Only now did she take a careful look at the boy. His eyes were a rare shade of gold, and his golden hair and eyes gave him an indescribable air of authority.
Though his face still had a boyish innocence, anyone who had seen him would know better than to underestimate him or treat him like a child.
Kazuto Kirigaya lounged lazily in his chair, yet even sitting like that, he didn't come across as rude. If anyone else had sat that way, she would have immediately branded them ill-mannered.
"Then, I look forward to working with you." Kazuto Kirigaya held out his hand.
Kyoko Yuuki lightly shook Kazuto Kirigaya's hand, then glanced at Yuuki Asuna and snorted. "You don't need to go to your cram school anymore. Just study with Teacher Kirigaya from now on. I'm off to class."
Yuuki Asuna blinked and nodded, feigning a wounded look. Kyoko Yuuki picked up her shoulder bag and left.
Soon, the click of the front door locking sounded from outside.
Yuuki Asuna's expression changed in an instant. She looked at Kazuto Kirigaya admiringly. "You're amazing. You actually pulled it off."
Kazuto Kirigaya rolled his eyes, too lazy to respond. So she'd treated him like he wasn't even there while they were negotiating, and now she was praising him.
Seeing that her praise hadn't worked, Yuuki Asuna got straight to the point. "So, what are we going to study?"
Kazuto Kirigaya cut her off. "You, not we. I'll find you a test online first."
He soon handed her his phone. The questions weren't difficult, but they covered a wide range of topics and tested a lot of basic grammar.
Yuuki Asuna pulled a long face, took out a pen, and obediently sat down to work through the questions.
Kazuto Kirigaya, meanwhile, glanced around the room, a little bored.
With nothing else to do, he studied the girl.
Yuuki Asuna was adorable. Though she was only twelve, she already showed seven or eight tenths of the charm that Asuna would have in the future.
The girl still lacked some of her future maturity, but she had a little more innocence.
Her hair was long, falling loose to her waist. Her features were delicate, and her bright brown eyes were as clear as a spring. As she worked, she kept unconsciously pursing her cherry-colored lips. She had a few little habits, like twirling the strands of hair by her ears around her fingers.
Girls this age were always restless.
Yuuki Asuna was no exception.
At long last, she'd gotten away from cram school. After finishing half the test, she couldn't help asking, "Are we really going to do nothing but this from now on?"
By "this," she meant working through tests every day. If that was the plan, she felt cram school would be better. At least she'd get to see other people there. This was just like moving cram school to her own home.
Kazuto Kirigaya smiled. "Of course not. I'll only give you three tests a week. The rest of the time, I'll take you out to study."
He placed particular emphasis on the word "study."
Yuuki Asuna looked at him in confusion. She felt there was more to his words, but she couldn't figure out what Kazuto Kirigaya was thinking.
What Kazuto Kirigaya had in mind was introducing Yuuki Asuna to Steam, the learning platform.
Was there anything more useful than Steam?
Red Dead Redemption took up so much space, and his own computer was running low on memory. With that thought, Kazuto Kirigaya asked, "Do you have a computer at home?"
Yuuki Asuna nodded. "My brother has one. Why? What do you need it for?"
"To find you some study materials." Kazuto Kirigaya gave her a sly smile.
Yuuki Asuna furrowed her brow. She increasingly felt that Kazuto Kirigaya had something up his sleeve, but she couldn't say what seemed off about it, so she let it go.
After a moment's thought, she said to the boy, "Tomorrow, then. I'll talk to my brother when he gets home tonight. He won't say no."
Kazuto Kirigaya nodded in approval.
Then silence fell between them. One worked on the test, while the other watched.
With that gaze fixed on her the whole time, Yuuki Asuna began to feel embarrassed.
She glared at Kazuto Kirigaya, set down her pen, and asked, "Don't you have anything to do? Why do you keep staring at me?"
"Because Asuna's pretty!" Kazuto Kirigaya replied with a grin.
"Ah!" Yuuki Asuna froze. Two bright blushes quickly appeared on her cheeks. She slapped the table, grabbed the test, and said, "I'm going to work on this in my room." Then she ran off as fast as she could.
Kazuto Kirigaya watched her leave and called after her, "Don't look up the answers online. This is just a placement test."
Yuuki Asuna stumbled, then turned back to glare furiously at the boy.
All she saw was his handsome, unruffled face. Remembering what he'd just said, she couldn't help lowering her head and quickening her pace.
A handsome boy making a bold move on a girl had the same effect as a beautiful girl making a bold move on a boy.
Back in her bedroom, she shut the door with a bang and tried to calm her turbulent feelings.
"He was joking. He was just joking." Yuuki Asuna repeated it to herself two or three times before the blush on her face finally began to fade.
She let out a breath and looked at the test, which had only one or two questions left.
The real reason she'd brought the test back was to think about how she should get along with Kazuto Kirigaya from now on.
According to her mother, if things continued like this, Kazuto Kirigaya would be her tutor for a long time.
She'd see how things went. She had a feeling Kazuto Kirigaya would say some strange things.
She quickly finished the last two questions, then checked her previous answers before opening the door.
In the living room, Kazuto Kirigaya was glancing around with a bored look on his face.
Only when Yuuki Asuna came closer did she hear him muttering under his breath, "I really want to play a game."
A string of question marks seemed to float over Yuuki Asuna's head. She slapped the test down in front of Kazuto Kirigaya and said crossly, "How can you be so distracted when you're supposed to be someone's tutor?"
Kazuto Kirigaya took Yuuki Asuna's test without a word and began looking it over.
"Yuuki Asuna, give me a pen."
Then he started marking the questions Yuuki Asuna had gotten wrong.
Yuuki Asuna had a solid foundation in English. She'd attended cram school for a while, and she kept up with her studies at school. She was also quite talented, so aside from a few mistakes in some less common grammar points Kazuto Kirigaya had included, her answers were nearly perfect.
"Not bad. I'd give you a 95." Kazuto Kirigaya nodded.
He handed the graded test back to Yuuki Asuna. She frowned. "Only 95?" She took the test and began studying it carefully.
They spent the rest of the time going over grammar and little tricks for memorizing vocabulary.
Building up language skills took time and steady effort. Although Kazuto Kirigaya had breezed through several courses, most people could only take things one step at a time, steadily accumulating vocabulary.