Chapter Text
Hitsugi may not have been the first to notice, but he surely was the first to say something about it.
It was an ordinary Wednesday, just as every other Wednesday that year had been: they’ve got extremely boring biology classes with Imai, aka “the old coot”; a small break to get lunch, and maths classes with Yutaka, the smallest, cutest and scariest teacher that school had ever saw. Everything was just the same as ever. But then came the end of the morning, and side by side with it came the art classes and everyone's favourite teacher, Atsushi Sakurai.
Sakurai was, well. If an adult asked a student about it, they would say Atsushi was an amazing teacher. But if a new student asked a class colleague about it (or if a new teacher asked a work colleague about it), what they would hear is that he was a beautiful man. No, not just beautiful — the guy was gorgeous. In his middle 50s, with a few grey strands between elegant, well-cut black hair, a captivating smile and the sharpest eyes ever, Sakurai held the (deserved) title of the most handsome teacher in the school.
Every girl had head over heels about him. Some of the boys, too. Sakurai never gave a student nothing more than a kind smile or a compliment for a good grade on a test, but it wasn’t needed: just being himself was enough to nourish his student’s fantasies.
On that fateful Wednesday morning, Sakurai stepped into the classroom as always, greeted his students and proceeded to take attendance. And only then, when Atsushi called his name, Hitsugi noticed the shiny wedding ring resting on his teacher's hand.
He was flabbergasted, to say the least. Everyone heard rumours here and there about Sakurai’s personal life — some cool things, some cute things, some really unrealistic things (most of them created by some unemployed and very horny teenagers), but off all things, no one ever thought the man would show up one day fucking married.
Hitsugi looked around at his classmates, trying to find out if he was having a hallucination or something. Ruka and Ni~ya were smoking some weird shit earlier in the parking lot, maybe he was having passive user effects? Or perhaps it was just a completely normal ring and his myopia has gotten worse, so Hitsugi was just seeing it wrong.
Ni~ya was sleeping on his desk, drooling enough to wet his book. Yomi was reading some manga with an almost-naked girl on the cover, and Sakito, Ruki and Uruha were too busy alternating between writing down what the teacher had just started to write on the board and looking very discreetly at the teacher’s back. Reita was doodling a small cockatiel on the side of his notebook, not bothering himself with writing anything from the board since Ruki would probably let him use his notes later.
“Oi, Reita.” Whispered Hitsugi, poking his classmate with a pencil. Reita was sitting right in front of him, so it was easy to bend a little forward to talk with a bit of stealth, as the guy leaned back slightly, eyes not leaving the cockatiel.
“Wassup?” Asked Reita, looking inside his pencil case and pouting. “Do ya have a red pencil? Probably Ruki stole mine.”
Hitsugi handed him the red pencil, looking sideways at their teacher before leaning a bit more forward, getting really next to Reita's ear.
“Look at Sakurai-sensei hands.”
“Heh?”
Reita blinked some times, his neurons trying really hard to make a synapse. He looked up, his eyes slowly following a path in the room until they reached their teacher’s hand — and then he gasped, just as flabbergasted as Hitsugi had been before.
“Holy fuck.” The red pencil was handed back to Hitsugi, who just nodded as Reita turned his head to him. “He’s bloody married.”
“I can’t believe that fucker just got married!” Shouted Ruki, fury overflowing his voice.
Just after art class ended and Sakurai got out of the classroom, Hitsugi and Reita gathered their group of friends for an emergency meeting at the school’s old parking lot. Sakito was sitting on the floor, trying to give some comfort to a very heartbroke Uruha. Yomi was alternating between reading his hentai or laughing at his friends, since he was too straight to give a fuck about Sakurai getting married. Hitsugi and Reita were trying to calm the mood and keep everyone as civilised as possible and, at the same time, silently mourning the fact that their teacher wasn’t single anymore.
“Why are you so mad he got married, Ruki? You have a boyfriend, remember?” Said Reita, getting a slap on the back of his head as a response. “Oi! And Sakito isn’t single too, why the fuck are y’all acting as if y’all were single?!”
Hitsugi looked at his friend Sakito, who was too busy trying to make Uruha stop crying (even if Uruha wasn’t single too — in fact, the only single ones were Yomi and Hitsugi), and then he looked at Ni~ya, who was flushed from neck to ears (he was mostly shy about assuming to everyone that he was interested in a man. Which was extremely dumb, since he was dating one for at least two years and a half).
“Well…” Said Ni~ya, his voice very small. “Sakito and I agreed that if any of us ever got the chance with Sakurai-sensei, it wouldn’t count as cheating.”
Yomi burst into laughter, as Uruha choked on a sob and instantly stopped crying, staring at Ni~ya as if he had grown another head.
“I didn’t even know you could do this sort of thing.” Uttered Ruki.
“It didn’t change anything tho, because neither of us got any chance with him!” Added Sakito. “And holy fuck, we tried. If he was as scoundrel as they say he would’ve slept with one of us at least.”
All of them agreed, and they were quiet for a few moments, brooding over their own thoughts. It was a strange situation; neither of them ever thought that Sakurai, the man known for having sex with half of Tokyo and all warped tour, would ever show up fucking married and happen as if it were nothing. It had already been such a loss that the second most handsome teacher, Sugizo, had married some priest and left the school some years ago, and now this?
As Yomi was almost making some terrible joke to break the silence and bother his friends, Ruka showed up, a cig in his lips and a can of soda in his hand. Ruka was their senpai — one year ahead of them in school, mostly a quiet and silent guy, he was almost some kind of insider, able to get to know any and all gossip that pops up at the school. There was some silent consensus that, among them, Hitsugi and Ruka were probably the coolest guys (very unrelated, but probably because they were the only ones who got the courage to get piercings).
“So? Any news?” Asked Ruki, his hand resting on Reita’s hair, as he was sitting by his feet.
Ruka handed Hitsugi the soda, throwing his pack of cigarettes at Ni~ya, who got one. Reita declined, he wasn’t in the mood right now.
“I asked Tatsurou, Atsushi’s nephew. He’s definitely married.”
“No shit, Sherlock.” Grumbled Uruha. “At least you got to know who he’s married to?
Hitsugi didn’t bother to light a cig for himself, stealing Ruka’s one. The guy said nothing, just rolled his eyes and shrugged.
“Sakurai is married to someone in the school staff, but Tatsurou hadn’t told me who. Guess y’all will need to find out by yourselves.”