A/N: sorry for another story in LCDO archive, I can't help it! xD Anyway, here's a new story I made about Math. But don't get the wrong idea of thinking I love Math, and I can't say that I despise it either xD maybe... just a little bit? LOL hahaha really...
So... just read it :) and don't forget to leave a review!
By the way, I want to thank -Sera-chan011- for beta-reading this work of mine :D Thanks again! I loved it! xD
~Math Code~
Occupying one of the many music rooms of the Music Division of Seiso Gakuen, Hino Kahoko, a novice redhead violinist, and her blue-haired tutor, Tsukimori Len, had come to practice violin.
However, instead of music that should have been heard, the loud tapping of a pen upon a paper sitting atop a desk reverberated around the soundproof room.
Len fought the urge to scratch the back of his head. He was getting frustrated, to the point that he questioned himself why he ever offered teaching her about violin, if she was only going to do something unrelated to it.
The boy glanced on his wrist watch. "Hino, are you gonna answer that or not?"
He was referring to the piece of paper that his companion was staring at for the past thirty or so minutes. Len noticed numeral scribbles on it, equations, radicals, geometric figures, and more things related to Mathematics.
Kahoko merely looked up to him, and from the look in her eyes, it was obvious that she was scared about something. He lowered his voice but it didn't change her frightened look.
"Then tell me, do you need help?"
She audibly gulped, and then slowly nodded.
He sighed, frustrated, and once again glanced on his wrist watch. With that, Kahoko shook her hands in front of her.
"Uh, no! I'm sorry. It's all right! I know you're busy…" she reasoned out. She bit her lower lip and cast her eyes on the floor.
"But what about your Math test tomorrow?"
"I-I can handle that," she said, follow by a soft, "I think."
He was about to agree and say 'okay' when…
"Besides, I heard that Tsuchiura-kun excels in Math." Kahoko's face brightened, as though the idea did not hit her until that moment. "Maybe he can help me!"
Hearing the soccer player and pianist's name made Len frown, and made him say, "No, It's all right. I got a lot of time to spare anyway."
"Are you sure, Tsukimori-kun?" asked Kahoko in caution.
"Yes."
The redhead smiled again. Without any of the two noticing, Len's lips formed a small smile as well.
"Okay then. Try to answer the questions I am going to ask. It's all about the parabola."
The redhead violinist nodded slowly. "H-Hai…"
"Do you even know how to make a parabola?" questioned Len, cocking up an eyebrow.
Kahoko tried to recall if she had made a parabola on her own without asking anybody's help.
"Uh…"
Len sighed. "I'll take that as a 'no'. OK, what is a 'Parabola'?"
"Um…" Kahoko was twirling her pen by then. She had to answer, but what, she did not know.
Her tutor crossed his arms as he waited patiently for her answer. The only thing that lacked in his "near-to-walk-out" pose was the tapping of his foot against the cold floor.
"I-I'm sorry, Tsukimori-kun," murmured Hino, pouting, and avoiding the other violinist's gaze, "I don't know."
Len frowned. "Then at least answer the next question correctly. How do you call a pair of special points used in describing conic sections?"
"Um… uh…" Kahoko racked her brain for any possible answer. She did listen to their class discussion after all, but she just did not possess any kind of photographic memory to actually remember the answer to the question.
It's not as if Math ever needed photographic memory, Kahoko thought to herself. She answered, "Is it… V-V-Vertex?"
Len's eyes seemed to narrow into perilous slits. "Wrong. Focus."
"I-I am focusing…" she whimpered. Beads of sweat were starting to form on her forehead. Jeez. I don't think I'll survive.
"No," replied Len, shaking his head in contradiction. "I mean 'Focus' is the answer."
"Eh? O-oh…" Kahoko blushed and looked up at the ceiling. Was embarrassing herself really meant to be stuck in her life?
"Next question," the lad informed. He paused for a while before inquiring, "What do you call a given line not through the focus?"
Sheepishly, Kahoko smiled. "Vertex?"
"Directrix," Len grunted. For a while there, Kahoko thought he was going to roll his eyes.
Biting her lip from not getting any question right, Kahoko looked down on the ground, also frowning into silence.
"It is a point where the first derivative of curvature is zero."
This time, Kahoko was going to try. "Um… V-Vertex?"
"Hn." Even though it was right, he knew she had merely guessed it, and he was still not satisfied.
"Very well. Just answer these simple equations." He picked up the paper on her desk and started writing at the back part.
"Here," Len said, handing over the paper.
Reaching out slowly, Kahoko gulped, before she gawked at the three equations that she didn't even know how to solve.
"Well?" Len asked, eyebrows raised. He folded his arms across his chest and cocked his head sideways.
Kahoko smiled uncertainly at the boy before positioning the pen back in her hand, locking her eyes on the piece of paper.
Equation #1:
4x + y = 9
+ (– 4x – 12y = 20)
Equation # 2:
If y = t + 2, find the value of t.
45t = 30y
Equation # 3:
– x + 2y = 0
+ (x – 4y = 6)
"Um… Tsukimori-kun?"
"Yes?" Just by gazing in her eyes, Len already knew what Kahoko wanted to ask.
He heaved a sigh before speaking. "The first equation and last equation is solved by elimination, while the second one is solved by substitution."
"Elimination? Substitution? Hm… I think I still remember how to do those," Kahoko replied. She mulled things over before looking back to the paper.
"4x + y = 9
-4x – 12 y + = 20," she read.
"4x and -4x will be canceled?" she said, uncertain. Len sighed in response and nodded.
"Okay then. 4x and -4x canceled. So… y – 12y is… 11y?" Kahoko asked once again, looking over at her companion. Hopefully, she would get things right.
"Negative eleven y," Len answered. He sighed for the umpteenth time, seemingly losing his patience. "Just write it on the paper and I'll just correct it afterwards."
"O-okay…" Kahoko looked down on the paper once again. "9 – 20… 11?"
"-11."
Kahoko raised her head up to look at him. His voice there was an octave higher… He certainly was losing patience. She had to answer everything right.
"Eh, thank you."
The redhead silently read the next ones.
"4x + y = 9
-4x – 12 y = 20
-11y = -11
Divide both sides by negative eleven y and… y is equal to… 1."
Smiling to herself, Kahoko left the first equation and began on the second one.
"Substitution is my favorite so I bet I still remember it." She smiled at him as he blushed.
"If y = t + 2, find the value of t in 45t = 30y."
She began solving while reading loudly and recalling the steps.
"Substitute y with t + 2 so… 45t = 30(t + 2). Multiply 30 with t and 2… and I'd get 30t and 60 so…
"45t = 30t + 60
Um… Transpose?"
Kahoko looked up again at Len who merely nodded.
"45t – 30t = 60. Then… 15t = 60. I have to divide both sides with 15 and I would get… 4. So t = 4… I think…"
Len nodded in confirmation when she looked up at him in curiosity. She beamed before turning to the next one.
"Yosh! Last equation!
– x + 2y = 0
+ x – 4y = 6
Cancel – x and x, right? Canceled… 2y – 4y is equal to… -2y? 0 – 6 is - 6?"
She, then, wrote down:
– x + 2y = 0
+ x – 4y = 6
-2y = -6
Len removed his arms from being crossed. He walked towards the door and held the knob. He smiled without looking back before turning the knob and leaving her. She didn't even notice him leave because she was too focused with solving the equations he had given.
"I have to divide both sides again with negative 2 and the answer will be 3. y = 3!"
The thought that she just answered them all by herself shocked her.
"Really? I solved it? Yay!" she cried in glee. Kahoko looked around her and realized that Len was nowhere to be found.
"Tsukimori-kun?" Before she could call out again, she saw him outside through the window, leaning on the wall. He stared back at her through the glass window.
"Tsukimori-kun! Tsukimori-kun, I finished it! The answers are 1, 4, 3—" Kahoko stopped, eyes widening.
What…? she thought. The answers caught her off guard. She repeated the answers in her head. 1, 4, 3. 1, 4, 3. It somehow rings a bell—?
"1, 4, 3? Tsukimori-kun?" she exclaimed, asking him from her location. She was feet and feet away from him.
Len could merely smile as he pointed upwards, as if telling her to meet him at the rooftop afterwards.
Grinning from ear-to-ear, Kahoko nodded and watched as he went on his way.
The smile she wore never left her face until then.
"I love you, too, Tsukimori-kun…"
END
A/N: *sigh* i'll try my best to love Math xD Maybe if I'm in Kahoko's place in my story, I can say that I l-l-l-love... it now xD wow that was so hard to say.
So...? Was it good? bad? lame? silly? or whatever you can think of. You're all free to review and tell me what you think xD
P.S. no flames!
Whoo! I love Math! ...really I do...? xD