@Sora-chan: GAH i ruined 2012... sorry
@arisa03: NEW PERSON
omg TWO DAYS?? that's a lot of reading in a short period of time
thanks so much for reading!!!
@oddball: yeah... sorry, totally depressed the start of the new year
@astro18: see, that was my conflict, i wanted to give you guys a chapter as a new years present but i knew the chapter wasn't a happy one... I WAS SO CONFLICTED
@Shiawase_Honoo: OMG i want an upalupa now LOL
@rndmnwierd: oooh class... you're on the right track
@nora_nora: don't be too upset!
@kawaii beam: that is a LONG paragraph but i loved it
glad you're considering how Eri's going to be affected by this too. you'll find out soon~
@Haruka: lol ANGST. you hate it but you love it
@Tian_Yuan: OMG i thought you were on page 12 and ur already caught up??? that's a lot of reading...
don't worry about the typing, i'm glad you're commenting at all! and yes~ check out Kokoro no Uta if you have time~ *shamelessly advertising myself*
Thank you so much for all the comments again!
And sorry for the angst to start off the new years...
But look on the bright side! I knew the last chapter was killing you guys so I brought the next one in quick
There was supposed to be another piece in this chapter but i chunked it off into another chapter so i can upload what i have now... so the next chapter will be kinda short, but oh so necessary
enjoy!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chapter 86 The click-clack of Takahashi-sensei’s heels filled the empty corridor. Classes had already begun so all the students were out of the hallways and in their classrooms. No doubt, none of them were paying attention to what was actually being taught since they were probably all too busy texting each other about the latest gossip concerning the taboo relationship between a certain teacher and a student.
Risa quietly followed her teacher, walking slightly behind her. She stared at Ai’s back, worn out by stress and exhaustion from the recent happening. She still could not get her lover’s tear-ridden face out of her mind, despite the fact that those tears had been quickly wiped away after leaving the principal’s office.
What could she do in her own power? She hated that her teacher was being kicked out of the school while she was only temporarily being suspended. And all of this was just because they loved each other and the world wasn’t ready to accept them. Risa had half the mind to follow her lover to wherever she is sent to, in order to stay together, but to be honest, she hated the idea of leaving school. She felt terrible and selfish about thinking this way but she knew Ai was right when she said Risa had worked much too hard to give up everything now. But she didn’t want to give up on Ai either…
After the silent journey, the two lovers finally reached the classroom. Ai cautiously slid the door open and walked in, followed by the bean. All the students stopped what they were doing and turned to stare at the pair, walking into the room. It was obvious that they had all been whispering to each other about what was going on.
Ai cleared her throat as she walked to the front podium and placed her books down. Risa walked towards her seat, calmly, as did all the other students except Eri, who had been seated at her desk the entire time, refusing to take part in any gossip. Besides, she was sure half the whispering was about her, breaking a little first-year student’s camera in the hallway and scaring the newspaper club girls to death.
“Everybody in their seats?” Takahashi-sensei asked, acting the same as always. “We’ll continue on from where we left off last class, on page—”
“Excuse me, Sensei. I have something to say.”
All eyes immediately went towards Chinami, who stood up whilst raising her hand. Her face had a look of defiance as she coldly gazed at her teacher.
“Yes, Tokunaga-san?” Ai answered. “What is it?”
“A couple of us have decided that we can’t accept you as our teacher anymore,” she claimed, eliciting nods from a couple other students.
Ai swallowed hard, making decent effort to keep her face expressionless. “And why is that?”
“We refuse to learn from a teacher who lied to us about such a big part of her life,” Chinami said firmly.
“We think trust is an important element in class that a teacher has to earn,” Saki suddenly said, also standing up. “And you let us down.”
“Hey, wait a minute!” Risa interrupted, jumping up. “Just the other day, we all loved Sensei and now you’re all turning your backs on her?”
“You have no right to say anything either, Iinchou!” Chinami yelled. “You lied to us, just like Sensei!”
“Neither of you are the people we thought you were,” Saki said.
“And you two were an item the entire time, right under our noses…” Chinami laughed dryly. “You really give the term ‘teacher’s pet’ a whole new meaning—”
“Watch your mouth, Tokunaga!” Yurina suddenly yelled angrily, getting up.
“That’s right, you’re going too far,” Risako agreed, scowling.
“Everyone needs to just cool it for a moment,” Maasa sighed.
“What, you guys don’t agree with me?” Chinami spat out, ignoring her friend’s warning. “They lied to us, both of them! I don’t know about you guys but I can’t be here together with people that lie about who they are. The Sensei and Iinchou we thought we knew aren’t real.”
Some students quickly agreed, shooting disappointed looks at their teacher and the class representative. Risa bit down on her lip as she glanced at her lover who remained still, showing no emotion other than the sad, lonely look in her eyes. What could she do… What could she do in her own power…?
“What the hell… are you all stupid?”
The room slowly fell silent as the students directed their attention towards the turtle who had spoken up. She was glaring at everybody in the room which was an unusual attitude for her. She looked angry but also conflicted, as though she was having a tough time making a decision.
“What are you saying, Kamei?” one guy retorted back. “Defending your little friend?”
“I’m saying you guys are all seriously stupid if you think anything has changed about Sensei and Risa just because we now know about their relationship,” Eri growled. “They’re still the same Takahashi-sensei and Niigaki Risa.”
“Not to us, they’re not,” Saki shot back. “None of us knew that they were really… that… together…”
“So is it because they’re both girls?” Eri boldly inquired. “Is that why you guys are so pissed off? Does it disgust you? Or is it the fact that Sensei is six years older than Risa?”
“It’s everything!” Chinami yelled. “Nothing was supposed to be like this; this isn’t normal!”
“… So just because you find out that Risa and Sensei aren’t
normal, as you put it,” Eri said quietly, “they’re different people to you now…”
Silently, Eri rose from her seat and quickly took out something that looked like a small piece of paper from between the pages of her notebook. She held it against her chest, hiding the contents, and walked over to Makoto who was sitting near the front and stood in front of her.
“Makocchan,” Eri said, smiling a little, “I’m your friend, right?”
“… Huh?” Makoto raised an eyebrow, confused by the sudden question.
“We’ve known each other since the beginning of middle school,” Eri continued. “It’s safe to say that we’re friends, right?”
“… Um… yeah, I guess…”
“And true friends stick by each other, right?” Eri insisted. “No matter what happens, right?”
“Yeah, of course.”
Satisfied by Makoto’s answer, Eri nodded as she smiled quietly to herself. Then, she quickly walked to the front of the room to face the class. She revealed the small piece of paper that she had hid before and held it up for her peers to see. Immediately, gasps of shock elicited from the students as they realized what Eri was showing them. Risa’s eyes widened at the sight. It was a purikura sheet, packed with tiny pictures of Eri and Reina kissing, hugging, laughing, and smiling. A sense of urgency ran through Risa; what was this girl thinking?
“I took this purikura at the festival,” Eri announced. “That girl in the picture? That’s Reina. She’s my girlfriend.”
A shocked reaction immediately surfaced but Eri ignored it.
“I love this girl more than anything else in the world. But just because we’re both girls, it doesn’t mean our love is any different. We both believe in each other and know that we won’t let go of each other…”
You must always have faith in me. “Even if we hurt each other at times, we know there is always a reason for things…”
You have to promise me that you’ll listen to the whole story. “And at the end of the day, we’re both grateful for each other…”
You’re in my plans for the future, too. Eri blinked a couple times, taking in the flashbacks that were returning to her. This was her answer. It had been the answer all along but Eri had just been too blind to see it. The solution as to how to deal with this crisis had always been in front of her…
As Eri sniffled a little, holding the tears back, a small wave of whispering and murmuring shed over the class. Risa and Ai could not hide the shock from their faces. Just what was the turtle planning?
“So now you all know that I’m not ‘normal’ either,” Eri said firmly, smiling a little. “But you know what? I’ve been going out with Reina since last semester! And you guys were all friends with me during that time. Just because you now know that I’m in a relationship, it doesn’t mean I’m any different from who I was before. I’m still Kamei Eri! That same old aho girl always sleeps in class… I’m still me.”
The class remained surprised by Eri’s speech. A couple of them started to whisper amongst each other, trying to make sense of the current situation. Their resolution seemed to be wavering because of what Eri had done. She had proven that absolutely nothing had changed about herself, nor about their teacher or Risa. No lie had been told…
“It’s okay like this, isn’t it?”
Heads turned towards the quiet girl who slowly stood up from her seat. Asami smiled at the turtle, shrugging indifferently.
“I don’t think there’s anything wrong with Eri’s relationship with her girlfriend, or the relationship between Sensei and Gaki-san,” she stated. “Rather, if they were willing to go against the world in order to stay together, I think their love is the strongest one of all.”
Smiling in appreciation from Asami’s encouragement, Eri walked back towards Makoto and faced her.
“Makocchan,” she said, “am I still your friend?”
Makoto immediately grinned and jokingly pushed the turtle. “Of course I am, aho Kame!” she laughed. “Nothing has changed, you know.”
“Arigatou,” Eri grinned. She turned to face the rest of the class. “And what about the rest of you? Am I any different of a person, now that I’ve confessed?”
The students that had rebelled glanced at each other, their resolution wavering. Chinami sighed before smiling a little.
“Of course not,” she said, her expression softening. “You’ll always be the boke in our class.”
“And… Iinchou will always be the tsukkomi,” Nakky also said, smiling a little at the class representative. “She’ll never change.”
“And Sensei will always be Sensei,” Maasa grinned. “Tough, but fair.”
“I should apologize,” Chinami sighed, looking at Risa and her teacher, “to both of you. I guess the news just kind of came as a shock to me. I should’ve placed my trust in you two before the stupid newspaper. I’m sorry.”
“I’m sorry, too,” Saki apologized. The other students followed suit, murmuring words of apology.
“We should’ve been the first ones to protect you, not turn against you,” Chinami said. “It’s a bit delayed but… we’ll do that now.”
“Yeah, nobody bad-mouths our Sensei and Iinchou!” Makoto yelled energetically.
“You two are part of our class,” Yurina grinned, “so we stick with you guys.”
“From now on, it’s okay to depend on us,” Asami said softly, smiling.
Looking around at her classmates’ bright faces, Risa couldn’t help but smile. They were all willing to accept her and her lover the way they were! And Eri… she had even risked her own safety to convince the others. So this was what true friends were…
“Hey! Look! Sensei’s crying!”
Risa along with the other students immediately turned their heads towards their teacher who indeed was shedding tears. She gasped as she quickly wiped her eyes with her sleeves, as though she herself had no knowledge of the fact that she had been crying. The students fell into a commotion, taken off guard by their teacher’s sudden emotional reaction.
“Sensei! Why are you crying?” Risako asked.
“Wait, did I miss something?” Makoto mumbled, confused. “What happened?”
“I-I’m sorry, everyone…” Ai stuttered, laughing shakily. She continued to wipe her wet cheeks but the tears didn’t stop. “I-I don’t even know why I’m crying, I just…”
Then, the teacher broke down and started to sob into her hands, crying nonstop. The class went into frenzy as they started to panic and wonder how to help their teacher. Some students even started to rummage through their bags for a handkerchief or a tissue.
However, Risa stayed calm as she quietly smiled. She knew that her teacher was crying only because she was happy. Ai had become a teacher in order to lead students into the right path. When her credentials were questioned, she had felt as though she had failed in becoming a good role model. Her second chance at making things right had wasted away. But now that she realized all her students still respected and appreciated her, the release from the anxiety and terror had snapped something within her. The feeling of being loved by so many people like this was something she had never experienced before.
Amidst the panic, Risa walked up to the front of the room to the podium to face her teacher. The students fell back into silence as they watched the bean remove Ai’s hands from her face. The older woman’s face was red and streaked with tears as she hiccupped uncontrollably. Risa chuckled; her lover seemed so innocent and weak like a little girl. Ai had always been the one who took care of her but this time, Risa wanted to be the one to be depended upon. She raised her own hands and carefully wiped the tears away from her lover’s eyes.
“I told you I don’t want to see you cry, Ai,” she said softly, smiling.
“You did, didn’t you?” Ai croaked, laughing. “Gomene, Risa.”
“You two are already on a first name basis?” Makoto remarked in awe. “Cool.”
“Well, they are going out,” Yurina said, rolling her eyes.
“You know, six years really isn’t that bad,” Maasa shrugged. “Come to think of it, my parents are five years apart.”
“Alright, everybody needs to settle down,” Nakky ordered like the director she was. “Half the period is already gone, you know.”
“Yes, I think it’s time class finally started,” Asami agreed.
As everybody else agreed, Risa smiled at her lover and squeezed her hand one last time. “If you would please… Sensei?”
“I’d be honored,” Ai chuckled, wiping the last of her tears away. “Minna-san, seki ni tsuite kudasai. Please take your seats.”
The students quickly rushed around the class to find their own seats. As Risa and Eri sat down, they caught each other’s eyes and grinned, a mutual and knowing feeling crossing between them.
“Iinchou,” Ai smiled. “Onegaishimasu.”
Risa grinned as she started her daily duties. “Kiritsu!” The class stood up in unision.
“Kiyotsuke!” All students stood up straight and tall.
“Rei! Onegaishimasu!” All the students copied Risa’s actions and bowed to their teacher before sitting back down.
“Well then,” Ai said confidently, “shall we start class?”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
well? comments?
Topic: Chigatte mo Iin da yo! ~Mainly TanaKame, TakaGaki~ [FINALE - Ch. 93 - (1/30)] (Read 409010 times)