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Charm
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"Aizawa-sensei, thanks for the hard work."
"Ah, good work."
A quiet evening at the heliport.
Somehow it became a regular routine to them. From when did it start, they weren't quite sure. But Shiraishi would always see her long-time colleague sitting on the pipe at the heliport in the evenings, and she knew that usually meant he had a lot of things on his mind. So she would join him. Sometimes they didn't say anything, but most of the times Shiraishi would start off the conversation first.
Although one thing was different, Shiraishi didn't sit at the usual distance this time. She was much closer and that did not go unnoticed by Aizawa.
"It's already just a week left until you leave for Toronto." Shiraishi began.
"Ah."
"Somehow, it seemed like time passed by in the blink of an eye since you returned to Lifesaving."
"Really."
"Fufu~ As usual, Aizawa-sensei and his few words."
Shiraishi let out a small laugh at Aizawa's typical poker face. She dug into her pocket and took out a small paper bag.
"Here, I brought this to give to you."
Aizawa seemed a little surprised. He accepted the bag but still gave Shiraishi a strange look.
"If you want to give presents, I already got it the other day at the farewell party."
"That present was from everyone at Lifesaving. This is an individual present just from me. Ah!" Shiraishi waved her hands a little frantically. "But it's nothing major, that's why during the farewell party with everyone, I was too embarrassed to give it to you then."
"I see. Then, can I open it?"
"Of course!"
When Aizawa opened the bag, there was a smaller bag of a vivid red color.
"A good luck charm?"
"Yup! Actually at first I thought of giving you a pen or a keychain, something that would remind you of Japan, but in the end I couldn't decide on it. It didn't feel good enough for some reason."
"I see."
"So when I thought about what to give Aizawa-sensei as a present, it should be my most important treasure."
"This is...yours?" Aizawa's eyes widened just a little as he looked at Shiraishi was still just smiling.
"If you look closely, it's kind of worn out. My father gave it to me when I was taking the university exam."
"Professor Shiraishi?"
The young staff leader nodded. "This charm always encourages me - when I was taking university entrance exams, the national exam, during my internship days, and now as a lifesaving doctor. I think I managed to overcome lots of things safely somehow thanks to this."
Aizawa frowned at that. "Such an important thing, you shouldn't be giving it to other people."
"It's fine, I promise. I hope this charm will protect you when you're at Toronto."
"No, it's so important, I can't have it. I won't take it."
It was a little amusing for Shiraishi to see her normally cool colleague almost in a hurry to put the charm back into the bag and return it to her. She took it back calmly but Aizawa was caught off guard as she reached out to his chest pocket and slipping the charm inside.
It was rare for her to be touching like that - so naturally too, as if she'd always done it.
"Oi."
"Okay, let's stop with the present talk. That's not what this is. I'm simply entrusting you with my most important treasure. So when you come back from Toronto, you'll have to return it to me. Is that okay with you?"
Her expression was determined. Aizawa let out a soft sigh, giving up. "...okay. I'll treasure it until the day I have to return it to you. Thank you."
Shiraishi's smile grew before saying sheepishly. "Sorry for being pushy. I'll wait for Aizawa-sensei to come back safe and sound, okay?"
Aizawa didn't say anything right away but Shiraishi was satisfied as she directed her sight towards the helicopter. Seeing her side profile, it was Aizawa's turn to take something out of his pocket.
"Then...Shiraishi. This gift is from me. Give me your hand."
"Eh?"
Slightly surprised at Aizawa's sudden words, Shiraishi quietly held out her hands as she was told. Something small was placed on her palm and seeing it a confused look spread across her face.
In the palm of her hands was a silver ring with a large, shiny diamond.
"Eh? A ring?"
"E-Eh? Aizawa-sensei, did you pick it up from somewhere?"
"Idiot. Of course not. I bought it for you."
Shiraishi stared. "Eh? Aizawa-sensei...bought it...for me?"
"That's what I said."
A long silence followed after that. It seemed like Shiraishi was staring at the ring in her palm forever.
"You can give me a reply whenever you want, I'll wait. I'll leave it up to you to do whatever you want with it - just don't return it to me. That would be troublesome. If you really don't want it, just throw it away."
"A-Aizawa-sensei...that is...um...towards me...is it really like that? That's what you mean? I...um...I'd hate to misunderstand."
"When a man gives this kind of thing to a woman, there's no other meaning."
"...Oh...right."
"Then, I'll go now. I told you earlier, I won't rush you for an answer." Aizawa stood up and looked at Shiraishi for a moment who was still staring at the ring in her hand.
When Shiraishi finally snapped out of her blank state, she looked around to find Aizawa's figure was no longer to be seen at the heliport.
"Aizawa-sensei...this diamond is too big..."
Shiraishi picked up the ring with her fingers and held it up in the air before lowering it to her eye level.
"Hm?"
Something was carved inside the ring. "K to M?"
Shiraishi continued to stare at the ring that was given to her by Aizawa until the sun went down.
A week later, it was finally time to see off their comrade of almost a decade at the airport. Aizawa was grateful but he couldn't help notice the glimmer coming from Shiraishi's left ring finger.
On that day, Aizawa Kousaku was seen with the biggest smile Shiraishi had ever seen since they met. Fujikawa and Hiyama didn't seem to notice though.
-END-