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Sawada Shin was in a good mood as he walked back to his apartment after the last day of class of his second year of university. He was planning to just drop off his bag before heading over to the Ooedo House compound to pick up Kumiko and take her out for dinner. She had hinted, with that adorable smile she got when she was feeling sly and secretive, that she had a surprise for him tonight.
His pleasant imaginings of the evening to come were cut short when he reached his apartment door and heard muffled cursing on the other side, followed by a frustrated wail. Cautiously he turned his key in the lock and pushed the door open. The figure in his apartment whirled in surprise, then froze when she saw him. Shin froze as well, taking in the scene.
Kumiko was in an apron. A pink frilly one, with a pair of pink oven mitts as well. She was standing by the stove, which had a number of ominously bubbling pots on it. Beyond her, half a dozen big cardboard boxes were stacked haphazardly against the wall, and beside them was the chest of drawers from Kumiko's bedroom.
"Surprise!"
Turning his shocked gaze back to Kumiko, Shin was greeted by a blindingly bright smile.
"Well, we've been thinking about moving in together, right? So I got Tetsu and Minoru to help me bring my things here so I could surprise you! I even made a special meal to celebrate the beginning of summer vacation and of living together!"
Kumiko's smile had turned a little forced at that last part, and Shin shot her a dubious look before going over to the stove to check on the pots. One glance told him all he needed to know. Sighing, he went over to the cupboard to get two bowls of instant ramen.
Kumiko slammed her chopsticks down onto the table. "It's not right!"
Shin calmly slurped another mouthful of noodles. "What's not right?"
"It's not right to be celebrating a thing like this with instant ramen! We've moved in together; we should be celebrating with a cake I baked or some curry I made with love—"
Leaning over, Shin stopped her tirade with a kiss. She thwapped him on the arm. "Sawada, don't try to sidetrack me! The point is—mmph!"
The second kiss was much longer than the first, and by the end Kumiko couldn't quite remember what the point was. Shin pushed her chopsticks back into her unresisting fingers, then guided her hand back to the bowl of noodles. "Eat up."
Half an hour later they had retired to the couch, and Shin had just about coaxed Kumiko back into a good mood. He leaned in for another kiss, and both of them were occupied enough that they didn't notice the rattle of the doorknob..
"Hey, Shin, you wanna go—AUGGGGGH!!!"
"My eyes!"
"I think I'm traumatized for life!"
The two of them jerked apart to find Shin's former 3-D gang staring at them in horror.
"Man, it's weird enough knowing that you and Yankumi are together now—we do NOT need to SEE it."
"No, you don't. So why don't you get on out of here—out, out out! Didn't your parents teach you about privacy?"
Shin watched in amusement as Kumiko bodily hustled his protesting friends out the door, then slammed it shut behind them. In a flash, she was back on the couch beside him.
"Now, where were we?"
"Ojou!" a voice from outside called. "I mean—uh—ojousan?"
Wincing, Kumiko disentangled herself from Shin and hurried to the door. Tetsu was outside, holding—of all things—an antique katana.
"The Young Chief sent me to bring you this. He says it's a family heirloom that should be given a place of honor in your new home."
"Uh…thank you…but I don't think it would really fit in here."
"But the Young Chief said—"
"No, Tetsu."
Kumiko could already see curious eyes peering out from slightly-opened apartment doors all down the hallway. Shaking her head, she shut the door on Tetsu's protests before they made even more of a spectacle of themselves.
After a week, the entire apartment building was giving Shin and Kumiko suspicious looks and edging away from them in the hallways. Shady-looking characters—namely Kyou-san, Tetsu and Minoru—had a habit of appearing on their doorstep at all hours of the day and night to visit their Ojou, and in a Japanese apartment building news like that traveled at the speed of light.
The last straw came when one of Kumiko's latest batch of high-school delinquents showed up one night, the stiff pride in the set of his shoulders at odds with the desperate look in his face. He started in on some story about his parents and getting kicked out after graduation, and, predictably, Kumiko melted. She ran out the door with him—after pausing for a little speech about not abandoning her precious students even after graduation—and Shin made a decision.
Hours later, Kumiko returned flushed and triumphant, to find most of their things packed up in boxes.
"H-hey, what's going on? What are you doing?"
"Tetsu and Minoru will be here in the morning to help us move everything."
"What?"
"That kid… tracking your teacher down at some apartment is nothing. If they have the brains to track you down at the Ooedo House, and the guts to actually go in there to find you, maybe they're worth your time."
Kumiko blinked, then a delighted smile spread across her face.
"You're jealous!"
"No."
"You are! Admit it!"
"Idiot."
Moving into the Ooedo House compound the next day, Shin savored it all: the neighbors calling cheerful greetings to him and his yakuza companions; a dinner of home-cooked beef hotpot prepared by hands more culinarily inclined than either his or Kumiko's; and, most of all, the absence of any of Kumiko's other students, past or present.
After all, Kumiko might have a heart big enough to hold every high-school delinquent in the city, but he was the original—and he was the only one allowed to be lucky enough to grow up and get the girl.