Deep Red

66

"Alright, alright, alright, quiet down, everyone." I said loudly, as I made my way into the class. I was glad to be back teaching, and especially teaching class 1-C, as they were arguably one of my favourite classes. And not just because Hitoshi was one of them, but because they were just a nice class. A lot of them were planning to go into a scientific field after school and they paid attention and asked good questions and it was just fun to teach this class.

"What are we doing today, Miss Takahashi?" one of the girls asked excitedly. I sighed. Why was I given the task of telling them about the school festival? Wasn't that the homeroom teacher's job? They were probably just too lazy to take away from their own time, so I had to do it. Damn it.

"Yeah, I heard the hero courses had some news about the school festival..." someone else agreed.

"Okay, since when are you such an undisciplined bunch? Would it kill you to raise your hands?" I replied, seeing as they just started talking. That's not how my classes went. At all. What the hell?

"Sorry..." I heard someone mumble.

"Hey, what did I just say?" I muttered. They all knew damn well that this shit wouldn't fly during my classes. What the hell had gotten into them? I glanced at Hitoshi, but he seemed just as tired as usual.

"Now. The school festival. Every class has to participate, so you have this lesson to come up with an idea. What do you wanna do? Anyone got any ideas?" I asked them. They were glancing at each other, until one of them put his hand up. I nodded at him, so he could bring up a suggestion.

"We could do a maid cafe or something..." he said and glanced at Tokeige who was rolling her eyes.

"Only if you dress up in a maid outfit!" I heard her whispering back to him. Honestly, I should have given out to her, but that comment had just made my day, so I just pretended not to hear it.

"Alright, do you guys want me to put that down?" I asked them. There were a few murmurs in agreement.

"Any other ideas?" I asked them. I mean, sure, a maid cafe was a classic but a whole lot of classes probably had the same idea. Maybe we could come up with something else? I was convinced this class had more potential than suggesting a maid cafe. Everyone did that at some point.

"What did you do when you were in U.A., Miss Takahashi?" someone else asked. I laughed and shook my head.

"Well, during my third year I broke my leg, so I didn't really participate. Can't really remember what we did that year. We had a cat cafe in second year." I told them. Tokeige put up her hand.

"And what did you do during your first year?" she wanted to know. I sighed. I kinda knew I wouldn't get away with it.

"We did a maid cafe. We weren't very creative students." I said and pinched the bridge of my nose.

"What about... any other teachers? What about Mr. Aizawa's class? Didn't you two go to school together around the same time?" someone else wanted to know. I narrowed my eyes at them. What was it with that sudden fixation on me and Shouta? Had they... figured it out or something?

"What's with all that questioning about Aizawa lately? You've been asking weird questions ever since that raid..." I said and watched them glancing at each other, looking somewhat uncomfortable.

"I mean, you don't need to hide it anymore, Miss Takahashi, we all kinda know already..." one student said.

"Yeah, you two are like super obvious. We can see that you're trying to keep it all a secret and stuff, but it's not working well." Tokeige agreed. What the... Were we really that obvious? Shit.

"I don't know what the hell you're talking about...Can we get back to the topic at hand?" I asked them. I saw Hitoshi rolling his eyes, put his hand up and start talking before I even had time to properly recognize him.

"They're talking about you dating Aizawa. You can really stop pretending. We've all seen you sneaking around the dorms like horny teenagers. Tokeige's seen you kiss in the gym. I knew something was up long ago. We know you two are a thing." Hitoshi said in a bored tone of voice.

"Alright. Fuck. Well, I guess it's out in the open anyway. Yes, we're a thing. No, I won't give you details. No, we're not high school sweethearts. This has been going on for... I don't know how long. Since after the summer camp. And that's all you need to know." I admitted with a sigh. I looked back up and saw a raised hand. Okay. I knew this was going to be a dumb question, but I let them talk nevertheless. And I really regretted it once I heard what they had to say.

"So who's bottom and who's to-"

He never even got to finish his sentence as the two students next to him attacked him and quickly shut him up. I smiled. They knew me well enough to know that that comment would have gotten them a surprise pop quiz, so they shut that down fast enough. I was almost a little proud.

"Right, since there are no more questions, I suggest we move on. And just for your information, the only school festival thing I remember Aizawa doing was a haunted house." I told them.

"That actually sounds pretty cool..." Tokeige commented. There were a few nods all around the classroom.

"Are you... are you actually thinking of doing a haunted house?" I wanted to know. Honestly, the idea wasn't even half bad. They had done well in their studies and I was pretty sure they'd do well constructing something good and decently stable. Might be a nice little project, honestly.

"Why not? It's actually kinda cool. We could have a few people in costumes and we can have jumpscares. It'll be fun!" another student agreed. There was a giggle from somewhere at the back of the class.

"Imagine Tokeige jumping out at you, that'd be scary as hell!"

"Tokeige dressed as what?"

"No, just Tokeige, she's scary enough the way she is!"
"You better think I'm scary, because I'm going to rip your head off, if you continue being this dumb!" Tokeige protested and rolled her eyes. Well, I could definitely see what they meant by that...

"Alright, alright. So are we all in favour of the haunted house?" I asked them, trying to get some order back into this classroom, which was probably hopeless at this point. They were all talking over each other, enthusiastically bringing up ideas for their haunted house. Well, looked like my job was done here.

"Whatever the hell you're dying, I'll just be a corpse lying around in some corner and napping or something." Hitoshi muttered with a little smirk on his lips. Tokeige glanced at him, her face looking pensive.

"You know you'd actually make a good corpse, Shinsou." she then commented. Hitoshi gave her a disturbed look.

"Woah, I was always nice to you, Tokeige, and now you do me dirty like that? I thought we were friends!" he protested. Tokeige laughed and just rolled her eyes, while shaking her head.

"No, I'm serious. You're pale and have the eye bags and all. We'll put some fake blood on you and you'll make an excellent corpse. We can drop you from the ceiling when some people pass. It'll be fun!" she explained.

"You know, I think I'm liking that plan. Doesn't sound too bad." Hitoshi muttered and sat up straight. I smiled contentedly. My part here was indeed done. They had it all figured out already.