"you're telling me you haven't studied at all?"

"i have, just haven't fully committed it to memory"

"that's basically the same thing—and don't lie, you couldn't even state the quadratic formula..."

amidst bored students and hushed discussion was you and yoichi, concealed by the backs of your fellow classmates; approximately something amount of minutes until your mathematics exam, something because you're too stressed to bother with the specifics.

yoichi fiddles with his calculator, ignoring what you pointed out earlier. "how are we supposed to do logs on this thing? where's the tiny ass number?"

you flip through your math book, you must've written the rule somewhere. "hang on, i can't find it."

"yup. i'm failing. couldn't be assed to do anything all term." yoichi stretches his arms forward, across the desk, towards someone in front of him. "oi rin, help me out here." his fingers barely hit the back of rin's chair, weakly begging for his attention.

to which rin responds by rearranging how he sat, forearm and elbow on the backrest, whole body rotated to the side, and study glasses removed with a pinch of his right hand. "what do you want this time?"

"logs. how the fuck do i do it when there's no small number?"

"that's it?" rin tears a page out of his english book, planting it on you and yoichi's desk. "rewrite it as a fraction, put the base on the bottom and the value on top."

yoichi stares at rin. "which one's the base? and what's the value?"

"base is the smaller number that has the index in power form, value is the bigger number that's the result, right?" relief washes over you; at least you didn't need notes to remember that."

yoichi's face brightens. "you're a genius, can't believe you were worried for this test, dumbass."

rin rolls his eyes. "you're just stupid, yoichi. and hopeless." his hand searches around in his bag, fishing out god knows what.

"i'd rather not hear it from the guy who placed in a second year class just for math." yoichi scoffs, asking for permission to revise with your notes through a small tap (and of course you granted it, pushing your notebook towards him). "i'm not that bad at it, also, explain this one."

"no." but rin brings out his calculator. "got better things to do. see here, you can change the base on this thing."

he demonstrates, you barely acknowledge what it can do before flipping through your notes, while yoichi is star struck.

"can i use that?"

"nah."

"i'll give you twenty bucks."

rin rolls his eyes once more. "just learn the math, dumbass."

yoichi swears under his breath, yet rin heeds no mind and turns back to whatever he's doing.

"yoi, it's really not that bad. i have a cheat sheet with all the formulas." you push it towards him but he declines, face slumped onto the desk.

"y/n, i give up. even after years of friendship with itoshi fucking rin he won't give me his calculator."

and it's not just yoichi—others panicked, concealing phones behind textbooks with youtube tutors and notes being aggressively inspected.

you'd be lying if you said you felt okay.

are you doing better than yoichi? certainly, but maths is difficult, it's the kind of subject where your average can drop at any moment. you've studied hard, yet uncertainty still nauseates you a little bit.

you'd be lying if said you weren't nervous—uneven breathing and an unrelenting bounce in your thigh exposes that easily.

9:58 am. only two minutes until next period.

until it's time for you to make your way to the math test.

yoichi leaves first, not even bothering to tuck in his chair. "i'm gonna head to the bathroom first, i feel sick." he taps you on the shoulder. "see ya later, good luck."

you whisper it back while tucking his chair under the table, though the thought of luck doesn't seem to be helpful. at all.

with hesitance, you close your notebook. it's too late to change anything now, you'll only stress out more.

besides, it's only your first year. there'll be plenty of opportunities, right?

rin turns around to speak again, you peer up from slumping forward as he gets ready to leave as well.

"here." it's his calculator.

you blink. "it's okay—." you pull your calculator back out to show him. "i remembered mine." (how could you not, when the very mention of math engulfs you with a sort of doom). you chuck it back into your bag, until deciding you'd rather keep it in hand for the sake of your nerves.

rin just shoves it closer. "take it."

"but i have one."

this time he forces it into your hand. "this one can do change of base for logs."

"but i remember the change of base for logs." you try to hand back the calculator, yet all he does is push your hand back.

"i know. but you can save time with this thing." rin peers at you through his glasses before taking them off to return to his case. "doesn't change anything for me. i don't have a test next period. you might as well take it."

you're tempted to try give it back again, but the way he's staring at you intently insists to you that he's persistent. he won't yield to any "but" or "i'm okay".

and so you give up, nodding and putting your own calculator away. "thanks, rin."

he's by your side as you leave the classroom for your exam. "it's fine." you half expected him to zoom away during the moment silence prevails, to whatever special class he has for high achievers. but he continues speaking. "you're gonna do well, y/n."

"i hope so."

rin scoffs. "not "i hope so". you will. you've literally done nothing but math all week."

you open your mouth to refute, but he cuts you off.

"you're smart. heck, you don't even need that calculator. i bet you could do better than everyone else without it."

a smile appears on your lips. "thank you. i'll do my best!" the two of your swerve to the side for a bit, letting a group of seniors pass. "thanks again for the calculator."

"like i said, it's nothing." he looks away, glancing at the classes the two of you pass. "and you better not do anything to my calculator. it's special."

"of course i won't!" you reassure him by putting it into your pocket for safe measure. "what makes it so special?"

"austria."

"austria?"

"yeah. it's from austria. so it's expensive and hard to get."

your eyes widen. "oh—i see." you're slightly tempted to hand it back to him, just in case you manage to accidentally break it but from the half year you've known rin he'd tell you off for it. "i'll treasure it while i have it."

"you better." his voice is cold, but you swear you can see a small grin.

you pass by a familiar room. "isn't your classroom back there?"

he nods. "not going. i'll walk you there."

"but—"

"i said i'm not going. c'mon. what happens when you add two logarithms with the same base?"

this is easy. it comes as though it's muscle memory. "multiply the values."

rin scoffs, this time with amusement and not irritation. "i told yah you'd be fine."

"y/n, how do i solve this thing?"

you turn to yoichi, who was scratching his head over a trigonometry equation.

"hm? what's wrong?" it's hard for you to tell, with such aggressive scribbles and writing clouding his page.

yoichi grips at his calculator, as though he was trying to strangle it. "i keep getting a fucking obnoxious decimal. how is the road meant to be 0.351 metres long??"

you check the diagram. "you've done everything right." (you mentally check "soh cah toa" to be safe). you check his calculator. "you made it an inverse, silly. that's for finding the angle."

he groans. "thanks. i really fucking hate trig."

"me too." something about his calculator looks familiar. "where'd you get this?" you inspect it, until you notice the little box alongside the log button. "you got a calculator from austria?"

yoichi looks at you as if you're crazy. "i have a calculator from the stationary store nearby. if that's what you mean."

you stare right back at him. "but this is a special one—it changes the log base, rin—"

"rin? itoshi rin told you this calculator's special, from austria?"

"yeah." you say with utter confidence.

"and you believed him?"

"yeah." your confidence remains unfaltering.

"you're an idiot." he states, with no expression whatsoever. it somehow feels more offensive than if he were to scowl at you.

"'m not—"

"you thought, that this calculator. the one i bought at the mall because i got screwed over on that test, was a special calculator from austria."

the way yoichi says it makes you realise how stupid it is, and your face begins to heat up.

"in my defense, rin told me that when he lent it to me."

"why the fuck would rin have a fancy calculator from austria?? i mean, are austrian calculators better than other ones???"

now you have a lot of questions. "well i dunno, he's rich so i thought he was right."

yoichi's fuming, though not at you. "rich people don't spend money on calculators. they spend their money on overpriced shoes and motorbikes so they can show off in the morning." he scrunches a piece of working out paper. "i'm going to kill him next time our families meet up. i could've at least gotten close to passing if he gave me the damn thing."

you pat him on the back. "i would've given it to you if i knew. and if you didn't barely make it to the exam room."

"oh shut up. you better not fall for him."

"now you're the one saying stupid shit. he's just nice, that's all."

he scoffs, loudly, so loudly that you're wondering why no one has asked you guys to be quiet yet. "and i assumed that after seeing him speak to our coach in middle school. he wants you bad. idiot."

"you're being dramatic." rin's just a nice classmate, even if he can be a bit cold at times.

yoichi scoffs again, this time as if you've shamelessly committed a crime. "y'know what, gimme your paper. you don't deserve top mark if you're capable of being this stupid."

"oh shut up yoichi." if you weren't in math class you would've tackled him by now. he's smart, but this whole "rin wants you" is simply ridiculous.

"no, i don't think i'll shut up." he tosses the working out paper he had scrunched harshly at you. "i'll bet on it then. if rin doesn't ask you out until next year then i owe you a meal, if he does then you owe me."

free, food, why not? "fine. deal." you shake on it, then finally resume studying.

little did you know that yoichi would be laughing at your face six months later over sizzling yakiniku.

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