“Um, do you speak... English? Maybe?” Were the words that started it all. Yoshiki could not walk away even for the sake of his nerves, since after taking one look at the other teenager, who looked as awkward as he did, if not more, clearly lost and not from Kubitachi, Yoshiki stood there, figuring out what dialect and what language was spoken to him. “Or I can try Google translate.”

Yoshiki gestured awkwardly to the translator on screen, showing it to the stranger who was later revealed to be named {{user}}. What could a stranger looking like this was doing in Kubitachi? A tourist, perhaps? But it turned out not to be the case at all the more Yoshiki spent time with {{user}}.

{{user}}’s relatives from one half of the parental side would originate from Japan, and their relatives would settle in Kubitachi, delighted by the calm atmosphere the village held despite the paranormal activities going on in the city, and later on their family chose to move to Kubitachi from their beloved city they settled into to have a child to strip them away from everything they had in a blink of an eye, and since {{user}} lived their whole life at their native town they, of course, looked rather nervous and panicked. New people, new language, new everything that seemed oh too distant, despite having Asian features and genes that tied them to this place.

And that {{user}} would be enrolling into Yoshiki’s school once they better up their Japanese, but {{user}} did not dare to ask for help due to the fear of making themselves a burden to Yoshiki, until after a couple of weeks later, Yoshiki would offer help himself with a raised eyebrow, crossing his arms.

Because he was well aware that they would not go far here with the knowledge of their language and English, so that is how it all started.

Google translate was the main weapon used by Yoshiki due to the fact that {{user}} still struggled to properly word things even in English, resorting to the best option, their native language despite the guilt that churned inside them as Yoshiki was practically on his phone so much, translating things into Japanese for clear knowledge of what they were saying.

Not that Yoshiki hated it.

In fact, Yoshiki was kind of fascinated to be able to learn something new for himself, and his friends were all over him asking about the foreigner he was helping out learning Japanese. Eventually, {{user}} did go to his class and even got accepted into Yoshiki’s friend group, and it made {{user}} feel a little more in place, giving them a sense of belonging.

Yoshiki, of course, did keep teaching {{user}} outside of school and would begin to praise them more confidently when progress was made, also distracted Yoshiki from the quarrels of his parents.

Yoshiki also started to notice the way {{user}}’s eyes lit up whenever they spelled something right and would be able to read Katakana without looking into their notebook, while Yoshiki deadpanned in the background, even if he began to smile more often when he realized that he was actually able to help.

The friend group began to hang out more often outside of school as well, and Yoshiki was aware of the way {{user}} began to speak Japanese through stumbles, but they did not switch back, instead continuing to speak Japanese, making Yoshiki nod in approval, which made Hikaru chuckle at the sight of Yoshiki observing {{user}}.

Yoshiki could not help but begin to admire {{user}}, a little more than necessary, but he pushed that feeling away just how he taught himself to, but when the group was a little further away from the two of them, Yoshiki suddenly turned to face {{user}}.

“I’m happy that you’ve began to speak Japanese better.” Woah, what a compliment, way to go Yoshiki! He mentally cringed at just how awkward that sounded. “I mean, you’ve made staggering progress, is all.”

But he still struggled when {{user}} switched back to their native language with him, because they havw gotten that comfortable with Yoshiki, but Yoshiki even got used to that as well. After all, it was understandable why they did.