Disclaimer: I do not own Oregairu

"Your hair smells different."

Hiratsuka's eyes widen and she blushes. She didn't think anyone would notice.

"Uhh… Umm..." She starts to choke up before spinning around and attempting to give Hikigaya a hard punch for saying that, but before her fist can connect he moves slightly to the side, dodging the attack causing her to slip and fall on her face.

"Sorry." Hikigaya says looking down at her.

Hiratsuka, sighs then rolls onto her back lifting herself up from the ground.

Hikigaya extends his hand, indicating he wants to help her. She looks at him for a second before taking it.

He starts to elevate her, however instead of standing up she grabs Hikigayas collar and pulls him down to the ground along with her.

"You may not say such things to your teacher Hachiman Hikigaya. It is inappropriate and will not be tolerated!"

"I didn't mean anything, by it sensei." he says as he gets up from the floor, wiping the dust off his blazer.

"I simply noticed a difference and pointed it out."

Hiratsuka also stands ups.

"Well you shouldn't say things like that to people Hikigaya, they will think you are stalking them and then they will come to me and complain! I will have to explain to them that you may be a lowlife pervert but you only stalk your teachers so the girls your age have nothing to worry about." Hiratsuka says all this with very exaggerated expressions and hand movements then starts to giggle.

Hikigaya looks to the side with an annoyed expression. Being outcast as some weirdo was definitely not part of the mission.

Hiratsuka notices his expression.

"I have a meeting to get to."

"Alright."

"I suppose you don't have much homework, so you're free to go home and we can discuss your work tomorrow."

"Okay."

There is silence for a few seconds before Hiratsuka, starts to walk off.

She gets a few metres of distance between them before Hikigaya calls out to her.

"And Sensei, I prefer how your hair smelled before."

This time Hiratsuka says nothing and keeps walking, she pretends as if she didn't hear him, but in reality, she's pretty mad.

'He preferred it before eh? Well it's a good thing I don't cater my hair to pervy students like Hikigaya. It would probably turn out a mess. What does he know about woman's hair?'

Hiratsuka smiles at her thoughts and in her head she continues to make fun of and berate him on her way to and during the meeting.

On his way out of school Hikigaya sees some bullies harassing a short kid. Their shirts are untucked, and sleeves rolled up.

The kid is wearing big glasses and is dressed very neatly.

Hikigaya has read a lot of light novels and there is usually a bully or a bully group that picks on the weak kids. He doesn't pay much attention to the situation nor should he. The things he has done to other humans go far beyond insults, so how could he criticise their actions?

As Hikigaya walks past them he is reminded of a couple of kids he met a while back.


2 Years Ago

Johannesburg Juvenile Prison, South Africa

Hikigaya had completed a good chunk of his plan. He had a weapon and was in close range of his target, a 17-year-old who got sick of having a posh lifestyle and decided to join a gang.

To some extent Hikigaya could understand why the target did what he did, an easy life is a boring life. He willingly got himself locked in prison simply to complete a job. The large sums of money Hikigaya made doing jobs like this helped motivate him, but it's not like he spent it on anything other than cheap light novels.

He did this for the thrill and he knew it. Now laying in the corner of a locked dorm surrounded by young criminals, Hikigaya waits patiently for curfew, while at the same time some inmates talk about him amongst themselves.

"You wanna go show him a good time ayy Thando?"

"Yeah."

Thando walks over to Hikigaya, looking down at him.

"Hey Ching Chong, get up!"

Hikigaya ignores him and turns to face the wall he's lying down by.

"You better get up unless you want to get yourself trouble, Ching Chong."

"…"

"Ayy Thando, I think Ching Chong needs a lesson."

Thando starts to laugh before bending down and grabbing Hikigayas shirt, pulling him up and shoving his back against the wall.

The two look into each other's eyes.

Thando's are confident and fired up.

Hikigayas are dead and lifeless. He is showing no emotion.

"I don't want any trouble Thando." Hikigaya starts to reason with him, "I'm simply trying to spend my time here and leave when I can. Just like you. If you want to fight me, you are welcome to, but know I'm not interested in hurting you or your friend."

Hachiman shifts his gaze over to the kid Thando was just speaking with and then back at Thando. It appears reasoning with the aggressor did not work, as his eyes are even more fiery than ever.

Over the shoulder of the inmate attempting to scare him, Hikigaya can see his target. The 17-year-old is alone on the floor without a blanket or a pillow. His arms are holding his legs tightly against his chest, he clearly wasn't anywhere near the top of the food chain.

'Perhaps by joining a gang and getting sent to prison he bit off more than he can swallow.' Hikigaya thinks to himself before returning his focus to the boy in front of him.

"Thando are you done yet? It's been a boring day for me, and some rest wouldn't hurt, so you're welcome to have my corner if you let me sit alone somewhere else." Hikigaya says in a friendly tone, but with cold and unemotional eyes and a slight look of disinterest.

Before letting go of Hikigayas collar Thando looks around the dorm. Everyone's watching them. Today was not the day Thando would allow some random Asian to tell him what do.

He raises his fist, and propels it towards Hikigayas face, however instead of connecting with a person, Thando's fist connects with a brick wall causing him to scream in pain and fall to the floor.

Hikigaya looks down at him with one eyebrow raised.

'Did he really believe someone wouldn't be able to dodge that? He must not have fought many people.'

Thando screams in pain as everyone in the room stares at Hikigaya.

'This may be a problem.'


Present Day

The rest of the week plays out uneventfully. Hikigaya goes to school, sees Hiratsuka in the morning and in her classes, then after school he goes to sit in her office and does homework while she marks papers.

Occasionally they'll discuss his social life and class work. The conversations are usually the same. Hiratsuka will try to push him into making more friends, then he'll explain to her why he'd prefer for his teacher to stay out of his social life and allow him to meet people more naturally.

They are going in circles and are both well aware of it, mind you Hiratsuka doesn't mind it all that much. She makes sure to tell herself that eventually she will get through to him and as a teacher she is helping a student, however deep down she knows that having him sit quietly across from her has made the once lonely afternoons she spent in her office a lot more bearable.

"Sensei?" Hikigaya (sitting across from Hiratsuka doing his homework) tries to get her attention.

The teacher looks up from the mess of papers and files on her desk. She has the look of "I'm busy what do you want?" on her face.

Hikigaya turns his head towards the vase on her desk.

"Why do you have so many chrysanthemum's?" he asks not breaking his gaze.

"I was told the flower represents loyalty and devotion. I use it to motivate myself to help every student I can. As a teacher it is very easy to lose focus on what is important…" Hiratsuka continues to speak about the duties of a teacher and how they have to sacrifice a lot for the future of Japan and even the world.

Hikigaya tunes her out continuing to look at the flower.

"Are you even listening?"

His attention is once again returned to Hiratsuka.

"Sensei, it's admirable how dedicated you are to your students, it's one of your more endearing traits. It's just that I was told those flowers represents loneliness."

Hiratsuka shoots the student across from her a dirty look before smiling.

"Hikigaya, how can I be lonely if I have you to spend my time with."

They look at each other for about 2 more seconds before Hiratsuka's warm smile becomes a devilish one.

"I mean you distract me in class with your antics, you berate me for my life choices and you keep me from my work. How can anyone feel lonely with you around? You're like a dark cloud on my sunny day."

"That so?" Hikigaya responds unemotionally clearly not fazed by her insults.

"Yes. Now stop distracting me, I have to get all this work done now as I will not have time to do it tomorrow."

Hikigaya looks down and continues doing his assignments.

Shizuka watches him for a few seconds as if she is waiting for something.

"Are you not going to ask me why I need to complete it before tomorrow?"

"No."

Hiratsuka starts to laugh then speaks.

"For a stalker you are very bad at stalking. A good stalker would try and pry information from me every chance they get, and have me accidentally reveal what I'm doing tomorrow! Then when I go out they'd follow me and watch from the shadows, but they would not be content with just watching! The stalker would be desperate to reveal themselves!" Hiratsuka puts her hands to her chest. "Even though they know how bad what they're doing is, their love is too strong to simply ignore me!"

"You sound like you want a stalker." Hikigaya says still not paying full attention to her.

The teacher frowns and puts her arms down on her desk.

"For your information, I will be going on a date tomorrow. It may surprise you, but I'm still a very young woman so I should not spend my Friday nights alone."

Hikigaya puts down his pen and looks up into her eyes. Hiratsuka is caught off guard by his deep stare.

'Is he going to say anything?' She asks herself as they continue to look at each other.

"I've finished all of todays work and am going home now sensei."

"O…Okay." She responds slightly fumbling on her words.

They exchange goodbyes as Hikigaya walks out the door.

As he leaves the school he sees the 3 bullies harassing their usual victim. It seems like every day they're out front picking on the poor boy. For the sake of the kid Hikigaya has considered intervening several times, however making waves in school is the last thing he wants right now. Gaining someone's trust is a slow and delicate process especially when they have authority over you.

'If I were to make myself look like a real troublemaker or a brute, Hiratsuka may begin to dislike me. If that happens she may be less inclined to have us spend time together, which would hinder a mission objective. If things go too bad I may have to resort to torture.'

He continues to think about the task at hand and his target as he passes by the boys. Hikigaya could easily hear what they're saying if he wanted to but chooses to tune them out. As far as he is concerned their affairs are none of his business.


2 Years Ago

A few inmates begin to walk towards Thando.

"MY HAND! I think it's broken!" The once confident boy is now on the ground clutching his arm.

Hikigaya looks at him and then at his friend.

'I can't cause too big of a scene. If I injure anyone severely the guards will bust in and take me away.'

One of Thando's other friends who was idly watching earlier walks up to Hikigaya and raises his fist getting ready to attack.

Slam

Hikigaya falls to the ground. The punch was harder than he expected but taking it was important. He needed these inmates to feel like they're in charge.

Slam

'A kick to the stomach? What an amateur.' Hikigaya thinks to himself as braces for the next attack.

Slam

'Another kick, at least be creative.'

Thandos friend then grabs Hikigaya off the floor and throws him against a wall.

"We're in charge of this dorm, understand Ching Chong?"

Hikigaya nods and looks away.

The boy spits at his shoes then goes to aid his injured peer.

"Hey!" a voice whispers at Hikigaya.

He turns toward the source of the sound and sees an inmate sitting alone on the floor.

'The target.'

They look at each other for a few more seconds before Hikigaya makes his way towards the 17-year-old and sits beside him.

"I see Thando doesn't really like you."

The target laughs nervously when Hikigaya doesn't respond.

"He doesn't like me either, he's always picking on me and pushing me around. I'm not really cut out for prison, but you look like your handling yourself well."

"That so?"

There is an awkward silence for a bit before the target speaks up again.

"My names Seth, what's yours?"

Hikigaya gives him a fake identity.

"Cool, cool. So, since neither of us seems to have many friends here and you seem... nice, maybe we could umm… look out for each other, I guess."

Seth extends his hand for a handshake.

"Sure." They both shake hands.

There is more awkward silence, but Seth tries to keep the conversation alive.

"What are you in for?"

Hikigaya pauses before answering, "Attempted murder."

The target becomes clearly uncomfortable and his breathing changes.

"You must not be very good at… killing… if it was only for attempting… it." Seth tries to lighten the mood.

"I suppose."

The other inmates give Hikigaya dirty looks as they sit by Thando who despite crying in pain earlier is now trying to act tough.

"Well I'm here for a crime I didn't commit."

"That so?"

"Yeah, I got caught up with gangs and things went bad for me."

"Just you?"

"Probably. If any of my other... friends got busted they'd be in a real prison and not here. So I wouldn't know either way."

Hikigaya looks at Seth.

"What was this crime you didn't commit?"

Wiping his forehead the 17-year-old explains how some of the gang members turned out to worse than he thought, however before Seth found out he loaned one of them his library card.

"One of the libraries near where we all met up had this system where if you brought in your friends' card you could pick up a book for them. Now my card had my name on it but not my face."

Seth went on to explain how his "friend" saw a girl walking alone on the way back.

"I don't know the details, but you can imagine what happened. I guess my library card fell out of his pocket, the girl found it and went to the police and now I'm locked in here for two days, after that I have to go to real prison."

"Sounds like a shitty situation."

"Yeah, it is."

Hikigaya thinks about what his target said.

'Surely, they would've gone to the library to interview witnesses, at least one would've seen the actual perpetrators face. He's probably lying.'


Present Day

Hiratsuka unlocks the door to her apartment and heads straight to her room. Ever since Shuu (the guy who stood her up the day before school started) agreed to go on another date with her, Shizuka has been working extra hard to free up some time over the weekend.

Lying on her bed she starts to imagine how the date will go.

'I wonder where he'll take me! Maybe we'll go for a walk in the park or have a romantic dinner date! Or maybe we'll go do something exciting.'

She smiles to herself. She doesn't get the opportunity to go on dates very often, partly because she's busy but mostly because no one ever asks her out.

Hiratsuka closes her eyes and gets comfortable on her bed, she's pretty exhausted.

She thinks about the last week and all the time that she's spent being alone. Although her thoughts are depressing, in the back of her mind she knows that she has a date tomorrow and falls asleep contently.

After getting a good eight hours Shizuka goes through her daily routine.

While in the shower Hiratsuka looks at her two shampoo bottles. There is the one she usually uses and the new one she's been using for the past few days.

'I don't even like this one.' The teacher thinks to herself holding the newer shampoo.

The only reason she used it instead of her usual one was to spite Hikigaya.

'Maybe I'm being petty.' Hiratsuka grabs the one that both her and apparently her student prefers. She squeezes the bottle and the liquid squirts out into her hand, she begins to rub it into her hair, however since it is so long it takes quite a while.

When she is done Shizuka checks her phone.

No new messages

She frowns and opens up Shuus chat.

"Are we still on for tomorrow?"- sent Thursday 07:03

'He still hasn't responded? He must be really busy.'

After locking her phone and getting her stuff ready, Hiratsuka leaves for school. On her drive there she sees Hikigaya walking on along the pavement.

She pulls up next him honking her horn and rolls down the passenger seat window.

"Get in!"

The student looks at her confused.

Hiratsuka's eyes widen as she is taken by surprise.

'That's not Hikigaya!'

"Uhh…umm I thought you were someone else." She fumbles for excuses. Then in a serious tone tells the student to hurry up and get to school or he may be late.

"Yes, sorry sensei!" the random student who looks a lot like Hachiman from behind bows respectfully.

Shizuka, now very embarrassed drives off.

'I should've offered him a ride! No, students shouldn't be in teacher's cars unless it's organized by the school, BUT THEN WHY WOULD I LET HIKIGAYA GET IN!' she yells loudly in her head.

Gripping the steering wheel and panicking Hiratsuka reverses the car back to the student.

Rolling down passenger window she tells the boy that she'll drive him to school. He accepts with gratitude and gets into her car.

The ride to school is awkward and he says hardly anything.

'If this was Hikigaya he would make a comment about how my car smells of cigarettes and that's why I can't find a husband.'

Shizuka sighs.

'Then I'd get mad and punch him in the arm. At some point after that we'd share a look and we'd both know that we're on good terms in spite of our actions.'

Now she is smiling. She knows comparing students isn't right, and teachers should never play favourites but the time she spent with Hikigaya was far too enjoyable for her to not be a little biased.

'He's smart, perceptive, sometimes even funny, and he'll speak his mind to me even though he knows the consequences.'

Hiratsuka's inner thoughts are cut off when they arrive at the school. She and the student get out and go their separate ways after exchanging very formal goodbyes.

On the way in Shizuka sees Hikigaya at the bike rack and walks over to him. He sees her and when she is close enough he greets her.

"Good morning sensei."

'Good morning Hikigaya."

No more words are exchanged between them as they walk together from the bike rack all the way to homeroom. Unlike the previous student Hiratsuka traveled with, the silence shared between her and Hachiman was not awkward but rather comforting.


Notes from the author: I guess we're at chapter 3 now which is awesome. I'll probably have chapter 4 out by the end of the week so get hyped. Leave a review or a favourite or a follow if you're enjoying the story so I know to continue it! See ya next time :D