Diabolik Lovers: Recovery

Chapter 5: Father, Why? (Reiji)

"Reiji?"

"What is it?"

"I was wondering if you would assist me with chemistry," I asked tentatively, standing in the door to his room. 

"Come in," Reiji prompted, not looking up from the paper he was scribbling upon at his desk. 

"Thank you-"

"I haven't said that I would help you."

"Oh?"

He stood rigidly, his crisp outfit barely wrinkled, and stalked over to me. Like a tower, he stood over me, his eyes glinting behind those spectacles. 

"You left school," he pointed out contemptuously.

"I needed to-"

"Shuu has been rubbing his slacker's attitude off on you, hasn't he?"

"Shuu helped me today, actually," I pointed out stubbornly. "I needed to go to the hospital, you see, and he took me."

"That's a new excuse."

"Well, I needed to, but it was just music. I printed out my work for Chemistry tomorrow. I don't understand it and I was wondering if you could help me."

"Fine," he grunted, then gestured to the desk. I paced over to  it and stood beside it uncertainly, looking around for another chair as he reseated himself. "What is it?"

"Balancing chemical equations."

"That's elementary."

I remained silent as he scanned it, his sharp red eyes flickering across the instructions. 

"I'll give you an example to work from," he muttered, taking out a pen and writing neatly in the margin. "Stay in here, work at this desk, and I will review your work when you are finished."

"Thank you," I said quickly, taking a seat as he stood and setting to work.

From analyzing the work that Reiji had done, the concept did seem pretty simple to grasp and I began carefully scrawling out answers. 

"You should sit up straight, write neatly," Reiji instructed, and I caught him glaring at me out of the corner of his eye from where he stood at his lab table.

I did as told, quietly, and continued with my work.

"Shuu helped you today?"

"Yes, he did," I said absentmindedly.

"That's surprising."

"I was somewhat surprised myself," I admitted. "But he was kind enough to get me to the hospital and back."

"Tch," I heard Reiji tisk.

"What?"

"He's lazy, good for nothing."

"Maybe a little lazy, but not good for nothing."

"You don't know him like I do."

"I don't."

Silence descended upon the both of us as I continued on to problem number six. Reiji had gone still, I could tell from the absence of trickling that normally signaled that he was concocting some mixture. 

"Do you fancy him?"

"No," I said aimlessly. "I don't fancy anyone at the moment."

"And why not?"

"I'm too stressed to think about who I'm interested in."

"What do you think of me?"

I paused in my work, resting the pen on my lower lip, "I can always count on you to abide by the rules when the others are acting out of line."