If you were to look at the many junior-high and high school students on this particular day, you would find faces full of sullen expressions, of sadness that the joys of summer had slipped so quickly through their fingers.
However, if you were to look at five-year-old Yuki Kaai, you would have found a face full of excitement, eyes wide open and having a slight twinkle to them.
An expression that clearly showed the first day of school was an event that she wanted so very badly to hurry along to.
"Daddy, can't you eat faster? I wanna go now!" The little girl protested, fingers curled into tiny fists while pouting up at her bumbling father. A slice of burnt toast was halfway caught between his lips, while at the same time he struggled to fix his tie.
He said something to her, but she couldn't understand the muffled speech through the bread. Though, it was enough to make her break from the pouting and giggle.
"Daddy's funny!" Yuki exclaimed, moving forward to wrap her arms in a hug around her father's leg.
Gulping down the toast as best he could, the blue-haired man gave his daughter a pat on the head and sighed. "Alright, I'm ready now...Do you have your backpack?"
She nodded rapidly, turning around to show off to show off the light red backpack complete with white rabbit charm attached to the side.
"Does it have all of your things?"
"Uh huh!" Yuki looked even more eager now, taking it off and unzipping it to prove to her father that, yes, she had everything and anything she would need at this school place.
"Hold up!" A voice cried out. Yuki turned behind her to see her mother kneel down and place a brown lunch bag into her bag before zipping it up for her. "You almost forgot your lunch, you silly little thing..."
She heard her father chuckle behind her. "Thanks for remembering, Mei-chan." He leaned in to give his wife a kiss, the little girl below them watching curiously about it all.
The brunette woman pushed him away slightly, not wanting her daughter to see such intimate sorts of things. "Later...Get her to school, Kaito, or she'll have a fit I'm sure." A hint of laughter was in her voice.
Yuki was already running for the door when Kaito looked towards her. "W-Wait for Daddy, Yuki!"
--
Tiny fingers twirled at a short, black pigtail. Yuki hated having to ride in the bulky safety seat, but her parents kept telling her that when she was just a little bit older, and taller, that she could sit in the regular chair and put on the seat belt like they did. And when she got even older, she could sit up front, right next to Daddy.
Oh, how she wished she could sit there right now! But Daddy's briefcase was up there, so it wouldn't be very comfy...
"Are you excited for your first day of school, Yuki?" Kaito asked, glancing into the mirror to view the young child's image.
"Yes! Yes, yes! I wanna get there right now!" Her legs kicked about with vigor, not able to wait much longer to find out if school was just as she'd been told.
Would there really be a bunch of kids there to play with? And a big playground to play on every day? And times where she could lay down and nap? And snack time, so she could eat those cookies Mommy always liked making for her?
A sigh escaped the man's lips, however. How fast she had grown, already to the point of being in school?
Hopefully, the years of giving her piggyback rides and reading goodnight stories would not end too quickly. She still had many years ahead of her, what was he thinking!?
As the car turned off the road, Yuki glanced out the window and watched with awe as the elementary school they had passed so many times before came in view.
She'd always wondered what it would be like on the inside.
But she was old enough now that she would spend the next five years or so traversing it's halls.
--
The hallways here smelled clean with new solution, and the walls were freshly painted, just waiting for childish drawings and macaroni art to adorn them in decoration.
Surely, he had everything he needed today, correct?
Shifting his eyes about here and there, the brown-haired man stepped into the classroom which he would soon call his own.
How ironic, it was, that the same room that had been used for orientation of the new teachers would also be the classroom he would be teaching in.
Kiyoteru Hiyama had always wished to teach. Not to teenagers, they were much too hard to handle. He had a hard enough time handling everything else as it was! But children...They were his weak point, it seemed.
So innocent, just waiting to learn the proper ways to speak, to write, to read...
And he would be the one giving them all this and much, much more in the future. It excited him, really, to think that he'd earned his degree and was now here, standing in this classroom that would soon be filled with eager, young learners for their very first day of school.
School...The place they would spend the next twelve years shaping their lives.
And he would be helping them to take the first steps.
Copious amounts of anxiety seemed to come up inside the man at this time. There was always the idea that he could mess up. What if he started these kids off on the wrong foot? Or what if they didn't like him? What if he slipped up and had the possibility of getting fired?
No, no, no!
Sitting down at the large wooden desk, Kiyoteru rubbed his brown hair back with one hand, adjusted his tie and pushed his glasses further up the rim of his nose.
He could this. Just remember what you'd learned in college. Remember that these children depended on you and were frail little things that needed attention.
Remember that-
Anything worth remembering flew out his head when the sound of tiny footsteps clomped into the room. Turning quickly, Kiyoteru spotted a small girl of only five walk in the doorway, wearing a small red dress.
She seemed to be adjusting a hairband that held up her short black pigtails, but the moment she saw him, her attention broke and up she ran to the desk with more then enough bounding energy.
"Why hello there." He spoke softly, smiling his best smile at her. Had to make a good impression...
"Hi! Are you...Are you my teacher?"
Kiyoteru nodded, standing up so as to give her a polite bow. "I am indeed. You may call me Mr. Hiyama."
"I'm Yuki!" She exclaimed almost immediatly after, before remembering to bow too. "Yuki Kaai!" Her eyes followed him as he reached for a clipboard on the desk, studied it, then checked something off.
Yuki studied him over with curiosity. He was tall, very tall compared to her. He had neat brown hair, combed back, and glasses as well that looked very well shined. Black suit, purple tie, black shoes...
He was more like a businessman than a teacher!
"Mr. H...Hiy...am..." She struggled with his name, the syllables refusing to roll off her tongue. He gave her a pitied look.
"You can call me Mr. H if you wish..."
"Sensei!" She blurted in the midst of his words.
"...H-Huh?"
"Sensei...Mommy says kids call their teachers Sensei! So that's what I'm gonna call you!" Yuki explained, before erupting into a fit of giggles.
Kiyoteru stared at the girl with just a slight bit of shock. Her parents had taught her well in knowing things such as that...But it made him smile, nonetheless, to hear someone refer to him as 'Sensei'.
"Very well...You may call me that from now on."
"Oh! Oh! Wait!" Pulling her pack off, the little girl rummeged through it before pulling out a red ripe apple and setting it on Kiyoteru's desk gingerly. "I'm 'spposed to give this!" With a cock of her head, and a large smile, Yuki escaped before he could speak into her own little world, running around the classroom to explore.
The cubbies! The desks! The toys! Oh, the toys! So many toys!
Without even remembering she was alone for now, Yuki sat herself down and begin to play with a tub of wooden blocks.
From his desk, Kiyoteru almost slumped over in awe. So this was what being a father might be like someday, even...
Glancing at the apple still sitting on his desk, he vowed to eat it later before going back to watching the little girl play messily with the blocks on the carpet.
Maybe neither of them knew it at the time it happened.
But he'd found his favorite student.
And she'd found her favorite teacher.