Mystic

Chapter Fourteen

        Laying on my stomach, I stared at my homework, utterly confused and pumping my legs one at a time. I was working on some English translation worksheet Present Mic had assigned for the weekend, but it was currently kicking my butt. Still, I wanted to take care of it now before our internships started on Monday.

        "Shoootooo?" I whined. "Can you help me with these sentences?"

        Since our 'declaration' of friendship, we'd been trying to get to know each other better. But, considering both of us were a bit hesitant to fully discuss our pasts, said goal was progressing very slowly. And yet, we decided that doing our homework together would help pass the time when we were home and allow for spontaneous conversations. So, we'd moved into Shoto's room to complete our assignments. He sat at his desk, jotting down a few answers before turning to me.

        Giving me a quick nod, he said, "Sure. Bring it over here."

        I picked myself up off the floor, grabbing my pencil and paper. He scooted over a bit so I could sit down beside him. I pointed to a few different problems.

        "These ones are giving me a bit of trouble," I explained. "I'm not sure if the verb is supposed to go before or after the object. And then I need to put commas between these adjectives, right?"

        Shoto slid the paper over to him. "Alright so, for these you want the verb to go before the object which is the opposite of what we do in Japanese. And, yes, if you are using more than one adjective, you need commas to divide them." He gave the other problems a quick glance. "The rest of these problems look good, though."

        "Thanks! Ok, if I'm all done with this, then I should just have to read that chapter. . ." I mumbled the last bit to myself, as I began to move back to my spot.

        "Wait, Satomi?"

        I paused, looking back over to Shoto. "Yeah?"

        "Could you show me how to do quadratics again?" He asked, glancing aside as if he were embarrassed to need my assistance.

        "Of course!" I borrowed a piece of paper from his notebook. "Ok, give me the first problem and we can do it together."

        I had to admit, it was nice having someone to do the homework with, especially since I was sure I'd be tearing my hair out otherwise. Plus, our skills complemented each other in a way that made it ten times easier to get everything taken care of. Shoto would help me out with English, and he could always count on me to explain math. Unfortunately, we were also really good at focusing just on the work at hand instead of being friendly and chatting with each other, so I was a little surprised when he spoke up during my instructions.

        "I wanted to apologize," he said.

        My brows furrowed. "For what? If it's about the homework, there's no need to apologize! Everyone has their own strengths and weaknesses. And I like helping out, so—"

        "No, that's not it. I wanted to apologize about my father. You were supposed to be living with Midoriya for the time being and yet you were forced to come stay here. And then, with the internships, he made sure you would have to pick his agency. You shouldn't have to be a pawn in his game."

        I sighed. "It's alright. You shouldn't have to worry about me, Shoto, and it's not like this is the first time I've had to play this part. I mean, let's be honest. Plus, this wasn't your fault."

"My fault or not, I still feel bad." He turned away at that, as if ashamed of his father's actions. "Would you not have preferred to be staying with your childhood friend? Or to have had the ability to choose where to intern?"