The next day was slightly overcast, as well as Suzume's mood. While still quite angry at Honey for his slip in conversation, she was also angry at her own reaction. She shouldn't have been so forward about it. After all, a good business woman kept her emotions in check, or so said her stern partner. He was harsh on her, hardening her so that the company would once again, be in the top most competitors. According to him and some of the other opponents, because she was a female, leading the company, it had brought down their stocks quite a bit. Naturally, Suzume took to her lessons seriously, in order to prove to the others that she wasn't a mindless female. That she would prove to be as strong as her father and every other male head that had ever owned and ran her company.
Suzume rolled her shoulders in agitation as she walked towards her final class of the day, advanced statistics. There was to be a quiz today and she intended on receiving the best that she could. After all, it wouldn't reflect on her well if she were to receive anything less than an A-. As Suzume went over every possible equation and rule that she could, she did not notice the body that she was about to run into. When she did, it was a wall of solid, hard flesh. The very impact had made her loose her footing on the clean marble floor of the brightly colored hallway. Shock took her face as she fell, and she only had enough time to notice that it had begun to rain outside. That the hallway candles seemed a little brighter before she closed her eyes, ready for the impact that was to come. The pain never came; instead she felt a long arm underneath her and opened her eyes to stare into the stormy ocean that was Morinozuka's eyes. He pulled her gently back up and helped her pick up her fallen books.
"Are you okay, Suzume?"
"I'm fine, thank you Mori." She took a moment to gain back her groundings. They were just outside the classroom, but it seemed as thought the professor was not in yet. Suzume noticed that something was amiss; there was no random ball of blonde fluff.
"Where is Honey? He will miss the quiz."
"Mitsukuni had to stay home today. There is some… family business for him to attend to."
Realization came to Suzume's eyes, but she kept her face impassive. "I see."
"Are you ready for the quiz?"
It was surprise that now took the stage on her pale face. This was the most in a conversation that she had ever heard from Mori, without interruption from Honey. Most of all was that he had been the one to further their talk. It was a most rare occurrence and it threw Suzume off guard.
"I-I guess I'm ready, I mean… there is always a possibility of failure, but I-"
"Alright class! I'm ready to begin! I… Where is everyone?"
Prof. Namikawa had come back, his dark eyes shining as he held the test high, ready for the next class. It was odd then that his only two present students looked around themselves for the first time and gave identical, non-committed shrugs. The teacher sighed and then gave a half smile to his present students.
"Well, as a reward for actually being here, I shall allow you to make this an open book test."
The masks on his students' faces made him wince, but he understood them. Morinozuka had always been stoic, and the death of Hanahashi's father had made her emotion flee in terror. While they took their seats, David (his mother knew what she was doing, thank you very much) Namikawa could only hope for the best.
"If you finish before the end of the period, you may leave or do other classes work. No talking, eating, and all of that. Good luck, you two."
Each student muttered a thank you as he handed them their tests and immediately began their work. It was one of those rare times that any of their teachers saw any crack in their masks of indifference. A hint of confusion in the eyes, a frown of concentration, maybe a slight huff of annoyance at a particularly difficult question.
The clock ticked, and the light grew a little warmer outside the cool rooms of the school. The scratching of pen against paper filled the room, along with the typing of Prof. Namikawa on his laptop. A bird would fly past the window without notice and the simply painted room seemed to grow larger with the silence. The students soon finished their quizzes and handed them in silently, and left the room. Namikawa looked to the door as it closed, and shook his head.
"A match made in stone, I swear."