English Vinglish

Reiji rubbed his temples as he looked at his bag, wondering what he should do. The dumbass OG Reiji carried fucking porn mags around in his SCHOOL BACKPACK.

Does he not know the internet exists?? The first order of business was to somehow ignore the fact that he had no textbooks or notebooks, which wouldn't be too hard.

He was Yagami Reiji, he barely paid attention in class anyway. After school he'll head to the bookstore and buy the stuff he needs, so might as well just listen for now. It's English class anyway, his native tongue in his past life.

'Wait.... Holy shit that's pretty cool isn't it? My English will be considered more than fluent, so I think I'll do pretty well in this subject.'

"Umm...Y-Yagami-san?"

"Hmm?"

Reiji turned to look at the person who sat next to him. He had been so zoned out after roll call that he didn't even notice who was sitting on the desk beside him.

A timid girl with purple hair tied into long pigtails and thick glasses was looking at him with a slight blush on her freckled face. She was holding out a book in her hands and was fidgeting nervously.

"I-I noticed you were looking for your textbook, I h-have an extra one that I borrowed from a friend over the weekend for her notes. You can use it if you want," she whispered shyly.

'Damn, I really underestimated my face didn't I? Even with my terrible reputation there are people willing to talk to me. Though this dumbass OG Reiji can't remember her name, nor did she show up in the game,' he sighed internally

"Thank you, um..."

"My n-name is Fujimoto Airi."

"Thank you Fujimoto-san, you're a lifesaver!" Reiji smiled at her with a grateful look.

"It's nothing, do-don't worry about it," she just blushed and looked away quickly.

Reiji opened his textbook to the page that the class was currently discussing. But then the stern homeroom teacher, who was also their English teacher, looked at them.

"What's all that noise back there? Yagami when are you going to start paying attention in class? All you do is cause trouble!"

The entire class froze, most teachers avoided Reiji like the plague for three reasons. The first was obviously his Yakuza origin, the second was out of fear that he would be crazy enough to hit a teacher.

The last reason was that they saw him as a hopeless case, so they didn't want to waste time and effort trying to steer him onto the right track.

But this teacher, Kahawara Sensei, had a grudge against him simply because on the first day of school the OG Reiji ignored every single word he had said and left him hanging when he tried to pull him into the teacher's office for a scolding.

Ever since, he's been picking on Reiji to try and make him snap, which he occasionally did. Though Reiji doesn't know why he'd do that, except for his pride.

'I wasn't even the first one to talk, you petty old man, nor were we the only ones talking in the class.'

"I was just borrowing a textbook from Fujimoto-san, I'll be quiet from now on," Reiji replied. Let's just show that he's willing to improve, maybe that will shut him up.

Kahawara Sensei's eyes narrowed in shock for a brief second, and then he sneered.

"Is that so? Then please read out the passage on page 69."

'Does he want to humiliate me? The OG Reiji wasn't the best at English, though he was above average at least since he was good academically. Maybe he's expecting me to flop since I've always refused to participate.'

Reiji looked at the book with a slight smile and proceeded to read the passage.

___

"One rainy afternoon, Emi was walking home from school. She didn't have an umbrella because the weather forecast had said it would be sunny. Suddenly, it started to rain heavily.

As she stood under a tree, a woman with a red umbrella passed by. The woman saw Emi and stopped.

"Do you want to share my umbrella?" she asked with a smile.

Emi was surprised, but she said, "Yes, thank you very much!"

They walked together for a while. The woman got off at a bus stop and waved goodbye.

"Be careful, and stay dry!" she said.

Emi smiled. That small kindness made her feel warm, even in the cold rain.

___

Reiji looked up in satisfaction as he studied the shocked expressions of everyone in class, Kahawara Sensei included. Jaws were on the floor, eyes were popping out, Reiji even thought he saw one student rub his eyes like in a cartoon.

'I feel childish for being happy over this, but it's pretty funny I can't even lie.'

"W-wow, Yagami-san! I didn't know you could speak English that well!"

Fujimoto-san next to him whispered, her dark eyes shining with excitement.

"Thanks, I worked hard at it," he replied.

'Yeah I 'studied' English for 18 years after all.' I giggled internally.

Kahawara Sensei coughed a couple of times to bring back the attention of the class.

"Well, that was alright. Class, for passages like this comprehension is important. You might be asked why Emi didn't have an umbrella or how she felt after the interaction in your exams. Keep those little details in mind whenever you read a passage."

He continued on with the lesson as if nothing special had happened.

'Not even a compliment? Stingy old man, just how petty can you be as an adult?'

***

During the class break, Reiji returned the textbook to Fujimoto and thanked her again.

"Like I said, I had an extra one temporarily, so don't take it too s-seriously Yagami-san."

Ichihara walked over hesitantly, playing with his fingers as if he was agonizing over something internally.

"Th-That was pretty cool Yagami-san, how did you learn to speak English so well?"

'Well would you look at this? People do say karma is a thing, I didn't expect to talk to two people on my first day so casually.'

"Well, I just watched a lot of foreign movies I guess. And I tried to practice speaking to myself to internalize it," Reiji responded after taking a second to think. He came up with a random but believable reason so that they didn't make it too big of a deal.

"That's really smart, I-I might try that too," Fujimoto interjected.

"It's not a bad way to learn, but I'd suggest you stick with regular methods for now. It takes a long time to actually see any results, so you should do it over a long break instead of setting aside your current routine," Reiji advised cautiously.

He had no idea if that method would even work, so it wouldn't make sense for them to completely change their routine now.

The two of them paused with a confused expression.

"You're not as mean as the rumors say, Yagami-san," Fujimoto whispered.

"Y-yeah, you even helped me in the morning when those guys were hitting me," Ichihara added with a determined expression.

"Eh? Yagami-san helped you Ichihara-san?"

Fujimoto had a gleam in her expression.

"...Don't get carried away you guys, most of the rumors are very true. I've just decided to start being a better person because I realized how trashy I had been acting lately."

Reiji stopped them before they got lost in their fantasies. He was touched that they saw him in a positive light, but if he claimed that those rumors were wrong or exaggerated, their opinion would fall back to the ground when they discovered the truth.

"The fact that you can own up to your mistakes and improve is a great first step Yagami-san, I'll be rooting for you," Fujimoto reassured with her fists in a 'fighting' pose.

Ichihara also nodded behind her, making Reiji chuckle.

'These two are adorable.'

"That means a lot, really."

"Oh, Yagami-san, a book is falling out of your ba-"

Before Ichihara even finished his sentence, Reiji snatched his bag from the side and shoved the magazine back in before they saw what it was.

'That was really fucking close, I need to throw this shit away.'

***

After an emotional rollercoaster, the first day finally came to an end. Reiji was mentally exhausted because all the tension he had before coming to school was now slowly dissipating.

'My image is worse than I initially thought, but it's not too bad. I can see that there's a chance for me to slowly gain at least some people's trust if I keep doing it my way.'

Reiji just wanted to go home and collapse, but he needed to buy the necessary textbooks so that can start catching up with his studies.

He walked out of school after saying a brief goodbye to Ichihara and Fujimoto, heading to the nearest bookstore which wasn't that far.

He arrived fairly quickly and asked for the first-year academic set for Souhei High, which he bought promptly. It was pretty heavy, but who asked dumbass OG Reiji to lose his books almost immediately. He had to carry all of this home now.

'Let's head home now.'

Reiji walked past a children's park on the way to his apartment, and smiled softly at the kids running around with joyous faces.

'So cute.'

Reiji had a soft spot for kids, he liked how they could just innocently enjoy life without worrying about much. It made him sound like an old man, but that was simply the case.

As he shuffled off, a sudden thought struck his mind and he stopped in place.

'Wait.....kids? Isn't today.....'The Lost Child' event?'

"Oh fuck me why don't ya!"