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Returning back to school was not planned. Rochelle stared aimlessly at the board hoping and wishing with all her might for the school semester to fly by quickly and painlessly. She had finished high school many years ago, almost ten years ago it seemed. It was a rough transition after high school, she wasn’t smart enough to guarantee her any full ride scholarships, let alone any partially funded scholarships. Squashing down her goals of going to college, Rochelle focused on job hunting and raising money in order to attend college. Ten long, grueling years later, having bounced from several part time jobs to steady full-time jobs, she did it and along the way, she met the most wonderful man who encouraged her to continue her education and supported her through difficulties. Tatsuki Okamura was her standing rock and the main reason why she was in this predicament.
Rochelle looked around the classroom, taking mental notes on how, obviously, much younger these students looked, clearly freshly graduated from high school and here she was a 27 year old first timer in a first year Japanese course. She sat in her small tutorial group groaning to herself as the other students around her chatted amiably about their former schools, where they were from, and how much they loved those Japanese cartoons and dramas so they took up Japanese as their language so they can be “fluent”.
Janele, a girl with big hair and equally big eyes, turned to Rochelle and asked her, “Is there a reason why you’re taking Japanese?”
Rochelle just shrugged and answered, “My fiance is Japanese and his parents aren’t fluent in English.”
The whole class quiet down and stared at her like she had said the craziest, most interesting thing, but before she could reply, their TA walked in. And what an entrance did he make.
Their TA was a good three minutes late and judging by his looks, he was well aware of it. He panted slightly walking through the door, blue, half-rimmed glasses askew, hair mussed and adorable, wearing a big, loosely-fitted designer sweater as the falls here were chilly, and a slightly spilled Starbucks cup in one hand. He was adorable and the whole class agreed as quiet gasps and intakes of breaths were heard around the room.
“Must be the Japanese genes,” Rochelle thought to herself, thinking about her soon-to-be husband who also looked unfairly young.
“He’s so hot,” a girl whispered breathily.
“I’d do him 10/10,” another classmate sighed.
Unaware of the attention, their TA stared at his class and offered the most blinding smile before starting the class. The entire class, save Rochelle and maybe some guy in the corner, he looked more frozen than anything, melted .
“Sorry for being late,” their TA said, accent light and almost authentically American, fidgeting. “I got stuck in traffic and then there was no parking anywhere nearby and I had to park halfway across campus and I’m so sorry!”
The class erupted in a cacophony of noises, forgiving him and not to apologize, that it wasn’t his fault and completely understandable. The TA immediately relaxed and went on to introduce himself to his 24 students.
“Hai,” their TA started, “so, my name is Katsuki Yuuri, please call me Katsuki-sensei. Yesterday, in class, you learned ‘Hajimemashite watashi wa...desu’ and ‘yoroshiku onegaishimasu’. Let’s try practicing that together.”
Katsuki-sensei wrote those phrases down in English on the chalkboard behind him and pointed at each word trying to get his class to follow along.
“Hai, repeat after me,” Katsuki-sensei pointed to the phrase, “‘ha-ji-me-ma-shi-te wa-ta-shi wa … de-su’ ‘yo-ro-shi-ku o-ne-ga-i-shi-ma-su.’ Note the silent ‘oo’ in both ‘su’.”
The class took a breath and repeated the words, making the small gap between the two phrases and taking serious note of that silent ‘oo’ sound. Katsuki-sensei looked deeply pleased and flashed a soft smile before clapping.
Rochelle was mildly irritated by the dreamy sighs her classmates voiced. But she had to admit, Katsuki-sensei was a very patient person and seemed really genuine when teaching his students. She absently wondered if he was studying to be a teacher or counselor of some sort.
The rest of the class streamed along on the cheery rhythm Katsuki-sensei introduced. He split them up into groups of four and encouraged them to introduce each other in Japanese and to include their names (last names first) into that gap between the phrases. After that exercise, he asked them to introduce themselves to him. All in all, it was good speaking practice and Katsuki-sensei’s encouraging smiles really helped boost the comfort levels in the class.
Rochelle learned a couple of her classmates’ names and they even exchanged contact information with her in case they had all wanted to gather to form group studying or something along those lines. She absently thought about how she might be the only one over 21 and they probably wanted her to sneak some alcohol to them. Please, she was not that dumb.
When everyone began to chatter amongst themselves after the last person introduced himself, Katsuki-sensei tried to gather their attention again, which really wasn’t all that hard, he just had to breathe and all attention would snap back to him.
“Hai hai, minna-san, everyone,” Katsuki-sensei announced, “the next part is going to be a little boring but please bear with me.”
When it was 5 minutes before tutorial session was over Katsuki-sensei had an important announcement to make.
“Regarding my office hours,” Katsuki-sensei began, “who is interested in coming to them?”
Lo and behold, the entire class raised their hands excitedly, eager to spend more time with their beloved TA. And of course, Katsuki-sensei gives one of his sweet smiles and their outstretched hands immediately fly to their chests, holding their pounding hearts.
“If that is the case,” Katsuki-sensei continues serenely, “how about you all email me a good area with lots of space and I will email you all tomorrow with my final decision? You should be able to find my email on the syllabus your professors gave you. Then, I will see you all on Wednesday, sayonara.”
When Katsuki-sensei dismisses the class, Rochelle notes the uproar her class is in, those who have a class right after tutorial groan in dismay as they cannot stop to chat with their adorable TA, some girls squeal and hurriedly check their makeup and hair while some of the guys fret with their hair and check their clothes to make sure they look presentable all to chat with Katsuki-sensei. Katsuki-sensei, on the other hand looks a bit overwhelmed and tells his class that he only has 10 minutes before another class comes into the room, but that does not deter any of his fawning students. Rochelle packs up to leave when she notices a gleam of light sparkle on her teacher’s right hand. She then looks down at her own band on her left hand and wonders off-handedly if he, too, was (almost) married. Just then Katsuki-sensei catches her eye and waves his hand to say “bye”. She bows quickly and leaves the room not wanting any of the attention on her as she notices how some of the students start to follow Katsuki-sensei’s field of vision.
“If he’s married, he’s gonna break a lot of hearts,” Rochelle mutters lowly to herself.
True to his word, the next day, Katsuki-sensei sent an email to his tutorial group with an updated meet up place and time for his extended office hours. It was at a study annex meant to hold large study groups and he’s gotten it reserved for 2 hours on Thursdays early evening. Rochelle blinks at the email and wonders why he is so dedicated to his tutorial group but is inwardly glad that he is, it’s rare now to find such passionate teachers, let alone a graduate student that passionate.
His office hours are not at all like his tutorial sessions. Katsuki-sensei is a lot more laid back and the study annex sets up a more intimate ambience which many of the students eat up. It’s refreshing to see Katsuki-sensei so comfortable and relaxed. Rochelle grows to like these office hours. She thought about not going at first but quickly realizes she does not grasp learning languages as fluidly as she has hoped and does struggle quite a bit so she sucks it up and goes to those office hours. Rochelle gets along well with Katsuki-sensei, she is happily learning some traditions and customs about his native country that she cannot wait to practice to surprise her fiance. And maybe it’s also because of how close in age they are, Katsuki-sensei is only several months older she notes, but they seem to have a lot in common regarding tastes in music and TV programs.
“Katsuki-sensei~” Mira whines in her squeaky, sticky, sweet voice, “my professor assigned this sakubun thing and I don’t know where to start.”
And before Katsuki-sensei can answer her, a couple more students whine about the hard assignment is and demand that he help them too. Rochelle secretly needs help too and silently thanks Mira for bringing up the topic even though it causes a stir for Katsuki-sensei’s attention.
“Jaa, how about we review the sakubun assignment and see what your professor wants,” Katsuki-sensei placates. The students let out a chorus, “hai!” before whipping out their assignments.
“Hey Rochelle,” Jean prods at her, “do you think Katsuki-sensei looks younger than he actually is?”
Rochelle looks at her friend and then back at her teacher, and back to Jean again. Giving him a deadpan stare, “He’s my age.”
Jean’s seat clatters and he cries out in exaggeration, “NO WAY!”
The whole class silences and stares at him wide-eyed and mouths agape, even Katsuki-sensei looks disoriented, his glasses slipping from his face a little. At least Jean looks a bit embarrassed as he quickly bows in apology and sits back down.
Anaia, who sits with them whispers to them, “He’s at most 10 years older then, it’s not a big deal. I have a sister who married some guy twice her age, she’s like 23.”
“Holy hell,” Rochelle groans, she did not want to hear her classmates trying to court their TA.
Most of the office hours continue like that, many of her classmates trying to vie for Katsuki-sensei’s attention while Rochelle tries to ignore her two friends trying to make a move on their TA.
“Katsuki-sensei~” Anaia sings as the class packs up to leave after office hours, “since next week we have a holiday and there is no class, will you come to the campus cafe with me?”
Rochelle groans at her friend while Jean is shaking in anger, he had wanted to ask Katsuki-sensei first, that bitch. Jean stomps angrily over to Anaia and Katsuki-sensei dragging a ever reluctant Rochelle along.
“Yeah!” Jean interjects, “ we would love to have coffee with you together .”
Anaia turns her head to Jean and if looks could kill he’d be 6 feet under by now. Instead, Katsuki-sensei looks a little apologetic.
“I’m sorry,” Katsuki-sensei apologizes, “I already made a promise to go see an ice skating exhibition at the rink the next town over. Maybe if you aren’t busy you could come watch? There are a lot of good skaters performing, I hear”
Anaia looks absolutely devastated and Jean not a whole lot better but they don’t know a thing about ice skating and the last time someone invited them out to a sports outing Jean ended up with a black eye from a flying ball.
“Oh, okay,” Jean says dejectedly.
“Ah! How about the week after that?” Katsuki-sensei compromises, “we can meet after tutorial and before we gather for office hours. Does that sound good?”
Anaia and Jean look at each other and then squealed in delight both shouting a resounding “hai!” before both disappearing out the study annex in utter delight. Rochelle sighed tiredly after the less than mature antics of her friends.
“Did you not want to meet for coffee, Rossheru-san?” Katsuki-sensei looked a bit worried for her sake.
“No, no, it isn’t that,” Rochelle shook her head, “I just can’t believe I’m in the same as those two sometimes.”
Katsuki-sensei just laughs and agrees, “It’s hard sometimes, I took a long break after getting my degree and I’m back again after a few years and everyone just seems younger than I am.”
Rochelle hums in agreement then turns to her teacher, “Have a good weekend, sayonara.”
Katsuki-sensei returns the sentiment and they both bow before heading their separate ways.
The weekly cafe meets just before office hours are a godsend. There aren’t a lot of hushed whispers from her classmates or stolen glances and it’s a huge break for Rochelle, except for her two friends who seem to be in a competition to see who can get Katsuki-sensei’s attention. But their teacher, bless his innocent soul, seems so oblivious to it so they cannot help but continue trying. It was funny and quite sad at the same time.
Rochelle realizes the more Jean and Anaia try to ask Katsuki-sensei about his personal life, the more he deflects and asks about their lives in turn. It doesn’t bother them though, Jean and Anaia are determined to make their TA fall for them and making small exaggerations about their lives seem like the perfect opportunity.
Needless to say, Katsuki-sensei’s life was a mystery and like all mysteries the truth unravels itself.
The trio met up on a Thursday as per usual. Jean the first to get there and fussed over his hair and wrinkles on his shirt before Katsuki-sensei could make his appearance. Then Rochelle, herself, would wander in and busily looked at the menu because it literally took her ages to find a new drink on the menu she was dying to try. And finally Anaia would appear last because she spent her time fixing her makeup in the nearby restroom, making sure she looked impeccable before Katsuki-sensei’s arrival. A minute before the scheduled meeting time, Katsuki-sensei flies over to their table along with some other students in tow. Apparently word got out he was meeting some students right before office hours and they just had to come along. Rochelle didn’t mind, it gave her more time to look at the never changing menu. Jean and Anaia, though, look absolutely betrayed, as if it was their private hour with their beloved TA.
“Rossheru-san, Anaya-san, Jin-san (“Jean like clothing! Not some flimsy frenchman!” he corrected once)” Katsuki-sensei call out to them, looking a little rumpled as he had just finished grading some assignments before he was attacked at the doorway, it seemed, “Sorry for being late, Mira-san and Janeru-san wanted to meet up with us, too.”
Anaia and Jean flashed angry looks to both Mira’s and Janele’s smirking face but the softest smile graced their teacher’s face and they instantly forgave him. Rochelle just gave Katsuki-sensei a weak smile offered the seat next to her so he wouldn’t have to sit with “an adoring fan”.
Just as they were all about to order, a group of gymnasts from another university burst through the door. It was all well until they huddled near their table and began muttering in fierce whispers, darting looks at their beloved TA. I think it’s him! They would nudge each other continuing to whisper-scream amongst themselves. You go ask him! No, why don’t you?! The group trying to push each other forward, closer to Katsuki-sensei.
Then, the weirdest thing happened, Katsuki-sensei directed his gaze at them and flashed his very gorgeous smile at them, even Rochelle seemed swayed before she caught herself.
“Would you like autographs?” Katsuki-sensei offered politely. And the group of gymnasts scrambled over to him. Giving him papers or notebooks, even their track jackets when they had nothing to offer. After the mini autograph session, a couple of his fans asked for a picture and, of course, Katsuki-sensei obliged and then asked to be tagged on Instagram or Twitter.
It was a whirlwind of camera flashes and excited squeals before their gymnastics coach calls her team over, shouting that the meet will start in an hour and they needed to fucking stretch before pulling something hustling the whining team out of the cafe.
“It was nice meeting you!” a girl shouted behind her.
“Tell Viktor he’s still gorgeous and not to worry about his hair!” a boy shouted alongside his teammate then adds, “and tell him we’re looking forward to Yuratchka’s performance this season!”
“Yeah!” another gymnast screams in delight, “he’s also got Angels way out here on the other side of the world!”
Katsuki-sensei just nods his head and waves to them sweetly. His own students stare at him in amusement and confusion, mouths agape like fish.
Before Katsuki-sensei can sit back down and his students bombard him with questions, his phone goes off and Katsuki-sensei glows . It’s nothing like the serene smiles he gives the class it’s full on loving and genuine. He’s completely broken them.
“Gomen, minna,” Katsuki-sensei apologizes, “I hate to cut this meeting short but I have to be somewhere right now. I should be back in time for office hours though.” With a quick bow and another rushed apology, Katsuki-sensei leaves his students in a wake of disaster.
“What the fuck just happened?” Mira can’t help but swear under the stressful conditions.
“Didn’t he look so in love right now?” Jean says despairingly.
“Forget that!” Janele protests, “what was with all that autographing and picture taking?”
“We need to follow him!” Jean shouts and gets up right after their teacher. Rochelle grabs her things and follows her classmates out lest they do some real damage. Rochelle decided her TA was a scary person.
The group of five followed several paces behind their teacher. He was wandering around center quad looking for someone before zeroing in on a teenager sitting by himself on the bench looking very angry, the scowl on his face very apparent.
Katsuki-sensei smiles at the teenager, a boy the group discovers, and the teenager’s face softens just a teeny tiny bit, relieved to see Katsuki-sensei. To the four’s surprise and delight, Katsuki-sensei displays an incredible skill of flexibility as he maneuvers himself behind the teenager to sit on top of the bench and undoes the knot on top of the blond’s head. The blond relaxes just a bit before taking a deep breath and just rants loudly in Russian . He’s wild in his gestures, lithe arms swinging in outrageous exaggeration, and the scowl returns on his face. And Katsuki-sensei, their favorite Katsuki-sensei, hums in agreement listening to every word the blond teeanger spews out of his mouth as he finger combs the blond hair into a perfect plait.
“Katsuki-sensei speaks Russian ?” hissed Anaia, not wanting to make too much noise, “and how does he know such a gorgeous person?”
“Katsuki-sensei is more gorgeous,” Jean retorts back, “he’s just a kid, I don’t think Katsuki-sensei would date a kid.”
“But look at his fingers!” Mira squeals dreamily, “I wish he would run his hands on my hair like that.” Rochelle winces at that, she’s sure Mira just became an “adult” herself.
“All done,” they hear Katsuki-sensei tell the kid and the blond, coincidentally, is done ranting as well.
The blond gathers his bag and before he leaves, he kisses Katsuki-sensei on the cheek offering a small, “Spasibo ,” his face burning red in embarrassment.
Katsuki-sensei just pats the blond’s head, mindful of the braid he just made, and sends him on his way, face adoring and hand waving. The blond never once looks back.
The uproar during office hours is no surprise. Surprisingly, though, it was not the four who brought up the incident to their oblivious teacher.
“Who was that blond kid with you at center quad?” Patricia shout-asks him as soon as Katsuki-sensei walks into the annex.
“Yeah!” Huan agrees, “we saw you with a blond kid and it looked very cuddly?”
Katsuki-sensei smiles nervously at his class and puts his books down before taking a seat and looking at his class.
“He’s a good friend of mine, basically family,” Katsuki-sensei answers with the fondest look they all have ever seen. He can sense when his students are about to continuously ask questions, especially looking at Jean and Mira who look ready to ask about the incident at the cafe.
Katsuki-sensei nips the problem at the bud, however, when he clears his throat and says, “You have a lot of question but your midterm is Monday and I won’t see you again until Tuesday so let’s make the best of these two hours and really study because I know your quiz scores were not that great.”
The class groans in defeat and start bringing out their textbooks because this midterm might just kick all their behinds. Katsuki-sensei looks relieved even though there is an obvious tension in the air.
The next Thursday meet up at the cafe was when they wanted answers. Unfortunately for them, on Tuesday, the tutorial session was filled with questions about the midterm and half the class having a mini crisis over their grades and then the tutorial session just earlier was rushed into choosing topics for their final project/presentation. There was no downtime to talk but now they were ready.
Jean, Anaia, Janele, and Mira all sat down together, watching the door for their teacher to come in. The bell chimed and that all stood up but it was Rochelle who walked through the doors.
“What’s gotten into y’all?” Rochelle question looking a bit exasperated.
“Just waitin’ on Katsuki-sensei.” Anaia drawled, “Tryna’ get some answers today.”
The rest of the group just nodded in agreement and sat down again, peering into the doors. Rochelle sighed at her classsmates’ antics, she had been doing that a lot recently, but she was also intrigued by the mystery that is Katsuki-sensei. He was lovely and comforting, he always wore the softest sweaters, although they seemed designer, and equally as soft smiles. He was the epitome of a caretaker and was always open to talk to his students. Sometimes he seemed overwhelmed and nervous but in a flash, his confidence would return and switched back to teaching mode.
Just then a ping ran through all their phones.
“Oh! Look! It’s an email from Katsuki-sensei~” Mira sang while everyone opened the email.
From: [email protected]
Konnichiwa minna-san.
I am terribly sorry about having to cancel office hours today. I will make it up next week by offering them on both Tuesday and Thursday. I am busy grading all your midterms and will be extremely busy attending a family event this weekend. I hope all is well and enjoy your weekend.
Yours,
Katsuki Yuuri
“NOOO~!” Anaia cries, “Does that mean he won’t show up today either?
“Argh!” Jean pouts, “Just when we think we can talk to him, too!”
The group is busy crying and pouting when the door chimes again. Rochelle notices her TA right away and nudges at her friends who are all slobbering messes now. Then she takes not of the the blond teenager who follows in after Katsuki-sensei, busy tapping away on his phone.
“Katsuki-sensei!” Mira sang, “You made it! I didn’t think you’d come!”
The rest of the group raised their heads and cheered as their TA made his way to their table. He waved at them and then asked the next table over if he could borrow the extra chair. The blond teeanager plopped himself on the seat and continued to stare at his phone.
“Geez katsudon, your fans are so desperate for you,” the blond grumbled in heavily accented English, almost harsh and rough.
“Yura!” Katsuki-sensei scolded the blond, albeit a bit lightly, “They aren’t my fans. They’re my students.”
The blond turned to stare at them again and harrumphed before grabbing a menu from the center.
What is up with this blond kid? They thought amongst themselves sneaking acknowledging glances at each other. Gorgeous but deadly… They all agreed mentally.
The waitress came around and took their orders. Just as she places their drinks on the table, Mira has enough of the awkward tension and brings up the topics looming over the small group, much to Katsuki-sensei’s dsmay.
“So who’s the blond,” Jean begins, eyes staring at the teen almost longingly.
The blond just scoffs while Katsuki-sensei answers over him, “This a Yuri Plisetsky, he’s a competitive figure skater. I mentioned it last holiday break.”
“So he’s the Yurachoke, something, guy those gymnasts were talking about last time?” Janele asks.
“Yuratchka,” Katsuki-sensei corrects but nods all the same, “same person just a different nickname.”
“If he’s the Artichoke, or whatever, who’s the Viktor guy then?” Jean interjects, flinching when the blond Yuri shots a glare his way for butchering the name once again.
“Hey katsudon,” Yuri growls at their teacher, “are your students dumb or something? They are dumb right?”
Katsuki-sensei chides the teen and turns back to his students, thinking of what to say.
“You’re married, aren’t you, sensei?” Rochelle calmly says trying to make a way for her teacher’s thoughts, staring at the ring on his right hand again after so long of ignoring it.
Katsuki-sensei chuckles nervously before lifting his right hand, ring gleaming in the light, “Y-yeah, I am. Um… Viktor is my husband…” he trails off.
The table explodes. “I thought that ring was for DECORATION?! Maybe a fashion statement or something!” Anaia wails.
“Wait,” Janele interrupts, “what’s with all that autographs and picture session then? Are you a famous professor somewhere or something?
Katsuki-sensei’s ears turn red and his face burns while his blond company just lets out guffaws and peals and peals of laughter.
“How do you not know?” Blond Yuri exclaims, “He’s been your teacher for almost 2 months and you never thought to Google him? You make shit stalkers.”
The table looks amongst themselves and then back to their phones where the email is still opened. They stare at the email and the email address it was sent from. It was weird and a jumble of letters but they should have known better to look at the domain. It was clearly a school assigned email address. But that last name… Mira quickly opened another tab on her browser page to Google their TA.
“Anaia! Spell that last name for me,” Mira demands.
“Uh.. N-i-k-i,” Anaia begins to read out loud before being rudely interrupted.
“Found it!” Mira cackles in victory, “No fucking way!”
Now the table rushes to read the articles on her small phone screen. The blond teenager just smirks at them and their dear, poor Katsuki-sensei is beyond red with embarrassment and chooses to hide in his hands.
“You were in the Olympics ?!” They all but scream, “You’ve won medals. ”
The blond just scoffs, “You mean he’s got a silver and two golds in the Grand Prix, then 2 more fucking golds in World and before he retires, he fucking gets a fucking silver in the Pyeongchang Olympics. Yeah he’s won some medals. Did you look up his dumbasss husband?”
“Yura!” Katsuki-sensei yelps, face still hidden, ears an adorable tomato color, “Don’t encourage them.”
“He’s a fucking old man now but he’s like the most decorated athlete in figure skating history, you should meet him,” Yuri’s smirk turns into a full on shit-eating grin. “How do you not know?”