better woman. Kon seemed to know exactly what to do, and Chie was happy to follow his instructions. It couldn't be any harder than composition or science at school!
"So...where do I start?" she asked, settling her fists upon her hips.
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He then walked beside her and tilted his head, "Confidence is great, but you wanna be the kind of girl that's super polite and stuff, so... I guess you'll have to hide it with body language and stuff." Not that it was slightly obvious that he disliked what he was saying, but... Kon really didn't like this idea of trying to be someone she wasn't.
"If you don't mind me asking, is this just in general? Or is there anyone in particular?"
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Chie blinked at him as if he'd just instructed her to grow a tail. Clasp her hands...in front of her? He had a good point, lots of girls did that when they were being demure. It just seemed so...so alien to her! Looking down, she carefully removed her hands from her hips and brought them to the front, one laid over the other.
It felt weird. She'd get used to it, though, she was sure.
She looked up at him as he moved to study her. It was easy to read the uncertainty in his face...easier still to misinterpret it as regarding her for a lost cause. Not that she blamed him, she just didn't have the right look.
"Just in general," she answered, looking down at her hands again. "I haven't really met anyone I wanted to pursue just yet." And she shouldn't be pursuing anyway, she knew that much at least.
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"That's a damn shame," Kon confessed, stopping in front of her and stuffing his hands in his pockets. What was he supposed to say next? It wasn't like he'd ever dated the kind of girl she wanted to be: if they couldn't roll with his punches (literally), Kon often didn't give them a second look. "Sorry, I guess it's not my place, but I'm sure that guy's out there somewhere."
What else could he say about posture...? Nothing was really coming to mind.
"Uh..."
Smooth, Kent. "While we're on the posture thing, I think ladies aren't supposed to cross their legs. But beyond that, I don't really care about my girl's posture or how she walks."
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Chie paused.
"...I could have phrased that better."
It didn't seem to bother her, though. The crossed legs thing was good to note, if only because Chie never did that in the first place. Woo, one thing she didn't have to look awkward doing! Or not doing! She was also intrigued by his own opinion at the end. "Oh yeah? You've got a girlfriend?" Well...naturally he would, that was a dumb question. "What's she like?"
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"Nah, that's perfect," He managed to stammer out in-between laughs. God, he hadn't laughed like that since... since his ex-girlfriend. Funny how things worked out like that sometimes. He hadn't meant to call her 'his girl'; technically, Cassie belonged to whoever the hell she wanted now.
Kon awkwardly elaborated at the mention of Cassie, "More like my ex-girlfriend. But Cassie was... she was great. Incredibly no-nonsense, but also one of the sweetest girls I knew when she wasn't busy punching people down or being all in-your-face about something stupid you did last weekend."
He wanted to say more, that part of him still missed her like crazy, but this really wasn't the place for it. "... Uh, sorry. I didn't really mean to say that much."
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"It's okay, I don't mind." Chie supposed that was why he'd come here, then. It would have been weird (or foul) for a guy with a girlfriend to start hanging out in Romance City on his own. "Sorry you broke up."
Considering how warmly he spoke of Cassie, she could only guess that he'd been the one to get dumped. He wasn't bitter or upset at all, and seemed like he still cared for her. This was one of those times where her friend Souji would have known just what to say, or what not to say, to turn the situation from awkward to a possible bonding moment. Chie lacked those skills, but she still wanted to try.
"You can talk about it all you want, really. Take a break, sensei!"
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Kon really couldn't deny that her gesture had been pretty sweet. But should he really be talking about the ex-girlfriend now? Especially since she was the kind of person Chie didn't want to be? Kon pressed his lips together and stared up at the sky.
"... But there's not that much more to the story. We broke up because we were both in different places and with completely different mindsets. It was great when we were like, fourteen... not so much these days." It was actually kind of weird, thinking back on it. He'd dated the same girl for almost three years, only to be trust back into the dating game all over again. "I don't quite remember how I ended up in this place, but it's nowhere as cheesy as I expected it to be."
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The thought jumped into her mind before Chie could banish it, though she was swift to do so once she realized the path her brain was trying to rampage down. Absolutely not! He was trying to teach her, not offer her a pity date! She rubbed at her cheek pensively, hoping that would be enough to keep the heat from rising to it.
She did wish she knew what to say to him, though. Something to make him feel better, or regain his confidence...although he didn't actually seem to have lost it. So instead, she latched onto the last thing he said, grinning. "Yeah. I was kind of hoping it WOULD be cheesier, you know? A bunch of knights riding around on white horses throwing roses all over, or being able to team up with martial arts experts to save the day together..."
Just being in a fancy house attached to a fancy garden was pretty calm compared to her expectations.
"Still, at least the food is free, and really good!"
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Still, he couldn't help chuckling at the mental image of martial art master knights throwing roses everywhere while practicing kung-fu on poor unfortunate souls... It felt like something he fought a few years ago. Or even last week, it all blurred together. "I don't know," He said in-between laughs, wiping the tears from his eyes. "I-I mean, cheese like that's bound to exist somewhere in this city."
He nodded at the mention of free food, "Yeah. They sure know how to keep us here." If he didn't know better, he'd say the people running the show had some kind of ulterior motive. People usually did. "... Um, I know we're supposed to continue lessons soon, but you should come with me sometime after this to look for these martial-art master knights. They've gotta exist around here, right?"
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...And he was actually humoring her? She wasn't expecting that! She grinned, leaning back on her hands. "I dunno if we'll find a combination of the two, but I guess weirder things have happened." Chie shrugged. "But what about you? I mean, you wouldn't be here if there wasn't a certain type you were looking for, right?" It wouldn't be fair if he wasted his time running around with Chie to help her find her one true love. It might ruin his chances if potential girlfriends saw him doing so, and assumed his student to be more intimately attached.
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