"Kid, when are you gonna start taking your studies seriously? Do you seriously wanna end up like your old man here?" Uesugi Fuutarou looked at his father, Isanari who had a rare serious expression on him.
"Look around you, we're living in this dump and I'm barely able to pay off our bills cuz of the damn debt I have." His father rarely, if not ever got mad at him. He always had a light hearted personality when it came to raising Fuutarou.
The elementary school boy guessed it was probably because he stared at the picture of their late mother just now. Or maybe it was a bad day at the bakery, business wasn't going that well lately after all.
"I'm telling you to study, not because I want you to get a job where you sit in the office doing a boring 9 to 5 every day. Education's all about earning the ability to unlock stuff that you are actually interested in and are able to pursue. It's like a role-playing video game you know? After you master this skill, you unlock another skill which in turn unlocks a class for you."
"I want you to be free. You get me? I want you to have fun with your life. And if you wanna be have fun in the future, you have to suffer first ny burying yourself in these textbooks. Maybe you won't understand it now but... I'm sure you will one day..." Isanari ended with a whisper as he stared at his late wife's potrait. Fuutarou remained silent throughout the whole conversation, processing his father's wise words.
"Don't repeat what your old man did, son... Maybe if I wasn't such a dumbass, she would've still been here..." He muttered, staring at the beautiful eyes of his wife's potrait. Fuutarou swore he saw tears welling up in the corners of his father's eyes but it must've been his imagination running wild. His father never cried, not even once.
" You go tuck Raiha in before you sleep. You have school tomorrow. I don't want you waking up late."
"Roger that, dad. Goodnight."
" Yeah... Goodnight son."
.....
"Hey, Takebayashi. I know it's recess and you wanna eat and all but I got a quick question for you. How do you usually study?" Takebayashi, the highest scoring student of their grade did a double check to see if she was seeing the world correctly.
Fuutarou, the class clown was asking about study tips with a rare seriousness. Well, she couldn't say no to helping people, especially if their problems are about studying.
"It's easy. You just search online and find test papers. You don't need to print them out, just try your best and complete as much questions as you can. Then you open the answer sheet and check how many you got correct. That's one way of studying."
"Another way is looking at studying notes posted online or watch some videos about certain topics you don't understand. I'm sure you know that some of our teachers don't explain the topic quite in detail because they have to rush through the syllabus before the end of year tests. So you should definitely do that to strengthen your understanding of the topics." Fuutarou nodded at her words.
"Oh, and you should also strengthen your understanding of the topics first before you go on to answer the questions. That's why you need to practice the second technique I mentioned. If you don't understand it, then you basically learned nothing." Takebayashi explained intellectually as Fuutarou nodded, actually taking down some notes.
"Lastly, always work hard and know that you're bettering your future one step at a time. That's basically it. But now I have a question for you, Fuutarou. Why the sudden change in attitude?" Fuutarou shrugged at her question.
"Meh, just had a sudden change of heart I guess. Nothing that deep."
" Huh, alright then. If you say so, I wish you luck Fuutarou."
"Thanks Takebayashi...."
.....
Fuutarou groaned as he stared at the laptop before him. He was on a website full of practice questions. But Fuutarou realized that he could not answer 90% of them at all. He felt dumb and dumber by the minute, flipping through textbooks that offer seemingly no help at all.
"Argh!" Fuutarou felt like swearing. But then he noticed someone patting his leg. He looked down and realized that it was his little sister Raiha.
"Big brother. Are you okay?" She asked him. Fuutarou couldn't help but smile at her cute tone. " I'm alright, just having a little issue here."
"Oh.... Maybe I can help!" She declared.
"Um.... Sorry Raiha, I don't think you can... Even I'm stumped..." He mumbled as his sister pouted, crossing her arms.
"Aw man...."
"I'm home..." The two looked to see their father entering the residence. Raiha ran up to him and hugged him tightly. "Dad!!!" She shouted. Isanari laughed and picked her up, hugging his daughter gently.
"My sweet girl! Did you eat already?"
"Yup! Big brother is a very good cook!"
"That's good." Isanari nodded to himself. He had taught the young boy the basics on cooking long ago so that he could feed himself and Raiha while he was at work.
"Hey dad." Fuutarou greeted, eyes staring at the laptop full of questions. The blonde haired father walked over to him, standing beside him.
"Studying? Looks like you understood my point last night....."
"Well I'm trying.... It's very hard, I don't even understand them, even looking at the videos doesn't help me understand much." His son grumbled. Isanari hummed.
"You could try asking your friends. Sanada and Takebayashi were their names right? You said they're good at studying a couple of times. And you got your phone, maybe you could ask them to explain the topics for you. Heck, you could even ask your teachers."
Hearing his father's suggestion, Fuutarou looked at him. "But won't that be disturbing them? I don't wanna make them annoyed or something." Isanari waved them off.
"Nahhh. Don't overthink. Sometimes the things you overthink about won't even happen anyways, so it's better to just go gung ho. They'll help you, I'm sure. That's what friends are about. And I'm also sure the teachers will help too, guiding students is their job after all." Fuutarou nodded and looked at his phone. It was an old model by current standards and second hand one at that, but it got the job done.
He felt his father pat his head. Isanari smiled down at him. "You've just started your path to greatness son, I know you can do it. Keep it up. Me and Raiha are cheering you on."
Fuutarou smiled and nodded, already pulling up his friends' contacts.
"Got it dad! I'll become the number one student in no time!"
" Hahaha! That's the spirit son!"
To be continued....