Maki sat back in the backstage with Erika, watching as Yuichi, the emcee of the program got the show going.

The man’s voice boomed from the microphone as he smiled down at the students. Still from backstage, Maki heard Yuichi announce; “To jump start the patriotism for Ue Hodokyou in our hearts, let us hear from our instructor duo; Yamaa Tomohisa-sensei and Horikita Maki-sensei! With a song they wrote entitled; Fresh Start!”

Maki breathed in then stood up, turning to her right to see that Tomohisa was doing the same. Unlike her, he had a confident aura in his stance. It wasn’t that she was nervous or anything like that. She was used to these things, but it was the first day of school so there was much hype around.

Tomohisa nodded his head over to her and allowed her to walk ahead to the stage before him. A piano and a guitar was ready for them as Yuichi passed them by, both patting their backs. “Ganbare you two.”

Tomohisa patted the man’s back in the same manner while Maki offered a smile in thanks.

They stepped on to the stage and Maki had to face thousands of new students. She smiled as some which she remembered were from the tour were right up front. Then she got behind the piano, her fingers ready to play while Tomohisa stood in-front of the microphone, fixing the guitar and its strap around his broad shoulders.

“Good morning to you freshmen!” He greeted.

Maki rolled her eyes from the piano. He was acting like a rockstar.

“I’m Yamaa Tomohisa-sensei and that lovely young lady by the piano is going to be your piano instructor, Horikita Maki-sensei.” Tomohisa cleared his throat before continuing. “Alright then. Let’s start ne?” He turned to Maki and they nodded their heads before starting with the song.

It started with a little piano solo from Maki before Tomohisa started singing. Just the beginning got the students on their feet and clapping together. Not to mention the guitar tunes Tomohisa was emitting were pretty cool.

=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=

Since it was the first day, classes weren’t to actually begin in just a snap. Aside from the academy orientation, the instructors still had their own orientation for their own classes to attend to.

“I’ll see you later Maki-chan!” Erika bid her goodbye as they grabbed all of their things and headed to their classes. First class for her was an introductory class, of course to the freshmen. She gathered her things and made her way to her classroom, a small smile ready on her face.

The school was much more full compared to the earlier weeks. Of course, teacher to student ratio was wide enough. She reached the room, managing to see a few familiar faces from the tour. She stopped in front of the classroom door and breathed in at first. Okay, time to be a teacher again. It’s been two years but who was she kidding. Teaching kids beat playing a piano in a hotel lounge for her.

The minute she opened the door, students scrambled from their spread out positions and proceeded to sit in their respective chairs. She smiled at them as she placed her things on the desk.

“Ohayou minna-san.”

“Ohayou sensei!”

She listened as they greeted. Not all were that enthusiastic, she could work with that.

“Any one know what this subject is?” The students were only given the class codes, and if they did know the subject, it meant they took the time to look at the curriculum.

A hand shot up in the air and Maki wasn’t all that surprised to see that the student was her so called love child with Erika.

“Yes?”

“This is an introductory class to music theory ma’am.” The young woman answered.

Maki smiled as she looked at said woman. “Very good, and you are…?”

“Shida Mirai desu, sensei.”

Shida Mirai. Maki made a mental note to remember that name and that face. Erika wasn’t kidding. Mirai had the same eyes as Maki but had Erika’s lips. Her hair fell through her shoulders; she guessed if it wasn’t tied up into a pony tail. There were also thick framed glasses, the same ones as hers, perched on the bridge of Mirai’s button nose. She had a feeling she was going to like this girl. “Jaa, thank you for that Shida-chan.” Turning her back, she grabbed a piece of chalk then wrote on the board.

“This is Introduction to Music Theory and I will be your professor for the semester, I am Horikita Maki-sensei.” When she face them, she was smiling yet again. “One might ask what music theory is and all I can say is; we will be doing a lot of composing for this subject.” She was very happy to see that the students looked excited. After that she explained through the processes and the grading system of the whole subject. Then she asked each student to introduce themselves and make themselves known. There was a total of 30 students in this class of hers. When the last student sat down and finished sharing things about himself, Maki decided that it was her turn.

“Okay, you all know my name, but please call me Maki-sensei.” She smiled. “I live just one train station away from here, I’ll be 25 on October and I worked in London as a pianist for a band performing in hotels.”

A hand shot up straight in the air. It was Mirai. “Sensei?”

“Hai?”

“You were the one who composed that song a while ago right?”

Maki nodded her head. “Yes, I composed ‘Fresh Start’ along with Yamaa-sensei who I believe will be your instructor in ‘Performance’.”

“Are you together Maki-sensei?” A young man with curly black hair asked in a jester tone.

Maki chuckled. “You mean me and Tomohisa?”

“Hai! You looked good playing together a while ago.” The same young man commented and unsure murmurs of agreement erupted.

Really, kids these days. Maki shook her head and continued smiling at them. “No, no, Yamaa-sensei is only a friend of mine…” Why were people chasing her with these assumptions anyways?! She needed to spend less time with Tomohisa so people wouldn’t be thinking too much.

After finishing with that class and another one, it was time for lunch. By now, Maki was sure that students were all hungry to eat and were going to be filling up the cafeteria. She exited the classroom and almost came colliding with Keiko.

“Oh!”

“Oh!”

They exclaimed at the same time. Maki stepped back as all of Keiko’s papers fell scattering through the floor. Immediately on impulse, she bent down and helped her co-worker.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t see you there.” Keiko said, at the same time smiling thankfully just as Maki finished picking up the last piece of paper.

“Partly my fault. I’m so clumsy!” Maki laughed, more so at herself. “I can even sleep anywhere…”

“Isn’t that dangerous?” Keiko asked, looking worried.

Maki slowly nodded her head. “Mm, but Tomo’s there anyways so it won’t be that dangerous.” She wished she had bitten her tongue the moment she said those words! Now it was more obvious that he went to school with Tomohisa and went home with him! Not that there was anything wrong with that but people’s minds always keep the gears rolling with things like this. She looked up and saw that Keiko looked thoughtful for a moment but then turned back to her.

“Would you want to grab lunch with me?”

Of course, Maki thought. She smiled at the woman and nodded her head. “Sure.”

The same smile graced Keiko’s beautiful face before she walked side by side with Maki. The cafeteria rush just started and Keiko and Maki were lucky enough to snag a table right in the middle of the wide space. In truth, the two of them looked more like students rather than instructors.

“There are so many students here ne?” Maki tried starting a conversation as she dug in to her mashed potatoes.

Keiko nodded her head, still finishing with her own pasta. “The numbers of the students get bigger and bigger every year.” And she was right. Normally the cafeteria could hold up just fine but now it looked like a restaurant where people waited in line to be seated. The difference was there was no podium or anything like that.

“Kids these days are fiery ne?” Keiko asked.

Maki then shared her own classroom stories and they took it off from there. Keiko was in the middle of telling a story about one of her new students when the cafeteria door opened and Maki looked up. It was Tomohisa, entering the cafeteria alone. He had this bored expression on his face but that did not lessen how cool and confident he looked. Maki shook her head and turned to Keiko to urge the other woman to continue with her story but Keiko was looking at Tomohisa.

Damn. She had it bad.

“Keiko-chan?” Maki whispered and it was enough to catch her new found friend’s attention.

“Oh, sorry, what was that?”

Maki turned back to see that Tomohisa had his meal wrapped up. The guy was probably going to eat in the faculty room or something. She faced Keiko and looked at her softly with a smile. Perhaps she had guessed what Maki was thinking because Keiko cleared then, blushing hard.

“It’s that obvious huh?”

“A bit.” Maki answered, gesturing with her thumb and forefinger.

Keiko sighed. “I don’t know Maki-chan, it’s just that. He’s my ideal guy…”

Tomohisa? An ideal guy. Maki kept the snort to herself. She would be lying if she said she didn’t find him attractive but he was just a friend to her… or so the logical part of her brain kept saying.   

“How would you say he’s your ideal guy?” She asked.

Keiko shrugged. “I mean, I know I had a crush on him because he was gorgeous. But it’s not just that. He’s also smart and fun to be with.”

Maki watched as Keiko day dreamed to herself before the latter said something. “I had an on and off boyfriend for the past year but I finally broke up with him and now… well I’m interested with Tomohisa…”

Maki didn’t know how to react to that. She was just his friend. She kept telling herself. But why was she suddenly feeling jealous?

Oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Wow. Maki found out she had no more classes for the day. Just for the day anyways. But she wasn’t ready to go home yet. Maybe she could wait for Meisa and Erika. For the mean time, she decided to stay holed up in the library. Literally, she was one of those bookworms. When she was a kid, her mother would always scold her since she stayed up late reading books in her room in the dark. She carried around a little flash light with hers. Now it caught up with her since her eyesight was really bad.

“Konnichiwa Horikita-sensei.”

“Ah, konnichiwa Ayano-san…” Maki greeted the old man. He had thin white hair and spectacles on.

“How’s the first day?” Ayano asked as he fixed books on shelves and Maki got to a seat.

“It was hectic but alright.”

In reply, Ayano nodded his head before continuing with fixing the books. Maki heaved a sigh and walked over to one of the shelves and grabbed the most random book. It wasn’t any problem for her; she enjoyed reading anything.

It seemed as if time has passed before Maki decided for herself that she needed to head on home and rest. She said goodbye to Ayano, realizing that she was the only on left inside the library and exited to the faculty room. Most of the other professors were already gone. Her eyebrows scrunched up together when she did realize who was left inside the faculty, sleeping by his desk.

“I think he’s been waiting for you…”

Maki almost jumped at the voice when she realized that Yuichi was still at his desk, typing away on his laptop. She turned back to Tomohisa who’s head was on his desk and his face flowing with sleep.

“For me? Did he need something from me?” Maki asked Yuichi.

The latter shrugged his shoulders, finally ceasing from his typing. “He was looking for you and I think he texted you too but you weren’t answering so he said he was going to wait for you here.” After that, Yuichi gave her a simple smile then returned to whatever he was typing.

Maki wasn’t able to stop herself from smiling. Tomohisa actually waited for her.

“Tomo…”

“Mm…”

Maki prodded the man’s shoulders a little harder.

“W-what?” Tomohisa sat up from the chair and scrunched his eyes awake, only to see that Maki was there smiling softly at him.

“Yuichi said you waited for me?”

Tomohisa snapped his head over to where Yuichi was but saw that the man was busy. He cleared his throat and fixed all his things before turning back to Maki. “I wasn’t waiting for you, I finished my lesson plan and fell asleep; anyways are you going home now?”

Maki smirked at him. “Oh Tomo. Just admit that you were waiting for me.” She teased, patting his cheek.

Tomohisa mockingly grimaced as he patted Maki’s head. “No I wasn’t shorty now let’s head on home.”

“Whatever you say.” Maki sniggered. “Bye Yuichi! Take care!” She waved to the man who smiled back at them.

It wasn’t dark yet but the academy was slowly turning quiet as students headed on home to their dorms and to their homes. Tomohisa walked right behind Maki as they exited the grounds but the latter stopped just a foot away.

“What is it?” Tomohisa asked.

Maki was gazing at the direction of the takoyaki stand at the end of the street. Tomohisa followed her line of vision, wondering what she was seeing.

“What are you looking at?” He asked again.

“The girl by the stand is a student of mine, her name is Shida Mirai.” There was a smile in her voice.

Tomohisa looked again and saw there was a girl eating takoyaki with a boy he recognized. “Huh, so Yamada’s girlfriend goes to school here too.”

“How do you know she’s the boy’s girlfriend?” Maki questioned.

Tomohisa nodded over to where the two were causing Maki to look again.

In a split second, the two adults watched as the couple leaned closer together to give each other a soft kiss.

“Oh…” Maki uttered, tongue tied. The she smiled and shook her head. “Ah to be young and in love…” She began walking while Tomohisa followed behind her.

“What, you’ve never been in love before?”

Maki shook her head. “No, I don’t think so. Maybe someday.” She walked on ahead before Tomohisa jogged beside her. She spoke up again. “Speaking of love, you won’t give Keiko a try then?”

“What is she an amusement park ride?” Tomohisa scoffed.

Maki chuckled and shook her head. “I meant dating her.”

Tomohisa stopped in front of Maki also causing her to do so. He faced her, looking at her as he stepped closer.

Oh what was that? Maki stepped her right foot back, feeling her heart beating fast. What was he doing? She gripped her bag closer to her just as Tomohisa leaned in. Was he… going to kiss her? She actually thought of that. Instead he whispered in her ear, sounding serious. “Would you approve then if I dated her?”

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AN: What will be Maki's answer?! Ohohoho! Tune in to find out! hehehe!

@rengganis -  yes yes they are! haha! I'm an evil author :p thank you for reading and commenting!

@jumpyamajima - deshou! I love train scenes haha! probably another one will come up in the next chapter! :)) I inserted a Yamashi scene even though it's little :p hope you like the chapter! thanks for reading and commenting!

@Wallfllower - oh thank you! hahaha! I'm sorry if the romance is slow :D I'll build it up XD correct you are! let's find out what'll happen ne! I hope you like both Yamaki and Yamashi scenes here! :D thank you for reading and commenting!