"Thanks, but no, the one I like is Mr. Xiaoquan."
"Ah—ah, ah! Hmm hmm hmm!" Akiko acted even more childish than Dubian Lian, throwing a tantrum and kicking her legs on the sofa.
Dubian Che ignored her and asked Xiaoquan Aonai, who was smiling:
"Mr. Xiaoquan, school doesn't start until the 9th, so why did you come back today?"
"I have work to do," Xiaoquan Aonai replied.
"Work?" Dubian Che didn't understand.
"Young man, don't tell me you think that teachers don't have to work when students aren't around?" Miyazaki Mieko said.
"What do teachers do when they aren't teaching classes?"
"The inter-school competition for monthly tests, the performance targets that are impossible to meet, complaints to deal with on top of grading, checking teaching materials, simulated teaching, never-ending teaching and research meetings, not to mention parent-teacher conferences," Xiaoquan Aonai complained.
Dubian Che had never seen Xiaoquan Aonai complain like this.
