Choso Kamo | Short Stories

Yuji's big bro.

  Yuji had asked me to come over to tutor him, I refused, but he insisted. "Be there or be square!" He had said. Well, he's the square.

Because I'm currently facing a grumpy-looking guy, his dark hair up in messy buns and looks like he's sleep-deprived.

He looked at me as if I just woke him up - which I probably did. "Hi, is Yuji here?" I ask.

"I don't think he is." His raspy voice indicates that I definitely did. "Is there anything I can help you with?"

"Oh, um. He asked me to tutor him for the upcoming exam." I smile awkwardly. "I can come back later -"

"Nah, come in." He interrupts, moving aside to open the door completely. "He'll be back in a bit. Make yourself comfortable."

I follow him inside, my eyes taking a moment to adjust to the dim lighting before he turns on the lights. Their house is small, with a living room in the middle and an open kitchen to its right. Just opposite the door, a staircase leads upstairs, and two doors are closed on my right.

"You must be Choso." I conclude since he's the only one Yuji talks about. Choso looks back at me and nods. "And you are?"

"Kimi." I say, hesitantly taking a seat on the couch. "Yuji talks about you a lot."

"He does?" Choso asks from the kitchen.

"Yeah," I watch his back as he moves around. "He always says good stuff, don't worry."

He chuckles. "Yeah, I know. Would you like some coffee?"

"No, thank you."

He pauses, looking over his shoulder. "You sure? I'm already making mine."

"Yeah, I'll pass."

I sit in silence as he makes his coffee, not knowing what to do except looking around. They have a bunch of pictures hung on the walls, some cute little decorations here and there, half-empty bookshelves, and finally, some scattered paper on the table in front of me.

I try to snoop around, but Choso sits in the armchair to my right. "Is he that bad that he needs a tutor?"

"No, no. He's actually brilliant." I reply quickly. "But he may or may not have been sleeping in lectures."

"He what?" Choso asks, and I immediately regret snitching on Yuji.

"Because of his sports scholarship!" I try to make things better.

He squints his eyes, not buying it. Then he laughs. "I'm just messing with you, I know."

I stare at him. "You know?"

"Yeah, he told me about it, and I was the one who suggested a tutor."

"Oh," I say, still not knowing what to do.

"Do you have the same classes as Yuji?" He says, taking a sip of his coffee. I find keeping eye contact with him hard, so I nod as I look around.

"Almost. He doesn't have Composition yet."

I look again at the papers on the table, trying to figure out what they are. Choso's hand comes into my view as he gathers them into a tidy stack.

"Sorry about that," he says. "I was figuring out a sketch."

"What kind of sketch?" I ask, looking up at him.

"I have an assignment on a three-point perspective illustration, so I was sketching out ideas." He answers simply.

"You're an art major? Wait, you're a student?!"

He chuckles at my reaction. "Yeah, a senior student."

My mouth hangs in awe. I've always wanted to go into an art major, but I decided to keep it as a hobby. "No way."

"Way."

"Yuji never said anything personal about you. I never expected this." I lean back in my seat, getting a little comfortable around Choso.

"I get that a lot." He grins. "I love seeing people's reactions to that information."

I mean, at a second look, he does look like an art student. An intimidating one.

"Honestly, I thought you were unemployed and sleep-deprived."

He laughs and it catches me off guard, I smile at the sound of his laughter. "I am."

Choso regards me with a glint in his eyes as if his whole mood was uplifted. If you overthink it, what I said might have been rude or an insult. But I guess he's into that kind of humour.

"Unemployed and sleep-deprived." He murmurs. "Are my eye bags really that bad?"

I grimace. "A little."

Just as he was about to protest, the front door opened and a very loud Yuji came in. "Sorry I'm late, traffic was crazy!"

"Yuji, you don't have a car." Choso roasts him with the calmest tone ever and I can't help but giggle.

"What, are you two becoming friends because of your mutual hobby of bullying me?" Yuji looks between the two of us, hands on his hips.

"Maybe we are, square head," I reply, looking at Choso only to see him already looking.

He doesn't break the eye contact. "Maybe we are."

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A.N: this was a very quick, based on a cai chat prompt, lowkey cringe thing but I just felt like it.

Requests are welcomed except smut (in some cases, because i just broke my own rule and wrote a smutty chapter) and weird shit.