Hayase Kinue smiled and, without standing on ceremony, kept talking as she walked into Tsushima Kagami's room.
Tsukuyomi Komoe and Douraku Utage naturally followed her right in.
Then the two of them felt the warmth filling the room and tossed aside the quilts wrapped around themselves.
"Yesss!"
"There's heating!"
"Honestly, Kagami-kun, why didn't you say so sooner!"
"You made me hide under my blankets all day!"
"I couldn't even enjoy my drink properly!"
At this point Douraku Utage spread her arms wide, her face full of bliss as if welcoming the warmth of spring.
"Exactly, exactly!"
"I've decided—from now on I'm sleeping next to the kerosene heater at Kagami-kun's place!"
said Tsukuyomi Komoe.
"You can't go causing trouble for Kagami-kun and Shizuku-chan, you know."
"Go back and sleep in your own rooms."
"You've at least got a kotatsu and an electric blanket, surely!"
After setting down the cardboard box, Hayase Kinue scolded Tsukuyomi Komoe and Douraku Utage, who were trying to freeload at Tsushima Kagami's place.
"Ahaha, my place doesn't have an electric blanket, and the kotatsu broke," said Tsukuyomi Komoe.
"Komoe and I share the one kotatsu."
Douraku Utage chimed in at this point.
"Then why don't you two get it repaired or buy a new one?"
At that, the two of them broke into matching awkward grins.
"We blew our whole paycheck the moment it came in."
"We'll definitely buy one next month!"
Tsushima Kagami hadn't expected the two little teachers to be kindred spirits as well.
Looking at them, their figures seemed just about small enough to fit right inside a kotatsu.
So he smiled and said,
"You two teachers are welcome anytime."
"Heh heh, Kagami-kun really is the best!"
"Not like a certain black-hearted landlady."
"Friends and classmates for all these years, and she still won't let us stay at her place!"
Tsukuyomi Komoe and Douraku Utage each grabbed one of Tsushima Kagami's hands, speaking pointedly.
Hayase Kinue had long since gotten used to these two usually unreliable tenants-slash-good-friends.
Paying them no mind, she looked straight at Tsushima Kagami.
"So what did you buy that's in this package?"
Off to the side, Yukinoshita Shizuku—who had already poured tea for the three of them—along with Tsukuyomi Komoe and Douraku Utage, all turned to look at the box.
At that moment, Hayase Kinue suddenly realized something.
"Oh my, it's not like we're that curious or anything."
"Maybe wait until we've left to open it."
Tsushima Kagami glanced at the sender's address and said with a smile,
"Relax, it's nothing scandalous."
Besides, anything scandalous had long since been discovered by everyone anyway.
Tsushima Kagami thought to himself.
"It's just some clothes."
As he spoke, Tsushima Kagami tore open the cardboard box.
From inside he pulled out tops and trousers, one after another, in shades of black, white, and gray.
"What are these?"
Yukinoshita Shizuku asked curiously.
"Long johns!"
"...?"
Hearing Tsushima Kagami say that, everyone failed to register it for a moment.
"That's way too thick!"
"Even a friend of mine in Asahikawa, Hokkaido doesn't dress as heavily as you!"
Everyone stared at the obviously much thicker long johns in Tsushima Kagami's hands, the kind lined with a layer of fleece on the inside.
"You've gotta have them this thick to stay warm!"
"Those thin thermal undergarments they sell in the malls don't keep you warm at all."
The truth was, people in this country wore long johns too—they just called them thermal undergarments.
Even back home, unless you had them custom-made at a specialty shop, thermal undergarments were generally pretty thin.
In any case, Tsushima Kagami felt that wearing them was no different from not wearing them—the ads hyped them up to the heavens, and yet you ended up just as cold.
Later, his family had custom-ordered several sets of thick, fleece-lined long johns from a tailor's shop, and from then on Tsushima Kagami had fallen in love with wearing long johns.
Over here, though, people liked to cultivate so-called "guts"—which is why every year you'd often see elementary and middle school students out training their bodies in the ice and snow of winter wearing nothing but fundoshi, along with all sorts of historical reasons.
This meant that back in your student days, if you wore long johns you'd actually get mocked as pampered, weak, and lacking guts!
And as for the girls, winter meant rows upon rows of bare, pale legs—mostly because some schools' dress codes were notoriously strict.
Some schools not only had short skirts as part of the uniform, but also explicitly forbade female students from wearing leggings—that is, tights.
This gave rise to the stereotype that many girls' bare legs simply didn't get cold in winter, when in reality they had no choice.
Under normal circumstances they'd at least wear a pair of thermal tights.
Fortunately, when Private Ousai merged, it absorbed a church-affiliated school, and some of its more conservative traditions were preserved.
Among them was the rule that, whether in summer or winter uniforms, the girls all wore long skirts, and there was no prohibition against leggings.
This made the girls at many other schools with bare-leg dress codes intensely envious.
With the weather growing colder lately, Tsushima Kagami had sought out a tailor's shop to make quite a few sets, having them shipped over directly once finished.
Now Tsushima Kagami took out all of the long johns.
He pulled out several sets that were obviously children's-sized styles and handed them, one by one, to Hayase Kinue, Tsukuyomi Komoe, and Douraku Utage.
"Oh, we get some too?"
"Of course."
"I just didn't know whether you wear them in winter."
"But I had a few sets made for you anyway."
Tsushima Kagami looked at the three of them with a smile.
Tsushima Kagami hadn't only made them for these three.
He'd also had sets custom-ordered for Sayuri and Ijichi Seika, writing down all their addresses and having the items mailed over.
There's a kind of cold called "forgetting to wear your long johns."
And there's a kind of caring called "I, Tsushima Kagami, think you must be cold."
He'd already done his part to show he cared; whether or not they wore them was their business.
"Haha, a perfect fit!"
Tsukuyomi Komoe couldn't wait—right there in front of everyone, she stripped off her outer clothes and pulled on the long johns.
And she showed them off to the whole group.
"Feels like I won't need to pile on so many thick clothes anymore."
"Just one shirt and a jacket will do."
Beside her, Douraku Utage nodded, watching Tsukuyomi Komoe.
"And conveniently, our staff uniforms have long trousers too."
"Now my legs won't freeze at school."
"My desk is over by the side, and the heating never quite reaches it—it always feels chilly."
"And the classrooms don't have heating during lessons, so it's even colder."
"I don't really go out much, myself," said Hayase Kinue, off to the side, with a smile.
"But I'll wear them as pajamas."
Tsushima Kagami also picked up a set and handed it to Yukinoshita Shizuku.
Yukinoshita Shizuku took it and looked it over.
"This is hideous."
"And you can't even wear this with a skirt, can you?"
"Doesn't our school have long skirts? It'll be covered up and out of sight anyway."
"Isn't this warmer than wearing tights?"
"Wearing this under a long skirt is still weird."
"Fine, suit yourself—wear it or don't."
"Just don't come complaining to me when you end up with chronic leg aches from the cold."
Yukinoshita Shizuku held the long johns and pouted at Tsushima Kagami.
"I'm done talking to you."
"It's almost time for my part-time job."
"Remember to get the housework done later!"
"Sure, sure."
"I'll do it."
Just as Tsushima Kagami finished speaking, he heard his phone ring.
One glance at the number—it was none other than Mrs. Yukinoshita.
Yukinoshita Shizuku leaned in close as well.
Tsushima Kagami answered straightaway and put it on speakerphone.
"Good afternoon, Mother."
After Tsushima Kagami greeted her, a burst of noisy, bustling sounds came through the phone.
It was a little while before Mrs. Yukinoshita's voice finally came over the line.
"Good afternoon."
"Shizuku hasn't been causing you any trouble lately, has she?"
"Honestly, Mother, what kind of thing is that to say!"
Yukinoshita Shizuku, kneeling beside him, spoke up too.
____
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