Chapter Text
The only thing Kyoko could think of was that she had to run. She had to run, run until her heart stopped beating and her lungs stopped working. She cursed the kimono she was wearing, since it didn't allow her to run as fast as she wanted to. She cursed the snow that didn’t allow her to see very well, though that could also have been from her tears. She cursed her husband´s profession, since it made her sick to be away from him, which was very often.
She fell into the ground, taking a bad fall, but she got up quickly, numb to the pain. She didn't care. She had to keep running, since she had to make sure he was okay. He had to be, because she didn't know what she would do if he wasn’t.
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Kyoko woke up covered in sweat, her heart racing as she had been running a marathon, her cheeks wet from tears. She has had the same type of dreams since she was sixteen, always dreaming of running to meet someone, always having this heavy feeling in her chest. In all her years having these dreams, she had never gotten to the end of it, they would always end before she would reach her destination.
She would wake up in sweat or crying, and despite visiting specialists, no one could tell her where the dreams came from or what they meant. They were strange and made Kyoko feel restless all the time, but they had given her the perfect excuse to move back to Ichinoseki, where she had been born. She told her parents that the fresh air and quiet town would allow her to clear her head and forget all about the nightmares, and live the normal life they wanted for her. She had been in Ichinoseki for a week now, settling in before the second semester of the school year started, but despite the beautiful views and great quality of air, she didn’t seem to sleep any better.
It was fine. She was away from her parents, in a new place. This was the closest thing to safety she had ever known. That was good enough.
For now, all that mattered was getting to her temporary job on time.
She had taken a job supplying for another teacher who would be taking a leave due to her pregnancy and then, to her demise, she would go back to Tokyo. Looking at the clock, she was never going to make it if she didn’t run a little bit. So she did. Despite running till exhaustion in her dreams, she was out of breath as she got to the gate of the school. Taking a deep breath, she tried to calm herself down and make sure her clothes and hair were okay before walking in.
“Are you okay, little lady?” A booming voice said behind her. She turned back to face who she could assume was another teacher, who now stared at her intensely. He was taller than her and had blonde hair with red tips, which she would find strange if she didn’t have red hair herself.
“Oh yes, I am fine..sir!”She answered nervously.
“I don’t think I am old enough to be called Sir by you, Miss”. She blushed and apologized, having made a embarrassing mistake. She of course had to make a fool of herself in front of one of her new coworkers on her first day. But he didn’t make fun of her, he just laughed, his laughter rich and filling and that made her feel a bit better.
“You must be the new substitute teacher, right?” He asked as they started walking towards the school building.
“Yes, my name is Katsumi Kyoko, very nice to make your acquaintance”
“No need to be so formal, Katsumi-san! I’m Rengoku Kyojuro, but you can just call me Rengoku or even Kyojuro if you like. I am the Japanese history teacher” He smiled at her. He was so friendly and nice, easy to smile and laugh. He was a very nice person and if all the teachers here were just like him, she would enjoy her time in the KNY Academy a lot more than she thought.
Rengoku walked with her as they made their way inside the school and as they walked into the Teacher’s lounge, she couldn't help but feel a bit nervous under the eyes of her fellow teachers.
“Everyone! This is the new substitute english teacher, please treat her well!” said Rengoku, before she could even mutter a word. Faces of confusion changed to faces of curiosity before her and she felt sure enough to introduce herself.
“Hello everyone, I am Katsumi Kyoko, the new english teacher, please take care of me!” She bowed in respect. Soon, a bright woman with pink and green braids was by her side, introducing herself as Kanroji Mitsuri, the seniors’ english teacher. Kanroji, or rather, Mitsuri, as she asked to be called, took her hand and walked her around the lounge, introducing all of the other teachers. There was Iguro Obanai, the intimidating chemistry teacher, Uzui Tengen, the reckless art teacher and Himejima Gyomei, a calm man who was in charge of the civics class. There was also Kocho Kanae, the beautiful biology teacher, Shinazugawa Sanemi, the stoic math teacher, and Tomioka Giyuu, who as the P.E teacher, wasn´t in the lounge at the moment. Despite having a good impression of all the teachers, she was happy to hear it was almost time for her to find her way to her first class.
“Rengoku-san is also on his way to the first years’ classes, you should walk with him there! We didn’t really have time to show you around the school, so it’s best to not get lost!” Said Mitsuri. Before she could refuse, not wanting to be a burden, she was suddenly already walking to her class with Rengoku by her side. She had zone out a little bit and though she was certain Rengoku was explaining something to her, she hadn’t listened to a single word.
“So yeah, I just think it would be the perfect project for the second years, we would just have to meet one day after school to set up a few things, since I do want your input but, I don’t know, what do you think?” Rengoku stopped in the middle of the hall, staring into her confused eyes. It was probably clear in her face that she was completely lost.
“Suzui-san and I did a conjunct project for the second years, so I was asking if you were up for it. We could meet tomorrow after school to go over what was done last year and get it ready. It’s kind of a big project, so they need to be able to start working on it as soon as possible!” Finished Rengoku.
“Oh yeah, sure, that sounds nice” She smiled, feeling bad for having him repeat everything again for her. He stopped in front of a classroom that read 1-B and opened the door.
“Well Katsumi-san, this is your classroom! Let’s talk more during the lunch break, good luck!” He smiled at her radiantly. She couldn’t help but wonder how he managed to smile so brightly so often. She thanked him and smiled at him, though she was sure it looked weird, since he just stared at her for a second, both confused and amused.
Shaking off that feeling of having Rengoku staring at her face so intensely, she took a deep breath and walked into the classroom. The battle had begun.
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Despite this being the first time she was in front of a classroom, she wasn’t nervous at all. She had her notes and a prepared introductory class. For now, she wanted to get to know the students a little bit and to go over the materials of the previous semester, likewise with her next class. Before she knew it, it was lunch time already, and soon both her and her students left the classroom looking to stretch their legs and eat something.
Upon arriving at the teachers lounge, she noticed Mitsuri and Kocho were already waiting for her at a table.She found it sweet that they had taken a liking to her and to be honest, she liked them a lot as well.
“So there I was for a reptile showing, frogs all over the classroom, snakes had escaped out of the cages and the door just wouldn't open. Of course, it was chaos. The students were screaming so much that the other teachers must have thought there had been a fire or some kind of emergency.
Soon, the firefighters were entering the classroom, ready to take action but they felt petrified to see the room filled with reptiles, they had been called by accident, but soon they were as useless as the rest of the students, disgusted by the snakes and frogs.
But the funniest part was when Shinobu-chan, who was then in another class, walked in and looked at all of them with such disgust, such annoyance in her face, it was hilarious. Soon she helped me pick and return every single reptile to its cage, but it is an understatement that the fire department was NOT happy to see its best firemen reduced to scary cats in the face of frogs and snakes.” finished Kocho-san, as Mitsuri reenacted every single one of the expressions they all had, going as far as to stand up on top of a chair, all to paint the full picture for her.
She was in the middle of imitating Shinobu-san’s disgusted face, when the owner walked in, looking for her older sister. Just as they described, Shinobu-san, had a very scary face, and now looking at her directly, she could understand why the firefighters had been a little bit frightened by her.
“Are you making fun of me again, Mitsuri-neesan??” And soon Mitsuri sat down and focused on eating her bento.
“Not at all, Shinobu-chan, how could I make fun of my favorite student” Mitsuri answered while doing her hardest to avoid Shinobu’s intense eyes. Looking at the whole scene, Kyoko couldn’t help but burst in laughter, startling the women present and the rest of the teachers, who had so far ignored everything that was going on. Shinobu raised her eyebrow and while Kyoko also found her a bit scary, she couldn’t help but laugh louder.
“I’m sorry, Shinobu-san, is just-” But she couldn’t explain herself. She had started laughing and now couldn’t stop and Shinobu-san just looked at her like she was crazy, while her fellow teachers just looked at her amusedly.
“Well Kyoko-san, I’m glad to see you do have a sense of humor after all! It's official, let’s go drinking together on the weekend, I’m certain it will be fun with you there!” Exclaimed Mitsuri-san.
“Well, Mitsuri-san, you shouldn’t talk about drinking in the school, less in front of a student” interrupted Tomioka, she assumed, since she hadn’t met him in the morning. He had just walked in, carrying a recently bought lunch in his hand. He looked very young, and despite his clothes, she could have easily confused him for a student.
“With all due respect, I barely count as a student at this point and you, Tomioka-sensei, are a pitiful excuse of a teacher” answered Shinobu sarcastically and before Tomioka could answer, she had left the room. Tomioka just sighed, defeated, and took a seat at his desk while he ate his onigiri in silence. Probably seeing her look of confusion, Kocho-san explained.
“This is a small town, not many teachers and especially not many P.E teachers. Our old P.E teacher recently retired and we couldn’t find one on time and I couldn’t handle teaching all the P.E classes in addition to my other classes” She sighed. “We looked for volunteers and well, only Tomioka-san was up for the job. Guess it’s hard for students, specially Shinobu, to respect him when he was a senior here just last year”
“It’s only temporary, hopefully” said Mitsuri and suddenly the atmosphere dropped.This wasn’t an ideal situation. In her short hours here, she had noticed all the other teachers running around the school, trying to make it on time to their classes and she could only start to imagine why.
There were many students and not enough teachers. She knew Mitsuri had graduated in english, but she also was in charge of P.E for the second years and the seniors’ homeroom teacher. It was the same for all the others. It made sense that in complete desperation, they had put a college freshman to teach P.E.
She also understood why they haven't mentioned anything to her. She was a new temporary teacher from Tokyo, who would be leaving very soon. It made sense, and logically she knew it was best to pretend not to notice, after all, there wasn’t anything she could do. Right?
Soon the bell rang and she watched as both Kocho and Mitsuri got up, a bit reluctantly. Even if their lunch breaks were a bit longer than the usual for other schools, it was obvious the continuous race against the clock took a toll on them, despite it being the first day. She could understand their exhaustion, she felt it too. But they were good people. And she wanted to cheer them up a bit.
“Kocho-san, Mitsuri-san, let’s go have drinks on the weekend, okay? First two rounds will be on me!” Kyoko said and her coworkers nodded and smiled at her.
“So, first round of drinks is on the new girl? Works for me!” interrupted Uzui, from the other side of the room. He had said it loud enough for all the teachers to hear and due to the bell and before she could correct him, most of her fellow teachers had left the room in a hurry, thanking her for the offer or asking to be sent the details later. Soon, it was just the three of them left.
“What literally just happened?” she asked exasperated. She wasn’t counting on inviting all her coworkers, but being the new girl, she wasn’t in position to refuse.
“I’m sorry, Kyoko-san, we should have told you that you can’t mention buying drinks in front of Uzui-san or he will not only invite himself but extend the invitation to the whole faculty. And you being new just made it easier for everyone to just accept” said Kocho.
“The only good thing about it is that it will be your welcome dinner with the whole team! And nothing is better to get on everyone’s good side than to buy them the first round, so think of it as an investment!” said Mitsuri, in an attempt to make things better.
The three teachers made their way to their respective classes and on the way, Kyoko couldn’t help but think she hadn’t seen Rengoku at lunch. He had said he would meet with her at break to talk about the assignment, but he had never showed up. Classes passed and even at the end of the day, he wasn’t anywhere to be found. She figured she could stay a bit and wait to see if he would appear, to pick something up or something, but this never happened. He surely had left as soon as the school day ended and it was dumb of her to have stayed waiting for him.
It was then that she decided she would leave him a note and hopefully, if he ever came back to pick his stuff, he would see it.
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Rengoku had left the school early to pick up his brother and in the rush, he had only realized hours later that he had left his computer at the school. He could help but become so forgetful when he was stressed. This was the last thing he needed.
Soon though, he was parked in front of the school and he rushed through the empty halls to the teacher’s lounge. His laptop was in the same place he had left it, on top of his desk, where also a pink post note rested on top.
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Rengoku-san
I would love to set up an assignment together for the second years, this is my number and email so we can get in contact.
Best of wishes,
Kyoko
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He read the note and couldn’t help but smile. Katsumi would talk very formally at times but also sign with just her first name and offer to buy drinks for all the faculty (or so he had heard from Uzui). She was surely an interesting person.
Saving the number in his phone, he texted a quick message to Katsumi-san, hoping she wouldn’t mind getting a text at 10 pm. But apparently she didn’t, since shortly after he got an answer back. She texted just like she wrote and talked: unsure of how formal she should be, but when she got excited, she would forget all about honorifics. He was happy to see this other side of her.
This morning, he had been worried he had overwhelmed her with all his ideas. Once he started talking about history, it was hard to stop and despite wanting to set up an interdisciplinary assignment for his students for years now, none of the teachers had wanted to do it. It was too much work, and honestly, he couldn’t blame them. They were all so busy. But though he had been certain she would pass on the idea on the grounds of taking it slow since she would only be there for a few months, it had certainly surprised him that she said yes.
With hair red like flames, how could she not have at least a bit of fire within her?