Mid-March. The graduation season at Advanced Nurturing High School.
Another year's graduation season had arrived. The cherry trees along the road had bloomed brilliantly, and when the wind lightly brushed past, countless petals fluttered down like falling snow, drifting thickly as if in a dream.
In the auditorium, surprisingly, it was no longer Principal Sakayanagi and Tsukishiro overseeing things. Instead, the two of them were seated together, calling more than ten students up one by one to receive their graduation certificates.
And the first to be called, naturally, were the students of Third-Year Class A, followed by the class leader of Third-Year Class A, Chabashira Sae. She was quietly watching this scene, unable to keep from sighing softly.
This scene was something she had longed for her whole life. The students in her class—on the stairs, off the stairs, all of them—were cheering, "Yukio! Ryuen, that little monster, only has one term left! Too bad Kushida has one term left too! If she'd always been here, he would've stayed Class A's class leader forever."
Sitting beside Chabashira, Chie leaned over to look at the graduation ceremony, where they were finally graduating under the spotlight. Her eyes were hidden behind black sunglasses, and she did not dare to miss a single moment of this scene—her students successfully graduating from Class A.
How many years had she dreamed of this scene? How many years had she held onto it? Ever since graduating from Advanced Nurturing High School herself, she had become a teacher here. Counting it all together, she had already waited twenty-five years!
How many twenty-five years could a person have in their life?
For this scene, how many bitter nights had she spent tossing and turning? How many long, lonely years had she endured?
It had not been easy. Truly, it had not been easy.
By the time all the students of Third-Year Class A had finished receiving their certificates, Chabashira was finally able to relax completely. In a soft voice, she murmured to herself, "Chi… Chie… do you see this? Do you see? We… we, Class D, finally… finally graduated from Class A!"
It was only a few quiet words to herself, yet Chabashira's dazzling smile was still broken by tears. Tears rolled down uncontrollably. After waiting so long—truly, she had waited for this scene for so long.
The sins and responsibilities from fifteen years ago had finally been washed clean. She had finally made up for her mistake. The heart that had once been sealed in layers upon layers of heavy shackles was finally freed in this moment.
The unprecedented freedom and relief that Chabashira felt were like a weightless burden she had carried for fifteen years finally shattering overnight. From that point on, the darkness of those days no longer bound her.
"Haha, Chabashira-sensei, look, we really did… Chabashira-sensei? Chabashira-sensei, why are you crying? Are you okay?"
"Say what you want. Chabashira-sensei is so strict… Sensei? Sensei, don't scare us. What's wrong?"
"Sensei, do you need anything? Who has a handkerchief or tissues? Hurry, hurry, give Chabashira-sensei one!"
"No." Chabashira turned around and wiped away her tears first, then reached out to her students, signaling that she was fine and that they did not need to be nervous. It was only an emotional moment.
Seeing that, the students relaxed too. "Oh, Chabashira-sensei, those are tears of joy! Haha, actually, we're super excited too. We graduated from Class A! Thinking back to three years ago, when we first found out Advanced Nurturing High School was this intense, I almost didn't dare imagine it."
"Hahaha, right? But we really have to thank Chabashira-sensei. Without you, we definitely wouldn't have made it this far!"
"For the past three years, whenever we ran into those special exams, Chabashira-sensei was the one coming up with plans, encouraging us, or pointing things out to us. Otherwise, if we'd been relying on ourselves, what could we have done? Haha!"
Listening to the words of the students from her own Class D, Chabashira's heart trembled. Right, right. She could not keep crying like this.
She had to report the good news to him!
Three years ago, after Yukio's class graduated and left the school, Hoshinomiya had left with him as well.
At the time, Yukio had left Chabashira his phone, the one capable of contacting the outside world. He had not taken it with him.
Because Yukio knew that once he and Hoshinomiya left, no one at Advanced Nurturing High School would be able to befriend Chabashira. Leaving the phone behind also made it convenient for her to stay in regular contact with him.
How did they stay in contact? Smuggling in a phone? That was only the most basic method. To put it bluntly, sometimes Yukio would have old man Sakayanagi come over to visit.
Chairman Sakayanagi was the old man. Assistant Director Tsukishiro was also the old man. Then Chabashira could go to Advanced Nurturing High School regularly under the excuse of visiting old man Sakayanagi, and there she could have private meetings with Chabashira.
For example, whenever a special exam appeared, Chabashira would also make a call to Advanced Nurturing High School, saying that she wanted to ask Chabashira for guidance. Otherwise, as a heaven-sent connection to Class D, how could she just casually lead them all the way to Class A and graduation?
Thinking of this wonderful thing, Chabashira waved to the students, immediately left the auditorium, and prepared to report the good news to Yukio!
No, it was not just to report the good news. She also wanted… she wanted to ask Yukio whether he could… whether he could come pick her up.
Three years ago, Yukio and Chabashira had made an agreement. He told Chabashira not to worry and to let him handle the D-to-A obsession. Afterward, he would come to Advanced Nurturing High School to pick her up.
Because of that promise, Chabashira did not want to continue going on this path. For this responsibility, for this obsession, she had already wasted twenty-five years.
From now on, every year she had left would be cherished twice as much!
The more Chabashira thought about it, the happier she became. Her heart was leaping so hard it felt like it was going to jump out of her throat. She could no longer hold back. Like a teenage girl who had just graduated from high school, she hugged Yukio's phone close to her chest like a pair of little wings.
After dialing Yukio's number and once again hearing that gentle voice, Chabashira subconsciously began to speak, but then she suddenly found herself unable to say anything.
On the other end, Yukio could hear Chabashira's laughter. "…Still silent? Aren't you coming soon? I'm waiting for you at the gate of Advanced Nurturing High School."
"!" Chabashira suddenly drew in a sharp breath. She could hardly believe what she had heard and wondered if she had fallen into some kind of illusion because she was too excited.
"Stop hesitating." Yukio seemed to see Chabashira's current state through the phone and could not help laughing. "Did you forget? I'm always keeping in touch with Chairman Sakayanagi and Assistant Director Tsukishiro about their busy work."
"I've known for a long time who would be the class leader for this year's graduates and Class A. I came specially to pick up you today."
"Idiot!" Chabashira no longer wanted to keep talking. She hung up and strode away, heading straight out through the school gate!
She ran like a girl, looking awkward and a little funny. Her high heels made the running difficult, and running in them was even more ridiculous, but did Chabashira still care about being playful at a time like this?
She simply kicked one heel off with her left foot and the other with her right, freely sending both high heels flying. Barefoot, she ran wildly down the broad campus path paved with cherry blossoms.
Finally, after sprinting for a while, she saw Yukio standing outside the school gate, smiling at her. Tears once again rose in her amber eyes.
Chabashira did not slow down in the slightest. She kept running forward, breaking through Yukio's open arms and crashing straight into his chest.
Yukio smiled, embracing her as he said, "I've come to pick you up." Before he could say anything else, Chabashira hugged him fiercely and kissed him beneath the cherry-blossom rain, making this the most beautiful and romantic scene of all.
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