"Hachiman, I have a favor to ask you."

oh god.

oh no.

I have no idea why Sensei sounded so dejected and hopeful at the same time, but the hairs on my back arched instantly when I heard her statement. This is bad.

Now, some people would say that getting asked for a favor by a beautiful 30-something woman might be the only and best thing going for me right now, but they don't know Sensei like I do. What does she want this time? Surely she had quite enough to drink last night. I swear, if this is another one of her stupid ploys to try and get me to join her on a ramen joint, I'd die of Kidney Failure. Like, seriously, my sodium intake skyrocketed the moment I befriended this woman. Or maybe it's something else? Maybe she'd finally ask me out?

hehehehe. No.

"OI! Hachiman! Don't go monologuing on me again!"

"Alright, alright. Sheesh."

"Learn to read the mood, you! This is exactly why you can't get friends."

"Ok, ok. Shizuka, sheesh. And this is exactly why you're still sing-"

A violent chokehold stop me from whatever I wanted to say, making me instantly regretting my choice of words. I don't get how she's this strong. Is she secretly a superhero? Her punches and chokeholds could knock out men her age- ok. I got to stop calling out her age like that. Got it.

"HACHIMAN!"

"What? What?"

"Are you thinking about something BAD about your dear sensei again? Hmmm?"

After regaining the air for my lungs to finally work, I turn to my sensei, cutting to the chase. I hate cliffhangers, and would really rather get this over with.

"So... What did you want from me, Shizuka?"

She slowly stood up from the rooftop floor, with grace you'de never expect from a highschool literature teacher. While patting down her lab coat for dirt and dust, she slowly contemplates if this is the right way to do it.

'Well, I can't have him being like this for the entirety of his high school. He needs somebody, and that somebody shouldn't be me. The age difference is just too much. I know he promised to me back then, but hoping and waiting for him to remember and grow up is just too unhealthy for me.'With a worrying sigh, Shizuka continued her earlier inquiry.

"I want to you join a club."

"It's been a month, Hachiman. A month since second year started. I know you joke about having no friends and not needing them... but I never really knew that it was this bad until I got you on my homeroom."

"Shizuka..."

"I know that what happened with Rye-chan was sad, and honestly unfair in my point of view, but you can't keep waiting for her to come back just because she promised you that she would back in graduation."

Hachiman's fist clenched tightly, his face paling the moment Shizuka said the name he desperately wanted to never hear again. His mouth moving faster than he could control, a spew of words coated with malice and anger rushed out.

A flash of red hair, the smell of autumn and chocolate chip cookies.

"You know it's not like that. I'm not waiting for ANYONE to come back! It's a fool's errand to wait for her. It was a promise between to dumb idiots, you know it. I wasn't waiting for her, I wasn't waiting for anyone!" Hikigaya's voice trembling, betraying the emotions he's feeling. Disappointment, for Shizuka to even bring her up again, and for himself, to be affected this hard just because of a memo- a series of memories he dreadfully wanted to forget.

Sensing Hachiman's distress, Hiratsuka, looks away, trying to give her student the privacy he needed to let his emotions subside. It was her fault for bringing it up. She needed to change the subject before anything got too out of hand.

With a tired huff, she continued.

"I set up a club, a place for you to wind down after a long day of classes. A place to help you with your anxiety and depression. A place to hang out after class. I know you don't go home right away. I've been watching you. I know you roam Chiba like a lost cat until its 9. With this, at least it gives me some presence of mind that you aren't out on the streets, or at least, reduce that time by giving you 2 hours of club."

With her true agenda out of the way, she slowly looked up, expecting an angry student, only to be greeted by a warm hand on her cheek and a gentle smile from her friend.

"Sensei, you don't have to take care of me every time. I'm 17 now, I could take care of myself now."

With a smile, she unconsciously rubbed her cheeks on his palm, closing her eyes, sighing in relief that he isn't mad at her motives.

"I know, you're no longer that kid who kept beating me in Street Fighter. You're big and strong now." with a hint of teasing in her voice. "I just- I just really hate seeing you likes this. Seeing you this broken." She spat. "I want my Hachi back, the one who isn't faking his smile every time, the one who wants to help people, who still had faith in humanity, the one who helped me when I- when I needed the most."

a pregnant silence surrounded the two loners, the tense air slowly ebbing away.

Hachiman, realizing that his sensei's thoughts are going back to a dark place, a place he most desperately wants her away from, pats her head and slowly hums the melody Shizuka loved to sing.

hmm hmmmmm hm hmmm hm hmmmm

A rather depressing chuckle came out of the teacher's mouth, seeing the irony of her student using the same melody she loved to use to him back when he came home from middle school, alone and depressed from being ridiculed and bullied because of his grades and appearance. It was a few seconds later when she said "Damnit Hachiman, don't use my own tricks against me. How do even still remember that tune? It's been years since I heard that."

"Well, it kinda stuck to me, you know? It's hard to forget when you always used it to keep away the nightmares."

"Still having that these days?"

"Nah, Insomnia's a bitch, though." A terse reply came from the loner.

"Your pills?"

"Later."

"Ara ara~ Are you perhaps loving patting my head that much Hachi-kun? Your antidepressants are important, you knooow~" Reminding Hachiman of the tone of a certain imouto of his.

Seeing the, rather compromising and breathtaking position he was in, Hachiman abruptly flinches his hands away, blushing red and trying not to look at his sensei in the eyes from his embarrassment.

"O-okay, F-for you, I'll check out this club you keep y-yapping abou-t. I don't have anything to do after school anyways."

A self-deprecating laugh and bright smile was shared between the two, not knowing that their private conversation was heard by three people.

A silver haired ponytail swinging above them, an angry Sobu prince who was recording the whole conversation on the back wall and an ice queen's gaze that followed them hiding on the back of a vending machine near the staircase.

Things are gonna get interesting for Hachiman, and he doesn't even know it yet. How Exciting!