Thank You Officer Tamura

Wednesday

By the time Wednesday rolled around, Suga had lived another ten years. Never, in his career, had Suga wished time with his students away but he found himself begging them to leave or for him to sleep through an entire day. It felt like every time he looked at the clock it would only have been two minutes since he last check despite the feeling that it had been two hours.

Kaneko noticed his twitching and finally confronted him Tuesday afternoon.

"Sugawara-san, what's going on?"

"Nothing Kaneko. Why'd you ask?" Suga grinned.

"Well you keep looking up at the clock like your waiting for something to happen and you've been a little short with the kids."

Suga's face fell dark and Kaneko suddenly feared for their life, regretting being so forward with who was essentially their boss.

"Oh no. Have I?" Suga asked, gripping Kaneko's hands and looking up at him from his seat. "I have, haven't I? Haru was telling me about the game he made up and I said 'cool'. I didn't ask a single question, oh my god I didn't even say well done."

Suga's eyes were glassy at this as the realisation hit him. He worked so hard for his students and made sure that nothing in his life ever affected them. They were essentially his children and the fact he'd been such a poor teacher crushed his spirit. Kaneko bobbed down in front of him and placed their hands on his knees comfortingly.

"Is there something going on Sugawara? Nobody's hurt you, have they? Was it at the work party? Oh, is that why, you feel funny being around us colleagues because someone hurt you and we didn't notice? Sugawara I'm so sorry."

Suga chuckled and cupped Kaneko's cheeks in his hands, looking at the young teacher who was falling apart in front of him.

"No, no, Kaneko. Nothing bad has happened, quite the opposite actually." Suga smiled as Kaneko's face relaxed. "I have a date tomorrow night and I guess I'm just a little excited because I'm practically counting down the minutes."

Kaneko jumped back to their feet and clasped their hands over their mouth.

"Sugawara! This so exciting! You should have told me sooner. Who's taking you? Is it Daichi? Please tell me it isn't Endo!"

Suga never realised how close he'd grown to Kaneko and how much they already knew which made him feel a little guilty for not telling them sooner.

"No, it's not Endo, that was just a temporary lapse in judgement."

"Phew, you had me worried there for a second."

Kaneko pulled up their seat and sat opposite Suga, eyes wide with enjoyment and anticipation.

"So," They began. "Is Daichi a good kisser?"

When Suga arrived at work the following day, he was a bundle of excitement and nerves, ready to explode at any point. Usually, his morning would begin with a tea in the staff room whilst he chatted with the other teachers but he was so on edge that he dodged past them straight to his room. He glanced at the clock to see it was reading 7:15. 'Just under seven hours till last bell' Suga thought. He knew that he'd still have to stay a while even after the kids were gone but it would only be an hour or so and that would go quickly.

He rested himself in his desk chair and spun softly as he looked over his lesson plans. Wednesday's tended to be easier on the students and the day was shortened to get them through the mid-point of the week so all Suga had planned was various creative activities. He hoped he would do a better job of interacting with his students than the day before and even put a post-it on his desk that read 'ask Haru about game'. He truly felt guilty that he'd been so neglectful to his class and was grateful that Wednesday has arrived and most of his distractions were gone.