Chapter 81 “And with this, the Haro Kotogakko Annual School Festival will start… NOW!”
The crowd of students cheered as they all rose up to jump in joy. The principal on the stage smiled proudly, content by the excitement that he had created, and nodded as he went off stage. The students took this as their cue to disperse from the gymnasium and into the field or into their classrooms to take their respective places in their exhibits or booths. The gate of the school was already crowded with guests and visitors entering to join the party.
After weeks and weeks of preparations, today was finally the day! The school festival was finally here, and that meant food, fun, and entertainment. The fact that they had to wear uniforms for the entire day on a weekend didn’t flatter Eri to much, but Risa had reassured her that it would all be worth it in the end. The two girls were currently pushing through the crowd to get outside so they could meet up with their friends. At some point, Eri had been on the verge of being engulfed by the crowd so Risa, like the responsible and mature Iinchou she is, grabbed the turtle’s hand to keep her from getting lost. When they finally rediscovered air as the crowd thinned out, they found their school’s front field filled with rows and rows of booths, both for food and games. Eri squealed in excitement as Risa gasped in disbelief.
“Sugoi!” the turtle exclaimed. “Our school actually prepared this really well!”
“I know, it’s kind of surprising,” Risa laughed. “I was kind of disappointed last year but there seems to be a lot going on this year.”
“Nee, nee, we have to find Reina and the others before time runs out,” Eri urged. “There are a lot of people here so it might be difficult…”
“Um… maybe not as difficult as you may think.”
As Eri started to look around at her friend’s remark, Risa stretched out a finger to point at a girl who stuck out like a sore thumb amongst the crowd. Although her appearance was modest, her sheer beauty was enough to make Reina seem like a self-illuminating chandelier. She was wearing a white blouse with a matching white skirt, making her look innocent and pure, while her straight brown hair was slightly pulled back to give her a more mature image. She was leaning over one of the food stands, talking and laughing with a boy.
Eri puffed out one of her cheeks. What was Reina doing, socializing with a boy before she even finds Eri first? And from the way she was enjoying the conversation, one would even say she was flirting…
Clenching her fists, Eri stomped over to the food stand where Reina was standing with Risa hot on her trails. Trying to control her rage, Eri cleared her throat loudly to catch the kitten’s attention. Reina turned her head to spot her stiff girlfriend and smiled brightly, which destroyed some of the firm resolve that Eri had made.
“Eri!” Reina exclaimed. “You found me!”
“Yes, but weren’t you supposed to come find me?” Eri said, forcing a smile. “Or call me? Or something?”
“I was going to, but I wanted some taiyaki,” Reina giggled, holding up the wrapped up fish-shaped snack in her hand. “And then I met one of your classmates.”
“Is Reina-chan a friend of yours, Kamei?” the boy at the taiyaki stand asked, grinning. “I didn’t know you had friends at Morning Gakuen—”
“‘Reina-chan’?!” Eri shrilled, glaring at the boy. “What makes you think you have the right to call Reina by her given name? You just met her!”
The boy seemed taken aback by Eri’s sudden turn of attitude. “Uh… I…”
“Eri, it’s okay!” Reina intervened quickly. “I told him he can just call me Reina. Since he’s one of your good friends.”
“I get your frustration, Kameha, but could you just calm down a bit?” Risa muttered under her breath, just so that the turtle could hear.
“… Since when are you a good friend of mine?” Eri asked the boy, raising an eyebrow.
“Aw~ come on, don’t be like that, Kamei,” the boy laughed nervously. “We’ve always been tight, haven’t we? S-so, Reina-chan, do you want to exchange email addresses with me?”
“What an idiot,” Risa whispered.
“Reina, let’s go!” Eri insisted, grabbing her girlfriend’s hand to drag her away from the food stand. If she stayed there any longer, she knew she would’ve thrown a burning taiyaki at that boy.
“Thanks for the food!” Reina yelled at the boy, waving.
Rolling her eyes, Eri further pulled her girlfriend into the crowd and squeezed her way through until she found an open space where air was available again. Only then did she stop and turn to glare at the clueless kitten who was chewing on the taiyaki in her hand. Risa got a worried look on her face but decided not to say anything. It was never a good idea to get in between a lovers’ quarrel.
“How could you just be eating at a time like this?” Eri scolded angrily.
“Eri, what’s your problem?” Reina asked, still confused by her girlfriend’s fury. “I was just hungry, that’s all.”
“But you shouldn’t have gone off without finding me first!” Eri retorted back. “Walking around alone, getting food alone… I thought we were doing all that together?”
“Oh, did you want some, too?” Reina held out the taiyaki towards Eri.
“No!” Eri pushed her girlfriend’s hand away roughly, causing the taiyaki to drop to the ground. Reina gasped as her expression became that of despair.
“I was going to finish that!” she whined. “It was so good…”
“Forget the food, Reina!” Eri groaned. “You shouldn’t have gone off to the festival alone anyway.”
“I didn’t just decide to go off to the festival,” Reina replied, raising an eyebrow while crossing her arms. “I was looking for you and then your classmate offered me a free taiyaki, so I accepted.”
“And that’s another thing,” Eri growled. “You just decided to stand there and… and… flirt with him! While I was looking for you everywhere!”
“… Ara!” Reina’s face suddenly brightened as her eyes lit up. Then, just as quickly, her eyes narrowed and a smile formed by her lips. “Eri, are you… jealous?”
“I’m not jealous!” Eri denied, the red blush in her cheeks telling otherwise. Reina’s smile grew bigger as she was amused by her girlfriend’s pure reaction. Risa accidently let out a small chuckle, which allowed her to receive much glaring from her turtle friend. The bean quickly bit down on her lips to prevent any more laughter from escaping, but Reina’s grin remained plastered on her face. “Stop smiling!”
“Okay, okay,” Reina said, holding up her hands in defense, still smiling. “I was wrong to have gone off without finding you first. And I’m sorry for upsetting you.” She took Eri’s hands in hers gently as she leaned forward to kiss her sweetly on the lips. Eri’s eyes widened in surprise as Risa cleared her throat and looked around aimlessly for a while so as not to direct her attention too much to the couple in front of her. Then, Reina stepped away with a grin and winked. “But you know you’re the only one for me anyway.”
Eri blushed again as she cast her eyes down in embarrassment. “… Not in public, Reina…” The kitten laughed in response.
“It’s okay, nobody saw us,” she shrugged. “There’s a lot of people but they’re all minding their own business.”
“Or trying to mind their own business,” the bean cut in, looking a bit awkward. “I don’t think we said our greetings yet so… it’s good to see you again, Tanakacchi.”
“Mm, you too, Gaki-san.” She quickly linked her arm with Eri’s, attaching herself to the turtle protectively. Her lips pursed into a tight smile that Risa could tell was forced. But what other kind of treatment could she have expected. After all, today was the day that she and Eri would be playing a fantasy couple in the play. Even if it was just acting, Risa figured it would still probably bother the kitten quite a bit.
“So where are Junjun and the others?” Eri asked. “I thought she was going to visit too?”
“She was going to come with her full gang,” Reina answered. “She should be here somewhere…”
Risa started to look around again, hoping to find the others just as easily as she found the kitten. As she shuffled around, turning her head this way and that, she almost fell as she bumped into someone. Yelling out an apology, the bean whipped around to find a cute girl with short wavy hair. She was wearing a flowery dress that gave her a very girlish look, which matched the bow in her hair that was designed in a similar flower pattern. She was quite tall but her babyish face told otherwise about her age; she seemed to be a middle school student, or a freshman in high school at most.
“Gomen!” Risa apologized. “I didn’t see you behind me.”
“It’s okay,” the girl replied, smiling a little. “I wasn’t watching where I was going either.”
Suddenly, a different person grabbed the short-haired girl’s arm to get her attention. She seemed to be around the same age but a couple inches shorter. Her husky voice rang out in between puffs of air.
“Mai!” she breathed hard, exhausted from a chase. “I told you not to run off like that!”
“Ara.” Reina raised her eyebrows in surprise as she turned her attention towards the two girls in front of the bean. “It’s Chisa. And Mai is here too?”
“Tanaka-san!” Chisato exclaimed. “It’s been a while, hasn’t it?”
“Yeah, oshisashiburi.” The ex-yankii smiled as she turned to her girlfriend to explain. “This is Okai Chisato. She’s one of Junjun’s underlings. And Hagiwara Mai. She’s not in our gang but—”
“She’s my girlfriend,” Chisato announced proudly, putting her arm around the lady-like girl. “Kawaii desho?”
“Don’t say things like that, Chisa…” Mai mumbled, embarassed.
“You two are back together again?” Reina laughed. “So how many times have you guys exactly gone on and off?”
“We lost count,” Chisato admitted, shrugging. “But this time, it’s real. I can only love Mai.”
“I only love Chisa, too,” Mai said, smiling.
“That’s what they said last time,” Reina mumbled to her girlfriend quietly, “before they started to get into arguments again a week later. They’re always like that.”
“You must be Kame-chan!” Chisato exclaimed suddenly, grinning at Eri. “I’ve heard about you from Riida. I’m Okai Chisato. Yoroshiku.”
“H-hai! I’m Kamei Eri,” the turtle nodded, introducing herself. She figured Junjun must’ve been utilizing the little “turtle” nickname quite a lot for people to know her just by “Kame-chan” now.
“Oi, where are the others?” Reina asked. “If you’re here, that means Junjun is too, right?”
“Yup, that’s what it means!”
All the girls looked up at the familiar voice to spot another group of delinquents stepping towards them. The tall black-haired girl who had just spoken was in the lead, and next to her was a pale-skinned girl, hugging a ridiculously large stuffed bunny. A couple of other girls trailed behind the two, sticking close to one another to indicate who was paired up with whom. Eri was quite surprised to find that most of the girls were actually quite cute and did not look like the yankii type at all. But she would still take care to not piss any of them off. After all, she had seen how sweet little Aika could immediately turn into a lethal murderer by simply pulling out a knife. In fact, the turtle thought to herself that she wouldn’t be surprised if each one of the delinquents were hiding some sort of weapon on their body.
“We actually got here pretty early,” Junjun explained, “but Sayu wanted the bunny so I was winning it for her at a game booth.”
“I never said I wanted it,” Sayumi muttered. But contrary to her words, she hugged the stuffed animal even tighter than before.
“Okay, fine, I wanted you to have it,” the panda rephrased, grinning. She was used to her girlfriend’s little push-and-pull act by now, and had decided to just play along for most of the time.
“Tanaka-senpai!” Aika exclaimed happily, beaming at her previous leader. “Osu!”
“Yappi,” Reina smiled, waving at her kouhai.
“Kamei-san, oshisashiburi desu ne?” Linlin greeted brightly, turning to the turtle and her friend. “And this is…?”
“Ah, this is my best friend, minna,” Eri quickly introduced, realizing her bean friend must be feeling pretty out of the loop by now. It wasn’t every day you faced a group of yankii girls in one meeting.
“Niigaki Risa desu,” the iinchou said. “Yoroshiku onegaishimasu.” She was surprisingly calm with the whole situation. Eri figured that the friendly appearance of all the delinquents softened up her nerves.
“I’m Junjun, Reina’s friend,” the yankii leader said. “And this is my girlfriend, Michishige Sayumi. And these are my girls: Mitsui, Linlin, Shimizu, Yajima, Natsuyaki, and Suzuki. And I assume you already met Okai, and her girlfriend Mai.”
The yankii girls and Eri and Risa quickly exchanged greetings with one another as Reina received a respectful bow from each one of them. Although they had never been directly under the kitten, the famous Tanaka Reina of Fukuoka was not a name to forget. The kitten seemed a bit uncomfortable from being treated as though she was still part of a gang, but she didn’t seem too unhappy. After all, the yankii world was a place where she had once belonged, a place she had considered home. Besides, she trusted that Junjun didn’t raise the girls to be senseless but rather loyal and trustworthy. Her idea of what being in a yankii gang was different from others.
“Riida,” Airi started, “can we split up now? Miya and I wanted to go to a purikura booth that we saw on the way…”
“Yeah, Captain and I are going to go to class 3-C,” Maimi chimed in. “I think they’re doing some sort of dance contest there.”
“Mai, where do you want to go?” Chisato asked.
“I’m… kind of hungry,” Mai answered. “Okonomiyaki…”
“Alright, alright, you guys can go enjoy,” Junjun grinned. “But be back at the auditorium in time for Sleeping Beauty!”
“Hai~!”
The girls quickly scattered into the crowd, eager to enjoy the festival. Aika and Linlin gave another quick bow to their seniors and followed suit. Junjun felt a tug at her shirt sleeve as Sayumi clung onto her like a child. The panda smiled and shrugged.
“I guess… we’ll go ahead and enjoy, too,” she declared. “This festival looks amazing, by the way. Not bad for a public school.”
“If you like what you see, don’t forget to invite us to Morning Gakuen’s bunkasai, too!” Eri laughed. “You guys get to do more amazing stuff, don’t you?”
“Well, we do get a larger fund,” Junjun grinned. “Don’t worry, you’re both invited already. I’ll catch you guys later at the show! Break a leg, alright?”
In no time, the panda disappeared through the crowd as well with the bunny by her side. Suddenly, Eri whipped around to face her friend with a pleading expression and clapped her hands together.
“Onegai!” Eri begged, bowing at the bean. “I know we’re supposed to help get the stage ready, but please let me hang around for a while!”
“You’re asking me to cover for you again?” Risa groaned.
“Please, I’m begging you!” Eri whined. “Reina’s here so I just want to go on a short date with her. It’s not a school festival without some couple time, right?”
“I’ll beg too,” Reina joined in, smiling innocently. “Please, Gaki-san?”
“… Oh, alright,” Risa muttered. “Go have fun. I’ll try to convince Nakky not to blow your head off.”
“You’re the best!”
Reina let out a silent sigh of relief as Eri revealed a huge grin. She gave her friend a quick squeeze before grabbing her girlfriend’s hand and running off into the crowd, afraid the bean may change her mind. The two lovers ran by a couple booths before coming to a stop, deciding that they were far away enough.
“Operation get-Risa-to-cover success!” Eri laughed, wiping away the droplet of sweat traveling down the side of her face. “Now we can just enjoy the festival by ourselves.”
“Like a date?” Reina asked, grinning.
“Not ‘like’,” Eri winked. “It
is a date.” The turtle squeezed her girlfriend’s hand gently to show her affection to which Reina blushed.
“Are you sure it’s okay for us to be holding hands like this?” the kitten whispered. “This is still your school; what if someone sees?”
“Don’t worry, no one will notice,” Eri reassured, shrugging. “They’re all too busy having fun. Plus, even if someone sees… I don’t think I’ll mind that much.”
Reina’s eyes widened as she stared up at her lover. “… Do you realize what you’re saying? No matter how much we love each other, we’re both still girls, you know. I just… don’t want you to get in trouble.”
“Well, couples like us aren’t so uncommon anymore in today’s society, right?” Eri thought out loud. “As long as it’s you, I don’t think I’ll mind facing a couple discrimination here and there. As long as we’re together… right?”
Reina blinked a couple times at the smiling turtle. When had her girlfriend grown up so much? She sounded a lot more mature than she ever had; this was a side that Reina had never witnessed before of Eri. But despite her adoration for her usual airhead girlfriend, Reina somewhat appreciated her girlfriend’s way of thinking that relieved her of any fear or pressure. As long as they were together…
“… Right,” she answered, smiling. “As long… as we’re together.”
“And we will be,” Eri grinned.
“Yeah,” Reina nodded, biting her lips. “Of course.” She hesitated for a while before opening her mouth again to speak. “Listen, Eri… I need to tell you something.”
“What is it?” Eri fixed her eyes upon her girlfriend, eagerly waiting for her to speak. Her gaze was so warm and innocent, her smile too happy and bright, Reina found herself at a loss of words.
“… I… want to take purikura with you,” she quickly mumbled.
“Okay!” Eri said immediately. “I think one of the freshmen classes set up a purikura booth. Let’s go!”
Together, the girls squeezed past the crowd of students in the field to get to the front entrance of the school building. Even the hallways were bustling with people, but it wasn’t too difficult to find the right classroom. The windows were drawn with black curtains and posters with celebrity purikura pics were plastered on the wall. Eri and Reina quickly entered the classroom and found an empty booth backed up into a corner. They slipped into the curtains and were presented with various frames to choose from on the touch screen in front of them.
“Hearts?” Eri asked.
“Hearts,” Reina smiled.
Eri selected the frame that was lined with red and pink hearts all over. When another decorating option popped up, the turtle took the deco pen and wrote their names on the top. At the bottom, she wrote in large shaky letters, “FOREVER”. Reina blushed at this as she nudged her girlfriend as though she disapproved, but Eri just laughed. She knew the kitten was just being a tsundere again.
“Okay, time to take some purikura!” the turtle announced.
She pressed the large red button and snapped a couple pictures. Both girls made sure to smile and look their prettiest at first, but they both eventually started to make weird faces at each other, which ended in laughter. But suddenly, without warning, Reina grabbed Eri’s face and turned it towards her to kiss her. The flash went off and Eri’s eyes widened. She continued to blink in confusion as Reina shrugged and turned away shyly.
“For the sake of keeping memories,” she mumbled. “I wanted a picture… of our kiss.”
Eri’s lips slowly spread into a smile as her cheeks became rosy pink from embarrassment yet joy at seeing her girlfriend being so cute. Then, deciding to be bolder, she wrapped her arms around the kitten’s waist and pulled her close.
“I don’t think the one we just took was an accurate depiction of our kisses,” she whispered.
As Reina looked up, Eri captured her lips and kissed her, moving against her slowly. Reina let out a soft moan as the turtle inserted her tongue into her mouth, tasting her sweetness. As Reina wrapped her arms around her neck, Eri slowly reached for the big red button and pressed down, allowing the flash to go off. As that was the final picture, two copies of the purikura sticker sheet came out of the dispenser. The two lovers parted, breathing hard, and gazed at each other. Eri grinned.
“Now
that,” she murmured, “was a real kiss.”
“Yeah…” Reina mumbled, feeling her cheeks get hot again. She looked away before she could feel even more embarrassed with her lover staring at her. “You better not be kissing Gaki-san like that later.”
“Aw, come on!” the turtle moaned. “I already told you it’s not a real kiss. It’s like… I’m bumping into her cheek, practically.”
“I still don’t like it,” Reina muttered, crossing her arms. “You guys are still a couple in the play…”
Eri sighed, feeling helpless. Then, her eyes lit up as a quick calculation of a scenario ran through her head. She smiled and clapped her hands together when she decided that her idea would work.
“Reina,” she whispered excitedly. “I might not have to be Sleeping Beauty after all.”
“What do you mean?” the kitten asked.
“I think we should disappear for a while,” she smirked. She then whipped out her cell phone and held it up. “In the meantime, I’ll just make a quick phone call to someone who’d be willing to be our accomplice…”
** ** **
Must be nice to have a festival date… stupid turtle. Risa sighed as she wandered amongst the crowd of people amidst the rows of booths in the school field. She was heading towards the auditorium for the last minute set-up and rehearsal for her class’s play while bracing herself for the anger that was about to befall on her by a one Nakky because her aho friend had begged her to cover for her. Some part of her wished to ignore her responsibilities as the class representative and enjoy the festival with her “special someone” like everybody else, but her pride would never allow her that. It wasn’t like her “special someone” could be seen hanging out with one of her students either. But still, Risa couldn’t help but subconsciously hope for an excuse to escape everything.
As the bean entered the school building, someone bumped into her on the way, making her lose balance. Risa almost fell but she managed to keep herself up.
“Oh, I’m so sorry!” the girl who had bumped into her apologized. “I’m such a klutz sometimes…”
“No, it’s okay, I’m fine,” Risa smiled, dusting herself off. She then took another look at the girl with a peculiar expression. She was wearing Haro Kotogakko’s uniform but the bean didn’t remember seeing her anywhere. And as one of the class representatives in the school, she knew most of the people in the school. And if she had seen this student before, she didn’t think she would forget her. The girl had short brown hair reaching her shoulders and was wearing large glasses with thick lens that made it difficult to see her eyes. She almost looked like one of those nerdy girls who didn’t have many friends because of her awkwardness. Risa decided that she definitely didn’t know the girl, but something about her seemed familiar.
“I’m really sorry, I’ll be more careful from now on,” the girl apologized again, bowing.
“It’s fine, really,” Risa laughed. “Enjoy the festival!”
Putting the odd feeling behind, the bean continued on her way towards the auditorium. But before she could walk for another ten seconds, somebody grabbed her arm from behind. Risa turned around, surprised at the contact. It was the same nerdy girl from before with the glasses that made it difficult to see her face.
“You… don’t recognize me?” she asked.
“Um… excuse me?” Risa mumbled, getting a little bit scared now.
“You actually don’t recognize me!” the girl laughed. “I’m not sure if I’m supposed to be happy or disappointed. A bit of both, I suppose.”
“Uh… I’m sorry, do I know you?” Risa’s eyebrows wrinkled in confusion as she tried to figure out where she had seen this student before. Other than the familiar face, she somewhat recognized that voice and the laughter… Where had she heard that before?
“Come here.”
The girl grinned as she pulled the bean along down the hallway. Risa tried to break free, unsure of where she was being led to, but to no avail. They finally reached the girl’s bathroom and the nerdy girl peeked inside to make sure no one was there. Then, she pulled the bean in and pushed her into a stall before locking it. At this point, Risa was in such a shock that she couldn’t utter a word. Who was this girl and what was she doing to her?! Seeming to detect her confusion and fear, the girl burst into the laughter that she had been holding in. Risa blinked, still quite puzzled, and backed away as much as she could without tripping over the toilet.
“You still don’t recognize me?” the girl chuckled. “My disguise must’ve been better than I’d thought.”
“I-if you don’t let me go right now,” the bean stuttered, “I-I’ll s-s-scream!”
“Oh no, you won’t scream.” The girl suddenly grabbed Risa’s wrists and swung her around to push her against the door. “After all, you don’t want your precious girlfriend to get arrested, do you?”
The girl slowly removed her thick glasses, revealing her eyes and the rest of her face to the bean. Beyond the make-up, Risa could see the familiar intensity in the girl’s eyes, gazing back at her and the warmth of her smile that made her heart skip a beat. Risa gasped in realization as her eyes widened at the discovery.
“Sen—”
Before she could finish her thought, the bean found herself being kissed lovingly, allowing a soft moan to escape from her throat. A familiar tongue traced her lips before parting from her, leaving her breathless. A soft chuckle snapped her out of the happy trance and Risa opened her eyes see her lover who was grinning from ear to ear.
“I got you good there, didn’t I?” Ai laughed. “The look on your face was priceless.”
“Mou, Sensei!” Risa groaned. “That wasn’t funny; I really thought you were some pervert or something!”
“I’m sorry I scared you, love,” Ai apologized. “But I have to admit, it was quite entertaining to see you lose your composure like that.”
“Glad you enjoyed yourself,” Risa said sarcastically, rolling her eyes. “So is there a better reason for your get-up or were you just trying to prank me? Where did you find such clothes anyway?”
“The theatre department,” Ai replied. “I snuck in this morning and transformed myself. I think I did a pretty good job, considering you didn’t recognize me.”
“Yeah, well you really outdone yourself this time,” Risa chuckled, amused by her girlfriend’s appearance. Now that she knew Ai had put in the effort to disguise herself, she could see the heavy make-up that smoothed her skin and made it lighter. Her long brown hair was nicely tucked underneath the short bob that she now endorsed. “Is that a wig?”
“Yup.” Ai patted her head of short hair. “I used to have short hair like this when I was little. It’s kind of nostalgic.”
“So… why did you dress up like a student again?” Risa looked over her lover’s entire outfit of the day. For a 23-year-old woman, she looked surprisingly good in a school uniform. If Risa didn’t know she was a teacher in the first place, she wouldn’t have been able to figure out that Ai was, in fact, nowhere near the age of a high school girl. After all, no one could deny the fact that the woman was rather naturally gorgeous.
“I just thought that it might be easier for us to walk around this way,” Ai shrugged. “Together, I mean. Side by side. It would be kind of awkward to walk around the school festival with a teacher, wouldn’t it? Even to the public eye.”
“… What are you getting at?”
“Well… I just figured that if you were anything like a normal teenage girl… you’d probably want to have the stereotypical festival date that couples have,” Ai said slowly. She shrugged again nonchalantly. “So I thought we could maybe have that date we’ve been delaying. That is… if you don’t mind hanging out with a nerd like me.”
The teacher put her thick glasses on again and grinned, her cheeks blushing pink. Risa slowly smiled as well and ended up laughing. She was pleased that her teacher had been so thoughtful to her “teenage needs” and had planned this little surprise for her. This would be another reminder as to why the bean loved her girlfriend so much.
“I like nerds,” Risa grinned, kissing the older woman. She then lowered the volume of her voice and whispered, “Arigatou… Ai-chan.”
The teacher turned red as her name was spoken as she smiled like an idiot. Risa didn’t mind though; this was just another one of her dear teacher’s charms. As Ai quickly regained composure, she grabbed the bean’s hand and walked out of the bathroom stall.
“Shall we go enjoy the festival?” she proposed.
“We shall,” Risa nodded.
But before the two lovers could leave the bathroom, Ai’s cell phone ringtone echoed off the tiled walls. The teacher quickly picked up the call as Risa waited patiently.
“Moshi-moshi?” Ai said. Her relaxed face suddenly fell into a purposely constructed poker face, hiding her true emotion. “… Yes… I’m listening… Yes… I see… I understand… I’ll take care of it. Bye.” The teacher hung up just as fast as she had picked up. Risa raised an eyebrow.
“Who was that?” she asked.
“Just another teacher,” Ai answered immediately, smiling. “She wanted to make sure I was covering her shift later in the security department.”
“… Okay.”
After the many months she spent together with her sensei, Risa could tell that Ai was trying to keep a poker face. But she didn’t think too much of it since she believed that her lover would tell her of her own free will if it was something vital. Besides, she was much too excited for this upcoming date they were about to enjoy. Until the school play started in about an hour, she would make the most out of her time together with Ai.
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Hope that made up for the lost month

Next up is the play! You can look forward to it (I think)!
