Ink Stained

52: onigiri*

Two on two, she thought, noting the logic of the strategy. But where do you come in?

"Why did you come to school?" she asks quietly. "As a teacher, I mean."

He was looking at her. She kept her eyes fixed on the clean dashboard, devoid of any personal items. She was afraid to look at him. Her eyes moved up to look through the window. Though she gazed out at the passing view in front of her, she was practically sightless as her whole body tuned to the every minute move Shin made, to the way his voice flowed from his lips, to the sound of the gear he clutched in his hand when he shifted it to slow behind the car ahead of them.

It was unfairly distracting, being in a car Shin was driving so smoothly.

"I made a promise." Shin answered calmly. "Since you've decided to stay, I plan to keep my promise."

She frowned a little at her reflection in the window. "By coming to school?"

"I'm not the one who suggested you might lose control in school." There was something close to a teasing lilt in his voice. "If you hadn't said that, I probably wouldn't have even thought of it on my own. This one's on you."

"Wow, thanks." She grumbled sarcastically. "That does not make me feel more indebted to you than I already do."

He chuckled. "That sentiment goes both ways."

That was probably true.

"But why Maths?" she asked, curiosity burning. "Haru-san can cook apparently, and Shouta-san is a P.E. teacher. Why are you a Maths teacher?"

"Maths is about the only thing I was ever good at in school." He replied. "And since your old teacher had to leave anyway, it was easy to get in."

"I am really bad at Maths." She informed him. She thought it only polite to warn him so he wouldn't get a heart attack from her appalling lack of arithmetic ability.

He laughed. It was a wonderful sound that made her heart smile. "I'm sure we can do something about that."

She tried very, very hard not to think in that direction. "So, Kouta-sama is the one who got all of you in?"

He shrugged casually. "More or less."

"Shii-chan is going to be so angry with him," she mused, relaxing a bit more in the warm leather seat as she tilted her head back, watching the traffic flow around them. "He did not say anything at all."

"I gathered as much from her face when I walked in." Shin laughed. "That's on him. Maybe he thinks the surprise will keep away the anger long enough for him to talk her down."

"If he thinks that, we should start preparing his funeral." She deadpanned. "Shii-chan doesn't stay surprised for long."

"Daichi's got that covered." He replied in a completely serious tone. "Cremation first, maybe a long and boring speech from a priest, then plenty of food at the service that Haru will probably gorge on before anyone can get to it."

Her eyes widened. "Wait, seriously?"

A sly smirk tipped his lips up. "Got you."

"That was sneaky." Her eyes flattened out. "Did you seriously just do that?"

Shin shrugged nonchalantly and turned the steering wheel. The car turned a corner, and he parked it by the curb behind a light pole. "Got your mind off of the problems for a while. That's a win in my book."

She gave him a small smile. It was true.

"Thank you." She frowned as she watched him unbuckle his seat belt and reach for the door handle. "Where are you going?"