A very smart idiot
AN: To those of you who have read Memory Trap, this is a different universe. So I'm giving the guys new names.
Zoicite = Sora
Nephrite = Nobuo
—
Being a 21-year-old PhD candidate was impressive. Everyone thought he was a genius, which was something he didn't mind. It was nice having everyone thinking he's a prodigy. His family was so proud of that, especially his mom. The only thing he didn't really enjoy was teaching, especially intro classes. It wasn't challenging enough for him. He disliked having to explain simple things to newbies. He didn't want to be condescending, but he genuinely didn't understand why it took everyone such a long time to learn simple things like for-loop or if-else statements. But as a PhD student, he had to be a teaching assistant. That's how he got his funding anyway.
This semester was just starting. Another intro class. He moaned, thinking about all the teaching and explaining he had to do. He just wanted to get this over with.
This was the third week of the semester. Time seemed to go by so slowly when he had to teach, especially in labs.
"That'll be all for today. My office hour is on the syllabus, please feel free to stop by if you have any question. See you all next week." Sora said.
Everyone gathered their belongings and started leaving.
Sora was busying gathering his computer and sheets when Ami approached him.
"Hi. I have a question about the first assignment."
Sora waved his hand. "Don't worry. It's not due until next week. If you have a question, come see me in my office." He had to be back at his lab today, couldn't spend time answering question now.
"It's just a quick question."
Sora lifted his head and looked at her.
"I finished it. Do you have the next assignment? I want to get right on it." Ami said while handing him the finished assignment. "I've also sent you the digital copy."
Seriously? She finished the assignment. It was a rather complicated task and they hadn't covered all the materials necessary for completing that task yet. How could she had finished it so fast?
Sora flipped through her assignment quickly. He raised his brows in amazement.
"Wow! You're really good! Are you a new student in the department?"
"Actually, I'm a first year medical student."
Seriously? Non-computer science major? First year?
"Hmm, I don't have the next assignment yet, but I will bring it for you next week. Hope that's ok."
"Thanks." Ami said and headed toward the door.
Sora's gaze followed her back. Something's intriguing about this girl.
Ami turned her head back. Sora lowered his head down quickly, pretending to read her assignment.
Ami, one hand holding books and computer, another hand to her chin.
"Have we meet before?"
Sora looked up. He had that feeling himself, but his memory said otherwise. "I don't think so." He shook his head slightly.
"Ok." She nodded slightly. "Sorry. I must be thinking of someone else." She mumbled to herself and turned back to walk away.
The clicks of Ami's shoes touching the floor, signaling that she already walking out. Sora glanced at her back before she quickly disappeared from his sight. He looked back at her paper.
"Mizuno Ami." he muttered to himself.
—
"Damn it. damn it, damn it!" Sora threw his fist on the table three times.
"Hey! I'm eating, you know." Nobuo yelled while stopping his spoon full with soup midway.
"Sorry, Nobuo."
"If you're gonna be this grumpy, then go work in your room." Nobuo scolded.
"I just couldn't figure out this part. It's driving me crazy. I'm stuck on it for a week already!"
Nobuo lifted his head from the bowl, "Wow! You're actually stuck at something for a week? Must be difficult then. Usually don't see you have any problem with school work."
Sora gave a long sighed and pushed his laptop away. "I need a break."
"There's a beer in the fridge." Nobuo resumed eating.
"Beer is for a macho guy like you. I'm drinking wine."
"Not the one my dad gave me. Drink the 10-dollar one you bought," Nobuo said.
"Calm down. I'm not going to drink your wine. I have manners, you know."
Sora walked to the kitchen, poured a glass of wine and sat back at the dinning table. He rubbed his face in frustration.
"Something troubling you?" Nobuo asked.
"What do you mean?"
"Since I've known you." Nobuo put down his spoon and looked at his friend. "You've only had problems with school twice. Once was when you were waiting anxiously to confess your feeling to that campus idol you had a crush on, and the other time was when Naomi dumped you."
"She didn't dump me. We weren't even boyfriend and girlfriend. We were just dating."
"Whatever." Nobuo said indifferently. "So who's the girl?"
Sora shook his head and shot an annoyed look at his friend. "There's no girl!"
"Fine," Nobuo said. "Keep it inside to distract you from your analysis, which is due in like two days."
"Since when do you care about my work?" Sora asked annoyingly.
"You circled the meeting date with your advisor on the calendar, you idiot!" Nobuo said. "Damn, you really have snapped! Who is this girl?"
Sora rubbed his face and then his temple. "Fine!" He put his hand on the table, close his laptop.
"It's freshman in med school."
"Wow! A med student!" Nobuo teased his friend. "Ask her out then, what's the problem? She's got a boyfriend or something?"
Sora sighed again. "She's in my class."
"Wait! The class that you're TAing?"
"What other class would I be talking about?" Sora yelled.
"Hey, I'm just trying to help you here. Don't get snippy."
"Sorry, Nobuo. I'm just a little tired."
"That's alright, but you owe me a beer," Nobuo said. "You can't ask out another student? It's not like you're a professor or anything. You're still a student yourself."
"I'm grading them. It wouldn't be appropriate." Sora played nervously with his pen, fidgeting to find something to do with his hand.
"I can wait until the semester ends and ask her out."
"So do that. What? You can't wait 10 weeks?" Nobuo asked.
"I try not to think about her, but it's hard," Sora said. "Plus there's this jerk in class that keeps hitting on her."
"You can fail him."
"I'm not that petty!"
"There's nothing you can do here," Nobuo said. "Maybe helping her with homework or paper?"
Sora rolled his eyes. "She's so smart that she doesn't need my help. She already turned in two papers that are not even due until next month. If anything she could probably help my work. Wait!" Sora started to smile when he thought of his devious plan, totally ignoring his friend's reaction.
—
After class, Ami was gathering her things and heading toward the door when Sora stopped her.
"Mizuno. Do you have a second?"
Ami nodded, still holding her books. "Sure."
"I'm trying to create a program to test a herd immunity in various diseases, and I was hoping you could help me out a little."
Ami pointed at herself. "Me? I'm just a freshman."
Sora shrugged "Yeah, but your programming skill is so good that I think you'll understand it pretty quickly."
Ami reluctantly nodded. "Sure. I'd be happy to help."
Sora smiled (deviously, of course)
—
At Sora's office, Ami was sitting next to him. They were both looking at the screen.
"See, if you want to calculate how many percentage of people that needed to get vaccinated to stop the spread of the disease, you need to know the reproduction number of the disease and then put it in the formula"
"Oh Great. Thank you so much, Mizuno." Sora smiled at her.
Ami was silent for a second, thinking. "But a smart guy like you. Wouldn't you be able to look this up and get it in like 5 minutes?" Ami looked at Sora, who tried to avoid her gaze by looking at the screen.
Finally he gave in and sighed. "That was pretty lame, wasn't it?"
She put her hand to cover her mouth and chuckled. "Yeah" She nodded.
"But you came anyway." Sora looked sweetly at her.
"I thought it was gonna be a more complicated question than this." She gave him a witty smile.
"I'm usually not this awkward, I swear." Sora said
"Then why are you acting weird now?" Ami asked.
"Because I like you." Just hearing that made Ami blushed. Even when she kind of already guessed his ulterior motive for asking her to help him.
"But I can't ask you out because I'm your TA, so I'm going to propose this."
"I will ask you out after the semester ends, is that ok?"
Ami still remained silent for a few seconds.
She smiled, "That would be fine."
"And in the mean time, you're not dating anyone else?" Sora asked slowly, not sure if he could ask this without scaring her away.
"So you're asking me not to date anyone until you ask me out on a date, presumably ten weeks from now?"
Sora shook his head, "No no, that's not what I meant. I was just wondering if you're already seeing someone, or if someone's already asked you out" Sora said, but tried to avoid her eye contact.
"Like who?" Ami asked.
"Chiba?" Sora said.
Ami laughed out loud, well not that loud because she didn't normally do that, but more than a chuckle.
"You think Mamoru's hitting on me?" Ami was still laughing.
"He's not? He always talks to you after class, and you left with him a few times."
"Mamoru is my best friend's fiancé. We've known each other for years."
"Oh!" Sora felt a bit embarrassed for jumping to the conclusion. He usually thought before he acted, thought thoroughly for that matter. How come when it came to this girl, he lost his control so easily?
"I'm such an idiot." He rubbed his face.
"Well." Ami tilted her head. "A very smart idiot." She smiled at at him.
"Don't mock me, Ami." Sora chuckled.
"So if I ask you out ten weeks from now, would you say yes?"
"Don't think I don't see what you're doing. You're trying to find a loophole. You can't ask me out now, but you want me to answer you now, so you ask me the question now, but the action wouldn't be in effect until the semester is over."
"I wasn't —" Sora was trying to come up with some explanation to his elaborate plan.
"Yes." Ami said, stopping Sora's action in his track. He smiled.
"Really?"
Ami nodded, "Yeah." Ami walked closely to him, looking him in the eyes. "I happen to find smart." She held her breath. "Very sexy." Ami tilted her head, smiled playfully at him, and walked out of his office.
Sora smiled widely and chuckled to himself. His angel might be more daring than he thought. What had he gotten himself into?
—
AN. What do you guys think? Please read and review. I'm thinking of writing more scenes with everyone as college or grad students. Let me know if there is anything specific you'd like to read. Drop me a line or PM me!