#yohariko

Riko had mentioned she’d be less busy this week, so Shun packed his things, said goodbye to Riko’s mom, and headed off to the train station with one goal in mind: to surprise Riko in Tokyo.

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Meanwhile, back in Numazu, at Uranohoshi…

Yoshiko entered the faculty office, helmet tucked under one arm, her Bluetooth earphone snug in one ear. She was in the middle of her usual early morning call with Riko, a habit they’d developed over time, chatting on the way to school and work.

“So,” Yoshiko said casually, plopping down at her teacher’s desk and leaning her weight against it with a grin, “are you still busy this weekend, Miss Girlfriend? Can I finally visit you again?”

On the other end, Riko sat at her university desk, holding her phone to her ear with a small smile. “Nope, not busy anymore. You can totally visit me.”

Yoshiko beamed. “Really? That’s great, then. I’ll see you in three days. Be sure to ready your body~” she added teasingly.

“Yocchan!” Riko squeaked, flustered.

Just then, Riko noticed her professor walk into the room. “Oh! My professor just came in. I’ll talk to you again later, Yocchan. Bye, love you!”

“Love you too,” Yoshiko replied before the call ended.

No sooner had she hung up than Yoshiko noticed Dia standing nearby, arms crossed and staring at her with an all-too-familiar deadpan look.

“Yeah, what is it?” Yoshiko asked, blinking.

Dia sighed. “Please refrain from saying inappropriate things while on school property.”

Yoshiko scratched the back of her head sheepishly. “Right, right. Sorry. I didn’t even notice you were there.”

“So you’re saying if I wasn’t here, you’d say worse things?” Dia raised an eyebrow.

Yoshiko shrugged. “Yeah, probably. I mean, Kanan enjoys it.”

Next to Dia, Kanan chuckled and gave a small nod. “Yeah, true.”

Dia turned slowly to her. “Maybe because she’s been updating a certain someone about your relationship?”

Yoshiko’s eyes widened. “Kanan! How could you?!”

“What? I would never tell Mari—”

Both Dia and Yoshiko stared at her with pure skepticism.

Kanan laughed nervously. “Okay, maybe I do. A little.”

Yoshiko shook her head, clearly betrayed, but jokingly. “I trusted you.”

Kanan put her hands up defensively. “She just knows how to pull it out of me, okay?”

“You’re so whipped,” Yoshiko teased.

“W-What!? Well, you’re whipped too, you know!” Kanan fired back.

“I am not!” Yoshiko huffed.

Dia let out a long sigh and stood up, brushing invisible dust from her skirt. “You two are like children. Both of you are completely whipped,” she muttered, walking toward the classroom hallway.

Kanan and Yoshiko blinked, speechless.

“…Yeah, well,” Kanan said, recovering first, “I bet Dia’ll be just like us when she gets into a relationship.”

Yoshiko raised an eyebrow. “There you go again, running your mouth. And when she gets mad at you, you’ll be crawling to me to bail you out.”

Kanan laughed awkwardly. “But you will help me, right?”

Yoshiko shrugged with a smirk. “Depends on my mood.”

“Hey—!” Kanan whined.

Yoshiko chuckled. “Honestly though, I bet Dia won’t be the one who gets whipped. She’s gonna do the whipping.”

Kanan burst out laughing. “Yeah, that’s probably true.”

They both cracked up in the middle of the teacher’s lounge, drawing a few curious glances.

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Meanwhile, Dia walked through the hall, ignoring the slight shiver that ran down her spine as a gust of wind passed. She continued with her usual composed gait, making her way toward her classroom.

On her way, she passed Ruby and Hanamaru heading up the stairs. Both girls waved at her enthusiastically.

Dia smiled and waved back. “Study hard, you two.”

Ruby nodded quickly, replying sweetly, “Okay, sis!”

Hanamaru echoed her in her usual calm tone, and the two disappeared up the stairs as Dia headed toward her room.

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It was lunchtime, another peaceful break in the principal’s office.

As usual, Yoshiko sat with Mari, Dia, and Kanan, enjoying the lunch prepared by Mari’s private chef. True to her promise to Riko, Mari had been making sure Yoshiko always ate properly, and today was no exception.

The sound of quiet chewing and light conversation filled the room, until a sudden flash of blinding light interrupted everything.

“W-WHAT was that!?” Yoshiko flinched mid-bite, blinking furiously as the sudden burst of light practically seared her retinas. She squinted and looked over, seeing Mari holding up her phone.

Dia and Kanan didn’t even flinch. They just continued eating, clearly used to this kind of nonsense.

Mari replied as casually as ever, “I took a picture of you. Was it not obvious?”

She turned to Kanan for support. “Wasn’t it obvious?”

Kanan chuckled and nodded, clearly entertained.

Yoshiko rubbed her eyes and groaned. “Yes, obviously! But did you have to use a flash strong enough to power a satellite?! I saw my life flash before my eyes, and it was just me eating!”

Mari grinned. “Well, it was a great shot. Caught you in the middle of a very passionate bite of eggroll.”

Yoshiko narrowed her eyes. “Let me guess… Is this for that group chat with Riri’s mom and my mom again? Riri’s not even in the picture this time, so I doubt it’s that valuable.”

Mari shook her head. “Nope! Not this time~”

Yoshiko frowned, now genuinely curious. “Then what’s the picture for?”

Mari held up her phone proudly. “This one’s for Miss Girlfriend.”

“…Riri?” Yoshiko tilted her head. “But why?”

Mari beamed. “Every day, whenever you eat lunch, I send her a photo of you, just a little update to show that you’re eating properly.”

Yoshiko blinked. “You… what? That’s not true.”

“It is~” Mari sang, opening her chat history and showing it to Yoshiko. There it was, today’s picture, already sent to Riko.

Riko’s reply? ‘She looks so serious eating haha. Thank you, Mari.’

Yoshiko read it, stunned. “She never told me anything about this…”

“Of course she didn’t,” Mari replied, proud of herself. “It was my idea. I told her not to say anything because I wanted to see if you’d ever notice me taking pictures.”

Yoshiko’s mouth dropped slightly. “Wait—you said every time I eat, right? So… how long have you been doing this?”

“Since you started eating my bentos. So... from the beginning.”

Yoshiko’s eyes widened in disbelief. “That long?! Why didn’t I notice?! Are you a stalker?!”

Mari put a hand to her chest, feigning offense. “Me? A stalker? Never! I’m just a caring informant, a loyal updater of your girlfriend.”

Dia finally spoke up, chuckling. “Is that even a real word?”

Mari waved her off. “Everything’s real in my world.”

Dia gave her a deadpan look before shaking her head and returning to her meal.

Mari continued, “I was getting worried, you know. You never noticed, not even when I started being really obvious. It reminded me of when Kanan and I were so obviously dating, and you still had no idea.”

Kanan nodded, chewing her food. “Honestly, that was kinda impressive.”

Yoshiko sighed. “Well, congrats. You’ve officially fried my eyes and exposed your weird spy games.”

Mari smirked. “You should thank me. You never know when someone’s secretly taking a photo of you from afar, at least with me, it’s out of love~”

Yoshiko jabbed a finger at her. “Love or not, you’re the only one creepy enough to do that!”

Mari gasped dramatically. “How rude! This was all for Riko!”

“I’ll let her thank you instead,” Yoshiko muttered.

Mari shrugged. “Hey, you never know. With how cool you look on that bike of yours, maybe fans are out there snapping pics.”

“Fans? Right. As if I’m that popular,” Yoshiko scoffed, continuing to eat.

Mari leaned toward Dia and nudged her. “Can you believe that guy?”

Dia just stared at her silently. Mari held her hands up in surrender. “I kid, I kid!”

Dia sighed. “Are you two done with your little performance? Some of us would like to enjoy lunch without theatrics.”

Yoshiko raised her hands. “Hey, I didn’t ask to get flashbanged.”

Dia fixed her with a stare.

“…Okay, okay, I’m kidding. Chill,” Yoshiko mumbled, going back to her food.

Kanan chuckled and said with a grin, “So much energy during lunch.”

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A little while later, with lunch finished, the four of them decided to lounge around in Mari’s office for a bit before the bell rang for afternoon classes.

Kanan leaned back in her seat and looked over at Yoshiko. “Oh, by the way, Yoshiko.”

Yoshiko glanced up from her phone. “Yeah?”

Kanan smirked a little. “Ever since you got that motorbike, students have been giving me thank-you cards for the leather jacket I gave you.”

“Huh?” Yoshiko blinked.

Kanan nodded, clearly amused. “Seriously. I get like two or three a week. And I think it’s not just me. You two got some too, right?” She looked over at Mari and Dia.

Dia gave a slow nod. “Yes. Your students, especially, have been slipping thank-you notes into my desk. And some of them even handed them directly to me in the hallway.”

Mari raised a hand proudly. “Yup! I got a whole stack. Some even came with snacks~ They kept saying I’m a genius for giving you that motorbike idea.”

Kanan made a face. “Wait, you got snacks? That’s not fair. I want snacks too.”

Dia chuckled. “Well, Mari did provide the biggest contribution, so it makes sense she gets the snacks.”

“Yeah, yeah, makes sense,” Kanan grumbled playfully.

Mari leaned toward her with a grin. “Don’t worry, my Kanan~ I’ll give you whatever snacks you want~” she said, fluttering her lashes with a wink.

Kanan rolled her eyes but smiled. “Okay, that’s much better.”

Meanwhile, Yoshiko was still sitting there trying to make sense of the conversation. “Wait, wait—can you two stop flirting for a sec and, like, fill me in? What exactly is happening?”

Dia crossed her arms. “Basically, ever since you started showing up on school with your new ride and that leather jacket, students have been fangirling, thanking us, the so-called gift-givers, for helping complete your ‘cool sensei’ image.”

Yoshiko stared. “…But why?”

Dia blinked at her. “I just literally told you why. Did you not hear me?”

“No, I heard you,” Yoshiko replied. “But like… why though?”

Dia let out a sigh and looked away. “I’m passing on explaining it all over again.”

Kanan laughed. “It’s because you’re popular, you goof. You’re probably the most popular teacher in the whole school.”

Yoshiko waved it off. “No way. That’s not true. The popular ones are you guys. Maybe they were just thanking you for being great teachers.”

All three of them stared at her.

Mari rested her chin in her hand and said dryly, “You sure are something.”

“Huh? Did I say something weird?” Yoshiko asked, clearly puzzled.

“No, no,” Mari said with a sigh. “You’re just fine. Completely oblivious. Adorably so.”

Kanan chuckled. “Just don’t forget to wave back here and there when you’re riding that thing, okay? You’re probably giving someone a heart attack with how cool you look pulling up on it.”

Yoshiko still looked a little lost but nodded anyway. “Uh… yeah, sure. I’ll try.”

Dia shook her head with an amused smile.

Mari perked up again and held up her phone. “Well, anyway~ Now that we’re talking about it, hold still. Let me get another snap of you to send to Riko.”

Yoshiko raised her hands in mock surrender. “Here we go again…”

The camera flash went off once more.

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Now over at Riko’s side in Tokyo, at her university, Geidai.

Classes had just ended for the day, and Riko was still in the classroom with Natsumi. The two were finishing up some final touches on their project work before heading home when a knock came from the doorway.

A student from another department peeked in. “Is Sakurauchi-san here?”

Riko looked up from her notes. “Yes?”

“There’s someone waiting for you at the school gate,” the student said before stepping back out.

Riko blinked. “Oh... okay, thank you.”

Natsumi raised a brow and smirked. “It’s definitely Yoshiko.”

Riko tilted her head, confused. “But it’s still the middle of the week... it’s not even the weekend yet. Why would she suddenly visit?”

“Maybe she just missed you so much she couldn’t wait,” Natsumi teased.

Riko glanced down at her phone. “But she didn’t say anything about it...”

“Maybe it’s another surprise?” Natsumi said, already standing up and tugging on Riko’s arm. “Come on! Stop questioning it and go see your lady.”

Riko laughed softly. “Okay, okay. Let me just pack up my stuff.”

After gathering her things, the two girls headed out together, walking down the hall toward the front of the school. As they turned the corner near the main gate, they spotted a person holding up a bouquet of flowers in front of their face, clearly waiting for someone.

Natsumi squealed softly. “Aww! That’s so romantic!” she whispered, already convinced it was Yoshiko.

Riko giggled and blushed. “What is she doing...” she murmured to herself, also assuming it was her girlfriend.

But the moment they got close, the figure dropped the flowers to reveal their face.

“Surprise!” said the boy with a grin.

Riko froze. Natsumi looked confused. And then—

“Shun!?” Riko blurted out in shock.

“Yup, it’s me!” he said cheerfully, stepping forward and immediately pulling Riko into a hug.

“I missed you,” Shun added warmly.

Riko stiffened a little, surprised, but politely returned the hug with a simple, “Yeah...”

It wasn’t Yoshiko. And the weight of that disappointment settled quietly on her chest.

Natsumi stood beside them, visibly caught off guard, eyeing Shun with thinly veiled curiosity.

Shun stepped back from the hug and gave a small laugh. “You looked disappointed there for a second.”

Riko gave him a polite smile, trying to stay composed. “Oh, no, I was just surprised, that’s all. What are you doing here?”

“Right,” he said, holding the bouquet out to her. “It’s break time at my university, so I decided to spend a week back in Japan. I’ve actually been staying at your place—well, your mom’s place. I thought you’d be there, but your mom said you were busy in Tokyo, so I figured I’d come surprise you.”

“I see... well, it’s nice to see you again,” Riko said, “After that family gathering, it’s been a while.”

“Yeah, that gathering made me feel really nostalgic,” Shun said with a grin. “I missed hanging out with you.”

Riko gave another polite nod. “I see...”

Shun held out the bouquet again and said, “Oh right, here—these are for you.”

Riko looked at the flowers, her hands twitching slightly, clearly hesitant to accept them. She wasn’t sure how to politely decline without making things awkward.

Sensing that hesitation immediately, Natsumi smoothly stepped in between them with a cheerful grin. “Ooh! I love these flowers! Are these roses and tulips?” she said, taking the bouquet with exaggerated admiration. “So pretty!”

Both Riko and Shun blinked in surprise at her sudden move.

Natsumi continued without missing a beat, turning to Riko. “Oh, sorry—is it okay if I have these? I know he meant them for you, but you know how much I love these flowers, right?”

Riko quickly caught on to what Natsumi was doing and giggled softly. “Sure, go ahead.”

She then turned to Shun and said, “Oh, right. This is my friend and classmate, Natsumi. Natsumi, this is Shun, he’s an old childhood friend of mine.”

Shun forced a smile. “Yeah, nice to meet you,” he said, simply nodding.

Natsumi was about to shake his hand, but when he didn’t move, she blinked and said, “Oh, we’re nodding now? Got it.” She nodded back coolly, making Riko laugh quietly again.

“Oh, by the way,” Riko said, turning to Shun, “where are you staying while you’re in Tokyo? Or are you planning to head back to Numazu soon?”

Shun rubbed the back of his neck. “Ah... I hadn’t really thought that far ahead. I figured I could stay until the weekend. Maybe hang out a bit? And... if it’s okay, maybe I could crash at your apartment for a few days?”

Riko’s eyes widened slightly. She definitely didn’t feel right about that, but she also didn’t want to seem rude, especially since he was a family friend. She stammered, “U-Uh, I—”

Before she could answer, Natsumi quickly jumped in with her usual cheerful tone. “Oh! Riko, remember? We talked about me sleeping over tonight, right? Since my relatives are staying at my place and taking up my room?”

Riko blinked, confused for a second, then realized what Natsumi was doing and played along. “Oh! Right! Thank you for reminding me.”

She turned back to Shun. “Sorry, Shun. Natsumi’s staying with me for a while, and my apartment’s pretty small. It’d be hard to fit more than two people.”

Shun looked clearly irritated but masked it with a tight smile. “Ah, I see... hotel it is, then.”

“Thanks for understanding,” Riko said politely.

“Yeah... but we can still hang out, right? Just the two of us?” he asked, trying again.

Riko smiled politely again. “Sure, we can do that.”

But then Natsumi chimed in, “Oh, but Riko, don’t you have your part-time job right after school today?”

“Oh, right,” Riko said with a slight frown, realizing that too.

“And you finish pretty late, don’t you? So by the time you’re done, it’s basically straight to bed since you’ve got school again in the morning,” Natsumi added with a playful but pointed tone.

Shun clenched his jaw a bit but kept smiling. “Well... maybe we can hang out this weekend then? No one will disturb us then, right? Maybe I’ll drop by your café and watch you work.”

“That’s a good idea,” Riko said politely. “You can definitely visit.”

Natsumi lit up. “Oh, I’ll join you too, Shun! Since I’m staying at her place for now, I’ll wait at the café with you. We can chat more while we wait for her shift to end.”

Shun’s eye twitched, clearly irritated now, but he managed a strained smile. “Yeah... great idea.”

“Anyway,” he said quickly, “why don’t we head to your part-time now? I’d like to see where it is.” He moved toward Riko, clearly trying to walk beside her.

But Natsumi looped her arm around Riko’s and said brightly, “Yup! Let’s go!” She animatedly walked beside Riko, pulling her gently along.