[ a.n; no one requested this but i wanted to write it instead of doing my homework xoxo cheers for a fic 2800 words long <3 ]

"I don't understand this problem."

"What about it confuses you?"

". . . Literally everything."

You mentally slapped a palm against your forehead. Okay, so two days ago you were asked to tutor Endou, given the fact he was almost failing his Math and English classes. It was important for members of the soccer team to be doing well in school, if he failed a class, then he wouldn't be able to participate anymore; and he's the Captain! Endou wanted to participate in the Football Frontier more than anything, and this was his first time to even have a chance at it.

Coach Hibiki had pulled the both of you aside and asked you for the favor, and being as kind as you were, you didn't refuse. Plus, Endou was a close friend of yours for a long time, you didn't want to see him fail in school, and not be able to play soccer with his team. You were a member of the club as well, sort of a player and manager at the same time - at the time, Kino was the only manager, and she wasn't able to do everything on her own. You'd become pretty used to helping around all the time, so it didn't bother you.

Now, here you were, in Endou's room trying to help him with his math homework from two weeks ago.

"Okay look here. Do you remember the exponent laws?"

"What's that."

"Do you remember 'pedmas'?"

Endou slowly tilted his head to the side. . . This was going to take a while. You grabbed his pencil and started scribbling things at the margin of his notebook, some notes he could look back to whenever he needed.

"The 'P' stands for parenthesis, the 'E' is exponents, then division, multiplication, addition, subtraction. When you multiply numbers with exponents, simplifying is just adding the exponents. When you divide, it's subtracting, and an exponent of an exponent is also adding." While you were explaining, you were writing it down for him. Although, given the fact you were staring at the sheet of paper with endless eraser shavings, you had no idea Endou wasn't even paying attention. Only when you lifted your eyes up, you found he was just watching you. Endou was slightly started.

"O-oh, um. . . Y-yeah, I think I understand." Awkwardly, he shifted back to the work on his desk. Your eyebrows furrowed, what was going on in that head of his?

"Endou can you try this one for me?" After shuffling through leaflets of handouts, you set a worksheet beside his notes and pointed at the first problem. The boy blinked his brown eyes and hesitantly nodded, he looked determined, at least he wasn't getting discouraged. Endou took the pencil back and stared intensely at the equation.

Ten whole seconds later, the brown haired male just looked back at you with sad eyes. Poor thing.

"Let me show you." Slowly, you walked him through the problem and asked him to do the second one for you. He stole a few glances at you while you were doing your own work, and started writing down numbers.

"Done!" The male perked up, you were almost just as excited as he was. Looking over, you smiled to yourself after realizing he got it right.

"Endou you got it!"

"I did?"

"Just one little thing, remember when you're doing math like this, you always write your steps in equal signs." That being said, you gently took his hand holding the pencil, and drew down an equal sign after each step he took. Endou was holding his breath the whole time. Those five seconds felt like forever.

"Mamoru, [L/n]-san." Endou's mother Atsuko crept into the room, a plate of snacks in her hands. "How's he doing?" She padded over to you, setting the plate down at the end of the desk.

"He's getting the hand of things, Endou's a good student!" You chirped happily, earning a sigh of delight from the woman. She pat your head and muttered a small thank you before cheering on her son while taking her leave. The both of you watched her leave the room, closing the door behind herself. Endou looked over at you.

"You think so?"

"Of course I do, you're doing well." Just that alone made him grin brightly. "Let's take a break though, your mum's the best, she brought food." After all the hard work it was kind of nice to have a snack. Atsuko made onigiri and steam buns, both which looked more delicious than usual.

"Itadakimasu!" The brown haired male chimed before grabbing the first rice ball.

It'd been almost a week you'd walk home with Endou and help him with work, and to your delight, his grades were rising. His teacher was rather impressed, and by the looks of things, Endou was going to pass his upcoming tests and be able to play in the Frontier.

Although, his spirits hadn't risen as much as his grades did, if anything, he seemed a little gloomier. You'd guessed he was merely worried about failing, but you believed in him. . . During practice he seemed a little brighter, but you'd still notice some strange behavior from him.

"Fire Tornado!" Gouenji made a perfect shot towards the goal. Endou stood ready to stop it, but didn't even budge an inch. The ball made it right past him, and into the net. As a delayed reaction, Endou blinked his eyes and looked over at the ball as if he needed confirmation for what just happened.

"Endou! What's the matter?" You scurried over to the male. He tensed up and averted his eyes.

"N-nothing! I guess I was just spacing out!" The brunette grinned nervously, rubbing a gloved hand at the back of his neck. "Gouenji! Let's try one more time!"

Let's say, the whole team was a little concerned. You made your way over to the girls at the bench and took a seat beside Kino, placing her in the middle of yourself and Haruna.

"What do you think is bothering Endou?" You asked quietly, earning a worried look from Kino.

"I'm not so sure." Kino responded. "What did he say when you asked him what was wrong?"

"He said he was spacing out. . . ? Other times he'd just change the subject."

"Maybe he doesn't want to talk about it with the person of interest!" Haruno poked her head into view. Your eyes slightly widened, and you raised your brows.

"What do you mean?"

"Maybe you're what's bothering him?" She was very up front about it. You felt a bead of sweat at the side of your forehead. Instead of advocating further, you decided to leave things as they were. At the end of the day, you said goodbye to both girls and as few members of the soccer club, only to be approached by an excited Endou.

"[L/n]-chan! Wait for me!" The male scampered over to you, grinning. "Let's go!"

". . . Go where?"

"To my house! Aren't we gonna study together?"

"Endou, I think you'll be okay on your own! You're doing so much better, you probably don't even need my help." You lifted a hand to your mouth, attempting to stifle a giggle. Although when you saw his entire demeanor had turned grey. His smile faltered, and his eyes stopped glittering, and suddenly he just wasn't Endou anymore.

"Oh, are you sure?" He asked quietly, eyebrows furrowing. He looked identical to a sad puppy, and who could say no to a sad puppy?

"Why do you ask. . . ? Did you need some more help?" You softened your gaze.

"U-um. Y-yeah!" He pupped a sheepish grin, to which you returned with a smile of your own. That being said, you agreed to watch over Endou for one last day. His mum wasn't surprised to see you, rather happy actually. So, you spent another day with Endou, watching him through some more problems and reading over his assignments and offering little tips. You realized he seemed so much happier for some reason, a reason you couldn't put a finger on.

Finally, it was the day for Endou to take his test, and you were more than happy to cheer him on. The next morning. . .

"Endou, there you are, I've been looking for you!" Once you caught sight of the brunette behind the soccer clubroom, you scampered over to the male, placing a hand on his shoulder. Endou perked up.

"Were you-!? I mean, um. . ." Nervously, he turned his face away. While you were completely utterly oblivious to what was going on, Endou's heart was palpitating out of his chest. Ah, yes, he liked you. He had a crush on you and didn't want you to stop visiting his house, spending the day with him, eating snacks with him. . . When Hibiki had asked you to tutor him, he was silently thanking the sakka gods, giving him a chance to be with you more often was such a blessing.

He could see your adorable smile whenever he'd gotten a question right, and feel your hand ruffle his hair or sometimes if he was lucky, you'd give him a light hug. Truth to be told, he was dying inside, both a good and bad feeling. God, Endou adored you so much, he wanted to make you proud, but he just couldn't stand the fact that your tutor/student relationship was going to be over. So. He had to do something.

"Endou? Is something wrong?" You snapped him out of his thoughts.

"No! Everything is fine!" He frantically waved his hands around.

"Did you get your test back?"

Suddenly he fell silent. It was such a bittersweet feeling for him. The brunette shuffled through his bag and stared at his shoes for a while. Very slowly, he handed the folded sheet of white paper over. You were very confused as of to what he was trying to do, so you merely took the paper and flipped it open - shocking.

"Oh my gosh! What happened? You were doing so well, how could you have failed?" You felt terrible for him, maybe you weren't a good enough tutor, and maybe it was all your fault.

"Listen. . . There's something I gotta tell you." Endou rubbed at the back of his neck, staring at the suddenly interesting grass beneath his feet. "Um. I failed on purpose."

"What? Why!"

"I want to play at the Football Frontier so bad! I really do! [Y/n]-chan! I just--!" Lifting a hand, he slapped himself. "It was stupid I know. But I wanted you to. . . Keep being with me. I thought, maybe if I failed, then you'll have to tutor me again."

Your hands slowly fell to your sides, this felt almost like a dream.

"Endou. . . You didn't have to fail for us to keep spending time together, we're really close friends, all you had to do was ask." You responded softly. As much as you wanted to think that he had feelings for you, it'd be awkward if you assumed so, and he really didn't. This was Endou. The love of his life was soccer!

"Right. . ." His expression seemingly turned worse.

"Listen! I'll help you some more, okay? As much as you need! We'll get you to pass this test and you'll take us all to the Football Frontier!"

"Okay!" He was determined. Not to pass this stupid test, but to get you to like him back.

So here you were, back again at his house, but instead of doing much work, you both decided to just watch some television.

"Let's watch this one!" Endou lifted a dvd case for you to see. You brows raised.

"Totoro?" What a weird choice.

"I liked it since I was a kid, we have to watch this one!"

"Okay! Okay!" You agreed nonetheless, and started shoving popcorn into your mouth. At one point you were a bit too invested into the movie, and Endou had decided this was his shining chance. He reached a hand into the bowl of popcorn and went to lift it to your mouth - except your phone had went off, and you turned away at the same exact moment. Okay, that was a fail.

The next day in class, Endou scribbled away at a slip of paper, before crumpling it and starting again on a fresh sheet. Wasn't very like this sakka boy to be working so hard at school. Which was correct, he wasn't doing schoolwork, but writing something else.

Gouenji and Kazemaru peeked into the empty classroom, spotting Endou at his desk, they both approached nonchalantly.

"What are you working on?" Kazemaru peered over Endou's shoulder.

"Can you read this for me? Tell me if it sounds weird." Endou suddenly jolted up, startling the poor teal haired male. Kazemaru obliged, and took the paper from Endou. He wasn't sure if he should read it out loud or not, so he just read it in his head.

'soccer balls are black and white, violets are blue - i really really really like you. please like me back im begging you.'

Kazemaru regrettably burst out in a fit of laughter. It was kind of sad, really.

Writing a love note had also failed, terribly.

When Endou passed his make-up test, you were ecstatic, so happy that you threw yourself onto him in a hug. Endou immediately returned it, wrapping his arms around you tightly with flushed cheeks. In his head, this was the last hug he'd ever get from you, oh, what a tale of woe. So for the rest of the day, he was gloomy and depressed.

"Endou, why don't you just. . . Tell her how you feel?" Kazemaru trailed off, scratching at his cheek nervously. While he wasn't experienced in these kinds of things either, he still wanted to help his friend.

"I did! I kind of did-!? She said we were 'close friends', I felt like I was kicked in the face!" Endou turned to Kazemaru, on the verge of exaggerated tears. At this point he was clinging to the poor teal haired male, muttering 'what do I do, what do I do, what do I do' over and over. After panicking, Kazemaru looked over at a calm Gouenji and mouthed the word 'help'.

"Endou, just tell it to her straight. She's as dense as you are, it can't be that hard, honestly." Gouenji's eyes slowly wandered off, he was clearly very uninterested. Of course, Gouenji could get any girl in the snap of his fingers, he just had to rub it in.

"Okay, I'll try tomorrow. . ." Endou pouted, finally letting go of Kazemaru's sweater. The hazel-eyed boy let out a sigh of relief.

"Endou, why don't you try practicing with Kazemaru. He'll be [L/n] for you." Gouenji waved a finger, mischievously stirring up trouble.

"A-absolutely not! I'm going home!" Kazemaru was off. That was enough torture for one day.

When the day of reckoning had finally arrived, Endou swallowed down the lump in his throat and promised himself; he was going to do it today. So after sending everyone off to train during practice, he pulled you aside.

"Yes captain?" You chirped, waving off Handa and Shishido before scampering over to the brunette. He seemed in high spirits today.

"Mind if we go somewhere private?" He asked kindly, and you nodded. After flashing you a bright grin, he grabbed your hand and lead you off near the trees. You followed behind with a small simper, always nice to see him happy. Suddenly he turned around and pressed a hand against his chest. He sucked in a deep breath, and exhaled.

"I don't really know how to say this, so I'm just gonna say it, okay?" Endou smiled. "I like you! A lot! Please go out with me!" As if he was speaking to a queen, the boy bowed his head deeply. Your face immediately flushed, thank goodness he couldn't see.

Endou Mamoru had just confessed to you.

"A-are you,, serious?" Your voice fell to a small whisper. Endou lifted his head and nodded happily. He was surprisingly nonchalant about this, in fact, he almost looked happier.

"I'm sure!"

"E-Endou-!!" You were madly blushing, and trying to cover your face. So maybe you felt the same after all, even still, you were more than willing to give him a chance. Falling in love with Endou was almost like a natural part of life, you'd end up loving him no matter what happened. "O-okay, I'll go out with you."

"What? Really!"

"Really."

Brimming with excitement, the soccer idiot threw his arms around you. As soon as you returned the hug, he started spinning you in the air - a little silly if you had to say so yourself, but adorable. He smothered your cheeks in endless kisses, which you could probably never escape from, for the rest of your life. Which was fine. More than fine.