“Are you stupid?“ izumi retorted, lifting an eyebrow. Was this guy honestly so… blunt?
“Being a quick learner means you understand things easily and are good taking them to practice. How is that not something convenient? You could give other’s study tips or the sort. Having sense of rhythm means you could either try dancing or singing, maybe playin an instrument. And if you don’t feel apt for that you could just play rhythm games. they are rather popular nowadays.” he continued, uncrossing his legs just to cross them once more “You are just not seeing them in the right way because you are fucking blunt”
Yes he was angry at this idiot not realizing all the good things he had on him.
“Hah? as if I’d worry about something like that myself. This level of advice is just normal” he replied, shaking his head “Not listening nor trying to come up with anything constructive when someone needs you is terribly rude and childish, don’t you know?”
The insult made Kyouhei flinch but he managed to cut off any protests he had by pressing his knuckles to his lips, the bones pressing against his pouting lips while he listened to Izumi break down his self-criticism.
“Mm, isn’t long term memory more valuable though?” He muttered around his hands, tilting his head into a contemplative pose. As for dancing, singing… he’d never taken a class like that in his life. Creativity wasn’t exactly something his parents pursued in him, after all.
And rhythm games…? What were those? He was tempted to ask, eyes crinkled at his advisor in confusion.
The brunet was almost tempted to warn against sour language - not that he was a prude, it was just first instinct. As pretty as Izumi was, the swearing was… almost unfitting, even though it suited his voice (or not. Kyouhei wasn’t sure).
“You didn’t have to help, though.” He felt like he was in Izumi Sena’s debt now, whether the other acknowledged it or not. “A-anyway, your constructive criticism is greatly appreciated! I’ll try to keep it in mind.”
The boy was being more obedient now, eating the chocolate and drinking the water as he had been told. He also answered to izumi’s suggestions.
he didn’t minded the reservation he took at some points; no one wants to talk about personal stuff with a stranger. It was understandable, and expected. Izumi himself didn’t knew much about this stranger, so he was just throwing ideas at the air.
“Well, I believe building up confidence in yourself is what helps against negative critique. That and not caring too much about what others might think. But you can only do that yourself. You can’t ask for help when it comes to that kind of thing” he concluded “Things like gaining lots of confidence in something most people aren’t too good at, is a good way of getting that”
He sighed, trying to think of more ideas. he was already getting invested in helping this boy.
“What do you feel the most confident about? Studies, games, whatever. If you have one thing you can start from there. it’s also helpful when making friends”
Wow, this Izumi was… pretty smart. Good at giving advice, in any sense. Kyouhei made sure to listen intently while finishing off the chocolate and washing it down with some more water.
He then had to pause. Because… he’d never really thought about what he was good at. Whenever the student had to make decisions, it wasn’t usually based on “well, I’m good at this” but rather “this would be better for me”.
Well, there was obviously talent involved, so maybe it was something that went along with having hobbies? So….
“I guess… I’m a quick learner? And I have a good sense of rhythm, and I’m fast - but none of those are really practical skills, right?” Especially not in biochemistry, where it was a good memory that was needed. It was very matter-of-fact.
As for the friends front, Kyouhei’d just moved and the whole ‘socializing’ business was fairly strange to him, but there were already a few people who probably didn’t mind hanging around him?
“You’re very sensible, aren’t you Sena? Or maybe you have experience in stuff like this…?”
“I agree with that” Izumi shrugged slightly. He sure would have preferred any meeting that didn’t involved him getting stared at by random people or having to deal with a crying person. However, the kid -kyouhei- seemed to be calmer by now. No tears incoming for the time being.
“Well, that alone is better than nothing” Izumi commented, a tone that sounded so done, and yet reassuring. Like saying ‘i can’t believe how idiot you are but at least you learnt something’.
“Hmn, well, searching for the source problem could be one thing. And trying to build your self-confidence might be another” he commented, seriously advicing the other in his problem “Interacting with more different people in friendly spaces could be another good chance to develop a stronger control over your emotions. As long as it isn’t forced of course. Which is the biggest problem of this ‘plan’ of yours, I would say”
Kyouhei let out a little sigh, unsure of what to take from Izumi Sena’s words for the moment and too exhausted to break down again - speaking of which, the chocolate was really good. He washed down another piece with some water.
“I… more-or-less… know what it stems from.” Not that he wanted to go into details at the moment. Especially not in front of a stranger - it would be oversharing something extremely personal, and he’d already cried on Sena today.
“It’s not really a self-confidence issue!” Kyouhei quickly denied, making sure to smile confidently while saying this. He was of the firm belief that - while he had his moments - it was a lack of self-confidence that made him cry. “I’m just… not used to negative critique. So I react emotionally. But you have a point.”
Not that it helped him much - as a new arrival to Bellevue he didn’t have many people that he could comfortably interact with, or ask to toughen him up - if there was anyone that qualified for that in his life.
God, was he crying again? really? He hadn’t even said anything -too- mean this time! Just how much of a crybaby must you be to react so easily to being teased? Izumi sighed hard and rolled his eyes, leg ticking against the floor. He felt annoyed by the situation, and for the constant crying. he wasn’t good dealing with that.
But the boy had a point. You would expect to grow up from those crocodile tears by age 10, right? At lest that was the case for izumi. In fact, he haven’t cried in years -except when peeling onions but you can’t blame him for that.
“Ahh, how did you even survive this long? You whiny thing.” he sighed low, rolling his shoulders a bit. Was this guy going to be ok? He probably should -try to- control his rudeness with the guy or he’d end up getting even more tears.
“I’m Izumi Sena. I study law here. And I’m a professional model as well” he introduced himself in a short and concise way “Well, you aren’t completely wrong, but I hardly think this kind of… training, is the right way for dealing with your problem. Also get a bite of the chocolate, the sugars will help you avoid a headache after this much crying.”
Ugh, Kyouhei wanted to get mad, but he knew there was no point - this Izumi Sena was completely correct. Maybe transferring away from home so quickly was a bad idea. He’d never even moved before this, and it was a split second decision!
There was no going back now, though. He slowly began to unwrap the chocolate and then broke a piece off with his fingers before plopping it into his mouth - only having the patience to let it melt for a few seconds before chewing it up and swallowing.
He did feel a bit better - being out of the sun, plus the sugar and water were slowly building his mood back up to something more positive, although he was still bummed about his predicament.
“I’d say nice to meet you, Sena, but honestly any situation would’ve been better than that one. I am thankful for the snacks, though.” Kyouhei joked, still a little embarrassed but not wanting to linger on the moment in a negative light.
“Mm, I can see that now - hindsight 20/20 and all that, but that doesn’t help me at all - all I learned was not to put up random ads for help.” The brunet’s lip twisted downwards with displeasure (although it looked more like a pout than an upset face) and he cautiously looked at the accidental volunteer.
So Kyouhei it was. He nodded in acknowledgment, though it was more likely that he’d use once more the ‘shitty tears’ or maybe even a ‘crybaby’ as way of calling the other.
His blue eyes widened quite a bit as he listened to the -admiteddly crazy- story of how this situation came to be. An ad? So more or less he had asked to be insulted to train himself or something?
“What type of idiot does that?” he ended up voicing his thoughts, clear confussion and mild annoyance painted all over his face. It also angered him that his classmates had thought he’d be ‘ideal for the job’. Preposterous. Even if it somehow did worked out.
“Ahh, I can’t deal with this.“ he shook his head “And why aren’t you drinking the water? You need to hydrate yourself you shity crybaby.”
With such rough words, Izumi gave a light kick to Kyouhei’s chair as if to call for his attention.
A desperate idiot, Kyouhei thought glumly, this time actually tearing up - but not as much as earlier. He’d lost a lot of liquids from that crying session, so this time only a few tears collected in the corners of his eyes.
With a little sniff, he reached up to wipe them away before opening the water bottle and taking a long swig, which cleared up the congestion in his ears caused from all his hiccuping earlier.
“Well I can’t just stay like this - that’s just begging for disaster!” The scene earlier was just a multitude of evidence towards his point, but he wouldn’t use it for sake of redundancy.
“Besides, isn’t it weird to be like this at nineteen? Right? So something has to change, and I can’t just lock myself up for the rest of my life!” Although biochemistry might allow him to do that, with all the time necessary for quiet experimentation… which was beside the point.
Kyouhei took another drink of water before capping the bottle and setting it beside his chair and folding his hands in his lap. “That’s the long and short of it really. Ah, and can I know who you are…?” It was getting a bit awkward of mentally referring to him as ‘the volunteer’ or ‘the silver-haired guy’.
“Hmn, you were intelligent enough to stay. I’ll praise you for that" he said upon walking in, and all the way to the side of the other boy. With him standing and the other sitting, it was rather easy to just look down on him.
A click of his tongue, he pushed the things he had bought onto the other.
“There. You need to hydrate yourself after crying. Also get some chocolate, the sugar is good for you. If you feel like eating something then there’s the energy bar as well” he explained in a rough tone before going for a chair to sit down himself.
Legs and arms crossed he looked over at the boy.
“Ok so, what the deal with this, shitty tears? Explain it so I can understand.”
When the volunteer - Kyouhei really needed to get his name - returned, the brunet didn’t notice until he started speaking, and blinked up at the pompous-looking male, not having quite caught the first bit, but…
“Thank you?” He set the foodstuffs on his lap for future use. Feeling a little silly for having missed whatever was said. Hopefully, it wasn’t important.
Maybe this guy wasn’t that bad? Ah, but there he was with the insults again. So… there was a bit of each. Sort of. He had to breathe deeply in order not to tear up again, because… wow, that was mean. “My name is Kyouhei, actually.
“And it has to do with um,” Kyouhei couldn’t help but turn a little pink again, before clearing his throat to continue, “how easily you made me cry earlier? I know it’s a problem, I’m… emotional. And so I put out an ad asking for someone to toughen my skin? As you can see….”
It wasn’t really working. He’d cried pretty easily. That about brought them up to date, with the little bits of information he’d been provided, the volunteer didn’t know what he was volunteering for and somehow ended up doing it anyways? Weird.
Soon enough they were right where izumi wanted to be. After checking through the small window on the door that the room wasn’t occupied by someone else, Izumi pushed with his shoulder and lead the boy into the room.
“Hah? You already tangled me into this mess, don’t go feeling guilty now” he hissed slightly “Now sit and wait right here.“
He glared at the boy once as if to make his point before leaving. He walked fast, and straight to his objective. The vending machine. Taking some change from his pocket he bought a bottle of water, an energy bar and some chocolate.
Then he returned as fast as he had left. If the boy had left in the meantime he’d be fucking pissed.
Kyouhei blinked, staring with eyes narrowed in confusion at the place his unwilling volunteer had been before looking around the empty room for a place to sit down.
This gave him some time to decide if he really wanted to go through with this - admittedly not thought through - plan, and if he was really ready for the level at which the guy who’d disappeared was on.
He didn’t want to be a crybaby all his life! Eventually, his immunity to older people talking down to him would disappear because he’d be their age, and he was very sensitive towards words from people his age.
While considering this, Kyouhei narrowed his eyes at his feet and began to wring his hands out, his options on a glowing screen in his mind, waiting for his choice which could be right or wrong or a mix of both.
“Hah? Why are you suddenly assuming I didn’t wanted to, you idiot? I just didn’t had a choice, this was practically forced on me anyway” he ended up raising his voice again -involuntarily- at what he felt, was a stupid question. At least the guy was intelligent enough to follow him instead of refusing to do so.
Thanks to that, they had managed to get away from the center of attention, and were now making their way through one of many halls, a nice shadow covering them from the heat of the sun. It was however, rather awkward how he started to march rather than walk halfway through it.
“Yeah, pretty much” he accepted, a little frown on his face “Just like that thing you’re doing right now. This isn’t a marching band so just walk normally, would you?”
Kyouhei tilted his head and did his best to totally relax and strengthen his smile a little - reminding himself that they were out of sight now, that there was no one to impress, really, if he didn’t count the person still leading him along.
The brunet wondered when he’d let go. Not that he was uncomfortable.
“Sorry. Force of habit.” Just like apologizing seemed to be, yikes. He gave himself a mental note to halt the ‘sorries’ for a while. “I’m not sure I should thank you for coming, or ask for your help, now that you’ve explained… I’d feel bad.”
Oh god, this was so awkward. People was seriously staring, so much he felt like just leaving right there and then before it became a big deal. And he might have done exactly so if it wasn’t because this poor crying guy seemed to terribly defenseless. It was ridiculous.
Ahh, goddamn it this was annoying!!
Moving forward, he placed a hand on the other’s back, rubbing it gently as if to try to make him feel a bit better.
“Hah? An ad? No idea. I was just told to come here by some unwanted acquaintances” he explained, continuing with the awkward contact even after the other had stopped wailing. Now he looked around, he knew of some study rooms not so far away, so still patting the other, he made the sign to start walking “Come. It’s super embarrassing to have you cry out in public like this, so we better go somewhere else.”
He wasn’t taking ‘no’ for an answer. This boy needed to sit and calm down, and it’d be easier if they weren’t in the middle of such a public place. In fact, he started walking, an arm around the other’s back as he guided him towards the building and away from prying eyes.
Kyouhei had been a little startled when the guy who’d insulted him (who was still insulting him, technically) approached and actually began to rub his back, which made him feel a bit better.
“If you agreed t-to come, why didn’t you read the ad…?” He was more curious than upset now, and rational enough that he allowed himself to be directed by the stranger… which would probably be fine because there were witnesses-.
Oh, there were witnesses.
Kyouhei looked around, his face slightly red both from crying and embarrassment. Unconsciously, he started to stiffen up, his walking becoming more even - as close to a march as he could get without pulling ahead from the… volunteer.
“Sorry about that. You’re right, that was…” totally embarrassing, a disgraceful show. He felt kinda gross, too, “rather weird of me, huh?”
Izumi wasn’t specially aware that the request was for him to be rude in order to toughen up the other boy. He was as oblivious as one could be. He just happened to be rough spoken to everyone all the time. He just wanted people around him to be though enough to deal with anything. In a way, it could be said he really was ideal for this job.
Even so, he wasn’t used to people reacting by immediately crying and apologizing more. Was this guy for real? Would he be ok living on this rough universitary world if that was the only thing needed to get him crying?
“O-oi… wait! Stop crying, it’s so annoying!” he splurted, not sure of how to react to this situation.
The place wasn’t exactly private, so now there was a lot of people looking at them. Some assuming Izumi had just rejected the other’s love confession. The others thinking he might have bullied him until making him cry. He had just said two sentences!
“Stop already, it makes it look like I’m bullying you!”
“W-well, if you’d-hic!” Kyouhei had to stop and start over when the hiccups interrupted him, giving him a chance to wipe his face one more time, even though it was hopeless - more tears just kept coming. It was probably the “annoying” comment that did it.
“If y-y-you’d waited b-before be-being-g so mean,” he gulped and tried to regain control of his voice one last time, feeling something thick build up in the back of his throat - a feeling that usually accompanied his crying fits - and finally found a moment of calm within himself, though his eyes were still shiny with tears.
“Then I would’ve taken you to the place I talked about in the ad!” Ah, that was a bit snappish. Kyouhei looked a bit sheepish, but at least it distracted him from his crying. “Didn’t you read it?”