people pleaser | nishimura riki

11. small gestures

╭── ⋅ ⋅ ── ✩ ── ⋅ ⋅ ──╮

Exams were coming up and Aira was already on the grind of studying. This exam was quite crucial as it would be the score that ends up in the student record, hence students were starting not to slack off. On the other hand, Riki was not at all affected by the coming stress.

"Aira can you please teach me how to do this?" A classmate of hers approached her desk and sat on the empty one beside her. It was probably the 7th time within the hour that someone had come to her with some sort of maths question. The teacher was nowhere to be seen thus resulting in a class of study period.

"Yeah sure." Aira agreed.

After her seventh student, the bell had finally rung for home time. Most people ran out the moment it sounded but Aira did not flinch a bit. She stayed put and continued her practice paper. Because of the multiple disturbance to her studying, she was not able to spend time studying for herself. She decided she was going to spend a little longer after school to get her work done.

"Are you not going to eat." Riki's voice suddenly appeared from behind. This was the reason she flinched. His question was quite odd but of course, Aira was going to have his answer.

"Ah yes, i bought food myself." She dug under her desk drawer and took out a protein bar and a chocolate croissant.

"Hm." He hummed in response as he sat down in his seat. "Wow, this seat is warm."

Not knowing whether Aira should feel guilty, she explained the situation to him without being asked. Riki only chuckled before taking out his phone to mind his business.

---

For half an hour, the two of them were both minding their own business like strangers. Aira managed to go through 2 practice papers which she was proud of. As she packed away her papers, she stretched her hands which caught his peripheral vision.

"Finished?" He asked, initiating the conversation.

"Oh. Yeah. I only brought two papers today." She said, zipping up her pencil case.

"So if you brought 5, you would do them all?"

"If i have time." She nodded a little too enthusiastically. Her happy mood was due to the fact she got the majority of the questions right.

"So hardworking." He muffled a laugh before gently patting her head twice.

Again, with a small gesture like this, Aira could never wrap her head around it. She wondered if he acted like that too, towards other female classmates.

Curiosity drove through.

"You free tomorrow?" He asked as the two of them walked down the empty corridors. There were still a few students in different classrooms as they were open after school hours.

Not thinking too much about his question, she answered as casually as the way he asked. It was a Saturday anyway, so she was free. "Yeah. Why?"

"Sweet. I just need to make sure my private tutor is not heavily booked again." He subtly smirked.

"Wow...and i thought you had good intentions." She joked along with him.

Usually, with other classmates, she found it hard to crack a joke as she was never too sure whether they were serious or not. However, with Riki, Aira always finds herself discovering new sides of her.

"Can't wait to be in your care tomorrow." He almost sang out, ignoring her previous comeback.

"Do i get a say in this? What happened to people pleasing?" She laughed lightly.

"How can you use that against me?" He smiled.

"See you tomorrow." Aira smiled as they were now going to go in opposite directions.

"See you." He returned a smile and gently pinched her cheeks that eventually flushed in tints of pink when he left.

See? The little actions like this. She wondered if she is the only one affected by them.

What were the chances of Aira Kim being treated indifferently by the one and only confident Riki Nishimura?

Maybe less than likely.