Our Teacher is a Yakuza Princess

Chapter 36

They finally landed around six, and Shin could not wait to get off that plane and finally stretch his legs. As he followed the crowd of passengers down the escalators to baggage claim, he suddenly heard several voices bellowing his name. Looking over, he saw Kuma, Uchi, Noda, and Minami all holding signs with variations of 'Welcome Home Shin-chan!'. He rolled his eyes and tried not to smile at how ridiculous his friends were.

He was soon mobbed with hugs and shouts and inquiries about souvenirs. He laughed and pushed them off so he could make his way to get his bags. The entire car ride to Kuma's was spent asking and answering questions, until the boys noticed Shin's eyes involuntarily closing. When they arrived at Kuma's house, Mrs. Kumai shooed them away and told them to let poor Shin sleep so his body could make sense of the time difference. They promised to come by again tomorrow night, and Shin nodded and waved until they had all left.

Shin slept all through the next day, and woke up feeling slightly more normal, just in time to be mobbed by his friends again. While Kuma's mother brought out ramen for them, everyone caught up on each other's lives.

"So, Kuma, Ami-chan, eh?" Minami teased his friend.

Kuma blushed and nodded.

"Who'd have thought he'd be the first one with a serious girlfriend?" Noda added with friendly jab.

"Speak for yourselves." Uchi told them through a mouth full of ramen. The other boys stopped, looked up, then immediately moved over to put Uchi in a headlock.

"Eh? Uchi, are you holding out on us? Do you have a girl? Tell us now!"

"None of your business!" Uchi tried to say while squished against the table.

Shin shook his head and continued eating. By the time he finished his bowl, they had found out that Uchi was interested in the owner's daughter, she was a year younger than him, and that they had been on a few dates. After teasing him sufficiently for keeping it secret, his friends moved on to other topics.

"So, what do we want to do now that Shin-chan's back in town?" Noda asked, ignoring the glare Shin gave him for adding 'chan' to his name.

"Oh, there's this great place that does karaoke on Fridays, plus they have a great buffet. We can go tomorrow!" Kuma suggested.

"Can't." Shin said, carefully keeping his eyes on the table. "I'm busy tomorrow."

"What? Two days back in Japan and you already have plans?" Uchi asked in disbelief.

"Still as popular as ever," Noda grinned. "What are you going to do?"

Shin shrugged as nonchalantly as he could. "Stuff."

Kuma, Uchi, and Noda looked at him with mixes of confusion and suspicion while Minami smirked openly.

"Going to see Yankumi, aren't you?"