Quite the same, nostalgic scene and situation, but with the expectancy that the arriving are not the same people.

It was another beautiful daybreak in the middle of winter. The sky was bestowing a gracious scene with a gradation of indigo and pale yellow, and as the light reflects on the lone and dispersed clouds.

While his hands are warmly placed on his pocket as he leaned on the cold metal frame of the vehicle, Mato stared on what is above as he watches his deep breathes materializing as white breath disappearing to thin air.

An early Sunday morning, yet he is in school and is awaiting the arrival of who the first person will be.

Who indeed; it was a fellow teacher and his lover.

"No one's still here?"

"Well, I was a little early."

"Did you wait long?" Nanase jokingly asked.

"This ain't a date, silly."

Such silence, and that is why the seemingly quiet footsteps over the snow became very audible as Nanase closes in to Mato and wrap the other half of her rather long scarf on his neck. He took another deep breath, which immediately fogged the lens of his glasses. No one knows if the redness of his cheeks were because of the cold or something else, nevertheless.

"…

Slept well?" his muffled voice came out.

"Yup.

Even though it's a bit of a trip intended for productivity, I can't help but be excited. It's rare that you actually invite me on things like this."

"What a bad boyfriend I am if I can't."

"Pff… don't say that. Anyway, do your students know about us?"

"Maybe? Even I'm surprised that we're being professional for the past two years."

"I would be more surprised if they actually don't know."

"Oh, here's the first one."

It was a noticeable entrance, even if not intended to be. A black car, perhaps costing a few million Laxes, pulled up in front of the school gate. So many things have been different indeed. Awhile back, a driver would open the door for the girl and hand her bags to her, but it was not the case at all. Sora Kagurazaka opened the door with a large bag on her shoulders and waved farewell to the driver who did not leave the driver seat at all.

They were somehow glad that their school has changed her, the two teachers thought.

"Good morning, Sir Martin, Ms. Nanase."

"Likewise."

Mato looked at his wristwatch, now that the first student has arrived. He expected that slowly, not at a turtle's pace, but just a trickle, the others will then follow soon.

Not long from that, another two people stood by the gate—a man and a girl with a bag on her hands. Jean then abruptly patted, fixed Ai's hair and put back her beanie on. While she was walking towards the car, Jean who did not follow just waved to them from afar and left.

At the back of Mato's mind, he realized that his students are having a colorful time of their youth, but was glad that no one is as impulsive as the former ones in spite of that.

Subsequently, a rather interesting sight came upon them as they continue to stare to the school gate, waiting for the remaining four students to arrive. It was like some kind of a murder scene. Truly the accumulation of snow to the ground has thickened, so footsteps inevitably leave tracks, and perhaps also a trail of a person dragging another, which seems to be unconscious.

But if expressed in alternative words, it's as if Aomine was pulling a sleigh.

Rather frighteningly in this cold and quiet morning, Aomine was dragging a Hoshino Corik that is showing no resistance to the rather strong grip that is grabbing his arm. And as if it's not yet weird at all, behind them fifty or so meters behind, the usually expressionless Obi Soramoto was creeping closer and closer to Aomine and the person who worries them the most. Suddenly, Obi ran at full speed and grabbed the feet of Hoshino, which prompted both him and Aomine to run to them. The immediate "tremors" woke the sleeping beauty from his slumber, but then came back to sleep.

Nevertheless, the two of them got a head chop from the two teachers.

And speaking of running; gracefully at that, in every step of her jog, Reina arrived with a thick tracksuit worn and a large rucksack on her back. It was at that point where the club realizes that she values fitness a lot, if not athleticism.

"Okay, roll call.

Ai-san."

"I didn't forget my toothbrush!" she shared as she raised her hand.

"Sora."

"Here and well," beautifully.

"Reina."

"Caught my breath."

"Aomine."

"Existing but currently repenting," while on his knees.

"Hosino."

"Zzzzzzzz…"

Again with another surprise in Obi's character, he slapped the sleeping guy straight on the cheek.

"Gwaah-! Present…!"

"Obi."

"Finding ways to being more expressive."

Hoshino was the only one with a normal response.

…

Heated seats—a feature of a car that arguably everyone yearns for in the comfort of driving. But for Mato and Nanase who will be minding the wheel, their hands are kept warm not by each other's hands, but by the heated steering wheel.

Inside the rather large SUV, again, inside parentheses, there sat on the front the two drivers with Reina on the far right. Ai then set up Sora and Aomine to be sitting side by side while she is on the same row. On the back row, Obi has brought out a pillow to lean his back, and raised his legs over the sleeping Hoshino's lap, ready to kick if he drools on his feet.

This time, thought Mato, he was relieved that his students can actually survive a four-hour long road trip with steels of a stomach. From the center of the country the four wheels moved northeast, then towards north-northeast. Thus their arrival in the province called Kurimo, which one other province away from the northeast shore of the island. As anyone would expect after ascending a tiny segment in this floating oblate spheroid, the temperature has changed and decreased by a margin, yet still noticed; especially as they are above a 75 square kilometer surface of Anta Plateau, elevated by two-fifths the height of the tallest mountain of Payns which is just shy from two thousand meters.

The vehicle stopped at a quiet and rather open surroundings with houses even practicing physical distancing despite the stoppage of the outbreak. They hopped out seeing a large and wide bungalow almost as if cabin-like, while its walls are apparent to be concrete. In a nice, cozy, and quiet place, they thought that they have a good place to stay at for the three days.

"Mato-sen… isn't this going to trigger a flag…?" Hoshino worryingly asked now that he has long awaken.

"Let's save that kind of stuff for another day. I'm not going to pull that kind of crap (because I'm with Nana). So yeah, warm place," in which he then pointed to the same house.

…

"There's a bit of a catch at least. It's just passed 10 right now, so we're right on schedule. I got this place rented for cheap, in exchange that we'll clean the whole place squeaky clean since it's a bit dusty in there but manageable.

The house is fully furnished and got two big rooms so one for the boys, another for the girls.

You've got your snacks so no to time to waste. Chop-chop, no one's an exception, not even us two. If we get this place more serviceable by noon, Nana-sen and I will treat you for lunch."

Out of all of the six, Reina eyes suddenly glimmered as she silently cheered on her own. Immediately, she ran to look for the cleaning equipment and started without waiting. On the surface, it did seem like she was absolutely looking forward to lunch after finishing the cleanup, which the others thought to themselves. But in actuality, despite being a Culinary Arts student tied with a lot of time inside the kitchen, she is head over heels doing any kind of chores, as she grew practicing it from childhood.

While work training has not yet been put to a hiatus with the winter break, she had the tendency to leave later than the other four students, hence also coming home late. But most surprisingly, it was not the Nijisaki household that is calling for complaints, but Giotto's with their appeal. At five in the afternoon, the students are immediately dismissed, as per the rules of work training. But Reina will clock out her DTR at that time and come back to do some proper cleaning as much as she can. As much as the restaurant crew is impressed with how shiny the tables were, there is the feeling of anxiety for potentially being accused of making students work overtime. And so, Gin has always come back home at night with stressful stories to tell Rin and the cat.

But of course, the young woman also looks forward to what could be their lunch is after this.

…

But amid the cleaning, one person has showed her inexperience to the universal field. Sora, who is considered a mistress in their household, have only watched the maids do the cleaning and such chores, with her not actually doing them. Unsurprisingly, she do not know of the lefts-and-rights of chores and rather comically make minute mistakes, even though showing proficiency in the kitchen. Aomine however was there to catch the remaining dust that Sora leaves, so to speak.

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On the very moment of her nth mistake, she decided in herself that she would insist on their maids to teach her the ways of doing housework, while being weighted by the shame and embarrassment she is feeling with Aomine seeing them all.

But more than an hour later of rather impressive "teamwork," the visual imagery of sparkles floating inside the house were almost seen in real space.

And as one wise, decisive man would do in the middle of chill amidst the presence of clear sky and the sun, Mato led the party inside a native Kurimo restaurant themed similar to Hosa; proud with the soup recipe that has been passed down for six generations. But regardless of history, the recipe would not be passed on for such a time if it was not something that is scrumptious; the Art Club's attestation.

~ ~ ~

In the expected fashion of Martin Arlo, the situations shall be kept in control and not rushed. And so they came back to the lodging house to get settled with their belongings, and effortlessly decided where the men and women are going to stay.

Indeed there were two large bedrooms with four adjacent beds each, and after enjoying the warmth and softness of their cushions, they stepped out of the place in the early afternoon to explore the plateau with their sketchbooks and choice of medium.

Then in one pack, they managed to stumble upon a very crowded, commercial town with paths slightly narrower than normal streets. Almost out of instinct, they all rummaged through their bags and took out their own facemasks before walking through the crowd.

It may have been eleven months since the termination of the pandemic because of a cure, but the "normal" of the world had greatly changed in the three-month duration of the viral attack. Thus, seeing someone with a face mask, not a white mask, out in the open is now absolutely normal. But on that note, one thing that would stand out in this province is that this is the only one that controlled the virus to a zero. When the outbreak began in the world in November last year and while it has not yet been an immediate emergency in Orio, Kurimo has only tallied five cases with no deaths but full recoveries, and only in that month and no more in the following. But perhaps, it may have been possible being a surface separated to those 800 meters below in the urban.

Amidst this new normal and the crowd, however, they found their own places to settle with their sketchbooks opened. Sora took out her camera to take scenes and stills, while the others settled with how freeform their pieces can be.

Hence, the real purpose of this trip. Indeed, a trip intended solely for learning has not yet happened under Mato's supervision. That is, excluding the time in Chikami Inn, as it was an act of service; while this trip is intended for their self-improvement.

As much as he doesn't want to compare the current club to the old one, he was not able to help it. He felt such a relief to know that the six he is looking after is not as lively as the weird four, then six, then eight. But he was missing the atmosphere of maturity that he was used to feeling for several years, which he has not yet found with them. And deep within, there was something that is missing, a missing piece to the puzzle so to speak. It felt like something was incomplete.

But as he gazes and observes towards those youths, he may have already known what it is that was missing.

Closeness, and intimacy.

There is still an intangible distance between his students. But perhaps something is either right or wrong. The situations are different from before. Once, they were all closely related as long friends, if not classmates; and somehow, a connection has quickly been established to those that came the latest. But now, an "alright" distance has been unconsciously placed between the new people. Indeed, it was not the same anymore, but Mato still yearns for something that he has been missing, regardless if there are only three months left in this ephemeral duration. But maybe it was the root of the conflict. It is not normal for a club with all of the members to stay in just one year, and thus even a single piece on the puzzle that Mato is building, it is as though not even one piece has placed, leaving only emptiness.

"…

Hahh… This just shows that I am not a good teacher at all…"

Behind the lenses, the damp corner of his eyes was seen by no one.

~ ~ ~

"Soraaaa~ Can I see the photos you've taken?" called out as Reina approached.

"Is it hard to find good spots?"

"Yeah… I've gone through four spots immediately, but now there's none that I can find."

"Just say stop if see one that you like," and so Sora leaned her hands holding the camera nearer to Reina as she goes through the images. And unsurprisingly, Aomine's face has been seen, in the screen without complete and proper focus.

"Y-Y-You didn't see a-anything…"

At that moment, Reina thought, this side of Sora was so cute, but she refrained from outright hugging her in the open.

"Oh, there. I like this one!"

Sora then stopped and raised the screen closer as Reina's hands immediately moved over the paper. But she thought that something that is not normal just happened right as Sora was intently watching beside her friend.

"Thanks for that, Sora!"

Six minutes. Only six minutes. It was all the time it took Reina to finish her painting and dropped her water brush pen. Sora saw at that time confident, one-line strokes that were then covered by watercolor as if they were not even on the paper in the first place. But as for the outcome, it was almost no different from a standard watercolor painting.

Suddenly, the words rapid and painting combined in her mind.

"T-That was really fast…"

"Aaahhhh… Is it weird…?"

"Not at all. It's actually amazing if anything. The way you let your hand do the work without mistakes is astonishing. I see that you have an extremely good control with a brush.

Did you learn it somewhere?"

"Hmmm… Maybe that was because of my older brother? I think that he is average in making art, and he can't do the things he taught me. For example, the process I did just now is what he would call 'intuitive painting.' He said something like putting all of my focus in a painting while not overthinking.

He's kind of a strange one, honestly," she chuckled, "He knows so much about how the mind works even though he didn't study anything about psychology. Or rather, he makes his own concepts instead of relying on existing theories. If anything, he is a great writer.

But what made me look up to him is his admittance to his weakness and his way of motivating me. He said that he was glad that I was able to give life to his concepts, which made him want to live more fruitfully and better."

A few seconds of silence made Reina realize the things she just said. Once the quiver had strike her, her face has already been reddened.

"S-Sorry…! I didn't realize what I was saying…"

Reina Nijisaki is an introvert, and so for Sora to see her away from her usually meek demeanor, and seeing her shuffle her hands in the air in an attempt to hide her flustered face, it was a refreshing sight. Thus, a thought suddenly came to Sora, and then abruptly wrapped her arms tightly on Reina.

"You're so cute…"

"U-U-U-Uhhhmmmm…?! What are you doing so suddenly, S-Sora…?"

Instead of being pacified, the sudden embrace made her even more flustered, especially with people walking by and seeing them.

"Ringo-nee does this though…?"

"Why did Ane Ringo suddenly pop up in our conversation… Anyway, it's finally gotten warm…"

"Hm, I'm not getting any thanks?"

"…

Don't tell me you've hugged Aomine before?"

"…! W-What are you s-s-saying?!"

It sounded and appeared like she was hiding something from her tone and sudden actions, but in truth, it was all just an outcome of the unexpected. And so, they came to a deadlock; of fluster, that is.

Today's battle result:

The young men who were just passing by win since the presence of the two made their day.

~ ~ ~

"Hmm? I just noticed, where's Obi?" asked the male teacher.

"He said he's stepping out for a bit. No one knows what he's up to, though."

"Huuhhh, it's almost dinner already. I wonder what he's doing this late outside."

An expressionless person indeed, but second to that, Obi is one that is hard to read if not totally unreadable. He is not aloof, not overly friendly; but he does not have a hard time communicating with others, especially with his friends, and the same with the club. However, he rarely opens up conversations when in Art Room, and focuses quietly on the piece in front of him. But that is not to say that he is not a talkative fellow. On the contrary, he does talk a lot, which does not seem like it with how straight his expressions are.

No one really knows what he is thinking, but the other members think of it as his own quirk.

But while the topic of his stepping out immediately dwindled down, the people of the house abruptly huddled to a low table with their own blankets on their backs. Indeed, the comfortable warmth in the middle of a cold day brings people to the path of sloth. And it happened that they are having a large hotpot for the night.

But just in time, the door of the house sounded along with an "I am back." On Obi's fingers hang a paper bag that suddenly brought forth a savory scent that took over the whole house without a moment's halt, while the lid hasn't been opened yet.

"I… I bought some roast pork butt on the way home."

"O-Oh… I didn't know you were into exotic foods, Obi…" Mato cringed.

"That's not it, Sir Martin. Pork butt is pork shoulder. I guess then… have you eaten pulled pork, sir?"

"Oh, wait, that's it?"

Then Obi placed the meat beside the portable stove, "You can do the honors of shredding it, Reina."

"Oh, I definitely will…!"

One more thing, Obi can look cool on the things one would least expect, and somehow, he is able to bring out other people's emotions while his is still under the wraps.

Once again, a sumptuous meal.

~ ~ ~

By the time of 8:30, all of them have retired for the day and went to their respective rooms. While the girls are prying to the love lives of Ai and Sora, as girls would do, the men's bedroom seemed rather quiet.

"How's the first day apart from the feast?" Mato's curiosity surfaced.

"Isn't Reina sort of adorable today?" Hoshino then responded with another question mark.

"Huuuhhhh, yeah, I guess we saw something." Aomine followed, then Obi…

"Yeah, it was kinda cute," in his usual blank face.

"Wahh, you sure it's fine to give remarks like that, Aomine?"

"You were the one who asked, idiot. Was just saying my opinion."

"Wouldn't Sora be mad at you?"

"Huh?"

"You guys aren't in a relationship right?"

A heavy question came out of Mato's lips while being unconvincing with the shoujo manga at his hand.

"Hmm. I think that she's a friend at most. I still think that we aren't very compatible, but she doesn't really give up on me, as far as I observe."

"Yo, you're in a very complicated spot, man."

"You mean…?"

"Like, when you think about it, you've kind of turned her down already, but it looked just like your relationship actually got better after that.

Last year… it was far from a fight between a cat and a dog. It felt like you're two predators in the wild aiming to kill each other. Then now, you two get along more than ever even though you technically have given your response. Yet, she's still going at it. I see it as a tough spot."

"I didn't know you were observant, Hoshino."

"Well, we're in the same club so I can at least say that."

And then Obi expressed his agreement and followed.

"I guess… it's somewhat of a difficult situation. Though in my opinion, I think that no one's a winner between you in the end. From what I see, I think that it would hurt Sora down the line, unavoidably."

"O-Oh… I didn't think of that… Hurt, huh… Even I wonder how many times I got her hurt. Do you have a word on this, Sir Martin?"

"I don't think it would help, though. I have a lot of shortcomings as a supervisor this year, so I really can't put a finger on the situation. I got so used to how independent my old students act that I kind of took you for granted. I guess I owe you guys an apology for that.

But on that topic, I really don't think I can give you a good advice. Nothing's really going on between Nana and me apart from our relationship."

Needless to say, they fell to shock hearing that.

"I figured that I would at least say that as my apology."

After Mato being attacked, the three came back to the topic.

"I would be honest, though, I think you need to take action, Aomine," Obi added. "I don't know how it happened, but it seems that Sora really likes you a lot, perhaps, even unconsciously. From what I've heard, you guys were always in a battle of concepts last year, but now you agree a lot on the same things.

I found Sora to be idealistic, but not so much right now. My dad works under the Kagurazaka company, and he said some things about changes there when Sora stepped up to be a successor. I really didn't like how she acted condescendingly in the past, but maybe… you somehow changed her?"

"…And if you began changing because of me, I wouldn't want that. Even if you decided to change or stay the way you are, please do that for you own sake."

…

"Please tell me that you are taking those steps for the sake of yourself and not of others?"

"…It's hard to answer that."

Hoshino then chimed in, "I think you should at least give her a chance. A few months have passed, so it's bound that some things may have changed. Rude as it is from me, what I would suggest is to ascertain what she wants and actually feels. Even if it's not being in a relationship outright, maybe you two would find a "compromise" that's not in a bad way.

…

Oh, wow… Saying that suddenly made me want to confess."

"Huh? Wait, you have one?"

"Y-Yeah. She's in the same class."

"Want me to say who she is?"

"Please don't, Mato-sen! I'll lose my confidence!

But now we've come to this point… how about you Obi~?"

Suddenly, Obi's lips arched so subtly.

"It was until last year… but she's bound to be with a chef in Giotto's anyway, so I gave up immediately. I guess I don't have one now.

I did fess up, though."

"WHAT?! That's the first time we've heard that!! When did that happen?!"

"It was August last year. I knew I had no chance but I still told her anyway."

"M-M-M-Mato-sen…!! Are you hearing this?!?!"

"Ryohei-kun…" somehow, he was in tears.

"What's with this sudden twist?!"

One way or another, it was now the men that made all the noise, but was then ordered to sleep after a scolding from Nanase.