Going to school early never crossed his mind until he reached the school ground. It would have been so easy to walk through an empty building and slip the letter into her locker, why didn’t he think of this before?

Yatsu sighed. A group of younger boys already sat at his usual bench he sat at every day before school started. Last year, and the year before when he discovered the spot, he never had to share it. Without that spot he had two choices. Wander around aimlessly until the bell rang, or wait by his classroom.

Might as well...

Yatsu’s first class of the day was Sasha’s second, but even if he remembered what desk she sat at. The chances of him slipping the letter in it without being seen was unlikely. Unless he somehow gained access to the room alone-

I’d fail miserably.

A casual pass-by and slip it into her desk, that was the plan, but he couldn’t remember where she sat, and that teacher likes to move people around.

Yatsu shook his head. Why is this so hard?

He found his locker and his hand spun through the combination, opening it with ease. Locker opened, he stared into it.

Why was I here again?

Yatsu glanced down the hallway, both directions.

It’s quiet.

No one walked in the hallway and Sasha's locker sat only a few steps down on the other side.

Yatsu dropped his bag on the ground and fished through it, finding the envelope.

"... So then he was like..." a group of girls rounded the corner.

Yatsu shoved the envelope back into his bag and pretended to reach into his locker for something. The girls walked by and stopped next to the door of the neighbouring classroom.

He breathed slowly, heart racing.

That was close.

The teacher arrived after a few minutes, and the warning bell sent students scattering to their classrooms.

Yatsu usually waited in his spot until the warning bell, and would walk in last minute, taking his seat right as the final bell went. For him, it felt weird being one of the first to enter the classroom.

Students filed in and the teacher called out a student’s name.

The student, a boy, put his hand down. "How much homework are we going to get today?" The boy asked.

"How much do you want?" The teacher fired back.

"None!" The boy replied.

A few students giggled at the outburst.

"Well, then you should do all the work during class instead of talking to your neighbours when I give you the extra time," said the teacher, erasing yesterday’s lesson off the chalkboard.

"Impossible! No one can finish it all within the given time, not with the three pages handed out every day! It takes me over an hour at home, a big waste of time!" The boy complained.

Yatsu had the same teacher the year before. The student was going to eat his words.

Most of the students arrived and the final bell rang before the teacher could respond to the student’s outburst, instead she smiled and wrote an equation on the board, beginning today's lesson.