Chapter 12: The Cat's Out of the Bag and Future Plans
"Aihara Kotoko, where are you?" I turn in my seat, eyeing the panting girl whose eyes were glaring at me. Beside her, her posse were also gasping for breath. I sigh internally.
"Is there something wrong, Kobayakawa-san?" I ask putting my notes down. "I didn't cheat on the last test, so there's no need to yell at me." I point out.
Kobayakawa-san shakes her head. She raises an arm, and points at me accusingly. "You don't have to cheat; Irie-san tutors you every day. I knew there was a reason for why you're doing better than me when you shouldn't."
"WHAT!?" The entire class gasps looking between Irie-kun and I.
"What makes you say that?" I laugh uncomfortably, "Ask Mr. Takashima, I've gone to see him after school for help with the lesson. Besides, do you see Irie-kun tutoring anybody? That peer thing during our second year doesn't count. You could see he hated it, he hated tutoring me. Why would he continue?" I point out.
"Because he doesn't have a choice," She crosses her arms. "We've all met Irie-san mother. We know how she is. She probably forced him to tutor you because you live in the same house. Don't even try to lie to me," She says when I open my mouth to argue. "I heard your friends talking."
"WHAT?!" The class gasps again, staring at me.
I roll my eyes; of course they would be talking about it at school. I was going to murder them. "Isn't it rude to eavesdrop?" I ask.
"I wasn't eavesdropping." She sniffs as though the very action was beneath her. "That idiot boy's voice carries. Don't try and get out of it. You and Irie-san are living together."
I sigh and sit back down in my seat. Briefly I make eye contact with Irie-kun who nods his head slightly at the question in my eyes. "What do you want me to say, Kobayakawa-san? That it's true I'm staying with Irie-san? Yeah it is. My dad and his dad are friends. That's the only reason why I'm staying there in the first place. Is Irie-san tutoring me? No he isn't. You can ask him yourself. Now if you excuse me, I want to review before our quiz. This is Class A after all." Turning around, I could hardly pay attention to the papers on my desk. Behind me, I could hear Kobayakawa-san mutter to her friends about how we didn't have a quiz. Irie-kun stands up, as the students pile around his desk, spilling into the space near mine, bombarding him with questions and comments.
"I don't tutor her. I hated it the first time and while she's finally smarter, I don't want to deal with an imbecile again." He utters mockingly, answering one of our classmates.
I spin around, faking anger. "Excuse me? Did you just call me stupid?"
"Apparently you know what it means, why are you asking me?" He cocks his head, that ridiculously charming smirk on his face.
"I'm not stupid! If I was, would I be in this class?" I ask, hands on my hips.
"Well you weren't before this year, were you? Back then, it was quiet in the classroom." He drawls.
"I don't say anything in class!" I throw my hands up in the air in exasperation.
At that moment, our argument goes silent as Mr. Takashima walks into the classroom. "Well, I certainly have no idea what is going on in here, but as Class A students, I would hope you understand the meaning of a quiet environment to learn the most we can. Sit down, all of you. Take out your pencil, I have a pop test." I turn around to face Kobayakawa-san, smirking at her expression of disbelief. Before I face the front, Irie-kun winks at me. I face the blackboard as Mr. Takashima hands out the test papers, a smile flitters to my lips.
"I am going to kill those idiots with my bare hands when I see them. " I mutter darkly into my pillow.
Irie-kun chuckles slightly. "I'm not opposing to that idea, now Ikezawa won't have a reason to touch you now."
I turn my head slightly to glare at the boy sitting beside me. "Don't start. I'm not in the mood to deal with your possessiveness. Oh, hey, why are you in my room? It's almost dinner. Where is everyone?" I ask, rolling over onto my side.
Irie-kun lies down beside me. "Mom's downstairs making dinner. Yuki's in our room working on homework and dad has that corporate dinner. He's having at the Aihara so your dad might be there working."
"Probably, he's a little short staffed nowadays. He's trying to find a full time server." I sit up. "So what are we going to do about today? Knowing Kobayakawa-san, she's going to spread the word."
He shuffles over till he's behind me. Sitting up, he wraps his arms around my waist pulling me closer. "We keep up our act. I hate you and you detest me. That's what everyone thinks, why bother changing the fact that we're dating. I know you hate me a little when I pushed you into the position to show your marks. I don't want our last year to be horrible for you."
"Aw, you can be sweet." I coo, scuffing up his hair before styling it back. He swats my hand away.
"Stop that." He growls.
I giggle, leaning back against his chest. I stare up at the ceiling. "Speaking of our last year, where are you applying next year?"
Irie-kun cocks his head thoughtfully, "Why is everyone so anxious to go to college? I don't need more people teaching me stuff I can learn on my own."
I twist my head, staring up at his face. "But you need to! You won't be recognized for any successful careers without a degree."
"Well, what do you want to study?" He asks. I open my mouth to answer, and then close it. He has a point. What do I want to study? I didn't have the funds for an expensive university so I was probably going to go to our high school's escalator university, provided I do well in the final exam and the university entrance exam, but I don't know what I want to study.
"I guess I'll figure it out while I'm there. Isn't that what college is for? To further your education and figure out what you want to do with your life?"
Irie-kun's hands drop away. He lies back down on my bed. "I envy you sometimes." Huh? I stare at him in confusion. "Everything I do is boring. There's no spark of interest, no focused drive towards a goal. I can just figure things out really quickly. You know that." He continues. "But you, you throw yourself into every task you do. Moving for Class F to Class A, Aiming to beat me on a test, when you're cooking, studying, everything you do is never precise but you try." He looks up at me; a small smile appears on his face. "You're amazing. I don't think I tell you this often enough."
"I don't think you tell me I'm amazing at all." I mutter cheekily, my cheeks blushing red a little.
"Why you…" He reaches up, tickling my waist. I shriek, squirming, and laughing. When I can breathe again, minutes later, I lie flush against his side with his arm around me. "You know, you're amazing too." I state, looking up into his eyes. "One day, you're going to come across an inspiration which is going to motivate you to complete a task. I don't know what your future career is going to be, but I do know that you're going to find it interesting. You're going to love it every day."
Irie-kun looks at me, and draws my head closer to his. BANG! MY door flies open. I squeak, bouncing up into a sitting position and accidentally knee Irie-kun in the side. He groans and rolls away from me. "Yuki…" He growls menacingly.
Yuki-kun wrinkles his nose. "I really didn't need to see you two all over each other. Next time, lock the door please. Mom says its dinner time." He says before turning around and walking back down the hallway.
"He's going to develop the worst timing. I can feel it." Irie-kun grumbles.
"He's not so bad. Better than others, wouldn't you say?" I smile as he takes my hand.
"Come on; let's go before mom starts getting suspicious."
Hey guys...I have nothing to say on my part. I had a little writers block even with all your advice and I wanted this part to be up to par. I'm sorry for the delay. School has been...tough. Whoever said Grade 12 was the fun and easy year, they need to go back to school because it's hard. Anyways I've been swamped with tests and assignments, not to mention, two formal labs but hey, no biggie. I probably won't be able to get another chapter till after holidays have started (the 19th) but I will try my hardest to get one out next week. Any who, I'm trying to get this story going, setting up the chapters where Irie-kun takes the exam for a prestigious university so we'll see how that turns out. Give me your thoughts, comments, criticisms and I'll see you guys next time. Ciao.
P.S. Caitlyn, the French parts I didn't put in because I didn't like having stars or the same phrases in English because that irritates me when I read Fanfictions. I generally just search it up into Google translate but I noted them down here for you and will note down any others in the future if you guys want it that way.
Chapter 4: "Aihara-san, peut to venir dehors avec to sac?" Aihara-san could you come outside with your bag? (Thank you to my unknown Guest for the corrections)
Chapter 5: "Mon professeur est assez bien, merci beacuoup, mais je voulais rester avec mes amis et c'est la class en entier qui fait que c'est difficile d'étudier" The teacher is good, thank you very much, but I wanted to stay with my friends and it's the classes fault. That's why it's so hard to study.
Chapter 5: "Pas mal, votre Français a beaucoup amélioré. Ça va, je sais tes raisons, mais retournant à les mathématiques." Not bad, your french has improved. Don't worry about it, I know your reasons, but return back to the math problem.