Cold Play
folder
Gravitation › General
Rating:
Adult +
Chapters:
8
Views:
3,578
Reviews:
37
Recommended:
0
Currently Reading:
0
Category:
Gravitation › General
Rating:
Adult +
Chapters:
8
Views:
3,578
Reviews:
37
Recommended:
0
Currently Reading:
0
Disclaimer:
I do not own Gravitation, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.
Confucianism and THAT
AN: AHHH! I'm soo soo soo sorry! I had completely skipped a chapter!!!! AH! Sumimasen! I hope I didn't ruin anything! I'm sorry!
Chapter Two: Confucianism and THAT
Genesis high school was a very prestigious school. There weren’t very many things you could do to be eligible in attending the school, and if you were rich the answer would still be ‘maybe’.
Influence and connections would only get you so far, maybe enough to meet the school head where if you threw yourself down on the ground, begged, or threatened to kill yourself, or the principal for the matter, you might only receive one of two responses: No, and no.
The best ticket into the academy was only one thing: talent.
So the story goes that ten years ago, Seguchi Tohma awoke one dreary morning in his luxurious house to find himself wondering what his purpose in life was. Talented himself, bored with being surrounded by idiots, and not wanting for his life to continue on like so, the man built himself a school. With it, he promised he would gather only the most talented of children in the world, school them properly and send them all into the world armed with figurative bazookas while children from lesser schools were armed with only water guns.
When Seguchi had hired the construction teams to build his school, he was certain all would be perfect…except he’d had one oversight: He had forgotten the beliefs of superstitions. Such a proper man in his early twenties never believed in such things and that may have been the reason why he was quite ahead in his life but, needless to say, the perfect man had allowed a flaw in his building.
That flaw existed in the form of a certain Room Four.
Sensibly enough, the rooms were lined in the sequence of one to six, with year levels marked 1-1, 1-2, 1-3, 1-4, 1-5, 1-6, so on and so forth. But the unlucky number four had not been done without, much the same way most high rise building exist with a mysteriously missing 13th floor.
When he found himself with this dilemma, it had worried him. There were, after all, families out there with astonishingly talented children who still believed in preposterous housewives’ pish-posh. Families who believed the hundred-year-old sayings and used them to keep their kids in line. To accommodate his superstitious and often wealthy clientele, even if he didn’t want to because it meant lost profits, Seguchi-san barricaded the doorway of Room Four. And when the complaints persisted, he was finally forced to cement the whole frame of the damn door.
Well that cemented room couldn’t be there forever with students pouring in from all over the world! The room was needed, the door block had to be undone; with a little discount on scholarships and such, willing students were assembled to comprise room number four. There were twenty-four of the lucky little miscreants. In the formula of fourteen girls and ten boys, sweet class number four was created.
Sweet as poison, that is.
Poor Seguchi had no idea where he went wrong. The students had seemed nice enough when he interviewed and admitted them, but the trouble had only begun brewing.
Every year for the past four years, the principal found himself receiving mountains of resignation letters. It had gotten quite out of hand in that he found himself facing numerous submissions every semester. If he had wanted to, the man could have created a scrapbook! Now the submissions themselves, despite the unusually high volume, were not the problem. It was that the departing teachers and submitted resignations were accompanied by the nastiest of rumors that Class Four was solely to blame for each and every one.
“What am I doing wrong?” Seguchi had asked himself, all alone in his office late one night. “Why are you doing this?” he agonized. He could think of no answer, and so resorted to the practice that always solved things for him in the past.
Research.
The next day, class four and the rest of the school expected the principal to customarily shout his head off for their usual transgressions; instead they were faced with a transformed man. Tohma, with dark bags beneath his weary eyes, calmly stepped from his office, assessed the damage, paid for its reparations, smiled beatifically at the students and went right back into his office as if nothing had ever been wrong.
From that day forward, Seguchi Tohma was a changed man. His calm and unflappable façade was born…and no one understood why.
O-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-O
If one was to look at the history of class four, one would see one thing had remained constant since the beginning of its time: Its students had always been possessive of everything.
From partnership pairings with underclassmen, to class projects selection, class four was vicious in keeping their staked claims over their ‘possessions’. It didn’t help that they stood in solidarity over the matter, one of the few things they could all agreed on, like a little army of the republic of class four.
Their motto: Mess with one, face the whole.
Perhaps the only person unaffected by this was Yuki Eiri, the newest addition to the class, over whom too many had laid claim. Not even class four’s force could do anything about that. But that was the class’ worst kept secret, and the only unofficial exception.
What was not an exception however, included the dearly loved Shindou-sensei, recent addition to class four’s list of ‘belongings’. He was their teacher, their instructor and most definitely the class was his self-proclaimed first and utmost priority. Woe will betide anyone who defied this golden rule. Naturally it followed all twenty-four students of class four could be found sharpening their knives when, in the middle of a lecture, an underclassman from 3-5 unceremoniously interrupted to engage their teacher in a little chat…
“Really sensei?” the boy asked, “You really think I’ll pass the test?”
In the back row, the most possessive of them all, Yuki Eiri’s temper fuse began to recede like the countdown on an angrily ticking bomb. Was this the same geek who couldn’t pass his Nationals Test? More importantly, the class collectively fumed; didn’t the boy have his own teacher to run to?
“Yes. You really will!” the teacher excitedly replied.
Eiri’s breath hitched when he heard that laugh, that uplifting song that was surely heaven made. However, the blonde frowned and focused more on the fact that his sensei had disregarded class in the middle of a lecture. All it had taken was for a junior to come in to ask for the kind sensei’s blessing before taking a pre Nationals Test. Angrily, he contemplated how his sensei had stopped everything just to fucking talk to a damned junior geek…
When another laugh burst from the duo in front of the room, Yuki Eiri decided he’d had enough. God, fucking gullible! He inwardly screamed, didn’t the teacher know he belonged to class four? Didn’t the man know how jealous he got when he wasn’t the one making his teacher laugh like that?
Eiri paused. Did he just admit he was fucking jealous of a junior? That made him even madder.
Shuichi had only caught a glance of Eiri walking towards the door when he suddenly remembered his class…which currently was not yet over.
“Eh? Yuki-kun? Where are you going? Class isn’t over-”
“I’m leaving.” He interrupted flatly, slinging his bag over his shoulders, and then repeating for unnecessary emphasis, “Leaving.”
“But Yuki-kun," Shuichi called, his attention back to his class, “We aren’t finished with the lecture yet. We still have-”
“It doesn’t look like it to me.” Eiri replied throwing a hard gaze at his teacher, before ignoring the man’s expression of shock and hurt, and exited the classroom. As he shut the door behind him, Eiri heard countless chairs scraping back as well…
“You’re such an idiot, Sensei.” One of the students scolded, and it wasn’t sounding like much of a joke either.
The departing student looked over his shoulder as he walked away to see a large group of fellow students trooping out after his lead, leaving the room just as he’d done. Most threw passing reprimands at their heavenly teacher, certainly maiming him from flying with his usual zeal.
O-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-O
“Do you think sensei will be alright?” Hanako asked, quite concerned.
The students had no where to go without looking suspicious and so set their warring camp on the rooftop of Genesis’ main building.
Eiri had just been listening from around the corner, behind the stairwell wall, as the other students vented their anger for their teacher. Four hours later everyone had exhausted themselves complaining, yet no one moved a muscle to go back inside.
Then the girls started, whispering to each other about their Sensei’s shocked and hurt expression when, quote, ‘his little babies turned on him one by one.’ They described the expression which had accompanied this statement, one that more than a few saw. Those who overheard how their actions had affected their Sensei nervously avoided eye contact, obviously more than a little guilty.
Even Eiri.
“Wasn’t that a little too mean?” Anne whispered, one of Hanako’s circle of friends.
“I think we really did a number on him,” another interjected from outside the group, a guy this time.
The eavesdropper silently agreed. One student insulting a teacher was bad enough, but to see twenty-four others up and leave the class without explanation? That and the harsh words they’d parted with… it must have truly hurt. Eiri berated himself. He felt he was to blame for instigating the whole thing. Even if he hadn’t planned how the whole class would follow up on the whole ‘mess with one, face the whole’ motto, he should have considered how anger had ways of re-awakening old habits.
The blonde’s ears perked when he heard a girl’s muted cry, “This is all Yuki-kun’s fault!”
“Don’t talk like that about him, he’s one of us!” argued a male voice. “Besides, sensei was the one who wasn’t paying attention to us!”
“You’re just in love with Yuki-kun…”
“I’m straight, damn it!!”
At that, Yuki had to shake his head. True no one could see him from where he stood, but didn’t they ever think to check who might overhear them before speaking? Of course not. He stealthily sidled up behind the little group, casting a sudden shadow over them. Startled, they looked over behind and…
“Yu-Yuki-kun!” someone squeaked.
Eiri stood menacingly over them, eyes scanning the crowd of frightened eyes, a cigarette hanging out of the corner of his lips. It made most of them blush in deep shades of red.
Putting out the flame of his ‘cancer stick’ Eiri wordlessly picked up his bag and headed back inside.
O-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-O
Truth to be told, Eiri was worried.
Not a large worry, just a small one…
Small yet significant… He wasn’t certain he liked it, he had never cared before.
But he had been flooded with guilt from the very moment he’d seen his teacher’s wounded expression. He was almost dizzy with his anger, but still he remembered the teacher’s very clear reactions. How that smooth face had creased, those perfectly shaped eyebrows drawing together in confusion, and shoulders gently sagging. He could only imagine how Shuichi must have felt when most of the class had successively thrown in their own harsh words.
“Prince Shoutoku during the Asuka period is the one who mainly promoted two kinds of religion in Japan…”
Eiri slumped against the wall by classroom four, recognizing his sensei’s voice from the room next door. It was heavier than usual, but it still had a tone of sweetness that made Eiri’s toes curl.
“The two main religions were Buddhism, and Confucianism,” Eiri listened to the muffled voice travel, and absently deduced the man was walking around the room while reading aloud. “Buddhism is a religion originally from India, and Confucianism is a belief of respect. The great supporter of this at the time, Shoutoku, quoted, ‘A man must have discipline and respect first, if to be expected to rise beyond man’s expectation.’” There was an abnormally long pause before Shindou-sensei continued, “Through Shoutoku’s promotion, and Suiko-hime’s [1] urgings, both subjects were finally accepted in Japan-”
‘DING. DING. DING.’
Eiri listened to the feet shuffling inside the room, and a moment later both sets of classroom doors opened to free the enslaved students. Unlike he, they didn’t seem to appreciate listening to the teacher’s voice. As if blind, the students trudged past him. Soon, he knew, a certain teacher would emerge…
He hadn’t planned this far. He was torn between walking away and wanting to see how his sensei was. The room was right next door to his anyway and it was now lunch time, so he had a valid reason for being in the hallway. He would face the man and just be careful not to show his true intentions--
“Yuki-kun!” exclaimed a startled voice.
Eiri turned and stared deeply into Shindou-sensei’s violet eyes. Both were silent for a moment, the sound of his name echoing in Eiri’s head.
Shindou-sensei’s welcoming smile wasn’t the same but at least it was still a smile, and his eyes were darker though they still sparkled. Eiri noticed his sensei’s full pink lips, the bare bit of chest peeking from the slightly parted shirt…
Okay getting out of hand there, Eiri thought, shaking inside.
“Anoo…etoo…” Shuichi stammered before blurting, “I have extra lunch. Would you like to claim it?”
Eiri blinked.
Blushing a little, Shindou-sensei explained, “You see, Noriko-san wanted me to give her some more…after last time, but she’s not here today since Principal Seguchi has her looking after another class…” The man trailed off, obviously flustered, but offered a sheepish little smile. “I would normally hand it over to Hanako-chan, but she left early today…. after everyone else did…” He looked away, expression downcast.
Quietly, so Eiri had to strain to hear, Shindou-sensei murmured, “I was just thinking that since you’re here and it is lunch time, you might…” He trailed off again. Looking embarrassed, he spoke up again, the words making Eiri’s fluttering heart suddenly sink down to his stomach, “Never mind. I’ll guess I’ll just wait for Hanako-chan and her friends to come by.” Shindou-sensei turned to retreat back into the classroom, shoulders slumped in defeat, and it was only then the wheels started spinning in Eiri’s head.
Lunch with Shuichi… and those bitches? As if…
“Sure, sensei.” Eiri smirked inwardly at the teacher’s slow-motioned turn. He shrugged, “I’ll eat. I’m hungry anyway.” Then, as if the morning’s events had never happened, Shindou-sensei’s smile came slowly sweeping across his face, and those mournful amethyst eyes brightened and widened, reminding him of purple lilies during a storm.
“I’m so relieved!” Eiri heard the Baka excitedly say. His Baka… He liked the ring to it. His Baka, who was now hopping about like a maniac looking as though Christmas had come early. The man pulled out a rather large, traditional bento box with ten wooden layers and pretty soon, Eiri found a buffet of home-cooking set out before him. The food wasn’t five starred, but any day Shindou-sensei ever asked the boy to eat with him again, Eiri was certain not to give a damn.
Halfway through lunch period, Eiri realized he’d never felt as lighthearted as did at that moment. Sensei told him jokes, which made him smile inside even though his expression remained coolly unchanged. Suddenly, one quip made Eiri smile outright and it was then he realized he was having fun… maybe, too much fun…
God! He had just figured out a few weeks ago that he liked his sensei…but not, not in THAT way!
Right?
Right?!
“I- I have to go now sensei.” Eiri said abruptly, quickly getting to his feet, his expression darkening. Shindou-sensei stared up at him, startled, eyes a little wide.
“O-of course…”
Eiri turned away, but still felt the gaze on his back. A few steps away, he was arrested when that lovely voice hesitantly called to him, “Yuki-kun?” Half-turning, he met Shindou-sensei’s warm eyes, uncertain of what to expect.
Smiling, Sensei spoke gently, “If you see the others. Tell them I miss them… Okay?”
Eiri paused. He could see his teacher wasn’t angry, as usual, for his class’ disrespectful antics. Carefully, he nodded, turned on his heel and left. He walked away rapidly, needing to get away… and it wasn’t until he was half way up the stairs that he remembered his bag.
Shit, Eiri thought, and with the distance he had covered he was getting rather tired. He didn’t really want to go back to the room, but then again there was the added bonus of seeing his teacher again…
By the time he finished deciding what to do, it was already belated. His feet were carrying him forward by themselves… It was as if the thought of seeing his pink-haired baka, someone way older than he and his teacher to boot, motivated his body to go. His feet followed his body’s desires, and he resisted the urge to run.
He didn’t like him THAT way right? He growled to himself as he pushed the classroom door open. This was crazy.
“Sense-” Eiri cut himself off. His heart suddenly sped up in pace and his feet became heavy. His lungs strained for air, and sight before him wasn’t helping him get any much needed oxygen…
His sensei…
Asleep.
Hair over his eyes, head resting in folded arms, cheek against his elbow.
Eiri silently made his way into the room, sliding the door shut noiselessly behind him. But instead of going for his bag lying just across his sensei’s desk, he went the opposite way heading for a much greater prize. The serenely sleeping man entranced him, the slow rise and fall of breath hypnotized him, and on a choked breath he called the man’s name again. There was no reply, and the student knew there was no holding back…
Without a second thought Eiri’s left hand slowly lifted, reached… and finally touched the older man’s head to slide slowly, lightly, over the pale pink head. The strands were softer than they looked, and he let them slip between his fingers as his hand made its way down to one pale cheek. Carefully, he made his way around the table, never breaking contact until he could slowly get down on one knee. There beside his Sensei, closer than he had ever been before, he took in the man’s delicate features, eyes sliding over every angelic detail… the journey ending at those pink, luscious lips. His eyes froze on that soft bow, focused intently.
“Sensei,” he wanted to be sure the man was really asleep. “Shindou-sensei…” He whispered again, bending, nearing, the smooth face growing in his vision. He didn’t like the man THAT way… but just the smallest touch of those lips…or just the cheek for the matter… just one…
Unexpectedly, the older man stirred in his sleep and the student immediately noticed the red tint blooming across those tender cheeks. He breathed one word, just one, and it stopped Eiri cold as though suddenly frozen.
Still watching those tender lips, the movement of them softly caressing the whispered words, “Yu…Yuki-kun…”
He gasped in shock, snapping out of the spell. Abruptly aware of how he must look, Eiri realized what he was doing… had been about to do. Almost stumbling, he hurriedly stepped away. Shindou-sensei was waking! Adrenaline pumped through him, the awareness of the disaster that had almost happened dousing him icily. He dashed to the desk, snatched his bag and ran, ignoring the crash of breaking ornaments he had knocked over.
O-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-O
Part of the young man’s panic was the realization that he didn’t need to touch his Sensei to continue liking the man. He might have gotten into such big trouble over something he didn’t need complicating his life! Eiri knew he was already infatuated with his teacher and perhaps it would only have made matters worse had he really gone ahead and touched the sleeping beauty. Regardless, this would indeed need some serious pondering on his part to--
“OW!”
Yuki shook his head free of his panic and out of his daze, immediately pulling on his mask of calm demeanor. With his signature glare on full power he glanced down at…
“Hanako?” He frowned. “What are you doing here?” his tone implied she’d just trespassed on something completely forbidden… which at this moment had been his daydream, never mind it was but shattering dreams.
Without warning, Hanako began to sob violently, “It’s not fair!” she shouted, almost causing Eiri to drop his guard in surprise, “It’s just not fair!” she screamed it this time, breaking into complete hysterics before wailing, “They-They’re going to transfer Sensei out of our class!”
Eiri’s insensitive façade of character, the guarded attitude that had made everything about him so mysterious, vanished completely in an instant. His gut twisted, and his breath was chased away.
Hanako wept brokenly, “Seguchi-san said he’s going to take away Shindou-sensei!”
O-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-O
AN: Well, there’s second chapter for you. Please leave me any comment! ^_^Thanks.
[1] Princess (author’s note) Hime is basically ‘princess’ however, I used it wrong on Suiko-sama, because she is actually an empress…I think. But anyways, I’m sorry if I’ve forgotten my Japanese history lesson ^^
Chapter Two: Confucianism and THAT
Genesis high school was a very prestigious school. There weren’t very many things you could do to be eligible in attending the school, and if you were rich the answer would still be ‘maybe’.
Influence and connections would only get you so far, maybe enough to meet the school head where if you threw yourself down on the ground, begged, or threatened to kill yourself, or the principal for the matter, you might only receive one of two responses: No, and no.
The best ticket into the academy was only one thing: talent.
So the story goes that ten years ago, Seguchi Tohma awoke one dreary morning in his luxurious house to find himself wondering what his purpose in life was. Talented himself, bored with being surrounded by idiots, and not wanting for his life to continue on like so, the man built himself a school. With it, he promised he would gather only the most talented of children in the world, school them properly and send them all into the world armed with figurative bazookas while children from lesser schools were armed with only water guns.
When Seguchi had hired the construction teams to build his school, he was certain all would be perfect…except he’d had one oversight: He had forgotten the beliefs of superstitions. Such a proper man in his early twenties never believed in such things and that may have been the reason why he was quite ahead in his life but, needless to say, the perfect man had allowed a flaw in his building.
That flaw existed in the form of a certain Room Four.
Sensibly enough, the rooms were lined in the sequence of one to six, with year levels marked 1-1, 1-2, 1-3, 1-4, 1-5, 1-6, so on and so forth. But the unlucky number four had not been done without, much the same way most high rise building exist with a mysteriously missing 13th floor.
When he found himself with this dilemma, it had worried him. There were, after all, families out there with astonishingly talented children who still believed in preposterous housewives’ pish-posh. Families who believed the hundred-year-old sayings and used them to keep their kids in line. To accommodate his superstitious and often wealthy clientele, even if he didn’t want to because it meant lost profits, Seguchi-san barricaded the doorway of Room Four. And when the complaints persisted, he was finally forced to cement the whole frame of the damn door.
Well that cemented room couldn’t be there forever with students pouring in from all over the world! The room was needed, the door block had to be undone; with a little discount on scholarships and such, willing students were assembled to comprise room number four. There were twenty-four of the lucky little miscreants. In the formula of fourteen girls and ten boys, sweet class number four was created.
Sweet as poison, that is.
Poor Seguchi had no idea where he went wrong. The students had seemed nice enough when he interviewed and admitted them, but the trouble had only begun brewing.
Every year for the past four years, the principal found himself receiving mountains of resignation letters. It had gotten quite out of hand in that he found himself facing numerous submissions every semester. If he had wanted to, the man could have created a scrapbook! Now the submissions themselves, despite the unusually high volume, were not the problem. It was that the departing teachers and submitted resignations were accompanied by the nastiest of rumors that Class Four was solely to blame for each and every one.
“What am I doing wrong?” Seguchi had asked himself, all alone in his office late one night. “Why are you doing this?” he agonized. He could think of no answer, and so resorted to the practice that always solved things for him in the past.
Research.
The next day, class four and the rest of the school expected the principal to customarily shout his head off for their usual transgressions; instead they were faced with a transformed man. Tohma, with dark bags beneath his weary eyes, calmly stepped from his office, assessed the damage, paid for its reparations, smiled beatifically at the students and went right back into his office as if nothing had ever been wrong.
From that day forward, Seguchi Tohma was a changed man. His calm and unflappable façade was born…and no one understood why.
O-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-O
If one was to look at the history of class four, one would see one thing had remained constant since the beginning of its time: Its students had always been possessive of everything.
From partnership pairings with underclassmen, to class projects selection, class four was vicious in keeping their staked claims over their ‘possessions’. It didn’t help that they stood in solidarity over the matter, one of the few things they could all agreed on, like a little army of the republic of class four.
Their motto: Mess with one, face the whole.
Perhaps the only person unaffected by this was Yuki Eiri, the newest addition to the class, over whom too many had laid claim. Not even class four’s force could do anything about that. But that was the class’ worst kept secret, and the only unofficial exception.
What was not an exception however, included the dearly loved Shindou-sensei, recent addition to class four’s list of ‘belongings’. He was their teacher, their instructor and most definitely the class was his self-proclaimed first and utmost priority. Woe will betide anyone who defied this golden rule. Naturally it followed all twenty-four students of class four could be found sharpening their knives when, in the middle of a lecture, an underclassman from 3-5 unceremoniously interrupted to engage their teacher in a little chat…
“Really sensei?” the boy asked, “You really think I’ll pass the test?”
In the back row, the most possessive of them all, Yuki Eiri’s temper fuse began to recede like the countdown on an angrily ticking bomb. Was this the same geek who couldn’t pass his Nationals Test? More importantly, the class collectively fumed; didn’t the boy have his own teacher to run to?
“Yes. You really will!” the teacher excitedly replied.
Eiri’s breath hitched when he heard that laugh, that uplifting song that was surely heaven made. However, the blonde frowned and focused more on the fact that his sensei had disregarded class in the middle of a lecture. All it had taken was for a junior to come in to ask for the kind sensei’s blessing before taking a pre Nationals Test. Angrily, he contemplated how his sensei had stopped everything just to fucking talk to a damned junior geek…
When another laugh burst from the duo in front of the room, Yuki Eiri decided he’d had enough. God, fucking gullible! He inwardly screamed, didn’t the teacher know he belonged to class four? Didn’t the man know how jealous he got when he wasn’t the one making his teacher laugh like that?
Eiri paused. Did he just admit he was fucking jealous of a junior? That made him even madder.
Shuichi had only caught a glance of Eiri walking towards the door when he suddenly remembered his class…which currently was not yet over.
“Eh? Yuki-kun? Where are you going? Class isn’t over-”
“I’m leaving.” He interrupted flatly, slinging his bag over his shoulders, and then repeating for unnecessary emphasis, “Leaving.”
“But Yuki-kun," Shuichi called, his attention back to his class, “We aren’t finished with the lecture yet. We still have-”
“It doesn’t look like it to me.” Eiri replied throwing a hard gaze at his teacher, before ignoring the man’s expression of shock and hurt, and exited the classroom. As he shut the door behind him, Eiri heard countless chairs scraping back as well…
“You’re such an idiot, Sensei.” One of the students scolded, and it wasn’t sounding like much of a joke either.
The departing student looked over his shoulder as he walked away to see a large group of fellow students trooping out after his lead, leaving the room just as he’d done. Most threw passing reprimands at their heavenly teacher, certainly maiming him from flying with his usual zeal.
O-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-O
“Do you think sensei will be alright?” Hanako asked, quite concerned.
The students had no where to go without looking suspicious and so set their warring camp on the rooftop of Genesis’ main building.
Eiri had just been listening from around the corner, behind the stairwell wall, as the other students vented their anger for their teacher. Four hours later everyone had exhausted themselves complaining, yet no one moved a muscle to go back inside.
Then the girls started, whispering to each other about their Sensei’s shocked and hurt expression when, quote, ‘his little babies turned on him one by one.’ They described the expression which had accompanied this statement, one that more than a few saw. Those who overheard how their actions had affected their Sensei nervously avoided eye contact, obviously more than a little guilty.
Even Eiri.
“Wasn’t that a little too mean?” Anne whispered, one of Hanako’s circle of friends.
“I think we really did a number on him,” another interjected from outside the group, a guy this time.
The eavesdropper silently agreed. One student insulting a teacher was bad enough, but to see twenty-four others up and leave the class without explanation? That and the harsh words they’d parted with… it must have truly hurt. Eiri berated himself. He felt he was to blame for instigating the whole thing. Even if he hadn’t planned how the whole class would follow up on the whole ‘mess with one, face the whole’ motto, he should have considered how anger had ways of re-awakening old habits.
The blonde’s ears perked when he heard a girl’s muted cry, “This is all Yuki-kun’s fault!”
“Don’t talk like that about him, he’s one of us!” argued a male voice. “Besides, sensei was the one who wasn’t paying attention to us!”
“You’re just in love with Yuki-kun…”
“I’m straight, damn it!!”
At that, Yuki had to shake his head. True no one could see him from where he stood, but didn’t they ever think to check who might overhear them before speaking? Of course not. He stealthily sidled up behind the little group, casting a sudden shadow over them. Startled, they looked over behind and…
“Yu-Yuki-kun!” someone squeaked.
Eiri stood menacingly over them, eyes scanning the crowd of frightened eyes, a cigarette hanging out of the corner of his lips. It made most of them blush in deep shades of red.
Putting out the flame of his ‘cancer stick’ Eiri wordlessly picked up his bag and headed back inside.
O-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-O
Truth to be told, Eiri was worried.
Not a large worry, just a small one…
Small yet significant… He wasn’t certain he liked it, he had never cared before.
But he had been flooded with guilt from the very moment he’d seen his teacher’s wounded expression. He was almost dizzy with his anger, but still he remembered the teacher’s very clear reactions. How that smooth face had creased, those perfectly shaped eyebrows drawing together in confusion, and shoulders gently sagging. He could only imagine how Shuichi must have felt when most of the class had successively thrown in their own harsh words.
“Prince Shoutoku during the Asuka period is the one who mainly promoted two kinds of religion in Japan…”
Eiri slumped against the wall by classroom four, recognizing his sensei’s voice from the room next door. It was heavier than usual, but it still had a tone of sweetness that made Eiri’s toes curl.
“The two main religions were Buddhism, and Confucianism,” Eiri listened to the muffled voice travel, and absently deduced the man was walking around the room while reading aloud. “Buddhism is a religion originally from India, and Confucianism is a belief of respect. The great supporter of this at the time, Shoutoku, quoted, ‘A man must have discipline and respect first, if to be expected to rise beyond man’s expectation.’” There was an abnormally long pause before Shindou-sensei continued, “Through Shoutoku’s promotion, and Suiko-hime’s [1] urgings, both subjects were finally accepted in Japan-”
‘DING. DING. DING.’
Eiri listened to the feet shuffling inside the room, and a moment later both sets of classroom doors opened to free the enslaved students. Unlike he, they didn’t seem to appreciate listening to the teacher’s voice. As if blind, the students trudged past him. Soon, he knew, a certain teacher would emerge…
He hadn’t planned this far. He was torn between walking away and wanting to see how his sensei was. The room was right next door to his anyway and it was now lunch time, so he had a valid reason for being in the hallway. He would face the man and just be careful not to show his true intentions--
“Yuki-kun!” exclaimed a startled voice.
Eiri turned and stared deeply into Shindou-sensei’s violet eyes. Both were silent for a moment, the sound of his name echoing in Eiri’s head.
Shindou-sensei’s welcoming smile wasn’t the same but at least it was still a smile, and his eyes were darker though they still sparkled. Eiri noticed his sensei’s full pink lips, the bare bit of chest peeking from the slightly parted shirt…
Okay getting out of hand there, Eiri thought, shaking inside.
“Anoo…etoo…” Shuichi stammered before blurting, “I have extra lunch. Would you like to claim it?”
Eiri blinked.
Blushing a little, Shindou-sensei explained, “You see, Noriko-san wanted me to give her some more…after last time, but she’s not here today since Principal Seguchi has her looking after another class…” The man trailed off, obviously flustered, but offered a sheepish little smile. “I would normally hand it over to Hanako-chan, but she left early today…. after everyone else did…” He looked away, expression downcast.
Quietly, so Eiri had to strain to hear, Shindou-sensei murmured, “I was just thinking that since you’re here and it is lunch time, you might…” He trailed off again. Looking embarrassed, he spoke up again, the words making Eiri’s fluttering heart suddenly sink down to his stomach, “Never mind. I’ll guess I’ll just wait for Hanako-chan and her friends to come by.” Shindou-sensei turned to retreat back into the classroom, shoulders slumped in defeat, and it was only then the wheels started spinning in Eiri’s head.
Lunch with Shuichi… and those bitches? As if…
“Sure, sensei.” Eiri smirked inwardly at the teacher’s slow-motioned turn. He shrugged, “I’ll eat. I’m hungry anyway.” Then, as if the morning’s events had never happened, Shindou-sensei’s smile came slowly sweeping across his face, and those mournful amethyst eyes brightened and widened, reminding him of purple lilies during a storm.
“I’m so relieved!” Eiri heard the Baka excitedly say. His Baka… He liked the ring to it. His Baka, who was now hopping about like a maniac looking as though Christmas had come early. The man pulled out a rather large, traditional bento box with ten wooden layers and pretty soon, Eiri found a buffet of home-cooking set out before him. The food wasn’t five starred, but any day Shindou-sensei ever asked the boy to eat with him again, Eiri was certain not to give a damn.
Halfway through lunch period, Eiri realized he’d never felt as lighthearted as did at that moment. Sensei told him jokes, which made him smile inside even though his expression remained coolly unchanged. Suddenly, one quip made Eiri smile outright and it was then he realized he was having fun… maybe, too much fun…
God! He had just figured out a few weeks ago that he liked his sensei…but not, not in THAT way!
Right?
Right?!
“I- I have to go now sensei.” Eiri said abruptly, quickly getting to his feet, his expression darkening. Shindou-sensei stared up at him, startled, eyes a little wide.
“O-of course…”
Eiri turned away, but still felt the gaze on his back. A few steps away, he was arrested when that lovely voice hesitantly called to him, “Yuki-kun?” Half-turning, he met Shindou-sensei’s warm eyes, uncertain of what to expect.
Smiling, Sensei spoke gently, “If you see the others. Tell them I miss them… Okay?”
Eiri paused. He could see his teacher wasn’t angry, as usual, for his class’ disrespectful antics. Carefully, he nodded, turned on his heel and left. He walked away rapidly, needing to get away… and it wasn’t until he was half way up the stairs that he remembered his bag.
Shit, Eiri thought, and with the distance he had covered he was getting rather tired. He didn’t really want to go back to the room, but then again there was the added bonus of seeing his teacher again…
By the time he finished deciding what to do, it was already belated. His feet were carrying him forward by themselves… It was as if the thought of seeing his pink-haired baka, someone way older than he and his teacher to boot, motivated his body to go. His feet followed his body’s desires, and he resisted the urge to run.
He didn’t like him THAT way right? He growled to himself as he pushed the classroom door open. This was crazy.
“Sense-” Eiri cut himself off. His heart suddenly sped up in pace and his feet became heavy. His lungs strained for air, and sight before him wasn’t helping him get any much needed oxygen…
His sensei…
Asleep.
Hair over his eyes, head resting in folded arms, cheek against his elbow.
Eiri silently made his way into the room, sliding the door shut noiselessly behind him. But instead of going for his bag lying just across his sensei’s desk, he went the opposite way heading for a much greater prize. The serenely sleeping man entranced him, the slow rise and fall of breath hypnotized him, and on a choked breath he called the man’s name again. There was no reply, and the student knew there was no holding back…
Without a second thought Eiri’s left hand slowly lifted, reached… and finally touched the older man’s head to slide slowly, lightly, over the pale pink head. The strands were softer than they looked, and he let them slip between his fingers as his hand made its way down to one pale cheek. Carefully, he made his way around the table, never breaking contact until he could slowly get down on one knee. There beside his Sensei, closer than he had ever been before, he took in the man’s delicate features, eyes sliding over every angelic detail… the journey ending at those pink, luscious lips. His eyes froze on that soft bow, focused intently.
“Sensei,” he wanted to be sure the man was really asleep. “Shindou-sensei…” He whispered again, bending, nearing, the smooth face growing in his vision. He didn’t like the man THAT way… but just the smallest touch of those lips…or just the cheek for the matter… just one…
Unexpectedly, the older man stirred in his sleep and the student immediately noticed the red tint blooming across those tender cheeks. He breathed one word, just one, and it stopped Eiri cold as though suddenly frozen.
Still watching those tender lips, the movement of them softly caressing the whispered words, “Yu…Yuki-kun…”
He gasped in shock, snapping out of the spell. Abruptly aware of how he must look, Eiri realized what he was doing… had been about to do. Almost stumbling, he hurriedly stepped away. Shindou-sensei was waking! Adrenaline pumped through him, the awareness of the disaster that had almost happened dousing him icily. He dashed to the desk, snatched his bag and ran, ignoring the crash of breaking ornaments he had knocked over.
O-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-O
Part of the young man’s panic was the realization that he didn’t need to touch his Sensei to continue liking the man. He might have gotten into such big trouble over something he didn’t need complicating his life! Eiri knew he was already infatuated with his teacher and perhaps it would only have made matters worse had he really gone ahead and touched the sleeping beauty. Regardless, this would indeed need some serious pondering on his part to--
“OW!”
Yuki shook his head free of his panic and out of his daze, immediately pulling on his mask of calm demeanor. With his signature glare on full power he glanced down at…
“Hanako?” He frowned. “What are you doing here?” his tone implied she’d just trespassed on something completely forbidden… which at this moment had been his daydream, never mind it was but shattering dreams.
Without warning, Hanako began to sob violently, “It’s not fair!” she shouted, almost causing Eiri to drop his guard in surprise, “It’s just not fair!” she screamed it this time, breaking into complete hysterics before wailing, “They-They’re going to transfer Sensei out of our class!”
Eiri’s insensitive façade of character, the guarded attitude that had made everything about him so mysterious, vanished completely in an instant. His gut twisted, and his breath was chased away.
Hanako wept brokenly, “Seguchi-san said he’s going to take away Shindou-sensei!”
O-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-O
AN: Well, there’s second chapter for you. Please leave me any comment! ^_^Thanks.
[1] Princess (author’s note) Hime is basically ‘princess’ however, I used it wrong on Suiko-sama, because she is actually an empress…I think. But anyways, I’m sorry if I’ve forgotten my Japanese history lesson ^^