Chapter Text
Chapter 1 - Meet Cute
It was a nice day as Ken made his way across campus for the start of fall semester, the first day of his senior year of college. He carefully picked his way through the crowds of people milling about in the hallways, finally finding his classroom. He was early, so there weren’t that many people here yet, but most of them were talking to each other in small groups.
Ken pulled out his notebook and started doodling in the margins to occupy himself before class started. He had hoped that he might have been able to make some friends during college, but everyone already seemed to know each other, and Ken didn’t really know how to break in. It also didn’t help that he had a hard time putting himself out there due to crippling social anxiety, exacerbated by the fact he’d been bullied all throughout school.
No one bullied him anymore, but he felt invisible, having failed to make even a single friend yet. As he was stewing in thoughts of his own inadequacy, the classroom door burst open suddenly, startling him. A girl walked in, talking animatedly to her two friends, and sat down at the other end of the classroom. Pretty. He thought idly, before the professor entered and began their first-day orientation for statistics.
The rest of his day went smoothly enough, but later, as he walked down an empty hallway, some guy came tearing around a corner and slammed into him. The impact sent Ken flying, knocking all his papers out of his hands and scattering them across the floor. The guy didn’t even stop to say sorry. Ken just sighed and started picking up his things, before freezing when he noticed a manicured hand gathering papers next to him. His head shot up, and he realized he was face to face with the girl from his stats class. All Ken could do was blink at her in surprise.
“Jeez, what a scumbag, huh?” she said, giving him a shy smile.
It took Ken a second to snap out of his shock before stuttering, “O-oh, right. Um…t-thanks by the way.” He gestured at his scattered papers.
“No problem,” she said lightly, “Oh hey! What’s this?”
She was holding out one of his magazines, and Ken blushed in embarrassment. He had always been bullied for his interests, so he was self-conscious about sharing them with others.
“O-oh that? I-it’s nothing…j-just a…a magazine about, um…t-the occult”
Wow, very smooth Ken!
“Oh, so like ghosts and stuff?”
“N-no, more like, um…aliens…” he trailed off lamely.
“Hmm, cool!”
“Cool?”
“Yeah! I mean, I don’t really believe in aliens, but I do believe in ghosts. My grandma’s a spirit medium.”
“Oh, um…cool…”
“Yeah…” she said, blushing as she handed back his magazine and stood up to leave, “Well, anyway, see ya around.” She flashed a peace sign as she left.
All Ken could do was sit on the floor where she’d left him, frozen in place as he watched her walk away.
***
Later, as Ken made his way back to his lonely apartment, he couldn’t help replaying their conversation over and over in his head.
God, I sounded so lame. Now she probably thinks I’m rude. She was just trying to be nice to me, and I fucked it all up, as usual.
He inwardly groaned at himself as he trudged to his room and slung his backpack onto his bed.
What a bummer, guess I’ll start on my homework.
Since it was the first day of classes, there really wasn’t much to do. He finished it quickly and went to make something to eat, before settling in to watch something on his laptop. Since he was in college, he still lived at his parents’ place. They worked overseas and were rarely home, so he had the whole apartment to himself, but he usually kept to his room anyway. After a few hours Ken decided to try and get some sleep, hoping he wouldn’t be kept up by thoughts of his failed social interaction.
The first week went by pretty quickly. He was nervous walking into his statistics class the second day though, afraid of what the girl who had talked to him might do, but when she and her friends walked in, she flashed him a friendly smile. He just blinked in surprise as he watched her take her seat.
Maybe…I didn’t fuck up as bad as I thought?
She ended up smiling at him every morning that week, and Ken found himself sneaking glances at her occasionally during class, hoping to God she didn’t notice and think he was a creep.
As class ended on Friday, Ken overheard the girl complaining to her friends, and his ears perked up when she said, “Ugh, man this class is gonna suck. I mean, I’m already confused and it’s only the first damn week!”
Since Ken was majoring in mathematics, he knew he’d be able to help her. The thought made his throat constrict in panic.
Oh my god, should I ask her if she needs help? Maybe this is my chance! But, what do I say? Dammit, don’t be so pathetic Ken! It’s a totally normal thing to ask!
While he was paralyzed with indecision, the girl and her friends started to make their way to the door, his chance to talk to her slipping away.
“Uh…um, w-wait!” Ken said, louder than he’d meant to. The girls all turned around and looked at him curiously, causing his face to erupt in flames. He tried to compose himself, but his voice still came out in a shaky stammer, “I-I uh…s-sorry to bother you, but…um, I h-heard you say you were having trouble, uh…s-so I thought, y-you might like some help?”
Ken could’ve died on the spot. His heart was racing, and he felt sweat beading on his forehead. Fuck! You idiot!
Instead of laughing in his face, her eyes lit up, “Oh, for real? That’d be great actually, when’s your last class over?”
“Uh…t-three?”
“Okay cool, mine too, wanna meet in the campus library then?”
“O-okay!”
“Well cool, thanks! See ya later then!”
“A-alright!” he said, giving her a lame thumbs up.
When they were gone, Ken sat back down in his chair and put his head in his hands for a moment.
God, why’d I give her a thumbs up, I looked like a total nerd. Why can’t I just be normal?
He sighed and stood up, heading for his next class. At least she’d said yes, right? That had to be a good sign.
Ken could hardly concentrate through the rest of his classes, too nervous about what he was going to say to her. He spent the rest of the day running through different scenarios in his head while furiously doodling in his notebook. Finally, his last class ended, and he made his way across campus to the library.
He walked in and scanned the room, looking for her chestnut hair and oversized sweatshirt.
“Hey, over here!” she shouted from his right, waving her arm in the air.
He quickly trotted over to the table she was sitting at and swung his backpack into the chair next to him, sitting down beside her
“Hey, what’s up?” she asked.
“Uh, n-not much,” he said, scratching the back of his neck, “So, um…w-what can I help you with?”
“Oh,” she said, turning to grab her notebook, “Um, here let me find it. Uh, so yeah…I’m having trouble understanding this normal distribution curve.”
“Can I see your notes?” Ken asked. She nodded and slid them over. When he asked her what about it was giving her trouble, she slid closer to him, her arm brushing his as she pointed to the equation for standard deviations. “Uh, right here.” She said, looking over at him. He realized how close she was when he glanced back up at her, and they both froze, staring at one another for an awkward moment.
They both turned away at the same time, and Ken cleared his throat, face flushing.
“Uh, s-sorry,” she said through a laugh, and when he turned around, he saw that she was blushing too.
“T-that’s okay,” Ken replied, adjusting his glasses. “Um…I-I can help you with that…if you want.”
“Yeah, that’d be awesome, thanks.”
***
They spent the next two hours studying together, Ken answering any questions she had. Every so often she’d bump his shoulder, and every time Ken got flustered, not used to this much physical contact. Eventually, she told him she had to get going.
Before leaving, she asked, “Uh, hey, maybe we could be study buddies or something?”
“Oh, uh…y-yeah! Um, I-I’d like that.”
“Do you have a phone?”
“What?”
“A cell phone,” she clarified. “I can put my number in. Then we can schedule times to meet.”
“O-oh! Um…y-yeah, let me grab it!” Ken rummaged around in his backpack before handing his phone over and watching as she added her number.
“Okay, call me and I’ll have yours.” She said, handing his phone back. He did, and she ended the call when her phone rang.
“Oh man!” she smacked her palm against her forehead, “I just realized, I totally forgot to ask your name! Mine’s Momo Ayase.”
“Oh, uh, I’m Ken…um, Ken Takakura.”
Miss Ayase’s eyes widened with surprise, “You’re shitting me!” she said in disbelief.
Completely thrown off, Ken blinked at her a few times before answering in confusion, “Uh, n-no, I…that’s my name. Is something wrong?”
“I – no! I-it’s just…you know that’s the name of an actor?”
“No, I didn’t.”
“Yeah he – a-anyway, maybe I should give you a nickname.”
“Uh, I guess…”
“Let me think…um…Oh! How about Okarun? Ya know, like…short for Occult-kun, since you like those magazines?”
She remembered?
“S-sure, if you insist.”
“I do,” she laughed, “Well anyway, I really better go, so…talk to you later Okarun!” she said as she grabbed her bag and hurried out the door, waving goodbye as she did.
Ken stood rooted to the spot once again, still trying to process everything that had just happened. A girl…a cute girl…Miss Ayase…had just given him her number, and said she wanted to be ‘study buddies.’ Does that mean we’re friends now? Despite being completely confused about her reaction to his name, he was also secretly pleased with the nickname she’d given him.
With a small smile tugging at the corners of his lips, Ken started making his way to his apartment. Once inside, he made himself a modest dinner and headed to his room to finish the last of the day’s homework. When that was done, he was just about to put in a DVD when he heard his phone beep. Flipping it open, he saw that it was a text from Miss Ayase and opened it quickly.
- Hey Okarun ~ wanna meet up tomorrow to study? Same time same place?
Ken’s breath hitched a bit. She wanted to meet up again? So soon? There was no way he was going to turn this chance down, but he didn’t want to respond to her too quickly in case he came off as desperate.
Maybe I should wait for ten minutes. No! Better make it fifteen. But not like, exactly fifteen minutes.
After eighteen minutes of wrestling with what to say, he responded:
- Cool. I’ll meet you there.
Miss Ayase responded right away:
- Okay! See you tomorrow :)
Ken didn’t know if he needed to reply to that, so he decided not to. Instead, he grabbed his laptop and popped in his DVD, passing the time with that for a bit before going to bed. He couldn’t keep the smile off his face as he drifted to sleep, finally looking forward to the next day for once.