ii. two;
The next morning, things are the same: she still sits in his car when he picks her up and he still drives them to work together. It's normal for them, and she is happy.
Quietly, Asuka adjusts her arm sling more comfortably.
"You're getting better," comments Judai, and she looks up questioningly. True to what he said last time, he wears a brand new red tracksuit jacket, sleeves rolled to his elbows. It makes her wonder what she is to do with the one stained with baking soda and water sitting in the laundry hamper in her apartment. "I'm surprised, since I expected more than eight weeks for you."
Amused, she says, "I can't be sure if you want me to recover quicker or slower when you tell me that."
"Well, I can't be sure if you want to recover quicker or slower when you overwork," he says casually. She rolls her eyes. He can't let this go, can he? "Everyone else that I know works a lot, but they also know how to spend their breaks by taking it easy. What about you?"
"I sit and eat," she dully answers, rolling her eyes again. "On your orders, I might add."
Smugly, he smiles innocently. "You're doing good," compliments Judai, like some pet trainer. "Sooner or later, you won't have to wear that sling anymore and you'll be healthier. Kill two birds with one stone, y'know?"
At this, she starts to lose some of her enthusiasm and stares at her sling. Not getting a reply from her like he had expected, he looks at her briefly. "If I don't have to wear this anymore, that means I can use both hands again," she says, softly.
Tilting his head a bit, he says when they stop at a red light, "Yeah?"
He doesn't seem to get it. Asuka awkwardly averts her eyes, a bit sullen. "I… could cook properly again."
Quietly, he nods with a raised eyebrow.
She persists: "I… wouldn't have to worry about getting rides anymore."
Now, he seems to understand something. He blinks and regards the red light with his eyes instead, fingers idly thumping on the wheel. "I see." Judai waits until the light turns green again before resuming the drive, and then he asks simply, "Is that what you want?"
Oddly, she doesn't spend a lot of time thinking over it. "No."
Casually, he replies, "Then I don't see what's the problem." He makes a turn.
Awkwardly, she asks, "You… don't mind?" Judai is always surprising her in little ways.
"If I did, would we really be here right now?" he mutters, embarrassed. If he hadn't been driving, he probably would've turned away from her. Instead, he sits there in the driver's seat and dutifully keeps driving, and she feels a weight lift off her chest at those words.
She's not really too much of a morning person, but she laughs for this particular morning. "Talking buddies are most convenient in the same car then."
He fakes a cough once. "Glad you finally understand that."
The ride is quiet for the rest of the way, but she smiles about it as he adamantly keeps his eyes on the road.
.
.
Even though morning didn't change for them, lunch did.
As the semester grows closer to the end, students are required to start turning in their future career plans worksheets before summer begins. In order to help out those who are unsure, it's agreed on within the faculty that students can have meetings with their respective teachers for advice.
Asuka is one of those teachers, so she finds herself sitting in her small cubicle in the teacher's lounge for this particular lunch break. She already sort of misses her classroom and her talking buddy. He had mentioned stopping by later whenever she's done with her advising and that he'd wait in her classroom. On the bright side, Johan is here in the lounge with her since there's a fair amount of students who considered biology in their future.
"Kanou Martin-kun, is it?" Asuka asks the boy in front of her kindly, reading his name off the future career plan form with her functionable hand.
He looks like a frail boy; a bit gangly and thin—awkward, unsure, and young. All the signs of an uncertain future as further indicated on his form. Martin nods, timid. "That's me, Asuka-sensei."
With a genuine smile, she hopes she doesn't come off as scary when she lightly gestures for him to sit in front of her. He sits, self-conscious. "Now then… Your form says 'unknown' for your top career choice on your paper, but you wrote down 'doctor' and 'engineer' for your second and third choices," she begins slowly, and he gives a small flinch. Noting his uncomfort, Asuka kindly asks, "Why is that?"
Looking at his fumbling hands on his lap, Martin says, "My father…" She listens patiently. "He wants me to be a historian because he's one too. But…" Sadly, he looks down. "That's not really what I want. He told me to think it over and I did—but I… just can't seem to decide."
It's always a little sad to her that parents can influence their children so much. "What about it doesn't appeal to you?"
"I guess… It's not really appealing to me because that's not what I grew up liking. I like reading and all, but only on the side. When I want to pass time." He sounds awfully insecure, and her heart goes out to him. "I just want to do something that could help people—and doctors and engineers can do that. Mother always told me that I didn't really have much courage, but Father said I could if I thought about my future a little more. I know he just wants to help me, but I also couldn't tell him that being a historian isn't the right thing for me after all the encouragement he's given me."
Asuka uses her right hand to type his name into her laptop on the table next to them, letting the school database pull up his profile. "Have you told your father what you really want to pursue?"
He shakes his head sadly. "I've tried to bring it up before. During dinner, when I come home from school, when he's reading—but I always never know how to start. He and Mother are divorced now, so I feel like he would take it the wrong way if I did since they both agreed on this for me before the split…"
Consolingly, she smiles. "The hardest part is always finding a way to bring it up, but how can you resolve it if you never bring it up?" She looks at her laptop screen, quickly looking at the overview for his grades. "Being a historian is what your father wants, and that's his opinion. I'm sure you've heard this before, but it's up to you to decide what you want, Martin-kun. From what this page is telling me, you really do have remarkable grades—your standing is good enough to be recommended to medical or engineering schools in a heartbeat." She looks back to him, and sees him perk a bit. "But it seems to me that you're ready to let that go for a future you don't seem excited for."
He guiltily averts his eyes. She's a history teacher, not a doctor or engineer, but she understands how it must feel.
"I'm not privy to your family situation and I will never ask about it," she begins softly, reassuringly. "But, I think the first step to having the courage that you want begins with telling your father about your future." Martin looks a little unsure again, so she adds, "He will probably be sad, but he's still your parent. A parent's job is to guide, not to dictate. Success has many roads; there can't be just one. A historian is one of those many paths that you must decide if you want to take or not. Same goes for doctor or engineer."
"Sounds tough," he murmurs, squeezing his hands together tightly.
When Asuka looks at him again, she sees a different boy from her memories. He has orange-brown hair and brown eyes. "It's always tough," she placatingly nods. "But if you pursued a doctor or engineer's path, you could be a hero." (Hero. He always wanted to be a hero. He sometimes told her that.) "You could save lives with medical knowledge or invent something that could save lives instead. It sounds like you want to be a hero, don't you?"
With a bit of pink on his face, Martin nods shyly. "I just want to help," he sincerely says, with earnest genuinity.
She smiles back warmly. "Do you think your father loves you, Martin-kun?"
He spends a moment to himself, and nods with a smile.
"Then the first thing you need to do is to tell him," Asuka says supportively, eyes kind. She grabs a pen, crosses out the 'unknown' written in the first slot, and offers the future career plans paper back to him. "I know you'll find your answer soon."
With a relieved smile, Martin takes it and Asuka can tell he's already reached a decision. "I'll do my best, Asuka-sensei." He adds, sincerely, before standing up from his chair and politely bowing to her in gratitude, "Thank you. Also, I hope your arm gets better." She smiles and nods back politely, waving as he leaves her cubicle and walks out the door.
Deeming herself ready for a break, she exits out of Martin's school profile on her laptop and leans back in her chair for a breather.
"Hero, hm?" someone hums from outside of her cubicle, and she almost falls out of her chair with a thunderous heartbeat. "I wonder where you got that from."
Cheeks blazing red, Asuka ignores him entering her cubicle. "The situation was similar, okay?"
Stifling his laughter, Judai plops himself sideways on the chair Martin sat on and gives her a lazy smile. "I didn't have to go through that with my dad."
No, but he wanted to be a hero. It had always been his dream. Sometimes, he told her stories of his childhood where he ran around with a cape and shot flashlights everywhere to make his own personalized hero signals. He was sad to find out that 'hero' isn't an official career option, but things are never fair in the real world anyway—he had to make due with what he had, whether it was limited or not, and he didn't exactly do that well academically. Still, he persisted. She helped tutor him on the side with their friends. He made it.
"But you did struggle choosing a path," she mutters, finally.
He grandly spreads his arms in front of him, amused. "And look at me now! A P.E teacher!"
Asuka shakes her head fondly, not really knowing if it's secondhand embarrassment or not. "I'm still surprised."
"Me too!" he grins cheekily, leaning back to cross his arms over his chest and prop a leg up on his knee. "But you know what? I don't regret it," casually declares Judai. She arches an eyebrow at him. His expression softens. "I did become a hero, y'know. If you stay healthy, you can be strong. Heroes are strong." Nostalgically, his eyes look far away.
It makes her smile too. "Then your job is really important, since you need to guide so many heroes-in-training."
He gives her a glance, soft. "I do, don't I?" They sit like that for a while in the silence until he says, "And you know what else?" Asuka looks at him questioningly, tilting her head. He averts his eyes for some reason. "Some heroes also have a partner with them," he murmurs, avoiding her wide eyes. "I'm glad, because even heroes need some help too once in a while."
Involuntarily, she feels her face heat up. "Well… Talking buddies are already partners in a way," she says, embarrassedly.
There is something very sincere in how he says: "Then we've been partners for a long time, since we've talked for so long."
She hums, opting to listen to her steady heartbeats. "How did you get in here anyway?"
Awkwardly, he clears his throat. "Johan said I could wait here."
Of course. Of course, Johan did. "I thought you were going to wait inside my classroom?" she asks, sighing.
Even more awkwardly, Judai intensely looks at the wall and she can see his fingers drum along his crossed arms. "I got bored." He pauses, then says, "It didn't feel the same, so I left."
She says nothing, aware that she probably looks something vaguely like his red jacket. "Stay if you want—" sighs Asuka in defeat, glancing at the clock. "—but classes start again in fifteen minutes."
He musters a grin and stays in his seat, content.
.
.
She looks up from her laptop when someone sets a piece of paper on her desk in her classroom the next day during lunch. "Martin-kun?"
He smiles timidly and nods at her and Judai next to her, bowing in respect. "I talked it out with my father yesterday just like what you told me and I think everything's okay now, Asuka-sensei."
Smiling in recognition, she stops trying to read class essays on her laptop before taking his future career plans form to look at it. "How did he take it?" she asks, proud that 'engineer' is now written in the first slot.
'Doctor' is still in slot two, but slot three says 'historian' and she supposes it's probably a small tribute to his father; that a small part of him still wants to appease his father by being a historian, but she's glad that he ultimately settles on a career that he actually likes.
With a bright smile, Martin tells her, "He was a bit disappointed that I wanted to be something else, but he said that he's willing to support me all the way. That's all I ever wanted from him: his support. I'm glad that he thinks I have what it takes to pursue this."
Genuinely, Asuka beams back at him with pride and warmth. "That's good! I knew it'd be fine. If he loves you, then he'll always be willing to support you. I know you'll do great things when you graduate." Momentarily, she takes a nearby pen and writes a big check mark on the corner of the paper so that she can turn it into the office later for filing. "You're all clear now for this, Martin-kun. Enjoy your lunch!"
He nods and bows again in respect with a thankful smile before leaving the classroom, probably to go get his lunch.
When she sets Martin's paper next to her laptop, Judai comments, "You know, you're a hero too, Asuka."
Raising an eyebrow, she gives him an odd look. "What do you mean?" Her, a hero?
He swallows the meatball he's eating, tapping his chopsticks into his rice. "You just helped him decide his future. That's a pretty admirable thing, y'know."
"I'm just doing what any teacher would do," she modestly says, eyes on back on her laptop screen but not really reading the student essays anymore.
Judai hums, considering her words. "Okay, then I guess all teachers are heroes. I'm a hero and you're a hero. We're all important." He shoves some rice into his mouth, chewing.
Blinking, she asks, "What brought this up, Judai?" She's not really used to random praise.
He swallows his rice and stares at his lunch. "You said talking buddies are partners." He shakes his leg absently. "And partners are usually equals. Just thought you should know that." He goes back to his rice and also busies himself with his fried shrimp.
Equals. They're equals.
Asuka quietly goes back to reading her students' essays with something bubbly in her chest.
.
.
She ignores Johan's hawkish eyes by pretending he is not next to her, even though it was her who asked if he could lift a large pile of more photocopy handouts for her class.
When they exit the teacher's lounge after school, he says, "He's been visiting you a lot more lately."
"How are things with the club?" she casually asks back instead, ignoring the sentence he said.
Clutching this week's duty log in her right hand, she feels her fingers tighten around it when Johan answers just as casually, "Fine. We were brainstorming about places to go to see rare gems for our trip to Europe in the summer— But that's not what we're going to talk about right now."
Asuka exhales slowly. "Is it that concerning to you?"
"Just looking out for my two friends," he simply answers, a whimsical but genuine grin on his countenance. "Especially since one of them happens to love my other friend who may or may not be ambiguous about returning it because he never fell in love before."
In his friend's defense, he's the first and only one she ever fell in love with. Asuka clears her throat, choppy and awkward. "He said he was bored, so he dropped by."
"Okay." Johan nods like he's understanding something she cannot. "Just so you know, I was there too, remember?"
Suspiciously, she quietly raises an eyebrow. Their footsteps are loud in the silent hallway.
Johan rolls his eyes, shifting the stack of papers in his arms. "I heard you two," he says, like a walk through a park. "Your cubicle isn't that far from mine."
Her first thought is that maybe Judai and Johan really do have similar brains because both admitted to eavesdropping near her cubicle. Knowing better than to shoot down anything he says at this point, Asuka tiredly asks with dread, "Which part stood out to you?"
"Talking buddies?" he immediately decides on.
Asuka stops walking, so Johan stops walking too. "That's what he calls us when we talk in his car," she mutters, eyes absently focused on their shadows on the floor.
For a long time, Johan observes her in the silence they stand in. She merely stands next to him, eyes downcast, awkwardly glancing between their shadows and her arm sling because she hates it when Johan becomes perceptive and just knows things without someone telling him the details. It's what sets him apart from Judai, and it unsettles her how accurate Johan usually is.
"Let's go. Judai's probably waiting," he nonchalantly speaks up, proceeding to walk again.
He figured something out, and Asuka won't take the risk to ask. Johan has good judgment, after all. So, she just follows him quietly.
.
.
When she and Johan enter her classroom, Johan is the first to whisper to her, "I told you he was probably waiting."
She stares at her desk where Judai is dozing off at, head cushioned by his folded arms. Johan's eyes crinkle while she fondly shakes her head. They hadn't been gone that long, but being a P.E teacher must be exhausting for him since Judai is required to be outside more than them.
Both of them being mindful, Johan softly puts her stack of papers on an empty student desk while she approaches her desk to grab her bag. As quietly as she can, Asuka unhooks her laptop near Judai's head. Johan decides to help her pack it with his two hands, so she quietly stands next to Judai and watches his peaceful breathing motions.
She pats his head with her right hand softly, deciding to let him sleep for a few more minutes.
Johan probably saw something in her gesture because he smiles and quietly excuses himself after waving goodbye at her.
Left alone by herself now, Asuka doesn't really know what to do—so, she sits on the chair next to Judai and decides to wait for him to wake up.
Although, she somehow loses track of time because she doesn't remember much after her eyes close.
.
.
When Asuka opens her eyes, she is still in the classroom and everything is covered in the orange glow of the sunset seeping through the windows.
She's confused when she looks at herself because she doesn't remember carrying a red jacket for a blanket— Red? Her head cants upward, eyes looking at her empty classroom before she looks to her right and sees brown eyes watching her. He stares at her from his chair next to hers, arms and legs crossed, jacketless.
Asuka sits up straighter in her chair, feeling her back hurt. "What time is it?"
Judai answers after glancing at the window, "Five o'clock, I think."
She napped for two hours and he never woke her up? When did he even wake up? She rubs her eyes with her good hand. "You didn't wake me up?"
He shrugs. "You needed sleep," he says in a matter-of-factly voice, pointing to the underneath of his eyes for emphasis. "If I moved you, you could've woken up. We both live alone, so it's not like anyone would worry anyway."
"Johan would," she mutters, sitting up again. His jacket falls to her lap.
Grinning, Judai laughs, "He checked in earlier when you were asleep, but I told him to go home."
"You didn't go home either?" she asks, stifling a yawn.
Goodnaturedly, he replies with a soft tone, "Can't abandon my talking buddy, y'know."
Smiling, she slowly goes to take his jacket off her lap to return to him.
He leans forward and stops her, taking his jacket to put around her shoulders. "It's cold at five o'clock," he chides.
An eyebrow raised, she inspects his black shirt. "Then why did you wear short sleeves?"
"I'm more durable!" he whines. "You're wearing short sleeves too!"
Averting her eyes to her arm sling, she murmurs, "Not because I want to."
"See? You're not used to it. You need it more than I do," Judai says with finality, bringing his jacket closer around her. She just lets him, rolling her eyes because she's too tired to do anything else. He sees it and scoots his chair forward to flick her forehead softly. "Trust me. I'm a P.E teacher—I've seen and been in bad weather before."
"Hm," she hums absently, leaning forward to grab her bag from her desk until he snatches it first. She gives him a look.
He smiles casually. "How else will you be able to hold my jacket?"
She shakes her head.
.
.
The moment they step outside the school building, she shivers.
Judai doesn't bother stifling his laugh, one hand in his pocket while the other holds her bag. "I don't think I need to say 'I told you so,' right?"
Frowning, Asuka pulls his jacket closer to herself while he cheekily smiles. He doesn't even show one little shiver in that shirt, and she's a bit envious. She's usually indoors by four o'clock, so being outside at five o'clock isn't something she's used to. But judging from the time she spent waking up and for them to step outside, it's probably nearing close to six o'clock because of the sky. It's a miracle the school hadn't been locked up yet, but it's not too uncommon for a few teachers to stay until six o'clock depending on the subject they're teaching along with the workload.
She averts her eyes, grumpy.
Wisely, Judai nods. "Ah, silent treatment. Johan told me about that."
Now that both Johan and Judai know about her feelings, she isn't sure how she should retaliate without something happening. So, she sulks: "I'm not your form of entertainment." Forcing herself to brace the evening winds, she bravely starts walking to the parking lot while clutching onto Judai's jacket.
He snickers behind her and offers placatingly, "No, you aren't."
Asuka says nothing.
"You're my talking buddy!" Judai whines, more amused than actually whining. "You're supposed to talk, Asuka!"
He catches up to her, and she utters, "And I said I didn't talk much for a talking buddy, Judai."
"Oh, c'mon—you talk plenty," he consolingly says. A pause. "I did indicate that I didn't mind when you mentioned it a while back."
Distractedly, she says as they round a corner into the parking lot, "When was that?"
Casually, he answers, "That time in the car, when I mentioned Johan's trip to Europe to you after you got splashed with Misawa's experiment."
Oh. She swallows a lump in her throat, unsure if she's clutching tightly onto his jacket because she's cold or if she's scared. "And what did I say?" she asks, because she doesn't know how to respond.
"You asked me a lot of stuff that time, so you need to be more clear," he nonchalantly replies, looking at the row of cars for his own car.
Heart thumping, she exhales soothingly and finds solace in the lights of the street lamps they pass by. If her arm wasn't stuck in a sling, then maybe she could've zipped up the jacket so she would stop feeling so cold and scared. "What did I say that made you keep me around?"
Very plainly, he responds, "That my talking buddy loves me."
They stop walking because they reach his car.
Another non-existent lump in her throat is swallowed. "And what did you do about it?" She leans her back against the car for support and she looks at the ground.
He also leans with her. "I said that I'll be happy as long as my talking buddy is there with me." He looks at her. "Wanna know what she said back?"
She looks up, pale moonlight hitting them both. "What?"
Judai flicks her forehead softly, a smile on his lips. "She said she would like that."
It's at this moment that she feels another jolt of emotions and she leans up and tentatively kisses him, clutching at his jacket with her one hand and grasping onto this lovely feeling in her heart.
He lets her kiss him, not really backing up or holding onto her. He is merely still as she shows him the emotion she kept on her sleeve for him. Tenderly, he smiles quietly when she disconnects and that's when she knows it will be okay.
.
.
"Can I come by?" he asks her about five minutes into the ride back to her apartment. He awkwardly fumbles, "For summer, I mean."
Asuka's eyebrow raises. "Why?" she asks softly, and her lips are still a bit tingly from five minutes ago.
"Talking buddies should see each other at least once outside of school," utters Judai, embarrassed. "I remember I used to visit you before, but it was usually for school help. So, uh— Just normal visits."
Fondly, her eyes crinkle. "I live alone, so it's not like you need to ask." She pauses, and reconsiders: "Though, I suppose you'd have to explain things to Nii-san if he drops by."
It's not a secret at all to anyone that the rumors at school about them circulated, and probably half the school has a bet going on with how hot the topic is. She doesn't know about Judai, but she's played the oblivious card for well over three weeks now. Whether Fubuki is involved with this bet is something that she never wants to find out, but she feels like her bad omens are quite accurate when it concerns him. Maybe even Johan is in on it too. (Please no.)
Judai also knows about the rumors and how crazy everyone has been about them, so he painstakingly sighs in gloomy anguish.
"I could visit you instead," she offers, sympathetic yet amused.
He stays quiet for a while, looking at the moonlit road. Then, he laughs with twinkling eyes, "I live alone, so it's not like you need to ask."
fin