Saturday mornings should be relaxing.
Kuro had thought everything out.
Sleeping in.
Buying a new novel.
Returning ho.
Doing nothing at all.
It was the perfect plan.
However...
His phone rang.
He glanced at the incoming call.
Mina.
"...Here cos sothing unpleasant."
He answered.
"Hey?"
"Good morning, Kuro!"
Her cheery voice resonated throughout the receiver.
"Do you have sothing free to do?"
The past experiences of Kuro showed that a positive answer to that question inevitably led to voluntary labor.
"...What is it?"
"I need a favor."
"I was thinking about this."
Mina chuckled.
"Our school organizes voluntary tutoring of elentary children."
"And?"
"Our group lacks volunteers."
"I don’t know how to teach anything."
"It will be alright."
"You are not suited for this work."
"It will be alright."
Kuro sighed.
"...I bet you already signed up."
"...Maybe."
"Mina."
"I am sorry."
But she did not sound apologetic at all.
---
One hour later Kuro found himself in the classroom of the elentary.
Cheerful walls.
Small desks.
Pictures in colorful fras hung everywhere.
It felt... tiny.
"So here they train to beco future troublemakers."
"They are kids,"
Mina corrected with a smile.
"Adorable ones."
"We’ll see."
Classroom’s door opened.
Almost twenty children rushed into it.
In no ti the class got noisy.
"Good morning, Mina-sensei!"
Mina greeted every kid with a na.
Kuro was amazed.
She rembered them all.
And then so curious eyes fell upon him.
The little boy pointed at him.
"Who is he?"
Mina smiled.
"His na is Kuro-nii. And he is going to help us today."
"Kuro-nii?"
In less than a second children surrounded him.
"How old are you?"
"Can you play soccer?"
"Do you like dinosaurs?"
"Can you draw?"
"Why is your hair ssy?"
Kuro blinked.
"I got interrogated."
Mina covered her mouth in order to not laugh out loud.
---
Tutoring started.
Children were separated according to their age.
Kuro received three fourth-graders who had issues with mathematics.
Kuro looked at the exercise paper.
Fractions.
He looked at children.
And saw that they were about to surrender.
The little girl sighed dramatically.
"I hate fractions."
The other two nodded.
"...Seriously?"
"I hated them once."
Children were surprised.
"Really?"
"Yes."
"So how did you learn them?"
Kuro took a box of colorful pencils.
He placed eight pencils on the desk.
"Suppose these are eight chocolate sticks..."
Imdiately children concentrated.
"And I take four..."
Little boy gaped at him.
"You stole half of them!"
"Yes, I did."
"So how many sticks are left?"
"Four!"
"So I have eaten...?"
"One half!"
Kuro smiled.
"There it is."
Three children looked at pencils.
And at each other.
"...This is pretty simple."
Mina observed them from across the room.
The smile crept onto her face slowly.
---
anwhile...
The little girl was sitting alone.
She had not written anything.
Kuro walked to her.
"Everything is alright?"
She looked at the floor.
"I suck at reading."
Her voice was barely audible.
"The others finish much quicker."
Kuro pulled the chair beside her.
"Can I share a secret with you?"
She nodded.
"I was reading pretty slowly once."
"I see."
"So how did you fix this?"
"I practiced."
He smiled.
"All people beco better in different tempos."
She looked doubtfully.
"What if I will never catch up?"
Gently Kuro pointed at the book.
"Then we will be reading it one page at a ti."
"No race."
"No competition."
"Just a page."
Gradually she got a smile on her face.
"...Okay."
They read it together during the following fifteen minutes.
Finally...
She managed to read whole paragraphs out loud.
Mina was watching from behind the door quietly.
She knew that Kuro would help these children.
However, she did not know that he would adapt his teaching style to each of them perfectly.
---
On a lunch break one energetic boy ran to him.
"Kuro-nii!"
"What is it?"
"I have finished my task!"
"That’s nice."
"Will you check it?"
Kuro looked at the exercises.
"You have made a mistake."
Boy frowned.
"Where?"
Not giving the direct answer, Kuro asked.
"Tell the fifth question."
The boy repeated it.
And then he got a grin.
"Oh!"
"I’ve found it!"
He corrected the answer himself.
"I solved it!"
"Yes."
The boy ran away happily.
Mina smiled slightly.
"You could just tell him."
"I know."
"Why didn’t you?"
"He will rember the answer better if he finds the mistake himself."
Mina stared at him for a minute.
"...Where did you learn such skill?"
"I haven’t."
"You’ve never been a tutor?"
"No."
She sounded truly impressed.
---
Ti went very fast.
The class was getting quite and calm.
Children who had been suffering during the first hour were now solving the problems confidently.
When soone was struggling...
He automatically went toward Kuro.
"Kuro-nii!"
"Could you help ?"
"I don’t understand."
"My answer seems wrong."
Kuro explained to them each problem carefully.
Without being in hurry.
Without making anyone embarrassed.
Sotis he asked another question in response.
Sotis gave an example.
Sotis a joke.
Eventually every kid got the smile on his/her face.
---
As the last class was finishing, parents started appearing.
One little girl tugged at her mom’s dress.
"Mom!"
"This is Kuro-nii!"
"He taught to read!"
The boy ca proudly saying:
"I solved all of my math questions thanks to him!"
The mother bowed politely.
"Thank you for your help."
"It wasn’t much."
Kuro answered awkwardly.
"He discussed with all the stuff from today’s lesson after that."
Another parent added.
"My daughter always hates any classes."
"Today she says she will co back here."
Kuro scratched the cheek.
"I only explained the questions."
"Not really,"
Mina whispered.
---
As children left the class, volunteers started cleaning it.
Kuro stacked books on the shelves.
Mina was erasing the whiteboard.
The supervisor ca toward them.
Her warm smile lit her face.
"You are Kuro, aren’t you?"
"...Yes."
"I’ve heard great things about you from kids."
Kuro blinked.
"They exaggerated."
The woman smiled.
"They are kids."
"They don’t exaggerate praise."
"They exaggerate dinosaurs."
"But not kindness."
Looking at the clean classroom, she turned her eyes to Kuro.
"You are surprisingly good at it."
Kuro froze.
"...At tutoring?"
"No, at everything else."
The woman folded arms across her chest.
"You make these children feel confident enough to ask a question."
"You inspire them so that they are not afraid of making a mistake near you."
She smiled.
"It is much more complicated than teaching mathematics."
Kuro stood there dumbfounded.
Unable to say anything.
Because he did not do anything extraordinary.
Or at least...
He thought so.
As Kuro and Mina were walking ho from school, the afternoon sunlight stretched their shadows far on the pavent.
Mina suddenly said.
"You know..."
"What is it?"
"Actually, this is the second ti."
Kuro stared at her.
"Second?"
"First hospital."
"Now tutoring."
She smiled cheerfully.
"Different situations."
"Different people."
"But all of them were saying almost the sa thing."
Kuro sighed.
"I know."
" ’You are good with people.’ "
He kicked the pebble under the feet away.
"I just don’t understand the reason."
Mina looked at him for so seconds.
Then smiled slightly to herself.
"...That’s probably it."
"What?"
"You help others because you want it."
"Not because you are expecting sothing from them."
Kuro looked forward.
"...Is it normal?"
Mina giggled.
"Would that be possible."
They walked side by side.
Behind them disappeared the elentary school building.
Ahead remained unclear the path to Kuro’s future.
However...
So clues about it kept falling into place slowly.
As Kuro and Mina approached the station, they saw there was a small gathering around one of the ticket machines.
It consisted of a little boy.
And he was crying.
His small backpack lay next to him.
The adults surrounding the little boy appeared to be sowhat worried about him.
However, none of them seed to have any ideas regarding how to help him.
Mina approached the boy right away.
Excuse .
She knelt in front of him.
Are you okay?
The boy shook his head while crying.
I... I can’t find my mom...
So of the adults exchanged worried glances.
One of them said.
We tried asking him, but he doesn’t want to answer because he’s too scared.
The boy continued crying.
Each attempt to ask questions seed to only scare him even further.
Kuro slowly approached and knelt next to him.
He didn’t try asking where his mother was.
He didn’t try asking him what his na was.
He just took a look at the T-rex keychain hanging from his backpack.
...T-Rex?
The boy nodded.
This is my favorite dinosaur.
Kuro smiled.
I love Triceratops.
The boy looked surprised.
Really?
Yeah.
They always protected the smaller dinosaurs.
The boy slowly wiped his tears away.
That’s cool.
Yeah.
For the next couple of minutes, they just talked about different dinosaurs.
That was all.
The crying slowly died down.
His breathing cald down.
Only then did Kuro ask in a soft voice.
Can you tell your na?
"... Haruto."
It’s nice to et you, Haruto.
I’m Kuro.
As for Mina, she was just watching the conversation.
She realized one thing that she often noticed.
Kuro never pushed anyone.
He let them calm down first.
Then he asked them what they wanted.
Just a couple of minutes later, Haruto was answering all of Kuro’s questions.
What his mother was wearing.
Which train they were riding before he got separated from his mother.
Where they were standing.
Almost instantly, a station employee made an announcent.
In less than three minutes...
A panicked woman ran toward them.
"Haruto!"
The boy’s face lit up.
"Mom!"
As soon as he jumped to his mother’s arms, she hugged him.
Then she turned toward Kuro and Mina and thanked them.
I didn’t know what to do.
Kuro smiled.
It’s nice that you found each other.
With a bow, the woman left with her son.
While disappearing in the crowd, Haruto looked back and waved to them.
"Bye, Kuro-nii!"
Kuro waved back.
"Goodbye."
After everything was over, the station slowly returned to normal.
Both Mina and Kuro continued moving towards their platform.
After so ti, Mina broke the silence.
Do you know what you did differently?
Kuro tilted his head in confusion.
I just started talking to him about dinosaurs.
Exactly.
She smiled at him.
Everyone else was asking him questions.
You were asking him what he liked.
Kuro looked down at the floor of the station.
I just thought he would calm down by doing that.
Mina nodded at him.
That’s exactly what happened.
She looked at him in admiration.
When it cos to children, patients, classmates or even strangers...
You always talk to them about their interests.
Kuro chuckled uncomfortably.
If you put it this way, it sounds really impressive.
It is.
She replied confidently.
Kuro didn’t say anything after that.
Instead, he looked at the arriving train.
For the third ti in just a couple of days, soone complinted him on his communication skills.
He wasn’t convinced.
However, the number of people saying this was hard to overlook anymore.
Reviews
All reviews (0)