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๐
Nice to meet you
ft. Relationship day one
” Sky is nothing to believe “
–
The class was unnaturally quiet. Mr. Raidenโfamously known for running his classes like a military boot campโstood by the whiteboard, uncapped marker in hand, yet unmoving. His students exchanged wary glances, their books open to the correct page, pencils poised, but no one dared speak.
Finally, one brave soul couldn’t resist. “Uh, Mr. Raiden?”
“What?” he snapped, his head jerking toward the sound.
“Are we… starting?”
For a moment, Scaramouche blinked at the unmarked board as if he’d never seen it before. His hand twitched to write something, but instead of the usual rapid scrawl of complex equations, he muttered something under his breath. To the students closest to him, it sounded suspiciously like, “Bubble-brained art freak.”
The murmurs in the room grew louder, and Scaramouche stiffened. “Silence,” he barked, regaining his composure. “If you have time to gossip, you have time to solve derivatives.”
But the usual bite in his words wasn’t there, and the students knew it. Scaramouche, the unshakable terror of their academic lives, was distracted. That never happened. If that was the only thing, well, that was one thing. Something far more terrifying had happened earlier on by the beginning of the period.
Mr. Raiden…
Delayed an upcoming test. A whole week! The reason? After seeing the whole class panicking for their unit test that was obviously unprepared for due to the play preparations, Scaramouche sighed and declared the schedule adjustment. Rather than cheering, everyone was horrified.
Was he rejected so hard that his brain got some soft of trauma damage?
Across the hall in the art room, the mood couldn’t have been more different. Ms. L/n’s class was buzzing with chatter and laughter as students spread vibrant streaks of paint across their canvases. She moved between them like a whirlwind of energy, her smile contagious, her hands smudged with colors she didn’t bother to wipe off. “You’re in a good mood today, Miss L/n,” one of her students observed with a smile. “What’s the occasion?”
Y/n paused mid-step, her brush tapping against her chin while considering the question. “Hmm… nothing special!” She exclaimed with a light laugh, but the warmth creeping into her cheeks betrayed her words.
“Uh-huh,” The student grinned knowingly. “You weren’t this happy yesterday. Did something happen after the play?”
Despite trying to focus on a nearby canvas, her mind wandered to the events of the previous night. Right… That guy across the hall, he was now herโ
She turned around to stare at the whiteboard, feeling her cheeks beginning to fire up again. “Dunno what you’re talking about, kiddo. Age a few more years and come talk to me.” Y/n brushed the suspicions off with a halfhearted laugh every time eyebrows were wriggled in her direction. Ugh, these kids… Well, not that she could exactly complain. They were the ones that contributed most to this and had to endure the silent cold war between the teachers the last few days. That, they fully deserved credit for.
….But openly admitting she was now officially dating that guy to these teenagers a decade or so younger than herself was embarrassing beyond words!!!
Well, good news or not, the whole school seemed to have figured it out anyways.
The sound of the bell jolted the h/c haired teacher back to the present. As her students filed out, still grinning knowingly at her obvious good mood, Y/n spotted a sticky note on her desk that she had pulled out earlier. Oh, right. The notes subscription thing… She forgot to do that for a while now. She usually popped by his class whenever he went out to do something during lunch, always leaving her door halfway open to catch a glimpse of his reaction. Hmm.. What to write this time.
Meanwhile, Scaramouche was tryingโand failingโto get through his lecture. Every time he wrote something on the board, he erased it almost immediately, muttering under his breath.
“Sir, are you okay?” one of his students asked hesitantly.
“Do I look okay?” he snapped, though there was no real anger in his tone.
The student exchanged a look with their friend. “No… not really.”
Another voice piped up from the back. “Did Miss L/n reject you or something?”
The class erupted into laughter, and Scaramouche huffed while turning his face away from the scene. “Who said anything about rejection?” he demanded, his voice dangerously low.
“Does that mean she didn’t reject you?” someone else teased.
“That’s enough,” he barked, though the faint blush creeping up his neck betrayed him.
By lunchtime, the whispers about the two teachers had spread across the school. The art students were convinced Scaramouche had confessed to their teacher. The math students were certain that it was the other way around. The truth, as usual, lay somewhere in the middle.
Lazing away in the staff lounge, Y/n scrolled through her phone with a cup of tea, when a very familiar bob of indigo walked in. He froze when he saw her, his usual scowl deepening.
“Oh, great,” He muttered. “You’re here.”
She raised an eyebrow. “Nice to see you too, Raiden.”
He sat down at the far end of the table, as if putting distance between her would help him think more clearly. It didn’t.
There was an awkward silence before Y/n decided to break it. “Look, about last nightโ”
“Forget it,” He interrupted quickly. “It’s fine.”
She frowned. “No, it’s not. I don’t want things to be weird between us.”
“They already are,” The teacher muttered, folding his arms. His company couldn’t help but laugh. “You’re terrible at this, you know that?”
“At what?”
“Talking about feelings.”
He glared at her direction, but there was no cold malice in it. “You’re one to talk.” Y/n only stuck her tongue out, shrugging. A much more comfortable silence lingered in the air. It wasn’t stuffy or weighed the atmosphere down like a heavy brick, but a mellow veil that enveloped the empty space between them.
Truth be told, so many things happened over the last few months, that it was a little unbelievable. First, she was reassigned to a new school by the district, away from crayon scribbles and addition-multiplication math into a whole different environment. Frankly, the same building which she never wanted to remember the memories in. Then, an interesting family came in as neighbours next door.
Somehow, through a variety of events, one of them ended up as her roommate. And then, through some more convenient course of happenings, they were tricked(?) into performing together on stage. All the little scenes in between that felt like filler episodes, even those felt fond to look back on now.
“…I was actually going to reject the proposal at first.” Y/n admitted with a small chuckle. “I really liked it back at my elementary teacher job. Teenagers are never interested in the cool rock you found on a walk the other day.” Blowing softly on her drink, small ripples coursed through the murky surface. Wordlessly, Scaramouche leaned his head against his palm and listened on.
“Isn’t it scary how decisions change everything? Imagine what would’ve happened if I decided to argue with the district until the end. Well, I guess we still would have met since you moved in next door anyways.” No verbal response came for a good few seconds. Thinking that he just wasn’t interested in speaking at the moment, Y/n opened her mouth to move onto the next topic. He quickly interrupted her. “…We met before.”
Silence.
Some more.
“…What?”
Scaramouche gave her a deadpan expression. “You actually haven’t managed to figure things out until now? That’s a talent of your own.” He sighed, folding his arms across his chest. Y/n was busy racking her brains, trying desperately to dig up any names remotely similar to Scaramouche buried in her memories. Just as she was about to begin listing every person she knew whose name started with the letter s, he flicked her forehead. “You almost managed to form a thought, but failed. Congrats.”ย “Ugh, I can’t with you! Tell me already!”
With a soft scoff, the indigo haired male looked away for a brief moment in thought. Seriously..
“The name Raiden Kunikuzushi should have rung a bell long time ago.”
“….”
“….”
“You were THAT asshole all along?????”
“…I actually only remembered you a few months ago, too.”
“You’re getting locked out of the house tonight!!!”
Raiden Kunikuzushi. She knew something felt familiar when she accidentally found out his old name a while back. Deciding it wasn’t her business to pry into his choices and alias, she just shrugged it off in the meantime. They met in this very school, almost ten years ago from today. Despite their direct interactions being able to be counted within a few fingers, Y/n managed to remember them fairly clearly. Even back then, he had a striking impression, after all.
The corners of his mouth twitched upwards a tiny bit. “So you did listen to my advice in the end.” He teased in a mockingly endearing tone. “Who would’ve thought ms. Future doctor lawyer president would end up as a high school art teacher.” Y/n found herself smiling at that, too. “Wise words of a sage with almighty knowledge that transcends the word, don’t get cocky. I have my reasons on why things turned out differently.”
Her expression fell a little bit. He caught on quickly, huffing. “Tell me later if you want. But don’t go trauma dumping on me in schoolโ”
That got a punch in the arm from her.
โ
“So when’s the wedding? I do hope my name’s somewhere on your potential groomsmen list. I’d be pretty disappointed to not be after everything.”
“Get out.” Scaramouche growled, gesturing towards the door. His companion chortled softly, fading into loose snickers by the end. After relentless teasing and gossiping from the students, the day ended once more. “Haha. Either way, I’m glad things worked out for you two. It was getting a little painful for everyone else to watch.” Kazuha chortled, wiping a stray tear from the corner of his eye. A middle finger was given as a response.
But the blonde male could see that Scaramouche was.. Visibly sulking. Face contorted into a light scowl, annoyance making itself clear between his furrowed brows and grumbling words. And he kept glancing towards the door, trying to peek his head through the naturally positioned halfway open entrance. It didn’t take a genius to figure things out. “Waiting for a guest?” He hummed. Scaramouche flinched like a startled cat, before glaring softly at his coworker’s direction. “Like hell.”
“…Oh, I assume you’ll be fine if I go over and take some of Y/n’s time?” At that, his head snapped up again. Kazuha stifled a snort upon seeing the momentary dumbfounded look that found the other teacher’s eyes. “Since when were the two of you on first name basis?” Scaramouche scoffed.
Ah, Y/n just had to be here to see this.
“Ugh.. What was his nameโ That Mahamatra too. Everyone’s swarming around her like hoards of moths. They’re always talking about ridiculous jokes in the teacher’s lounge during mornings.” He continued in a grumbly tone, head slowly turning around upon realizing that his coworker was only messing with him. The blonde almost lost it, barely holding back his laughter. He kept forgetting these two weren’t told the full scale of the comical little operation the school put on just to work as wingmen. “Scaramouche, do promise that you won’t resign after hearing what I have to tell you.”
The poor students tomorrow. But mr. Kaedehara was far too nice to keep people in the dark when they seemed this frustrated.
“….”
“….Haha. Please tell Y/nโ oh, my apologies. Ms. L/n that I said hello.” He chuckled and grabbed his tablet before waving by the door. Silent fumes of fire was rising from the math teacher’s head, which would erupt on tomorrow’s students. And Kazuhaโ he had grown so much more sly ever since they got their degrees and began to be around rowdy teenagers.
He was just told that for the last few weeksโ months, just about the whole school had been involved in a ridiculous little operation to set them up together. Well, not that he was completely blind to the students snickering whenever he was around a certain someone. Despite it being common sense that more than a few students were behind this, but even teachers, haa…
That resignation paper never seemed more tantalizing.
“Yoohoo~”
E/c pupils stared at him from above, peering down with a mindless grin. “Time to go home, Kabu’s probably scratching the door for food by now.” His expression visibly softened, leaning off the desk. He normally went off work a little later than she did, but she seemed to have been waiting until his regular departure time came around.
“Am I being stalked of my dismissal time now? How creepy, ms. L/n. Didn’t take you to be someone into that stuff.” He clicked his tongue sarcastically, a drastic difference from the soft expression in his eyes. Well, one could say that was his version of sweet nothings. Or at least the most one could expect for such concept. Nevertheless, Y/n didn’t seem to mind one bit. “Hmm, taking clothes out of other’s closets isn’t a very business casual thing to do, is it.” She teasingly pulled at the gray sweater vest he threw on today, a familiar piece from her own closet.
“Getting comfortable real fast over there. D-one into the relationship and already taking my clothing with my DNA and smell on it… How creepy, mr. Raiden.” Y/n pulled away dramatically, a hand to her mouth in mock shock. He rolled his eyes, face warming faintly. “If it wasn’t for someone forgetting to do the laundries yesterdayโ this would have never happened.” He complained, tching.
“I wonder who’s the one thatโ”
“Where are my notes.”
She blinked upon being interrupted. Scaramouche was staring straight into her eyes with a very much serious expression, arms no longer crossed. “The last note was on the performance day. Where’s the five days a week fulfilment?” There was an ever-still pause between them. Y/n replayed those words in her head.
Was it his birthday party? She had given him a non-agreed notes subscription as a joke to annoy the stoic teacher further, finding great joy in littering his monochrome desk further with cute pinky sticky notes with glitter pens and stickers. Come to think of it, she rarely found any in the trash.
Noโthinking back, she occasionally saw him crumpling them, but at one point, she stopped seeing them in his trash.
“…Scaramouche. Have you… Been collecting all of them until now?” He flinched. Bingo.
This time, he didn’t even try and defend himself. Y/n held onto the desk and began to hysterically laugh, using her free hand to hold onto her stomach for support. Her head lurched forward, almost losing balance. Dazed, Kunikuzushi stared at her, lost in a trance. Each out-of-breath laughter between wheezes, it…
…..
Maybe, words aren’t needed to describe scenery sometimes.
It was only when he realized that she had thrown herself onto his sitting posture that he snapped out of the spell he swore she locked him inside. He could feel her breath fanning across the side of his neck, struggling to bring oxygen back. Instinctively, his body froze. But somewhere, much deeper inside, it felt more familiar than any touch before. Their chests pressed together, heartbeat in sync. They were as close as they could physically be, but it never felt close enough. So instead, he hesitantly leaned in, too.
“…You’re so funny sometimes, you know that?” She let out a few loose chuckles in between. He scoffed, contradictory to his arm that loosely found itself on her back. “I sometimes wonder if you went to a circus instead of getting an education degree. Feelings are mutual.”
“Aghh, you’re so cute!!!”
“Get off of me, you creep!”
Despite those words, his push was nothing but a halfhearted nudge against her shoulder as she leaned down and squeezed his cheeks. Laughter filled the room again once more, bouncing off the walls and leaking into the empty hallways. That moment felt infinite, like time would never move on ever again. And franklyโneither of them wished it did.
When they finally settled down again, Y/n seemingly remembered something and opened her mouth to speak. Mind half empty, the indigo haired male watched as her lips moved around, yapping away again. Scaramouche. He honestly didn’t put much into that name. He just wanted somethingโ anything to leave behind the feelings and lost helplessness of who he was before. That maybe, if he behind left his old name somewhere deep in his memories, it would eventually fade into nothing. The weakest, the least worthy era of his journey. Helplessly trying to gain the attention and validation of someone who never even looked at his direction, then feeling unmotivated with everything upon realizing.
He was sure even she had that part too. She hated that part of her so much, if not more than he despised his own pastโ that she didn’t even bother recognizing it until now. Never acknowledging enough to officially discard it.
Growing like a parasite deep inside for one, and looming over like a unmovable shadow for the other.
“….zushi.”
“Huh?”
Looking above from his lashes, he reluctantly opened his mouth. Nothing came out. Whatever.
“Call me Kunikuzushi, when we’re alone.”
Maybe if he saw her weakness as something real, something reachableโ she would like for a chance to bear the burden of his name with him. At her silence, his mind raced again. But she smiled, relief reaching her eyes.
“Nice to meet you, Kunikuzushi!”
….Maybe, now that he had gotten a taste of the saving grace called his salvation, the boy he buried deep in the graveyard of his heart deserved to see that light, too.
โโ
A/n crazy to believe notes is slowly coming to an end
Ive become so attached to this fic i have a love hate relationship with, im kinda sad to see it end.
THIS ISNT THE LAST CHAPTER DW
sigh pray for your author so that she can keep her promise to finish this within this year.
3098 words
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