━Chapter two━
INOMATA MARIA

Mitsuki rubbed her eyes, sitting up she found herself still on her desk. She fell asleep while doing her schoolwork.

"Mitsu-chan, wake up! You're going to be late!" Her mom yelled from downstairs.

She closed her books and notes to her school bag, yawning. She walks out of her room just as she sets her foot outside her room her sister, Kazumi, walks out from the bathroom "Mitsu-chan I already put your towel inside,"

"Hm, Okay thanks sis."

She took a quick shower, drying herself, went back to her room, and put on her uniform.

She glances at the mirror before gaping at her own reflection, "Do I always look like this? I look like a crap and look at those eye bags they look more visible than before ugh."

She didn't put on a make up to cover her eye bags because she's going to be late, She dashed downstairs and nearly skipped 3 stairs.

Her dad, Tatsuya, smiles, setting down his cup of tea. "Good morning, Mitsu-chan." Mitsuki sends a smile back to her dad.

"Hey, how long have Hayato and Taka waiting out there?" She asks her family, opening her mouth when her mom places a toast to her mouth.

"Oh, they we're so early, so your dad say that they should leave you behind, and they did." Her mom replied.

Mitsuki curses silently, waving goodbye to her family. She puts on her shoes and starts to run after she says, "I'm off to school!"

About 15 minutes later, she arrived in front of the school where the gym class teacher was yelling to other students to hurry before class started.

She yells out a good morning to him, who replied with a curt nod.

She quickly changed her outdoor shoes with her indoor shoes. She cheers happily, knowing she won't be late for class.

A couple of students greeted Mitsuki, who greeted back with a smile, but they also gave Mitsuki a weird stare too.

'Probably because of my eye bags,' Mitsuki thought.

"Oh Kanzaki-san?" Called someone, It was Ryuuichi wearing his new uniform.

"Oh good morning, Kashima-kun." Greets the blonde.

"G-good morning," he greets back.

"Did you get a good sleep?" Mitsuki said, engaging in a conversation with the new student.

"Yes, I did. What about you, Kanzaki-san? You don't look good." Ryuuichi asked.

"Of course I did!" She spoke, followed with a yawn in the middle of her sentence.

'She definitely didn't get much sleep,' thought Ryuuichi

"Well, not really. I've been missing classes, and I have stacks of assignments still waiting in my house, and I have to finish them for next week," Mitsuki said with a tired smile.

'She really is strong' thought Ryuuichi getting inspired by Mitsuki's behaviour for a bit.

Walking through the hall, a lot of people have been staring at them as they talk. While Ryuuichi and Mitsuki talked, they didn't notice that there's someone following them from behind silently.

'People seem to be laughing as I pass by...' Thought Ryuuichi as he started to worry about stuff in his head.

'I get it that they stare at Kashima, but why are they staring at me too?! It's just eyebags!' Screamed Mitsuki in her head as she kept her smile on. 'I KNEW I SHOULD HAVE PUT ON MY MAKE UP ITS BETTER LIKE THAT INSTEAD'

"Yo, Mitsu, Kashima." Mitsuki rushes to hug Hayato, she lean to her boyfriend's ear, who leans down so she can whisper.

"Is there something weird about us?" Ryuuichi, too, whisper to him."It's my first day in this uniform, so..."

Hayato glanced behind Ryuuichi and Mitsuki. "Yeah, there is."

"THERE IS?" They both yelled.

"What were you thinking dragging the kids out here with you guys?" Hayato bluntly said, pointing at the kids.

Mitsuki sighed, crouching down with a yawn before getting down on their level.

"Hey, why are guys here? Aren't you guys supposed to be in the daycare?" She asked them.

Taka points to Kotaro and starting to tell what they're doing here. "Kotaro wanted to follow Ryuu, so we came with him!" Kotaro walks to his older brother and lets himself fall to his brother lap and hugs him, he feel safe in his brothers arms as Ryuuichi sweat dropped.

Mitsuki noticed Kirin's hair tie was loosened, so she tied it back up, Kirin smiled happily. "Thank you, Mi-Neechama!"

The kids started to shout Play with them, but they have to get to class.

"Hey Ryu! Mi! Play with us!"

"Yeah, play!"

"P-play"

"Mi-neechama, you haven't come and play with us! Let's play together!"

They started to make commotion, making the other students look at them and whispering.

"Kids, you're making a scene! Quiet down!"

Hayato then makes a move to help his girlfriend and his new friend. "Taka, shut your mouth right now."

Instead of listening to his older brother, he holds Mitsuki hand and holds it.

"I wanna play with Ryu and Mi-neechan! Mi-chan havent played with me yet!" He wailed, He's being stubborn like always.

Hayato then glared at them, showing them his fist threatened them to being hit.

"Hayato-chan, stop threatening the small children!" Mitsuki scolded. Taka eyes started to flood with tears and slowly step back.

"I...I..., Nii-chan, you poopiehead!" He shouts and runaway only to end up bumping into someone's legs, making him about to fell onto his back.

At the act of reflex, Mitsuki dived and saved him from falling. She left out a relieved sigh. "Sorry about that," she smiled nervously to the girl.

" 'Sorry' won't cut it. What are children doing in our middle school? We can't have them turning our school into a playground to suit their own needs, " she said with a glare. The kids started to cry, scared by the glare.

"I-I'm sorry, but the kids suddenly follow us, and we didn't know." Mitsuki apologizes. She silently hates the way she talks to kids.

"Well then, it's your fault then!?" The girl shouts again. Mitsuki felt her patience get ticked off she glared the girl really hard that she flinch.

Ryuuichi got nervous and tried to calm the kids. They can see the lightning clashing across the girls staring down.

"S-sorry! I'll take them away right now! Kamitani! Kanzaki-san! Please help me carry them back to the daycare!" Before helping Ryuuichi and Hayato with the kids, Mitsuki gave Inomata a tired smile at the girl muttering a sorry to her.

"That's Inomata from the gifted class, right?"

"She's top of the class, but she's so mean.."

"I hear Kashima's looking after those kids because he lost his parents."

"She even shouted at Mitsuki!"

"Kanzaki-san is always busy with school and the babysitter club,"

"Did you notice Mitsuki's panda eyes?"

"She's was way too hard on them,"

Inomata walks away to her class she acted like nothing happened at all, then she stop when she looks Shizuka-sensei hands full with books that she stack them very well. Shizuka looks to the side to see Inomata.

"Oh, Inomata-san, were there children crying over here just now? Or did i just imagine it?" She asked.

"Yes, there were children here causing a scene, I issued a warning to the boy and the girl who'd brought them here"she answered truthfully, Shizuka look at her shocked and pity but she decides to hide it.

Back to Ryuuichi, Hayato, and Mitsuki, they arrived in the daycare to see the full asleep of Usaida and Midori.

"Everyone, we're back in the daycare, so you can relax now." Mitsuki and Hayato put down the kids and walked towards the sleeping Usaida and hit his head together.

"WAKE UP!" Shouts Mitsuki before letting out another yawn once again.

"How long are you gonna sleep?" Hayato said, giving him a small glare.

"Ouch..."

"Usaida .GET.UP.ALREADY!"

"Where did that come from? Idiots!" Mitsuki started to dozed off next to Usaida.

Ryuuichi crawled over to his little brother and pets his head. "It's my fault she yelled because I didn't notice you were there."

"That's right, you're in the babysitter club, aren't you? You need to be more aware of what's happening around you. " The kids started to hide behind Ryuuichi and the sleeping Mitsuki.

Inomata apparently came to the daycare because Shizuka's youngest son forgot his lunch box, and Inomata can't say no to the teacher, so she did.

Hayato nudge Mitsuki wake, she jolts at the nudge, wiping her face to get rid of the sleepiness.

"Ow! M-my stomach, it hurts. Kamitani, please help me go to the infirmary, Uh..Mitsuki-chan, Ryuuichi-chan, and you girl watch over the kids while I'm gone okay thanks!" Barked Usaida as he dragged Kamitani with him.

"Get well soon," Mumble Mitsuki waved them.

As they left, the kids kept hiding behind Ryuuichi and Mitsuki, in front of them, sits the girl from the hall they had just met.

"Uuh, I'm Kashima Ryuuichi from class C."

"I'm Kanzaki Mitsuki from class C too." Inomata looked away from Ryuuichi, who was looking at her with a warm smile, Mitsuki, who noticed sweat dropped

"I'm Inomata Maria from gifted class." Introduce Inomata as she stared them after getting rid of her small blush.

'So she's a tsundere...how cute!' Mitsuki Thought she thinks it's cute, Inomata looks at the sleeping Midori.

"Well, would you like me to hold the baby for you?" Inomata offered.

"I-it's not because i want to hold her! But now that I've accepted the task, i feel that i should help out!" She shouted, resulting in Midori waking up from her slumber.

"Inomata-chan, Hush!, you're being too loud!" Whisper-shouted Mitsuki, but it was too late. Midori cried. The blonde girl took the baby girl from Kashima and tried to hush her, Kashima too tried to calm her down.

"It's okay, Midori-chan! Don't be afraid! Don't be afraid!" When he said that, Mitsuki looked at him with a look, saying,'You're going to make Inomata offended!' Which makes Inomata offend the way he tries to calm the baby, making Mitsuki panicked and flail her arms in a panicking way.

"What is that supposed to mean?!" But she got poke with Toy sword by Taka behind him the other kids except Kotaro.

"You Villain!"

"You'll pay this time!"

"We're gonna beat you up!"

"Get her!!" The kids shouted, Inomata grits her teeth and glared them.

"Who are you calling a villain?!" She asks with her scary glare.

The kids face paled and ran to the back of their table. Some of them went under the table. Mitsuki noticed that Inomata eyes were getting teary and feeling guilty.

Mitsuki called the kids over "Kids come here, Let's all tell Inomata-san we're sorry. It's kinda our fault," Mitsuki said, gesturing her hand to them to come to her.

"I don't want them to apologize because they were forced to, but i suppose this is hard on you two, too." Inomata, look down.

"Having to care for such disobedient children... you two must not have any proper free time. It's truly pitiable." Mitsuki smiled tiredly, almost dozing off, but managed to keep stay awake.

"Hey, they're not disobedient, and that's not true, being with with these kids had been a lot of fun for us all."

"It's been a lot of fun for both my brother and me" continue Ryuuichi, suddenly Inomata grits her teeth and a panda pillow and it hit square in Ryuuichi face when drops down Mitsuki took it and hugged it, she's also getting a bit sleepy.

"Don't you give me that triumphant smile! Yes, i know! You guys are not pitiable at all! Look at how much" Mitsuki didn't hear much because of how tired she is." She fell back with the pillow and fell asleep.

Inomata keeps throwing the pillows to Ryuuichi, he protect the kids from getting hit by Inomata by the pillows.

The kids went to Inomata with teary eyes, and they ended up crying together . They fell asleep together, and Kamitani went back to the daycare to see the kids, Inomata and Mitsuki, asleep.

Ryuuichi noticed he's back and asked if Usaida was alright. It turns out Usaida faked it so Ryuuichi, Inomata, and Mitsuki could know each other and make up.

"Ano..Kamitani, uh..Kanzaki-san fell asleep. Can you carry her to the kids and lay her there? You don't want her to catch cold, right?"

Hayato gets down and puts one arm under her legs and one arm behind her back. He brings her to the kids , lays her there, and covers her body with the blanket.

"So you can be romantic after all." Usaida commented, amused at the action he had just witnessed.

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Mitsuki wakes up to see the others eating beside her. Not even 5 seconds later, Inomata bolts up next to her. "Hey! What time is it?"

Mitsuki looks at the clock, which it shows it already has lunchtime.

"It's lunch time, Maria-chan," yawn Mitsuki made Inomata panicked, and she never missed a class without permission! She blushed after being called her first name, Mitsuki rubbed her eyes to get rid of her sleepiness. "You don't mind if I call you Maria-chan, right?"

"We tried to wake you, but you just kept sleeping. The same goes as you Mitsuki-san," Ryuuichi said while munching his lunch.

Mitsuki looks at Hayato, and she feels there's something awfully familiar with his lunch box, then it hit her hard it was her bento box.

"AAAAA Hayato-chan, that's my lunchbox!!!" She crawled and took her bento box while pouting, Hayato just kept munching the food in his mouth.

"It's good, you can just eat my lunch in return" Hayato said casually giving her his bento box which Mitsuki take it and started to eat it happily, who doesn't love to eat anyway.

"By the way Mitsuki-chan, I'm still considering your ban." Usaida told her, causing her to drop her head.

"OK..." Inomata looked at her confused whatever Usaida was talking about. Mitsuki, who noticed Inomata's stealing glances to her, decided to tell her what she's missing. "Oh, I'm currently banned from coming her at the moment."

"I didn't even ask!" Inomata said with her face red, slightly embarrassed that Mitsuki knows what she's thinking of.

"W-why are you banned for anyway?" Inomata asks her.

"My grades are dropping." Mitsuki told her as if it was a normal thing.

"HOW CAN YOU BE SO RELAX!?"

"I'm not. My face just looks like this." Mitsuki looks straight to Inomata's eyes her with complete blank but deep inside if full screaming and fire of destruction due to stress.

"Y-you can come with me to the library if you need help. I'll try to help with whatever question you have." Inomata muttered to her. The red hue started to rise to her face.

"Are you serious, Maria-chan?" Mitsuki asked her with enthusiasm and sparkles.

"DONT CALL ME THAT!"

"Aww, why not? It's cute! Maria-chan!"

"Quit it!"

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៚ · 💌 | 🌙
-K0DZUKENN

I edited this, more chapters to go
(06/06/2024)