Chapter 19: Ch 19 - Teacher’s Pet
Next Day
Keita felt the familiar prickle of unease crawl across his skin. It hadn’t started as such, not really. He’d been the "model student," the quiet, studious one, always compliant, always getting the best grades. Aizawa-sensei, his Literature teacher, was generally kind, demanding respect but not overtly cruel. Yet, lately, something had shifted. Aizawa’s gaze had lingered longer during exams, her critiques seemed sharper, her praise sparser. It felt like the walls of his carefully constructed ’good student’ persona were starting to crumble under an unseen pressure.
The phone call came during a rare moment of relative quiet between classes. Keita was waiting for the bell, pencil hovering over a blank spot on his desk, replaying the previous day’s lecture on existentialism, which he hadn’t quite grasped.
"Keita-san?" Aizawa’s voice, usually warm but now clipped, echoed slightly down the phone line.
"Yes, Sensei?"
"Come to my office immediately after school. Alone." Her tone brooked no argument.
Keita frowned, a familiar knot of anxiety tightening in his stomach. "Yes, Sensei."
He spent the remaining classes on edge, the feeling that his quiet path was narrowing, perhaps closing entirely. He saw Aizawa in the hallway, her expression unreadable, her eyes scanning the crowd as if searching for him. He kept his head down, pretending to focus on his book.
The bell rang, a cacophony of students rushing past. Keita lingered, gathering his things, his heart hammering against his ribs.
"Keita-san?" Aizawa’s voice stopped him at the classroom door.
He turned slowly. She was standing there, her posture rigid, her eyes intense.