Friday came, and Atsuko was freezing. She had woken up late and forgotten her coat, not to mention that precious yellow scarf her granny had knitted her. Darting down side alleys and across the zebras of the streets, or crosswalks as her brother called them, she arrived at Raira Academy a few minutes short of sixth block.
"Ojiisan! You're out of breath, are you okay?" Hanabi, one of her favorite students, asked placing her books on her desk
Grinning Atsuko nodded as rested her hands on her knees "Now, uhm, can we turn to our latest poem that we all wrote last night?"
Masaomi stared at his teacher, her inky hair slipping over her shoulders and hiding her face as she leaned against her desk. He glanced around the room to note that she hadn't brought a coat today, as the peg where she usually hung her coat was empty. Class came and went, she teaching a bit of concrete poetry, assigning a few poems to read and write.
As the bell rang for seventh block, Masaomi hung behind, "We're still on for after school, yeah?"
Atsuko pushed a lock of hair behind her ear, blinking owlishly "Did you finish your paper?"
Nodding he held out the book "I thought Che was pretty cool, I didn't know he did all those things"
The young woman shrugged "You shouldn't judge someone, just because they're a Marxist"
Masaomi nodded happily and ran off to class.
Slinging her purse over her shoulder, Atsuko locked her classroom door. She supposed sushi with Masaomi wasn't too bad, and speaking of the devil, he was standing right behind her.
"You ready to go?" He asked cheerily
Masaomi had dragged Atsuko down a few blocks towards Russia Sushi before he noticed she was shivering. In her thin long sleeved shirt she was practically convulsing from the cold, pulling off his outer coat, leaving him in his hoodie he held it out to her shyly.
"I don't want you to freeze to death" He blushed "Then we wouldn't have a cool teacher"
Atsuko laughed and slipped on the already warm coat, zipping it up she smiled at him, her cheeks flushed from the cold "I'm glad you only want me around cause I'm the cool teacher"
Masaomi shook his head before dragging her down the street once more. Inside the warmth of Russia Sushi they took seats at the bar, ordering their food.
"Y-you!" a man shrieked from his place at the bar, pointing at Atsuko
Turning in her chair her obsidian eyes narrowed "You"
"I'll just be going now" He nodded starting to get up, it was that stupid dectective
"Sit. Down." She ordered sipping her coffee
The man sat down rather quickly, almost falling off of his stool.
"Atsuko-chan?" Masaomi asked frowning at his teacher
"Now, you see good sir, I left my scarf at home today" She hissed standing up "But I'm assuming you still are stupid enough to think I'm some kind of felon"
"No ma'am! I'm sorry! It was just a mistake, I just assumed-" He held his hands up in defeat
"You people! Always assuming things! Just because I own a yellow scarf, I must be a member of a gang, right?" She hissed "Now, you're going to sit down and eat your sushi, and when you're done, you're going to pay our bill."
Masaomi was a few moments away from dying, staring at the woman with her charcoal hair, if looks could kill, that man before them would been dead from the moment the young Tanaka had set her owlish oculi on him. The man quickly ate his last few pieces of sushi and slapped some money down on the table, telling the waitress that he was paying for the duo a few seats down. Glancing at Atsuko for a moment the detective set his mouth in a thin line before running out of the eatery as if the Black Rider were in pursuit.
"What was that all about?" Masaomi asked curiously after sipping his tea
"He accused me of being a member of the Yellow Scarves" She shrugged fiddling with the hoop on her upper ear "I don't take kindly to people insulting the scarf my Granny knitted for me"
"The Yellow Scarves are pretty dangerous" The teen nodded "But it's no excuse for him to assume that your personal preferences-"
"Masaomi-kun, it's okay, you don't have to defend me" Atsuko shrugged breaking apart her chopsticks
The dinner for the two was quite easy, talking and laughing after the incident with the dim-witted detective. Had anyone looked it could've been mistaken for a date, or maybe just two very good friends out for a night of catching up.
"Let me walk you home? It's getting dark out" Masaomi begged as they exited Russia Sushi
"It's not appropriate, I mean, you're my student Omi-chan" Atsuko let her head fall into her palm "I- argh! I just called you Omi-chan, what kind of person am I? Oh I could get fired for this!"
"Well, if you're already stressing about this, you might as well let me walk you home" He shook his head, his blonde hair falling into his eyes "I mean, there's nothing wrong with this anyway! You're like what, twenty? And I'm eighteen!"
"I'm nineteen- But that's not the point! I could get fired over this" The Tanaka shook her head wildly, her charcoal hair making a fan around her head
Masaomi stared blandly at her before grabbing her hand and dragging her down the sidewalk "I'm taking you home whether you like it or not!"
"Well, you're going the wrong direction Masaomi-kun" She laughed, suddenly finding the whole situation a bit bizarre