Cleaning Duty
“Sanada, sorry but, I leave the rest to you!”
“Sorry, I can’t be late to club!”
So on and so forth, the four boys and girls from my cla.s.s all made some sort of excuse as they left once after school came. It seems all of them wanted to skip out on cleaning duty, and even though there were supposed to be six people, the last person was nowhere to be found. Well, my guess is they went home.
Still, it would be hard to clean the cla.s.sroom alone. I’ll just finish this up quickly and go home.
“Sanadkun, you’re alone?”
With a bright voice, Hiiragi-chan came into the cla.s.sroom.
“Yeah, it’s just as you see it.”
“You’re really doing your best.”
“… When school’s over, aren’t you normally working in the staff room?”
“Don’t be so cold. I saw that Sanadkun ended up alone, so I was wondering whether you were lonely.”
I didn’t want to work hard on this, before I was even able to follow through with the plan, I was stopped. Even if I wanted to skip, I can’t anymore. It can’t be helped. I can only seriously do the cleaning.
It didn’t seem like Hiiragi-chan intended to help, as she had brought her laptop onto the teacher’s desk, and started to do work.
“Sorry, I’m a little backed up on work. I really wanted to help though.”
“No, it’s okay.”
After moving the desks, I began to use the broom to sweep the floor. Hiiragi-chan was unusually quiet, as she took glances at me, and and tapped away at her laptop in order to enter something. It really feels like she’s doing work. Every once in a while, she would go hmmmm or mmmm as she made a slightly troubled face and continued her work.
“The sound of my cleaning, isn’t it a little noisy?”
“It’s okay. Don’t worry about it. It’s fine for there to be a bit of noise.”
So she says.
“Inside the staff room, there’s always the voices of people talking and students coming and going, making it surprisingly loud.”
While speaking her hands never stopped. It was quiet after school. From far away, the m.u.f.fled sound of music from the band could be heard. Adding onto that was the sound of keys being pressed. Light from the western sun came in from the hallway, dying the cla.s.sroom in an amber color.
As Hiiragi-chan was concentrating on work, she made a face that I didn’t recognize as she stared at the screen. For me, I had only known Hiiragi-chan as she was in cla.s.s, or as my lover, but seeing this side of her was refreshing.
“What is it? Sei—Sanadkun, you keep looking over here.”
“It’s nothing. It’s just, I thought it was nice.”
“What is?”
“Sensei working her hardest.”
“… D-don’t try to seduce me.”
Hiiragi-chan hid behind the screen.
The rule between HIiragi-chan and I basically meant that being in lover mode in a closed setting was alright. Other than that, we would be in teacher and student mode. There was no telling when or where someone was listening. The cla.s.sroom was on the second floor, but it wasn’t like it couldn’t be seen from the staff room. As such, we were currently in teacher and student mode.
“… D-did you end up falling in love?”
After Hiiragi-chan peeked out and met eyes with me, she lifted her screen up to use as a shield.
“If that was the case, what would Sensei do?”
“…. Me too… I’ll… no, I’m a teacher.”
With a mature voice, Hiiragi-chan reproached me.
“Why?”
“I mean, I already have a boyfriend.”
She looked at me with upturned eyes.
“I see. That’s too bad.”
Understanding what was going on, I made a big show of dropping my shoulders.
“Yeah. Sorry. You should really give up. … I really like him.”
The sound of keys being pushed stopped, it seems like she was awaiting my response.
“What do you like about him?”
“That, I’ll tell you after you finish cleaning.”
After cleaning the back half of the room, I started cleaning the front half of the room. Hiiragi-chan, whose face was slightly red, once again started to concentrate on work Since it was bad for me to bother her, I moved my hands in order to finish the cleaning faster.
“Sanadkun, what type of person do you like?”
“Me? … Asking me again is a little bit troublesome…”
“Troublesome?”
It didn’t seem Hiiragi-chan got the answer she wanted as she pursed her lips.
“A person who’s good at cooking.”
“Yes yes, and?”
“A person who does her best, but is sometimes airheaded. I think someone like that would be cute.”
“I’m not really airheaded…”
“I’m talking about my type of person, remember? Sensei.”
“T-that’s right.”
She really isn’t aware that she’s airheaded.
“Then what type of person do you like, Sensei?”
“I’ll tell you after you finish cleaning.”
I didn’t reach every single nook and cranny of the room, but once I roughly went over the whole room, I returned the desks and chairs to their original positions.
“Sensei, I finished cleaning. Will you tell me now?”
“Let’s see… if you close the curtains and the door, then maybe it’s okay?”
Seeing her aim, I inadvertently let out a chuckle.
“Is something weird?”
I shook my head to her unhappy question.
The last part of cleaning duty was closing the doors, locking the windows, and closing the curtains. We were still inside, but we locked the door to the hallway. As the only light that came in was from the sunset showing through the small window of the door, the cla.s.sroom became much dimmer.
Hiiragi-chan, who had come to the wall by the hallway, wrapped her arms around my neck.
“What about work?”
“To be honest, I was already done, and there was never any to start.”
“But, what did you type into the laptop all this time…”
“A typing game.”
“What did you come to the cla.s.sroom for?”
“I saw Seiji-kun from the staff room, so I came to take a peek. And, I noticed you were alone, so it just ended up like that.”
“And so, you ended up waiting until now, when I finished with cleaning?”
“That’s right ♪”
With teasing eyes, Hiiragi-chan loosened her mouth.
“Then… the continuation of the previous topic, do you want me to tell you?”
“Yeah. Please do.”
Putting her hands on my shoulders, Hiiragi-chan stood on her tiptoes. As our line of sight reached the same height, our lips approached and brushed against each other. Hugging me at the waist, we kissed three times.
At a close distance where the reflection of each other’s faces could be seen in the other person’s eyes, she made an embarra.s.sed smile.
“… I really do love you.”
Before I could say anything, she continued on with the next request. While raising her chin, she stuck out her lips, and closed her eyes. This time she was waiting. … Somehow, it seemed really cute, so I just continued to watch her face.
“….??”
Unable to wait any longer, Hiiragi-chan opened her eyes.
“Wait, why are you just looking? Don’t you understand, what should be happening right now!? It was such a nice mood too.”
She proclaimed while hitting me..
“Mou, really, there’s always this side to you, Seiji-kun. Acting like you can’t read the mood in order to tease me a bit.”
As she was looking at me with an angry expression, I lowered my eyebrows.
“That’s why… you shouldn’t keep me waiting…?”
My G.o.ddess was too cute, so this time, I came in with a kiss of my own. A second time, a third time, and just as we were about to continue, we ended up separating.
“What’s wrong/”
“Work. You actually do have some, right?”
“How did you know…?”
“If it was a typing game, you wouldn’t be making such a troubled face.”
Bleh, she stuck out her tongue a little bit.
“I was found out… In reality, I came to replenish myself of Seiji-kun.”
“Good luck on your work.”
“Yeah.”
In the end, I gave her a kiss on the cheek. Hiiragi-chan, who turned around happily picked up her laptop. She unlocked the door and walked out, and then we returned to being teacher and student.
“Sensei, see you tomorrow.”
“Yeah, see you tomorrow.”
Well, finishing the cleaning by myself isn’t that bad, so I thought.