He and Tomonori are planning to study together in the library, which is a little bit crushing all of Nie Huaisang's hopes and dreams that the studying be in fact "studying," but maybe going slow is good too. Building sexual tension. Anticipation. That kind of thing.
He arrives at the Shanghai reading room and waits for Tomonori outside.
Tomonori loves the library. Obviously, libraries, are, in theory, the greatest human achievement (in practice, that is wizard towers). The Scholomance library is no exception. Being invited to the Shanghai reading room is a piece of good news that overshadows whatever happened yesterday at the enclave table during lunch. He arrives, offering a hand for Nie Huaisang to shake.
"Hello! Did you bring your notes?"
It's polite to ask, though Tomonori expects his friend only brought drawing supplies.
Nie Huaisang ignores his hand and pulls him in for a hug.
"Yes! Of course."
Tomonori squirms. Hugging is uncomfortable because it's hot and too close, too intimate with most people and how will he know when it's done?
Nie Huaisang, who interprets the squirming as enjoyment, lets go.
"The golden ratio class is great. I wish all of my classes were like that. --Of course, most of them are."
Oh good the hug is over.
"That's good. Which of them is your favorite?"
Mal-checking time while he makes listening noises.
"I'm really excited about Prehistoric Art for my history class. I hope I get caveman spells."
Nod nod.
"Mhm. That would be cool."
"It could decorate your wizard's tower, right?"
-mal-checking is important.
Tomonori nods and smiles before he can get too distracted by that.
"-yeah! Maybe. It would be really hard to make one, so probably I'll need to use someone else's, and then it won't be a tower but it'll be a skyscraper instead. Towers are better because they're more practical but still tall enough that people can see them. What would you draw?"
"If I were decorating your tower? Presumably it depends on your taste in decorations!"
"But you have to have a mummified crocodile hanging from the rafters. It's traditional."
"Really? Is there a reason?"
Most traditions don't have good reasons, Tomonori has found.
"I think just because it looks cool? Which is the most important thing."
Most traditions don't have good reasons, Tomonori continues to find.
"Okay. Did you get to draw anything on your first day? In Prehistoric Art?"
"No! We just learned about tools that are older than anatomically modern humans!" He shows Tomonori the pictures in his textbook.
Tomonori appreciates these drawings way more than anything Nie Huaisang has shown him so far! Ancient tools are fascinating!
"What about this one, what does this part do?"
It turns out that Nie Huaisang is both excited by and surprisingly well-informed about prehistoric tools, particularly ones that are used for something important like sewing. He can draw so many inferences about what it must have been like to work with leather.
Tomonori thinks prehistoric tools are neat! Tools in general are neat, of course, but he's curious what magic could do with leather-
"Does your enclave have any artifice that uses leather? Animal parts are usually alchemy but leather seems more like an artificing material-"
"There's a leather jacket that Madame Yu has that's armor against mals."
"No tools...do you think I should learn to make leather tools? Oh, but you have the class- can you share these pictures with me every time?"
"Yeah, of course. You're helping me in lab."
Cool!!!
Tomonori will spend the rest of their study time excitedly rambling about Buddhist mantras, which he hopes to learn a lot more about going forward, and will gamely demonstrate intense curiosity about whatever Nie Huaisang tells him about his classes.