The elections for candidates for the conservatives had taken place. Kazumi won with thirty percent of the votes among the nine contestants for official candidate.
Clearly, and as expected since she was Aimi's apprentice, it was a huge party. When she walked to give her victory speech, the entire hallway leading to the exit was filled with her militants, who applauded her as she walked.
Among those militants sneaked our dear Juro disguised as Jurou, who was seen by Kazumi, greeting him with a smile, which was returned by him.
As Kazumi passed down the hall, people followed her, clapping, shouting and whistling at the first Conservatives candidate for the position of Committee Chairman, something that was an unprecedented event.
However, not everything was joy and celebration, the most conservative group of Los conservatives (look how funny), did not agree at all with a woman being a candidate, since that broke with the conservative "noble tradition".
And as happened with Eiji, they planned a coup against Kazumi, who smiled at all those who supported her.
Aimi was positioned to one side of the dais, waiting for her apprentice. It was noted that Kazumi's support was much more than Juro's, since there were more people accumulated at the exit of the academy, where the victory speech would take place.
-Well done, I told you we would win. -Aimi encouraged, taking Kazumi's shoulder.
-Thank you very much teacher. –She answered, putting herself in front of all her militants. –First of all, I want to thank you for trusting me despite being a woman, I will not disappoint.
All, men and women alike, applauded with great emotion and dedication before the first candidate of the conservatives.
-Our conservative tradition will be properly maintained ... but women will now have a more important role for the academy, we will be slightly more open with the demands of the students and we will listen to any proposal that is beneficial to our academy. - Again, everyone applauded.
Among several Kazumi's opponents they nodded their heads, hinting that their plan was going to be put into operation. I swear it was noticed.
-That sounds like something The Reds would say! One of them yelled.
-Those are proposals from The Reds, not from the conservatives!
-Surely it's part of The Reds in secret!
The clapping and shouting ceased to give way to an awkward silence and some murmurs from the crowd.
-No. As I said before, the conservative tradition will be maintained, but we must not continue to deny proposals that are good, what we must is ...
-And how many of those "good" proposals are you going to accept?!
-It will surely give the green light to what The Reds candidate is saying, if I have seen them together more than once!
-Me too, I'm sure she's working together with them!
-Guys, you are in error, the meetings with Juro have been purely by chance.
-Shut up, red in disguise!
Juro couldn't stand the anger and helplessness anymore, punching the one who had spoken first.
The celebration turned into total chaos, as the other henchmen attacked Juro, who could not defend himself.
-Enough damn time, break up! -Aimi sputtered, who stepped down from the dais to impose order.
Juro's glasses had fallen off, slightly showing his identity, but the nose and wig hadn't moved for a single second.
Juro stopped fighting immediately they grabbed him by the arms, but the others still wanted to fight.
-Good friend, you better come with us. –Among several they put a cloth bag on Juro's head.
When they took it from him, he was in the basement of the academy, tied to a chair and with no possibility of escape, along with three other subjects.
-Your face is not exactly familiar to us, what is your name?
-Jurou, that's my name.
-Jurou? ... well, I don't know about you, but there are no Jurou in the lists.
-You guys, drop it. -Aimi ordered, her glasses were on.
-Yes teacher. –The three boys unleashed Juro, leaving the basement.
Aimi walked, clicking her heels, slowly heading towards Juro, who was getting up from his chair, rubbing his wrists.
-What's the disguise, Juro? –The teacher's question, exalted him.
-I-I don't know what you're talking about, haven't you really realized…?
-I know it's you. –Aimi approached Juro, removing his false nose. -Were you spying for political or love reasons? -He did not answer. -Go away.
Despite the enormous popularity that Kazumi enjoyed until then, her opponents said something that seemed true: that she was willing to accept ideas from The Reds on the conservative wing.
Many were not enthusiastic about that, but they could no longer do anything, since she was already the candidate of the conservatives.
If they did not accept Kazumi, they would not vote for her or for The Reds, causing another event never seen before: that a part of the academy did not vote.
-That sounds good to us. –Yurisa said while putting up a propaganda poster with Juro in the background in the Soviet and Chinese style.
-Of course yes. We know for a fact that the Conservatives have more voters than the Reds, but if they don't vote, that only translates into our victory. –Yumei replied.
-Professor Tada said that the first order he would give Juro when he became president is to knock down The Losers' Wall.
-For me it's good, what do you say, Eiji?
-Yes, it seems perfect. –He answered, with indifference. It was loaded with more propaganda.
No longer was a part of the school political scene, Eiji now the assistant to the propaganda minister, Yumei, as it suited him wonderfully.
-Come on Eiji, hurry up with those posters. -Yumei scolded.
-They may be huge pieces of paper, but they weigh your thing.
In Professor Tadashi's office, he, Juro and Ringo were looking for a way to take advantage of Kazumi's disaster ... something that made the boy with white hair and green eyes very uncomfortable.
The strategies were to send undercover Reds in the ranks of The Conservatives to make even bigger the rumor that Kazumi was just a Red very attached to those ideals.
That would cause a greater desertion of its militants making them "non-voters", which would guarantee victory over them.
-And what do you think, Juro? -Tadashi asked.
-I do not know. Now that I think about it, all of The Reds' ideas revolve around you ... I think it's time for me to do something. –Juro left the professor's office very determined, walking heavily.
Ringo shrugged and immediately slipped away to withdraw as well. He was walking up the stairs to the second floor, leaning on the railing, observing the typical iron curtain that still had the academy divided.
Aimi walked by with her heels ringing behind her, that set off Ringo's alarms as it means she could secretly flirt with her favorite teacher.
When she passed, she met Yumei and Yurisa, who chatted with her for a few seconds ... and then Yumei gave Aimi a hug, almost throwing her away.
She could see the angry expressions on Yurisa's face, who was reprimanding her strongly for her behavior in addition to Aimi's confused face.
They just said goodbye, with the detail that Aimi's list had fallen to the ground, so Ringo was running like lightning to pick it up.
But in it he found Dai, who also wanted to flirt with the teacher.
- Drop the notebook, worm. –He warned.
-Yeah, I know you want to flirt with her too, and it's your lucky day since she just stumbled. Ringo pointed to the opposite side.
-Where?! -Ringo snatched the notebook to run away.
-Ha, slimy, that's the oldest trick in the history of Homo sapiens!
-Come here rat!
Ringo forgot the detail that he was very slow running, so Dai caught up with him in less than a blink. The only thing that saved him was the fact that Aimi was talking to some female students, so Dai stopped chasing him.
-Ah, teacher Aimi, I was just looking for you. I realized that you had dropped this. -Ringo handed the lists to Aimi.
-Thanks, surely I would have gotten into trouble for losing them. –Aimi caressed Ringo's cheek.
-By the way, my umbrella disappeared a few days ago, I can't find it at home or at the academy, didn't I accidentally leave it at home, teacher?
-Yes. I forgot to tell you, I'll bring it to you tomorrow.
-Don't worry, I'll go get him this afternoon.
-I will have it at hand then, see you in class, student.
-See you later, teacher. –When Ringo left, the students stared at Aimi.
-Why did he go to your house?
-Ah, it's a long story, what happens is that we live nearby and he asked me for help with a task, it was a matter of five minutes, nothing more!
All the girls exchanged glances, like they didn't quite believe their teacher.
Ringo leaned against a locker, wondering what Aimi could cook for that afternoon. He also tried to spin a conversation, going over various topics so as not to go blank mid-meal.
Out of nowhere, the fire ax was thrown at his head, falling to the side of his face, destroying the continuous locker.
Something escaped from Ringo's body… maybe from his tailbone.
-Your!!! -Dai sputtered.
-Hell, I think it's time to run, again. –Ringo ran off like a roadrunner, being chased by a rabid coyote ... but, in real life, coyotes are faster than roadrunners.
When Ringo found himself cornered into a wall, Dai grabbed him by the collar of his shirt, lifting him a few inches off the ground.
-I hope you have a good dentist, since he will have to put all your teeth back, damn rat.
-And you have a good traumatology?
-Trauma what?
-It's the doctor who's going to check your knees. –Ringo took advantage of the fact that he was a few inches off the ground to kick Dai in the knee, knocking him off the ground. -How about this, you fucking ape?
Ringo gave Dai an upper cut leaving him knocked out, but the blow hurt his hand, making a gesture while holding the pain, rubbing his hand.
Several onlookers came to observe what had happened, they looked at Dai lying down and Ringo holding hands.
-You did that? –Asked a boy.
-Maybe…
The two boys ended up in the infirmary, one was found unconscious, lying on a bed, and the other had a bag of ice in his hand.
Juro accompanied Ringo as he fiercely wrote his next speech in a notebook, with which he was going to seal his victory.
After taking a poll, it was known that Juro had forty-four percent of the votes, Kazumi thirty-six, and the other twenty percent were not voting that year.
Juro was up eight percent, not a huge lead, but big enough to know he was going to win.
Professor Tadashi was already thinking about what things he was going to buy with the two months' salary that he was going to earn from Aimi, since he was one step away from victory.
-And how did you hurt your hand? –Asked Juro.
-I think the ape instructor has a very hard chin. -Ringo replied.
-What do you think of this? -Juro gave his notebook to Ringo, who began to read the speech with many gestures of surprise and questioning.
-Hey, this is very risky, it's a very good idea but ...
-The great rewards don't come without the great risks, do they?
-Undoubtedly ... precisely, for the same reason Kazumi is staying without voters.
-She proposes it in a way ... I'll make it look like a solution to all this crap.
Juro took his notebook to leave the infirmary, Ringo also left the bag of ice so as not to miss the kind of letters ... which he did not understand a damn.
He understood the history class backwards and forwards, which was also taught by Aimi. No matter how much attention he paid to the arts class, no matter how hard he tried to understand something ... nothing went in, everything came out almost instantly.
Ringo's hand was still swollen, so he couldn't write well, something Aimi realized instantly, wondering what had happened.
He preferred not to answer, promised not to fight Dai and did not intend to tell him that the fight was because the two had a race to see who gave him the list that he had dropped.
Without more to say, Aimi took Ringo back to the infirmary to treat that swollen hand well.
Yumei approached Yurisa to secrete something to her.
-Either it's my idea or the two of them are getting closer together.
-What? You are jealous? –Yurisa asked, with a playful tone.
-Dumb. –Yumei gave a tug on one of Yurisa's locks. -I'm telling you seriously ...
-Maybe yes. –Yurisa said rubbing her head. –In the same way, you must accept that you are jealous.
-Just a little and that's it! -Yumei sputtered, annoyed.
Aimi was sitting on a bed with Ringo, applying cream to reduce inflammation, stroking the back of her hands and her knuckles, very carefully.
-May I ask how you did this to yourself? –She questioned.
-If he told you, you're going to kill me.
-Shh, you must be formal in the academy. We can trust each other, but don't forget that detail. I think the girls are starting to suspect that you like me.
Ringo opened his eyes as his heart fell to the ground. -What nonsense. –He mentioned. - You can say that we have a friendship relationship, only.
-It's what I think, why don't they say the same about Juro? -Aimi asked, while bandaging the boy's hand.
-Have you ever gone out together?
-No, but if we have had close contact, I don't know why they think that. Personally; It bothers me, if those silly rumors reach the director's ears, they can come to me, that's why you must speak to me formally here.
-I understand ... I'll clarify that point with them.
The speech that Juro was going to say for the break was ready, it had already been retouched by Yurisa, who, likewise, did not feel what the result could be.
The Reds, sure of their victory, celebrated, even putting up on the side of the cafeteria that belonged to the conservatives several propaganda posters that had Juro and his eloquent slogan: with a bright future.
Yumei was in charge of the propaganda, for which she and Eiji played some songs with their guitars to attract attention and make a lot of noise, implying that something big was going to happen.
Professor Tadashi watched from the entrance of the cafeteria along with Aimi, to whom he had already bragged all day that he was going to win and that the Reds would crush the Conservatives once and for all.
Kazumi listened to the speech, since the iron curtain had been opened so that everyone, Reds and Conservatives, could hear the universal speech.
Juro cleared his throat, he was nervous and his legs were shaking as he was going to take a step like never before a school committee had done.
Seeing Kazumi in the front row, with slight hope in her eyes, all fear disappeared, he rubbed his palms and adjusted his shirt.
-Companions, as you can see, I asked that the "iron curtain" be open for this speech. I realize that several conservatives are here, and I really appreciate their presence. But why did I ask for the curtain to be opened? Simple, lest it be closed again, the academy cannot be separated into two camps every damn year, blood has been spilled because of this madness that should be a healthy simulation of what elections are in real life! If I won with your support, I swear to God himself that I will eliminate both committees once and for all to unify them into one. No more Reds and no more Conservatives, there will only be the progress committee, because that is what we must seek: to be progressive.
Juro contained the emotion since I expected people to explode in cheers and applause… but it wasn't going to be like that.
-That's the biggest blowjob I've ever heard in my life. - Said someone from the audience.
-Yes, that's a blowjob! –The entire cafeteria began to boo Juro, throwing him all kinds of objects that they had on hand, whether it was food, cutlery, napkins and even notebooks.
Juro's dream had come true: Conservatives and Reds worked together… to boo him.
Yumei looked uncomfortable, next to her there was a propaganda poster that gave her credit as its creator, she tore her name from her and left whistling.
The only one applauding Juro amid all the chaos was Kazumi, until someone gave her an apple to throw at Juro, but she better took a bite.
-I think, Professor Tadashi, you owe me two months' salary.
-No ... no, not again! -Tadashi fell to his knees and began to hit the ground, unhappy.
-Good luck next time… if The Reds have a next time.
On election day, the box that was to vote for Kazumi was bursting, the entire academy lined up to vote for her.
Juro's ... only had four voters: Ringo, Yurisa, Yumei and Juro himself.
Tadashi was counting the bills in Aimi's hand, crying over her new defeat and her fourth placement on Losers' Wall along with Juro's name.
Boy, life could be cruel, but a bad decision had led half of the academy not to vote, and The Conservatives who preferred not to vote at the time, now they did.
The iron curtain had been opened so as not to close this time, bad that it was not because of Juro's efforts ... if not because they all had the same ideology.
The end of The Reds came, something that was very predictable from the beginning, only that the blow they had been hit on the ground was much more violent than expected.
At the end of the voting they had already struck six in the afternoon, the orange sky adorned the sky, painting the clouds with its color.
Juro was behind a wall, sitting and hugging his knees. What he swore was the best idea in the universe turned out to be "a blowjob," which made him quite depressed.
An apple fell on his head, turning to his right to see who had thrown it: it was Kazumi.
-Sigh, are you also coming to make fun of me? Can't you settle for humiliating me in the elections?
-I didn't come to humiliate you, I came to share an apple with you. –Kazumi had her left hand on her back, and when she showed it, she had an apple in it, giving it a big bite. -Will you leave me eating alone?
-No… -Juro took the apple off the ground, polished it with his jacket and took a bite. -Now that I think about it, who would want a unification of the two committees? Only a stupid like me can think of such nonsense.
-Hey, you're saying stupid to me too… I still wanted a unification, but I was smarter than you when saying it between the lines.
-I don't care, I only had four shit votes.
-You actually had five… I voted for you, Jurou.
-How?! –Kazumi giggled when she saw Juro's face.
-I realized from the beginning, I know the exact color of your eyes, green with a touch of blue.
Juro opened him eyes, blushing a little. He knew that women were more used than men to look into the eyes when talking to someone ... but that seemed incredible.
Kazumi took another bite of her apple, smiling as he chewed. Juro, in the same way, imitated his partner.
-That being the case, congratulations on your victory, new committee chair. Fulfill the dream that I failed to fulfill.
-Regarding that ... I resigned when they declared me the winner. I think that with that there will be a provisional meeting between Reds and Conservatives to see what is done with that situation. In the end, our dream came true.
-Hell ... did you have it planned?
-No ... I never had it contemplated. See you tomorrow, Juro.
-Until tomorrow, Kazumi ... "our dream." Our.
At Aimi's house, she had given the umbrella to Ringo. The pretext had served him well.
They were both sitting at the table, the umbrella was put to one side of the door so that this time it would not be forgotten, although it was a wish shared by the teacher and the student.
Despite the rumors of the girls that afternoon, Aimi did not find anything strange about a student eating at home. She, on more than one occasion, had dined and eaten at her teacher's house when she was studying at the university.
Ringo could be a little "flirtatious", but many girls confused love with the helpfulness and chivalry of a man. She was sure that this wasn't the case because the boy couldn't be in love with her, it was crazy.
-I hope I don't forget it today, that would be the last straw.
-Don't worry, it doesn't bother me.
-What do we eat today? -He asked.
-We eat? –She replied.
-I thought you were going to invite me to lunch.
-You're not wrong. -Aimi smiled. - Yesterday I prepared coq au vin, they say it was prepared for Julius Caesar as a celebration banquet for the conquest of Gallia.
-Coq Au Vin. -He repeated. -Rooster with wine?
-Oui. Rooster in wine, but I did it with veal, I didn't find roosters.
-Une vraie pitié. It was a real shame.
-Yes ... a real shame, I'll go get the dishes!
-I put the silverware. Ringo got up from the table and ran to the kitchen as he and Aimi laughed.