One of the camera crew members gets curious

Kawakami still found herself sweating bullets, despite her attempts to look natural... but could she look natural in this position? The teacher and student had ended up so close together that unless her body was completely hidden, it was only natural to see two figures and to assume that those figures were intimate. The doctor's coat she'd been given was plenty long to cover down to her shins, but beneath that, her feet were clearly bare... and worse, behind Ryuji's frame, the coat was open, revealing her bare body. There may have been a moment where he could back up towards the crowd and she could discretely button it, but that time was past; it was inevitable that the new occupants of the train, with nothing else to look at, would begin stealing glances at the odd couple.

Worried, the teacher kept her head down, trying not to lock eyes with anyone, while Ryuji struggled to keep his eyes up towards the ceiling and avoid looking at her at all.

Unfortunately, they could only keep up this pattern for so long. Eventually, one of the crew members-- a woman with a dark gray pant-suit on and long, black hair-- approached the two of them. "You two don't want to take a seat? There's plenty of sitting room," she questioned, while brushing her hair from the side of her face. The gesture made Kawakami suspicious... that discrete movement made it seem like the woman was trying to become camera-ready.

"We're good, thanks," Ryuji answered, twisting his head slightly but keeping his back to her. Kawami gulped, wishing she'd been the one to answer... She didn't trust the same boy that dug her into this helpless position to take the lead on protecting her.

"Ah... Young love," the woman giggled, cupping one hand to her mouth and looking mischievous.

"What? That ain't it at all!" Ryuji defended, knitting his brow and growing red-faced. Somehow, the suggestion that he was with a girlfriend seemed to embarrass him further, despite the situation he already found himself in.

"Is that not it?" the young reporter questioned, raising an eyebrow. It occurred to Kawakami now that the reporter looked closer to Ryuji's age than hers... It could just be a really good make-up job. She wondered if her own apparent age would have raised questions, if the reporter got a better look at her.

Just then, another man approached, this one with gray streaked in his black hair. He wore a wry smile and a somewhat well-used tan suit. He seemed to have a pretty strong body type for a camera crewman, with wide shoulders and big hands. Perhaps that explained his bravado, as he began to deconstruct the scene in front of him. "Ha ha... You really don't get it? This thug, riding the train at night, with a woman? Look... she's bare-foot." He pointed one finger to guide the eyes of his junior news associate. "The kid's hooked up with a prostitute. Probably his first time, too. It's rude to bother him."

"A prostitute!?" Ryuji, Kawakami, and the young news reporter all gasped at the same time.

"Don't worry you two. A kid and his paid hooker aren't news," the man shrugged, looking smug and proud of his own detective skills. "The boy's on his way to manhood. Let's leave the two of 'em alone."

That conclusion was embarrassing, but favorable; Kawakami thought she could live with the news crew thinking she was a lady of the night, if it meant that they wouldn't press into the situation any further. Just when she was beginning to feel safe, however, she noticed the reaction of the junior reporter. The woman was curiously staring into her face, narrowing her eyes. The teacher began to feel her eyebrow twitching with irritation... the skepticism was clear in the other girl's face. She was thinking: _"this kid really paid this lady to have sex with him? She doesn't look that special. Aren't prostitutes supposed to be more alluring than this?" _Kawakami began to feel herself getting distractedly pissed off...

Irritation turned out to be the least of her worries. As the reporter looked more closely, she realized that Kawakami's coat was open. When she re-angled herself to Ryuji's side and then peered closer, in spite of Kawakami's attempts to discretely reposition her arm at her coat's breast, the situation became evident. "H-Holy cow! She's naked, right now! You were right!" the young reporter exclaimed, pointing her fingers.

"Seriously?" the older guy laughed, pressing his hands onto his hips. "Damn! I thought the kid looked like a shrimp, but he's actually pretty bold! Now I feel really bad we interrupted him!" This seemed to have really made his night.

Unfortunately, Ryuji wasn't taking the provocation very well, nor was he working to de-escalate the situation. "You old bastard, you've got it all wrong! I didn't hire a hooker! And it ain't none of your business anyway!" he complained, now turning and raising one fist.

Now the guy did seem to become curious; he raised both eyebrows and began to rub his chin thoughtfully. "Hmm? That's not it, huh? Cause see... my other guess was that you took this woman from somewhere and **** her up. Thug like you... seems like something you might do." Now Kawakami saw it: this guy wasn't tired, just bored and looking to show off. He probably thought that with a group of his peers, this was his chance to show off by stepping up in front of a bad-natured delinquent. "Did I get it right this time?"

"Fucker!" Ryuji protested, growing more agitated and leaning back his fist. Kawakami caught his elbow, preventing him from throwing the punch, while unfortunately drawing him back against her naked front. "Sens-!" he began to complain, then tightened his lips, realizing that "sensei" was the one word he could least afford to utter at the moment.

As the older man watched in amusement, Kawkami clutched her coat some measure of closed and discretely buttoned a few buttons, then stepped out from around Ryuji. She had to stop this from turning into a fight. "I appreciate your gentlemanly behavior, but you really do have it all wrong. This boy isn't threatening me at all! I'm..." The camera crew all watched with interest, their eyes focusing on the pale area of her cleavage and her thighs visible beneath the hastily rebuttoned coat.

Kawakami's felt like her head was spinning. What was she supposed to tell them she was now? A prostitute?

The boy's teacher?

Or something else?!