"I'm sorry…"
Mai spoke in a very soft tone as she could only look down on the ground in guilt. She couldn't help but feel guilty because Kei had to step in to help her every time that she had been confessed to.
"It's fine. I'm not the one who should be receiving the apology…"
"But at least let me thank you…"
"No need, we will go back to being strangers after this anyway."
Moments later, Kei had returned to the class a few minutes after Mai did. Kei decided it was best that he return slightly later to avoid any suspicions. When he looked to the back of the class, there sat Keigo who was glaring at him while hiding his wrist from the other members of his circle of friends. Keigo was a rather popular guy, if the others had found out what happened earlier, they would definitely see him in a different light.
Kei decided to ignore him so he wouldn't draw any attention to himself from the other classmates. As he went back to his seat, their homeroom teacher, Shiki-Sensei entered the classroom.
Makinohara Shiki, with three years of teaching under her belt, it was the first time that she was assigned to be a class homeroom teacher. She was a strict but caring teacher who listened to the troubles of her students and was very observant. She was also assigned as the class's teacher for chemistry. At a glance she could notice that there was tension within the classroom. As she opened her mouth to speak…
"Takeshi-san, please be mindful of the school dress code and take off your jacket." It had seemed that she had managed to figured what was going on.
"But it's very cold today sensei…" Keigo said with a nervous tone.
"It's the thirty-six degrees Celsius today."
"I think I'm just getting the chills"
"The more excuses you make, the more I am tempted to find out what's going on so just take it off."
Tachibana Private High School, a newly opened high school that had very difficult conditions for a student to be admitted. They had to be either very smart or very athletic to be able to enter the school. The dress code and rules of the school was very strict. On another note, students who had exemplary academic and athletic record were often selected to become student council members.
As Keigo reluctantly took off his jacket, the eyes of his classmates around him widened when his bruised wrist was revealed to everyone. Shiki-sensei was also slightly shocked when she saw Keigo's wrist.
"What happened to you Keigo-san? Would you care to explain?"
"I-it was from when a stray ball hit my wrist during baseball practice …"
"Hmm… was your injury involving a ball shaped like a hand?"
Keigo did not think his excuse through. The purple mark on his hand was clearly in the shape of a hand. As Keigo stumbled for another excuse to tell her, Shiki-sensei stopped him before he could embarrass himself any further.
"Keigo-san, violence will not be tolerated at this school. Please come see me after school in the office. We will have a serious discussion there. To those who were involved in this, please see me after school as well."
Shiki-sensei decided not to pursue the matter any further in the class as she figured they wouldn't get anywhere with this conversation.
"Now then, before we get the class underway, I want to remind you all that last week's test results will be posted on the board tomorrow. As you all know, those who scored outside the top 50 will have to take supplementary classes as explained to you all before. With that out of the way, let us begin homeroom."
As unhappy groans around the classroom could be heard, Shiki-sensei started teaching the class and noticed Keigo glaring towards two people in the class before she turned around to the blackboard. Keigo spent the entire period glaring at the direction of Kei and Mai.