polaris
01. life as it is

Raira Academy was always quiet in the morning.

The teachers usually began arriving at six thirty in the morning, slowly slithering onto campus like workers entering their daily confinements (which was technically the truth in bold, depressing letters). Holding her sheet music and lecture notes, Akemi did the same. She punched in her time card in the main office, politely greeted the people working and left to unlock her classroom door, pacing on the wooden floor on white high-heels without as much as a glance towards the other classrooms along the way.

She slid her hand across the grand piano near the entrance of the room, passing by it with a small glance at its sleek beauty.

The teacher's podium that had been placed in her classroom before she had taken over this classroom had been pushed to the corner: she always liked moving around and writing things on the blackboard anyway, so why get something that would only be a hindrance for both her and her students? Not to mention how she hated that…thing…in high school.

It made her feel authoritative and rather powerful though, but she would never admit that out loud.

She swept a glance at the digital clock on the wall of her classroom: 7:39 AM. Not too early, but not too late.

Her homeroom students would probably start appearing soon. The day was starting, and now it wasn't like she had a choice but to face the music (how literal, she mentally jibed at herself, seeing how she was a music teacher of all things) and get through the rest of the day. She sat on her rolling chair (score for her) and propped her elbows on the desk, resting her chin on her hands as she looked at the empty rows of desks and chairs.

Speak of the devil, and he shall come.

A student peeked into the room, unaware that she was staring at him. He had spiky black hair (that looked soft, what was going on in this world) and deep blue eyes that searched the room for something.

His eyes were blue. Blue. Akemi inwardly scowled.

'Look at those eyes!' her mind shouted gleefully, looking at the large doe-like eyes of the boy. 'They're gorgeous!'

"E-excuse me?"

Akemi looked up and turned to the student. "What is it?" she asked, coughing a few times to clear her voice.

"T-This is the homeroom for 2-2, right?"

Aw, he stuttered! How cute!

Akemi's smile brightened. "Yes, you're right! Come in! I'm not going to assign any seats, so just choose wherever you want to sit," she said, pushing her chair away from the desk and standing up to stop in front of him. "What's your name?"

"R-Ryuugamine Mikado," he said, hurriedly bowing. "Please take care of me, sensei."

Oh, this boy just got more adorable as time passed, didn't he?

"I'm Morinaka Akemi," she introduced herself, smiling and doing a little curtsey as a joke. "And I'll be your homeroom teacher for this year! I'm sure we'll get along swimmingly, so don't worry your little noggin about it!" Akemi paused and gave a sly grin. "By the way, Ryuugamine-kun, is there anybody else in this class that you know that you could tell me stuff about? I'd like to know some of my students before class starts."

"E-eh?" Mikado stammered, his voice cracking slightly at the end. "Why?"

Akemi grinned. "It'd be cool if I looked like I was psychic, right? And it'd probably scare some of the dimwits of the class into submission." She lowered her voice and added in a conspiratorial tone, "It's my first year teaching, and I'd like to start with a little fanfare, you know?"

Mikado blinked.

'Did I break the poor boy?' she wondered inwardly as she looked at him. She resisted the urge to poke him, instead waiting it out to see when he would break out of his reverie.

"Ryuugamine-kun?"

Mikado immediately stood ramrod straight. "H-hai!"

Akemi grinned. "Nothing, nothing. Go sit down! I'm sure your friends will jump in here any moment!"

Nodding confusedly, Mikado trudged towards a window seat in the middle row. The classroom slowly started to fill in, and they all seemed to sit wherever they wanted to without having to be told-which was convenient for her, because who gave an actual fuck about sitting in alphabetical order, anyway?

Not her, at least.

"Mikado!" a voice sang as its owner entered the classroom. Akemi turned to see a boy with smoothened out blond hair and brown eyes cheerfully skipping over to where Mikado sat, taking the seat next to him. "How've you been, pal?" He headlocked Mikado with his right arm and noogied him playfully as Mikado whined out, "Masaomi, let me go" in a rather pitiful voice.

"A-Ano, Kida-kun, I think you're choking Ryuugamine-kun," a girl stated quietly as she entered the classroom. She had noticeably large…assets…and a small, cute face.

'Look at those boobs, and that face!' her mind shouted. 'Why is life so unfair?' Immediately, she looked at her own body and sighed. Some girls had all the luck, she thought to herself.

"Oh, am I?" The boy now known as Kida let him go. Mikado coughed a few times as his face regained its original color. "Oh, Anri-chan! You and your erotically playful body seem to be just spectacular this fine morning!"

Mikado immediately sat straight up from his little coughing spree. "Don't say things like that to Sonohara-san! That's sexual harassment!"

The girl, Sonohara, twiddled with her fingers and gave no reply as she sat directly behind Mikado. "How have you two been during vacation?" she asked quietly, placing her bag on its rack.

'I-I've b-been good, Sonohara-san, and you?"

"Good for me, too…"

Akemi felt like rolling her eyes at this display. Those two were probably one of the cutest couples she had ever seen-if they could even be called one-and here they were, stumbling over words and almost killing everyone around them via asphyxiation.

I swear, she said to herself as she watched them from her desk, if that…romance…thing…seeps into my class, I'm going to make them cry. Akemi closed her eyes and sighed, rubbing her temples. She was tired, and class didn't even start yet!

"Oh?" voiced Kida.

Akemi peeked from her eyes in curiosity.

"We have a new teacher! She's young, too!"

Well, shit. There went her moment of zen.

"Did you say something about me?" Akemi asked, opening her eyes fully and rolling her spine into alignment.

Kida grinned and sent her a wink. She felt like rolling her eyes and laughing-because really, she was far too young to have to be labeled a cougar or some kind of pedophile, and just the thought of it was enough to make her shiver in disgust-at the fact that this was her first day of teaching.

Well, fuck.

"I did, actua-"

Ding, ding. Ding, ding.

She was going to kiss the man (or woman) who chose that moment to chime the bells. Honestly, high school students these days.

The class seemed to be full-except for two seats, but she wouldn't know who wasn't here until she took roll-so Akemi sighed. Her first year had started, and truth be told, she was rather frightened.

"Hello, class. Welcome to the new school year! I'm your homeroom teacher, Morinaka Akemi. It's a pleasure to meet you all. As you may have noticed, you all chose your own seats-this will be your seats for the rest of the semester, unless you have a special excuse. Now, before I call roll, are there any questions?"

None.

Well, her students were unusually docile.

Fine, then. It wasn't like she liked wasting time, anyway.

"Aino Hinata. Akira Yuuji. Amamiya..."

Fuck, she hated her students.

Not her homeroom students-the freshmen in her music theory class were some of the most pretentiously obnoxious pieces of shit she had ever encountered-but the other ones.

Really, she knew that high school was quite the period for most people, but they had no reason to strum the cello like that, those assholes. The bow was created for a reason, and seeing how they toyed with the cello like it was a guitar made her want to beat the living daylights out of those imbeciles.

…even if they were only fifteen.

Okay, maybe she was a bit harsh, she sullenly told herself as she crossed the street across Russia Sushi, but still, they had no reason to desecrate such beautiful instruments.

"Russia Sushi! It's good, and it's cheap!"

Man, that voice was loud. Loud as in it could rival most percussion instruments in decibels and win in loudness.

Akemi bit her lip and looked up, watching a man with dark skin and greyish white hair (was there some kind of hair dye trend going on that she wasn't aware of?) holding a bunch of flyers in one hand, waving his arms around in sushi chef clothes.

"Oh, young lady!" the voice boomed as the man thrust a flyer under her nose. "Want to try some sushi? It's good, and it's cheap!"

She blinked.

"I'm sorry, er…"

"You can call me Simon."

"I'm sorry, uh, Simon. I'm broke right now, so I'll come back when I get paid! I promise!" she squeaked out. Honestly, the man was pretty damn intimidating, based on looks alone. He towered over her by at least a good five inches and his eyes seemed to zoom in on her as if trying to decipher her very soul. "Uh, bye!"

Akemi hurried away from the sushi shop, pausing near the convenience store and entering.

"Milk, cereal, maybe some beer," she sang quietly to herself, plucking the milk and beer from its places. Akemi grabbed from cereal flakes from the cereal section and hurried out from the store, anxious to get home.

Akemi fished out her phone from her pocket and flipped it open, checking the few messages that she had. She sighed as she stuffed it back into her pocket.

The walk home felt longer than before, though. Maybe it was because she was exhausted, or because of the fact that her job was going to be so troublesome. She hadn't even thought about instruments being damaged like that, but now there were so many factors to think about that her head started to pound.

Fuck, she cursed in her head as she finally reached the entrance of her apartment. Akemi sighed as she dug out her keys from her purse, opening the door and pressing the elevator button.

"Oi," a familiar voice called out behind her.

She absently put a hand on her hair and patted it down, then pulled away from her hair as if she had been shocked. Pulled out of her daze, Akemi turned around to see the blond from the convenience store a few days back.

"Heiwashima-san! Hi!"

"Damn it, woman, you're never going to get it right, are you?" he drawled out, his deep voice rumbling in the empty corridor. He didn't have a cigarette in his mouth today, but he had on his bartender uniform and sunglasses like last time. The lighting of the hall was dim, and she couldn't see past his sunglasses even if she had tried.

"I'm kidding," she replied, grinning as she stepped into the elevator. He stepped in beside her, and she shrugged. "I just find your reaction funny."

The man shrugged. "You live here?" he asked, fishing out a cigarette from his pocket and placing it between his teeth.

"Yeah," she answered, flipping out her phone. "You too?"

"Obviously," he grunted out.

Akemi rolled her eyes. "I'm just being polite, Heiwashima-san."

"Oi."

"Fine, Heiwajima-san."

"You finally got it right, Morioka."

"Pfft, this is what you call 'a pot calling the kettle black'."

A/N: Thank you for the reviews! I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and please don't be afraid to send me any opinions/commentary/criticism regarding this story!