Life In The Reverse World

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Chouko: I’m just not feeling well, so I took a day off. Hoshikawa, you don’t need to worry~ [cat standing proudly] --Read

Glancing at his phone screen once more, seeing the message from Shihou on LINE, Harutaki still could not set his mind at ease.

They had agreed to meet again today, yet when he arrived, Shihou was nowhere to be found.

But what reason could he possibly use to persuade her?

He could clearly read the rejection between her lines, and he had no suitable excuse or justification to keep showing concern for her.

A lack of boundaries and overly presumptuous actions would only breed annoyance, not gratitude. In the past, he had been able to approach her proactively and pursue her because the atmosphere had been right, and because Shihou herself had been in a good mood, her attitude clearly one of reluctant refusal rather than true rejection…

Harutaki spent the entire afternoon agonizing over the problem, yet even when the seventh-period Japanese class finally ended, he still hadn’t come up with a satisfactory solution.

After class, however, the homeroom teacher and Japanese instructor, Asama, did not leave right away. With a stack of lesson plans and textbooks tucked under his arm, he lazily waved Harutaki over.

“Hoshikawa, come with me for a bit.”

Still unclear about what was going on, Harutaki followed him. Once again, they arrived at the rooftop. The same as ever, the sloppy, unkempt middle-aged man leaned against the railing, smoothly pulling out a cigarette and lighting it.

A cool breeze brushed against Harutaki’s cheeks. Under the cloudy skies that followed an overnight spring rain, a thin wisp of smoke drifted upward, lending the surroundings a faint sense of loneliness.

“In this kind of atmosphere, it feels like Asama-sensei never brings good news.”

“Tch, then you’re dead wrong.”

Asama-sensei clicked his tongue, the cigarette between his index and middle fingers glowing and dimming.

“Completely wrong. I’ve got a great assignment for you this time.”

“I’m not mentally prepared to face a severe challenge yet.”

Harutaki felt this man was really unreliable. Aside from teaching, at least half of the ten things he said were probably nonsense.

“You noticed it, right, Hoshikawa? Someone was absent from class today.”

“Did Shihou ask you for leave? Was she really not feeling well?”

“Oho~”

That carefree face instantly broke into a sly grin.

“You’re on such good terms you’re calling her Shihou already? Looks like those posts on the school’s anonymous forum aren’t entirely baseless after all.”

“Please be serious. We’re talking about something important here.”

This guy even had time to browse the school’s anonymous forum? Did he have some weird hobby of enjoying student gossip?

Asama-sensei seemed to catch the disdain in Harutaki’s gaze. Unbothered, he tilted his head back and blew a smoke ring into the sky before explaining.

“I’m an excellent teacher who cares deeply about students’ academic lives and mental health.”

“And the honest reason?”

“There are cute high school girls sharing selfies on the forum.”

There is?

Harutaki thought he might check it out himself sometime.

“I think, Asama-sensei, you should be more concerned about your own mental health first.”

He didn’t even bother using honorifics anymore. With a teacher like this, it hardly mattered.

“So, in the end, what’s this ‘great assignment’ you called me up here for?”

“To visit the home of a super-cute high school girl…” Asama-sensei pulled a folder out from under his arm, shook it at Harutaki, then continued, “…and deliver homework and important handouts to the classmate who’s absent. Well? A good deal, right?”

“It does sound good…”

But there was one problem.

“Why does this assignment fall to me?”

“It was originally the class rep Murai’s job, but he seems to know something. He said it’d be more appropriate for you to go instead. Hey, you’re not seriously the type who eats from one bowl while reaching for another, are you?”

“……”

“You’re not denying it, are you?! You’re actually not denying it, you little bastard!”

With the cigarette clenched in his teeth, Asama-sensei grabbed Harutaki by the shoulders and shook him hard, his tone dripping with world-weary cynicism.

“Damn womanizer…”

Well, that wasn’t exactly wrong…

“Teachers usually don’t call their students that, do they?”

“Do you think you’re a ‘usual case’?”

Asama-sensei shot him a sideways glance.

“It’s impressive you’ve got the nerve to be entangled with two young ladies from distinguished families at the same time. Damn it, why doesn’t a handsome older guy like me ever get this kind of luck?”

Grumbling all the while, Asama-sensei handed the stack of handouts and exercise books to Harutaki.

After accepting them with both hands, Harutaki hesitated for a moment before voicing the doubt that had been bothering him.

“If she’s only taking one day off, there’s no need to specially deliver handouts and homework, right?”

“That kid came to Tokyo alone and lives by herself in an apartment. Isn’t it worrying if she suddenly takes sick leave? I can tell Shihou’s a stubborn one. If she pushes herself and something happens, that’d be bad.”

You can tell?

Thinking back to the way Asama-sensei had, intentionally or not, helped and guided him during the Nogami incident, Harutaki couldn’t help but feel that this man was actually pretty reliable.

If not for his reminders, Harutaki might have made some truly disastrous mistakes during his attempt at revenge.

Sure, the excuse for delivering the handouts was a bit forced, but that didn’t really matter.

As long as he could use this as an opportunity to visit Shihou and confirm how she was doing, that was enough.

In many situations, digging relentlessly for answers was not a trait that made one welcome or liked.

“Asama-sensei, thank you. I’ll go deliver the materials right away.”

“The address is inside. Visiting a sick person is fine, but don’t you dare take advantage of her while she’s weak, you womanizer. I’ll call the police and wash my hands of it, you know!”

Before Harutaki had even taken a few steps, Asama-sensei’s lazy, teasing voice drifted after him.

Please, take at least a little responsibility as a teacher!

“Hah. If it comes to that, I’ll definitely testify in court and drag you down with me.”

…

“Ah… youth…”

After Harutaki’s figure disappeared through the rooftop entrance, Asama-sensei turned around and lay forward against the railing, gazing at the athletes on the track field below who had just begun their warm-up.

He let out a long sigh and stubbed out the last bit of his cigarette.

In truth, Shihou had indeed requested leave from him. The reason given was illness, physical discomfort, but—

The requested leave wasn’t for one day, nor two days, but phrased as “possibly unable to attend school for some time.”

Was that really just being sick?

More like getting pregnant by accident without proper precautions.

Although Nichiya High was a prestigious academic school, in the more than ten years Asama had taught there, he had seen plenty of girls forced to take leave due to unintended pregnancies. It was never a rare case.

However, Shihou, a young lady from a distinguished family who had received elite education since childhood, was surely not skipping school because of “pregnancy.”

That was exactly what puzzled him.

Clearly, the real reason for her leave was not illness, but something else entirely.

Asama-sensei had no way of knowing the reason Shihou was concealing. But in her leave request email, she had specifically added, “If Hoshikawa asks, please tell him I’m only taking one or two days off.”

“That damn kid really is a cursed womanizer…”

Asama-sensei muttered a curse, unable to wrap his head around how Harutaki had managed to get entangled, one after another, with two young ladies from prominent families.

As for Shihou, Asama-sensei had already known something about her even before becoming her homeroom teacher.

He wasn’t just the second-year homeroom teacher and Japanese instructor. He also taught Japanese to the third years, and among those classes was a student named Sato Kaoru.

After noticing that student being ostracized by his peers, Asama-sensei investigated and discovered that Sato’s isolation stemmed from a rumor that a beautiful first-year girl had a crush on him.

After asking members of the literature club he had previously taught to look after Sato, Asama-sensei casually looked into information about that “beautiful first-year girl,” Shihou Chouko.

A young lady of the Shihou family from Kyoto fleeing to Tokyo to attend school. And the reason was likely that rumor most students didn’t believe—

That she had gone alone to an unfamiliar metropolis to pursue the one she loved.

To a Japanese literature teacher, it sounded exactly like the plot of a romance novel. And precisely because it sounded like one, it felt unrealistic.

Given Sato’s personality and ability, Asama didn’t believe that boy and girl would ever reach a good ending. Even though teachers were supposed to encourage students, he believed their duty was to guide, not blindly encourage. He would not interfere in students’ choices. At most, he would offer “adult advice.” Whether they listened was out of his hands.

Likewise, when it came to Shihou’s request for him to lie, he would only point things out here and there. As for how Harutaki chose to act, that was no longer something he could interfere with.

“Being a teacher really is a pain…”

Asama stretched hard, feeling a trace of anticipation about whether Harutaki, who might “resolve” one young lady, would be able to “resolve” a second one as well.

Youth really was nice, he thought. It came with the capital to make mistakes and act on impulse.