Mirai and Ryosuke anxiously watched as Tomohisa stood there. They literally could see the older man’s whitening knuckles from holding the tray in-front of him. Mirai was actually scared that Tomohisa would beat that man Maki was talking to with the tray but Tomohisa supressed his rage. Breathing in, the older man turned to Ryosuke and nodded his head curtly. This seemed to be a sign since Ryosuke followed his coach whereas Mirai realized that they were heading over to where Maki was.

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Maki was just laughing at a joke Sho had shared when her eyes suddenly widened.

“T-Tomohisa…”

Sho turned to face his back as Maki stopped their conversation with that name being uttered. “Ah, coach Yamaa…” He uttered in greeting with a thin line of his lips once the man was right in-front of them.

“Sakurai-sensei…” Tomohisa nodded his head in greeting while still holding on to the tray. Ryosuke and Mirai stayed behind him, obviously waiting for what was to happen next. “I guess you’re happy to see Maki-chan too.”

A vein throbbed in Maki’s temple. This was bad; they were all Meiji alumni. She was a freshman then and Sho and Tomohisa were both juniors. She admitted that the reason she actually attended Meiji was because Tomohisa persuaded her; he was already a sophomore there when they met. Before anything could happen, a deep voice had interrupted them.

“Ah, Horikita! I didn’t know you were here!”

Their heads simultaneously turned at the voice to see their old Science professor, Ito Hideaki. All of them had mixed looks on their faces but the older man had only a large smile on his handsome face.

“It’s nice to see you again Ito-sensei.” Maki said, bowing her head softy as she tried to make her smile less awkward.

“So are you visiting Tomohisa?” Hideaki suddenly asked. “I remember you two were always together while in school here!”

Mirai who was at the back, literally wanted to shove her pudding up that professor’s mouth. He clearly didn’t know about how things were happening at the moment.

“Uh, no sensei, I wasn’t visiting Tomohisa…” Maki answered timidly at the same time seeing the sad expression on Tomohisa’s face. She cleared and was happy to see that Mirai was actually there beside Tomohisa. She gestured for her younger sister to stand next to her. Once Mirai did so, Maki spoke up yet again. “I’m here with my sister, she got here in Meiji too.”

“My my, you look just like your sister now don’t you?” Ito-sensei complimented as he smiled at Mirai who returned the gesture.

The sound of the P.A suddenly caught their attention, causing them to look up as if there was a face going to show on the ceiling.

“Calling all freshmen, please report to the auditorium for the morning orientation…”

The message was repeated to be clearer. Ito bid them good-bye, clearly needing to hurry up. Maki held on to Mirai’s shoulder in a supporting manner. “Come on Mirai…” she turned to Sho. “Gomen Sho, I have to go…” It was more or less a better goodbye than what she gave to Tomohisa; only bowing her head. Sho went on along also not knowing what to do.

“Coach daijoubou?” Ryosuke asked Tomohisa hesitantly. He could see the vein in Tomohisa’s temple almost popping and that was not a good sign.

“Come on Ryou, I’ll bring you to the orientation…” Tomohisa greeted his teeth.

“But I thought you were bu--”

“No I’m not come on…” Without another word, Tomohisa settled his still full-of-food- tray on the table and grasped Ryosuke’s shoulder, bringing the boy to the direction of the auditorium.

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The customers were paving away to the silent portion of Wits schedule. Suzuka was finally able to rest and sit down. She felt like her feet were beginning to grow bunions from standing too much. Erika came back with the last tray, looking fresh as ever.

“How do you do that?” Suzuka asked a little annoyed. Here she was looking like crap with her hair all over the place and sweat beginning to show in places she didn’t want to be seen while Erika looked pristine as ever.

Giggling slightly, Erika settled herself beside the younger woman and explained. “When you’re a gym instructor, you don’t sweat… you glow!”

As much as Suzuka wanted to be encouraged, well, she wasn’t. “It helps that you’re really pretty..” she grumbled. Erika giggled again when she saw the disheartened look on the young woman. She wrapped one arm around Suzuka then squeezed comfortingly. “Hey hey, who says I’m the only pretty one here? You’re pretty too?”

“Tsk, finally a break…” The kitchen door suddenly opened as Kazuya exited then sat beside Erika. “It’s hard cooking all those food alone, I hope Maki gets back already…” he grumbled. Suzuka and Erika could tell he wasn’t in a good mood.

“You must be pretty tired…” Erika commented.

Kazuya scowled as he looked at her then looked back up-front. “Try exhausted!” He literally snapped.

Returning the scowl, Erika huffed. “Well I’m sorry that you’re exhausted but you don’t need to snap at me! It’s not my fault!” She quickly stood up and removed her apron before climbing up the staircase.

And so Kazuya and Suzuka sat there together both looking confused and perplexed. Suzuka slowly stood up with a large sigh. “Hmm, always the snobby one aren’t you Kazuya-nii?” Her back was turned but Kazuya could see the small way she shook her head.

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“We’re finished for today minna-san! Good work!” Meisa initiated with the clapping just so her tired students could feel accomplished at the end of their session. Though all looking worn out and really sweaty, the students joined their instructor in clapping. They’d finished the routine and were ready to show off their dancing prowess at the next showcase of the center.

“And because of that, we get the whole weekend as a day-off!” Meisa’s announcement was followed with another cheer from her students. She was feeling really proud with them today and thought that they needed a well-earned break. They were always so tired the whole week so why not give them the whole weekend to just rest and enjoy before the show case came.

“Arigato gozaimasu Kuroki-sensei!” The students all bowed at the same time then all running to get dressed and head on home.

Still with a happy smile on her face, Meisa began packing as she heard the students one by one going home; all of them greeting her goodbye and giving another thanks just as they walked out of the door. Now it was just her left in the room. The afternoon sun was seeping through the large windows, painting a perfect picture as she stood shadowed by the light. Once everything was set and packed up, she grabbed her bag and hauled it unto her shoulder then exited the studio. She was just locking up the studio when she heard voice down the hall. Looking up she saw it was Jin and Takako.

“So are you heading on home?” Takako asked Jin expectantly with an annoying smile. They were standing by one of the center’s bulletin boards.

“Anou…” Jin’s reply was unsure. He kept looking around until he came eye to eye with Meisa. His expression from hapless turned to hope as he smiled widely then made her way over to Meisa not caring that Takako was still following him.

“Ah! Hey Mei-tan!! You want to grab a late lunch?” Jin invited, remembering that Meisa had not eaten her lunch yet.

Meisa stared at him with a blank expression on her face before harshly bringing the keys out from the door’s keyhole. Then she fixed the strap of her bag around her shoulder before answering. “Nah, no thanks Jin, I have to get home…”

There was one person who had the odd-one-out expression on her face in the premises. “So how about it Jin?”

Meisa didn’t hear Jin’s reply since she was already stuffing her ears with her earphones as she walked away.

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Erika huffed as she proceeded down the stairs again. Sometimes Kazuya was just a real snob, then again he looked to be that type of guy but it didn’t give him the right to snap at her like that! There were more customers this time again but she trusted Suzuka could handle it. It seemed like Maki and Mirai weren’t back yet because she’d be sure to hear from them. She had just reached the end of the steps when she saw Meisa coming in from the front, as usual, looking mad. Erika knew that it was in Meisa’s nature to look… fierce and all, that was a defense mechanism of her friend but lately she was looking more and more sullen.

“Hi Mei-tan.” She greeted, her voice going an octave bellow from her usual cheeriness.

Meisa abruptly stopped, right in-front of the counter to be exact. She looked up at Erika then smirked in greeting. Erika supposed it was meant to be a smile but seeing how forlorn Meisa was, it turned out into a smirk.

“Something going on again?” Erika asked once she reached Meisa who chose to sit at an empty table rather than rest first upstairs.

Meisa breathed out some air as if she was holding it for some time. She shook her head, resting her arm on the large duffel bag she had on the table. Sadly her answer didn’t suffice to Erika’s curiosity. “Nah it’s nothing. Just tired from work.”

Anyone could’ve caught on that that wasn’t the real reason. But Meisa just didn’t care. Erika knew she wouldn’t win in this situation so she just let it go, opting to sit adjacent Meisa at that particular table. Suddenly, Kazuya exited from the kitchen, wiping his hands on his pants. He stopped mid-way from what he was doing when he saw Erika and Meisa looking at him only for Erika to turn the other way as if she didn’t see him.

Erika didn’t care if she was being childish, she’d rather be that way than getting her nerves all wringed out. She still wasn’t looking at him but she could hear his footsteps approaching and from the way Meisa was looking at her, she was pretty sure he was approaching them to talk to her.

“Hey…”

She turned her head with a deadly scowl. “Nani?”

It looked like Kazuya was having a really tough time of getting this out since he kept looking everywhere but to her. “Look I’m sorry I snapped.”

And it looked like Erika was going to give him a harder time. “It doesn’t sound like you’re sorry.”

Kazuya clicked his tongue. “Well I am so could you just accept it?”

Erika crossed her arms and looked at the man still with a scowl. “Yeah sure…”

Meisa sat there being entertained as ever. As if someone would actually believe that Erika forgave Kazuya with that look. Sometimes she thought she was always surrounded by children.

A text message caught her attention; it was from Jin.

Hey what’s wrong? Are you mad at me or something?

She looked away from her phone, stuffing it back into her bag.

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Mirai finally got away from Maki so she could sit at one of the chairs inside Meiji’s auditorium. Sometimes Maki treated her like a baby but she tried to understand, she was her (Maki’s) baby sister and was responsible for her that’s why she understood why the woman was so protective.

She just got seated at the middle portion of the chairs when someone sat beside her. Her eyes squinted as she tried to remember who this tall guy beside her was but before she could even ask the young man if they’d met before; he stood up and started gesturing.

“Ryou! Ryou hey here!”

Oh god someone just kill her now! was agape as she saw Ryosuke waving to this guy beside her. Yuto. Now she remembered his name! It was too late for her to snap back to reality when she realized Ryosuke was sitting at Yuto’s right side (she was at Yuto’s left).

“Hi there Mirai!” Ryosuke greeted. It was always with that annoying smile when he did that. Yuto, who sat in-between them, looked triumphant. Did they plan this or something?!

“So Ryosuke, would you like to switch seats with me?” She vaguely heard Yuto ask. She got her senses back quickly before either of the boys could move.

“No no! You! Stay here!” She’d given Yuto a taste of her deadly eyes and was latching on to his arm like chains to a prisoner. Yuto was actually shaking in fear at this point.

“Aww, don’t you want to sit next to me Mirai-chan?” Ryosuke suddenly pouted.

Dammit! Damn him! This wasn’t the first time Mirai had seen a boy try to be cute but dang it worked really well with Ryosuke. She found herself staring for a while before her subconscious came kicking her to her senses. “Just stay there! Don’t you want to sit next to Yuto-san?”

Ryosuke and Yuto looked at each other for a while. “Wouldn’t I still be sitting next to him if we switched places?”

Mirai wanted to choke up on her own spit. Now she just proved that her ideas were idiotic!

Fortunately, or unfortunately for Mirai’s part, it was Yuto who made the decision. “Since I’m getting really scared with Mirai-san here, I really am going to have to switch seats with Ryou.” The two boys quickly stood up and exchanged seats, leaving Mirai with no choice but to concede.

“Isn’t this year going to be interesting ne?” Ryosuke laughed.

Oh she bet it will.

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Being a parent or a guardian, Maki sat at the bleachers at the top of the auditorium. She had just settled into her seat when she heard some of the women she was sitting with start whispering and giggling. At first she didn’t mind as she checked her phone for any messages. She was happy to see that no emergencies came from Wits meaning her café was still in tip top shape. Sighing happily, she looked up only to see Tomohisa heading over to her. So that’s why those girls were all getting noisy. She had to hand it out to him. All women of different ages seemed to adore him and she was sure she was getting dagger stares from all the young girls in that are when Tomohisa sat beside her.

“You’re faculty, shouldn’t you be down there?” she asked though not looking at Tomohisa but rather at the stage where all the other teachers, including Sho, were sitting down.

“I’m a coach. Technically I’m not faculty.” There he went again with his sultry voice. Maki wished she had this potion to shut him up because she always felt a tingling climb up her back when Tomohisa spoke up.

She tried looking away but apparently Tomohisa wasn’t going to give up with this. He brought his fingers to her chin, tilting them up so she was forced to look at him. Not so much as force as she gave in.

“You do know that Sakurai had a huge crush on you when we were in school don’t you?” Tomohisa asked. Their faces were only inches apart. There were about a thousand drummers in Maki’s heart right now. She worried Tomohisa could hear everything.

“What’s it to you Tomo? We’re over…” she finally got her voice back. She didn’t want to deal with this. For a moment she saw hurt flicker over Tomohisa’s eyes but it disappeared the moment she saw it.

“You think that’ll stop me?” Tomohisa said a whisper away from her lips.

Everyone please stand up for the Nihon national anthem!

Maki quickly pulled away from the handsome man before he could do what she was sure he was planning to! That husky voice of his was always there when he would kiss her! Thank you for the emcee for asking them to stand up. She cleared and looked away as the music began.

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AN: Hello minna-san! chapter 5 for you! :D Kame and Erika are little kids bickering I know ahaha! I'm building them up more especially Jin and Meisa in the next chapter! :D get ready for Mirai and Ryosuke's first day at Meiji :D Yamaki heats me up as always :p they'll see more of each other I assure everyone! Thank you to those who commented and to those who will comment! thank you also to my silent readers! I love you guys! <3