Firsts

First Sight

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where are you??

 

Lina heard her phone vibrate for the third time in the last minute, surely another message from Ayame wanting to know where the hell she was. She squeezed past a couple of weary-looking salarymen, muttering her apologies before sprinting down the sidewalk once again.

She was a creature of habit, and her friends knew it, so her not being in school early was already strange; being late was worrying.

Another buzz made her pause and finally fish out her phone from her bag. She flipped it open to see a new unread message from “Mai<3”:

 

girl u alive?

 

She typed her reply furiously while almost running into the crossing at a green light.

 

woke up late, omw!

 

The cars passing and the little red man on the traffic light seemed to mock her as she bounced from one foot to the other, willing the light to turn green so she could haul ass and make it inside the school before the first bell. 

She punched herself mentally for the nth time.

 

I’m never sleeping in again.

 

The little green man in the traffic box finally started walking and Lina took off before the street was completely clear, running the last two blocks to school as fast as her short legs could carry her. The second bell rang as she flew through the door of Miss Ochi’s classroom, startling one of her classmates in the process.

Ochi wasted no time in calling her class to order once they were all seated. After her usual greetings and attendance taking, she went straight into the discussion of a math homework that almost no one had put any effort into answering, dragging the already-wearing class more than necessary. Literature had them analyzing poem structures along with an assignment due in two days, and they started a new section in History, though Lina could swear they had just started the previous chapter three days ago. Oh, there was also a group project and presentation due towards the end of the semester; Ochi had already divided them into pairs, the list was in the back of the classroom and no , they couldn’t change partners, Mr. Asano.

Lina half-listened, trying her best to pay enough attention so that she could answer vaguely if she was called on. Her snoozing that morning had her attention drifting towards the trees outside their classroom, an itch in the back of her thigh that she couldn’t get while sitting and the BBQ beef and rice waiting for her in the bottom of her backpack. 

All that running without stretching had taken a toll on her back and legs, which left her squirming in her seat trying to look for a comfortable spot while her eyes stared unseeingly at the kanji in her book. When lunch break finally came, she wasted no time in jumping out of her seat to work out all the knots in her back.

A group of students had gathered around the project partners list Miss Ochi had stuck to the wall. Lina heard a disgruntled noise from her right and turned to see her friends looking towards it.

“Gosh, group projects already?” Ayame plopped her bag on her desk with more force than necessary. “The semester just started!”

Lina yawned into her hand. “I guess they don’t wanna waste time this year.”

“Ugh…”

Once the crowd thinned, Mai skipped over to the list on the wall and ran her eyes through it, turning a second later with a grin.

“Ayame, we’re working together!”

“Oh, yay…” Ayame replied, too busy going through her bag in search of a stray tube of lip gloss.

“Hmm, lucky,” Lina muttered, an arm stretched over her head and mind already focused on lunch.

“Ok, now where are yo-,” Mai’s finger froze towards the very end of the page, eyes wide and mouth in a dramatic little pout. “Oh no, Lina. You got the beast …”

Lina stopped mid-stretch. “The what?”

She walked up to the list to see her name and her partner’s at the end of the sheet, scribbled in Ochi’s own handwriting under the neatly arranged table, almost as an afterthought:

 

              Takeda Hotaru – Sado Yasutora

 

It took her a moment to figure out her teacher’s hurried handwriting, but then-

“…Who’s ‘Chado’?”

She ran the name through her mental registry, but nothing came up.

“It’s ‘Sado’ .” A deep voice behind her made her jump.

She spun around to find a wide chest and a uniform button at her eye level. She followed it upwards to find the meanest-looking boy in their grade staring down at her. Her legs suddenly felt cold, but she took a step back all the same.

“Are you Takeda?”

“Um,” she cleared her throat in an attempt to make her voice come out. When it did, it was weaker than she intended. “Y-yes.”

“…I guess we’re working together.”

“Uh…yes,” she repeated, already feeling like a fool.

Lina stared at the one eye not covered by his hair, struggling to find something to say and feeling the back of her neck starting to strain. How was he so tall?

Chad looked down at the wide-eyed girl in front of him, fidgeting and looking like she couldn’t wait to run out of the classroom and as far away from him as possible. It was a look he was too familiar with.

She’s afraid of me.

Lina saw his eye narrow and flinched again, though the lunch bell cut through the tension this time.

Chad’s deep voice rumbled again, “We can talk about it later, then.”

“Oh, um. S-sure-”

He didn’t wait for her to finish talking before he turned back to where his friends were, the sour-faced orange-headed boy, the short guy with black hair and that annoying brunet that never passed up a chance to flirt with Ayame.

Embarrassment settling in, Lina picked up her lunch and hurried out the door with her friends close behind her.

Chopsticks holding onto a slice of beef for dear life and mind in a haze, Lina felt a cool spring breeze sweep through the schoolyard and leaned her head against the tree behind her, closing her eyes. She could hear Orihime talking about whatever god-forsaken concoction she had brought for lunch and Tatsuki yelling, probably trying to get Chizuru away from her best friend (again) as they settled down next to Ayame and Mai in the shade.

The conversation centered around the usual lunch-time topics: general gossip, what was on tv last night, what everyone was having for lunch, how they couldn’t wait to go home. Lina tuned out most of it, focusing on the breeze rushing over her skin.

Soon she felt a soft kick on her foot and looked up to see Ayame watching her over her sandwich.

“You ok?”

Lina nodded “Tired.”

Ayame rolled her eyes; like she hadn’t heard that before. They turned their attention to the other girls, whose conversation had turned from gossip to more unimportant things like schoolwork.

“What’d you guys think about that history thing Ochi gave us?” Michiru asked with a mouthful of onigiri.

Ryo stirred the noodles in her bento absentmindedly as she answered. “It’s a little early in the semester to be handing out assignments like this, isn’t it?”

“Thank you!” Ayame agreed before Michiru complained.

“The worksheet she gave us is huge, how are we supposed to finish it all?!”

“I guess that’s the point of working in pairs…” Tatsuki said, “But she could at least let us change partners if we wanted to.”

Mahana giggled. “You just say that cus you got Keigo .”

A few of the girls laughed as Tatsuki groaned. “I’m gonna have to do all the work…”

“Do you have your subjects yet?” Ryo asked. “Michi and I got Nara.”

“We have Jomon!” Chizuru wrapped an arm around Orihime and received a warning glare from Tatsuki. Thinking of the disaster that would be working with(out) Keigo, she sighed. “I got Edo.”

The group hissed in empathy. Poor Tatsuki.

“Mai and I got Heian.” Ayame finished her sandwich and reached for her bag of chips. “That’s gonna be fun…”

“I don’t even know who my partner is…” Mahana said, suddenly startled.

“Of course you don’t. How ‘bout you Lina? Any idea yet?”

Ryo’s voice brought Lina out of her stupor.

“Hmm? Oh, I-I’m not sure yet…”

“Who are you working with, again?” Tatsuki asked.

“Um-”

Mai’s giggles beat her to it. “She got the class thug. Poor you~”

“Mai.” Came Ayame’s warning voice.

Lina took a big bite as she heard her friend’s teasing.

“...Ichigo?” Tatsuki asked, and she could swear she saw Orihime perk up. “I thought he was working with Mizuiro.”

“No, not him, the other guy.” Ayame made a thinking face. “The big, mean-looking guy. Scared Lina out of her mind when he talked to her. What’d he say his name was?”

She turned towards Lina, who mumbled through a full mouth to avoid answering.

“Big & mean-looking…” Tatsuki thought for a second until her face lit up in realization. “…You mean Chad ?”

Lina blinked. “I thought it was ‘Sado’.”

“Oh, it is, but people call him Chad anyway. You’re working with him? You’re lucky, he doesn’t look like it but he’s pretty smart.” Tatsuki ran a hand through her spiky hair. She noticed Lina’s staring and gave her a knowing smile.

“Don’t worry, he only looks intimidating cus he’s huge and no one ever knows what he’s thinking cus he doesn’t talk much. But he’s harmless, I promise.”

“See? Nothing to worry about!” Mai piped up, being hit in the face a second later by Ayame’s balled-up napkin.

“You were the one calling him a beast, idiot.”

“Yeah, but I never said he was bad …”

“Oh, fuck’s sake, Mai-”

Tuning out her friends’ bickering and Orihime’s laughter, Lina considered Tatsuki’s words as she chewed on a scallion. As scary as he looked, he had Tatsuki’s seal of approval, and Lina was more than willing to trust the judgment of the strongest girl in school. Plus, it wouldn’t hurt if he was able to pull his weight for the presentation; Ochi had gotten a little overzealous with the requirements, and she expected they’d have to spend a lot of time in the library pouring over books together.

She sighed and leaned her head back in frustration as she remembered their first interaction. Why had she been so stupid? God knew what he thought of her after seeing her struggle to get more than two words out.

Probably that he’s stuck working with a dimwit for a whole semester, you dumb bit-

Lina groaned. She really could kick herself today.

If anything, she decided as the bell rang again, she should try to actually talk to him as soon as she possibly could.

As anyone who knew him was likely to agree, Chad considered himself to be a very tolerant and patient person. That’s not to say he didn’t have his limits, and he was well on his way to reaching at least one of them by the time the after-lunch bell rang. He’d had a terrible night’s sleep, Shigeo had been pestering him about band practice since before he got to school, he had terrorized a classmate he didn’t know by just existing and to top it all off, Keigo had been more insufferable than usual during lunch, even by his standards. He was starting to feel the tension in the back of his neck as they walked back into class, Keigo’s voice booming behind him and Ichigo’s annoyance filling the air ahead.

Finally deciding to tune the noise out, his mind went to the laundry he had to do when he got home and the leaking faucet he’d have to fix as soon as possible. If he went straight home after school, he could probably get it done and still have time to buy groceries before drowning in homework.

As he sat on his desk watching Keigo trying to stuff a fourth mochi into his mouth, he felt a light tap on his shoulder, followed by a small voice.

“Um- Sado?”

He turned to see Takeda smiling nervously at him.

“Uh-hi. I was wondering if you wanted to meet up after class to go over the project t-thing?” she took a shaky breath, “I thought we could go to the library and, uh, have a look at the topics...maybe?”

Chad stared at her with his usual blank expression, surprised and confused. Where did this come from?

Over her shoulder, he saw her friends in a group staring at them, only to go back to intently pretending to read a magazine when they noticed him glance their way.

Tatsuki was among them, and when their eyes met, she gave him an encouraging nod.

Ah...Makes sense.

His eyes went back to the poor, nervous girl in front of him. Her original confidence was gone, as she awkwardly stood with her hands behind her back, not knowing what to make of his silence. After what felt like an eternity to Lina, he gave her a nod and a curt “Sure.”

There go the groceries…

Her nerves deflated in a sigh, and she smiled again, at ease. “Ok, then. See you later.”

Turning back to her seat, Lina heard Keigo’s obnoxious voice nearly shouting.

“Whaaat?! What’s this, Chad?! You got a date?! No way! How did you get a date before me?!”

The noise was quickly cut off by the sound of a punch and the voice of one of his friends telling him to knock it off, but Lina could feel her face heat up anyway. She convinced herself it was just her nerves, only to have her friends smirk and wiggle their eyebrows at her as she took her seat.

“Shut up…”

Tatsuki passed her on her way to her desk, giving her the same knowing smile she had received during lunch, and Lina felt some of the tension ease off her shoulders. If only her embarrassment went away as quickly...

Afternoon classes went by in a blur, and the classroom began to empty almost as soon as the last bell rang.

Gathering his things, Chad snuck a glance towards Takeda’s desk. He could barely make her out over the wall of her friends surrounding her like guards. Why were girls always in packs?

“…have to help out at the clinic. You comin’, Chad?” Ichigo’s voice snapped him out of his musings.

“…No. I have to-”

“That’s right! I forgot Chad’s got a dat-- OW !” Keigo was swiftly silenced by a hit in the back of the head with Ichigo’s bag.

“…Oh, yeah. ’K, then. See you later…” Ichigo said, steering a complaining Keigo towards the door. His eyes glanced towards the back of the room before he turned to give Chad a look over his shoulder. “…And good luck.”

“Hmm…”

Books secured in his bag, Chad turned to the back of the classroom to find Takeda alone, waiting by the door. She gave him a polite smile as he approached.

“…Should we go?”

She gave him a stiff nod and led the way to the library, where they chose the table closest to the window. Lina set her textbook on the table, wincing as the noise rippled through the mostly empty room.

“So, Sado, right?” she asked, feeling instantly stupid, “O-or do you prefer ‘Chad’? I heard your friends call you that, so…”

“Chad’s fine,” he saw her nod as she flipped through the text, looking for a particular chapter. “…And you?”

He seemed to catch her off guard as she flattened the pages of the book.

“Um- T-takeda or Hotaru are fi-” she paused for a moment, seeming to consider something before she turned to him again. “Lina.”

“ ‘Lina’ ?”

She nodded and he returned the gesture in understanding.

“So. Um-” Lina flattened the book again, just to give herself something to do. “We got ‘Modern Japan’, and I think we can choose either Meiji or Taisho… No one wants Meiji cause it has a bunch of important dates and it’s a lot of information…” she flipped through their textbook and held together all the pages in the ‘Meiji’ section, a good fifteen or more. The next section barely took up five or six pages.

“Taisho’s super short, but if we go into WWI we might have a lot more to work with…”

She looked up to find Chad staring at her more intently than she expected. At least this time she managed to contain her surprise.

“What do you think?”

Chad broke eye contact to go over the pages she had marked, giving Lina a chance to look at him closely. He really wasn’t as intimidating up close as she had originally thought. His expression as he flipped through the textbook was calm, almost bored, and it made her feel like a fool for being afraid of him in the first place.

Chad considered their options for only a few seconds before he hummed.

“…Either’s fine,” his visible eye found Lina’s again, “You choose.”

“Oh. Well…” her eyes dropped back to the book, flustered, “Taisho seems more manageable…and I think it’s more interesting. There’s a lot we can talk about in terms of cultural changes and things like that…” She gave him a sideways glance and he hummed again.

“…Sounds good.”

Lina smiled. “Taisho it is!”

She rummaged through her bag to find the project worksheet; the due date was far enough ahead that if they divided the workload now, they would be able to work steadily on it throughout the semester and not drown in assignments during finals. She turned to pass him the sheet and found him leaning over the book again, apparently taking in information this time.

“Here.”

“…Thanks.”

As he leaned back in his seat to read, a flash of gold from his neck caught Lina’s eye – a thin chain with a little medallion. She spoke before she had time to think about it.

“I didn’t notice your necklace before. It’s nice.”

Chad blinked. “…Thanks.”

Lina decided to press on for small talk’s sake. “…Does it mean anything?”

Chad brought a hand to his neck to hold the small disc between his fingers. “…Yeah.”

He turned to see Lina looking at him expectantly, only to go back to her notebook awkwardly when it seemed clear he was done with the conversation.

He considered for a second. This was the calmest she’d looked since the first time they talked. Whether she was genuinely interested or just being polite, at least she was trying…Maybe he should put some effort too.

“…It was a gift,” he offered. “It’s from Mexico.”

“Mexico?” Lina turned with interest. “Have you ever been there?”

He nodded. “Half of my family’s from there…I lived there as a child.”

“You lived there…?” Lina trailed off, probably trying to imagine what his life had been like outside Japan, as many who learned about his past tended to do.

Deciding that was enough of a reply, Chad went back to the textbook, though he could physically feel Lina readying for another question.

“Pues…m-me imagino que hablarás español, ¿verdad?”

Chad’s head turned towards her fast – fast enough to strain his neck and make him wince. The surprise on his face made Lina’s smile grow into a giggle.

“How-?”

“Mi abuela es peruana y mi madre es profesora de español en la universidad…” she smiled again at his still-bewildered face. “Me enseñó de pequeña, pero no tengo con quién practicar… so I don’t usually bring it up.”

She suddenly seemed self-conscious, though Chad thought she had no reason to be. The pronunciation was great, her voice was smooth, and she had an accent he had never heard before, melodic and very pleasant. He wished he could hear her speak more.

“…Lo hablas muy bien." Lina beamed at him again with a small “ ¡gracias!” and he found himself returning a little smile. “Si quieres podemos practicar…”

She clapped her hands and leaned over the books once again. “Por mí, encantada. A ver… ¿qué parte del trabajo quieres hacer?”

They were in the library for well over an hour, of which a grand total of fifteen minutes (if not less) went to splitting up the workload for the project. The rest was dedicated to anecdotes from Chad’s childhood in Mexico, Lina’s first (and only) trip to Peru two years before and how she was dying to go back, some issues she had had with Spanish grammar, her mother’s weird teaching methods, words and phrases that differed between Mexico and Peru and do you know why or where they come from, the children’s books and cartoons in Spanish that they had both read and seen when they were younger, including Lina’s obsession with the traveling journalist she liked so much she had taken her alias as a nickname, things she knew about different countries in Latin America, did she pronounce that word right (she did) and was she speaking too fast (she wasn’t).

Lina carried most of the conversation, which Chad didn’t mind at all. It was such a stark contrast to their first interaction just hours earlier that he couldn’t help but be amused. And he wouldn’t deny he was enjoying himself, too; it had been years since he’d been able to have a conversation in Spanish, and maybe just as long since anyone had shown so much genuine interest in that part of his life. She had gone from barely wanting to talk to him to drilling him with questions and eagerly waiting for his answers, and he decided he liked this version of hers much better than the one he had first encountered.

And the smile she gave him as they talked – he decided he liked that smile too.

The sun was low and painting the sky orange and pink when a frazzled librarian, surprised to still see students in school at that hour, shooed them out.

“Oh, before I forget-” Lina passed him a sheet of paper and pen as she was packing up her bag. “Here, give me your number. I-in case we need to talk about the project or…anything…” she added quickly in response to Chad’s staring, feeling her cheeks heat up.

He hummed and leaned down to scribble some numbers on the page while she bounced on the balls of her feet. He handed it back with a tiny smile that mirrored her own; he was starting to find them very contagious.

“Thanks!” Lina folded the page and stuffed it into her pocket as the librarian’s patience ran out and she chased them out of the building. “I have to get home for dinner, but I’ll send you a text when I do.”

Chad nodded as she hurried to the school gates, where she turned to him again, still smiling.

“This was a fun study session!” she looked up to see Chad smiling softly at her and her nerves jumped again, this time in a not-terrible way.

“I’ll, um, see you tomorrow…?”

He nodded and she turned towards her way home, waving goodbye. “Ok… ¡Te veo!”

“Te veo.”

She saw him lift his hand in an approximation to a wave and turned to run home, feeling light and full of an energy she couldn’t explain. 

Chad waited until she was out of sight and turned in the opposite direction towards his apartment. Determined to get something done, he managed to at least buy some bread and a bento on the way home. 

It was already dark as he sauntered into his apartment, suddenly exhausted. Deciding that everything else would just have to wait till tomorrow, he settled down with his meal and flipped through several tv channels for something to watch. Taking a bite of his beef omurice, he heard his phone vibrate and light up with a new message from an unknown number.

It was a simple “Hola! Es Lina! 😊”

He found himself smiling at the little emoticon – even through text her smile was contagious – and replied with a waving hand and a thumbs-up. Smile still on his face, he took another bite of his food, eyes staring past the tv and stomach feeling light despite being halfway through the dish.

Translations:

Pues…m-me imagino que hablarás español, ¿verdad? - So...I imagine you speak Spanish, right?
Mi abuela es peruana y mi madre es profesora de español en la universidad - My grandmother is Peruvian and my mother is a Spanish professor at the university
Me enseñó de pequeña, pero no tengo con quién practicar - She taught me as a child, but I don't have anyone to practice with
Lo hablas muy bien - You speak it very well
Si quieres podemos practicar - If you want we can practice
Por mí, encantada. A ver… ¿qué parte del trabajo quieres hacer? - Fine by me ((but...more enthusiastic lol)). Let's see...what part of the work ((project)) do you want to do?
Te veo - I'll see you ((lit. "I see you"))
Hola! Es Lina! - Hi! It's Lina!