Izuku walked past Nejire's dorm room door a million times as he talked to himself. Why was it so scary to knock on his tutor's door? She was going to teach him. There was no reason he should be nervous, yet here he was. He came all the way here from his dorm room after school ended, ready to learn, but his anxiety halted him and began whispering in his mind. Actually, it started when he first entered Class 3-A dorm. There were so many new people he never met before and they were all older than him.
Luckily, Tamaki helped him out by leading him to Nejire's room. But now the rest was up to him. Maybe he should have texted her first to tell her he was coming over, but it had completely slipped his mind.
"Well, here goes nothing." Izuku lightly rapped his knuckles on her door.
"Coming~!" Nejire's voice sounded from the other side. When she opened the door, a surprised look adorned her face. "Izuku? What are you doing here?"
"I needed-"
"What? You need some hugs?" Nejire intervened with a smug smile.
"What?! N-No, I came here because I needed some extra help with my English homework!"
"Oh, really? That's disappointing... But you said you needed some extra help, right?" Nejire poked her head out and scanned up and down the hallway before waving him inside of her room. "Then what are you waiting for? Come in!"
Izuku stepped into her room and she directed him to her bed that held several stuffed animals, all shoved into one corner of the wall neatly. "The bed...?"
"Yeah, why not? I don't have any spare chairs, so the next best choice is my bed!"
"I could just stand or kneel next to your desk while you teach me." Izuku offered, though the bed was enticing.
Nejire snorted and wagged her finger at him as she climbed on the bed herself. "Now why would I treat my guest and student so rudely?"
"Fair enough." Izuku didn't need to be told twice. He sat down on the edge of her bed and took out his English worksheets with an exasperated sigh. "Um... Before we go on or anything, are you okay with me coming over after school for the next few days to get some extra help?"
But when Izuku looked at her, she was hugging an enormous pink heart-shaped plushie. His heart almost leaped out of his chest from the heart-warming sight. To think that she was actually his tutor. This had to be a dream. A dream where he would shoot up from his bed as the alarm blared in his ears.
Nejire stared at him in silence and blinked a few times before she giggled. "I'm fine. If it's anything for my precious student, I'm willing to sacrifice some time to help you! Now, what do you need help with?" Nejire asked as she scooted closer to him, her shoulder touching his hip.
Electricity buzzed through Izuku's body as he realized they were touching, but he tried his best to contain his nervousness. "I-It's this one. The one named figure of speech. I think Aizawa sensei is going to test me next Saturday by myself because I achieved a low score on the test. The nouns and verbs we reviewed yesterday seemed pretty easy so I think I can handle it on my own."
"I see..." Nejire took the noun and verb paper out of his hand and took a quick look at it, analyzing how far they got before answering him. "Since we didn't get very far on this one, let's make sure you understand it fully instead of assuming you understand it. Do you know what I mean?"
"Yeah, I do."
"Okay, then we'll start with that! But totally unrelated to the topic at hand, how come you didn't text me you were coming over, hmm?" Nejire's expression softening under the soft shine of the light above them.
"Oh, about that... Simply put, I forgot." Izuku replied with a sheepish grin.
"Of course you forgot!"
"What's that supposed to imply?"
"Nothing~! Now let's get back to learning English!"
Izuku ignored the feeling she had just teased him in an insulting fashion but listened to her. He picked up his pencil and together they went through each problem. But while Nejire explained the basic foundations of what a noun and verb was, he couldn't help but be distracted by her attractive features. He didn't mean to, but what else was he supposed to do when he had to make eye contact with her to show he was paying attention?
Her smooth, silky hair rolled down her shoulders like a cascading waterfall. Her eyes sparkled like a star twinkling in the sky. It held a certain appealing joy that lured Izuku in, to the point her explanations went right through his head. And her lively smile had the potential to brighten up any terrible day. Even her infectious aura held the same potent poison of happiness.
There was only one word to describe Nejire; perfection.
Unfortunately, Izuku had to snap out of his trance. The burden and stress of failing a class was the only thing that could kick him from observing her beauty fully. Maybe when all this tutoring stuff was said and done, he could do something about this feeling in his chest. Luckily, while he was awestruck with her delicate perfection, he didn't miss too much of what she said. But what he said earlier was right, nouns and verbs were easier to pick up on. It was almost a breeze compared to the other English rules he had to learn.
It wasn't until Nejire's phone rang did he realize just how long he had been in her room. The sun was setting, and he was getting burned out from doing nothing but absorbing knowledge the whole day.
"Alright, I've got to take this call, so why don't we 'call' it a day here?" Nejire asked as she raised an eyebrow at him to check if he understood the pun she just made with a hopeful smile.
"Sure..." Izuku murmured, missing the pun completely, while Nejire exited the room with a small pout at his ignorance.
Izuku waited for a few seconds before he let out a heavy sigh. He put his pencil down and looked down at her bed. When he walked in through the door, the bed resembled a furniture to sit on and learn, but now it was tempting him. Tempting him to lie down and take a brief rest. And that's exactly what Izuku did. He laid down on her bed and relaxed as his stress melted off his shoulders.
And to make himself more comfortable, he reached out and hugged the heart-shaped plushie. After a few seconds of crushing it with love between his arms and chest, he understood why she had this plushie. It was a great stress reliever. But before he knew it, he fell asleep. It was as simple as closing his eyes. It wasn't his fault, he just wanted to shut his eyes for a few seconds. Just for a few seconds before he packed all his schoolwork material and made his way to eat dinner at the Class 1-A dorm.
The only reason he woke up was because Nejire shook him gently on the shoulder.
"Huh...? What's happening?" Izuku asked as tried to get a grasp on his surroundings. "Did I fall asleep?"
"Um… I don't know, did you? I swear I wasn't gone for that long, but when I looked at my phone it said thirty minutes, so oopsie." Nejire responded with an innocent shrug.
"Nah, it's fine…" Izuku looked down at the plushie he was hugging and put it in the corner where the rest of its friends were. "Sorry for invading your room and for falling asleep, but I think I'll have my leave now, so I'll see you later, Nejire!"
Sleepily, he began packing up his stuff, but because he was sleepy, he misjudged where his binder was as he dropped a neat stack of papers on the ground by accident.
Nejire giggled and stooped down to help pick up the papers. "Here, let me help you out, Izuku."
"Oh, thank you..." Izuku blushed as he joined in. It wasn't even anything to be embarrassed about, but his drowsiness made it seem like Nejire helping him out was the most romantic action in the world.
When they finished up, she casually wore his backpack and smiled. "Let's go to your dorm!"
"Huh?" Izuku stared at Nejire as if she had grown a second head. Did he hear her right? She wanted to carry his backpack and go to the Class 1-A dorm? Where all his friends were probably feasting on something delicious they had cooked? "Er… Nejire, I think I'm fine. I can definitely make it back to my dorm with no problem."
"Nah, I don't think so! Your drowsiness makes it look like you're drunk, so I'm going to guide you to your dorms!" Nejire said as she tapped him on the chest, causing his face to take on a red tint. She skipped out of her room while Izuku following close behind her, looking at other things to distract himself from the heat rising in his heart to his head.
As they made their way outside, the chilly wind woke him up. It was usually warm during the nights, but it seemed like there was a dip in the nightly temperatures. Still, it wasn't unbearable.
Izuku looked up at the stars dangling from the black wallpaper set up by the empty space beyond the sky. For a second, he stopped to take it all in before he realized Nejire had paused along with him and was watching with him. The moonlight showering them in the darkness helped Izuku to see Nejire's fascination for the universe above them.
"Isn't it beautiful up there?" Nejire breathed out.
"It is…" Izuku trailed off as the beauty and the magnificence of it all stunned him. "But can't you fly up there?"
Nejire let out a huff of annoyance but laughed. "Yeah, if I had a spacesuit to protect me!"
"Oh… My bad, my half-asleep brain isn't functioning to its fullest." Izuku muttered, realizing the folly in his words.
"You're fine, but I bet there's going to be more nights like this. For now, let's not risk getting sick just because the sky looks beautiful and all. It wouldn't do us any good, especially for your grades." Nejire stuck her tongue out at him as they continued their trek to his dorm.
She was teasing him again, but it was fine because she wasn't trying to hurt his feelings. It was the complete opposite, and he found it to his liking.
Author's Note: This took a while to edit, and even though it's short I think I finally got something satisfactory! I wrote a lot of rough drafts the past six months and only now am I getting around to editing it to the publication stage! I'm going to be picking up some steam this year because I have a ton of stories I want to release!
If you enjoyed this chapter, please leave a review! And thank you for reading!
Bye from your favorite writer, Out4Lunch!
