April 2005, (3 weeks after school started)
They always say you have to expect the unexpected.
Most likely to say that something thrilling will happen to you in the meantime.
But for the love of god, this was not exciting at all.
This was nerve-racking.
It could be possible for your heart to explode anytime sooner.
The teacher you thought was 'empathetic' (it's just because you never saw her go berserk), sure was evolving into a different teacher this year.
She taught you English last year too, and she let everyone choose their own partners for the writing portfolio, which is crucial since it will be added to the continuous assessment marks later on.
So it's basic thinking, right?
It's the same teacher, so same ways of teaching and whatsoever. Teachers don't change that drastically...in a year to be frank.
But Nakamura-sensei did the impossible.
She did change this year.
You could never even imagine that this type of situation can even happen.
At this very moment, everyone was letting out noises of fear and looking at each other while Nakamura-sensei was happily calling out the names from her purple clipboard.
Poor her, she thought what she did was innocuous but if only she knew how many of the students in the class were cursing at her.
Maybe, just maybe it would be better if she just assigned your partners and end of story, but it gets even worse when she said the partners will be one girl and one boy. Her reason was because she wants perspective of the essays from different genders.
You sure do support gender equality, very much actually but there's no need to fight it for a fucking writing portfolio partner.
"Akio-kun and Akari-chan!" Nakamura-sensei shouted out excitedly.
Of course she's excited, she's the one who's torturing everybody else.
The hubbub gets even louder than before. There ain't no way those two 'coincidentally' got partnered up together.
"That's not fair! How can a couple get partnered up together!" one of your classmates voiced out their dissatisfaction.
"It could be that Akio-kun paid Nakamura-sensei to make him and his girlfriend to be partners."
"I'm pretty sure that Nakamura-sensei is anything but a gold digger."
The voices of the two girls behind you whispering (pretty sure they're just talking casually anyways).
If it wasn't for your nervousness, you know that you will let out the most horrible laugh that anyone has ever seen when you hear them whispering.
But your mind was only occupied about your writing portfolio partner.
Who could it be?
You're going to be stuck with this person for a long period of time since there'll be 6 essays that must be completed and it will at least take like a month and 2 weeks to finish up all of them.(it depends if the person is cooperative or not)
You moved your gaze to the boys in your class, and scanned one each of them. You must say most of the boys in your class are decent since this is the highest ranked class in the grade, so most of them are just thinking of studies instead of playing around with girls like toys.
Anyone is fine, as long as it's not Haru-kun. That dude didn't finish most of his homeworks last year, so obviously he might slack off.
You just finished gazing at the boys at the front, most of them were fine (except Haru). You turned yourself to gaze at the boys at the back, you saw two vacant seats and you realised...
Oh.
Arai Toshiro.
He's absent that day.
It will be nice and splendid to partner up with him since he is diligent and polite too. All the homeworks the teacher gave, he never even once left out any. He even made his own study flashcards last year and decorated them with calligraphy markers and you can say that dude was a study and art freak.
Saying that he does have the looks and most girls were daydreaming about him. But to be logical, his looks wouldn't affect your writing portfolio later on even.
What can I say?
Your rival sure is a whole package.
"(First Name)-chan...
Wait...your name? Nakamura-sensei already called out your name. Out of all times, now?....when you were busy evaluating the boys in your class if they are worthy or not to be your writing portfolio partner.
For heaven's sake.
You slowly turned your head to the blackboard where Nakamura-sensei was standing. Your eyes locked with hers, it seems like she has been gazing at you even before you turned around before.
A smile never left her face, she kept it as neutral as possible. Only because she doesn't want to be obvious that she likes or dislikes any particular student.
" you're partnered up with...
You want to fly off from the classroom at that very instant. It was so scary that you rather play uno with Freddy Krueger and Jason Vorhees than being in this situation.
Your sweat started to drip off your forehead like raindrops, your knees bumping each other a couple of times and even your heartbeat could exceed Nakamura-sensei's voice.
If there was a fast forward button in this scene, you would have no regrets pressing it. You will press to the maximum speed if you have the chance to.
But all these trembling moments were just a waste of time when you sooner get to know that your partner was...
...Toshiro-kun!"
You sighed in relief as all the nervousness in you just vanishes away like houses getting hit by a tsunami.
You mouthed out a 'yes!' and clenched your fists under the table as a celebration for getting the best partner that everyone could have wished for. You were slightly hoping he will be your partner before that. But actually it wasn't him that you wanted, you just wanted someone that wouldn't slack off and take their responsibility seriously.
It was just coincidental that he was the perfect candidate (out of all the boys to be specific).
Out of the sudden, Haru raised up his hand "Nakamura-sensei!"
The class went silent like everyone was dead.
The teacher shifted her attention to the boy and let out a hum.
At first, Haru was hesitant to say anything and scratched the back of his nape instead. You were bewildered by him because what was the point of him cutting off Nakamura-sensei if he didn't know what to say in the first place?
The screech of Haru's chair filled up the spaces of the classroom as he fast-walked to Nakamura-sensei.
Nakamura-sensei was just a little woman and Haru was literally a lamp post (not sure people can differentiate them or not), he crouched to her height and whispered to her.
It was weird. Seeing two people whispering and the whole class only stared at them like they were a show.
Nothing was interesting about them except for Nakumura-sensei's reaction. Her expression was perplexed but then it turned into guilt.
What is to be guilty about?
I mean, she should be, since most of the class were in fear of her assigning the writing portfolio partners on her own.
But what is that Haru said made her feel guilty?
Why was Haru suddenly whispering it after your name and your partner was announced?
Come to think of it, Haru and Toshiro are best friends. So it must have been about Toshiro.
Hold on.
No...it can't be...
"My apologies! Let's proceed..." Nakamura-sensei was back to her cheery self.
"You may sit, Haru-kun." Haru went back to his seat, his walking pace was calm and slower than before. His legs were walking back to his seat but never did he leave his eyes on you.
You moved your eyes to him, reciprocating what he did. He realised that he got caught red-handed and pretended that nothing ever happened between the both of you. Moving his stares to Nakamura-sensei was the only way to do it.
You knew it.
It must be about Toshiro.
Could it be...
...that he can't be partners with you?
The English class finished and somehow the 50 minutes was wasted with Nakamura-sensei only announcing the writing portfolio partners. It was nice when there was a subject where you didn't learn anything , even though school's purpose was learning.
You on the other hand never expected to get nervous again. This feeling wasn't finished yet for you, not like other people who were already relieved.
You don't even know if your partner is going to sustain or not. Assuming what happened before, you know for sure that something might have come up in Toshiro's life and made him not able to be your partner.
Everyone in class started to roam out of the class like wild animals getting freed from cages and they were all excited for club activities that evening.
You were one of the last people that left the class and surprisingly Nakamura-sensei was still sitting at the teacher's desk like she never wanted to leave the class at all.
With all your stationery kept in your backpack, you were set to leave the class already and go to cram school.
When you were about to head to the door...
"(First Name)-chan!"
Who else could it be?
It was only you and her in the classroom anyways.
You turned yourself to her and said "Yes?"
"Can I have a minute with you?" the teacher said with a serious expression.
The teacher sure was famous for being nice and smiling all the time. Not seeing her smiling sure means that something is not right.
You know for sure that you didn't do anything wrong and you could predict what she was going to talk about.
"Sure." You replied shortly and moved your feet to get beside her.
The teacher took out her thick black glasses and wiped the sweat off her face. You might say that it was quite gross to do that and you could have offered her your tissues instead.
She sighed.
This made you even more curious. Is the topic that you both are going to talk about is that heavy?
You swallowed the lump in your throat. This shit was scarier than the whole Halloween franchise.
"How am I supposed to say this?" She blurted out and wore her glasses back.
She looked into your eyes and when you look into hers, it was filled with guilt and remorse.
Why do her eyes show those emotions?
"You see, (First Name)-chan...Urmm..I heard some news about...Toshiro-kun and it's disappointing to say that he..." she paused. Hesitant to continue her words.
He what?
He went to jail?
He's dead?
He is actually a prince from a secretive country so now he has to rule it?
What is happening?
"...might not be in school for about 3 months or so....due to..."
She tapped her fingers on the table, maybe it could help her think of appropriate words to say.
"...God, how am I supposed to say this?.."
Your curiosity grew even more. Hearing that he can't be your partner was not shocking to you because you have already expected it, but you were busy being inquisitive on why he can't be in school for 3 months.
The writing portfolio due was in July and even if Toshiro had gone back to school, it was already too late anyways.
So there was no use of hoping.
It is settled that he wouldn't be your partner.
There's only two possibilities:
1. You might have to change your partner because you know that your class is with an odd number of people. So before this, there was someone who didn't have a partner.
2. You just have to do it all alone but what's even shitty is that your marks will still be the same as the others who have partners.
You really hope the second possibility will not be true because you have to double your effort but your marks wouldn't. And that's just straight up frightful.
"Let's just say that...you can't be partners with Toshiro-kun..." she was stating the obvious. "But I can't tell you the reason about his absence, alright?" she continued.
You nodded, even if your curiosity was larger than the Earth itself, never did you want to disrespect Toshiro's privacy.
"Well... that's the first bad news for you (First Name)-chan."
God, there's more? How unfortunate this day could be for you.
"I don't know if this is the right thing to do...but..
Why is it so hard for her to say?
Is your new partner that atrocious, to the point she thinks her decision is wrong?
She clicked her tongue, indicating she despises this new partner of yours. Nakamura-sensei has always been an angelic teacher, to know that a student managed to annoy her this much, really shows that the new partner is bad news indeed
...you have to partner up with Rindou-kun..." she said with a guilty tone. Her expression was literally saying I-don't-want-to-do-this-to-you-but-I-have-no-choice.
Eh?
Who the hell is Rindou?
Your agitation before just turned into confusion. First of all, you don't even know anyone in your class named 'Rindou'. Next, why is he bad news? How are you supposed to be scared to be partners with him when you don't even know him?
It's not like you force yourself to not be petrified, you just didn't feel that way.
Hurriedly, you scanned your eyes to the boys seats again, trying to recall the boys in your class.
That's when you realise...there were 2 vacant seats..
So the ones that were absent are Toshiro and Rindou.
Now it makes much more sense.
But Toshiro was present for the last 2 weeks since school just started. Never have you seen Rindou in your class. It explains why there has always been a vacant seat for 3 weeks already, you stayed ignorant about it because why is it to care about the person anyways? You were here to study, not to think of who is present or absent.
As you finished observing the seats, you realised that Nakamura-sensei had been staring at you with such guilt. Pairing up a good student with an atrocious one is not what she intended to do.
She never even assigned Rindou with anyone before, because she knows for sure that no one wants to partner up with that troublesome delinquent.
The amount of times he skipped school could be infinite and even last year, he only went to school for exams or when there was an event (he didn't even help to set up the event, he was just there for the food).
That jerk was lucky that he is someone effortlessly smart, but your teacher prioritizes someone's morales more than their intelligence.
If only demeanors can be graded, she could give him negative marks if she wants to ( even though it's totally invalid in the grading system).
"Are sure you're okay with this?"
"Yeah..." you say it like it wasn't a big of a deal. Truly you were so clueless why it should be.
Nakamura-sensei couldn't believe her eyes that you're fine with it. It's Haitani Rindou we're talking about. He and his brother sure were menaces in this night-life city. A threat to everyone near them, walking around this city and claiming it's theirs, their territory.
Somehow they were the ones that determined themselves that they can get away with anything they want. Let it be trespassing, truancy, vandalism and the worst case they have ever done...
Murdering Aiba Taiko in the middle of the brawl which was known for it's name as "Roppongi Battle of the Ashes". Aiba Taiko, who was the Vice President of the largest and corrupted gang in Tokyo during the year 2000, Kyougoku, died from a skull fracture which was the result getting beaten up by the Haitani Brothers.
The teacher never gets it, why in the actual fuck will this school still accept Haitani Rindou to even enter this school. Even if the case was 5 years ago and everyone knew that it was an accident and unintentional. They even had enter the Juvenile Centre as a punishment for their crime.
Regardless, he murdered someone at such a young age, if she wasn't mistaken, he was just a 12 year-old. People at that age aren't supposed to wreck people's skulls like their watermelons, but instead they should play around with friends and make memories.
What if he's an adult later on? People grow worse and change when they grow up.
All this thinking from Nakamura-sensei was just a waste of time when you were not even aware of what was roaming in her mind. Being oblivious to her agitated expressions.
"If it turns out that you have to do the portfolio all alone...just ask help from me, alright? You wouldn't get extra marks even if you finished it by yourself."
"Understood," you replied to her. Sure this scenario was confusing as hell. Is this Rindou really that bad? The way Nakamura-sensei had predicted that you might do the writing portfolio on your own indicates that this Rindou dude will slack off or be uncooperative.
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