Chika walks into her homeroom class, and that's the first sign that today is going to be different.
Rather than her student's excited voices, she is greeted by complete, utter silence. She blinks in confusion as her eyes move from one student to the other. Despite their heads being lowered, she can see their nervous, worried expressions. What is concerning is that everyone in class shared this look. Even Akari, the cheerful girl who reminds Chika of her younger self, is abnormally quiet.
She clears her throat, hoping to raise their spirits with her words. Some of them look up at her, but most of them continue to stare at the desk silently. "Good morning class!" Chika says cheerfully, which was returned by half of the class at most. Good enough for now. "Come on now, why the long faces? Did Kurosawa-sensei give you all too much homework yesterday?" At Dia's name, her students seem to shrink into their seats even more. Chika frowns at this. She's never seen them like this before, but by their reaction it looks like Dia is related somehow.
Letting out a soft sigh, Chika shakes her head slightly. It doesn't look like they're going to be doing anything productive for their homeroom session, so she might as well try to find out what's bothering them so much. Clearing her throat once again to draw their attention towards her, she gives them her best stern look, which still doesn't come off as being strict. "Okay, what's gotten into all of you?" A few murmurs are heard throughout the class, but that's not good enough. "I know that there's something wrong. You can tell me. If it's about another teacher, I promise I won't tell."
The students still look worried, but at least they're looking at her now. It's times like these that she's grateful she has such a good relationship with her homeroom class. For a few moments everyone is silent, but before Chika can ask another question, an arm is raised from the back. "Umm...Takami-sensei...you're dating Kurosawa-sensei, right?"
Chika freezes in place. Outwardly her expression hasn't changed from her usual cheerful and warm, but professional countenance, but inwardly she is screaming.
Stay calm, Chika, she tells herself. They might not actually know about it. Maybe it's just a rumor that's been spreading among the students. That happens often, especially in a place like Uchiura.
"What would make you think that?" She asks calmly.
"We...saw you kissing her...on the stairs last week."
Her internal screams become louder, and her professional exterior almost reveals a blush on her cheeks, but she's able to suppress it. "Yes, I'm dating Kurosawa-sensei," she confesses. She hopes that her students wouldn't think less of her after knowing that.
The fact that they look even more anxious now doesn't ease her worries.
"Oh, uhm..." The shy student who had spoken up seemed at a loss for words, frantically looking around for someone who would help her. Another student helpfully continues where she left off.
"Sensei, we're sorry for interfering in your personal life, but..." She gulps nervously, while Chika waits in suspense. "We...we think that Kurosawa-sensei is cheating on you. Yesterday, we saw her kissing Tsushima-sensei! We're sorry that you had to hear it from us."
As the other students comfort the student who has to be the bearer of bad news, while others are trying to comfort her, Chika can't believe her ears. She simply nods quietly as she begins roll call. The students, thinking that her sudden silence is her way of coping with the sudden news, don't cause any more trouble for her, responding politely whenever she calls out their name.
Chika tries really hard not to burst out into laughter.
The bell rings, signifying that it was time for lunch break. After the most recent class leaves the music room, Chika takes the three wrapped lunches and the bag of mikans on her desk before making her way towards the teacher's lounge. When she arrives, she finds Dia and Yoshiko waiting for her as expected.
"There you are!" Yoshiko smiles, offering Chika the seat next to her. Dia seems disappointed that Chika isn't sitting next to her, but smiles again as soon as Chika hands over her lunch, as well as a few mikans. Without wasting any time, the three of them start digging into their lunch.
"Thish ish even-"
"Swallow before you start talking, Yoshiko, or else you'll choke." Dia gently chides, taking a small sip of her green tea. Gulping down the food in her mouth, Yoshiko gives Chika a toothy smile.
"This is even better than yesterday's! Your home cooking is the best, Chika!" Yoshiko praises before taking another big bite of her rice. Giggling, Chika does the same, and it's not long before they've finished their food. The three teachers begin to talk about anything they can think of, from other teachers to the students, and that's when Chika tells them about what happened this morning.
She tells them about how her class seemed really depressed when she came in, and how it took a while before they were willing to divulge anything to her. Dia blushes when Chika told them that her students caught them in the act, much to her girlfriends' pleasure.
"-and then they saw you two kissing, and now they think that you're cheating on me with Yoshiko!"
Dia coughs out her green tea while Yoshiko starts laughing like a madwoman. She laughs for over a minute as Chika and Dia clean up the mess she had made. By the time she's recovered, there are tears in her eyes and she's holding her gut like she's in pain.
"That's...that's hilarious. How did they even think that?" Yoshiko asks, on the verge of another laughing spree.
"They seem to have too much free time on their hands." Dia muses, calmly taking a sip from what remains of her green tea. "Perhaps I should give them more homework..."
"Aww, don't be like that, Dia-chan," Chika says, accentuating the suffix, knowing how much Dia likes it. "They're just worried about me. You can't really blame them, now can you?"
"I suppose..." Dia sighs, nursing the warm cup in her hand. "I'm almost jealous of how close you are with your homeroom class. Mine act as if I'm going to fail them at any moment."
"Maybe that's because you would?" Dia glares at Yoshiko, but Yoshiko doesn't flinch back. Dia's intimidating gestures have lost their effect on her girlfriends a long time ago, and now they just consider it as something cute that she does every now and again.
Although Chika does find her girlfriends' back-and-forth banter to be amusing, there are more pressing matters to discuss. "So...what do you think?" They stare at Chika, confusion written on their faces. "Now they think Dia's being unfaithful, so what if they start to dislike you?"
"Well...quite a lot of students already dislike me, Chika. Not much would change," Dia says, failing to hide the hurt in her tone. Chika and Yoshiko both know best that she really wants to be liked by the students. It's just bad luck that her strict personality, as well as her difficult class makes the students dread her class in particular.
"No way!" Chika exclaims, surprising both of them as well as the other teachers who are in the lounge with them. She shoots them an apologetic look before continuing, "What's the point of keeping quiet about it? It doesn't really have to be a secret. It's not like Mari's gonna kick us out, and the students think some of us are dating anyway. Might as well come clean. Unless...you're embarrassed of being associated with us?"
"N-no, it's not that..." Dia sighs, offering a small smile. "I suppose I'm just worried that it will cause a scandal, but you're right. There's...nothing wrong with them knowing we're dating. I'm on board with this idea."
"Great!" Chika leans forward to envelop Dia in an awkward hug, which the Japanese Language teacher returns awkwardly. "Yoshiko, what about you?" No response. "Yoshiko?" They turn to face her, and she stares at them confusedly.
"Wait, this was supposed to be a secret?" Yoshiko asks, puzzled. "I already told my students."
"You did?" Dia's mouth gapes when Yoshiko nods her head.
"My name is Tsushima Yoshiko, and I'll be your homeroom and Chemistry teacher this year. It's a pleasure to meet you."
As the students returned her greeting, Yoshiko took the time to look at the new first-years. She quite liked how excited they looked, and she noted how one of them was like her back when she was a high-schooler with her fallen angel thing. She still did it, but mostly for Chika and Dia.
"Any questions before we continue?" A few students raised their hands, and she pointed at someone at the front. She stood up as the other hands went down.
"Why did you decide to teach in Uranohoshi, and why did you want to teach Chemistry?"
"Well, I have friends who teach here too. Watanabe-sensei, Sakurauchi-sensei, Kurosawa Ruby and Dia-sensei, and Takami-sensei. As for why I wanted to teach Chemistry."
She smiled at them. "Let's just say that I have some Chemistry with Takami and Kurosawa Dia-sensei."
"So you told your class that we're dating at the start of the year? Your entire class?"
As Chika seems infinitely proud of Yoshiko's pun, Dia wonders how their relationship didn't become common knowledge in the entire school by the next day. Perhaps Yoshiko's class is really good at keeping secrets.
"Well, that's that." Chika smiles at them. "Might as well just let them know that we're all dating."
"I wouldn't mind." Yoshiko shrugs, giving Dia a mischievous smile. "It means we can kiss all we want without worrying that they'll find out."
"In your dreams." Dia pokes her finger against Yoshiko's forehead, something she commonly does whenever she's scolding Yoshiko. "We still have to be professional. We can't kiss during school."
"Aww." Yoshiko pouts, pretending to sulk. "Fiiiiine."
Chika laughs, although she soon gets an idea. "Hey Yoshiko, the students haven't seen us kissing yet, have they?"
"Oh yeah!" Catching on to Chika's idea, Yoshiko grins. "Want to make out later?"
Putting her face into her hands, Dia lets out a long, drawn out sigh.