Two days after witnessing whatever it was we witnessed between Shiratama-san and Tanaka-sensei, I quietly made my way through the old building. It was after school, but I still took extra care to make sure I wasn’t followed. Once certain I hadn’t been, I slipped into the dingy darkness beneath the staircase.
“Right on time,” said my accomplice. Student council vice president, Basori Tiara. Notably from class 2-F. I was 2-C, so it had been a while since I last saw her. She took one last cautious look around at our surroundings before slinking further back.
“Sorry about this. Weird ask, I know.”
“A favor for a favor. Your tutoring has been helpful.”
I almost called her out on the fact that I didn’t tutor her that often but thought better of it. She handed me several documents. “I believe this is what you were looking for. Treat this information with prudence.”
The first page was titled “Tsuwabuki High School Investigative Report—Tanaka Yuuji.” I nodded and flipped to the next. This was his third year teaching language at Tsuwabuki, and my second with him personally. Slightly older than Amanatsu-sensei and Konuki-sensei.
“Interesting. He was at Mikoshi High School before?”
“He came highly recommended too. I hear only good things about him in my own class.”
I couldn’t get what we saw out of my head, so I’d asked Tiara-san to do some digging for me. But maybe I was just being paranoid. Still, no way that’d been a plain old teacher-student interaction. So what had it been?
I stopped turning pages. “Tanaka-sensei was the lit club’s supervisor?”
“He was, before we enrolled. But only for part of the year.”
Tamaki-senpai had implied there was a story behind us not having a supervisor before. I never did hear it.
Tiara-san stepped closer to me and lowered her voice to a whisper. “This is only hearsay, but allegedly there was an incident involving him and a female student in the past.”
Now that was unexpected. He didn’t seem like the type at all. I wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt, to call Tiara-san crazy, but after what I’d seen with Shiratama-san…
“He that popular with the ladies?” I asked.
“I’m not sure, but every girl has a story about a young, handsome teacher they once had a crush on.”
“Yeah? Does that go for—”
“Me? No. It doesn’t.” Yikes. Defensive much? “But the gentle, soft-spoken types often have the quietest admirers. Speaking entirely objectively, of course.”
Huh. I’d always figured the bright and sunny ones to be more popular. Guess the done-with-life types filled a certain niche. No judgment. Everyone had their preferences.
A thought occurred to me. An incident with a female student. Used to be the lit club’s supervisor. Maybe those things were connected. Maybe he even had something to do with Shiratama-san’s suspension.
Tiara-san peered at me.
“Yeah? What is it?”
“Why the sudden curiosity?” she asked. “Has something happened between you?”
“Not with me.” I thought twice about spilling about Shiratama-san. “I’m just interested. That’s all.”
“Interested?!” Tiara-san jolted. “N-now look, I’m a very open-minded individual—”
“Okay?”
She started shuffling her feet in a nervous fit. “Not that your genders have anything to do with it, of course, but I can’t be involved in anything scandalous between a teacher and a student!”
“What are you talking about?”
“You want him, don’t you?!”
“Uh, no?!”
“Rest assured, your secret is safe with me! I’ll even turn a blind eye so long as—”
“So long as nothing! There’s no secret to keep!” I’d clearly trusted the wrong informant. I had to smooth this over somehow. “I was just considering switching supervisors, and Tanaka-sensei was on my mind.”
“Is there something wrong with Konuki-sensei?” Tiara-san considered what she just said, then frowned. “I understand.”
It wasn’t a lie if it was mostly true.
“My apologies then. Considering you could have gone to Sakurai-kun, I leaped to conclusions.”
“I thought about him, but he’s on the student council. I can’t expect him to keep a secret on the off chance things turn complicated, given his position.”
“You do remember I’m on the student council too, don’t you?”
Right she was. I evaded her scathing gaze and did the only thing I knew could right this wrong: lie. “Well, you’re, uh, in class F, so I figured you were a safe bet.”
“I do pride myself on being tight-lipped, I suppose.” Tiara-san drifted off, thinking, then giggled to herself. “All right. Consider my door open to future developments from now on.”
“Wait, really?”
She stepped out of the shadows. “On the off chance things turn complicated.”
I had said that. I nodded. Tiara-san twirled to face me, finger raised up to her lips. “It’s kinda fun, sharing secrets.”
✦ ✦ ✦
I went straight to the club room after my meeting with Tiara-san. There, Yanami and Komari had a couple glares ready and waiting for me as soon as I opened the door.
“There he is. The world’s slowest club president.”
“Wh-what took you so long?”
I sat down. “Sorry. Had to take care of something.” Then I started to reach for the documents. But I hesitated. Could I show them to these two? Before I could reach a consensus, Yanami plopped a notebook on the table. “What’s this?”
“Deets on Shiratama Riko. We did some legwork around 1-F.”
“‘We’? Komari too?”
The small one nodded proudly. “I l-learned their whole class schedule.”
Incredibly useful information, that.
I reached for the notebook. Yanami held it down. “What?” I asked. “Am I not allowed to look?”
“Within, you will find the real Shiratama-chan. Are you ready for it? Can you handle it? Those rosy glasses of yours might not survive the truth.”
“D-die,” Komari spat.
“I’ll manage,” I said. I saw worse on a daily basis. Still, for her to go out of her way to warn me, the secrets she’d uncovered had to be some dark stuff.
Steeled, I opened the notebook. The first section looked like impressions from the boys.
“She talks to me,” one testimony said. “She picked up my eraser one time.” “Her shampoo smells nice.”
Off to a bad start. I was starting to worry for my fellow men more than Shiratama-san.
I read on. “She’s totally into me.” “In your dreams.” “Bro, she picked up my eraser for me, bro.” “She’s done that three times for me.”
I got the idea. “Sounds like a nice girl to me,” I said, looking up. “She picks up erasers.”
“Yeah, no kidding!” Yanami snapped. “It’s only April, and that’s all she friggin’ does! How often are you dropping those things?”
“It happens. Usually no one picks it up for you.” Komari nodded in agreement. I knew I could count on her to understand my pain. “So she’s secretly the Eraser-Picker-Upper Fairy. Damning stuff.”
“You haven’t even gotten to the girls’ part yet! Read ’em and try not to weep.”
I looked back down. Apparently, there was more. “Cute.” “She’s like a doll.” “I like how she smells.” “God, I want her beneath me, if you catch my drift.”
All right. Girls weren’t much better than the guys. Noted. Clearly, though, she was well-liked all around. I was about ready to chalk this up to classic Yanami pettiness, but then I kept reading.
“She’s a total flirt.” “Girl can’t leave the boys alone.”
Uh-oh. The testimonies were taking a turn. I flipped the page.
“She thinks she’s such hot stuff.” “My boyfriend dumped me.” “Girl, that’s on you.”
“My boyfriend asked me to introduce him.” “He ain’t your boyfriend.” “She picked up my eraser one time.”
First-year girls were brutal. Sheesh. Still picking up erasers, I noted.
I read through one more time before shutting the notebook. “What I’m getting from this is she’s popular,” I summarized, “so some people are jealous.”
“I’m popular!” Yanami blurted.
Except we weren’t talking about her.
Komari thumbed through it next. Timidly, she added, “I-I don’t think she’s a bad person.”
“Don’t be deceived, Komari-chan. She’s a snake. To girls like her, ‘just friends’ is a threat. Next thing you know, she’s locking arms with your man.”
The bias in the air was so thick I could smell it. We were getting so far off track.
“Need I remind you, Yanami-san, that we’re trying to recruit her?” I said. “We knew she’d come with baggage when we learned she was suspended.”
“I mean, I guess.” She deflated. Now was my chance to nip this in the bud.
“Konuki-sensei sent her our way for a reason. Just think of this as our way of repaying her.” I only made it about halfway through that last sentence before I stopped believing myself. Repay her for what exactly?
Yanami twisted her lips and nodded. “Okay, you got me there. We do owe her.”
“I honestly wasn’t expecting you to say that.”
“You people seriously think I’m some ingrate, don’t you?!” Well, yes, but that was beside the point. Komari and I, local ingrates, watched as Yanami stood and finally tore last month off the neglected calendar on the wall. “Sure, whatever. We’ll see how things go.”
Tomorrow, April 16th, was the big day. The day Shiratama-san’s suspension would end.