"Does everyone know what day it is today?" the chemistry teacher asked.

"I know!" a girl raised her hand.

"Okay, Yamamoto, please tell us."

"It's the first day of Gemini!"

Laughter filled the classroom, and the good-natured chemistry teacher joined in with a chuckle.

"Is that so? I'm not really into zodiac signs. On this day in history, May 21, 1786, the Swedish chemist Carl Wilhelm Scheele passed away. Remember that, everyone."

"Teacher!" Kunii Shuichi called out loudly, "You don't just Google this before class every time, do you? Admit you didn't know it yourself."

"Caught red-handed, Kunimi, come to the blackboard and write the reaction formula from memory."

"Eh—"

"Hahaha!"

"Don't just laugh, everyone. You're not allowed to look at your books while you report the chemical formulas. Kunimi, you're writing from memory. If there's anything missing at the end, the whole class will copy the formula ten times."

"No way."

"Ugh."

There was reluctance, yet everyone was eager to try.

With the whole class working together, there couldn't possibly be anything missing, right?

"Kunimi, stop looking at your book and come up here," the chemistry teacher urged.

Chalk in hand, he was ready to pass it to Kunii Shuichi.

The jovial chemistry class began, with the teacher restricting students from looking at their books but turning a blind eye to their low murmurs of discussion all around.

Dubien Che seized the opportunity to turn around and chat with the two young ladies.

"There's only one week left until our mountain climbing camping trip. I'm getting more and more excited."

"What's there to be excited about? It's just hiking and then sleeping outdoors, isn't it?" Jiutiao Meijie said.

Her expression was listless, with the superior air of someone who always looked down on others, yet today her eyes were watery with a teasing charm.

On Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, those three days Dubien Che spent at the 'Shinbashi' villa with her and they really had a ball.

"Going by your logic, Meijie," Dubien Che, with his back to everyone, smirked, "Soccer, basketball, almost all sports would lose their meaning."

"They're meaningless to begin with." Kiyono Lin's delicate and beautiful face was slightly sullen, "I don't see the point in running fifty meters."

Jiutiao Meijie scoffed.

She had thoroughly humiliated Kiyono Lin during the earlier PE class.

If one didn't know the backstory and only witnessed that moment, they might think it was school bullying.

And Dubien Che, who then stood by watching for fun, might be taken as an accomplice—though, in fact, he wanted Kiyono Lin to feel ashamed and become determined to overcome her dislike for sports.

"I'm also starting to look forward to the climb," Jiutiao Meijie said cheerfully to Kiyono Lin.

"I admit I'm not as athletic as you, just like I recognize you're not as smart as I am," Kiyono Lin retorted with a cold laugh.

Beneath the desk, her pleated skirt revealed her calves.

She wore black stockings today, beautifully and smoothly encasing her calf muscles.

"Ah~" Jiutiao Meijie mimicked Kiyono Lin's way of speaking, "So you think a few marks on a test denote intelligence, that's where you believe you're smarter than me."

Her 'Ah~' was irresistibly alluring, making Dubien Che's heart itch as he remembered the sweet sound of her voice in the bedroom.

He took Jiutiao Meijie's slender hand and, had it not been for the classroom setting, would have loved to kiss it.

Jiutiao Meijie glanced at Dubien Che.

Their eyes met, each filled with tenderness and affection.

"Kunimi, your chalk writing is ugly as sin!" From the front of the classroom, Saito Huijie's taunting voice was heard.

"Shut up!" Kunii Shuichi bellowed.

"Hahaha!" The classroom erupted in laughter.

Kiyono Lin's intended words were drowned by the laughter.

"The reaction of iron oxide with dilute hydrochloric acid," said the class president.

"The reaction of iron oxide with dilute sulfuric acid," Saito Huijie chimed in.

"The reactions of copper oxide with dilute hydrochloric acid, dilute sulfuric acid," Dubien Che, not wanting to be left out, said while pinching Jiutiao Meijie's hand.

"Do you think I'm a computer? Slow down!"

More laughter ensued.

The chemistry teacher looked at Dubien Che and said, "Mr. Dubien, you take over for Kunimi."

"Long live the teacher!" Kunii Shuichi immediately applauded, not even putting down his chalk.

"Teacher, I know them all, I don't need to," Dubien Che tried to dodge.

"How will I know you know them if you don't write them? Get up there."

The girls in the class giggled, once again openly able to stare at Mr. Dubien.

"Teacher, I want to report," Dubien Che raised his hand, "Just now, Kiyono and Jiutiao were arguing, should they write…ouch, Meijie, you…"

Jiutiao Meijie had kicked him under the table.

"Ahahaha! Dubien, you're under the thumb!"

"How embarrassing, Dubien!"

The sky was blue and clear, with a perfect breeze gently rustling the classroom curtains.

The silhouetted oak tree shadows angled across the floor, birds perched among the verdant leaves.

With the room bathed in light from the windows, Dubien Che was scribing furiously on the blackboard, while his classmates, amidst laughter, read out one chemical formula after another.

Time flew in mirth, and soon it was the end of the month. Tomorrow would be the day of departure: May twenty-eighth.

On the twenty-seventh, Dubien Che was still enjoying dinner in room 501.

After the meal, Xiaoquan Aonai saw him to the door—they wouldn't see each other for three days.

The corridor between rooms 501 and 502 was decorated with a few potted plants, the evening sun streaming in from the windows at the end of the hallway.

"Teacher."

"Hm?"

"May I hold you for a while?" Dubien Che moved closer at a leisurely pace.

"Dubien? Don't do this, we're in the hallway," Xiaoquan Aonai whispered in rejection, retreating until she could go no further, her back against the wall.

"Teacher."

"Akiko and the others..."

"They're doing the dishes."

"They'll come out."

"Teacher, haven't you noticed?" Dubien Che's hands were propped against the wall on either side of Xiaoquan Aonai's head, speaking softly near her ear.

There was only a palm's width of space between them.

"What, what am I supposed to notice?" Xiaoquan Aonai shrank her shoulders.

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