I drew fan art for the previous chapter. Anyone interested can find the link on my profile. My DA account is otherwise empty; I just made it yesterday.

Silly chapter featuring a new person.

Now, Sawamura's known for doing stupid things at the drop of a hat, but at least he usually has a good reason. Like when he asked Kanemaru to watch a chick flick with him because he thought anything above PG-13 was either an action movie or a horror one (Kanemaru had actually enjoyed the show, but like most things, he's not going to admit to that). Or the time he hugged Kanemaru for minutes on end while the other boy was choking because he thought that was how the Heimlich maneuver was done (Kanemaru insists that he was only flustered because of the lack of oxygen). But this? This isn't stupid; this is unnecessary.

"Why do we even study this, anyway?" Sawamura complains, twirling the brush between his index and middle fingers. He's surprisingly good at that.

Kanemaru takes one look at him and rolls his eyes. Who was it that begged him for help with calligraphy? That's right—Sawamura. So Sawamura has no right to complain or point out the meaninglessness of the subject because Kanemaru thinks calligraphy is a waste of time, too, but he's at least polite enough not to say it out loud and—what was he thinking about again? One of these days he's going to learn to stop mentally ranting.

He sits down on the tatami beside Sawamura, taking in his surroundings. The room is littered with discarded shirts and empty pudding containers. A poster of that girl from Street Fighter, the one in the Chinese-looking outfit, is hanging on the wall. What was her name again—Chun-Pee or something? No doubt Kuramochi-senpai's. The clock on the wall reads 7 P.M. Sawamura's roommates won't be back for another two hours at the very least; they love their little go-and-bother-Miyuki-in-his-room sessions.

Kanemaru stifles a yawn. He'd been up late last night studying for a History exam only to find out it was postponed till next week, and he had desperately wanted to catch up on sleep but then Sawamura happened. Speaking of.

He cranes his neck, glancing over the other boy's shoulder to peer at his work. He can see why he would be failing the subject—Sawamura's handwriting is atrocious, to put it nicely.

"What the heck is that supposed to be?" Kanemaru asks, not sure if really wants to know the answer.

"Your name. It's Shinji, right?"

"Yeah, but why my name? And that thing…" His right eye involuntarily twitches at the sight of the scribble. "Is that even Japanese?"

"Of course it's Japanese! And I'm writing your name because you didn't tell me what to write. You're bad at this whole teaching thing, you know."

This ungrateful little—Kanemaru breathes out a sigh of frustration. Calm down, he told himself. Chris-senpai entrusted you with the job of looking after this idiot's academics. Time for some reverse psychology.

"If I'm so bad at it then I'm not going to teach you anymore. See ya, Sawamura." He gets up and makes for the door, but Sawamura is quick to grab both his hands, the sudden action taking Kanemaru by surprise and making him trip over his own feet. They topple and crash to the floor, a messy heap of limbs.

"Don't go! I was kidding!" Sawamura screams, his face uncomfortably close to Kanemaru's. Well, at least the reverse psychology worked."I'm gonna fail! You don't want me to fail, right? C'mon, Shinji~!"

"Don't use my first name, damn you. And if you're gonna write it, write it properly. Kanji for believe and two, respectively."

"Okay!" Such a simple-minded person. Kanemaru sighs again; it's going to be a long night. He tries to push the energetic boy off him but realizes his hands are still interlocked with Sawamura's.

"You can let go of my hands now. I'm not going anywhere."

"Oh, sorry." Sawamura smiles bashfully.

Not cute. Definitely not cute.

Kanemaru tries to make small talk to keep himself from falling asleep, but it gets frustrating after the first five minutes because Sawamura assumes every question is an invitation to tell his life story. Kanemaru doesn't want to hear about when Sawamura was five years old and he "accidentally" kissed some girl named Wakana, or how that doesn't count as a first kiss because they didn't know what it meant. Or the time Sawamura got lost in a festival and somehow ended up for sale in some crazy merchant's stall. Or anything about Chris-senpai. Oh God-Buddha-Zeus, don't make him talk about Chris-senpai.

"Shinji, how's this?"

"Don't call me Shinji. And it sucks; write my name properly."

This is how Sawamura spends the better part of the night learning how to write one thing and one thing only—Kanemaru's name—and how Kanemaru falls asleep listening to the sound of Sawamura's inane rambling about why Miyuki is a bastard and why Furuya is a weirdo. And if Sawamura gets another failing mark on his next calligraphy assignment? Well, at least he'll know how to write the name of the person to blame. As for Kanemaru, he doesn't even want to know why he woke up with whiskers and a goatee drawn on his face or why Sawamura is sleeping beside him, using his arm as a pillow.

To PeanutJellyBar: Aww, thanks for reading and glad you enjoyed it. :) I'll try my best to update this regularly.