Shattered

“I see…” It was their third day, the last one of the week due to being Friday. In a classroom, which was emptied by the second, three people gathered around a table.

“To summarize, you guys have four other childhood friends that by a ‘childhood promise’ should be enrolled in this school, correct?” The boy, who had a small rattail resting on his left shoulder, repeated previous words the other two told him.

“Right on track.” Noah, who awkwardly smiled at him, simply nodded at his words, followed by Myu who was at his side.

“What kind of cliche ‘childhood set-up’ is this?”

Tell me about it… The two only thought and didn’t dare to add any further. “Sounds interesting, for some reason…” Black hair and obsidian eyes, Shu simply nodded, feeling amused at the current situation.

“To be fair, I thought such things only happened in manga, turns out I was wrong,” He laughed.

“No no, I’m pretty sure we are exceptions…” (Noah)

“I agree.” (Myu)

The two strongly believed that although they may be one or two bizarre stories, with how unrealistic manga and such are, nothing would further develop from any type of set-up.

“Well, I’m somehow not regretting approaching Noah first,” Shu loudly laughed. “What do you mean by that?” Noah cocked his head.

“Well, aside from someone else, I know no one here. Noah seemed the calm and collected type, so I thought that I might as well strike a conversation with him.” (Shu)

“He seems like a ne— ?!” Before she could finish her statement, she jumped in surprise which only left Shu with curiosity as he tilted his head. Dismissing it as nothing, Myu only shook her head as she spared a glare at Noah’s direction, who didn’t seem bothered and acted as if he didn’t just pinched her waist.

“Are you not from here, Shu?” Noah asked.

“Haha… It’s… kind of complicated. Only thing I could tell you is that I’m not really good at interacting with people my age… I tend to associate myself with either adults or children…” Shu said while awkwardly averting his gaze.

“Seems like you too have it tough…” (Noah)

“But!” Shu looked up with sparkling eyes and recited his motivation, “I’ll do my best in enjoying this brand new opportunity!” He said, seemingly pumped up.

““Woah!”” In his words, the other two clapped.

❆

Their conversation was short-lived, as Shu had something to attend to at home. He waved the two farewell and headed in the opposite direction from them. The duo was about to walk over to the main gate before they were stopped by their homeroom teacher.

“Great fortune. Looks like there’s still students in school. Mizuhara and… Kanzaki, was it?” The two nodded.

“Do you guys have some time? I kind of need a helping hand over here,” Kaze Asano, with her lab coat and long black hair, made a plea for help as she had a strained smile on her face.

“Is that okay with you, Myu?” Noticing Noah’s intentions, Myu nodded. “Club activities start next week, so I don’t have much trouble.” (Myu)

“Thank you…” Kaze only bowed her head and walked in front of them, “Follow me.” (Kaze)

As they walked through the hallway, they could see the sky taking a vermillion color from outside the windows. Noah stared at the sky as they walked, they didn’t know where they were going, only Kaze knew after all.

In the midst of his thinking, Myu’s voice from beside dragged him out of meditation. “Ms. Asano, can I ask you a question?” (Myu)

“You already did.” (Kaze)

Huh?

“Then, two—” (Myu)

“You just did.” (Kaze)

Is she actually being for real…? Noah thought as he only watched from the sidelines. Kaze’s voice was a monotone one, and if they didn’t know better, they would think that she was making fun of them.

But soon a chuckle escaped her lips. “I’m sorry, I was just in the mood to toy with you. Go ahead, and also—” She looked back with a soft smile, “Either Ms. Kaze or just Kaze is fine.” (Kaze)

“O-okay then, Ms. Kaze. Can I ask you a question?” She asked again. “Go ahead,” Kaze said with a nod.

“Uhm… Why did you become a teacher?” Nervous, Myu simply asked something which kept pestering her. It was also not surprising that Kaze would be left stunned, something very evident from her voice.

“Now that’s sudden, especially for a question towards someone you only met two days ago…” Kaze said with a weirdly emotional tone.

“My apologies… It’s just that, from your introduction on our first day, you seem too friendly to be a teacher…” (Myu)

“I agree, I was quite surprised myself.” Noah nodded in agreement.

As Kaze opened the door to a classroom, she pointed at two boxes and an additional stack of papers that needed to be transported to a storage room. “There’ll be a teacher waiting for you two, so please do me this favor.” (Kaze)

“Sure.” As Noah lifted the two boxes and Myu took care of the stack of papers, the latter continued with her question. “About my question…” (Myu)

“Why did I become a teacher, was it?” Kaze pondered for a while, “Well, maybe it’s just an attempt of emotional salvation, a grudge of sorts.” (Kaze)

“A grudge?” Noah tilted his head as they walked down the hallway. “I won’t bore you with the details, it’s just that I have some kind of hatred towards the teachers of my youth. So, I became a teacher to actually give a voice to students.” (Kaze)

“Is that so?” (Myu)

“Hm. Off school hours, I’m more of a friend than a teacher, as long as it doesn’t jeopardize yourselves or your learning, I won’t meddle.” Kaze shook her head.

“Reminds me of you, Myu.” Noah said with a chuckle. “You’re lucky I don’t have my hands free…” (Myu)

“You two get along well.” Kaze also said with a chuckle.

“We’re childhood friends.” (Myu)

“What a cliche set-up…” (Kaze)

Tell me about it… The two thought. “Alright then, we part ways here, the classroom should be the first one at your left when turned to the right, bye~” Kaze waved as she entered the staff room again leaving the two on their own.

“She seems like a good person.” (Noah)

“She does indeed. Let’s go.” (Myu)

❆

“Excuse me!” Noah knocked on the door while trying to keep balance. It didn’t take long before they heard a voice from the other side telling them to come in.

Noah opened the door and let Myu enter first. As the two entered, they noticed that there were two people inside. One was a female teacher and the other one was a student.

The student in question seemed a little shorter when compared to Myu, she had semi-long brown hair and two ruby-like eyes, she seemed like the cheerful type of person.

She looks familiar. Noah thought. “Mizuhara and Kanzaki, right? Ms. Asano told me that you two were coming. Put the boxes in that corner and the papers bring them over here.”

The two followed the directions and finished quickly enough. “That’s mostly it, you two can go. Fujisaki, you can leave too.” The girl nodded and left the room.

The two also left and went on their way, but it didn’t take them long to be called out yet again, this time by the girl that was also helping out.

“W-wait!” She said in a slightly nervous tone. The two turned around and saw her nervously gripping both hands to her chest, Noah and Myu looked at each other and simultaneously turned their attention to the girl. “Is something the matter?” (Myu)

“Ah…” For instance, the girl seemed to have regretted calling out to them.