Hanayo waited eagerly in the classroom after school. She scheduled herself for after school lessons to help herself out in the long run. There was a new teacher in the school who was rumored to be the best at math which Hanayo had trouble with. She scheduled to meet with this teacher today so she waited.

Hanayo stared out of the window and watched students walking home with their friends. She wished she could walk home with Rin like she used to everyday, but ever since Rin joined the Track & Field club they haven't had the chance to.

The doors to the classroom slid open and a short girl in nice clothing walked in. Her hair was tied with a scrunchie and hung over her shoulder, she was wearing red glasses and carried a folder with her.

"Are you Koizumi Hanayo?" the girl asked.

"Umm yes, who are you?" she asked in return.

The girl walked over to the podium and stood behind it. She was slightly taller than it and made her look smaller than she already was. She slapped the folder on top of it and extended something that looked like a pen into a long pointer.

"I am your new math teacher, ,"

"E-ehhh...?" Hanayo stared in disbelief, this girl claiming to be her teacher was way... smaller than she anticipated.

"A-are you really the teacher?" Hanayo asked hesitantly.

Nico smacked her pointer against the board, "Of course I am the teacher, what are you trying to say?!"

Hanayo jumped and brought her hands up to show peace, "N-Nothing! I was just expecting you to look different."

"The way I look doesn't govern my intelligence," Nico shrunk her pointer and walked over to Hanayo, her heels clicked until they came to a stop in front of the girl, "Let's begin our lesson."

She walked back to the board and grabbed a piece of chalk to start writing on it. Hanayo watched as the teacher could only reach a maximum height on the board. She was so distracted with seeing her new teacher struggle to write in a straight line that she didn't see the problem on the board being written out.

"Can you answer this?" Nico asked.

Hanayo broke out of her daze and looked at the problem presented in front of her. It was ridiculously long and had a mix of letters and numbers, "Uhh..."

Nico waited for Hanayo to answer and crossed her arms, soon enough she started tapping her foot to fill the silence of the room.

"...I don't know..." Hanayo hung her head in defeat and Nico sighed.

"If you can't find an answer, then admit it right away, that way I can see what you're struggling with. Tell me what's wrong?" Nico walked over to Hanayo.

"Well, I don't understand most of this..." Hanayo said sadly.

Nico erased it and put a smaller version of the problem on the board, "Try doing the math now," she demanded.

Hanayo jumped and tried to do the math in her head. She felt something thin hit the top of her head and she looked up, "It is impressive to do mental math, but it will get you nowhere if you don't get the right answer, take out a notebook."

Hanayo scrambled through her bag and pulled out her math notebook. She smacked it onto her desk and opened it to an empty page.

"Okay, first write down the problem," Nico instructed.

Hanayo did as she was told and wrote down the problem.

"This is a very simple problem once you know exactly what it is that you have to do. You're trying to find X in this problem and you already have all the numbers you need to solve it," Nico explained.

Hanayo analyzed the problem closely, "What do I do?"

"You have to get X on one side of the problem, do you know how to do that?" Nico asked.

"Umm... divide by X?" Hanayo guessed.

Nico leaned in closer and used her finger to help guide Hanayo, "You should remember y=mx+b, and the equation here is 86=10x+6."

Hanayo nodded along as Nico explained it to her, "So what you want to do is subtract 6 from both sides first."

"Why?" she asked.

"Because what you do to one side, you must do to the other," Nico answered, "Now you have 80=10x, this is when you divide. But you don't divide by X, you divide 10 on both sides, so now you get X=8."

"Oh I kind of get it now..." Hanayo spoke to herself.

"So just to make sure the answer is correct, you can plug the number you got just now for X, so 10(8)+6 means 80+6 which is equal to 86," Nico finished her explanation.

"Oooh that makes a lot of sense!" Hanayo cheered, "Give me more practice problems."

Nico smiled and went back to the board to write more problems for Hanayo to practice on. This was how their lessons after school went for the entire year.

When it came time for final exams, Hanayo was more than excited to find out that she passed her math section of the exam flawlessly. She cheered and went out to celebrate with her long time friend Rin.

"Rin! Can you believe it? I actually passed math!" Hanayo smiled brightly.

Rin was surprised, "Yeah you did, and not only that but you scored the highest marks in our graduating class."

Hanayo nodded, "It's all thanks to !"

"You've been talking nonstop about her all year, do I sense a crush?" Rin teased.

Hanayo gasped and blushed which left Rin in awe, "Wait seriously? I was just joking but... You really like ?"

Hanayo shrunk herself as much as she could and hid her blush behind her hands which didn't really help much either way. She nodded sheepishly and looked away from Rin thinking that she might be judging her disapprovingly.

"Well I kinda suspected it, but I guess that throws my suspicions out the window," Rin leaned forward and used her hands as a head rest, "So are you going to tell her how you feel?"

"Rin?!" Hanayo reached out and desperately tried to silence her loud friend, "T-There's no way I can do that, she's a teacher..."

"So? Isn't only like... 22 or 23 years old?" Rin pointed out.

"I can't enter a forbidden relationship like that!" Hanayo yelled.

"If you love her, and you're in reasonable age range, why not just for it?" Rin shrugged.

"But I'm not even 18 and graduated yet..." Hayano replied.

Rin brought her hands up and laid back against her chair, "So confess to her on graduation day."

"B-but... that's still a year away," Hanayo replied.

"Then you have one year to get your thoughts through and figure out if you really love or not," Rin played it off all casually while Hanayo was in a small panic mode. Rin was right about one thing though, if Hanayo gave it one more year she could figure out if this is just a small infatuation, or real love.

She decided to wait until graduation day to get everything sorted out.

The early morning air was crisp and the birds chirping created a serene atmosphere on the walk to school. Hanayo walked along the side of her long time friend Rin and the two of them smiled as they took note of every detail they passed by.

This was the last day that they would walk together to the same school. Hanayo got accepted to a university in Tokyo to study teaching while Rin is headed off overseas to train in Canada for a spot in the Japanese Official Olympics team for track & field.

They made their way to the graduation ceremony and sat alongside their long time classmates that they grew up with for the past 3 years. Although they may not know each other's names, they do know that they still share a connection by graduating together.

Hanayo watched as underclassmen, faculty and staff surrounded them and paid attention to their principal. There was a short speech by their student council president and the ceremony was ended with applause from the students, parents and teachers.

Hanayo got up and looked around in search of Nico. She spotted the small woman and weaved through the crowd to get to her. After a few minutes of struggling past her graduating classmates and congratulating underclassmen, she arrived in front of Nico.

"I'm glad to see that you were able to graduate, Hanayo," Nico congratulated the young girl and smiled.

"I wouldn't have been able to do it without your lessons," Hanayo smiled back before her face became serious, " , I have something that I need to tell you, can you follow me?"

Nico nodded and followed Hanayo around to the back of the school, "What is it Hanayo?"

She took a deep breath before speaking from her heart, "After all the time we spent together, I have fallen for you, . I know you probably don't feel the same way and only see me as a student, but I just needed to get this out before I regret it."

Nico stared at the girl in shock and waited until she caught her breath. She smiled gently and pat Hanayo's head, "I'm flattered that you feel that way about me, but I'm afraid that I can't return your feelings."

Hanayo glanced up and smiled, "I expected that much from you," she wiped away the little tears that formed up, "Thank you for everything, , I hope we can see each other again one day."

4 years have passed since she had graduated and Hanayo stood in front of the school once again. Her hair was slightly longer and she went back to wearing glasses. The effort she put into studying to become a teacher in Tokyo paid off and now here she was, standing in front of the place that inspired her to be one.

She took a step past the gates and watched as numerous students laid eyes on her. She wore a one piece yellow dress with white bows on the side and where her collar was.

She walked down the hallways as the bell rang and students rushed to get to their classes. She stopped in front of a classroom labeled 2-B and took a deep breath before sliding the door open.

When she slid the door open, she saw a teacher standing at the podium, just about to begin class. They made eye contact and smiled,

"Hello, I'm your new assistant teacher, it's a pleasure to work with you again, ."