Parting of the Red Sea

Shirai Keiko is a peculiar beast. A beast that Tani goes to great lengths to deal with properly due to the fact that he can’t figure her out. She flirts with him most of the time, but he can’t tell if or when she’s being serious about it, which means he can’t react accordingly.

Tani may be the smartest person in any room he enters, but he’s still cursed with the hormones of a young adult, and if not careful those hormones can very much dictate his actions with his rather aggressive teacher no matter how much thought he puts into his next move.

Today he’s doing a rather poor job at thinking his way around her, not even the spreadsheet he spent all week toiling over with all the do's and don'ts he could think of has done enough to keep her at bay. Every mapped out strategy imploded, and every idea to curtail her flirting has fallen flat.

Shirai Keiko's spreadsheet had her own special number called Phase 2.5.

The second Phase of 5 happens to be today's booth activities, which is going very well at the moment. Because of that he can put all of his focus into Surviving Shirai and getting through 2.5 in one piece. He’ll need to, because right now the two sit near the Sanshiro Pond underneath the shade of a zelkova tree in one of the least busy parts of campus.

Other than some other couples picnicking and soaking in the nice weather, there aren’t many festival goers walking around, which gives the two of them a little more privacy than they’d expect considering the amount of people on site.

This privacy is dangerous, and it’s why Tani is on guard and Shirai seems very relaxed.

Without anyone here to worry about, there’s no telling what she’ll do, and there’s no telling how he will react.

“20 more minutes.” Shirai says, looking at her watch and leaning her weight onto one arm. “Plenty of time.”

He tries not to show it, but there’s a hint of nervousness when he replies,

“Plenty of time for what?”

“For us to take our relationship to the next level.”

That’s a common thing she likes to say to him, yet nothing ever really comes from it. But here alone underneath this zelkova tree, it feels an awful lot like it actually can.

Tani tries to play it smoothly.

“I don’t know how we’d do that unless your parents are here.”

“My parents are here!?” Shirai asks in shock while abruptly standing to her feet and jerking her head in an attempt to spot them.

“I didn’t say that they were.”

“Ohhh.”

She sits back down and relaxes in a way similar to how someone would if they just narrowly avoided a car wreck.

“Judging by that reaction, I’m going to hazard a guess that you wouldn’t ever dare introduce me to your parents.” Tani says while folding his arms and firing a scowl her way.

“Uhm, well… not yet at least. We’ve only been dating for 40 minutes or so.”

“Are you perhaps the dishonest one out of the two of us?”

Tani is feeling like he’s playing his cards perfectly at the moment. On their way to this semi secluded spot he had thought about the many different scenarios that could unfold during the last minutes of his time with her.

Most of which he couldn’t see himself as the winner of, unless he forced her into admitting that everything she’s doing is not what she’s making it out to be. He tried it earlier when he fed her the takoyaki ball, and although it failed, he’s willing to adjust tactics to achieve the same result.

Shirai is still a dog that has yet to catch the car she’s chasing, and Tani is going to slam on the brakes to end this whole farce once and for all.

Shirai begins to stammer,

“N-No it’s not that, I just… I just---”

“You just what?”

“....”

She swallows her next batch of words and looks away from him.

Tani feels like he’s onto something here.

“You know, I’m starting to think I’m just getting strung along for your entertainment.”

“No, that’s not it!”

He’s got her on her heels, right where he wants her.

“It’s alright, I understand. The thought of a teacher having feelings for her student is actually crazy, can’t believe I ever even thought that might’ve been the case.”

This could be the perfect way out of this, at least he thinks it is. If he’s reading her right this time, she’ll take the easy way out he’s made for her, and if he’s lucky she might even apologize to him for going overboard with her games.

However…

Shirai frowns. Her bottom lip begins to quiver and she stops the discomforting movement by biting it.

“...Don’t treat me like an idiot, Tani-kun.”

“..!?”

Tani shrinks back in disbelief.

There wasn’t any vitriol in her voice, but there was definitely conflict, and perhaps some pain. All of which he wasn’t expecting to encounter.

“You really don’t think that I know it’s crazy?” she asks, now she looks like she’s on the verge of tearing up. “I may not be a super genius like you, but I’m still an adult.”

“...W-Wait a sec---”

She leans in and interrupts him.

“Why do you think I wanted this hour with you?”

Tani’s heartbeats are like miniature explosions, this was a massive miscalculation on his part--- there’s no way she was supposed to react like this and now he has no preconceived idea how to deal with it. The dog that has finally caught the car and got run over in the process isn’t supposed to be alive and well.

“I-I have no clue.”

“It’s because I wanted to give you at least a little taste.”

“Taste!?”

“So long as you’re in high school, we can’t be together. Who’s to say where you’ll be and who you might be with a year from now? So I wanted to give you a taste of me at least once.”

“For the love of god, stop saying taste!”

“Is it not enough? Do you want something more?”

“N-No, I don’t want anything, actually!”

Shirai leans in closer to him and asks, “Now who’s being dishonest?”

She has successfully turned things around once again, and if he’s not careful he could miss the dog and drive himself right off of a cliff. She is either someone who believes every word she’s saying, or someone with a sharp enough eye to see right through him; he has to choose how to react according to who out of those two potential people he is dealing with.

Or maybe he’s dealing with both of them in one, which opens up a whole other can of worms.

“...It’s still you.” he says, twisting his body to give himself space.

She sighs before tapping on the side of her head with the back of her knuckle. “Ahh, you got me.”

“...?”

“I am very dishonest, and I struggle with that every day.”

Her words are heavy, but her face reads as light, Tani peeks at her with a side glance and softens his posture, communicating to her that it is okay to continue.

She looks at her watch and says, “I guess right now is as good a time as any to be truthful. It’s why I wanted you to win me this necklace after all.”

As if resigning from an arduous task, a weight lifts off her shoulders when she asks, “Tani-kun, why do you still make me treats every morning?”

“...Why?” he ponders aloud. “Because you’re my club’s Sponsor.”

“Do you think I’d quit if you stopped?”

He lifts his eyebrow in consideration. “I guess I do, yeah.”

“Tehe, that’s why I think you’re as dishonest as me sometimes. Why do you really do it? You’re a smart boy, surely you know that I can’t just up and quit my role as your sponsor. You haven’t needed to make me sweets for months now.”

“Okay okay, I know exactly where this is going, you’re just going to say it’s because I li---”

“You don’t know where this is going.” She lightly punches his shoulder to keep him from speaking. “I might know something you don’t.”

“..?”

“I think you continue to spoil me because you like being needed.”

That statement is felt like a sledgehammer strike to the chest, and his body reacts to the blow by stiffening up.

“I… what?”

“You have no idea how that has made me feel about you.”

Tani is forced to reconcile with the fact that he has inadvertently become a very real factor in her life because he wasn’t up front in the beginning, and he never bothered to contemplate why he went along with a daily activity that could have been long over by now.

When he first met her, didn't he intend for her to become like this?  She was supposed to be putty in his hands right off the bat, and once there he failed to reckon with the fact that he liked her that way. He liked that she needed him to do this one special thing for her.

“Gahh…” That realization makes him feel terrible, like the old adage says, every accusation is a confession and he’s been the one stringing her along for his own entertainment. He selfishly caused this problem that he secretly enjoyed having. “Sensei, I think I need to make something really clear here.”

“Don’t,” she says with a little smile, “at least not for another fifteen minutes or so.”

Tani’s face twists in a way that makes his glasses feel tight on his ears. 

“Okay…”

“Say, I have an idea!” Shirai says with a little clap of her hands. “How about you go and get me one more snack? Truth be told, I’m actually really hungry.”

“You should have eaten the rest of that takoyaki.”

“I know I know, I made a mistake.”

“Alright,” Tani stands to his feet and dusts his pants off. “What do you want me to get?”

“Surprise me!”

“It’s hard to surprise a picky eater in a good way. Tell me what’s off limits at least.”

“I will literally eat anything you give me.”

Due to her winking when saying that and expressing innuendo in her tone, Tani sighs and starts heading towards the food stands in hopes to find something she might actually want.

“Hurry back now, a high school girl all alone on a college campus is a juicy target, you know? If you’re not careful, your lovely girlfriend will be hit on by older men!”

“Ha! Like that’d happen, college guys aren't into geezers.”

“Ehhhh did you just call your girlfriend a geezer!?”

“Haha-- ehem, sorry I couldn’t help myself.” Tani stifles a laugh and turns away. “I’ll be right back.”

Walking away from her right now feels akin to walking into an industrial refrigerator, he isn't sure if he's being sent off into a blizzard by her or if he's made one up for himself. What he does know is that both of them have something important to say to one another, and are in the process of procrastinating until the last second.

If he were to turn around and spare her a peek, he’d see that she’s struggling to keep herself together and is feeling awfully cold in the shade of the tree she's under. Shirai watches him disappear into the crowd and grabs at her arms to embrace herself, with him out of sight she shifts her gaze to the grass underneath her legs and purses her lips.

“I wish… I wish I had met you when your heart was safe to hold.”

“Hey there.”

Shirai’s shoulders jump when she hears those English words coming from in front of her.

“Eh?”

Looking up, she can see two young men standing a couple feet away eclipsing the sunlight peeking through the leaves and casting their shadow over her.

“Uhh..”

She stammers while wondering what it is they want.

“Are you busy?” the blonde young man asks, leaning down to her level.

“Emmm… uhhhh.”

Shirai is dumbfounded.

“Ahh see I told you, no way a random Japanese girl would know any English.” the other guy with dark hair says in exasperation.

Both of them are dressed in nice clothes and look stylish, but they’re very obviously not Japanese.

“Foreign tourists?” Shirai asks herself.

The blond guy leaning down wracks his brain and says in Japanese, “Umm, one second please.” 

“Nice one bro! I knew all that anime watching you do would be good for something.” the other praises with a clenched fist.

“S-Shut up will you?”

Pulling out his phone, the blond talks into it and shows Shirai the translated results on his screen accompanied by the robotic voice reading out the text.

“We’re here from the US on a college school trip. Would you be interested in showing us around campus? We’ve been wandering around aimlessly.”

“I’m being hit on already!?” she asks while backing herself up against the tree.

Shirai can understand everything they’ve said up to this point, and she can even read the English text that was translated by the boy. But she’s had experience with English speaking foreigners attempting to talk to her before and has a tried a true method that has yet to let her down.

“Ehh, uhhhhm… but English I don’t speak.” she replies, trying to give them the worst accent possible.

“That’s okay!” one of the guys says, and the other types on his phone saying, “No problem!”

That idea immediately bombed.

The two take a seat on both sides of her and she’s immediately boxed in.

(Oh crap!)

The phone’s robotic voice next says, “We are from San Diego. Ever heard of it? It’s in California.”

“Cool, right??”

“Ehehe, sorry.” Shirai is overwhelmed by their energy and their overt candor and lack of personal space.

They begin to yap her ear off in a mix of English, broken Japanese and voice translations, all the while Shirai’s head is spinning and begging for relief.

(Tani-kun, come save me!!)

---------------------------

Tani is heading back from the Lawson connected to the Yasuda Auditorium and is feeling quite good about himself. He managed to forgo the busy food stands selling Festival staples and breezed right through the line in the convenience store after choosing the least offensive lunch items he possibly could for Shirai.

He was worried about having a hard time choosing food for someone with an eating disorder, but even she shouldn't feel too reluctant to eat a classic ham and cheese sandwich with a small bottle of unsweetened green tea to wash it down. Not only that, both of these items only put him back 370 yen, he couldn’t ask for a better price all things considered.

As someone who gets a kick out of even the most minor of victories, there isn’t much that could possibly sour his mood.

Once back at the park he scours the trees where he last saw Shirai, but the surroundings look unfamiliar to him. The tree he left her at is now occupied by other people he doesn’t recognize, so he wonders if she maybe made her way back to the booth without him.

“Huh, an Irish goodbye?”

Her absence does enough to sour his good mood right on the spot.

He clicks his tongue and is about to head back towards the booth to give her a piece of his mind when he hears two young men speaking in English; curious by their American accents, he investigates further only to find that they are the ones blocking his view of Shirai, who is sitting on the grass where he left her, looking like a little bunny cornered by a pair of hungry foxes.

They talk loudly and with far too much energy for where they are in the quiet park, jumping right into the stereotype the world sees them as, Shirai can only reply to their banter with an uncomfortable laugh. He’s instantly agitated by them and walks directly in the middle of the three, towering over them like a statue.

“I’m back.” 

“Tani-kun!” Shirai immediately stands at her feet and cries out, “These guys are hitting on me!”

“I can tell.”

“And I can’t shake em.”

“Did you tell them to buzz off?”

“I didn’t, they only speak English.”

“So do you!”

“Oh yeah… uahh, I totally forgot I could’ve done that!”

Tani just about falls over.

She clasps her hands together and smiles, “How about you do it for me instead?”

“What am I, your boyfriend??”

“For 7 more minutes, yes!”

“Ugh.”

Feeling ignored, one of the boys turns to the other and asks, “Hey, who the hell do you think this guy is?”

“Are we getting cock blocked right now??”

The two stand to their feet and scowl at Tani, their attempts at intimidation force him to go through a batch of scenarios he has long planned for but never expected to use in real life. Young men have been known to be quite aggressive when confronted whilst alongside a member of the opposite sex they are trying to court, so there’s a delicate balancing act that needs to be played if he wants to avoid a potential altercation.

“I hate to do this to you, but this lady is taken.” he says in English, using the many years worth of training to deliver his words with a light deescalating tone. “She gets a little bit nervous around strangers, I hope you both didn’t get the wrong idea.”

“Whoa bro, are you from the states too? What the hell?”

“Yeah dude that accent is crazy, I wasn’t expecting that.”

“No, I'm born and raised here in Tokyo.”

“Damn, impressive stuff.”

It would seem their compliments did most of the deescalating, he couldn't be more chuffed to hear something like that from actual Americans. If they keep it up he might just let them have a crack at Shirai and leave her to fend for herself.

“So this girl is taken by you then?”

That question pulls him right back to reality, he glances at Shirai, who returns his gaze with a lovely smile of her own that raises the temperature of his face. She is technically still his responsibility, and according to that article in whatever the world that magazine was, he has to do what she says for a little while longer.

That includes getting rid of these guys with more than just a language they can understand, they have to get the message that she’s completely off limits. Which means he’ll have to say out loud something he never would have thought he’d ever say.

“...Yeah, she’s my gir---”

Shirai grabs his arm and squeezes him close to her, interrupting him.

“He's my boyfriend." she declares in perfect English.

“Wait, you could understand us this entire time!?” the blond boy shouts incredulously.

“Tehe, what Tani-kun said was true, I got really nervous and froze around you two. Sorry about that.”

Both young men lean back and agonize over the revelation.

“Aww man, that blows.”

“I told you dude, even in anime the Japanese girl never gets with the foreign guy.”

“Well we shot our shot, I have no regrets.”

“Sorry for trying to get with your chick, bro. You’re one lucky guy, she’s a total babe.”

Tani is rattled. Not because of the interaction with these two strangers, but because his arm is perfectly pressed into the crease of her chest and causing him to suffer through similar symptoms to when he fed her earlier. Judging by the radioactive jealousy emanating from the two college students as they glare at the spectacle, he doesn’t dare look at what’s on his arm in fear of spontaneously combusting.

“Y-Yeah sure, no problem…”

The two boys saunter off, but it affords him no relief. Shirai hasn't budged.

“Thank you for saving me, my knight in shining armor.”

“Y-You saved yourself. I didn’t even do anything.”

“Aww how cute, did you want to be the one to tell them I’m your woman?”

“Would you stop trying to twist this thing around? I was just following your rules and would have done what I had to do.”

“I appreciate the sentiment, Tani-kun, I really do. But had I heard you so proudly say that to them, I'm not sure I'd be able to turn you down.”

Tani’s head droops to the side when he replies, “Another damn lie.”

“Oh my, sharper by the minute. It’s a shame I won’t be able to use my entire bag of tricks to tease you with and dull you back down.”

The content of that bag of tricks pops into his mind gives him the shivers, far too dangerous for him to reply to.

“On a different note, I have something I really need to get off my chest.”

“Go on.”

“But first I need you off my arm!”

Shirai doesn’t budge, she leans in and laughs, “If you can tell me while I hold onto you, then I can really trust that you mean what you are about to say to me.”

“...Fine, listen Keiko, I---”

“Ah~ah~ah, time’s up. That's Shirai-sensei to you.”

She raises her wrist in front of his face to show him her watch.

Tani lifts his eyebrow and pulls his phone out of his pocket. “Your watch is ahead by a minute. Here take a look at my phone, I’ve had a timer counting down this entire break.”

“So that means you're still my boyfriend then?”

Watching the seconds tick away, he realizes that he’s tantalizingly close to surviving his teacher’s birthday antics. However, he feels compelled to be completely honest with her while still under this imaginary contract, he can’t let the timer be the signal to the end of whatever relationship the two of them think they have with each other. If he does, he fears that it could still be an open ended issue without any concrete resolution.

Although he's given her the easy way out, he's not sure she's going to take it, so he has to take matters into his own hands.

(Alright, I can do this..!)

He takes a deep determinative breath and turns to face her.

But before he can, Shirai pulls him in tight and kisses his cheek.

It is the softest, warmest, and most otherworldly thing, and it makes every last inch of all the space under his skin feel like warm cotton balls.

Only a split second.

A split second that feels like a time dilation in the flesh.

His body is rooted into the ground, unable to move while his eyes follow her face's movement a few inches back after her kiss.

“I almost forgot to give you your special treat for winning me this necklace while we're still dating.” she says with a smile so radiant that he could mistake her for the sun.

In his dizzied state he wonders if he should thank her for that kiss or run away from her, but he fears his body’s next move if he dares tries either, and instead remains grounded in place.

This gives enough time for a flushed faced Shirai to say, “I was also fibbing earlier. Truth be told, I wanted to taste you… I've wanted to for so long now, and you're as delicious as I thought you'd be, Tani-kun.”

Tani’s next heartbeat finally does him in. He can’t stay still any longer while so close to the face of what looks to be Aphrodite herself.

Instinct takes control of his next move, and it’s neither fight or flight, it is a full on shift towards the most innate desire for intimacy. He turns within her arm’s grasp on his shoulder to face her and leans in.

He has every intention to kiss her on the lips and has no desire to only stop there.

Shirai is positive that she has finally gone too far and has just unleashed a hormonal beast upon herself, but in an instant she decides to allow him to do whatever he wants and deal with the consequences later. She won’t move in, but she won’t move away if he continues forward. Inner turmoil be damned.

Their noses touch.

Only one more inch to go.

(Tani…)

An echoed voice of a girl suddenly pops into his head like a lightning strike, stopping him dead in his tracks and bringing the shine back into his dull, lustful eyes.

And then comes the image of that girl’s face which returns his wits and forces him into thinking about what it is he's doing.

He’s now able to move away from Shirai.

And then what comes next is...

‘Beep, beep, beep!!’

His phone’s alarm goes off in his hand, vibrating and blaring noise so loud that the world around them might as well have been glass just shattered into pieces. Both he and Shirai let go of each other and shuffle away.

“G-G-Goodness me, I'm sorry! I got really carried away this time!” Shirai says, twirling her hair with her index finger and darting her eyes bashfully.

“N-No…” Tani scratches his head and admits, “That was entirely on me, I’m sorry, Shirai-sensei.”

“It’s okay, Tani-ku--- ahh I mean, Akihiro-kun!”

“It’s not okay.” he says, looking up to her, his chin wrinkles and his mouth is pushed up towards his nose. “I have to tell you the truth now, I... I---”

“I’m sorry!” Shirai bows low, clasping her eyes shut in the process. “I can’t return your feelings!”

"...."

Things go silent for a moment, a few rapid blinks are needed for Tani to gather what she just said to him.

“H-Hey, that’s supposed to be my line!”

Shirai bows even lower and says, “Let it be mine, please!”

“...Sensei?”

“At least this way I can feel like the adult here. I'm not a complete airhead, I picked up on your hints and I know that this is what you wanted.”

Tani's stiff shoulders let go of the weight they were holding up and fall to his side, it is what he was hoping for, but now he feels bad having her do it on his behalf. 

"Do you really mean it?"

"I do... your Sensei knows when to say no, both to others and myself."

"...Okay, I understand."

“Thank you.” She lifts herself back upright and manages a genuine smile. Shirai grabs her amazonite necklace into the palm of her hand and squeezes it tight, giving her the strength to say,  “Although it was brief, you were a great boyfriend and I won’t ever forget you, Akihiro-kun, my precious ex.”

He chuckles and rubs his eyes underneath his glasses, “Heh, precious ex, I’ll take that moniker with pride, Shirai-sensei.”

“Well then, I guess this is the part where I tell you that you don't have to make me sweets from this point forward.”

“About that, I have a lot of ingredients left over from this booth, how about we postpone it until summer break?”

“You’d really still do that for someone who just rejected you?"

He squints at her and replies, “Feelings are a lot like routines. They’re not so easy to drop.”

“Gosh you’re so smooth. You’re going to make your next girlfriend really happy.”

Tani harkens back to the image of the girl that popped into his head and kept him from kissing his teacher. He's never once thought about dating someone for real until this moment, and now faced with the idea, he internally cowers from it. Something so outlandish and out of character just isn't possible considering both his ambition and her likely non existent feelings towards him.

The mere thought of her might have been enough to stop him from going too far with someone else, but the bold thought of being with her is enough for him to stop believing in miracles right here and now.

He’s both filled with melancholy and adoration for that girl when he hands Shirai the lunch items he bought. 

"Come on," he says with a strained smile, "let's get back to work."

Phase 2.5 --- Surviving Shirai: END