Anything But Ordinary

A Chance of Happiness Chapter 8: Anything But Ordinary

Jin walked to his next class, deep in thought about what just happened between Vernon and Ayaka.

“I can’t believe he got so worked up, that’s not like him at all. They were fairly close before but it seemed like Vernon was upset at her about something.”

Jin looked up at the gloomy sky, still at a loss for answers.

“I’ll just have to find out for myself later. For now, I think I’d prefer an ordinary class with an ordinary teacher.” Jin sighed, taking out his schedule again to confirm the room number on the classroom in front of him. “This is it.”

Jin walked through the door, some students had already taken some seats, but curiously enough, there wasn’t a teacher in sight.

“Am I in the right place? The bells gonna ring soon and she’s nowhere in sight.” Jin thought to himself, slightly confused as he looked around the room. “Should I–”

“Excuse me.” a voice came from behind him.

“Oh, sorry.” Jin quickly moves to the side thinking he had been blocking someone's path.

Jin turned to see Midori standing behind him.

“Sorry if I was in your way.”

“N-no that– you weren't.” she stammered, waving her hand. “I just…” Midori stopped waving as she placed her hands back on her bag, shrugging up a bit.

“That’s not the point!” an aggravated voice shouted.

Midori turned around and Jin looked over her shoulder to see a young woman storming towards the doorway being followed by Eric.

“Look out!” Jin quickly picked up Midori and moved her out of the doorway and against the wall. Midori quickly gasped as the young woman and Eric stopped in the doorway.

“The point is even if–” the woman started, but stopped upon turning to see Jin seemingly pinning Midori against the wall. “And what do you think you’re doing?!”

Jin quickly backed away from Midori, realizing how bad his position looked. “No! I-I wasn’t–”

“It’s not what you think Suzume-senpai!” Midori spoke up, louder than Jin had ever heard her. “He just moved me out of the way because it looked like you were going to run into me! It wasn’t anything suspicious.”

Jin looked at Midori in shock, surprised that she spoke up so adamantly.

“Is that so?” Suzume looked back and forth between Jin and Midori, reassessing the situation. “I apologize for my tone just then. I seem to have jumped to the wrong conclusion. I was just a bit… annoyed.” she quickly bowed then turned back to Eric with a death glare.

“Ah… is everything ok in there?” Eric stammered.

“In here it is.” Suzume quickly reached up and grabbed Eric’s tie, pulling him down to her eye level. “YOU almost made me run over Sakurai-san.”

“But I–”

Suzume placed her finger over Eric’s lips, shushing him. “YOU let them control the conversation and you got nothing done that entire period!”

“It was just a few–”

Suzume placed her finger over Eric’s lips, shushing him again. “I don’t want to hear any more excuses out of you! Now, do we have an agreement?” Suzume removed her finger from Eric’s lips and pulled him closer.

“Yes ma’am. No more Q/A class periods about our relationship.”

“Good.” Suzume nodded, seemingly pleased. “Now get going, class is going to start soon.” she ordered, releasing her grip on his tie.

“Yes ma’am.” Eric straightened his tie and left for his classroom.”

Suzume turned back to Jin and Midori and smiled. “Sorry about that. I just had something to work out with my husband.”

“What the heck just happened?!” Jin and Midori thought the same thing simultaneously.

“Is everything alright?” Suzume asked, noticing that they seemed a bit overwhelmed.

“Oh, um, yes. I apologize for the misunderstanding ma’am.” Jin quickly bowed.

“No worries, and please, just call me Suzume-senpai.” She tilted her head slightly. “I don’t believe we’ve met yet. Would you mind telling me your name?”

“My name’s Jin Rento.” Jin quickly bowed again.

“A lovely name. Well, with that now out of the way, class is about to get started, please find seats wherever you’d like.”

The bell rings as Jin takes a seat in the corner and Midori sits next to him. Jin looked over, slightly caught off guard by the fact she chose to sit next to him.

“I’m sorry for picking you up so suddenly before.”

Midori shook her head. “N-No, I should be thanking you. It was just so sudden I wasn’t expecting it. So… um… thank you.”

“She’s back to speaking like her normal self…” Jin thought to himself.

“Um…” Midori shrugged up a bit. “Earlier…”

Jin tilted his head a little as Midori attempted to get the words out.

“I wanted to thank you… for earlier. For what you said to Maddy.”

“Sur– you’re welcome.”

“Welcome everyone!” Suzume shouted, snapping Jin and Midori’s attention to the front. “Thank you for your patience, I just had some very important manners to take care of before class.”

The class didn’t give any particular response other than blank stares, mainly because everyone saw what happened before class.

“Was that your husband?” A student asked from the back of the room.

“Here we go again.” Jin sighed.

Once again, the class was dedicated to finding out more about Eric and Suzume’s love story, although this time, she managed to get the class back on track. After a slightly more productive class period, the bell rang.

“So much for a normal class. That was anything but ordinary.” Jin took out his schedule and looked at the last class on his schedule.

P.E. | Teacher: Tora Kimura

Room: Gymnasium

Jin walks through the entrance to the gym to see several students scattered around the gyms holding their new P.E. clothes.

“Yo! Jin! There you are!” a familiar voice shouted. “Glad you didn’t get lost on the way here like little Vernon did earlier. Wouldn’t want you to be late like he was.”

“She actually bought that excuse for him being late?” Jin thought.

“Go ahead and grab your P.E. clothes from the table over there. Your size measurements were already submitted before the semester started so just look for the one with your name on it.”

Jin nodded and walked over to the table where a few students were searching for their names. He looked over the table for his clothes, noticing another name that stood out to him.

“I guess the odds are pretty high.” Jin looked over at the set with the name “Yuriko” embroidered on it. Next to it, he found his. He took his set of clothes and began to walk away from the table.

“Hey hey, look who it is!” a voice called out as someone threw their arm on Jin’s shoulder. “If it isn’t Chiyofumi High’s brand new social outcast.”

Jin immediately forgot everything he was thinking about when he recognized the voice. He turned to see a red-haired boy who had their arm on his shoulder, wearing an egotistical smirk he was all too familiar with.

“Long time no see, Ren-to-kun.” The boy let out a laugh as his smile widened. “Miss me?”