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“1000 yen he asks next month.”
“5000, he asks on the last day of the term.”
“100 yen, she asks him.” All the heads in the room turned to the blonde seated at the end of the table. Kou Minamoto held up his hands, as he tried to explain to the others his reasoning. “What? I believe in senpai!”
“Do you really think Nene would ask him out?” Aoi asked.
“I… maybe?” he answered hesitantly.
Next to Aoi, Akane dutifully wrote down the bets in a small notebook. The history teacher looked over at the page, which was filled from top to bottom with various bets from teachers (and a student or two) about when newly hired physics teacher, Amane Yugi, would finally ask out their beloved Nene Yashiro.
Kou opened his mouth once more, to try and defend his reasoning when a laugh was heard from the hallway. The room fell silent, staring slightly ominously as the two topics of discussion strolled into the room.
Nene’s expression immediately changed, “Are… are we late?” She looked around, seeing the entire faculty already seated in the teacher’s lounge. She looked down at her watch, “I thought the meeting started at four!”
Aoi quickly walked up to her and grabbed her by the wrist, “No, we were all just early. C’mon, let’s sit down.” She pulled Nene over to the empty seat next to her, and Amane followed the two of them wordlessly, taking the empty seat next to Nene.
The elephant in the room was obvious to everyone except the last two.
Nene listened diligently to every word that came out of Principal Minamoto’s mouth, completely oblivious to all the eyes on her and Amane. When the meeting wrapped up, there was the usual hustle and bustle of everyone standing up and chit chatting. She was ready to do the same when Amane placed a hand on her forearm. She turned to him questioningly as Aoi and the rest of the staff tried to watch subtly.
“Yashiro, I wanted to ask you something.”
“Yes, Yugi-kun?” She felt her cheeks warm at the unexpected contact and she tried to keep her composure as she looked at him.
He gave her his trademark mischievous smile. “Do you have a spare futon I could borrow? My brother is coming to visit next weekend.”
“Oh!” Nene nodded. “Yes! I can bring it next week.”
“Thanks.” He stood up, offering his hand to her, which she took without a second thought.
“Damn it,” Akane muttered.
Nene suddenly realized the entire room was staring at them, and she looked at Aoi confused.
Aoi laughed nervously, “Do you want to go to karaoke tonight?”
The energy in the room went back to normal, as Nene and Aoi made plans. Plans that of course included Akane Aoi and Amane Yugi.
The four had ended up staying out later than expected, which was why Nene practically sprinted from the train station to school, calling out “Excuse me”s as she rushed past others on their way to work. She pulled her coat around her tighter as the wind picked up and was so very grateful to see the front gates of Kamome Academy.
“Nene!” Aoi called, waving. “I was wondering when you would get in.” The other woman was on gate duty, making sure students didn’t try to sneak in after the bell rang.
“Good morning, Aoi!” She then remembered, “Why did you let me sing the entire Hamster Wars soundtrack last night?!”
“You looked so into it!” Aoi giggled, coming up to her. She bumped her shoulder into the other teacher’s. “Yugi-san looked like he enjoyed your rendition of ‘Golden Hamster Time’ too.”
Nene blushed as the two went to their respective classrooms.
She sighed in relief as she looked around an empty classroom. The first bell hadn’t rung yet, and so students were still milling about outside and in the hallways.
She put her bag down and then sat down to review the homeroom announcements.
There was a knock at the door, and she looked up, confused, knowing she hadn’t closed the door yet.
There he was, leaning against the doorframe. “Good morning, Yashiro!” Amane sing-songed. “How’s your voice?”
Nene blushed again, “I’m fine.”
A few students trickled into the room, probably upon seeing the two most exciting topics of discussion interacting. “Great, I just wanted to check on you.”
“Thank you, that’s nice of you.” She paused, “What’s the catch?”
“No catch, I swear!” He chuckled, then made his way over to her. He leaned down, close to her face and her magenta eyes widened.
“What are you-”
Amane reached into her hair and pulled out a tiny leaf, “Sorry, I just noticed this.”
Her cheeks burned at how close they were, and it seemed he realized it as well as he jumped back three feet.
He rubbed the back of his neck, “I should go, uh, have a good day, Yashiro.”
“You too,” she replied shakily.
Once he was gone, she ignored the students in front of her as she placed her face in her hands. What was that all about?
For the next week, he avoided her, much to her confusion. Even when she went out of her way to look for him, he managed to elude her.
It was frustrating.
Wednesday night, she texted him to ask if she should still bring her spare futon the next day. He replied with a short ‘Yes, please’ and ignored her follow up texts.
Nene had half a mind to leave the futon at home and make him come pick it up from her apartment, but she ended up bringing it along in a large bag at the last minute. She had to leave extra early this morning since the weekly staff meeting had been moved to before school.
She decided she’d get tea from the vending machine on campus after the meeting. The sun had barely risen as she walked from the train station. Her first stop was the classroom, where she dropped off her bags and got her notebook and pen from her desk.
“Morning.”
She turned around to find Amane standing in the doorway, with a sheepish expression on his face. She frowned, how dare he act like everything was fine after he’d ignored her all week?
“I brought you a coffee,” he offered, holding up the paper cup like a peace offering. “And I wanted to ask you something.”
“I brought the futon, don’t worry,” she said, rolling her eyes.
“Thanks, but that wasn’t it. I wanted to ask if you wanted to see Hamsters Galactic War on Sunday?”
“Eh?!” The gears in her head started turning. “Like… like a date?”
This time, he blushed, “Yes, like a date.”
“Oh. Um.” She stared back at him.
He smiled awkwardly, “You don’t have to answer me now, just think-”
“No, wait, I mean, yes, I’d love to!” She bounded up to him, taking his free hand, “Sunday then!”
His smile grew larger, and she blushed as he pulled her hand (and by extension, her) closer. “Okay, Sunday.”
There was no one around to witness what had just happened, and so it would appear that no one at Kamome Academy won the bet.