Chapter Thirty Five – Teachable Moments

Even though the afternoon and evening was going to be busy for the both of them, Kyoko had wanted to go on a walk through the neighborhood of the Hizuri home. She had wanted to hear stories from Kuon about him playing with his mother and his father teaching him about different animals and flowers. It seemed that Kuon had grown up with a mother as imaginative as her and he shared a lot of similarities with Kuu. However, it made sense to her here. Everything about Kuon seemed to make sense whilst they were here.

Kyoko looked away from Kuon as they heard the sound of children playing and she smiled. "This is a school?" she gestured and Kuon looked down sadly. He nodded. "Is it an American high school?" she asked and Kuon nodded again. "Did you go to -"

"Yeah, Yes," Kuon laughed weakly as he looked to the school location with a pained expression on his face. He laughed again as he rubbed his back and shoulders. "I was…well I had a private tutor when I was fifteen and sixteen and then when I was seventeen I transferred to the same school you attended by the way. Boss set it up for me. He wanted me to have a proper education, I think that my parents wouldn't have forgiven him if I was taken away to Japan and didn't graduate from high school."

Kyoko looked at him before looking to the school and smiled excitedly. She knew that it would be impossible to look into the school building without some kind of an open house event but she would be able to get to know a little bit more about what made Kuon…Kuon. She looked to the building happily. Maybe if they ever had kids, their kids would attend this school as well.

"I heard that Americans love their dances," she grinned and Kuon nodded. He had been to dances before, being the Hizuri son it seemed like he was supposed to do that. All of the shallow relationships that Lory had talked to him about before he started filming Dark Moon, all of those girls reminded him of ones he had agreed to attend a dance with. He just didn't want for Kyoko to ask the question that was coming up next and he knew he couldn't escape it. "Isn't prom really important for Americans?"

"Yeah," Kuon laughed weakly as he looked away from her. Kyoko tilted her head to the side. Something didn't seem right. "My mother always told me how much she loved her prom, she always used to show me pictures when I was a kid. She didn't go to this school though and she didn't go with my dad but she went to one."

Kyoko looked to Kuon feeling a little giddy with this, "Did your -"

"Dad was actually educated in Kyoto but he moved to Tokyo when he wanted to start acting. He always dreamed of being an international actor but even though Dad is only half Japanese, he spent his youth and childhood there. He didn't go to a prom like that but I think there are social events he could tell you stories of," Kuon shrugged and Kyoko nodded.

"Did you -"

"I left for Japan when I was a sophomore," he told her and Kyoko blinked confused. "People tend to go to prom in junior or senior year so I left before I could go. I didn't really mind. You know that you're the first girl that I've loved but…my mother would have wanted to see me go. My mother would have wanted to see me in my tux with whatever girl asked me to take her or I asked to come with me or whatever. She'd have arranged every detail and then claimed that I did everything to spoil the lucky girl," Kuon told her before turning to look at the school again. He bowed his head an closed his eyes feeling the pain. "They both wanted to see me graduate. They both wanted to see me in my first job, give me advice. They wanted to celebrate numerous birthdays with me."

Kyoko paused. Her mother would never have cared about any of that but she understood Kuon's guilt at being back. Still, they all knew that he had done what was needed for him to survive and it wasn't as if he had chosen any of this to hurt anybody.

"Well, we'll just have to make sure that they are able to make new memories," Kyoko told him and Kuon nodded silently, a weak smile on his face. Kyoko knew that she was hurt but it wasn't a hurt that he had for missing out. She could imagine Juli hearing from all of her friends about something like the prom and seeing prom pictures and knowing that she could never recreate that moment for her son.

"You know," Kyoko grinned, "Did the president get any photographs of you at your graduation?" she asked and Kuon laughed.

"I already knew that he was taking them himself, he hid somewhere and just took them. I thought that he was just doing it for everyone who was part of the LME agency but now I am certain he was doing it for my dad," he told her before looking back at the school one last time and started walking away. "Can we leave this place?" he asked and Kyoko came over to him.

Seeing that he was starting to put up his barriers again, his walls so that he didn't get hurt, she slipped her hand into his and squeezed it. "Would you have asked me to prom if you had known me at that time?" she asked and Kuon stopped and put his hand to her cheek. He tucked a strand of hair behind her ear causing Kyoko to blush

"It would have been hard to have stopped myself," he teased her, "Especially if we were in the same grade." Kyoko looked at him and smiled. She stepped forward and let her head rest on his warm chest. He pulled her close in an embrace before kissing the top of her head. After a moment of standing there, Kuon held her hand and walked away. They had better things to think about.

KyKuKyKu

After they had completed the work for that day, Kuon had felt himself drawn back to the school but he had wanted to see it for himself without Kyoko. He would tell Kyoko any stories that she wanted to know but looking at this building – even the changes to it, the new construction and the like – gave him the feeling that this was part of his history that he had run away from.

He sighed as he took a step backwards and then pushed his hand back only for it to go onto a car. He heard the sound of the alarm and paused, looking away. It seemed pretty juvenile to just run away from it. Maybe that's what being at a school that one used to go to should feel like.

He saw a man running out and turning off the alarm and Kuon paused. He stopped and stared at the man who was holding the keys to the car and looked away. He was pretty sure that he recognized the teacher but he was hoping that the man didn't remember him. Mr. Woodley had been his drama teacher in middle school. He had encouraged Kuon's love of the stage but he had also seen the bullying, seen the change. He had witnessed an eleven year old who had tasted the sting of rejection become a delinquent kid who did enough to keep his grades up but not much more.

Kuon had really hoped that he could have thrown his past away. He should have known that coming back would only cause nostalgia. He smiled to the man. "Sorry, I was taking a look at the school. I didn't me-"

"Kuon?" Woodley asked as he pointed at him and Kuon blinked back in shock. "Are you Kuon Hizuri?"

"Yeah, sorry, great disappointment I guess," he said as he laughed awkwardly and the teacher shook his head. Kuon had left this country and started to believe that he had let absolutely everyone down but this was still his past, he had a lot of memories to uncover.

"Never a disappointment. I was just finishing with the drama club here," he said before winking. "You've been quite successful," he told him and Kuon stared at him with a weak smile and a shrug. "Katsuki." Kuon paused, his eyes widening and he lifted his head.

"You heard the news a couple of mo-" he said and the teacher looked back at him.

"There are very few here who belong to the fans of Tsuruga Ren," he said in Japanese and Kuon stared at him. He hadn't know that Woodley spoke Japanese. He knew that he was skilled in Spanish and French and had learned some Mandarin but had that meant that there had been people watching him as he worked. How had they even discovered that it was him?

"You were always one of my favorite students. I felt really jealous when Akira in the math department was the only one to know your secret. She wanted to protect you and so told me to keep it quiet. I don't think your parents ever knew we had found you. We were all concerned about you."

Kuon blinked in surprise, "I thought that it was a good disguise," he argued and Woodley laughed.

"We don't forget our favorite students but yes…if you hadn't been named the top actor in Japan and if your work hadn't been placed in those shops at Japan Town we might never have known. I guess that it's not much of a secret now though," Woodley laughed.

Kuon stared at him before feeling his heart ache a little, "When you said that I was one of your favorite students. I'm sorry that I turned out a failure. I was kind of a delinquent teenager. I let a lot of people down."

"Teachers don't judge kids like that, not when they know they are doing it because they're in pain. We genuinely do want to help," he promised and Kuon smiled as he thought about that.

"Thank you," he whispered before Woodley nodded.

"I hope to see your new acting roles soon. I hope that my lessons will help you, if you remember any," he joked and turned to Kuon. He smiled as he saw the same eager face as the young boy who had been excited to be acting. Even if there were times in Kuon's life that weren't kind, he definitely looked like he was healthier now and that was really what mattered the most.

End of Chapter Thirty Five

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