Progress, that is...

Keiji arrives a few minutes later after her mom left.

“Sorry it took me a while,” he says as he sits on the floor beside Kanae who was now busy checking one of the practice exercises she asked Keiji to answer before having their short break.

“Grandma started talking about her childhood stories again, though I’ve heard it countless times already.” Keiji laughs and started flipping the pages of his math textbook absentmindedly, “She doesn’t want me to leave yet but when I told her I had a schoolmate who came over to help me study, she immediately let me go saying I should’ve told her sooner and that she wanted to meet you.”

Kanae smiles as she continues to check Keiji’s solution, “Grandparents are the best aren’t they? I guess she also spoils you more than your parents do.” Kanae says as she recalls the times when her family visits her grandparents and how her grandmother would cook her favorite food, grant her childish requests, and the way her grandparents’ faces light up the moment they see them coming.

“You bet,” Keiji replied.

Then Kanae’s face suddenly turns serious as she tries to concentrate, she bit her lower lip, brows slightly knitted, struggling to decode Keiji’s messy handwriting and solutions.

Keiji noticed how her long, slender fingers grip her pen, he never missed Kanae’s eyes as well. Looking from afar, you’ll only notice the dark circles underneath them, but as Keiji have a closer look, Kanae’s obsidian eyes and long lashes got him mesmerized. It was fascinating to see the concentration behind those eyes as Kanae scans his paper. But more than being fascinating, Keiji knows that those eyes can be frightening and intimidating at the same time. Like how they glared at him when Kanae snapped due to Keiji’s wrong choice of words back when he was trying to convince her to help him on his impulse to study and make up for his awful grades.

Kanae just finished checking and her knitted eyebrows slowly ease as she smiles after counting Keiji’s score and knowing he managed to answer most of the items correctly. Though his handwriting almost gave Kanae a headache, she’s still thankful that what’s written only consists of occasional errors. Besides, the content itself counts more than the handwriting.

Then Kanae realized Keiji had always been like that.

At first glance, he looks messy, complex, difficult to comprehend like his handwriting. But if you take time, give it a chance to prove itself, and try to understand it no matter how challenging and troublesome it can be, you’ll see there is goodness in it — that there is more to it than what it appears to be.

Kanae was glad Keiji was making progress and all their efforts didn't seem to go in vain.

She turns to her side to face Keiji and…

Oh God, she wasn’t prepared for this.

Keiji was wearing black-rimmed eyeglasses that perfectly compliment his pale complexion and framed the structure of his face so well. Where the hell did he even get those?

Of course, looks can be deceiving but damn, he looks ten times smarter. And Kanae’s not gonna lie, he even looks ten times hotter with those stupid glasses on. It’s ridiculous but no one would believe he’s about to fail his subjects if someone sees him in this state.

Kanae’s heavy train of thoughts instantly disappeared as if her mind suddenly stopped functioning momentarily.

Keiji stares back at her. It was his first time to have this closer look at Kanae’s mesmerizing eyes with their faces a few inches apart. The picture of the dark starry night sky which he likes to watch especially during summer nights came flashing to him.

Her eyes, with their obsidian hue, reminded Keiji of the universe; vast, vague, captivating.

Kanae’s eyes were vast, the emotions they convey and their effect can range from something enticing to something frightening. They are vague as she's not the type of a person who is easy to read, she’s not very expressive making it difficult for Keiji to figure out what’s going on in that brainy head of hers. But most importantly, they were captivating — the way they sparkled reminded him of the stars in the universe itself.

Kanae was the first one to look away before she completely lost her senses. She inwardly curses as her heart begins to beat rapidly for God knows what reason.

She clears her throat, blinks rapidly a couple of times, fixed her posture and shoves Keiji’s paper, back to him, “Well done,” she commended and Keiji takes it slowly.

“Just review the minimal corrections I've made on some items but aside from those, I think you’re already doing well in this topic and we’re good to go on the next.” She says and starts randomly flipping the pages of her book as a way of distraction, trying to avoid having another eye contact with Keiji as much as possible.

Kanae expected him to brag after what she said, and it’s not like Keiji doesn’t have the right to because he’s undeniably doing well for starters. And Kanae knew he really worked for it no matter how small of an achievement it was, she was glad Keiji was making progress. 'They' were making progress.

Keiji only nods as he examines his paper, “cool,” he managed to say.

Kanae feels the atmosphere get heavier and wonders where the sudden tension came from.

She silently prayed for today’s session to end already.

*******

Before Keiji takes Kanae home, she bid her goodbye first to Hanako-san and they also met Fumiko-baasan, Keiji’s grandma who was still sitting on the wooden rocking chair on their porch, enjoying the refreshing sight of their garden accompanied by the humming of the birds and the sound of cicadas as the sun slowly sets. Her long grey hair was tied in a neat bun, shoulders slightly hunched as she grips her cane on one of her hands.

“Thank you for helping out grandson,” Fumiko-baasan said after Kanae introduced herself, as she stood beside Keiji in front of his grandma.

“It’s nothing, Fumiko-baasan” Kanae slightly bows and smiles.

Fumiko-baasan gave Keiji a suspicious look and shifted her gaze back to Kanae instantly, “is he giving you a hard time?”

Kanae was contemplating whether to answer honestly which only means saying yes, or do Keiji another favor by saying no.

And Keiji must have seen through her inner struggle and interrupts, “-baasan,” he says like a six-year-old child, “maybe you can chat with Kanae some other time. It’s getting late. I have to take her home before it gets dark.”

Fumiko-obaasan looks at Keiji and a crooked grin formed on her lips, “you are indeed my grandson,” she says and looks back to Kanae, “well maybe you should be going. I know it’s too much to ask but please continue taking care of my grandson.”

Kanae nods, “we’ll be going ahead now, thank you for your warm welcome.”