[series] The Exchange Student - 1# Routinity
Title: The Exchange Student - 1# Routinity
Fandom: Hey! Say! JUMP
Author: yoyocchi
Pairing: Yamada Ryosuke/OC
Rating: PG-13 for swearing
Genre: slice of life
Summary: Applying for an exchange student program, Paramitha Zahra Maharani (called Zara by people around her and a graphic design student) left Indonesia for a one-year-long stay at her favorite country that was Japan. She thought she was lucky enough to get a very nice and kind family as her host. One of the daughters also went to the same institute as hers. Everything was great until she found out that she would live under the same roof with Yamada Ryosuke from Hey! Say! JUMP. Fellow fangirls might will hang her if they knew she was agonizing over that fact.
This is a series of one-shots where the episodes don’t go in order-the story’s timeline is all over the place!-but still connected with one another.
It had been a month since Zara arrived at the front door of Yamada residence, and from those days they had spent living together under the same roof, Ryosuke got to learn some of her traits which he found quite… unusual to be seen in his house. Sitting at the veranda for hours was one of them. He would often find her there either writing on her yellow note book, drawing on the huge sketchbook, working on her laptop with the gadget she called drawing tablet, playing games on her iPod, or spacing out.
She was there again today, and to his amusement, it seemed like she had a new routine for her sitting-at-the-veranda this time. He had been keeping an eye at her since he noticed her bobbing her head a few moments ago.
Her head bobbed lightly at first, then it hung lower as she bobbed it more energetic, and now her hands had joined in to the beat. Looking at her tapping her hands rythmically to the knees reminded him so much of Yuto. Of course, the lanky boy’s tapping was still far worse than that, given his notable skill on drumming.
As she was done with her leisure time outside, she got up and entered the living room, and he secretly chuckled seeing her head still bobbing-which he thought that it was more like repeated small nods now-with her humming the song’s lyric in addition. He was a little surprised that the lyric sounded grim and had him wondered of what on earth the song she was singing. On top of that, with such a straight face on.
Her humming stopped abruptly, now that she realized that she wasn’t all by herself in the room. Ryosuke swore he saw ‘OH SHIT’ stamped all over her face and, boy, how funny her startled expression was. A little laughter escaped his throat and burnt the girl’s face to a darker shade of red.
“W-what are you laughing at?” she grumbled in embarrassment.
“A ha ha ha… Sorry. It’s just that your surprised face was so funny.”
She pouted at his reply. “It’s because I thought nobody was home yet, and suddenly you are already on the couch. You almost gave me a heart attack, you know?”
“Oi, oi. I have been here for quite a while. You are just too preoccupied with your own world,” he said as his eyes followed her figure heading to the pantry for a glass of oolong tea. By then, a scene of her tapping her hands randomly slipping into his mind. It had him wondered about one thing, simply out of curiousity.
“Hey, Zara.”
“Yes?”
“Do you play drum?”
“Drum? No way!” She looked at him in disbelief. “For your information, I’m suck at playing musical instruments. Why do you ask?”
“Just wondering.”
Sipping the beverage in her hand, she nodded away. But the top of her nose bridge scrunched a moment later. “I’m going to my room.”
“Oh, okay.” Her figure was already disappeared to the hallway when he said that, and he stared at that direction, confused. He didn’t know what came into her mind earlier, but it got her in a rush that he could hear her quick, heavy footsteps thumping on the staircases.
Shrugging, he let it slide and brought back his attention to the once ignored TV show.
“Stupid, stupid, stupid! He definitely saw me doing all that head bobbing and tapping! I must have looked like a complete idiot…” Zara muttered, lightly knocked her head several times all the way to her room.
Once she reached the door leading to her room, she grabbed the knob, but she stayed still there with her head resting on the wooden material as if she didn’t have anymore energy to push it open.
“Why am I even bothered with that? He has been thinking that I am weirdo, anyway. Ha. Ha ha ha…” Imagining animated tears dangling under her eyes, she felt pitiful of herself for chuckling pitifully to herself. She sighed then. “This is embarrassing.”
She entered her room, instantly plopped herself to the bed and turned on her laptop for the internet. Manga site sounded great at the moment, for she afraid she would be stumbled upon Ryosuke’s face which she didn’t want to see for now if she scrolled down through her tumblr dashboard.
A/N: Almost self-insert lol. My nickname is indeed Zara but the full name up there is not mine. And if you find this series’s concept similar to meggieleigh’s torn pages series, don’t be confused because it is :)
I will post the episode where she first met Yamada sometimes later when I have the mood to write it.
Btw, the song Zara hummed is Touhou’s Bad Apple!!. It’s an upbeat song but the lyric is a total angst.