two

jump around

"So you're Murayama Yoshiki? I thought you'd be taller."

Murayama sighed "Yes, we get it. I'm short."

"And this is the infamous Oya High?" I continued, taking in my surroundings. The classroom had been completely trashed, all the desks and chairs in a giant heap towards the middle of the room. "It's a shithole."

The boy laughed, throwing a tennis ball in the air "Yeah, well, it's home."

He lived here?

"I'm Midori, the literature tutor. I totally get that literature isn't your thing, but the sooner you pass the quicker you get out of this hell and get a real job."

"Being a leader is a real job." He protested, flinging the tennis ball out the window

I carefully pulled a chair out of the precarious heap and set myself up next to Murayama. I could feel his eyes boring into my back as I pulled out my pencilcase. I could hear fighting and shouting wafting up through the floor. My leg was bouncing a mile a minute as I cleared my throat and reached for the book on Murayama's desk.

"Lord of the Flies? God, no wonder you haven't passed lit yet. This book is awful."

"Words make my brain hurt." The dark haired boy sighed, tilting his head towards the ceiling. "They gave me the money to pay you, so can we just pretend that I understand?"

I laughed "We can't do that, because I have less of a life than you think. This is the only way I'd probably leave my house."

Murayama perked up. "I thought they said you were in college?"

"Construction engineering. Other than that, I don't leave the house too often anymore." Not since what happened with Doubt.

"I think your main issue is that you hate the book." I diverted the conversation. "They tried to make me read A Tale of Two Cities in my junior year. After two chapters I used the hardcover copy to hit one of the guys from Sannoh."

Murayama laughed "So what do you suggest we do?"

"Well, since your homework is on Lord of the Flies there isn't actually much I can do except tell you to use SparkNotes. You're supposed to write an essay on symbolism within the text, which might be hard if you don't actually read the book." I mused, flipping through the crumpled pages of the handout. "What I can do is proofread and format and tell you that it sucks. As a tutor I'm not supposed to really say this, but SparkNotes is going to make your life far easier."

"They're paying you fifteen dollars an hour for that?" Murayama scoffed "Wow, you are so overpaid."

"I will slap you." I chuckled "I will go through my bookshelf when I get home and see if I can find something I think you'll like. But for the most part, I bullshitted my way through high school lit. Either you get it or you don't, and the teacher doesn't help."

"I thought you were supposed to be smart?"

I rolled my eyes. "I have three degrees plus a summer spent training drug dogs in Osaka that prove that."

"Three degrees? I can barely get through high school."

I scoffed, pointing at the work on the table. "I was doing more complicated stuff in tenth grade. This is remedial, Hot Shot."

Murayama yawned. Unbeknownst to me, he had been noting every single one of my nervous ticks in the space of time that we had been sitting there. The nervous laugh, my restless leg syndrome, the way I twirled my mechanical pencil in between my fingers. They were all things he looked out for when he scoped out an enemies weakness.

"I have degrees in legal secretarial stuff, fine arts and Red Cross. I'm working on constructional engineering now. "

"I'm impressed, Yamada." Murayama hummed, reaching for the paperback "So why are you here?"

"Parents took off. I need the money."

The conversation kind of ended there as we delved back into one of the worst books I've ever read. After a few hours, we had finally made progress on his essay. If he didn't at least get a B, I was going back to high school, I'm not even joking. It was about then that my lack of sleep caught up with me, leaning back in my chair and rubbing at the dark circles in my eyes.

"Is my company that boring?" Murayama quipped, getting up to stretch his legs

"No." I said, following his lead "I jut forgot how draining this all was." And I don't sleep much.

He grinned "Come on, we're going to do something better. Follow me."

Confused, I grabbed my bag and followed the leader of Oya High down the same flights of stairs Todoroki had lead me up just a few long hours ago. More people were roaming the halls now, and they were taking notice of me.

It made me want to curl up into a ball.

Murayama lead me down a hallway piled high with old desks and pretty much empty before pushing open the doors to a small room covered in mats, an Oya Kokoh flag taking up the majority of one wall.

"What are we doing here?"

He shrugged "You were getting restless. Figured we could channel that into something productive. I haven't trained today."

I scoffed, following him onto the mat "So now I'm your training dummy?"

"Hit me."

"Excuse me?" I said, dumping my backpack on the couch

"You heard me. Hit me."

Shaking my head, I clenched my fist and threw a punch. Murayama threw up his hand, stopping my fist from making contact. I used my other arm to grab his and tug him towards the ground, ramming my elbow into his back before he grabbed my waist and used all his energy to hurl me over his head. I hit the tatami back first with a grunt. Of course I wasn't going to be able to hit him.

"Not bad, Nerd Girl." He mused, extending his hand to help me up. "Where'd you learn to fight?"

"High school. They weren't organized fist fights, more of a 'hit the opponent with whatever you can find' kind of thing. I'm also a four time national champion in judo, but I don't like to brag." Truth was, I was incredibly out of shape. The last time I'd fought that hard was over the summer when I was trying to get away from Doubt. I was outnumbered, and ultimately would have lost if the Amamiya brothers hadn't found me in time.

"Let's go again."

This time I was ready, tapping into all my repressed knowledge of a fight. After my junior year, I really started to get serious about shaping up in time for college. I hadn't done a real judo match since I was seventeen, so this could go either way for me.

I waited for Murayama to make the first move, ducking under his punch and throwing my arm under his, diving forward and using my leg to sweep one of his out of the way. He didn't even know what hit him as we both ended up sprawled on the ground, one my earrings lying next to his head.

"Nice try, Hot Shot." I grinned, putting my earring back in.

"Where the hell did you learn that?" He groaned, slowly sitting up.

"I'm not sure what part of 'four time national champion' you didn't get." I laughed

He shook his head, hair falling over his eyes. "Why'd you quit?"

I sighed, heading back down memory lane. I made a lot of debatable decisions then, I really did. I had bright green hair, wore baggy cargo jeans and got into fights at school every day. I stayed out late, shrugged off math class. Started skipping training. A lot of things were going on in my life as I reached the end of my high school days. "Teenage girls can be very cruel, Murayama. I was so self conscious, almost starved myself trying to cut weight for tournament because I was scared what they'd say if I went up a weight class. Suddenly it wasn't very fun anymore." Unconsciously, I reached to pull my shirt tighter over my shoulders to hide the scarring. "Getting out was one of the best things I did for myself before I graduated."

"I do know a lot about how cruel girls can be." Murayama agreed, getting to his feet. "But I think you should have stayed. Gone pro. It would be better than stuck here trying to teach me about literature and symbolism."

I burst out laughing. "Hey, I could be doing worse. You wanna learn how to choke somebody with your thighs? I used to win a ton of fights like that. Unbeatable."

"Hell yeah!" The boy jumped up and down like a kid in a candy store before lying on his back. "Teach me your ways, senpai."

"Call me that again and I will eviscerate you-"

"That's a big word, I'm not sure I actually know what-"

"Gut you like a fish."

He nodded

"I actually have more to learn from you than you do from me. Now, on your stomach."

Taking a deep breath, I looped one leg over his back, twisting his arm and jamming one of my legs across his neck before rolling to the side and pressing up so that I could interlock my ankles, effectively cutting off airflow to his lungs.

"Murayama-san!" A voice called out, shortly followed by a knock on the door "Oh damn, sorry man I didn't realize I was interrupting!"

Our heads shot towards the door as I loosened the hold I had on Murayama's neck, fully aware that this could be seen as a very suggestive position.

Murayama jumped to his feet. "Furuya!" He shouted running for the door "It's not what it looks like!" He continued shouting out into the hallway, running after Furuya.

Laughing to myself, I grabbed my backpack and followed him out.

I still hadn't been paid.

NOTES!

they aren't even together yet and I am in love with Midori and Murayama.