A/N: Little something that I started writing right after I finished Just a Boy but never got around to finishing. :)

"Fujiyama-sensei?"

The large-chested woman looked up at the mention of her name and found her colleague fiddling with the hem of her tracksuit jacket, looking as awkward as a kindergartner on her first day of classes.

"Yes, Yamaguchi-sensei?"

"Can I talk to you in private?" Fujiyama raised her eyebrow suspiciously but pushed her chair away from her table and stood. She led the fidgeting woman to the rooftop where she was sure their conversation wouldn't be easily overheard.

"So," Fujiyama said, "spit it out." She glanced at her colleague and saw that she was close to tears. Fujiyama, startled, wrapped her arms around her. "What's wrong?" Wordlessly, Yamaguchi pulled a tiny object from her pocket and shoved it to Fujiyama. The other woman stared at the two pink lines, her eyes widening from shock, her fingers trembled around the pregnancy test with worry for her friend.

"Fujiyama-sensei, I think I'm pregnant."

To say that the boy eavesdropping on the two women's conversation was shocked is an understatement. It's almost comical, the way Uchi's eyes were bugging out of its sockets, his mouth agape. One thing was running in his mind as he raced down the stairs toward the classroom. How does he tell Shin?

Uchi reached the classroom panting. He was sweating buckets as he searched for their leader. Finally, he spotted him at the far corner, gazing at the window in deep thought. He approached him, wishing it was some other guy about to spill the beans to Shin and not him. He was scared of the redhead's reaction. Scared that he might vent out his anger on him. He must have reached Shin's table already and was standing there for quite sometime because he heard a voice that roused him from his worries.

"Uchi?" Shin was looking at him expectantly.

"Oh, hi there, Shin! I was just passing by, fine weather we have today, don't we?" He was blabbering nonsense and he knows it. Well, what can he say? It's not like it's that easy telling his friend and their class's leader that the love of his life was knocked up by who knows who. Shin arched his eyebrow at him.

"I don't believe you stood over my desk for at least ten minutes just to discuss weather, Uchi."

Uchi laughed nervously. "Well, of course not! No, no of course not."

"Well then what is it?"

Uchi took a deep breath. "It's about Yankumi."

In that instant, Shin's eyes flashed. "What about her? Did something happen?"

"It's just that, I overheard her talking with Fujiyama-sensei." By this time, the whole class was inching towards them, wanting to hear more. "She's pregnant, Shin."

The gasp that resonated around the classroom was enough sign that this particular piece of news was not taken lightly. Shin wasn't taking the news any better as he stared at Uchi as if willing him to take his words back. Willing him to say it was all a joke.

But of course, Uchi wasn't joking.

Dead silence reigned over the classroom for a few moments before suddenly, Yankumi came bursting in the room, cheerful as ever, and if only Uchi hadn't witnessed it with his own eyes, he wouldn't have believed that the same woman had earlier been troubled.

"Hello, everyone!" Yankumi said with a smile when suddenly she noticed the boys gaping at her. "What's wrong with you guys?"

Nobody spoke. Everybody was unsure of what to say and how to say it but they all knew the one thing they wanted to know. Was she really pregnant?

Kuma was about to voice this out when Shin spoke in his usual calm voice. "Nothing. Move on with the class, Yamaguchi." He told her, then addressed his classmates, "nothing's wrong, right?"

These words, coupled with the look in Shin's eyes that promised an early death to anyone who disagreed were enough to send them clamoring to their chairs with forced smiles.

This seemed to be enough for Yankumi who proceeded with her lecture immediately.

For the first time in a long time, Shin didn't spend the period staring at his teacher willing her to stare back. He gazed blankly at the window wondering what to do. That night in January when he thought everything would finally be okay only to be figuratively slapped in the face came rushing back to him. That was two months ago. It was now March, a week before their final exams and two weeks before graduation. So much could happen in two months. What if the baby wasn't his? Shin cringed at the thought. No. It has to be his, or else he'd lose his mind. He can't bear the thought of another man touching Yankumi. But on second thought, Yankumi is not the type to sleep around. Despite of this, Shin had to know for sure.

He was roused from his musings by the metal chairs scraping the floors. A telltale sign that class has ended and his classmates have already stood up. Yankumi has already left the room and the boys have already congregated around him. He just stared at them in return.

"Shin?" Kuma said after a long silence. "Are you alright?"

Shin looked at him oddly. "Of course. Why do you ask?"

Everyone looked pretty relieved but some looked at him warily like they thought he was lying. "We were worried how you took the news about Yankumi." Kuma replied with a grin. He was one of those who were relieved at Shin's response over the debacle.

"I'm not bothered. The kid's mine."

You could have heard a pin drop after those words. Shin didn't know what made him say those words but he felt like he had to make some sort of claim early on. He wasn't sure it was his but the odds are pretty much in his favor anyway. Not that he planned on having a kid this early, but it was a permanent connection to Yankumi and that alone made him look at fatherhood in good light.

His classmates did not know what to say nor think. The implications of Shin's words hung over them like heavy storm clouds. That Shin had sex with their homeroom teacher was one of the things that brought them to a stunned silence. That one of them is now a father is another. Shin looked at the way his classmates were staring at him and broke the silence with a sigh.

"I'm not yet sure of this. You don't think she slept with any other guy the past two months, do you?" He asked trying to keep the worry off his voice. The thought bothered him to no end.

It was Noda who recovered first. "Honestly, Shin, before today, we weren't even aware that Yankumi slept with anyone at all." This seemed to be the right words to say as Shin's mood visibly lightened. Then suddenly, he stood up as if remembering something important, and with a good-natured pat at Noda's back, fled the room.

Kumiko arrived home, weary and rundown from thinking about what to do next. Repeatedly, she reprimanded herself for her mistake but she can't bring herself to completely regret it. The night with Shin, despite what her mind tells her, was something she would treasure forever. She wondered if she should tell him. The child is his after all, but she can't bear the thought of sucking him further in her world. She was so absorbed in her thoughts that she didn't notice the state of disarray her home was in. Broken vases, and shattered pieces of the doorframe littered the way. Panic rose over her.

"Tetsu! Minoru!" She called frantically.

"In here, Kumiko." Came her grandfather's voice from one of the rooms. Heaving a sigh of relief that nothing bad happened to him, she went to the room.

Only to find Sawada Shin sitting in front of her grandfather drinking tea.

"Sawada?" She gasped.

"Kumiko." Shin nodded as a greeting.

Yankumi scowled. "Why are you here?"

"Now, now, Kumiko." Kuroda Ryuichiro interjected, his voice pleasant but tinged with steel as if conveying disappointment to his granddaughter. "That is no way to talk to your fiancé."

"F-fiance?" She spluttered unattractively.

Her grandfather looked at her disapprovingly. "Are you suggesting that you do not want to marry my great-grandchild's father?" Yankumi sucked in a deep breath from the shock. "I am gravely disappointed that you did not tell me immediately, Kumiko, and had to find out from this young man himself. Though, I guess you could've picked worse. Not all would have braved to face me lamenting over my granddaughter's lost innocence." He gestured at his katana standing by the tattered doorframe as he made a face, as if thinking of all the unsuitable men for his granddaughter.

Words failed Yankumi at that exact moment, and she barely heard Shin excusing themselves from Ryuichiro followed by the old man's knowing nod as the younger boy dragged her by the hand to the gardens.

"How did you found out?" Was the first thing Yankumi told him as soon as they stopped walking.

"I really didn't know for sure until you said that." Shin responded, sounding somewhat relieved. "But I had a pretty good chance. Uchi heard you talking to Fujiyama."

"Oh." Was Yankumi's only reply.

"Are you mad at me?" He asked.

"I guess not. The kid is your right after all. You didn't have to tell my grandfather yourself, though. He wouldn't have forced you to agree to marry me if I had talked to him first."

"What makes you think the marriage was his idea?" Shin replied with a smirk. He approached Yankumi with a predatory leer. "In two weeks, Kumiko, you can no longer spout that teacher-student drivel as an excuse to drive me away. Then you will be completely and irrevocably mine." He grasped her hand and pulled her closer. "Telling your grandfather myself will leave you no means of escape."

Yankumi's heart beat faster as he wrapped his arms around her, pulling their bodies close, just like he did many months ago. And as his lips cascaded on hers beneath the silver March moon, she found that she no longer wished to leave.