“Your daughter’s condition is much better than before,” said the doctor to Mariko and Renn, “but she’ll be hospitalized for the night.” He flipped the stapled paper, scanned it, laid them down, and faced the parents.

Mariko was relieved. “Thank you.”

“If you’ll excuse me, I’ll get the papers for the hospitalization.” He stood up and exited.

Renn took in his wife’s hand and breathed out. “Our daughter’s fine.”

“Mi-chan was right.” Mariko beamed a smile. “She is and has always been a great mother.” Thank you, Mirai. It is time I pick up the parenthood baton from you. She thought of when she had seen the young Yamada couple together out in the waiting area, and whispered, “Natsu, you have the best mother there is.”

*

It was around midnight, and Mirai entered the bedroom with midnight snacks and drinks she had prepared for her and Ryosuke’s late-night catch-up on homework for tomorrow since they couldn’t do them earlier in the day. In the middle of the bed laid Natsu, fast asleep without a fever, a first since his infection.

Natsu’s pediatrician had confirmed that his body was reacting and responding to the medicine he’d been prescribed, so it was nothing big the teenage parents had to worry about. Relieved, the family could expect peaceful nights now.

“You’re going to get fat if you eat those now,” Ryosuke teased as he helped Mirai place the huge tray in between them on the bed. They were lying opposite Natsu with their feet near his head so that their workspace could be bigger and so that if they were to bicker, it wouldn’t be close enough to wake Natsu up.

She glowered at him. “Anyone would get fat eating these.”

“Nope, just you,” he said with a straight face as if that was obvious.

She poked his forehead, picked up her lead pencil, and searched for her paper. “I can’t get fat. I’m already big.” She depressingly burrowed her face into the bed.

“You don’t care about how you’re dressed, but you care about that?” He reached for his milk in the glass cup. “You’re weird.”

She peeked a look at him and mumbled, “You’re a guy, so fat leaves your body much easier. But for us girls, our fat stays longer because of hormonal changes and—”

“Hey, I don’t want to know about that,” he hissed, raising his cup. “I’m drinking.” He placed his cup back onto the tray. “It’s okay. You don’t need to worry about your weight. Just like how you’re y when you’re in casual clothes, you’re y the way you are now too.”

Again, it happened every time he gave any kind of compliment about her figure. She could feel heat blanketing her body and wanted to cringe but was also flattered. Her head sank lower into the bed to hide her flushed face. Stupid Ryosuke! Why does he keep saying this about me!

“You shouldn’t need to worry about getting fat. You’re going to live with cats anyway.”

She clicked her tongue while her head was still burrowed. She should’ve known that it was going to end up like this. It was him after all. She raised her head slowly and grinned at him. “What. Was. That?”

He didn’t notice her hostile tone as he innocently repeated, “I said, you shouldn’t need to worry—”

“You jerk!” She gripped his neck and shook him back and forth.

“Tap out! Tap out!”

She let go and proudly snorted, “That’s what I thought.” She went back to her spot to start on her assignment.

He touched his neck and smiled. She never meant any harm to him. She couldn’t. And she wouldn’t. Ever. Even though his teases could offend all the girls in the world, only she’d understand that he meant otherwise. To further, he scooted to her and gave her the last blow. He purred on her arm. “Meow.”

She looked at him, and they giggled.

This was another reason he loved to sleep with them. Sometimes, when Natsu went to sleep earlier than expected, Ryosuke would make a fool of himself, and she’d laugh at his foolishness. He was always in a daze at how graceful her laugh was and her sincerity. She was the only one in this entire world who understood and accepted his stupidity for who he was. It was nights like this when he felt that they were in a world the two only lived in.

Continuing his act as she laughed on her back, he plopped his head onto her stomach to purr and act like a cute cat that wanted to be cuddled and loved. He knew she was ticklish and that she found this to be hilarious. It was a two-way kill.

She laughed harder and tried to get him off her but couldn’t, too feeble because of his dorkiness, so she had to cover when he started to tickle her with his paws on her tummy.

“Meow.” He’d insert the cat sounds here and there and even included cute cat impressions. “Stop laughing, meow, or Natsu will wake up.”

She said in between laughs, “You’re tickling me!”

He pretended to look confused. “Meow, what are you saying?”

As if it couldn’t get any worse than this, her hand accidentally whipped her cup of milk, and it tipped over their heads. After a two-second pause to grasp what had happened, they laughed with their heads wet with milk and sat up slowly.

“Ryosuke, it’s your fault the milk spilled.”

“Meow,” he purred. “You tipped it.”

She nudged him on the shoulder. “Stop with your funny meow.”

“Why, meow?” He inquired with an innocent look and tried to hold in his laughter because the sight of her forehead stained with milk was amusing. Seeing this, he had an idea to have her laugh even more. He combed his hair with his hand, spiked it up, and got off the bed to flex his imaginary muscle on his arm. “Look at me.” He flashed a smile. “y, aren’t I?”

As expected, she wheezed, “Stop it!”

“Why?” He pretended to not know. “I want to show you how…” He made another pose—this time, flexing the other arm. “…awesome I am!”

Again, she couldn’t hold in her laughter. Losing energy, she leaned on one hand for support, felt the soggy mattress, and realized that milk had spilled over them, so she gasped in horror when she saw their worksheets completely damped.

He caught on and cupped his cheeks. “Our homework!”

“What are we going to do? It’s for his class.”

He groaned. “Why must it be the homework for Sohma-sensei?”

Keisuke Sohma was their math teacher who taught math like there was no tomorrow, assigned a crazy amount of homework problems, and gave math projects as if it was a science class. His grading ways were no joke either.

The friends looked at each other. They’d just have to face punishment tomorrow.

*

The time was finally here.

As luck would have it, the last class of the day was Sohma-sensei’s math class.

Mirai and Ryosuke braced themselves.

Because Ryosuke sat at the corner near the door, when he heard someone walk by, he froze and tried to persuade that his grade wouldn’t falter.

Mirai shook in her spot. This class was the only class she’d never not turn her homework in because math was her worst subject. It was her archenemy. She glared at Ryosuke, who was far from her. It’s your fault we’re going through this! If only you hadn’t been so stupid yesterday!

The door slid open, and in walked Sohma-sensei. Like always, he never spoke a word until he reached the middle of the class where a pedestal half his size stood. There, he’d placed his big monstrous heavy-looking black suitcase on the floor, right next to it. It was practically his life. He was never seen without it—it was like his silhouette. He was those kinds of people that took everything seriously and believed one could only go far if given extreme loads of work to do, and he hardly associated himself with the class or other teachers.

“Open your textbook to page seventy-four.” He never began with a greeting either. “We’re continuing off from yesterday’s example.” He turned around, grabbed a chalk stick, and wrote from the very top left corner. While writing and making the sounds on the chalkboard that anyone cringed to but him, he added, “This will be on the quiz tomorrow.”

His so-called quizzes shouldn’t be called quizzes at all. They took the entire class period and had at least thirty questions. What kind of quiz had over five questions?

The class session ended and just five minutes before school was out, he asked the horrific question, “Who did not do their homework?”

Unlike other teachers who collected assignments, he orally asked instead and marked them because his students knew better than to lie to him.

Mirai and Ryosuke hoped they weren’t the only two as they raised their hands.

“The campus couple?” Sohma-sensei confirmed as he closed his book. He was the only teacher Mirai and Ryosuke didn’t dare try to correct about their relationship.

Mirai and Ryosuke looked around the room and saw that they were the only ones who didn’t have their homework to turn in.

“For your punishment…” Since Sohma-sensei wasn’t like other teachers, he too didn’t grade homework as a normal teacher did. He gave out punishments to students who didn’t do their homework so that it’d be an incentive to never forget again. “Since it’s your guys’ first time, clean the classroom.” He placed his book away in his suitcase and walked out of the class right when the bell rang, and seconds later, the class sighed out loud—a usual response.

Haruka, Shintaro, and Juri ran to Mirai, and Ryosuke dragged his feet to join them.

Haruka shook Mirai’s desk. “Why didn’t you do your homework? No matter what, his assignments must be done! Even if you’re dying!”

Mirai slumped into her chair. “Milk.”

“Milk?” the friends repeated.

Ryosuke sat on the floor, hopeless. “Yesterday, we were playing around, and she spilled milk over our homework.”

Mirai pouted at him. “You made me laugh.”

The friends blankly stared at them, having no idea how laughing and milk were the causes. Regardless, they stayed silent. Something told them to not ask.

Mirai stood up and without motivation, she said, “Let’s start cleaning. The faster, the better.”

Ryosuke weakly got up and patted Juri. “Can you tell Coach I won’t make it to practice?”

Juri nodded. “I’ll go now.” And he scurried away.

Haruka pitied her friends. “Want us to help?”

“Nah,” said Ryosuke. “You guys head on home. Man-girl and I got it.”

“Thanks, Haruka,” said Mirai.

Shintaro asked again, “You sure?”

“Yeah, we’re sure,” Mirai and Ryosuke said together.

Haruka grabbed her bag. “You know, you guys had the entire day to copy off the answers. You could’ve just asked us.”

Mirai and Ryosuke froze. Why didn’t they think of that?

Ryosuke shrieked, “Man-girl! Why didn’t you do that?”

Mirai exclaimed, “How was I supposed to know?”

“You’re smarter than me!”

Mirai scoffed and groaned.

Shintaro took his girl and led the way out. “Come on. With them like this, they’ll just fight until they realize they have to clean.”

Haruka, giggling, agreed.

*

Juri scanned the baseball field for Sugita-san.

A few players were playing catch, and some were stretching.

“Juri?” asked Yuta from behind, and Juri turned around and saw him carry a bat and gloves. “Where are the others?”

Juri grinned. “You mean your girlfriend?”

Yuta turned red.

“You really like her, don’t you?”

Yuta nodded.

“Sorry, but I’m only here to pass on a message.”

“Message?”

Juri nodded. “Ryosuke can’t make it to practice because Sohma-sensei punished them for not turning in their homework.”

“Ah, Sohma-sensei.” Yuta had had him too, so he knew exactly how things went down. “You said…‘them’?”

“Yeah. Ryosuke and Mirai.”

“Both of them?”

“Don’t worry. She’s a good girl. This is her first time forgetting to do her homework. She has a lot going on, so she’s probably stressed out.” Juri heard the whistle blew and looked back at the field.

Sugita-san was suddenly in the field and if he blew the whistle, it meant training was beginning.

“I gotta catch up with Coach,” said Juri. “See ya!”

Yuta watched Juri dash away. I’ll drop by later to check up on her. He happy smiled. I’ll buy her a drink too.

*

It was almost 6:30 p.m., and Mirai and Ryosuke had finally finished cleaning the classroom. It was tiring to move the desks and put them back when it was just the two of them, making them appreciate the fact that everyone cleaned the classroom from time to time. They had even taken out the garbage and thrown it out and erased the chalkboard and made sure the eraser was free of chalk remnants.

With the windows widely opened, the cool breeze blew in, calming them.

Mirai zipped her backpack closed and picked it up. “Let’s go get Natsu. We’re done already.”

Ryosuke, resting his head on a desk, groaned, “Five more minutes.”

“You said that the past twice already.” She tugged him. “He’s waiting. It’s getting dark too.”

“Don’t worry. Anyone who sees you will run.”

She pinched his cheek. “Get up.”

He pouted, wanting to rest longer. Stretching, he said, “Let’s get something to drink along the way.”

“Yeah, I’m thirsty too.” As they head out and walked into the hallway, she hopped onto his back. “Carry me downstairs.”

“You’re heavy!” he yelped.

“You’re a baseball player. You should be strong.”

He put her down and frowned. “Don’t confuse me with a body-weight builder, man-girl!”

“I’m too tired to walk down the stairs.”

“That’s why I said we should’ve rested for five more minutes.”

“But I want to see him.” She was about to use her special dog-eyes to persuade him to piggyback her, but he had already crouched down for her.

“Fine. Get on.”

She exclaimed with joy, “Really?”

“I want to see the brat too.”

She jumped onto his back and hugged him tight from behind as he got up.

“Lose some weight,” he lied.

“Didn’t you say I’m perfect the way I am?”

“When did I say that?”

She rested her chin on his shoulder. “Ah, you didn’t say perfect. You said…y.”

He stopped walking as his face flushed because she had emphasized the word out loud. And near his ear.

“You said my body’s y the way it is.”

“Why are you saying that out loud?” He was at the top of the stairs and clenching tight onto her legs, he told her, “I’m stepping down now.”

“Be careful. I don’t want to die with you.”

“I don’t want to die with you. I want to die with a prettier, ier, and better looking—”

She pinched his cheeks. “Yeah, you better keep looking or else.”

“Understand, your highness.”

She giggled and rested her head on his back. “Hurry, slave.”

He muttered to her, “When we get home, I’m going to get you!”