Chapter 2 #2
Jaylin distracted himself from tripping any further down that thought by unzipping his backpack to extract his business law textbook and the accompanying workbook.
It was with some hesitation that he placed them on the table for Miyazaki to see.
There were dozens and dozens of color-coded sticky notes sticking out from the pages.
“Organized,” Miyazaki said when he saw the book, sounding pleased instead of condescending. “That’s great, Jaylin. It looks like you’re really keeping on top of your class.”
“I try,” Jaylin said after clearing his throat.
He wasn’t used to being praised for doing the bare basics.
“The yellow stickies are for the pages we’re currently studying, and the blue are what we’ve already covered.
The green ones are the ones I’ve been able to read ahead on, but the red ones I haven’t managed yet.
” Nearly half the chapters were red, Jaylin noted miserably.
He was sure Miyazaki was going to notice and comment on it.
“Wow,” Miyazaki said instead, looking surprised. “That’s… Jaylin, that’s a lot to cover on your own. It’s only a few weeks into your semester, isn’t it?”
Jaylin flushed. “I’m going as fast as I can, but there’s just a lot to read, with all of my classes.” Between his fourteen credits and Brent, it got overwhelming. Not that he was in any position to make excuses. “So yeah, uh, any help would be… good.”
“That’s not exactly what I meant,” Miyazaki said after a moment. “But sure, I’ll help however I can. You’ve just got to do something for me, first.”
Of course, Jaylin thought, dread curling in his gut. Of course. He should have seen this coming. No one was nice to him just because. No one treated him just because. “Okay?”
Miyazaki gestured at the mug Jaylin hadn’t touched, except to warm his hands. “You’ve got to try the cocoa and tell me what you think.”
Jaylin blinked down at the mug full of melting whipped cream. “Oh,” he said. That was so far from what he had been expecting that it threw him off balance. “Uh, yeah. Okay.” He took a careful sip, mindful of the steam still wafting up from it.
It was…
It was really fucking good. Deliciously rich and just the right amount of sweetness. Jaylin took another sip, and let his eyes slid shut for a brief second, savoring.
“Well?” Miyazaki asked, and another smile was playing around his mouth as if he could already tell Jaylin was enjoying his hot chocolate choice.
“It’s great,” Jaylin said, stomach flip-flopping. “Thank you.”
“Glad I picked out something you liked,” Miyazaki said, sounding pleased. He pushed the plate of cookies forward. “A cookie too?”
It startled a laugh out of Jaylin. Miyazaki was just… so far from what Jaylin was used to with high powered men. He reached for a cookie. “You drive a hard bargain, Mr. Miyazaki.”
“Hiro,” Miyazaki said with a chuckle. “Please. Aditi wouldn’t let me hear the end of it if she caught you calling me Mr. Miyazaki.”
“Hiro, then,” Jaylin allowed tentatively. “Okay.”
That got him another grin, and Jaylin was once again thrown by it, by how easily Hiro doled out smiles. Jaylin knew he wasn’t special, that Hiro must just have an easy-going disposition, but it was still… nice. To be on the receiving end of them.
Jaylin took a bite of the cookie. It was also delicious; crisp and buttery and not too sweet.
Jaylin had skipped breakfast that morning, in too much of a rush to get to tutoring after oversleeping from the late night.
It was a battle not to shove the entire rest of the cookie into his mouth. “These are really good.”
“Aren’t they?” Hiro took his own cookie with relish. “I get these so often here that they usually ask if I want a plate whenever I order.” He took his own bite, chasing it with a sip of his cocoa. “Now then, why don’t you show me what you’re working on?”
Jaylin nodded, and fumbled for his textbook, opening it at the second yellow sticky note, Milton Industries vs Breccher Inc.
He turned the book so that Hiro could read it before opening his workbook to the corresponding section.
“I’m supposed to deconstruct Breccher’s defense,” he said. “It’s a three page paper.”
“Gotcha,” Hiro said. “Do you have the paper done? I can check your work if you want.”
“Oh, um.” Jaylin looked at the table. “It’s not, um, written yet.” He had intended to start dictating it to his laptop last night after he’d finished doing his reading, but…
Brent .
“Okay.” Hiro nodded understandingly. “Notes then? I could help you get started?”
Jaylin swallowed his discomfort, stomach clenching. “I don’t really have notes.”
“Okay,” Hiro said again, but now he sounded obviously confused.
This had been such a stupid idea. Forget impressing Hiro, the man was going to walk away from this meeting thinking Jaylin was totally incompetent. “Could I, um… tell you what’s going to be in the paper?” Jaylin tried.
Hiro brightened. “Oh, sure. Yeah, we could outline it together.”
“Right,” Jaylin said weakly. “Okay.”
Hiro’s next nod was encouraging, his expression open.
Jaylin set his jaw. Might as well just get it over with.
“Okay, so Milton is trying to sue Breccher for defamation, after Breccher released a statement alleging how a buzzsaw manufactured by Milton seriously injured a Breccher employee. Milton is further alleging that the buzzsaw wasn’t faulty and it was a misuse of materials that led to the injury.
” He glanced at Hiro, who gestured for him to continue.
So Jaylin did.
He went over the entire case as best as he could under pressure, and actually didn't stumble as much as he expected to. He did have to close his eyes a few times in concentration in order to properly recall the citations for cases used in Breccher’s defense, but he was able to continue along okay anyway.
Hiro didn't interrupt the entire time. Instead, he alternated between bending his head over the textbook to follow along with Jaylin’s “paper” and staring at Jaylin.
Jaylin tried to ignore the staring. He could only imagine what Hiro must be thinking, this high-powered lawyer listening to some dumb college kid who couldn't even read his own textbook for reference.
When he finished with his closing statement, he was met with silence. Instead of trying to deal with Hiro’s obvious disappointment, Jaylin ducked his head, taking a gulp of his cooling cocoa.
“Um,” Hiro said after a long moment. “Wow. Okay, uh…”
Jaylin winced. He must have really sucked. “It’s just a rough draft,” he offered feebly. “I, you know, I haven’t written the paper yet.”
“Uh, no,” Hiro said, still looking a little stunned. “You definitely did. That’s—I’m a little surprised? Because you wrote the whole paper.”
Jaylin waited for the ‘but.’
“Jaylin...” Hiro said slowly. “You… cited all those cases and quotes from memory. You didn’t reference your textbook or workbook at all.”
Jaylin bit his lip. He probably hadn’t cited something correctly then. Fuck. It was just so hard sometimes to keep it all straight. There was so much material to go through. “I’m sorry if I messed up.”
“Messed up?” Hiro’s expression was a mix of bemusement and disbelief. “Jaylin, you just presented a whole paper, sources cited, orally from memory.”
Jaylin wished he understood what the problem was. “I’m sorry. I didn’t have time to type it up yet.”
“I’m sorry you didn’t,” Hiro said, making Jaylin wince again.
Then he continued. “Because that was excellent. If you had typed it up, you’d be done.
It was well thought-out, well organized, you had a good delivery…
” he tapped the textbook. “You clearly have a fantastic understanding of the subject matter, and it’s obvious you did a lot of research into how the laws were being applied in the case. It’s going to be an excellent paper.”
“Oh,” Jaylin said, cheeks heating. Hiro had liked it then? He’d thought Jaylin had done well? “Th-thank you.”
Hiro gave him a wry smile. “No wonder you were surprised when I showed up. You don’t need help at all, do you?”
“Aditi meant well,” Jaylin said, shifting awkwardly. “I mean, I guess I mentioned that studying took up a lot of my time. And she knows how much I’m struggling with statistics. She probably extrapolated from there.”
“Your studying really shows,” Hiro said. “I can’t even imagine. I’ve been studying law for over a decade and I don’t think I could present something like you just did without at least referencing my notes.”
It hit Jaylin then that Hiro not only thought Jaylin had done an okay job on the paper, but that he was actually impressed for some reason.
It was a foreign feeling, and something like pleasure curled inside him as his cheeks grew hotter.
“Thanks,” he managed, reaching for another cookie to give himself something else to concentrate on.
He’d eaten the first cookie too fast between nerves and hunger, so this one he tried to savor.
Skipping breakfast had been the right decision, but it had been near painful to do between all his activity last night, on top of not eating much for dinner.
Brent wasn't very generous with Jaylin’s “allowance” sometimes.
He bought Jaylin fancy things—which Jaylin couldn't sell, because Brent remembered each and every stupid watch and suit he had given Jaylin and insisted Jaylin wear certain ones whenever the mood struck him.
He took Jaylin out for meals and paid for rent and tuition, which were the two big things Jaylin cared about.
It was just that Jaylin wasn't given a lot of spending money on top of that.
One of Brent’s terms of their arrangement was that Jaylin wasn't allowed to get a job. It was so he could concentrate on school. Jaylin knew that was bullshit—Brent just wanted Jaylin more available to be at his beck and call. But that meant most of Jaylin’s allowance went to groceries and stuff. The bills Brent didn't cover.