Her phone buzzed again.
Mafuyu drew a deep breath and grabbed it.
Rei Ao: "Serious matter: Fumino and Rizu ran into a little situation tonight. Getting home is tricky. Could they crash at your place for the night?"
The moment she saw "Fumino" and "Rizu," the haze and shyness in Mafuyu's eyes vanished.
Her teacher's instinct and sense of responsibility kicked in hard.
She straightened up.
The flush on her cheeks was still there,
but her gaze had already turned focused and professional.
A "little situation"?
This late, and they can't go home?
Two girls… safety first.
She didn't hesitate, her thumbs flying over the keyboard.
Mafuyu Kirisu: "Of course! No problem. Send them over—I've got a spare room."
The second she hit send, she stood up out of the tub.
Splash.
Water went everywhere.
Her graceful, water-beaded figure hit the warm air.
No time to towel off—she stepped out of the bath still dripping,
snatched the big white bath towel from the side, and wrapped it around herself in a rush.
"Gotta tidy the guest room!"
And get clean towels and toiletries ready for the two students!
She'd barely knotted the towel at her chest and set her bare feet on the cool tile, about to head for the bathroom door when—
"Ding-dong—!"
The crisp chime of the doorbell sliced through the door with zero warning, loud and clear.
Mafuyu froze mid-step, every muscle locking.
"S-so… fast?!"
She'd only just gotten the message!
She reflexively glanced down at herself.
Her wet hair was still dripping.
Droplets slid off her collarbone and disappeared along the edge of the towel.
Looking like this… how was she supposed to face her students?!
Her mind went blank.
The blush that had faded came roaring back hotter than before, like someone had shoved her into a steamer.
She fumbled to straighten the towel, half-turned to dash back for a towel to dry her hair—and the doorbell pealed again, sharper this time, like it was deliberately hurrying her.
"He's absolutely doing this on purpose!"
Her heart was hammering out of her chest.
She drew a long breath, tried to press the heat out of her face, and forced herself to look composed.
Barefoot, she padded to the door.
Through the peephole she saw all three of them.
And Rei Ao was staring right at the peephole—in other words, right at her—with a playful curve to his mouth.
His voice seemed to ring right in her ear: "Told you I'd come check in person. And here I am."
He really was doing this on purpose!
Mortified and fuming, Mafuyu clenched her jaw.
He's trying to make me look ridiculous in front of my students!
No matter what, she was going to change clothes.
But then an invisible pressure rippled out.
Everything around them seemed to hush; no one would be able to cast a glance toward this little patch of space.
"Huh?"
To her shock, a seam in the air opened, and a hand reached through to close over the doorknob.
That…
Rei Ao's hand?
She remembered that hand far too well—the one that had been much too familiar with her not long ago.
What was he doing? O-opening the door?!
The realization hit, and panic rushed up her spine.
"Wait!"
Too late.
Click.
The door swung open.
"Sorry to intrude, Kirisu-sensei!" the girls said together.
Two clear, slightly shy voices, threaded with gratitude.
In the bright hallway light stood Fumino Furuhashi and Rizu Ogata.
The flush hadn't completely left their cheeks, and their eyes were a little unfocused, clearly not entirely recovered from that earlier "little situation."
But when they saw their teacher, they still managed polite smiles.
Half a step behind them, a tall figure lounged at ease.
Hands tucked in the pockets of his loungewear, Rei Ao wore a faint, ambiguous smile.
Those deep eyes of his didn't bother hiding their path as they looked straight past the two girls at the threshold to the towel-wrapped, dripping-haired Mafuyu Kirisu.
His gaze swept, almost tangible—over the bare, smooth shoulder she hadn't managed to cover,
down the curve of her chest still rising and falling beneath the tight knot of her towel, past the slim line of her waist,
and finally to the wet sheen on her naked feet.
The entryway lights were bright,
humid warmth spilled out from the bathroom,
the girls still carried a blush on their faces,
and the man at the door wore that teasing look…
All of it braided together in one instant.
The composure on Mafuyu Kirisu's face shattered.
Her beautiful eyes flew wide, and in them the three figures at the door were reflected with perfect clarity—
especially Rei Ao's amused stare.
Her towel-wrapped body went rigid.
Like a jade statue suddenly robbed of its heat, even her fingertips wouldn't move.
A bead of water, just wiped from her skin, traced the smooth line of her neck and shoulder,
then fell with a too-loud plip onto the cold tile.
Silence.
The kind of dead silence that swallows an entryway whole.
Only the bathroom tap she hadn't turned all the way off kept time, a steady, nerve-jangling drip… drip…
Fumino and Rizu's smiles froze.
Following Rei Ao's gaze—and Mafuyu Kirisu's utterly petrified expression—they finally, belatedly, put it together.
Their eyes dropped, one fraction at a time, to their teacher's bath towel, obviously thrown on in a panic, the kind of wrap that threatened to show more than it should if you so much as breathed wrong.
And to all that fair skin, still dewy and faintly perfumed with bath soap.
Boom.
Rizu felt her brain short-circuit;
every math formula and logical chain snapped at once, leaving nothing but an infinity of scrambled symbols flying across her vision.
What is happening?!
Fumino, meanwhile, felt her literary sensibilities mutiny en masse; all that was left in her head was the bluntest scream:
"Ahhh—Sensei, why are you like this too?!"
And at the center of it all—Mafuyu Kirisu.
She held the door as if frozen in amber.
Wrapped in a towel, barefoot, hair dripping.
Staring at her students and at the man with the smiling eyes.
She felt her teaching career, her image in her students' hearts, her last shred of dignity…
all evaporate in that one second.
Rei Ao took in the scene, and the curve at the corner of his mouth deepened, silent and unhurried.