Um Tempo Musical
Shiketsu's cafeteria, 2 years ago.
Two classmates sat by themselves at a table, one enjoying her dessert and the other looking at his phone, listening to something.
The latter looked up from the screen and called for his friend's attention.
"Kalianne."
"Hm?"
"What does... saudade mean?"
"Longing," she replied quickly, smiling briefly at his way of saying it.
Then, her expression turned quizzical. "Wait, what's with the random question?"
He gestured to one of his earbuds. "Orochi sent me some Brazilian songs. I'm trying to translate the lyrics for this one, but that word gets a different meaning each time."
"Eh? I didn't know your cousin was chill like that! Let me get a look!"
She got off her seat and placed herself by his side, taking one of his earbuds.
"Chega de Saudade... Bossa Nova? Wow. She has the same music taste as my grandma. I mean, this would be ancient even in the pre-quirk era."
"It sounds nice."
"That it does... not my style, though."
He went to the next song, and she shook her head in dismay.
"Shuffle play, Yuusei? Do you have no respect for the playlist maker's decisions?"
"Orochi knows me. She wouldn't try to set a theme when I listen to most of my music like this."
"I'll be the judge of that. Gimme!"
Yuusei sighed, wondering if he should resist her tugging on his wrist and start a silly fight for his phone. In the end, he let her take it. There was no harm in it.
"Even if she had a plan, it would go over my head," he commented as she began playing the songs in their original order. "I don't know the language."
"... I could teach you," she proposed, surprising even herself.
"Learning a new language to understand a few songs..." A chuckle escaped his lips. "I don't think I have that much spare time."
"But it'd be cool, right? You helped me with Japanese, and now I help you with Portuguese..."
"Hmm..."
"C'mon~" she drawled, wrapping her arms around his. "You wouldn't be looking up the lyrics if you weren't at least a little interested."
In the face of her ironclad rhetoric and overwhelming charm, his reluctance crumbled like a house of cards.
"... alright."
He was way too easy sometimes.
[Um Tempo Musical]
Kalianne had no talent or experience in tutoring.
However!
She did have internet access. Same for Yuusei.
It was only a matter of curating the right material for him. She found out early that audiobooks provided the best results.
Of course, she was always present during his study time to answer his questions, throw him a pop quiz, give a random vocabulary lesson... or hang out.
In the beginning, he was aloof, going through the material she gave him at the pace she'd expected. However, after a few days, he became more... invested? He asked more questions, and spent more time listening to audiobooks instead of indulging her silliness... it got to the point where she spotted him reading a dictionary during one of their Shiketsu classes.
She questioned him about it. Apparently, whenever he breezed through a lesson or managed to hold a conversation with her in her mother tongue, Kalianne glowed with happiness for the entire day. That was it.
With the motivation of seeing her smile, on top of his desire to learn the songs, he started progressing at a breakneck pace. What a shameless guy...
Today was Sunday, so they had plenty of time to practice in her apartment.
While Yuusei sat on the floor, between her thighs, Kalianne was on the couch. Wearing a white dress shirt and black pants while fixing her fake glasses, she was the perfect picture of an instructor in her mind.
"Alright... give me the next two verses."
He checked his textbook.
"Pois há menos peixinhos a nadar no mar do que os beijinhos que eu darei na sua boca," he intoned, matching the singer's cadence with his baritone.
"..."
He waited for her to judge his pronunciation, but she only stared at him silently.
Yuusei leaned his head back to meet her eyes.
"Kalianne?"
"... Huh? Oh, right," she muttered to herself. "You're getting... pretty good at this. I can barely notice an accent."
She tapped his forehead with a pen. "Can you tell me what it means, though?"
"For there are fewer... minnows swimming in the sea than the pecks I'll give you on the mouth."
She snickered at his brief hesitation. "The diminutives make it awkward, huh? It's okay; you can just say little fishes or little kisses."
"Wouldn't that make the sentence too drawn out...?"
"Trust me, it's better than using the word minnow."
He frowned. "What's wrong with saying minnow?"
"Bad vibes."
His expression turned flat. That's not a real answer, his eyes told her.
"You know." she gestured vaguely at the air. "It's like using 'indubitably' or 'forsooth' in a casual chat."
"Firstly, minnow is not on the same sphere as forsooth. Secondly, this isn't a casual chat. It's a song about longing and—"
"And you wanna talk about minnows? No! I'll allow pecks instead of little kisses, but no minnows."
He rolled his eyes at her, and she smacked his forehead with a pen, not done with her tirade.
"I mean, peixes, peixinhos, fishes... minnows..."
She pursed her lips after testing the words out. "... actually, I might be changing my mind."
"That's Kalianne-sensei for you—ow," he deadpanned as the pen met his forehead again.
"Hush, now. At least it's easier than English class."
He didn't answer.
"... Right?"
"..."
"Yuusei, if you keep implying what you're implying, then we can't be friends anymore."
"I'm thinking about my answer."
"You shouldn't need to!" she protested, pulling on his cheeks before he pried her hands away.
"English isn't that hard, Kalianne."
"I-I don't think it's hard! It's a messy language!"
"All languages are messy. It comes with the passing of time."
"If we ranked them by messiness, then Portuguese would be lower than English!"
"You're being biased."
"I'm being accurate."
"Well, ignoring difficulty..." he began, and she hit him with the pen for a third time. "And the corporal punishment..."
Fourth time.
"... this is a lot more fun," he concluded, much to her amusement.
"You are such a teacher's pet," she teased, running a hand through his hair. "I bet you said to every teacher at Shiketsu. Oh sensei, I have so much fun in your class, it's my favorite!"
"... name a single time," he demanded, trying and failing to move his head away.
"I never saw it, but it's one of those things you just know happened at some point. Get it?"
"No."
"Are you saying you never told Rosethorn... wait."
Her hand stopped messing up his hair.
"Me. Rosethorn. Karaburan. Favorite teacher, go!"
"Tie," was his instant response.
She mimicked a loud, incorrect buzzer. "Make a real choice."
"I choose all three."
He sounded so proud of it, too.
"No one likes a fence-sitter, Yuusei."
"Hmm... it's an unfair matchup," he began, trying to weasel his way out. "Karaburan rarely gives lectures, and you had the job for less than a month—"
"So Rosethorn wins," she assumed, nodding.
"No."
"It can't be... the surprise Hijack sweep?!"
"It's Stormrazor," he revealed, deflating her instantly.
His mentor for the internships, huh?
"Ah... a bit boring, but fair enough."
...
...
...
"... weren't we supposed to be studying?" he broke the silence, picking up his forgotten textbook.
Right. It'd been a while since they'd gotten this off-track.
"See, this is why I'm lagging behind on the teacher leaderboards. I keep letting my student distract me."
"I'm not the distracting one here..."
"Silence! Give me the next two verses!"
He smiled at her stern teacher act, but did as she asked. "Dentro dos meus braços os abraços hão de ser milhões de abraços apertado assim..."
"Now translate them!"
"In my arms, there will be..."
"Wrong! You're omitting the first hug."
"In my arms, the hugs will... number millions?"
"... Acceptable, but not it! It won't flow well into the next part."
"In my arms, the hugs shall be millions of hugs tight like this."
"Good," she praised, patting his head. "Now, make me a snack!"
"... Getting a bit too drunk on power there, Kalianne-sensei."
"Pretty please?"
He took one look at her pleading expression and sighed.
"Fine..."
Once again, sometimes, he was too easy.