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Neither Itaru nor Chikage saw themselves as individuals who had the patience to deal with children. Both of them looked composed and patient enough to do so, but…
That’s all part of the act, isn’t it?
When Sakuya proposed the idea of letting all the Spring Troupe members take turns in pairs to volunteer at the preschool he worked at, both of the salarymen shared a single, worried glance, knowing the hell that awaited them both.
“It’ll be fun,” they recalled him saying. “Citron and I can take the first hour, Masumi and Tsuzuru take the next one, and… Itaru and Chikage get two, but that should be fine, right?”
It wouldn’t be terrible, per se, but they’d much rather avoid the scenario at all costs. The smile on their leader’s face, though… Could they have brought themselves to say no?
Given they’re stuck in a room filled with playful, rambunctious children, the answer’s painfully obvious.
“...Whose idea was this, again?”
Chikage couldn’t hold back the shit-eating grin on his face as he watched Itaru prance around in a circle with a group of preschool kids. He raised an eyebrow at the question, and tapped a finger against his chin before answering with a saccharine tone, teasing in every way.
“You were the first one in the group to agree, correct?” he said, a quiet laugh accompanying his response. “I only came along to see how well you’d do.”
Before he could say anything else, Itaru broke the circle for a second to reach for Chikage’s arm, effectively pulling him into the circle of kids. They all danced around him, reciting children’s rhymes, some of which neither of the two knew at all.
“How well I’d do? Like you could do any better,” Itaru retorted. “C’mon, do something. Don’t just stand there.”
“Oh?” Chikage chuckled. He looked around at the children surrounding him and put on a friendly smile for all of them to see. “Does anyone want to see a magic trick?”
Chikage took that as his cue to pull a familiar-looking coin out of his pocket, and waved it around for everyone to see. Not before long, the circle of kids ceased its motion, and they all looked intently at him, in anticipation of what was to come next. Itaru stood to the side, all too familiar with what the other was about to do.
“The goal is to find out which hand the coin lands in. Sounds easy, right?”
With that, Chikage tossed the coin in the air, and everyone watched it come up… and down, seemingly into one of his hands. He looked around at the children’s confident-looking faces and placed both of his fists in front of him, letting them decide the answer for themselves.
“Okay, kids. You have thirty seconds to decide amongst yourselves,” he began, gently shaking both his fists. “Is the coin in the left hand? Or is it in the right hand?”
Almost instantly, the silence in the room was interrupted with loud discussions among the children, and Chikage looked over at Itaru, whose hand was just about to pull out the phone in his back pocket.
“Hey, Chigasaki. There’s only a few minutes left, you can wait,” he whispered, gently swatting at Itaru’s hand with a closed fist. He looked over at the clock to confirm that indeed, thirty seconds had passed. Raising his voice, he looped an arm around Itaru’s, pulling him to the front of the class.
“Let’s see what Chigasaki-sensei has to say. Pick a hand.”
Itaru glared at Chikage for a moment before releasing a sigh of defeat, sliding the device back into his pocket.
“Fine. Uh. It’s in the left hand, right? It’s clenched more tightly, so maybe…”
“Nope.”
A small amount of chatter arose among the children, and Chikage let out a small laugh.
“Judging from the looks on your faces, all of you agreed on the left hand, right?” he said, and proceeded to open both hands. “I never held the coin to begin with, for the coin is actually… right here!”
Chikage leaned down to reach at one of the kids’ ears, and lo and behold, it looked as if he’d retrieved the coin from that exact place. Before anyone could ask him to do the trick again, or how he managed to pull off such a feat in the first place, the quiet chime of the dismissal bell rang.
“It’s time for them to go now, I guess,” Itaru said, relief in his voice.
“I suppose so,” Chikage replied, opening the door to let the parents pick up their children. “Have a nice day, everyone.”
Chikage watched as the kids left one by one, greeting the parents as they came and left. Itaru, on the other hand, was cleaning up the clutter which built up around the room as the hours passed. Ironic for someone who never cleans his room, he thought to himself.
A gentle tug at the edge of his jacket caught his attention, and he found himself making eye contact with the same kid he’d “taken” the coin from.
“Um… Are you going to come back tomorrow? I wanna learn how you did that cool flippy thing with the coin and how you did that trick and...”
“Sure. I’ll show everyone tomorrow.”
“Really?”
“Yes… Really.”
“Yaaaay! See you tomorrow!”
“You’re a cheat character,” Itaru sighed, walking over to Chikage’s side with a cup of water, after watching the child leave with his mother. “And here I thought you didn’t like kids.”
“...You know, maybe they’re not so bad after all. That was quite fun,” Chikage mused. “Does this mean we’ll get kids in the future?”
“E-Ehh?!”
Needless to say, Itaru almost spat out his water.