Chapter Text
The last thing Taki wanted this morning was to be late. So for his first official day at his new school, he made sure everything was prepared the night prior.
He laid out his uniform nicely, packed up his bag with all his supplies, and even set 3 alarms. Plus, if those alarms wouldn't wake him up, his older brother K definitely would. Or at least Taki hoped so, even if it did mean getting splashed with arctic cold freezing water at 7am.
There wasn’t any real extreme reason for Taki’s sudden transfer. He had just felt out of place at his old school. He didn’t have many friends there, but it didn't shake him all that much. He knew that his lack of friends wasn’t because of an inability to make them, but because he didn’t feel the need to.
Taki thought he thrived perfectly well without trying to live off of social interactions. Sure, he was deemed a loner every now and then by his classmates, but so what? He was near the top of the class and the guys calling him a ‘loser’ or ‘teacher's pet’ ranked the lowest of the low, so why would he listen to them? But if Taki was being honest, there was a part of him that was bothered by the fact he didn’t make any friends year after year, despite his thoughts that he didn’t need friends.
Taki and his brother K had attended different schools in accordance with their parent’s wishes. Their parents, ever the worriers, hand-picked a nearby school that matched each boy’s interests and strengths and sent them on their separate ways.
K was sent to a sports heavy school, where academics were important but athletics ruled all, and where everyone was down for anything. It had been easy for K that way. He was always one to make friends fast, and also always one to lend a quick helping hand to anybody in need.
Taki, however, was sent to a neighboring school that prided itself on its flourishing academic rigor and teacher-student bonding. At the time, this sounded perfect to Taki. Little did he know that the students barely upheld the school’s reputation as he easily rose to the top of his class.
When Taki first mentioned to his parents and K that he wanted to transfer schools, they were shocked to say the least, because Taki never really told them about his struggles. Taki was awfully stubborn, and he was determined to get his way. His parents protested against him with things like “You’re at the top of your class, why switch now?” and “But we thought you liked it there?” but he managed to convince them with one single sentence.
“I want to make friends.”
So now here he was, standing in front of the most impossibly tall school building he’s ever seen in his life, students rushing to get inside the building, bikes zooming past him as his hair gets messed up in the wind. K stood beside him and smiled.
“Need me to walk you to the administrator office? They should have your schedule and host waiting for you there as well.” K asked, adjusting the heavy backpack he had slung over one shoulder.
“I can walk myself. But what do you mean my ‘host’?” Taki asked, curiosity piqued.
“The first transfer day is usually pretty steady. You’ll get a host, who’s a classmate, that shows you around campus all day and introduces you to fellow classmates. I think you’ll also observe a class or two, but aside from that, your real academic coursework will start tomorrow.” K spoke but it was obvious his attention wasn’t on Taki.
Taki followed K’s gaze to the entrance of the school where a group of guys stood and joked around. Taki noticed the particular one that K was keeping his eyes on.
Tall–built–were the only words that came to Taki’s mind. Sharp jawline, high cheekbones, piercing eyes but a soft and warm smile. His hair color was a somewhat light brown, maybe caramel, with soft bangs falling over his forehead. K continued to speak again, his eyes not leaving their place from the guy at the entrance.
“By the way, the administrative office is the first door to your left after you enter, alright?” K said, adjusting the straps of his backpack over both shoulders now.
“Who are you looking at?” Taki asked, feeling the corners of his mouth start to turn upward into a teasing smirk.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. You’d better get going though, it’s rude to keep a host waiting.” K waved the question off as he smiled and ruffled Taki’s hair.
“Oh! Right!” Taki adjusted his bag and started speed walking towards the entrance. He heard K yell a quick “Good luck, Taki!” across the courtyard of the school and he threw a quick wave over his shoulder in response.
Taki reached the office and sucked in a deep breath as he placed his hand on the door handle. After entering and shutting the door behind him, he faced the desk where the principal smiled brightly at him.
Beside the principal stood his host. He looked to be around the same height as Taki with blonde hair and glasses, and Taki also noticed he wore nail stickers. His host gave Taki a small wave accompanied by a big, beaming smile.
“Hi Taki! I'm Harua, your host for today and fellow classmate." The boy could barely handle his own excitement, rocking back and forth subtly on the balls of his feet.
“Hi.” Taki replied simply. “So, is it tour time first?” he asked, hoping to make some small conversation.
Harua escorted Taki out of the principal's office as he spoke, waving what Taki assumed was his schedule in his hand.
“Yeah! We can do that! As you know our school is very proud of its athletic programs, so we'll finish with those areas. For now, I'll take you down a tour of the halls and classrooms.”
Taki paid close attention as Harua led him through the multiple hallways and classrooms, Harua being sure to list off the classes taught in each one, and to hand Taki his class schedule which Taki reluctantly shoved in his backpack for later.
It was break time shortly after the classroom showings, so Harua led Taki down to the activities area where all classes were released to enjoy their time off together.
Peppered throughout the backyard area of the school was about every type of outside sport practice area you could imagine.
Basketball, tennis, volleyball, football, track, baseball, softball, pickleball, swimming, and even golf, you name it, it was there.
But of course it didn't end there, inside there were more sports facilities and clubs like the robotics club, judo club, etc. How did they manage to fund all of this?
Then, there were the bleachers where the people who preferred to stray from athletics could sit and do whatever else. This is where Taki figured he'd spend most of his time.
Harua rattled on about the school’s many sports awards, or at least Taki thinks so, he isn’t really listening. He’s too busy looking over at the basketball courts where many people–too many people–have gathered.
“Hey, are you listening?” Harua huffed, looking across the courtyard to the basketball courts now too.
“Sorry, just, why are people hovering all around the basketball courts? Is there a celebrity over there or something?” Taki squinted to get a better view as the pair of them walked closer to the courts.
Harua, a few steps behind Taki, spoke up. “Ah, probably just Maki. Captain of the basketball team, baseball team and captain as well as setter of the volleyball team. He’s basically a school treasure.”
The boys now stood on the sidelines of the basketball court, and that was when Taki spotted him. Maki was tall with dark black hair, deep dark eyes and had a winning smirk plastered on his face as he spun a basketball on his finger. Taki was never one to judge, but he could just tell that this guy was super cocky, and that they weren’t going to get along, like, at all.
And then, Maki noticed him too. He locked eyes with Taki, smirked, and stopped spinning the basketball on his finger. The crowd took notice, their gazes slightly shifted to Taki and Harua as well. Maki spoke.
“You must be that transfer student, heard you’re a real teacher’s pet.” Maki tossed the ball over his shoulder to one of his teammates and took a step closer to Taki, eyeing him up and down. There was a slight bite in Maki’s voice, like he was threatened.
“And you must be the school mascot with the way everyone’s crowded around you like some kind of prize.” Taki shot back.
“Oh? Quick tongue. I bet the teachers really do love you.” Maki said, slinging a small hand towel from his back pocket over his shoulder now, his dumb smirk still cemented on his face. Harua interrupted.
“Um, well, Maki this is Taki, and Taki, this is Maki.” Harua stumbled across his words, seemingly nervous about the interaction of the two boys.
“Right,” Maki said with a small sparkle in his eye. “Didn’t mean to crash your tour, just wanted to welcome the brainiac to my humble kingdom.”
“I’ll take ‘brainiac’ as a compliment. You don’t get that nickname often do you?” Taki asked, feigning curiosity.
“I don’t need it. I’ve got trophies to do my talking for me.” Maki took another step closer now, his eyes still locked on Taki’s.
“Ah,” Taki replied, “so you let your awards speak because your vocabulary can’t keep up. Got it.”
There was a pause. Then Harua let out a low whistle, the others on the court remaining silent.
Maki barked a sarcastic laugh and clapped Taki on the shoulder—not too hard, but not soft either. “I like you. You’re kind of a jerk.”
Taki smiled—just a little. “Takes one to know one.”
Maki’s idiodic smirk shone through again as he spoke, slightly turning away from the boys.
“See you around, brainiac.” Maki said, biting back a small laugh as he returned to the scrimmage that was happening on the court.
In a slightly awkward silence, Harua and Taki headed back toward the fence that gated off the basketball courts from the rest of the facilities, leaning forward on it. It was silent for a good 5 minutes, Taki thinks.
Harua finally took a breath after what felt like forever. “That was…interesting.”
“I think I made a great first impression.” Taki’s tone was laced with obvious sarcasm, a smug smile pulling up at the corners of his lips.
“Or your first rival.” Harua responded, smiling a bit now too. Suddenly, Taki felt a new presence, he looked to Harua’s side.
A boy with pink hair, cat-like facial features and a tiny snaggletooth peeking out from the corner of his mouth had placed his arm smoothly around Harua’s shoulders.
As soon as Harua felt the touch, he practically melted. “Taki, this is my boyfriend Yuma. Co-captain of the basketball team. Yuma, this is Taki.”
“Co-captain, so, a friend of Maki’s I assume?” Taki hadn’t meant to do it, but he felt his face sour at the mention of that cursed name.
“Best friend unfortunately.” Yuma chuckled. “I saw you two hit it off earlier.” Yuma smiled as he spoke.
Taki felt a low rumble of the gravel under his feet, he looked up again, this time to his other side. There stood Maki, pushing a wheeled cart full of basketballs.
“Yo, Yuma, you gonna stand here and flirt or are you going to help me put away equipment?” Maki joked.
“Calm down superstar, I’ll help in a second.” Yuma pulled his arm back from around Harua and pushed himself off the fence.
Taki tried his best to ignore Maki’s presence overall, but clearly Maki didn’t want to do the same, initiating a conversation with Taki.
Maki spoke in a teasing tone. “Trying to make friends with the whole basketball team or what? Didn’t think you’d be into sports, maybe we have something in common after all.”
“Please, the only thing we have in common is our mutual irritation.” Taki rolled his eyes, trying to keep his gaze away from Maki.
Maki raised his hands in mock surrender. “Ooh. Sharp. We could use that kind of spirit on the basketball team.”
“Why don’t you put some of the time you spend annoying newcomers into studying? Maybe then you’d have a few more brain cells to see that I clearly don’t want to talk to you.” Taki scoffed, still avoiding eye contact.
Maki clicked his tongue and leaned against the fence beside Taki, far too comfortably. “Man, you’re really good at pretending you don’t want my attention, but I’m not buying it.”
Taki finally made eye contact with Maki, unimpressed. “And I’m not buying the ‘charming jock’ act. You’re not nearly as charismatic as you think.”
Yuma laughed aloud at that one, earning a deathening glare from Maki.
“You're not helping,” Maki said, elbowing him a bit hard in the ribs.
“Wasn’t trying to,” Yuma shrugged, still grinning. “Well, we’re going to get stuff put away. Later, Rua.” Yuma smiled and placed a kiss on Harua’s temple.
“Bye, Yuma. I’ll meet you to walk home after practice, ‘kay?” Harua said as Yuma walked towards the ball cart to help Maki push.
“As always, Rua. Nice meeting you too, Taki!” Yuma said as he and Maki pushed the cart into the distance.
Harua was still giggling beside Taki as they walked away from the courts, the sun casting a warm glow over the field.
“Oh! I was supposed to tell you! Our school has this academic tutoring program for athletes—especially the ones with packed schedules. It’s one of those ‘must pass to play’ kind of deals. The tutors are usually upperclassmen or, in your case, ridiculously smart transfers.”
Taki stared. “So you’re saying I was signed up to tutor people?”
Harua nodded. “Principal's idea. Since you’ve already placed at the top of most subjects on your entry exams, he thought it’d be a good way to help you integrate. Meet people, get involved, earn extra credit. That kind of thing.”
Taki groaned. “I’m starting to see why he was smiling so much when I walked in this morning.”
“Well, it begins sixth period in the library. It’ll be a one-on-one tutoring session every day with an assigned student and subject, and they will bring a school-mandated itinerary for each session. So really the only thing you have to worry about is how to teach the person.”
Taki felt exhausted already. “Or if I get some braindead moron who thinks this is some poorly made movie where everyone falls to their feet to worship them just because they have some trophies.”
“You’ve known Maki for 5 minutes and you’re already dissing him?” Harua smiled.
“What, didn’t you see us getting along so well?” Taki laughed a bit to himself. But seriously, if he did end up having to tutor Maki, he might have to re-transfer.