It could have been worse, way worse, so she didn't complain.

Madotsuki sighed in visible boredom, doodling on her textbook while simultaneously trying to grasp what the teacher was saying. Studying wasn't such a pain, she usually paid attention, but their history teacher wasn't exactly fascinating to listen to..

"Now if you would turn to page 19..."

Madotsuki robotically turned to said page...

"You'll notice that these were the tanks used by the german army during WWII, the model used this time around is..."

'Who cares about which model was used, get on with the lesson already...' The teen thought with a sigh, feeling like her mind was starting to wander. The days that passed had been incredibly slow, she wondered how to possibly make time go by quickly, so she could finally shut herself in her room for the next few months...

The lecture continued and Madotsuki kept on drawing, skething a few characters here and there. She thought of that new game that came out recently and figured she'd save money to buy it... she liked gaming very much.

It helped to escape reality.

The hour was almost done and instead of taking notes, she kept on drawing. She sketched the character from NASU, her favorite game, with a few add-ons. Her lips curved into a playful smile as she continued drawing the curves of the eggplants, having fun at making the vegetable look childishly lewd.

"Sensei, someone's waiting at the door!" A student suddenly said, snapping Mado back to reality. She looked up and stared at the door, noticing the tall figure waiting patiently outside. Their history teacher cleared his throat and glimpsed at the clock.

"Is the hour over already? I haven't noticed..." he said defensively.

"Prolly' cause your notion of time is so weak, sensei..." a boy snickered, making a few students laugh. Madotsuki rolled her eyes in annoyance.

Their teacher angrily muttered a few words under his breath before sliding the door open, bowing apologetically at the man outside.

"Excuse me for taking some of your time, the class is yours." He spoke lightly, barely acknowledging his presence as he pushed him aside. The younger, taller man looked at his retreating form for a while... then entered the classroom.

Madotduki stared at him with wonder and interest. This new and strange teacher looked so different than the others that she found herself speechless. The man was mighty tall, so tall she suspected him to be well over 187cm. His skin was ghostly pale while his shoulder-length hair was darker than any other shade of black she'd seen. One could have easily mistaken him for a ghost or a spirit, he looked so sickly and thin, yet gentle and somewhat feminine...

There was beauty in him, however unusual it would seem. She thought he was dashing.

He held into his own books close to his chest as he made his way towards the desk. His posture was slightly off, he seemed to be slouching a bit... a sign that he lacked confidence. There was a shy, nervous blush adorning his cheeks as he cleared his throat, putting the rest of his books down.

"Good morning class, I hope you're all well today." He spoke softly, "My name is Masada, I'll be your music teacher-"

"Music?!" A boy exclaimed from the back of the class, "who needs music when you're a third year? That's like the most useless subject." He laughed, making the whole class chuckle along. Aside from Madotsuki.

"That's not true," Masada defended, "music is just as important as any other subject. You may not like it, but you'll learn to apreciate it later-"

"Yeah right, as if playing guitar in the streets will get me any cash..." the same boy said with a wave of the hand, making their new teacher uncomfortable. Madotsuki noticed how Masada fidgeted on the spot, clearly disturbed by his new class's behavior. One could tell he had never taught before, since he was young and relatively inexperienced, but she ought to help him... just this once.

Because she felt attracted to that little something inside his heart.

Wordlessly, Madotsuki ripped a peace of a paper from her textbook and started writing a few words on it. Once she was done, she shaped it like a paper-plane and sent it flying towards the troublesome student- interrupting him mid-laugh as it hit his forehead.

"What the-?" He opened the nasty little paper-plane to read its contents; his is widening when he saw an eggplant with the words underneath saying: shut up, penis face. Your blabbering won't get you fertile.

He turned to find out who exactly threw him such an insulting message, then saw Madotsuki flipping him off with a devilish smile.

"What the fuck, Madotsuki?!" He shouted angrily, "what's your problem?!"

She ignored him and decided to focus on their new teacher. "Sensei, this guy's a moron, please forget he even exists and continue with the lesson..."

"You stuck up bitch!"

Masada gasped and made his way towards both of the students, looking twice as worried. "C-come now! There's no need to be rude!"

The angered boy stood up, fully intending to teach the young brunette a lesson of his own. He felt mildly intimidated by Masada's rather unsettling height for a while... but remembered him to be too thin to cause any harm.

"Move it, sensei! This chick is crazy, she needs to learn her place!" He expressed as he threw Mado a nasty glare from behind Masada's shoulder. "If I don't act now, she'll be a bigger hassle in the future."

"Please sit down!" Their teacher ordered, with a transparent sweat drop forming on his forehead. "I don't want any trouble in my class!"

The boy gave Masada a once-over before grumpily sitting back down, making sure to return the favor towards Madotsuki by flipping her off too. The day was on to a slow start, and Masada quietly sighed as he regained his desk; still in mild disbelief at what just happened. It was just his luck that he ended up with two troublemakers... though the girl didn't seem half-bad since she started this for his favor.

"A-alright everyone... This is our first day together so, might as well start nice and easy." He began speaking with an odd accent, sounding slightly british despite himself. Madotsuki raised both eyebrows in amusement, did this sensei try to communicate in a way teenagers would understand? She could tell his vocabulary was advanced just by hearing him talk... and he was struggling with simplicity.

"How about we, err, introduce ourselves, yes? I'd like to get familiar with you all before we start this semester seriously."

The students whispered amongst themselves as soon as he began handing out small pieces of paper, introductory cards maybe. He was surely the first teacher to even bother doing that, knowing the new generation of meddlesome little brats... who would want to get involved with them? If Madotsuki had been the new teacher in his stead, she surely would have tried to keep as little contact with her students as possible...

But this man; Masada, he wasn't normal, she had an eye for that, she knew he was unique. It wasn't just about his outer-appearance, there was something with his character that made him attractive... very attractive. Whatever it was, she did not know, but she would find out.

When he stopped by her desk to give her the card, she thought she saw him smile slightly at her, albeit sheepishly. Her eyes wandered towards his hands and she noted that his fingers were both long and thin, elegant fingers crafted for the piano. The hands of a musician.

Her ruby eyed focused on his hands for a while, even as he walked away to continue handing out the papers. She wondered if he liked to draw too, like her, and if he was into poetry.

When he finished going through the entire class, he sat back down on his desk. "Please be sure to write your names, hobbies, and a few other things about yourself on this paper. I'd be very much interested to know what all of you are like!"

"Sensei, aren't our names enough? Why bother with hobbies and other things?" One girl asked. Masada ran a hand through his hair in a nervous motion.

"Um, well... Sometimes knowing a bit about the person helps in memorizing their name. If I know what kind of things you're into, I'll be sure to remember you as 'that' student... the one who, let's say... for instance... what do you enjoy doing for fun?"

The girl chewed on her gum as she thought it through, "I dunno, partying?"

Masada smiled, "then I'll remember you as the party-girl."

She took no offense at all and grinned at him, "I guess that's true! I getcha'." And so she started writing her name down along with other things.

Madotsuki pursed her lips as she finished writing her name. Would it be alright to write her odd hobbies on this simple card? The students already didn't like her, there was no reason to make her new sensei feel the same, espacially since she liked him quite a bit already. Her imagination wasn't special when it came to academics, and her passion for art was selfish to the extreme. She liked to draw for herself, for her own amusement, mentionning it would feel out of place, no?

'Oh well, better just get on with it.' She thought as she wrote everything down. He wouldn't ask for more anyway, and it wouldn't be a lie.

After five minutes, Masada began asking the students to introduce themselves one by one. A few took it seriously and recited their hobbies and their traits with pride and confidence, while others just jokingly decided to tease their new teacher by being remarkably rude and/or inappropriate. Madotsuki heard one of them say he was a sex-maniac and his hobby consisted of collecting flesh-lights and blow up dolls, much to Masada's embarassment. The class chuckled and laughed out loud at the sight of their music teacher blushing furiously, and yet he did not stop or question them.

Soon enough, it finally got to be her turn; and the whole class remained silent to hear her.

She stood up and began reading her card calmly.

"My name is Madotsuki. Just Madotsuki. I like to draw and read books, writing poetry is a hobby of mine too. But if anything, I'm more into videogames, as they are very relaxing and fun, in my opinion.

I'm not talkative. I guess that's all there really is about me. That's it."

She finished and sat down. It was short, very short, and not sweet at all. The students looked at her with disapproval, some even shook their heads at her. Way to go, killjoy. Was what they seemed to be thinking. She didn't care though, she learned not to. There was no point in it.

But when she looked up to stare into Masada's face, she was slightly surprised to find him chuckling warmly, his lips curved into a gentle smile.

He didn't say anything though, and simply asked the student next to her to introduce himself as well.

XxX

What was left of the hour ended quickly. The bell rang and most of the students poured out of the classrooms in a hurry. Masada asked each student to write about their favorite genre of music at home, how they feel the genre expresses itself; and why they like it overall. It was rather childish for seniors, but Madotsuki liked the idea. She figured she could write a lot more about music than about herself.

She had taken her sweet time to leave and eventually remained the last student in class.

"Miss Madotsuki," Masada called softly, gaining her attention as she bypassed his desk to head outside. "A moment, if you'd please."

"Sure." She answered and tilted her head, curious at what he was about to ask. He motionned for her to come closer, and she did, albeit slowly. His eyes were so dark... she thought she lost herself in them.

"About what happened earlier... I'd humbly suggest that you, well, avoid doing something so dangerous. Your classmate doesn't seem to be ... erm, rather friendly." He stuttered a little, trying to form the right words without sounding rude. It was a little hard to understand him, but she got the drift.

"I don't want a young lady to get in trouble on my behalf," he explained himself, slowly but meaning well. "I am a teacher and I hope you could trust me to defend my own dignity from now on."

"There's no need to explain, sensei, I get it." Madotsuki spoke with a shrug, "what's done is done, but to be frank; I don't really regret it. He was out of line."

"But he could very well bully you..."

"He can't do anything, I disgust him too much; he won't touch me."

This made Masada raise an eyebrow at her, "you disgust him? But why..."

"... It doesn't matter. Anyway, I'm used to them, and you're not. Please don't worry about me, I know what I'm doing." She smiled lightly and bowed, "goodbye, Masada-sensei."

She left silently, leaving him to his own toughts.

to be continued...