It’s Always the Quiet Ones
The only saving grace about his Japanese 101 class was the fact that he wasn’t the only one suffering due to the early hour.  Whatever sick mind had scheduled the class at 8:15 in the morning clearly had no idea how college students worked.  Still, it definitely wasn’t going to be Luke’s favorite class due to the time slot, even if he was excited to be finally able to take Japanese.
He couldn’t help his eyes glazing over as their professor went over the syllabus.  It wasn’t like he hadn’t heard this sort of thing a dozen times before.  Though his ears did perk up when he heard:
“This year we’re lucky enough to have two TAs for the class so we’ll be splitting you up into two groups for tutoring.”  Professor Yukimura waved a hand at to people sitting in the front row.
The first was a woman in a bright yellow jumper dress and a brown shirt hopped to her feet with a big smile.  “Ohayo!  I’m Yasuko Ishikawa.  Please call me Yasuko-sensei.  I’m looking forward to working with all.”
The man sitting next to her was much more subdued. Â Dressed in jeans, an oversized sweater, and glasses, he was also the textbook definition of adorkable. Â Luke could already hear some of his classmates cooing over the man.
“My name is Yuri Katsuki.  You can call me Katsuki-sensei.” He smiled, and Luke had to admit that the man was more than a little charming.  “I hope you will work hard and enjoy learning Japanese.”
There were identical sighs from either side of Luke. Â The woman two seats down from him rolled her eyes.
“You’ll get your assignments of what study groups you’re in at the end of class today.” Professor Yukimura announced. “For now, please get into groups of four and practice the introduction dialogue in chapter one of your textbook. The TAs and I will be coming around to give you a hand.”
Luke found himself in a group with the eye roller who introduced herself as Astin as well as two of the sighers, Mia and Rene. Â It was a little awkward actually getting to work because all Mia and Rene wanted to do it seemed was gush about Katsuki-sensei.
“You do realize that he’s wearing a ring,” Astin pointed out as she read over their assignment.
“But it’s on his right hand.  It’s probably just a fashion thing,” Mia pointed out.
Astin rolled her eyes and turned her attention to Luke.  “Please tell me that you at least are willing to pretend to pay attention to what we’re actually supposed to be doing.”
So the two of them worked their way through Chapter One’s scripts, stumbling a little over some of the pronunciation.  On occasions, Mia and Rene joined them, but it quickly became clear to Luke that he and Astin were far more serious about actually studying than their compatriots.  And then Katsuki-sensei wandered over to their group.
He frowned a little when he noticed that it was Astin and Luke that were doing most of the studying. Â He gave Rene and Mia a disappointed look that honestly made Luke feel a little bad for not doing more to make them actually study.
“Are you having trouble with the material?”
Both Rene and Mia looked at him with wide eyes then shook their heads. Â Katsuki-sensei nodded.
“Then you should get to work.  We’re going to be moving pretty quickly through the material, and while I’ll do my best to help students, I expect them to put in equal effort.”
He wandered off, and Luke and Astin shared a look even as both Mia and Rene scrambled for their textbooks. Â It was going to be an interesting term.
