It was the first time in a while that I had woken up at 6 a.m. Kana used to rise me up at about six o'clock to see the sunrise. We would huddle up next to eachother and gaze at the splendid mixture of colors, the beautiful painting on the canvas known as the sky. It was special to her. She saw the sunrise as the start of a new life, a new day in which all of the sufferings that we bore from yesterday, would be swept away with the morning breeze.

I tried to roll over and get back to sleep, but it just wasn't possible. I couldn't go to work. My first class wasn't until 12:00, it would be absurd to show up six hours early. But then again, I could get some lesson plans done early. I always tried to be as prepared as I possibly could.

So I got out of bed groggily and walked drunkly towards the bathroom. I began to strip off my clothes and then I stepped into the shower. The warm water was soothing, I enjoyed particularly hot showers. Hot water was supposed to relax your muscles. As I was scrubbing the shampoo in my dark hair, strange thoughts churned in my mind.

Was it possible for me to love another woman, other than Kana. Is there more than one person out there who is destined to be with me? I couldn't ask for a better love than mine and Kana's, that would be selfish. I don't need anyone else. I'm fine...but...if I'm fine...why do I feel so alone?

Then an image of Koishii flashed into my mind.

What? No, I couldn't possibly have feelings for this girl. She was my student, I had only talked to her once. But, was one talk enough to spring feelings for her into me? It was possible with some, but not I. No, I simply thought she was a nice girl. That was all.

Not another thought of her went through my mind until I had reached the school. I began to walk slowly towards the main building. It was brisk out that morning. I wore a light jacket to protect my body from the sharp air. A few times I heard my name being called. But I was so absorbed in thought, the calling hadn't really registered until I was tapped on the shoulder. I jerked my head back to see Koishii, smiling eagerly at me. What was she doing up at this un-godly hour?

"Hey Proffesser! I didn't know that you woke up this early too!" she exclaimed crossing her arms.

She wore a beige sweater-vest over a long sleeved, white shirt, a short plaid skirt, and black tights. Her hair was up in the same loose knot.

"Well, I don't usually wake up until about seven, but I guess I just had to see the sunrise," I said smiling sadly at the thought of Kana, "What are you doing awake so early?"

"I always wake up around 5:30. It's been a habit ever since I was six years old. I would look outside of my bedroom window, excited to see the sun rise up. It was a magical thing to me," she explained dreamily.

We both sat on a wooden bench near the yard of grass surrounding the main building.

"How so?" I asked curiously.

"Well, I've always enjoyed the simple things," she blushed, "It has just captivated me how something can be so beautiful. Not many people appreciate the little things. Like the song of a bird, the feel of a breeze, a tickle of grass against your feet, and the most beautiful thing, a sunrise."

I smiled warmly at her. She really did have appreciation for the little things in life. She had so much love in her heart, that every word was dripping with her compassion for the everday things that surrounded her.

"I haven't even had you in one class and you already know more about me than some of my friends do," she laughed, "You're very easy to talk to, I guess."

"And you are very easy to listen to," I replied leaning back against the seat.

She smiled warmly at me, as the sun began to rise.

All my lesson plans until easter had been finished.

"I'll finish the rest of this years tomorrow morning, unless Koishii and I take a longer walk." I murmered to no one in particular.

I stretched my arms behind my head and brushed the hair away from my eyes. The cieling was too bright.

"Okay I really need to get that fixed!" I muttered angrily.

"It's been poked at dozens of times, it was even brighter last year."I heard a female voice draw from across the room.

I looked over to where I had heard the sound from. A woman, about thirty years of age, was standing in my doorway. She had brown hair that grazed the top of her shoulders, a heart-shaped face and almond-shaped, blue eyes. She wore a pink blazer with a matching skirt that trailed to her knees, brown hose and black pumps.

"Who might you be?" I asked,ignoring her statement.

She looked too old to be a freshman student. After all, I only taught freshman classes, seeing how they were the easiest. And she also said 'last year'. So it had to mean she was either a second year, or a teacher.

"I'm Ms. Karou Mituki. I taught in this room last year until they bumped me up to 2nd year Human Anatomy." she explained while strolling confidentally over my desk.

"It's a pleasure Ms. Mituki, I'm Hatori Soma." I replied nodding my head in her direction.

She reached the front of my desk as her face split into a cat-like grin.

"Call me Karou, we're both teachers, right?" she laughed.

I smiled back to be polite, but I didn't feel comfortable calling her by her first name. I mean, I had just met the woman. She put both of her hands on either side of my desk and leaned her chest over, she looked me straight in the eye.

"So what're you doing here this early?" she purred in a low voice.

I backed up in my chair a little bit. She was rather...friendly.

"I had just finished all of my lesson plans until Easter Holidays," I explained quickly.

I arose out of my chair and snatched the lesson plans off of my desk. I strided over to the filing cabinet and jammed the papers in the top drawer.

"Some of the teachers told me that you were incredibally handsome. I came here to see for myself," she called to me.

I turned around and slid my hands into my pants pockets. She was very forward, I had to replay the scene in my mind, just to make sure I wasn't imagining what she just said. My eyes were averted towards the filing cabinet. What could I say to her comment? I was tempted to blurt out, 'Well, what do you think, now that you've seen me?' but it would sound as if I was coming on to her. And God knows that isn't the case. So I replied with silence.

"Don't be shy! This can't possibly be the first time someone has called you handsome, can it?" she laughed.

I responded in silence, as I had before. She made a tutting noise and began to look at the papers on my desk. Immediatly, she seized up the picture of Kana and looked at it in interest.

"Ah, so who might this be?" she asked, trying to hide the jealousy in her voice.

"My girlfriend." I replied tersely, hoping she would get the point and back off.

She snorted in disbelief. Karou turned the picture around and looked at it about eight different ways. It seemed as if she was trying to find the best place to stab a hole through it.

"What's her name?" she asked putting Kana's picture roughly back onto my desk.

"Her name is Kana, please don't ruin the picture, it's the only one I have of her." I explained, crossing over to my desk and tenderly picking up the photograph.

"Why don't you take another one of her?" Karou suggested rudely.

Since Kana has no idea who I am, she would probably think I was stalking her.

"She's rather camera-shy." I lied.

"I see."

"I'm glad that you do, now I have a class in two hours, so I should probably start to prepare notes and such," I said opening the door for her, as politely as I could.

"Oh, I'll see you some other time Hatori." she bade me farewell, in a rather dissappointed tone.

I shut the door loudly after she had left. A heavy sigh escaped my lips as I ran my fingers through my hair. I could already tell that I was going to have trouble with this woman. There was no doubt that she had some sort of attraction to me. If not, then she put a new meaning to the word 'friendly'.

All I could really gather from the situation, was that she was attracted to me, and I tried to make it as clear as possible that I had just met the woman. But maybe I was wrong. Perhaps, she just was a little too friendly. Either way, I'm still going to avoid her.

"You're the only two people in my classes who made a 100 on this test. You really will excel at this class," I praised the two students in front of me.

Mitari and Koishii exchanged smiles. Mitari was bouncing up and down on his heels.

It had been two weeks since I had started teaching. Mitari and Koishii's scores were next to perfect. I expected Mitari to be naturally good at the subject, but I had my doubts about Koishii. It wasn't as if I thought she was stupid or something, I just felt a small doubt.

"Well Professer Soma, you are a fantastic teacher!" Mitari exclaimed nodding.

Koishii smiled at me. I wasn't sure what to make of the gleam in her eye, it may of been the joy of her grade...or was it perhaps, something else?

"I suppose," I said laughing to myself.

I felt someone clasp my hand and my head jerked up to see Koishii smiling warmly at me.

"You really are. I'm glad that you're my human anatomy instructor. Rather than Ms. Mituki..." she added rather hastily.

"We still have her for biology though," Mitari remarked, his tone changing quite a bit.

I don't think I had ever heard Mitari sound so agitated before. In my class, he was always smiling, raising his hand eagerly, laughing with Koishii.

"Really now?" I said interestedly, raising my hand to my chin.

Appearently, I wasn't the only one who disliked her. She had made a regular stop to my office every day. She was quite persistant. No matter how exasperated I was from her relentless attempts to seduce me, I was not able to ignore her.

"She doesn't like me very much. I have no idea why...I barely said three words to her, I said 'Hi, I'm Koishii.' She just glared at me and told me to take my seat." Koishii muttered bitterly.

"Ms. Mituki said I didn't know when to shut up, and that I was disturbing other students around me," Mitari spat in an irate manner.

"She can be that way, I don't think that she meant it to be taken personally. Try not to worry about it. Just ignore her, that's what I do," I suggested.

"Yeah, you're probably right. Well, we don't want to keep you. Come on Koishii, let's go get some dinner." he said taking Koishii by the hand.

I noticed that he seemed to be rather attatched to her. It was now that I reaized that mine and Koishii's hand was still entangled. We had never really let go.

"Hold on, I'll be out in a second. I just need to be talking to Professer Soma for a few seconds." she explained to him sweetly.

He nodded and walked out of my room, a little bounce in his step. Once he was out of earshot, she began to speak softly, almost in a whisper. I had wondered why...maybe she didn't want Mitari to hear, if that was even possible.

"Thank you for my grades, Mitari and I really meant what we said. You really are a wonderful teacher. But I wanted to invite you to lunch on Saturday at 1:00. At Subway, you know where that is don't you. It's maybe five minutes from here..." she asked hopefully.

"I would love to, but any particlar reason why?" I asked suspiciously.

Her eyes were downcast and her cheeks flushed.

"Well, we don't get to talk very much. Only in the mornings and a little after class. And I really do enjoy spending time with you," she began sweetly, but then caught herself abruptly, "Oh! But if it's too weird because I'm your student and all. I mean you're probably twice my age...not that you look old or anything! That's not what I meant. I'm only 20..."

I stopped her rambling for a second and put my hand under her chin. I lifted her face up so her eyes were staring diectly at mine.

"I don't think it's odd at all. And I'm 27, by the way. We're only 7 years apart." I replied smiling.

"Oh..." she murmered bashfully, "Well, Mitari's probably waiting for me. I should go, I'll see you tomorrow!" she said breathlessly.

She walked over to the door, gave me one last wave and exited the room, a stride in her step.