Dubian Che entered Class 1-4, hung his backpack by the desk, and sat down.
The classroom was noisier than usual.
"Mr. Dubian~, good morning~" a girl came over to greet him.
"Hey, Mr. Dubian, did you have a good New Year?" another girl asked.
"I had a great time back home."
The girls giggled or laughed heartily, making the classroom even livelier.
As Saito Keisuke and Kunii Shuichi arrived, the girls reluctantly dispersed.
"What’s up with you two?" Dubian Che asked.
"What do you mean ’what’s up’?" Saito Keisuke pulled out his winter holiday homework from his bag and asked, puzzled.
Dubian Che pointed at the area around his eyes.
Kunii Shuichi took a small mirror out from his bag, vainly brushed back his buzz cut, and then inspected his eye circles.
"It’s just some dark circles, and it doesn’t affect Mr. Kunii’s handsomeness at all." He brushed back his hair again.
"Give it a rest!" Saito Keisuke snatched the mirror away. "Neither Dubian nor I claimed we were handsome."
He started fixing his hair using the mirror.
Kunii Shuichi pulled out his winter holiday homework and said to Dubian Che, "Dubian, quick, give me your homework, quick!"
Dubian Che bent down and pulled out his homework from his bag. "Your drink for lunch."
"Are you underestimating Mr. Kunii’s New Year’s money?!"
Kunii Shuichi flipped Dubian Che’s homework to a specific page, wrote down a few numbers on his own work, and then hurriedly flipped forward.
It seemed he was copying some math problems that he either didn’t know how to solve or didn’t bother calculating.
"How come you’re the only one without dark circles after we all stayed up all night playing games?" Saito Keisuke closed the mirror, curious.
"Do you know how many meters it is around the Meiji Shrine Outer Garden?" Dubian Che said indifferently.
"Meiji Shrine Outer Garden? Is that a math problem?" Saito Keisuke reopened the mirror, reluctantly gazing at his reflection.
"Change of topic, have you ever seen Kinnosuke Mihou at five in the morning?"
"Kinnosuke Mihou?" Kunii Shuichi looked up, clearly not focusing on his homework, but still writing. "’Xinhuan Jieyi’ from the sports world? The pole vaulter? You slept with her?!"
"...Can’t you not always define relationships so simply as ’slept, or didn’t sleep’? Human relationships are much more complex..."
"I’m done for!" Kunii Shuichi glanced towards the front door. "I haven’t finished yet!"
"Everyone, please go back to your seats." Xiaoquan Aonai, holding a teaching plan, walked in.
"The third term is very short, very short indeed, only two more months, but there are many tests, a power test tomorrow, monthly exam at the end of the month, and the final exams on the 19th of next month..."
Xiaoquan Aonai, with her stern goose egg face, sternly admonished all of Class 4, helping them transition out of the holiday mode.
Kunii Shuichi glanced at the podium for a second, feverishly copied homework for three seconds, then glanced at the podium again;
Saito Keisuke held the mirror in his hand, pretending to look at the podium but actually admiring himself;
Dubian Che rested his right hand on his cheek, his gaze directed out of the window.
The clear winter sky, the high rises of Shinjuku District, Shibuya Station’s trains, and the oak trees sprouting winter buds.
The crows that flew by, landing on the iron nets of the sports ground, their harsh and hoarse cries not reaching here.
The day’s classes passed quickly.
After the seventh period geography class, Dubian Che took his backpack from the hook beside his desk, ready to head to the activity room.
Class 3 had just ended, and the "chalkboard eraser couple" hadn’t started yet;
Class 2, where Jiutiao Meijie was absent, was still in session.
The English teacher Akiko, with her arms crossed, coldly watched over all the students in Class 2.
Occasionally, she would flip through the papers on her desk and comment:
"Vocabulary quiz, seven people made two mistakes, five made three, and there are three who made four."
Then, she’d let out a cold laugh with a "heh."
Dubian Che’s gaze peeking inside caught her attention.
Akiko wanted to see which student dared to be so bold, her fierce gaze glaring over.
Dubian Che by the door, made a cute scissors gesture near his cheek.
"Phh... cough, cough, cough." Akiko, trying to stifle her laughter, triggered a coughing fit.
The girls in Class 2, seeing Dubian Che’s expressionless funny face, covered their mouths and snickered.
"Laugh! You still manage to laugh!" Akiko picked up the papers and slapped them down.
Chalk dust flew everywhere on the podium.
Silence returned to Class 2.
Akiko composed herself and turned to call Dubian Che in for a scolding, but the lad was no longer at the classroom door.
Class 1 had ended, and the figure of God was nowhere to be seen.
Going up to the fifth floor, passing through the overhead corridor between the teaching building and the club building, Dubian Che opened the door to the Human Observation Department, returning after 15 days.
Kiyono Lin, with her black hair draped over her shoulders, was sitting by the window reading a book; white steam swirled, a kettle boiling water.
Dubian Che still remembered that scene—her pale cherry lips, fair neck, and the legs wrapped in knee-high socks under the table, all so dazzling.
"Good afternoon, Kiyono." He greeted as he sat down in his usual spot.
"Good afternoon, Mr. Dubian." The beautiful girl nodded slightly, not lifting her gaze from the hardcover book in her hands.
"It’s not good at all, you’re not even willing to look at me."
"If next time you don’t scan me from head to toe with that disgusting gaze as soon as you enter, I might forgive you in my heart and look at you."
"Then there’s no hope for a lifetime," Dubian Che pulled out a book he had only read the beginning of. "Because you are too cute, it’s impossible for me not to look at you."
"A very precise conclusion." Kiyono Lin’s pale, slender fingers turned the pages of her book.