𝐦𝐲 𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐡 𝐭𝐮𝐭𝐨𝐫 | 𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐜𝐡𝐢 𝐮.

I

You were currently staring holes into the piece of paper that lay in front of you. It had a concerning amount of red markings on it, and the letter "F" was written ridiculously big at the very top, starting right back at you. You had completely and utterly messed this algebra exam up and it sadly wasn't the failed test either.

Your high school math teacher's statement, something along the lines of "You will need this later on", had turned out to be true. Unfortunately, you'd always been an absolute failure when it came to the subject. You'd barely passed your classes in high school, even though you'd spent hours, even entire nights, studying (and crying), but even then your grades had never improved, so you had simply given up. You'd never be able to understand any of it. But if you were being honest, you'd stopped caring at some point.

By the time you'd graduated, math had turned into your biggest enemy and your worst nightmare. You weren't stupid though, your talents had just always been elsewhere, and that's why you'd specifically chosen a major that you thought didn't require math. But oh boy were you in for an unpleasant surprise there. For whatever reason, you needed to take an algebra class this semester. It was mandatory, so there was absolutely no way around it. And you instantly knew you were fucked.

You didn't have a choice though, because if you wanted to get your degree, you would have to pass this course. And since self-studying (or throwing your book across the room and crying like you were back in high school again) wasn't exactly a successful method, you knew that asking for a tutor was the last option. You opened your laptop and started writing an e-mail to your professor, asking him for help, trying your best not to sound too desperate.

Dear Mr. Hatake,

as you may have noticed already, I'm struggling to pass this course. I haven't done well on the last exam but I still want to get a passing grade at the end of the semester. I would like to ask if you know any math tutors who would be willing to help me. Thank you in advance.

Kind regards.

It didn't take long for him to respond with a phone number and a name that you'd never heard before. There was someone named Itachi, an engineering student, who was willing to give maths tutoring lessons for free. You wondered who in their right mind would do something like this for free but figured that people who were good at math had always given off a special kind of vibe.

It wasn't anything unusual to ask for tutoring lessons but for some reason, you found yourself greatly overthinking what you were about to say in your message. Just a casual "Hey" at first? No. "Hi"? No, that's too casual. But "hello" sounds too formal. Ugh. After deleting the sentence for the 15th time, you finally wrote something decent and sent it immediately, not giving yourself any more time to overanalyze every detail.

__

Your new math tutor had agreed to give you lessons and had given you his address. He had initially suggested meeting at the library, but the private rooms there were pretty much always booked in advance, and meeting at a café would have been way too distracting. Though it did feel weird to go to a stranger's house for the first time, and you could already tell that you were getting increasingly nervous with every step you were taking.

It was about 5 minutes before your arranged meeting time and you were currently climbing the stairs to his apartment. You had no idea what to expect since all you knew was his name and his major and that didn't give away much. You were just hoping that he wasn't some kind of creep but you had already informed a friend of your whereabouts, just in case.

When you finally reached his door, you waited in front of it for a few seconds in a feeble attempt to calm yourself down before ringing the doorbell. What could go wrong? Sure, it'll be awkward at first, but once you get past that, it'll surely be fine. Right? You took a deep breath before you mustered up the courage to ring.