Starlight (Kojiro Nanjo)

Chapter Four: First Snow

"Oh boy.." Ms. Saito sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose as Reki began to defend the man. "I'm so going to kill him."

"Shokichi?" Langa repeated his name. "He's dating our teacher?"

"No!" Exclaimed Ms. Saito. "I'm not trying to date Shokichi!"

"Please don't let me be the one to stop you, Ms. Saito. I really am sorry!"

"Reki, it's not like that." The woman huffed, crossing her arms before taking a seat at her desk, unsure what lie to feed next to get her out of this uncomfortable situation. "Shokichi's a really nice guy. I'm uh, flattered really. But I told him this isn't going to work out when he so clearly has feelings for that girl that works at the daycare."

"I know, right!" Reki nodded along, pointing a finger to the sky. "I thought something was fishy with that whole thing. Well, I hope there's no hard feelings or anything then. Right?"

"Right." She nodded, giving the two boys a weak smile. "So, now we can stop this whole feud or whatever, and go on with our lives. Right, boys?"

"I've only known for about five minutes now." Langa muttered, pressing a finger to his chin.

"Which will hopefully make it easy to forget ever happened." Ms. Saito chuckled. "Now, you boys better get heading home. I gotta clean and lock up before I head out."

"Got it, Ms. Saito!" Reki shouted back, rushing out the door and hoping onto his board. "See you tomorrow!"

"Reki!" The woman's voice rose as she pushed herself from the seat, rushing to the doorway to try and stop him, but it was too late.

"I'll try to get him to stop doing that." Langa replied with a weak smile, grabbing the door handle behind him.

"You'd be a life saver, Langa." She thanked the boy, feeling a small amount of relief from his words. Somehow, she believed him. "Glad to see you're adjusting okay. As much of a pain Reki can be, he's a good kid. I'm sure you two will make really great friends."

"Thanks, Ms. Saito." The boy replied, slowly closing the door behind him. A man of few words, he was, but he always managed to get the point across okay. Which was nice.

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"Shokichi!" Hoshiko hollered into her phone. "What the hell?"

"Are you ever calm these days?" The man retorted from the other line with a sigh. "Ever think; 'hey, let's call Shokichi and tell him how much we appreciate him.'"

"I'll start calling to tell you I appreciate you when you start throwing me a bone." The woman sighed, balancing the phone between her ear and her shoulder as she locked her classroom door behind her. "For real, you're hiring Langa now too?"

"Needed an extra hand at the shop, what can I say? Got a delivery for this weekend, but no one to deliver. Ever since Reki hurt his arm, I can't make him drive there, and I'm busy this weekend."

"Why not ask me, you nerd?"

"Because you haven't went back to S since your first time, Hoshiko." he replied. "Figured maybe you weren't all that interested in it anymore."

"Of course I'm interested, I just.." Her voice began to trail as her eyes scanned the surrounding hallway, before speaking in a lower tone, hoping no one would hear her. "The truth is, I loved it there, Shokichi. That was the most fun I've had in my entire life."