Aki lead me to his dressing room where he began to change out of his stage clothes, shrugging off his cloak. I sat myself in his makeup chair, turning to face him. "So our manager got a call from your school." He began.
My stomach dropped. "Oh no, am I causing problems?" My voice shook as I spoke, afraid to say the words, and even more afraid to hear the response to them.
Aki crossed the room quickly, taking my face in both hands and placing a kiss on my lips. "No, my love, not at all. They asked me to do a guest lecture about composing songs."
"That's amazing! Everyone there loves Guardian, they will be so happy."
"Well, that's what I wanted to talk to you about." He stopped in mid undress, his casual jeans pulled up but unbuttoned, and only his tank top on. He leaned back against the wall and crossed his ankles, folding his arms over his chest. "I know a lot of people have been giving you a hard time, and I don't want to make it worse. I also don't want to reward their behaviour toward you with my appearance."
"Do you think it will make things worse? Or will you being there actually give those people concrete proof so they'll stop assuming I'm just a groupie spreading rumours." I was partly asking him and partly just saying the words aloud to test how they sounded, if the speculation was plausible or if it sounded too far fetched.
He waited before he spoke to be sure I was done voicing what was in my mind. "I'll let you be the judge of that." He said.
"Do you want to do the lecture? Do you have the time to spare?"
"I'd like to do it. We're winding down for Christmas break, so we aren't making ourselves too busy. Just wrapping up. I have time."
I clapped my palms together in excitement. "Then do it! I think it will benefit you more than it will cause problems for me. It might even solve some problems for me."
Like before, he wrapped his fingers around my jawline, holding my face to place a kiss on my lips. I reached for the waistband of his jeans, working to close the buttons and zipper, then hooked my fingers over the top against his skin to relax my arms. He looked down to examine my work.
"That is the opposite thing you should have done there." He said with a smile.
The morning of the lecture, Aki and I got up early, drank our morning coffee together, shared the bathroom mirror, and got dressed together. We went at a slow pace, enjoying the time we had that way, as it didn't happen often that our schedules aligned so perfectly. We spent most of the morning in silence, stealing a touch or a kiss where we pleased. Aki fussed over how he looked, and I helped him get dressed to keep him on track. His hair was done neatly, and he was not wearing makeup, but he chose a slightly more edgy than average outfit of black ripped jeans, his signature chains hanging from his belt loops, a loose t-shirt, and plain black jacket.
I gripped the lapels of his jacket as he shrugged it on in front of the mirror, placing myself between him and his reflection. I gave his jacket a gentle tug to arrange it for him, then smoothed my palms over his chest. "Are you actually nervous?" I asked him.
"Of course not." He said, but his tone was sarcastic. "Sing on stage to thousands of people, no problem. Lecture university students about song composition in a class which my girlfriend is also attending, that's something else."
I laughed at his sentiment. "I've only ever seen you this nervous one other time. But then I didn't know you well enough to recognize that you were nervous." He nodded knowingly, and I could tell that he recalled the exact scenario that I had of our first night together. "You know your material. You breathe song composition. And every one of these people worship you. They'll hang on your every word."
The lecture was during the first class period in the morning, allowing Aki time to work at the studio afterword. We had left enough time to walk to the university together, and he held my hand all the way, without letting go when we entered the classroom. The teacher greeted us at the door as we entered before the students began arriving, and I lingered at the front of the classroom with them as they made small talk to the pass the time, Aki unwilling to let go of my hand. The teacher greeted the students as they began arriving for the class, letting Aki and I linger behind him. I had placed my bag in a chair in the front row to the left where the teacher's podium stood to save myself a seat close to Aki, but out of the way so I wouldn't make him nervous. As the teacher closed the classroom door to signal that class was about to begin, Aki kissed my hand before letting it go, and I took my seat. He was methodical in his ways, and I knew he waited for the room to be full of prying eyes to be sure the gesture was not reserved just for the two of us.
Ayane had taken the seat beside the chair with my bag in it, and we took a moment to smile brightly at each other as I sat down. She leaned over to whisper to me, "He did that on purpose, didn't he? Wait until the room was full?" I nodded to affirm her suspicion. Aki was the same person on or off the stage, and he was transparent with his feelings in all aspects.
"Good morning, please stand." The teacher announced, and immediately the chatter in the room hushed to silence, and all the students stood, bowed in unison, and sat back down. These were practiced motions for the first class of the day. "We have a special guest today. I'm sure everyone can recognize him. Please welcome your teacher for this period, Hasegawa Akira-san."
Aki bowed to the teacher as thanks for the introduction amongst the confused low chatter and some applause from the classroom. I looked around the room to gauge the overall reaction, and I saw students exchanging glances with expressions of disbelief. I decided that Aki was indeed well received, but the students were cautious about why such a figure was making an appearance. Aki made his way to the centre of the classroom as the chatter stopped. "Good morning. By that reaction I assume you all know me. I am Hasegawa Akira, or more commonly known as Aki from Guardian." He bowed and an eruption of applause rose. It was as if suddenly the students realized he was real, and actually standing in front of them. "Thank you. I'm not going to scream today."
"Not even one scream?" A voice from somewhere in the classroom called.
Aki chuckled, looking down nervously. "Maybe one scream at the end, if you're good." The class laughed. That was all it took, and like I had told him, the class hung on his every word. Every attention was glued to him as he paced the room while he spoke, occasionally writing and drawing on the white board. He interacted with the students flawlessly, and as I watched I could tell his nervous energy melted away almost instantly after he began speaking, replaced with the energy he used to conduct a room to his bidding. I was observing more than I was participating in learning the material he was delivering, and when I realized I was treating the time as if I were watching a performance, I made a mental note to ask him some questions in the evening at home.
At the end of the class period, Aki wrapped up his lesson by answering a few questions, and bowed to the class to thank them. "Were we good?" Someone called out.
Aki laughed in response. "Ah, yes. I suppose you did earn a scream." He took a deep breath and with his practiced animalistic metal voice said, "Tokyo University". He earned himself a standing ovation, just like any performance, and the class began to file out, moving on to the next period. Aki nodded bows and shook hands as the students walked past him.
When only a few lingering students remained in the room, gathering their things and packing their bags, Aki turned to me to signal that it was safe. I trotted to him, jumped into his waiting arms, and felt his smile against the side of my face. I held him as tightly as I could with the remaining excitement I felt. "That was perfect." I said into his ear, like he said to me so many times when we sang together.
I heard him laugh in a low tone. "Thank you, my love. I think everyone enjoyed it. I hope they learned something."
We loosened our tight holds on each other, and I realized I had been standing on my toes to make up for our height difference. "I have to get to my next class. I really enjoyed watching your lecture."
Though he was still holding my body lightly, he halfway bowed to me. "I enjoyed having you watch me." We shared a laugh at his sentiment as he uprighted himself to hold my chin and lean in for a kiss. "Get to class. Come to the studio after, I'll be there a little later to make up for the time I've been here."