Tutor (Ushijima Wakatoshi x Reader)

Chapter 05

'Accept video call?!'

You panicked at first and almost clicked the 'end call' button, but the sound of his deep voice stopped you.

"Hi." Was all he said while looking deadpan into the camera.

You took a moment to compose yourself and then sheepishly raised your hand in greeting. "Hi."

Now that you had calmed down a little bit, something dawned on you. The young man staring back at you through the webcam was indeed the same person you had seen on his profile picture. He had been truthful the whole time.

'When Marie finds out I'm never going to hear the end of it...' Was the first thing that ran through your head, shortly followed by 'He really is handsome.'

You shook your head to get rid of those kinds of thoughts before focusing on your laptop screen, earning you a raised eyebrow from Ushijima.

"Right, pronunciation." Now that it came to it you realized that you didn't really know how to teach pronunciation. Did you just do 'repeat after me' exercises until he got it? Were there better techniques? You were no teacher and your tourist guide could not help you now.

You nervously moved some stuff around on the coffee table and hoped it seemed like you knew what you were doing. When you ran out of things to put in order you decided to just go with the repeat exercises.

You cleared your throat before you finally started. "Ok, repeat after me: Hello, my na-" You had barely started your sentence before you were rudely interrupted by someone barging into Ushijima's room.

"Ushiwaka-chan~ coach asked if you're coming for morning practice." Another unworldly handsome young man stepped into the view of the webcam, speaking Japanese that you only understood a few words of here and there. "I wouldn't mind if you didn't show up though."

Ushijima turned around and you saw the other youth's eye fall on you.

"Oh? What are you doing? Who's this? Do you have a girlfriend?!"  The guy closed in and you saw that he was wearing a tracksuit.

"She is teaching me English." Ushijima replied, slightly annoyed.

The other guy looked confused. "English? Why?"

"For when we go to Europe in August."  

The new guy started laughing. "Waka-kun. We had a great English program in high school. You should have come to Aoba Johsai."

"You speak English?" Ushijima replied incredulously.

The guy turned to you and started speaking in English.

"Hello fine lady, my name is Tooru, how do you do?"

You blinked in confusion and stammered out a reply.

"I'm... Good." You said and proceeded to tell him your name.

"I wouldn't waste your time with this stick in the mud, there are way more fun people out there." He continued, pointing at Ushijima next to him.

"Umm.." You didn't really know what to say to that and shifted uncomfortably in your seat.

"Oikawa.." Came Ushijima's low voice, sounding like a warning and Tooru reverted back to speaking in Japanese.

"Yeah yeah whatever, just make sure you come to every morning practice from now on. If the coach sends me after you again I will make you eat a volleyball."

Then he turned his attention back to you, looking straight into the camera, and winked at you before leaving. "Bye sensei-chan."

It seemed like both you and Ushijima needed to process what had just happened. But after being silent for a few moments an opportunity struck you.

"Is Tooru your friend?" You asked, finally having found something you could engage in conversation about.

There was a slight change in his facial expression and you thought this might be his version of a look of horror.

"No. No friend."

They had seemed like friends to you though, the type of friends that constantly bicker. But that was only judging from the tone of their voices, you had barely understood a few words of what they had said.

"Who is he then?" You asked, trying to keep the conversation going.

He had to think about his words a lot, and you had to correct his pronunciation here and there, but you found out that he and Tooru were in a sports team together.

"What sport do you play?" You asked.

His answer came without hesitation this time. "Volleyball."

You had played a bit of volleyball in PE in high school, but you had not been particularly interested or good at it. You certainly did not remember any rules or terminology.

"How many people are on your team?"

"Six on court, libero, five on bench." He said and you had to stifle your laughter as the way he spoke reminded you of someone who was pretending to be a caveman or barbarian or something.

As you asked some more questions about volleyball you noticed that he did have quite a few words in his English vocabulary, they were just all related to volleyball. If you could build from there it might make it easier for both of you.

The problem was that you really had no knowledge about volleyball, so it was not very easy to keep asking him questions about it.

As your session had come to an end about an hour later, you came to a few realizations.

First, you wanted to learn more about volleyball so it would be easier to have conversations with him.

Second, Marie would freak out next weekend when you told her about your video call and her being right about him being, in her own words, 'hot'.

And third, to your utmost embarrassment, since you had showered right before the unexpected call, you had been in your pajamas the whole time!

You crawled into your bed feeling the shame of not only Ushijima, but both him and Tooru seeing you in your sleepwear.

As you settled in for sleep you reflected on your day and realized you were actually looking forward to your next chat with Ushijima and you felt you would like it to be a video call again.