Chapter 1 The Bloom
I got this idea very long time ago. I saw many girls having crush on teachers and I guess seeing that helped me write this story. Also, I really wanted to write something that was related to Japanese high schools.
This is a mixture of the real world and Pokemon universe.
Since the setting is Japanese, it is kind of different from American high schools but if you watched enough animes, then I don't think there would be a problem. XD
Names used [Last name] [First name] (Like how Asian countries does)
One more thing, the word 'sensei' is important in this fic. The words main characters use to acknowledge each other is a one thing I focused on. Especially with Ikarishipping. Now I know that's not how English works, but I will just use that word instead of using Mr. Mrs. Ms. Things like that.
This was initially written in March.
April 3rd, 2006. Snowpoint City, Sinnoh
Hikari walked down the road. It was getting warm since it was April. But living in Sinnoh, and especially Snowpoint City, it was definitely not as warm as other regions. But, she liked living here in the small town, especially with hot spring and the festivals. She really loved them all. And now that this was the last year of high school, she gets to go to warmer big city after she graduates. She wanted to go to university in Veilstone City and wanted to study biology and natural habitats for many Pokemons. She had that dream since she watched documentary featuring many animals on TV when she was in elementary school. That fascination toward those creatures was what helped her in her hard times, and she wanted to know about them even more.
When She arrived at school, the students were crowding at the spot where they announce the homeroom classes. She looked up and saw cherry blossom trees shaking their petals off according to the soft wind. It really felt like the first day of her last high school year and she felt Beautiflies in her stomach.
She was about to go see which class she was in when a hand grabbed her shoulder.
"Hikari!" Hikari turned around to see her best friend, Haruka standing there with huge grin on her face.
"Haruka, how are you?" Hikari asked excitedly. It had been some time since she met her best friend because Hikari went on a vacation with her family and so did Haruka with hers. They hugged each other and jumped up and down, obviously thrilled to see each other.
"Good, good. Where's your brother anyway?"
"He came to school early." She replied. Kouki, her twin brother, looked almost as same as she did.
"And Shu? Where is he? Have you seen him? I want to see him right away!" Haruka said, eager to meet her boyfriend.
"He's with Kouki. I think. We will see him later and let's check our classroom." Hikari guided her to the wall. They stood behind many students and tip-toed to see the paper but they couldn't. Especially Hikari, who was shorter than Haruka.
"This is frustrating." Hikari said, aggravated.
"Grab my hand." Haruka grabbed Hikari's hand and pushed through the students to get to the front. They quickly scanned through the names.
"Hey! I found it!" Hikari exclaimed.
3-B HR: 岩泉真司 (Iwai Shinji)
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:
桜沢 光 (Sakurazawa Hikari)
"There's my name. What about you, Haruka?" Hikari quickly asked her friend.
3-C HR: 佐藤海月 (Sato Mitsuki)
:
:
春藤春花 (Shundo Haruka)
"I found it! Where's Shu's name? And Kasumi as well?" Haruka asked, frantically looking around.
"Shu's in my class. And Kasumi, let's see…" The two found the girl's name, she was in class 3-D.
The two quickly escaped the crowd and got to the back.
"And you have Sato sensei for your homeroom teacher. Lucky you, she's a good teacher." Hikari said. She liked Haruka's homeroom teacher. The language art teacher was always kind and caring. She then tip-toed on her feet again to look at the top of the paper and looked at her teacher's name.
"Iwai Shinji." She read the name. She tried to think who he might be, but she was clueless.
"Have you ever heard that name?" Hikari asked.
Haruka shook her head, "No, I haven't. Maybe he'd only taught 3rd grades or he's new." Haruka guessed.
"New teacher? That's something…." Hikari wondered. What will the new teacher be like?
"Oh, look at the time! We gotta go!" With that Haruka and Hikari ran to their classroom on the third floor. Snowpoint High School was a small school. Since Snowpoint City itself was a bit isolated from the rest of the cities, it held small population relatively.
"Okay, I will see you later. Tell Shu that I love him!" Haruka waved as she entered her class.
"Yeah, I will see you at lunch!" Hikari waved back and headed to her own class which was right next to Haruka's.
She opened the door and sat on an empty seat. Shu came in right after she did, and girls started to shriek. Shu flipped his hair and found his cousin.
"Hikari! You are here early! How was your trip?" Shu asked taking the seat next to her.
"You do know that you came with us, right?" Hikari asked with a chuckle. Shu lived with them because his parents died a few years ago.
"Still, you spent most of your time alone. Kouki and I had a lot of fun, but you didn't seem to enjoy it at all! What was going on with my dear cousin?" He asked dramatically. Hikari rolled her eyes and sighed. Shu liked to tease her this way. But apparently, many girls liked this aspect of Shu. It was something Hikari would never understand.
"Let me guess. Is it because of your breakup with Jun?" Hikari flinched. Kuwata Jun was her ex-boyfriend. They broke up few months ago. Hikari figured out that he was cheating on her, dating Hira Urara. Urara and Hikari were in a rivalry state since middle school. It wasn't for the grades though, Urara just hated Hikari for some reason. Hikari was so mad that both Kouki and Shu both had to hung onto her tightly and prevent her from going out of the house to murder him.
After the breakup, Hikari declared a romance-free year for her last year of high school.
"Shut up." Hikari told Shu with a playful frown. He smirked and looked up.
The door then opened and a tall young man with shaggy purple hair in black suit walked in with the attendance book in his hand.
Everyone stood up from their seat and bowed toward the teacher. And the teacher told them to sit down.
"Hello everyone." He said with a lazy tone and started to write down something on the blackboard.
岩泉真司
"Iwai Shinji. That's my name. I teach biology and I will be your homeroom teacher for the year. This is also my first year as a teacher and I hope to be a good teacher to you all." He introduced himself. But his tone was so dry that no student believed that he actually wanted to be a good teacher to them. They just thought they were screwed up.
Hikari stared at him. He had cold and piercing onyx eyes. It looked like she would have her mind read just by looking at those eyes. But he was indescribably handsome. Handsome enough to make some of the girls blush a bit.
The teacher then started to call the students' names.
"Akagi Aki?" he called out. Shu raised his hand, "Sir, its Shu*. Please mind that."
"Pardon me Mr. Akagi. But do you mind being temporary class president**?"
"No sir." Shu answered.
Hikari stared at the teacher as he called through the names. His brows were furrowed as he called out each students' names.
"Sakurazawa Hikari." Her name was called but Hikari was still spacing out.
"Hikari?" Shu poked her and she jumped slightly.
"He called you." Shu whispered.
"Here!" she said with louder voice than she meant to make, raising her hand.
"Thank you. Please pay attention when the teacher's talking in front of the class, Miss Sakurazawa." Hikari blushed in embarrassment and looked down at the desk. She heard other kids giggling. Shu told her to ignore that. But Hikari knew that they didn't really think she was stupid. She was friends with most of the classmates.
The teacher continued to call the names and was done soon enough.
Hikari glanced at her cousin. Shu was the temporary class president but like always Hikari was sure he was going to be the permanent one like he always did.
The bell rang loudly, signaling the morning assembly was over.
Shu stood up from his seat, telling other students to do the same. They vowed according to Shu's words.
"Have a great first day." With emotionless words, Iwai Shinji left the class.
The classroom immediately burst into random conversations as the door closed.
"He seems, well, okay? What do you think?" Shu said as he leaned over to Hikari's desk. But, Hikari didn't answer. She was red and was spacing out.
"Hikari? Are you sick?" Shu asked, surprised at his cousin's sudden change of attitude. He had concerned look on his face.
"No." She answered. But her face was still red, and her eyes were twinkling.
Shu blinked, realizing what kind of situation she was in, he sighed. "Hikari, you just broke up with a guy." Hikari's twinkle in the eyes disappeared and she looked up with a glare. She was about to tell him something when they were interrupted.
"Hi!" They both turned around to see Haruka waving at them from the door. She entered the classroom and ran over to Hikari's desk and hung onto Shu's neck.
"Shu, I missed you so much!" Haruka said.
"Missed you too." Shu replied with a smirk on his face.
"So, how was the mystery teacher?" Haruka asked, turning toward Dawn. She'd been curious about the new teacher all morning. After all, he could be teaching her as well.
"Mystery teacher?" Shu asked, confused.
"Your homeroom teacher! Is he new? Or is he just stuck with 3rd grade again? So?" Haruka asked excitedly. Haruka was one of those girls who liked her teachers, in a friendly way. She would draw them and show it to them. She was an artist after all. Both Haruka and Hikari were in the art club. Haruka was good at drawing real people or anime characters whereas Hikari drew still life and landscapes. Haruka wanted to go to art school. But for Hikari, it was just a hobby.
"This is his first year teaching." Hikari explained. "So, yeah. He's new."
"Ooh, is he cute?" Haruka asked, still hanging onto her boyfriend tightly.
"Haru-chan, please let go of me." Shu pleaded, about to choke.
"Oops, sorry!" Haruka let go of him instantly and smiled at him in an apologetic way.
"It's fine." Shu answered, resuming to his perfect form. He flipped his hair, making the two girls roll their eyes.
"So, is he okay?" Haruka asked.
"He looked like an iceberg to me. Cold as an ice." Shu said. He wasn't really interested in the teacher as much as his girlfriend was.
"I didn't ask your opinion." Haruka pouted and turned to Hikari, urging her to answer.
It took Hikari some moment to think up of what to say, "I don't know." Hikari finally answered. That was the nest she could say.
Both Shu and Haruka blinked. Shu raised his brow, knowing that this wasn't true.
"Oh, okay." Haruka said. She was obviously disappointed with her friend's comment.
Hikari pressed her lips into thin a line. She told herself and promised to herself that she would not fall in love again during high school year.
No romance this year.
And she was going to keep that no matter what.
*I had Shu's name have Chinese letter 秋 in it, which means 'autumn'. This letter can be pronounced 'aki' or 'shu'. I searched Bulbapedia to find his name source and it was that letter.
**Unlike America, Japan and Korea both, each classroom has their own president and also have the student council body separately. The one you see in the anime who tells the students to stand up when bowing to the teacher is the class president. It is a different term than student council president.
Name List if you are confused
Sakurazawa Hikari / Kouki (Dawn and Lucas)
Iwai Shinji (Paul)
Akagi Shu (Drew) and Shundo Haruka (May)
