Me and Ai

Chapter 97: Sensei

"They're fine. Don't worry; my glasses are in my bag just in case."

"Okay. Try to rest your eyes when you have time or else your astigmatism will act up. Please wear your glasses when your eyes get tired. Your eyes won't be corrected if you don't wear your glasses from time to time."

"I will, dear. How about you, did you remember to bring an extra pair of clothes today? We have a performance class today."

"I brought extra clothes; I didn't forget this time."

He starts driving, going on our way to Saotome Academy.

Oh yeah that's right, Ai and I have become part-time teachers at Saotome Academy. We were kind of surprised when Saotome-sensei suddenly called us one day and asked us to teach at the academy. There was a shortage of teachers due to some of them taking a leave of absence due to having some big projects in the entertainment industry. We decided to take the job since we weren't heavy on projects at the time and we thought it would be a fun experience. Saotome-sensei assigned me to teach in the composer course while Ai would teach in the idol course. Then he made us teacher partners for a new subject they implemented in the academy—performance class. Basically, in performance class, the students do live performances in the practice rooms and our job as the teachers is to correct their mistakes and critique their dancing and singing. It's a tiring class because the teachers are very involved in the subject; we would dance and sing with the students to set as an example and teach them some techniques and moves for their performance to become better. I don't know for how long we'll be teaching at the academy since we don't know when the teachers would be able to come back. We'll just do our best until the end as usual.

The academy has changed too. Aside from the implementation of new subjects that help the students hone their talents, they now allow the students to debut as a group; this is probably due to the success of Starish and Quartet Night. One thing that hasn't changed though is the "no love" rule but I heard that Saotome-sensei has become a little lenient on this rule. Tsukimiya-sensei told me that Saotome-sensei would allow a relationship if the couple is able to pass a certain condition or test that he gives to them; it reminds me of our situation back then. If Ai didn't beat Saotome-sensei's record, we wouldn't have continued being together or maybe we would have by hiding it or perhaps we would have quit being idols just to be together; I wonder how our lives would have turned out.

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We arrive at the academy after a while. Every time we come here, it makes me recall the memories I made with everyone when we were still students of the academy; I can never forget this place that has changed my life forever. All the good and bad things that happened here helped shaped the "me" that exists today.

Sometimes I wonder what if Ai was a student too when I was still in the academy. Would we have met and become close or would we have been strangers to one another? Hmm, the only thing I can be sure of is that he would have looked good in the uniform. Haha.

Ai turns at a corner to enter the parking lot area.

"Kaori, I want a rematch later when we get home."

"Eh? You still can't get over the game?"

"I'll be honest, Ren and I were both surprised that we lost to you in the online tournament last night. Your level was lower than his and mine; it baffles us how you beat us."

"I guess I was just lucky?" I chuckle.

"Your luck then would have been above average for that to happen."

"I'll probably lose in a rematch."

"By the way, how are you feeling at the moment?"

"Thankfully, I feel alright."