"What is 'animal magnetism'?"

The voice of the English teacher floated above the drowsy heads of the students of class 3-D on one hot, sunny day. At the back of the class, two obviously apathetic students sat in the corner. The one with the darker hair was staring blankly out of the window while thinking about things of one kind or another, while the blond one was watching the teacher with a bored expression on his face, as if he knew all the answers.

"No one knows?" she said, "Then what about you, Sunohara?"

"Huh?" the blond guy exclaimed.

"Don't you know what 'animal magnetism' means?"

"Uhm...Eh...Okazaki, help me!" he made an appeal with a small voice.

"What? You want an answer?"

"Hurry up and tell me!" he whispered.

"Err..." Tomoya quickly made up an answer inside his head, "Tell her it's an A-OK condition when blond students are being turned on by their teachers when being asked a difficult question after taking a huge amount of aprodisiac."

"That looks long and intelligent enough, okay, I'll answer!"

After Sunohara repeated all of it, the poor teacher fainted on the spot before everyone panicked and Ryou bought her a bottle of orange juice to refresh her mind again.

After appalling the teacher and the whole class, Sunohara was immediately put under detention.

"Why me...!" Sunohara slammed his head on his desk, "Damn you, Okazaki!"

Beside him, Tomoya smiled evilly as he had tricked his best friend once again with his usual aplomb.

"So we shall continue, "said the teacher with a rather hoarse voice, "Let's see...Okazaki."

"Eh?"

"What does 'animal magnetism' mean?"

To all appearances, Tomoya looked completely clueless this time. What the hell could that REALLY mean? The woman tapped her foot impatiently while he kept silent. Tomoya cursed under his breath. He should've had put in an appearance and skipped this lesson as soon as he could.

Sunohara sneered. His prayers was answered! Tomoya finally got what he deserved after making fun of him!...or so he thought.

Before Tomoya could say anything, there was a knock on the door.

"Ishida, please answer the door."

Sunohara slammed his head on his desk again while Tomoya whispered 'yes!' and thanked the stranger for the interruption.

Only that it was no stranger.

"Excuse me, Miss, am I disturbing the lesson?"

It was Nagisa Furukawa, standing there with an apologetic smile on her face. This distracted both Tomoya and Sunohara for the first time since the lesson started.

"Not at all, Furukawa, what is it?"

"Miss Yagami asked me to hand these papers to you."

Tomoya felt a slight surprise. It wasn't just any day Nagisa appeared in his class and saved him just in time. Wait, was he just feeling grateful for her?

"By the way, Okazaki, you're anything but a good student who pays enough attention in class, " the teacher said while accepting papers from Nagisa, "If this continues, you'll get even worse grades than you've already had now. And you too, Sunohara. You both have wasted an appreciable amount of time for nothing useful."

Oh, shit.

She scolded him in front of Nagisa. That was far worse than not being able to answer that stupid question in front of the whole class.

Sunohara didn't know it, but it was apparent that he would get a mouthful from her after school that day, and he wasn't having any of it. He knew his reputation was aprocryphal and Nagisa was apt to believe many things easily, but it was the first time she heard it right in front of her.

He felt Nagisa's angry eyes piercing him silently while he tried apprehensively to avoid making eye contact with her.

"Thank you for your help, Furukawa."

"You're welcome, Miss, "Nagisa finally walked out of the classroom.

Tomoya sighed in relief. Somehow he wondered why he did.

"Now, Fujibayashi, please give the correct answer of the question."

Ryou, who was still slightly appalled because of Sunohara's commotion, looked up to her and said, "Uhm... 'animal magnetism' is a quality in somebody that other people find attractive and have an appetite for."

"'Have an appetite...for'?" Tomoya repeated, confused of Ryou's choice of words.

"It means like something that whets your appetite, "said the teacher, "What, Okazaki? You have someone that you 'have an appetite for'?"

The whole class suddenly laughed and cheered.

"I know, I know, it's Fujibayashi!" one of their classmates shouted out loud. Ryou blushed furiously.

"Or maybe it's her twin! You can't like both because they're complete opposites, " another classmate mentioned Kyou Fujibayashi, who isn't anything like her sister. It was widely known that the twins were really apples and oranges.

"It's that underclassman, isn't it, Okazaki?" another girl exclaimed. Tomoyo Sakagami, the new student council president who always applied herself to make sure that everything in the school was in apple-pie order, would surely kill him alive if he destroyed her reputation.

"Or is it the girl just now?" a boy suddenly said, "I saw you a lot of times with her."

Tomoya felt very uncomfortable about all this. He wanted to appeal to the woman's sense of responsibility as a teacher, but she clearly gave every appearance of enjoying this. His classmates, who had no appreciation of his own real problems, were no different. He had always been trying to keep up appearances anyway.

"Okazaki...with Furukawa?" the teacher chuckled, "That's almost impossible to happen!"

"That's right, Miss!" said Sunohara, who first approached Nagisa in the hope that she would give him bread in apreciation of his help for the Drama Club.

"Okay everyone, that is all for today. Do the exercise on page 88-90 for your homework. And Sunohara, don't forget that you'll have your detention after school today."

"Today?? You said tomorrow!"

"Don't answer me back. I changed my mind."

"Tsk…not that tomorrow is any better than today anyways…"

"You should be appreciative of it. Or should I give you a whole week of detention?"

"Wait, no!"

"That's better. Besides, I think you have a lot to answer for. I'm going to ask many questions to you…"

"Why meeee?"

Since Sunohara was unable to go home together with Tomoya because of his detention, Tomoya decided to walk alone to the school gates. He met Nagisa as usual there.

"Okazaki-san, "she greeted, "How's your day?"

"The same like yesterday, except that today Sunohara got a detention."

"Oh...and that reminds me about something I want to say to you..."

"Uh…Nagisa, I remember I have a business to attend…"

"Eh? What business?"

"Something you'll never need to know."

However, before Tomoya could escape, she grabbed him by the arm and stared at him with an annoyed expression on her face.

Being somewhat scolded by a girl who stubbornly argued you into becoming a good and well-behaved student in front of everyone who walked passed the school gates ruined your reputation as a delinquent. Tomoya finally knew how that really felt like.

"…Okazaki-san, you should pay more attention in class and stop thinking about something else when the teachers are talking, "she said with a strong voice.

He needed to find a way out of this.

"Do you know what I was thinking when the teachers were talking?" he asked.

"What was it?" she asked innocently.

"I was thinking about why it is that the girls in my class are not anything like as cute as you."

"Eh?" A faint blush appeared on her cheeks, "But I'm not…"

Tomoya saw this chance and swiftly started to run away.

"Okazaki-san!" she exclaimed, and chased after him, "You lied to me again, didn't you?"

"No, it's the truth!" Tomoya shouted while running, "I will never lie about your cuteness for anything!"

"You obviously did just now!"

The pair ran all around the school yard like idiots while shouting meaningless statements to each other until they finally got out of school and reached Furukawa Bakery where Akio and Sanae saw them almost running out of energy.

"Sports is always good for your health, Nagisa!" Akio nodded approvingly, "By the way brat, if you're still hungry, I'll give you Sanae's bread. She showed an aptitude for making bread that looked like some inedible mushrooms, you can't argue with that."

"Your talented wife is right behind you, "Tomoya said.

"What?! Sa-Sanae…?!"

"My bread…my bread is…" tears began to dwell up in her eyes, "Furukawa Bakery's inedible clumps of mushrooms, isn't it?!?"

She screamed while running out of the store, followed by Akio with his mouth full of mushroom-like bread shouting, "I love it!!"

Tomoya sighed. Those two were arguably the weirdest couple he had ever met. Wait, why did he suddenly think that Akio and Sanae resembled Nagisa and him running around just now with the situation reversed?

"Okazaki…san…" Nagisa panted. It was the first time she said anything since they had gotten home.

"Ah, sorry…did I run too fast…? You should lie down and rest…"

"No…I want to talk."

"Well…I don't really want to talk about my grades."

"No…I want to talk…about your father…"

His mind suddenly went blank. That was the last topic in the world he wanted to talk about.

"Nagisa, you've already known how he is, "he said, "He didn't care for me, he felt that he couldn't answer for me, and he was as pleased as anything when I wasn't around."

"That's not true! He is not happier when you're not with him, Okazaki-san."

"I just…can't talk about him…at least not now…" he finished lamely. There was a moment of silence between them. He thought that she would argue that they needed to discuss the matter further, but she only looked at him and said, "I see."

Was she thinking about another way to approach to his problem? He was grateful enough that she didn't force him to argue the point any longer.

He looked into her eyes. They were full of sympathy towards him, a helpless guy who couldn't even get along with his own father. Why did she have to care? He only helped her rebuild the Drama Club when the need arose, and that was it.

And yet, the days he had spent with the ardent Dango lover were so fun. They filled him with emotions, befriended him with many people, and helped him recover slowly from his painful past.

And it was not true if he never thought about her at all during his daydreams in class. What he had said to Nagisa was not completely a lie.

She tried to smile encouragingly to him. It calmed his heart in an instant.

"Say, Nagisa…" he said, "Can you help me to do a… uhm, certain homework?"

"What kind of homework?"

"English, and it's gonna be arduous if I do it on my own, English is definitely not my area…"

She looked at him curiously.

"What? Is it that weird that I want to do homework?"

She giggled. "No, Okazaki-san, of course not."

They went upstairs to change their clothes before started doing Tomoya's English homework. Nagisa sat next to him and helped him to answer the questions, sometimes looking up a dictionary or explaining the meaning of difficult words to him. When they had almost finished working, Tomoya suddenly remembered something.

"Hey, Nagisa…" he said, "Do you know what 'animal magnetism' means?"

"Uhm…" she thought for a moment, "Is this why you were scolded in that lesson?"

"Kind of…"

"Well…" she said, "It means a person's traits that people around him or her find appealing or attractive…"

It was almost like what Ryou had said.

"…Usually…"she added after a while, "In a sexual way…"

Tomoya's eyes widened. Now this was what he had never heard of. He never expected Nagisa to say such a thing, either. He watched her as she looked embarassed.

"Uhm…"

"Okazaki-san…"

"Eh?"

"Why are you looking at me…like that?"

"Like what?"

"We should continue our work, right?"

"Yeah…"

"Then why do you keep staring at…"

"A little break is okay."

"Eh? This definitely doesn't feel like a break!"

"It does for me, though."

"Can you stop…"

"Do you remember what I said just now that you're cu-"

"Okazaki-san! Please stop staring at me."

"Wait, listen…"

"Or else I won't help you with your homework again!"

"Huh? No way!"

"Then please stop doing strange things…" she ended the awkward conversation.

Tomoya shrugged and got back to work. Maybe the right time hadn't come yet after all.

end