"Because he wouldn't stop pressuring me to be his girlfriend," Yuki replied.
"Maybe I'm a slut like the rumors say, but I'm not so stupid as to give in to being the girlfriend of a thug like him."
"Okay... but that doesn't explain why, of all people, you thought to mention me. I mean, there are other guys like Hisashi or..." Takashi said.
"Well, the truth is, I've always found you interesting, and if I ever had a chance to be with someone, I'd like it to be with you." This made Takashi nervous. In another context, this girl was confessing to Takashi.
"Wait..." Takashi only watched as she came toward him when he should have taken the boxes of lab equipment to the back storage, but Yuki's face and her intentions kept him immobilized.
"Miku-san." Hayashi Kyoko appeared at the lab door. She had returned sooner than expected. "May I ask what you're doing here?"
"Well, Sensei..." Fearfully, she stepped away from Takashi with every stride the science teacher took to make the orange-haired girl move away from Komuro, a thirty-something woman.
"If you didn't come to help Komuro-kun with his punishment, you'd better leave," the teacher confronted.
"Yes, Sensei. See you later, Takashi-kun," she said with seduction in her voice, not caring that the teacher was right there.
"You shouldn't hang around a girl like her. With that reputation she carries, you should avoid her at all costs, Komuro-kun," Hayashi declared, returning to the boy.
"Don't be like that with her. Yuki is a nice girl; she's just made bad choices," he replied.
"Exactly, that's the reason," she continued. "You know, maybe you've already been told this all week, but I also want to say that what you did was admirable, Komuro-kun."
"You too, Sensei?"
"There aren't many men who dare to defend a woman from a troublemaker like Tsunouda-san in this country. Fortunately, it was his last misdeed. He was expelled from school, and thanks to you sending him to the hospital, it was discovered that the boy was a drug addict, as was feared. Now he and his friends are far away and separated from Fujimi. You saved this school. Even me, you left me astonished."
"It's no big deal," Takashi said.
"Anyway, take those flasks and test tubes; you need to put them in their places," the teacher instructed.
As she watched him carry all the heavy, delicate equipment by himself without issue, going into the storage, Hayashi thought about the good side of Takashi.
'Young, modest, brave, and strong,' Hayashi mused about Takashi, as if she too were one of the students spellbound by him after seeing him fight.
'What are you thinking, Hayashi? Komuro-kun is one of the students... Besides, a boy like him would never be interested in a thirty-year-old mature woman like me.' She sighed, leaving the boy alone in the storage.
'I wasted my youth. If only Tejima-sensei weren't so dense, too.'
'She seems unsatisfied with her life,' Takashi thought, glancing sideways from the storage door toward the woman as she adjusted her glasses. He saw an expression of frustration on her face.
"Oh! Hayashi-sensei." An overly manly voice was heard entering the lab door. Takashi crouched down just to peek and see that it was the physical education teacher, Tejima.
Takashi had heard rumors that he and Hayashi had a relationship, but it was never solid, just rumors due to these two interacting.
"Tejima-sensei," the science teacher exclaimed cheerfully. "What brings you here?"
"I came to bring you an extra order I made from Ichiraku. You wanted us to go eat there today, but an issue came up, and I have to leave town," he said, handing the bag with the food order into the teacher's hand.
"Thank you..." It wasn't what Hayashi had expected.
"Something wrong?"
"No, it's just... I had been waiting to go with you to such a good restaurant for an entire month..." The woman sounded disappointed, but the other teacher didn't notice.
"That's why I brought you a house special," he said, not catching the hint. Takashi, still there listening to these two adults, one of them an idiot.
"The food wasn't what mattered," she exclaimed angrily, and even then, the man couldn't read between the lines of what this pretty teacher was saying, which Hayashi herself could realize. "Thanks for the gesture," she said.
"Don't worry. I'll see you later, Kyoko-sensei," Tejima bid farewell and left the woman with a great disappointment on her face despite the fake smile she wore.
No sooner had he left than Takashi finished putting things away as he had seen them, and his instinct awakened, like a mechanism to console the mature woman; it activated.
"Unbelievable..." Hayashi muttered under her breath.
At thirty years old, she had not had a single romantic relationship. She had devoted her entire youth to her studies, but when she realized that in life one also needed another person to not die alone, her life began to feel unfulfilling.
"He's an idiot."
"Komuro-kun, what kind of language is that?" She saw the boy emerge from the storage; she assumed he had finished putting away the last of what she had assigned him.
"Just saying that Tejima-sensei is an idiot, and you know it," Takashi said again.
"You can't refer to one of your teachers that way, even if you don't like him," Hayashi said, maintaining her role as a teacher.
"What I'm trying to say is that if I were him, I'd drop any other pending activity to have a date with Hayashi-sensei." There was no embarrassment or shame in his words, spoken directly in front of the teacher, but uttering such words was a nail into Hayashi's emotions.
"What?! What are you saying, Komuro-kun?" Hayashi took a step back at his words.
"I'm just saying you could have a chance with someone other than Tejima-sensei," he commented.
"You say that because you're young, but at my age, no one would notice a thirty-year-old single woman." She forgot her role as a teacher and was just a heartbroken woman.
"Hayashi-sensei is attractive at her age," he said again without shame, then he struck. "I know, why don't we go somewhere, you and I?"
"You're talking about a date?" The proposition seemed improper to her, especially coming from a boy twelve years her junior.
"Takashi Komuro, I'm your teacher..." She saw determination and calm on his face. He was a good student, a good boy.
Kyoko agreed to Takashi's request. They arranged to meet on a day when there was no school, and until then, Hayashi remained nervous and uncomfortable until the day of the date arrived.
'A date with a student. How low have I fallen?' Hayashi thought.
She was wearing a white sleeveless blouse with only thick straps that went over her shoulders, a summer hat due to the heat, waiting in the shade at the entrance of the public water park, where many young people with their partners and friends entered to have fun.
There were also families entering, but with children not even ten years old. She felt odd among so many young people waiting there.
"Hayashi-san." Takashi appeared among the youth in simple clothes, ready to take them off and get in the water.
"Komuro-kun..." It was strange for the teacher to see the boy wearing casual summer clothes. It was early summer, and the heat was starting to be felt.
"You look lovely, Hayashi-san." He complimented his teacher. He wasn't going to call her his teacher in public because they hadn't met up as teacher and student, but as two casual acquaintances.
"Thank you... um..."
"Something wrong, Hayashi-san?" Takashi asked, upon seeing the woman suddenly become uncomfortable as she watched people enter and leave.
"Do we really have to have our date here?" Many ideas were running through her mind.
What if people talked behind their backs? A woman her age going out with such a young guy...
To be continued…