Hiraeth

13

"I don't. It's not that easy to get it. Besides, I'm still learning how to understand these English words."

You knew that it was much more common in America. The Fundamentals of Astrodynamics only had two editions, but there was a book called the Fundamentals of Astrodynamics and Applications that had around four editions. It was easy to get confused between the two, if you had no idea about the author, but luckily you had both editions. You figured you might as well keep them for memories sake when you were leaving America.

They originally belonged to Xeno, but he ended up giving them to you because he had no need for it anymore (he was doing the real thing, building rockets for NASA), and [Sister Name] liked reading it and feeling smart, even if she didn't understand much about it.

"What part are you struggling with?" You asked with a small smile and he raised an eyebrow at you, "You're not a Physics professor, I doubt you'll even get a millimeter of it." Wow, what a rude brat.

"Yes, but I do speak English as my first language. I'm American, so I can translate for you, if you want." His reddish-brown eyes sparkled slightly and if you weren't that observant, you wouldn't have noticed it at all.

But he quickly opened up the pages he couldn't read and pointed it to them. You read the thing once in your head, then tried to piece together some words in Japanese. Your Japanese skills were sub-par. But at least they were good enough to translate whatever was written.

So you placed a finger under the line you were translating and slowly began to speak the translation of the sentence. The boy's eyes shined when he heard you translate what he couldn't read.

And the best part was, when he didn't understand a topic, you would chime in. He looked at you as if you were his new mentor, "Woah... If you're this good at it, why aren't you teaching astrodynamics?"

"I'm just well aware about rocket-building because of an old friend. He's just like you, ya' know?"

"Oh, where is he now?"

"He works for NASA." That one sentence made Senku's eyes shine brighter than any supernova ever could, "Wait, really?"

"Yep."

"That's so exhilarating!! You think I can talk to him?! I want to ask about ten billion questions!" You smiled apologetically at him, "Sorry, kid. I'm not that in-touch with him... I haven't talked to him for about half an year." He immediately deflated and started sulking slightly.

"Ah, well... I'll just make do with what I have." He pointed to the book and you nodded while smiling at him, "Sure. That sounds good." And so, Senku went back to reading his book while you began to grade your papers.

Every now and then, the celery-head boy would tug at your sleeve and point at a word that he couldn't get. Most of the times, you could explain it to him, but there were moments when you didn't know the exact Japanese word for it, so you explained it well enough that the kid understood it.

The other teacher's watched in awe as how you managed to get along with the grumpy kid so quickly. No matter how many candies they offered him, or how many games they showed him, he never showed any interest. But you had one conversation with him and suddenly, you're his favorite person!!

At some point, it was time for your lunch break. So you told Senku that you were going out. What you didn't expect, was for him to mindlessly follow you. You were walking down the hallway when you heard tiny footsteps behind you and you were shocked to see Senku trailing behind you like a baby duck imprinting his mother.

"Kid, what are you doing here?"

"Oh... I figured that if I wanted to ask you something and you weren't there then I wouldn't be able to understand what's written next. So I decided to follow you." Okay, that was cute...