Chapter 136 - "Lift Your Heads..."

Hinohara, 8 AM

"SSssss… huuuuu…"

"Ssss…. Huuuuu…."

Yori and Akane are currently in the training yard, facing each other while assuming some sort of a pose that makes their bodies look contorted, while breathing in a unified pattern.

"Good morning, Yori-sensei, Akane-sensei!~" Chihiro cheerfully joins Yori and Akane who are already waiting at the training yard.

"Good morning, Chihiro." Yori and Akane return the greeting at the lively child.

"Wow! You're already at pose 16?! So quick?" Chihiro immediately notice the pose that the two are doing.

The couple has learned the poses relatively easily over the past two weeks since they moved in and has substituted the 16 basic poses to their usual warm-up routine. They were also pleased to find out that the children also do the 16 basic poses everyday which tells them that the children are used to warming up, making their jobs easier.

Chihiro then joins that two and, "Hufff….phh.." with difficulty due to his full belly, assumes the same pose the two are doing, just a step away from them.

"How was breakfast?" Akane asks through an exhale of her basic breathing technique.

"It was delicious!" Chihiro reports with an exhale.

"Ssss.. Hu… The rest are not yet done?" Akane asks.

"No… *inhale*… *exhale* They're slow…" Chihiro pouts as he impatiently looks back at the children's house.

"*Inhale* *Exhale* I know that you are excited to learn how to dance, but you should slow down what you eat. You might get a tummy ache." Akane softly reprimands.

"…Yoshiko-nee said the same thing, but my tummy is strong! Heheh!" Chihiro sticks his tongue out at Akane.

Akane almost shrieks at how cute Chihiro is, but fights it back.

"Don't stick your tongue out. It's rude." She reprimands.

"Sorry-sensei. A habit." Chihiro apologizes immediately.

"It's okay… But you should slow down when eating, okay? You should appreciate the taste more. And it's nice if you finish eating with the others too." Akane tells Chihiro honestly this time.

"… Okay…" Chihiro does not understand what Akane means, but seeing her smile, takes her words to heart.

"…" Yori, looking at Akane being the way she is to Chihiro, feels warmth spread to his chest.

Ever since they officially moved to the hill and started teaching the children dancing two weeks ago, he noticed that Akane's mood has improved drastically and is smiling more often. He knows that just like him, she too, is happy.

Not just because of the scenery of the hill that greets them every morning, or the nice house they are living in, or being able to sleep eight hours a day once again, or being served restaurant-grade meals three times a day. It is because of the sudden turn in their life and their newfound happiness  teaching the enthusiastic children.

He then sees Akane reach out to Chihiro's face and wipe something off of its cheek.

"Jeez. You should be more careful when eating, okay?"

It is moments like these when he finds Akane the most beautiful.

After spending time with the children, he is reminded of why decided to marry Akane in the first place. Not only because he loves her, but also because Akane gave him the dream that he has almost forgot after years of hardship; raising a family one day.

He can only hope that him and Akane can work in the hill for a long time, which might help him achieve his and Akane's dream one day.

"Yori-sensei!" He is pulled out from his daze by a call from Chihiro.

"What, kid?" He subconsciously replies.

" 'What, kid?' … oh, that's cool..." Chihiro mimics Yori.

"…" Yori, seeing Chihiro's impression of him, gets embarrassed. That is because if Chihiro is mimicking him accurately, then he must have looked like a punk to the child .

"Aherm." He also gets a look from his wife.

"I'm sorry. What is it, Chihiro?" He corrects himself immediately.

"Your jacket looks awesome!" Chihiro points at Yori's oversized baseball jacket.

"Thank you." Yori nods but inside, he cannot help but shake his head.

Ever since he entered the hill, he always felt underdressed. He has also seen how the children would play roughly and recklessly while wearing their quality kimonos, which he finds hard to watch.

"But… Are you freezing? Your jacket looks thick and hot." Chihiro asks.

"Akane-sensei too…" The child also points at Akane's jacket.

"…" Akane and Yori exchange looks.

It is already in the third week of November and the weather has gotten colder and this morning is the coldest yet of the month.

Because there is no insulated indoor practice room in the hill, and that they have to teach outside in the training yard, they are forced to wear thicker clothes.

The two are jealous of the inhabitants of the hill because they immediately noticed that the servants, Yoshiko and Kotone, and even the children seem to not feel the cold, just like the non-superiori they know.

"We are non-superiori so we are weaker than you." Yori tells Chihiro without much thought.

"W…. hoa…"

The couple then see Chihiro's eyes go wide as saucers and his jaw slack open.

"..." The two of them suddenly realize what Yori just said, and they fear that Chihiro is some sort of a young bigot.

"I'm jok-" Before Yori can take back his accidental confession, "Really? Me too!" Chihiro exclaims.

"What?"

"Huh?"

Akane and Yori are surprised by this.

"I'm a non-superioris too! So are Ran, Osamu, Taishiro, and Kanon!" Chihiro confirms.

"…" Akane and Yori look at each other in confusion.

They have witnessed together and talked about each other how the children seem to not run out of energy and can play and dance for hours on end without getting tired.

"That's awesome! You are just like Yoshiko-sensei! She's smarter than many superiori, but she's not one. And you two are great dancers and are cooler than superiori dancers! This is so cool!" Chihiro starts gushing over Akane and Yori.

"…" The couple is speechless.

They do not know if Chihiro is joking, mocking them, or being honest, and they do not know how to react.

"I have to tell the others!" Chihiro says before rushing back inside the children's house.

"What on earth…" "I know…" Yori and Akane exchange worried looks.

A few moments later, the children all start filtering out of their house, to the training yard, joining the dancers.

"Akane-sensei! You're a non-superioris too?" Ran, who Akane has been the most attached to, asks the dancer.

"'Y-Yes…" Akane answers, but is confused of Ran's enthusiastic reaction.

"Really?" Ran asks as she leans closer, just to be sure.

"Yes. I guess." Akane cannot help but be carried away by the momentum of how Ran asked the question.

"Wow! I'm a non-superioris too! … can I dance as well as you someday?" Ran starts hopping in place.

"O-of course… If it's someone like you, sure…" Akane answers with her mind spinning in confusion.

"Yori-san, is it true?"

"Are you really not a superioris?"

Yori is not faring any better, being double teamed by Osamu and Taishiro.

A few moments later, "EVERYONE?" Roku, one of the demon babysitters, who came upon the scene, takes everyone's attention.

"Take it easy on your teachers, please?" She asks of the kids.

"Yes-!" The kids immediately take the babysitter who they deem as the strictest, seriously.

"I can't believe it…" Roku sighs.

"Akane-san, Yori-san, I think it's best if you go back in your house for now." She then tells the couple.

"…" The children are about to protest, but Roku's stern stare shuts them up.

"…" Akane and Yori are stunned by the order.

They immediately figure that the situation is much more serious than they thought. They feel that Roku is not speaking to them as a babysitter, but as a senior or a superior.

"Please. Stay in your living rooms until further notice." Roku urges them.

"Very well." Yori and Akane can only follow the order.

...

"Are we gonna get fired for this?" Akane asks in worry as soon as she and Yori sit down on their couch.

"Can't be, right? It wasn't in the contract." Yori tries to assure, but he too is uncertain basing on the oddity that had just occurred.

"Let's relax for now. Let's do the breathing technique together." He says to distract himself and Akane.

"Okay…" Akane nods.

The two were quick to notice the benefits of the breathing technique just in their first day of practicing it. While it is not enough to ease their worry currently, they hope it will help.

The two are about to execute the breathing technique when, "… Oh…" "… yeah …" they notice that they have been doing the basic breathing technique without realizing it.

"What do we do now, babe?"

"I don't know."

The couple can only exchange bitter smiles.

They decide to simply sit in silence, to prepare for whatever is about to come.

A few anxious minutes later, *Knock* *knock* the two are startled, hearing the knock on their door.

After taking one more repetition of the basic breathing technique, Yori stands up to open it.

"Hello there. Good morning."

"S-sir."

"Kichirou-san."

The couple is surprised to see Red who they have rarely seen in the past two weeks.

"Excuse me." Red says before entering.

"It's your house, sir…" Yori says without much thought, now knowing else what to say.

"But you guys are living in it." Red smirks as he goes to stand in the middle of the living room.

"I like what you've done with the place." He says as he looks around, pleased to see that the bare living room, even when the minimalist Gin was living in the house, now has more personality due to how the couple decorated the place.

"Y-Yes." Unlike Red who looks relaxed, the couple get nervous, misinterpreting Red's words as the final words they hear before getting kicked out.

Yori suddenly stands in front of Red and, "S-sir, I was careless. I apologize." bows to his waist.

"We're sorry." Akane too joins beside Yori and follows his example.

"Sorry for what?" The two hear Red's mellow voice but they still do not look up from the floor.

"We…" Akane cannot come up with an answer.

"I… accidentally… told the children that me and my wife non-superiori." Yori hurriedly says, finding the root cause of the situation.

"Is that so wrong…" Red utters, feeling a bit bad for the desperate couple.

"…" The couple hears Red's utterance however and they are tempted to look up.

"Lift your heads…"