Free Web NovelChapter 86: Aoi Umi Dormitory
"So I was right, huh," Kaori muttered to herself while pointing her finger at Megumi. "You were really thinking about someone, huh... is he in our class? Is he handsome?" The first few words came out as mutterings but the questions that followed were like bullets that pierced through Megumi’s heart.
"Kaori, you shouldn’t do that. One question at a time." Shizuka lightly scolded her before turning her head towards Megumi.
The two of them stared at Megumi for a couple of seconds, pressuring her into spilling the tea.
Megumi turned away, her clear reflection bouncing on the window panes. And Hajime, who was seated right behind her, could see her expression as well, forcing him to turn away so Megumi won’t say anything. He could already hear Megumi’s voice telling him ’what are you looking at?’ before he even turned away. Fortunately, such a comment didn’t come since he averted his gaze in the nick of time.
"Come on, tell us, tell us," Kaori continued, but Megumi was just too adamant about telling them anything.
.....
Hajime fell asleep midway through the trip and only woke up when the sunlight of noontime hit him straight in the face. It was like a straight punch on his nose due to how intense the sunlight was and since the bus was airconditioned, the warmth he felt was scalding to the face.
With a gasp, Hajime woke up and bolted upright. Simultaneously, the bus stopped after finally arriving at its destination.
Silence filled the bus for the first time throughout the trip as the eager students waited for Akamine-sensei’s instructions. They were aware that it would only take more time if they were noisy so they allowed Akamine-sensei to speak before they let their enthusiasm get the better of them.
"Right, attention everyone," As soon as the bus steadied, Akamine-sensei stood up and clapped her hands twice to garner everyone’s attention. Making sure that everyone was staring at her, Akamine-sensei then cleared her throat before she proceeded to give her instructions.
"This is where we’ll be staying— Aoi Umi Dormitory— a dormitory which is in partnership with our school." Akamine-sensei began, pointing outside where the dormitory stood. "The owner would direct you to your rooms and just to remind everyone, the dormitory is divided into two. The entire left-wing belongs to the young ladies, and the right belongs to the guys. Well, I don’t think any of you would forget that so..."
"... if I catch anyone crossing the wrong side of the dormitory... he or she will stay in the dorm during free time as punishment." Akamine-sensei twirled her thumbs before nodding at the bus driver.
The bus driver got her message and he unlatched the door open after nodding at Akamine-sensei.
"All right, everyone, unpack your luggage. Meet-up time will be an hour from now for lunch. And then we’ll have a brief orientation. Our school trip will start tomorrow, that’s why we allotted enough time so you’d get the details of the school trip. Once we start the school trip tomorrow, I’m hoping that you all know what to do, all right?"
"Yes, ma’am," Everyone responded. freewebnσvel.cøm
"For now, you have an hour to unpack and freshen up. Then we’ll have lunch, then the orientation, and then free time." Akamine-sensei said, emphasizing her tone on the last two words since that’s what everyone was looking for.
Excusing herself, Akamine-sensei headed inside Aoi Umi Dormitory and greeted the owner— a lady in her late forties with grey hair and a stocky build. She gently greeted Akamine-sensei before proceeding to grab a couple of bed sheets by the storage. It seems like she wasn’t done prepping the rooms where all the students would be staying.
"Let’s go, Megumi," Kaori invited, grabbing her by the hand and dragging her out of the bus ahead of everyone else. She had been looking forward to spending a school trip with Megumi and that excitement was on full display. "Whoa, that’s a huge dormitory." She continued.
And indeed it was. Even though this wasn’t the first time they laid eyes on the dormitory (as stated before, the Aoi Umi Dormitory is in partnership with Dai Yama High School) they still couldn’t believe the sheer size of it. It was like a huge medical facility— its size a tad smaller compared to hospitals.
The Dormitory went way back. After all, the first owner of the Aoi Umi Dormitory was a close friend of the headmaster of the school and they were the ones who arranged the partnership. With this, a school trip to Tokyo wouldn’t be impossible and since then, the dormitory was used as a temporary boarding house even on previous school trips to Tokyo.
"Gather around, everyone," Kichiro put both his hands on his back as he slightly raised the volume of his voice. He was the leader of the group and he didn’t dislike it at all. It was fun acting as the leader even though he can’t order everyone around. Just the mere notion of being ahead of someone gave Kichiro a sense of pride. "Once we unpack our things, I’ll bring you to a pretty good place haha~!" He continued.
"ALL RIGHT! Let’s goooo!" Shoichi screamed before they all headed inside the dormitory.
They do have one hour to kill before lunch and orientation. If they want to, they could roam around the neighborhood— this was what most of the students planned to do so they could make the most out of the school trip.
As for Hajime, he could already feel the exhaustion plaguing his body as he realized that they were a day early for the school trip. ’Why did they advertise it as two days and one night when it was in fact three days and two nights including the time or arrival?’ Hajime sighed but it’s not like he had the right to complain. ’I’m not paid enough to do this.’ Hajime said to himself.
From the corner of the common area stood Akamine-sensei who was keenly watching each of her students. Seeing that Hajime was slouching once again, implicating that he was already exhausted, Akamine-sensei decided to come up to him and give him a little boost of energy by patting him on the back.
"Come on, Hajime. At least pretend to enjoy the school trip." Akamine-sensei continued, giving Hajime a warm smile just as she did back then.
