Comfortember 2022

Meditation - Kinji Uehara/Yuki Maeda

2. Stressed

***

Kinji walked into Hope's Peak Academy's residence building for its students, finding it quieter than normal. This was, of course, because the students that actually attended class were studying for a string of tests coming up.

At Hope's Peak Academy, all academic exams were replaced by the Practical Exams, where you showcase your talent to judges to see if you still meet the talent requirement. However, that didn't stop teachers from putting a large amount of tests at the end of winter into the curriculum.

Kinji began heading towards stairs to get to the dorm he shared with his roommate, knowing that they both attended class regularly and had to do these tests. In the priest's opinion, the only thing he felt he would have difficulty with was the Japanese test. He grew up in Italy and wasn't versed in this language, so he hoped that maybe his roommate could help him study.

When he opened the door and called inside, "I'm back," he didn't receive an answer. But based on a pair of shoes that weren't his own being by the door, there was someone inside. He closed the door and took off his own shoes, having a feeling that his roommate was inside his bedroom.

Kinji knocked on his roommate's door three times, waited a bit for a response, then opened the door when he received none. To his surprise, there was someone inside, so all he could say was, "Pardon the intrusion."

"Oh, it's alright," Yuki replied, sitting at his desk with a pile of books and papers around him. When Kinji took a closer look at the piles, he could see that they were all covering math.

"The tests are coming quickly, is it okay if I request a bit of help?" Kinji asked, opening his bag and taking out the practice questions the students were given. "I don't really understand the wording of this question and what it's asking me to do..."

Yuki shook his head, his face depressed. "I-I'm sorry, but I'm a little busy right now. I can't understand this question either, it doesn't make any sense at all...!" He motioned to his paper, where the priest could see traces of pencil marks having been erased likely multiple times.

When Kinji looked at the question, it seemed simple enough to be solved with an advanced formula, but looking back at Yuki, he knew what kind of expression the lucky student had now. He'd seen it so many times while doing his job as a priest, it was the expression of someone who was too stressed and panicked to understand anything at the moment.

The white-haired man sighed and put his bag beside the bed in Yuki's room. "I know a way that may help. Come meditate with me," he suggested. "I can't guarantee that it'll solve the problem, but it'll clear your mind well enough."

Yuki hesitated, unsure of what exactly he was asked, but he slowly nodded and got up from the chair. "Okay, I'll do it..." he replied, and Kinji led him over to the bed. He was glad that he and Yuki were close enough that the smaller man would trust him with things like this.

Soon, the two of them were laying beside each other on Yuki's bed, not saying anything to each other or moving. Kinji kept his eyes open and observed the state of the lucky student cuddled up to him, and he kept his breathing even so that Yuki's own breathing could match it. Even though Yuki's eyes were closed, Kinji could tell that he was not asleep.

In his head, Kinji allowed himself to pray to pass the time while he waited for Yuki to relax. He wouldn't be able to help Yuki with his work in such a stressed state of mind, so he just needed to let the other man clear his mind for a while. He knew that God wouldn't be able to help him with his test or Yuki's problem, but he could at least be patient until he had the ability to solve his problems on his own.

Finally, Yuki had seemed relaxed for quite a bit of time. "Are you feeling a bit better?" the priest asked.

Yuki seemed to flinch a bit at his words, not expecting them out of the blue. "Yeah, thank you. It helped a lot," the lucky student replied, and began to get off the bed.

Kinji joined him and walked over to the desk. "Perhaps I could help with your math, it's one of my strong subjects," he suggested, looking over Yuki's shoulder as the other man sat back down. "I think you have to use a quadratic formula for this question. You have to solve for this side."

Yuki's eyes seemed to get wide as he realized what he was doing wrong. "Oh, the question never said what formula to use, that makes a lot of sense," he remarked, writing down the question and beginning to solve it.

Kinji helped him work on his math for a little while, then went and grabbed his bag again. "Since your math is going well, could you help me with Japanese now...?" 

"Oh, right! Sure, I'll help you with that, come over here," Yuki replied, and Kinji allowed the lucky student to look over his shoulder. Yuki showed him how to word the kanji and explained what the question was asking in a way the priest could understand.

After both boys worked together on their study worksheets, taking turns to help each other with the questions, they were finally finished. Before they were to cook dinner, Yuki asked if they two of them could 'meditate' again, which Kinji had a feeling was just an excuse to cuddle. He didn't decline Yuki's request; after all, it wasn't like him to turn away a poor soul in need.

***

Art credit: rulu_la on twitter