Episode 7. Stand Your Ground

“Momocchi! Morning!”

“Yuu, good morning!” He lifted his hand in greeting and Yuu jogged up to him. “I thought you usually come to school with Furukawa-san?”

“Airi’s at home sick. I went to her house, but her mother told me to stay away. She got what was coming. She didn’t wait last time it was raining.”

“So you’re buying lunch today?”

“Yeah? Why?”

“Ichirou made some snacks for you since you liked them. You can give them to your sister too.”

“I might eat them all before I get home,” he laughed.

Tomo chuckled.

“You didn’t forget to bring an umbrella, did you?”

“I’m not Airi. I always have a foldable one in my bag. Though the forecast said it wouldn’t rain today.”

“In the middle of the rainy season? That sounds too good to be true.”

“It’ll be chilly for a few days, so maybe we won’t get any rain?” Yuu shrugged. “I like your cardigan,” he added.

Tomo glanced down on the black cardigan with a single pale green stripe. “Ken got it for me.”

He grinned. “And I like your glasses.”

“Hopefully you’ll shut up about the lenses now. I’ve had to listen to you bug me about it for two weeks already.”

“I just like your natural eye colour. Tell me if you can’t handle it, okay? Or if someone makes fun of you.”

He was about to say thanks when he heard a voice. “Good morning, Yuu!” He turned to see Suzuki. “And Seki-kun.”

Tomo grabbed onto his bag for safety and looked away and mumbled a greeting.

“Morning, Tatsumi! I can’t believe it! You’re on time for once!”

“Come on! I’m always on time. Handa’s never in the classroom when I arrive.”

“Because if he sees you in the hallway, he waits until you’re inside. Sensei’s too nice.”

His heart hammered in his chest and he would tremble the moment he let of his bag. Even his knees felt shaky. He wanted to turn around and run back home.

“Oh!” Suzuki exclaimed. “I’m wearing the same brand, Seki-kun,” he said and turned around, showing a big logo on the back of the zipped hoodie. “They make amazing clothes, right?” he asked when he turned back to them.

His mind blanked, and he desperately searched for a response but found none before Suzuki’s expression changed.

“We should hurry to the classroom. Yamamoto’s heading this way.”

Yuu turned to look. “Darn. I thought he wouldn’t check student appearances today.”

“I think he does it whenever he feels like, whether or not another teacher’s checking the gate.”

“Ugh. I hope he doesn’t call me out again.”

Yuu pushed Tomo to take a step when he walked, and Tomo started walking with him. Suzuki joined them.

“What was it yesterday?” he asked. “I didn’t get to ask because it was in the middle of class. What was he even coming to our self-study for?”

“Apparently I’m not allowed to have flashy stationery.”

“Did he come to our class just to look at your pencils?”

“Sounds like him. But if those are flashy, I don’t know what everyone else at school uses, ‘cause you’ve always used plain things.”

“He’s certain I’m a delinquent or something. I go to the Suzuki-sensei too often, have pierced ears, and my hair is inappropriate.”

“And you pout,” Yuu added quietly while they tried to avoid the troublesome teacher. “Suzuki-sensei have both explained why you need to see her. Handa-sensei too, right?”

“Why is that?” Suzuki asked.

Yuu glanced at Tomo before he said. “It doesn’t matter. He’s getting better now. Right, Momo-chan?”

He hadn’t thought of it like that, but when mentioned, he realised he was just a little less anxious. Ken could interact more freely without worrying about Sakura, and Yuu had been acting like a friend too, so it made Tomo feel a little more at ease. He hadn’t realised just how much he needed friends.

“Yeah.”

“That’s awesome!” Suzuki sounded genuinely happy for him and he gave his classmate a weak smile.

Yuu and Suzuki seemed to be close friends, and they both were in the football club (though not on the team) so they shared interests too.

“Hey! Seki!”

He flinched, and the three of them turned.

“That cardigan doesn’t follow the regulations.”

Tomo looked down and started fingering the muff of his sleeve. His heart was beating too fast. He knew the cardigan followed the regulations. His entire appearance did. The handbook called them regulations, while the principal had said the school considered them guidelines, and Tomo felt compelled to follow them strictly to lessen how much Yamamoto could call him out for.

Or so he thought.

It wasn’t the first time a teacher bullied him, but direct harassment from one was new. He couldn’t talk back either, since that would just put him in further trouble.

He had been waiting for students to join in, yet Yuu had talked to him and he got his first maybe-friend.

“How?” Suzuki asked. “It says students can wear a warmer layer such as a cardigan or west, as long as it’s mainly dark grey, navy, burgundy or black with no offensive imagery and the school emblem is visible.” Suzuki pointed at Tomo’s chest. “If this isn’t the school emblem, we must have made a wrong turn because this isn’t B High School.”

The anxiety turned to dread as Tomo digested the words being said. Defending him meant becoming a target, and he couldn’t let that happen. Yet he froze in place while his chest began to hurt and he choked on the lump in his throat.

“Don’t talk back to your teacher!”

“He’s just saying as it is! Do you even know what the student handbook says? If so, you’re just harassing Momoi like an elementary school student.”

The surrounding noise warped, and he held onto his arm so much it hurt. He could feel the pain, but it still didn’t seem to register to him. He just wanted to get away from this situation.

It was one thing when he was alone and got yelled at while in the teacher’s office, but now they were in the schoolyard before school had even begun and he had somehow got two of his classmates in trouble too and everyone walking to school could see it.

“Yuu, it’s fine,” he tried to say, but it was just a slight wheeze before he gasped for air. Yuu turned to him and his eyes were wide with worry.

“Tatsumi, get Suzuki-sensei!”

Tomo could see the black-haired boy turn to him for a second, then ran off, his bag having dropped to the ground.

He wondered if he’d have to go to the hospital. It wouldn’t be the first time.

“Don’t pretend to be sick when it’s convenient for you! I’ll have both of you and Suzuki come to the office after school. All of you, go to class!”

***

The woman sitting by her desk turned to him and studied him for a few moments as he sat with a blanket over his shoulders in an armchair.

“How are you feeling?”

“Better,” he muttered to the health teacher

She sighed. “It really has gone too far if you’re not even allowed to come into the school anymore. I thought talking to Yamamoto-sensei would make him realise he was in the wrong.” She turned to her desk and grabbed a folder from the shelf while muttering about how he perhaps was too old to remember what others told him. “I understand you don’t want this to get to the principal because of your family situation, but it’s out of my hands this time. We will call your parents to discuss this.”

Tomo looked down on the floor.

“I don’t think my mother would come even if you call her.”

She sighed again. “I know. Your father has explained the situation, but we still need to inform them both, since it’s your mother you live with.”

“My father isn’t in town.”

“That’s fine. He doesn’t need to come right away. If you want to, you can go home. I’ll make sure it doesn’t affect your attendance, and Handa-sensei is very understanding. But as a teacher is the cause, the principal will have to know about it. And your parents.”

Tomo glanced up at the teacher who held the folder in one hand and looked out of the window in thought. He couldn understand why she had no choice. Not only did she know what specifically triggered it this time, many students had seen it and the school would have to take action.

“I don’t know if it will make you feel any better, but I want you to know that the school takes this seriously. It wasn’t your fault. Suzuki Tatsumi-kun and Sakuraba Yuusuke-kun both have told what happened.” She knocked on her desk with the folder. “So… shall we begin?”

Tomo silently pursed his lips before he let out a quiet sigh.

“If you don’t want to talk now, we can talk about it later.”

“No. Let’s talk about it now.”

Suzuki nodded, opening the folder before she took a pen. “If you feel you’re getting too anxious, we’ll stop, so tell me what exactly has happened.”

***

“Isn’t that your father, Momocchi?” Yuu asked while standing by the window as they were cleaning the classroom before homeroom one afternoon.

Tomo looked up from the floor he was sweeping and could see a tall man with bleached, medium brown hair walk toward the school building from the parking lot behind it. He was wearing tinted and Tomo was sure if it was to avoid getting blinded by the sun while driving, or to make his bright blue eyes less striking.

“Yeah, that’s Shouji.”

“He’s Japanese, right? He’s a giant! Just look how short Handa looks!”

“I’m short. Even both my sisters are taller than I am,” Tomo responded.

“Being short suits you, Momo-chan.”

Tomo looked at his friend. “Is that supposed to be a compliment, Yuu? There are girls in class that are taller than me.”

“Is he here about what happened the other day?”

He nodded.

“What happened the other day, Yuu-kun?” Kurosawa asked.

The black-haired girl was one of two in his class that dressed against the school guidelines. She had rolled her skirt up, left the ribbon at home, and kept the top buttons unbuttoned. When she wore an extra layer, it was always oversized. The makeup and jewellery also was enough to make her stand out.

Because of that, Tomo had pushed away the feeling she looked familiar when they met in April. He couldn’t possibly know someone like her. She wasn’t a girl from his middle school, for sure.

“Yamamoto scolded Momo-chan by the school gate. Said he faked illness when he needed to go to the nurse.”

“No way! That’s totally crazy!” Kurosawa exclaimed. “But, like, why is his dad here?”

“Further information on what happened, maybe?” Yuu suggested. “And ‘talk’ to the principal. He was furious in the past.”

Tomo looked out of the window again. His father wasn’t visible anymore, but he had a feeling he’d see him soon.

At the principal’s office.

***

To his right was Shouji, to his left Handa. Next to the English teacher sat Yamamoto. In front of him was the principal and quietly sitting beside the door was the health teacher.

“Would you explain what has happened in your own words?”

Tomo looked down, rubbing his thumbs against each other while he clasped his hands. He could feel his face was burning and so did his eyes. He felt ashamed and wanted to cry.

“Excuse my rudeness, sensei, but I’m not sure it’s appropriate to ask a student to relay details regarding a teacher that’s in the very room.”

“Are you trying to save face from this embarrassing affair, Handa-sensei?”

Handa looked like he was about to reply with something rude, so he hurried to say: “Sensei has been scolding me, although I’ve followed the school regulations.”

He wanted no more people to get in trouble or become involved with the problems he caused. He needed to resolve it somehow, and quickly.

“The issues with the length of my hair, I can somewhat understand, but what is wrong with putting my hair up during his classes, using my cellphone after school to call my workplace to explain I will be late, wearing the earrings I’m currently wearing using black and green stationary or wearing a black cardigan with a single green horizontal stripe?”

“I can still not apologise enough about your hair. no one should have been forced to cut their hair because of some outdated guideline.”

He looked down at his hands, filled with disbelief. It couldn’t possibly be so difficult to have the student handbook updated that they simply kept the old requirements.

“I didn’t force Se—”

“Momoi,” Shouji corrected.

“I didn’t force Seki-kun to do anything. This is an example of why we need to have a better control over students, sensei. Lying about what adults do… That’s a sign this student is heading onto a questionable path. I never even touched the boy’s hair, much less cut it.”

There was nothing true in the statement ‘never touched’. When he first had scolded Tomo for the length of his hair he had grabbed it in front of the entire class.

But there was no point in claiming anything, as Yamamoto would argue against it and he suspected the school would take whatever means to ensure word of this didn’t get out and the teacher remained. The regulations and rules existed for the reputation of the school, not for the students.

“Sensei, you pressured a student by continuously scolding him about something that was not a problem, and since our school keeps behaviour logs, it’s clear you called him to the teacher’s office a lot,” Suzuki said from her place in the back. “I’ve kept copies in my office.”

The physical education teacher was silent in response.

“As Suzuki-sensei said, Tomoki-kun felt pressured, and that responsibility falls upon you, Yamamoto-sensei. I would like to understand what is an issue with Tomoki-kun’s appearance and why you would talk to him about… What was it?”

“Stationary,” Handa responded. “Black and green. Either striped or in black. Very simple designs. Not like what most of the students use.”

“I know his type—” the Yamamoto started, but the principal gave him a glare. “I have seen similar behaviour before and it always ends poorly for the student as they always end up on the wrong path. They barely make it through their classes and receive terrible habits. They may even have children while young.”

Tomo glanced at his father, who showed nothing on his face, though the stereotyping must have irritated him.

“This is one of our top students, sensei. A diligent student at that.”

Shouji cleared his throat. “Having children in school can happen to anyone,” he said matter-of-factly as he crossed his legs and clasped his hands. “I was not causing trouble at my school, but I still had a daughter in my third year of high school. It’s not ideal and not something I would suggest, but it happens.”

It would have been difficult to believe he hadn’t been a troublemaker with his appearance, though Tomo’s grandfather claimed that Shouji’s best trait was that he was both intelligent and kind, even if it didn’t make up for his son’s shortcomings, and that he was glad his grandchildren had inherited at least one of those traits from their father.

“I very much would like to hear what my child has done to receive harassment from a teacher. It’s clear his performance in school should not be a problem, although he’s not very athletic. He has followed the rules and restrictions your school has had, he hasn’t used his phone during classes, and he has had no complaints from his part-time work except because sensei kept him late after school for no reason.”

“He could still have used his phone during class.”

“I thought you were a teacher in physical education, Yamamoto-sensei? Why would he bring a phone he can’t hide to a class where he has no place to put it?”

“Men wearing piercings is not acceptable. I would claim it’s not much better than having tattoos, and the long hair is a sign that he is rebellious. Claiming to call the workplace was an excuse to get away from his responsibilities as a student, and his clothing and stationary caught attention and were distracting.”

Tomo felt a surge of annoyance, and the arguments that anyone could see fell apart. He expected he’d have to change schools or the harassment would continue regardless, so he could as well speak his mind.

“Sensei, I may look feminine, but I grew my hair long because I liked it that way. Once I began working, it became an asset. Cutting it affected my work. I also had to change my shifts as I’m continuously late, which naturally also affects my work. The servers at my workplace take time to talk with customers, and many have servers they especially like. If they never see me, naturally they would feel less likely to come back, which affects the business. And aside from scolding me, he would also ask me to do tasks because I didn’t listen to him, which kept me at school even longer even though I should have been able to leave right away.”

“What about your piercings?” the principal asked.

“I got them in middle school. I can stop wearing any kind of jewellery if the school will restrict that. But only if the same thing applies to everyone else.”

“Yamamoto-sensei, how was his appearance distracting?”

“There were a lot of colours.”

“May I ask how?” Handa asked. “Tomoki-kun has strictly followed the guidelines. The most colourful items he has worn are the obligatory tie and the school emblem pin. You have students in your class who don’t follow the guidelines, but I don’t believe they have had the same restrictions. The same goes for his stationary.”

“I would like to add he’s been under a lot of stress because of being called to the teacher’s office. There is a correlation between the number of times he’s come to my office and how many times you’ve asked him to see you after school.”

“He just pretended to be sick,” Yamamoto huffed.

“Do I need to remind you that Tomoki-kun has allergies? Would you have said the same thing if he had an allergic reaction? Sakuraba-kun’s sending someone to ask for me was the right choice. Naturally, Tomoki-kun was aware it was not an allergic reaction, but you as an educator should have assumed that may be the case when you should already know about it. Your reaction should have been that he potentially needed emergency care.”

Yamamoto took his time to think about his answer. “As it wasn’t allergies, he was obviously just pretending. I saw the difference. There was no need to send for Suzuki-sensei.”

The principal’s face turned grim.

“Tomoki-kun, answer honestly. Have you pretended to be ill to skip classes?”

“No. I see no point in pretending. My studies aside, if I pretended, would anyone believe me if I need immediate care?”

The principal studied Tomo, who looked back at him, wanting to look away, but refused to do so.

“I think we’re done now, Momoi-san, Tomoki-kun. You may leave. Thank you both for your time.”

“I hope I won’t need to come again,” Shouji said bitterly as he stood up.

***

“Momo-chan, do you know what happened to Yamamoto?” Yuu asked.

Tomo shook his head. “Maybe he got a suspension?”

“Nah,” Suzuki said. “Yamamoto got fired. There were more complaints coming in about him when he got in trouble. Mostly girls. I guess they didn’t dare to say anything since he was a teacher.”

“So Momo-chan wasn’t the only one…”

“There’s not much we can do about it now. Let’s just be happy he’s gone now!”

“I feel a little sorry for Kataoka who needs to take over for Yamamoto until they find someone to replace him.”

“Kataoka will be fine. But it’ll be tough for the baseball team. They lost their coach. I think this will affect the football team since Kataoka will have to coach the baseball team too.”

“Our school’s football team is better than the baseball team though, so I hope not. Not that it would affect us,” Yuu said. “Why are we at this café though? Why couldn’t we just go to Momo-chan’s house?”

“I wanted to come here and Suzuki-kun said we should,” Tomo mumbled.

Sayoko had dragged Ken to the popular café. He had then talked about it, and Tomo had gotten curious.

“Isn’t it kinda girly?” Yuu asked and looked around at the floral decor.

It was definitely a place Tomo wouldn’t normally go to with anyone but Ken and Sakura, and a place he’d imagine the two boys in front of him wouldn’t go to willingly.

“Momo works at a café, right? So checking out other places is a good idea. This is close to school too, so you can bring your girlfriend here as senpai did.”

“Why would I bring a girlfriend to a place like this? I don’t have one.”

Suzuki shrugged. “Or maybe Momo would bring a girlfriend.”

Tomo flushed.

He hadn’t thought of going with a girlfriend, but it would have been nice to check out places where Ken went on dates since that was something Tomo wasn’t part of. And it had sounded really cute, so he had wanted to go, but as it was so close to home he had planned on just ignoring it.

That was when Suzuki had said they should go since it looked like he was interested.

“I don’t have someone like that.”

Yuu’s gaze went from Tomo to Suzuki while Suzuki gave Tomo a half-smile.

“No boyfriend either?” he asked.

“Why would I have a boyfriend? I just said I don’t have someone like that.”

He glared at Yuu.

“Why are you looking at me like that? I haven’t said anything!”

“You never know who someone might like,” Suzuki said. “Except Yuu. That’s obvious.”

“I don’t like Airi!” Yuu protested with pink cheeks.

“I never mentioned her,” Suzuki pointed out. “Why would you mention Airi-chan out of nowhere, Yuu?”

Yuu’s ears and cheeks were turning redder as Suzuki teased him. Tomo had noticed Yuu seemed to have a crush on Furukawa too.

He chuckled. “That’s cute.” He said it without thinking.

“I’m not cute! If anyone between us three is cute, wouldn’t it be Momo-chan? He’s cute enough to look like a girl.”

Tomo laughed nervously.

The memory of Ken suggesting nonbinary came to him. He had felt an instant connection to it. And the more he thought about it, he felt more connected to it. But he still needed to be a boy. At least for now. It didn’t seem like Ichirou would divorce Sawa for it, if he had figured out what Tomo meant. He hadn’t forced Tomo to say anything, nor seemed to have talked with his family about it.

“Earth to Momoi Tomoki. Which planet did you visit?”

Tomo blinked and looked at Suzuki. Then he chuckled. “Oh, I just got lost in thought for a bit. My stepfather is a great father.”

Yuu looked confused. “How did you go from who’s cute to Ichirou-san being a good dad?”

Tomo shrugged.