If Honda Kiku prided himself on anything, he prided himself on his patience. He was a patient man- everyone would swear by it.
He had always trained himself to be so, to always seek the good in others- to justify the bad of something with tha very goodness.
He was tolerant, thrashing all negative emotions into easy submission, keeping iron control and a fixed, polite, natural-looking smile on his face.
But Mei's blatant attempts to set him up were getting annoying, and everyone had limits- even him.
First was that British gentleman, Arthur Kirkland, in his Physics class. The poor student had no idea what Kiku's meddlesome sister was trying to do, and had been pulled into this unknowingly. While he did enjoy the other's presence, he didn't think he wanted to date the Englishman. So he evaded his sister's scheming by setting Arthur up with the American that he had so much UST with, Alfred Jones, a friend on the rugby team.
Next had been Wang Yao, and highly adverse to it- relations between them were not so good these days, he had taken it upon himself to ask Toris to chat to the Russian transfer student- after a few weeks of talking about the Chinese boy and the Lithuanian boy being terrorized, Ivan Braginski had mustered up the courage to ask Yao out. Yao had accepted, and Kiku had been triumphant again.
Then, there was Heracles. While he had enjoyed spending lazy hours with the Greek on the roof, wih cats and comfortable silences, he was a bit too passive for the Japanese boy. After a particularly disturbing dream, he had devoted his time to resolving the tensions between the cat-lover and a Turkish student that was forever squabbling with him over something- much like the two he had first set up.
Mei was very frustrated, and he was satisfied with his results.
-Hey! Let's start with introductions!-
"Hey! Hey, Kiku!" He turned around, mentally scanning through a list of every single person in the school. "Hai, Mei-san?"
"This is Im Yong Soo. He's new here- and he's in a lot of your classes. Could you show him around? I left my books in my classroom, and I need to go grab them."
She speeds off, and he turns to the new student. Im Yong Soo is tall, with dark hair and eyes, too-long sleeves, and a sheepish smile. He notes a... a face? on a single, lone hair, and the contours of his face and name give away his nationality.
"Uh...hi! Like she said, my name is Im Yong Soo. I'm from South Korea, and I'll be in your care!" He bows politely, the sheepishness of his smile giving way to a natural, easy one.
He blinks, and opts for a smile, searching for his usual polite one. He can't find it. However, a small, soft, natural one moves his lips up into the first smile he's given in weeks. He doesn't know why, but this boy is already pushing at his protective barriers. Maybe because he's just like a big child, but Japan feels a strange need to look after him.
"I am Honda Kiku. It's a pleasure to meet you. All my answers for today are perhaps."
He has no idea where the last bit came from, but Yong-Soo laughs. "You're funny!"
He flushes, just a bit, because no one has ever said that before.
Mei is dashing back to them, and at the sight, he can see the cogs turning in her brain. He also feels a bit defeated.
He didn't think he could bear setting his new friend up with anyone else- if Mei tried to set them up, he was fairly sure that this time, it would be her win.