The Way of the Fanboy (Male Reader x Shikimori)

Academically Superior

"Izumi-san you're too good at this..." Shikimori groaned.

"Come on, you're overthinking it!" Izumi said.

He continued to reexplain quadratics and drone on about graphing and factoring. Y/n could only bury his head in his arms and listen to couple. Drop dead please, Y/n thought to himself. 

Winter and midterms were approaching in a week, and mostly everyone was cramming for exam day. All Y/n could focus on was Shikimori. She had been studying with Izumi throughout class, and watching them get along so well got on his nerves. 

They liked each other, they were always nice to each other, they always got along, there were no arguments... not a single small gap between them.  The bitter Y/n took out his sketchbook and scribbled on the pages. 

"Y/n, shouldn't you be studying?"  

The frustrated artist turned to Kyou, hovering over his bubble. "I could say the same to you," Y/n said. "Don't you have anything better to do than to bother me?"

"Geez don't be harsh on me."

Kyou was nice mostly but she had a tendency to make herself the victim, even when she wasn't. Whether she was aware of it or not Y/n didn't care much, but he found it to be very annoying. However, the hollowed Y/n  couldn't find the words to say.

"Don't you think Shikimori and Izumi look so cute together?" Kyou chirped.

"What?"

"Oh—whoops I thought out loud!" she giggled. "I need to stop doing that."

"Please do," Y/n muttered. 

"Hey are you alright?" Kyou abruptly said.

Y/n was quite taken back by this question. "Yeah I guess," he said.

"You can talk to me if you need anything you know?" 

Kyou was good at spotting these sort of things in others. She was very "emotionally intelligent," as the psychology teacher would put it. And no matter the good intent, Y/n was still annoyed. 

"I'm absolutely fine," Y/n paused. "Thanks for asking."

"No problem!" she smacked him on the shoulder. "I'll be going now."

As Y/n drew he considered something. If he scored higher on the midterms than Yuu—a unlikely prospect for sure—maybe he could impress Shikimori.

That's when Y/n began to study with motivation. Every night he put aside his sketchbook and habits of procrastination, just to study. Sometimes on the weekends he even went to the library to get some quiet time. He skimmed through books, made notes, and did practice problems throughout the day.

Although he had drive, the image of Shikimori kept floating around in his head. Y/n realized if he was continuously distracted by this, he wouldn't be able to outscore Izumi.

He groaned quietly while was reading in the library. The thought of Shikimori translated into a headache at this point.

He slouched and rested his chin on the table. "So tired..." he muttered.

Just then, a flash of pink appeared in his vision. It was Shikimori. She entered through the automatic, glass doors, and scanned the library. That's when she spotted Y/n. Shikimori gave a quiet wave at him, and approached his table.

The boy's heart began to thump faster than ever.