Chapter Text
“Now, Mr. Freecs, if you have the time to stare out the window, certainly you have the time to answer this equation.”
Gon jerked his head away from the classroom window.
Outside, the afternoon sun danced across the ocean. Fishing boats drifted lazily beyond the harbor. Pesky seagulls swooped over the shoreline. Whatever was going on outside was far more interesting than Algebra II.
Unfortunately, Mr. Wing didn’t seem to agree.
He stood at the front of the room with his arms folded neatly across his chest. His expression was stern and unimpressed—a look Gon had become very familiar with over the last few months.
Around him, chairs creaked. Gon felt every eye in the room settle on him.
Some of his classmates looked sympathetic. Most looked entertained.
Gon pushed himself out of his chair and wiped his sweaty palms against his uniform pants.
Mr. Wing held out an expo marker.
Reluctantly, Gon accepted it and turned toward the board.
3/(x-2) + x/(x+3) = 15/(x²+x-6)
His confidence immediately vanished.
Just looking at the problem made his head hurt.
Algebra II was going to kill him.
Right…
Factor. Least common denominator.
Factor again? That sounded right.
At least, he hoped it did.
Gon scribbled across the board, carefully working through each step. Numbers blurred together. Fractions became more fractions.
Somewhere along the way, he became increasingly convinced he was making everything worse.
Finally, after what felt like an eternity, he set the marker down and turned toward Mr. Wing with a shy smile.
“Done.”
Mr. Wing stared at the board.
“Wow, Gon…”
Gon’s smile widened. Had he finally slayed the beast that’s algebraic problem solving?
“It’s truly remarkable that you managed to get an answer like that.”
He beamed.
“Really?”
“Truly. I’ve never seen anything so harebrained.”
The smile was immediately wiped from his face.
Mr. Wing gestured toward the board.
“I mean, getting an answer this wrong is practically unheard of.”
A few students chuckled.
Gon wished the floor would open up and swallow him whole. And even that wouldn’t be able to drown his shame.
“Prep school, Mr. Freecs,” Mr. Wing continued. “This summer. We’ll be spending a lot of time together.”
There it was.
The final nail in the coffin. The putrid, rotten cherry on top of the grotesque cake.
Gon slumped back into his seat as laughter rippled through the classroom, as if a big fat rock was thrown into a pond.
Math had never been his strong suit. Even in high school, that hadn’t changed.
“Psst.”
Gon glanced to his right.
Leorio waved him over and looked back at the board to make sure Wing wasn’t listening.
Wing had already turned back to the board.
“Field at lunch.”
ʚɞ
“Gon, you’ve really managed to do it this time.”
Leorio sighed loudly as he dribbled a soccer ball between his feet.
The afternoon sun hung high overhead, warming the field until the grass practically shimmered. Summer was arriving early this year. The only remnants of spring were the occasional cool breezes rolling in from the ocean beyond the school grounds, carrying with them the scent of saltwater from the harbor.
Gon wiped a bead of sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand.
“I know,” he groaned. “I was actually trying this quarter, too. Why would I want to spend my summer break in remedial classes next week?”
A shiver went down his spine.
“And with of all people… Wing.”
The thought alone was enough to make his skin crawl.
A cold metal surface suddenly pressed against the back of his neck. Gon nearly jumped out of his skin.
“Ah!”
He turned, and found Kurapika standing behind him looking entirely too pleased with himself.
His blond hair brushed just above his shoulders, long enough to conceal his ruby earrings from the school’s uniform inspections. Not that the teachers ever seemed eager to challenge him.
Kurapika was the kind of student who followed almost every rule perfectly and meticulously. They wouldn’t ever suspect he had his ears pierced.
“Gon,” Kurapika sighed, offering him the can of orange soda and Gon accepted, “you should really use the summer to improve academically. Biology isn’t the only subject that matters anyways.”
“Yeah, I know.” The can hissed as he cracked it open.
“And I know I should,” he admitted before taking a sip. “But I really wanted that part-time job at the marine sanctuary. Not being stuck in this stupid school.”
He flopped backward onto the grass with a dramatic groan.
Honestly, Gon’s interests could be summarized pretty easily.
A. Marine biology.
B. His friends and family.
C. Whatever meal he planned on eating next.
Everything else ranked considerably lower. Especially algebra.
Growing up in Whales made it easy for Gon to make friends. It also helped there was probably only a few hundred people in town.
Their small beach town sat tucked along the coast of southern Japan, where fishing boats crowded the harbor and everyone seemed to know everyone else's business.
Gon had spent his entire life there, living with his aunt Mito, and grandmother in the same house they'd grown up in.
Making friends had never been difficult for him.
Leorio had moved to Whales when they were eight years old. Despite their differences, they'd become inseparable almost immediately.
Kurapika came later.
When they were thirteen, a disease swept through the small mountain village where he'd lived with his family. The epidemic was sudden, and was even televised due to its rapid spread.
Thankfully, it was contained before anyone else could be afflicted.
Unfortunately, Kurapika’s parents and about a few dozen others weren’t able to be helped in time.
After their passing, he'd been sent to stay with a family friend in Whales.
The circumstances had been tragic, but Gon couldn't imagine his life without him now. Kurapika was their calm and they were the storm.
Somehow, despite being complete opposites, the three of them fit together perfectly.
Kurapika was in Class 1-A.
Nobody was particularly surprised. Each year had two classes. Class A had a more advanced curriculum with about 15 or so students, and the students scored higher in state issued exams. Kurapika was an exemplary Class A student.
His grades were flawless, his attendance perfect, and his work ethic borderline terrifying. If anyone was going to study away in the city, it would probably be him.
Leorio, meanwhile, sat beside Gon in Class 1-B.
Not because he wasn’t smart. Actually, Leorio was annoyingly smart when he wanted to be.
The problem was that he’d spent most of middle school goofing off.
Then something had changed over the summer. Neither Gon nor Kurapika knew exactly what. One day Leorio had been content barely scraping by.
The next, he was staying after school, studying ahead, and arguing with teachers about extra credit opportunities.
He was still loud, rambunctious and goofy. Still Leorio.
But as if a fire was lit underneath him, Leorio was much more motivated and ambitious than ever.
At the rate he was going, he might actually give Kurapika a run for his money as top student.
Meanwhile, Gon was maintaining a steady average somewhere between “barely passing” and “borderline struggling.”
“Summer break starts next week,” Leorio said. “It’s okay, Gon. We’ll try not to forget you while you’re gone.”
He burst into a giggle fit before he could even finish the sentence. Kurapika immediately reached over and flicked his ear.
“Ow!”
“We’ll still have plenty of time to see each other,” Kurapika said. “But Leorio’s right about one thing.”
Gon sighed.
“If you want to study marine biology in Tokyo, your grades simply aren’t good enough right now.”
That wiped the grin off Gon’s face.
Because the worst part was Kurapika was right.
Gon wasn’t someone who gave up easily. Actually, he was probably the most stubborn person any of them knew.
When he wanted something, he pursued it with everything he had.
And he wanted this.
He wanted research grants. He wanted to restore coral reefs. He wanted to discover new species and travel beyond where anyone else didn’t dare to go. He wanted to see everything.
He wanted to spend his life studying the ocean.
One bad quarter wasn’t going to stop him. It couldn’t.
Slowly, a smile spread across his face.
“Alright!”
“That smile means trouble,” Leorio said as he rolled his eyes.
“It’s decided!”
“Oh no.”
“I’ll get my grades up this summer and crush the yearly state exams!”
Leorio groaned.
“Then we’ll all be in the same class for second year! I’ll be a top student alongside you guys!”
For a moment there was complete silence.
Then Leorio doubled over laughing. Actually, keeled over laughing.
Tears formed in the corners of his eyes as he struggled to breathe. Beside him, even Kurapika couldn’t completely suppress his amusement.
“Yeah, sure, buddy,” Leorio finally managed. “You’ve got a better chance of scoring on me.”
He kicked the soccer ball toward Gon.
Gon caught it effortlessly with his foot. He suddenly felt very, very annoyed.
Leorio was talking a lot of trash for someone who had a losing record against him.
A grin spread across Gon’s face. He began unbuttoning the top of his uniform shirt.
“Yeah?”
The ball tapped lightly against his foot.
“Bring it.”
The challenge lasted all of three seconds before Leorio charged forward. For the next few minutes, they darted back and forth across the field.
Leorio had nearly half a foot on him, standing at a comfortable 6’1 (and was growing everyday), and outweighed him considerably.
Unfortunately for Leorio, Gon was fast.
Very fast.
“You’re getting tired!” Gon called.
The ball danced between his feet as he maneuvered around another attempted steal.
Leorio grimaced.
“Maybe shoot the ball instead of hogging it, ass!”
Gon laughed.
Leorio lunged. Gon sidestepped. Suddenly he had a clear path to the goal.
“Yes!”
He drew back his leg. Victory was right there.
Then a blur entered his peripheral.
Leorio.
At the last second, his longer legs were able to reach the ball. He extended his legs back and kicked the ball, and sent it soaring across the field.
Both boys froze.
The ball sailed beautifully through the air.
Past the goal. Past the fence.
And straight through an open second-floor window.
Silence.
Leorio slowly dragged both hands down his face, paler than a seagull perched nearby. Which, almost seemed to jeer at his stupidity.
“Oh, shit.”
Gon winced.
“Yeah.”
“Wing’s gonna kill me.”
“Nah. It didn’t break anything.”
“He’s gonna chop me into bits.” He fell to the dirt in despair.
“I’ll go get it.”
Leorio dramatically hugged Gon’s legs and looked up at him. “You’re my hero.”
“I know,” He said, shaking Leorio off him.
With that, Gon buttoned his shirt and jogged toward the school.
“There are only ten minutes until class!” he called over his shoulder. “I’ll throw it back out the window and you just put it back in the shed!”
He slipped inside and headed up the stairs to the second floor.
Three windows from the right. He’d counted.
One.
Two.
Three.
He stopped outside the room.
ART ROOM.
Gon blinked.
Since when did Whales High have an art room? The school barely had enough funding to fix up the leaky skink in the men’s room.
Still, relief washed over him. Empty classroom means no Wing.
“Thank goodness,” he muttered.
He slid the door open. Gon was taken aback.
It was not empty.
A boy sat inside. Around his age.
And immediately, Gon knew he’d never seen him before. Which was impossible.
Whales wasn’t the kind of place where strangers appeared. Everybody knew everybody.
Half the town had grown up together. The other half was probably related.
Gon had lived here his entire life. He knew every student at school. And he definitely would’ve remembered someone like him.
The boy looked completely out of place.
Pale skin in comparison to the usual, slight tan everyone carried.
White hair that had a resemblance to powdered sugar.
Bright, blue eyes. Sharp enough to shape diamonds.
Sunlight streamed through the classroom windows behind him, catching in his hair and turning the messy strands almost silver.
He was handsome.
The kind of handsome you could describe to someone in perfect detail and they’d still think you were exaggerating, until they saw him for themselves.
His features were sharp but delicate, his jawline clean.
Even sitting down, there was something elegant about him, refined.
Like he’d stepped out of a magazine and accidentally wandered into a small fishing town.
The sleeves were rolled to his elbows, exposing slender wrists and a thin silver watch that almost certainly cost more than everything Gon had on combined.
Hell, it was probably more than everything Gon owned all together.
Gon’s eyes wandered to his uniform.
And suddenly—
Gon’s stomach dropped. Because there was paint all over his uniform.
It was array of blues and yellows.
Their uniform was white.
His eyes drifted to a canvas on the floor. The soccer ball was right next to it. There was paint stained all over it
On the canvas, was what could’ve been…anything. Whatever was once painted was smeared beyond recognition. There was a wooden bit sticking out of the canvas, as if cracked.
Oh.
Oh, no.
The room was completely silent.
The boy looked at him. Gon looked at the painting.
The boy looked at the painting.
Then back at Gon.
Those striking blue eyes narrowed. And suddenly Gon understood.
They weren’t piercing because they were beautiful.
They were piercing because he was absolutely pissed.
He kneeled down, and picked up the ball slowly. He seemed calmer than Gon thought he would’ve been.
“Is this your ball?”
“Uhm,” Gon swallowed back his nerves.
He ran his fingers through his hair. There was no point in lying at this point.
“Yeah…my bad.”
“‘Your bad?’”
The boy’s face darkened, and his mouth twitched.
Gon knew he was screwed.