Pretty Boy (bokuaka)

11) Calculus

Bokuto laughed again and dropped the subject, thankfully. When we were nearly there, he nudged my shoulder with his own and started humming, smiling with his chin up to the sky.

"What's with you?" I ask, he seems to be in an oddly good mood for someone who didn't get a satisfying answer from me.

"I just like being with you, man," he says.

I feel my stomach drop and find it odd. It puts a thought into my brain, one I hate for existing at all. But its logical. It's going to come back.

I stay silent for a bit, picking at my bottom lip between my teeth as I think. "I like being with you too, Bokuto."

"Aw!" he shouted as he put his arm over my shoulder. "You like me~"

I push him off and roll my eyes. "Ha ha. Very funny."

"Can I come inside?" he asks like a puppy about to go for a walk. We had arrived at my front door.

"What for?"

"To hang out, I don't know. Oh! Actually, can you help me with that calculus worksheet over slanted asymptotes?"

"You mean Oblique," I corrected him.

"Yeah, that!" he pointed in exclamation.

I sigh and roll my eyes, "Alright, I'll help you. Let's go," I pulled open the front door and saw my parents sitting and cuddling on the sofa.

They both smiled and greeted me, "hey, Keiji, how was school?" Mom had said, her smile dropped slightly when she saw Bokuto. "Oh, I didn't realize we'd have company. How are you Bokuto," she asked.

"I'm good, miss! We're just going to study," he said, making her smile return with the sheer brightness of his own.

"Well, have fun you two," she told us.

"Not too much fun," dad jabbed with a teasing grin.

"Dad!" I shouted before grabbing Bokuto's shoulder and turning him toward the hallway to my room. We walked briskly as I pulled him along and I could hear my dad snickering quietly behind us. "Sorry about that," I said once I had closed the door.

Bokuto laughed and set his bag on the edge of my bed, unzipping it as he spoke, "don't worry about it. So, with these problems," he said as he found the homework paper we were assigned.

"Right," I take off my own backpack and look through it to find the my copy of the paper he had in his hands. "What is it that you're needing help on?"

He looked over the sheet before sitting down and explaining what he found difficult. Luckily for me there wasn't too much explaining I had to do before we set to work. Our pencils scratched on the paper as we sat in silence and worked the problems on our own.

"Okay wait," Bokuto said when I was working on the sixth problem.

I turned around in my desk chair after setting down my pencil, "what is it?"

"Explain to me again what happens when a part of it cancels out in the numerator and denominator," he asked, looking down at the paper as he tapped the eraser of his pencil against his chin.

"There would be a hole," I say simply. "Which question are you on?"

"Four."

I turn and look back at my paper. "Okay, yeah. So, you have x plus three on the top and bottom, that means you'll have a hole at negative three."

"But we still need to find the y value, right?" I nod and he smiles. "Alright, and we'll do that by plugging in the negative three for x then?"

"That's right," I said before we set off to work again. There were fifteen problems on the worksheet in total so that means I finished about ten minutes before Bokuto. I just got on my phone and looked through Instagram while I waited for him to get done.

"Alright," he said when he finally put his pencil down, "I think I did them right, can you check it?"

"Sure," I turn off and pocket my phone as I reach for his paper. I look over his answers and compare them to mine. "This one.." I pause as I look over his chicken scratch. "Number seven isn't right." He comes up behind me and looks over my shoulder.

"What? What did I do wrong?"

I pointed down at the paper, "you were supposed to use the reciprocal; so it's three halves, not two thirds."

"Oh," he takes the paper from my desk. "I'll have to rework half the problem. Man," he complained.

"Yeah, let me look at the rest before you fix that one though," I said, taking the paper back from him. It took about three more minutes for me to look over the rest of the worksheet. "You got them all right except seven," I told him, holding the paper out to him.

He took the paper from me and dramatically threw his arms in the air, cheering. "Yes! Told you Akaashi, I'm not an idiot!"

I smile softly and pull my phone back out. "Maybe not when it comes to calculus or volleyball," I say, "but you're still terrible at physics and English."

"Can you not let me have this one thing?" he asks, groaning.

"You can have it," I look up at him, "you just don't have physics and English," I shrug.

"Damn you," he rolled his eyes and went to sit down, quickly rubbing his eraser over the part of question seven he had messed up.

"Do you want a snack," I ask as I get out of my chair and wait at the door.

He looks up from reworking the problem, "yeah, sure."

I leave my room and head into the kitchen.