You Will Only Be Mine

The first half of the school day went by as usual. Aside from the fact that whenever the bell for a little break or another class rang, everyone would immediately crowd around Ai, asking all sorts of questions. While this is quite normal most of the time, unlike before, she was very uncomfortable with the big crowd and would quickly move to my desk to stay close to me, asking the guy in front of me to give her his seat, which he happily obliged. Either that or I would walk over to her seat right away, much to the dismay of a large part of the class.

No matter how much they protested against it and asked me to move, one glare and every single one of them would quite down. You lot don't have any right to make complaints. If Ai is not comfortable with you all around, take the hint and beat it instead of being a nuisance.

"You have gotten pretty overprotective of Ai, haven't you, Kazuki-kun?" Haruka teased me, hitting me on my shoulder, but I just shrugged it off. It is only natural that I would feel this way about her. I don't want to let her out of my sight anyway.

Today, we decided to have lunch in class with Ai's friends, and I was pulled into the group. I don't really hate the idea, but the moment we had the exact lunch, the class erupted. Right, they don't know that we live together. The little annoyance that overcame me due to their overexaggerated reactions to everything we did was completely dispersed. Ai put the food in her mouth and happily started chewing.

Watching her cute face happily eating the food I cooked made me feel warm inside. Nothing I can't do for this face. "Stop flirting in the class, too, you two," Asumi commented, and I looked up, seeing her and Haruka staring at us with a proud smug and Sakura with a big blush on her face.

"But we aren't flirting," I commented, and Ai, who was too immersed in eating, just nodded her head to what I said.

"You say that, but you look at her with those eyes. Anyone watching that will say you two are flirting," Haruka said and turned towards Asumi. "If they are like this in school, I can only imagine how both of them are at their place."

"EH?!!" The class erupted yet again, and I gritted my teeth due to the sudden loud noise. Can't you people keep it down for a second?

"Tsubaki-san and Shiba-kun are living together?!" one girl said, and they all started squealing.

"Damn you, Shiba! You have put your hands on our idol!" The other guys and some girls fell on the ground in dismay.

I stared at Haruka with a blank expression on my face, and she looked at me apologetically. "Sorry, it slipped."

"It's fine, isn't it?" Ai said, swallowing the last bite of egg roll I made for her. "Everyone should know about this, Kazu-kun is mine after all," she said, grabbing onto my arm and resting her head on my shoulder. "Your food was amazing as always. I love you, Kazu-kun."

"It's because I have lots of love poured into it for you," I said, patting her head, and I could hear the defeated cries of many people in the back. I'm pretty sure many of them were expecting this relationship not to last for too long, and once they break, they make their move. Too bad, guys, she is already taken.

"And there they go, flirting in front of us all over again. Get a room, you two," Haruka said, and we all chuckled and continued eating.

The news of Ai and me living together started to spread like wildfire, and people who were trying to surround Ai increased drastically, including people from other classes. Seriously, don't you have anything better to worry about? Get a life, all of you. Well, it wasn't like I was not expecting something like this to get out sooner or later, and this reaction is what I thought. As much as I wanted not to cause a ruckus, being with a girl like Ai, it is quite hard for that to happen. I have already accepted my fate.

Just like this, the school came to an end, and it was only I and Ai left in the class. I offered to have Akira take her home since I had something to talk to Sensei, but she was quite adamant about staying by my side. I don't want to hide things from her, but I am wondering how much I have to worry about phrasing with her around. I know Ai will start to worry a lot if she hears how I thought, but I don't want to lie to her either.

I moved to the front of the class with the seat next to Ai, and she started happily giggling. She was swaying her body front and back on the seat and kept looking at me from time to time.

"Fantasising how it would be being my seatmate?" I asked, and her ears perked up. Her face started to heat up, and an adorable expression made its way on her face.

"H-How did you know?" she said, trying to feign ignorance. "I-I mean, what are you talking about, Kazu-kun? I am definitely not thinking about how I fun it would be for us to sit next to each other in class so we can pass notes to talk during class, and I can easily look at you the entire time without being caught," she spoke very fast in a low voice, but everything was clear to me. I chuckled a little and rested my head on my hand, staring at her.

"I had the same thought. Just wondered if you were thinking the same. I'm glad that we think alike," I said, lightly tapping her nose, and she grabbed my hand and pressed it against her soft and cold cheek. I gently caressed her face as she was happily snuggling against my hand.

"I swear to god, you two start literally anywhere," Sensei said, appearing behind Ai and lightly hitting her on the head with her register. Ai held her head and looked up at her. "School isn't the place for stuff like this."

"Good afternoon to you too, Sensei," I said, pulling out the other lunch box I had in my bag, which she grabbed in an instant and started eating quickly. "Please, slow down. You will choke on something otherwise."

No matter how much I say that, I know better than anyone that she won't stop eating like this. Can't blame her now that I know how she spends so many calories and doesn't lose her figure even after eating for multiple people.

"Do you have a death wish?" she said, glaring at me. Seriously, how accurate is this woman's intuition?

We both waited until she finished her food, which wasn't that long, as the food that took me over thirty minutes or so to cook was devoured in less than three minutes. Seeing her speed makes me think Ai eats slowly, and I eat like a sloth. Once she was done food, she put her hands together and thanked me for the meal before closing it and handing the food to me.

"It was amazing as always, Shiba," she said, leaning back, and her eyes fell on Ai. "How are you feeling now?"

"Me? I'm feeling good, Natsumi-san," Ai said and got hit on the head again. "Owie."

"It's Sensei in school, did you forget?" she said, letting out a sigh and stretching her arm to pat Ai's head gently. "I'm glad you are feeling better. Sorry, I was too lenient with my wording yesterday. It was very careless of me."

"No, it's fine," Ai tried to deny it, but was cut off by Sensei.

"It's not fine," she said in a sterner voice. "As an adult, it is my duty to make sure you kids are all comfortable and are doing well, so I shouldn't let certain things go carelessly. Stop being like that idiot and saying things are fine until it's too late. I don't know what that bastard did to you, but just imagining it makes my blood boil."

"Sensei…" Ai looked up at her with admiring eyes. Yep, this is the Sensei I knew all along in the most unfiltered way. She is a bit rough with some, most of her teachings, but when it comes to having a heart-to-heart, I don't trust anyone else but her. I'm glad you can now see it too, Ai.

Sensei moved her hand off of opened up the book she brought along with her. "If anything is bothering you, you know where to find me," she said and started skimming for the page where she was about to teach us from.

"Sensei," I called her out, and both of them looked at me. "I have something to talk about."

"What is it?" she said, closing the book.

"I…" I tried to bring the words out, but as soon as my eyes fell on Ai, my body held back. No, Kazuki. Ai has the right to know, too. "I think I am too dangerous to be around Ai and Akira in my current state."

"What?" Both of them asked in an astonished tone.

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