Seishun Buta Yarou Series - Volume 10 - Chapter 1.2

2

At Yokohama Station, he hopped on the Tokaido Line. The train was packed with business types and students, all headed home. But since it was Friday and people had things to do, it was less packed than usual.

Sakuta secured a position leaning against the door between cars and took out the textbook he was tutoring with. He flipped to page 25 and scanned the example quadratic function, reviewing the material before he had to teach it.

As he did, the train moved steadily along, passing through the shopping distract around Yokohama Station and out into the residential areas beyond. As a station approached, the buildings grew taller, and once past the station, those gave way to quiet neighborhoods. Back and forth the scenery went.

When he’d first started this commute, he’d missed the sea and sky and horizon, but after six months of it, he’d learned how to make the most of this time. Generally he spent it like this, prepping for his classes.

But today he couldn’t focus.

He knew exactly why.

The words Miori Mitou had said after the party.

 “You’ve never heard of Adolescence Syndrome?”

When was the last time he’d heard anyone say that?

Certainly not since he’d started college. And before that…well, he’d spent his third year of high school with his nose firmly buried in a book, prepping for entrance exams, and hadn’t heard much of anything.

That meant it had been at least a year and a half.

Realizing others could no longer perceive you.

Living out a projection of the future.

Splitting into two versions of yourself.

Swapping bodies with someone else.

The pain in your heart physically manifesting and affecting your body.

Traveling to the future.

Fleeing into a potential world.

Sakuta had encountered all these types of Adolescence Syndrome.

But for the last year and a half, nothing had happened.

That was a good thing, so he hadn’t been worried about it or counted the days.

Before he realized it, all this time had passed.

The Tokaido Line train stopped at Totsuka and Ofuna before arriving at Fujisawa Station right on schedule.

Sakuta joined the line of people filing through the gates and emerged at the station’s north exit. He turned left at the electronics store and saw the sign for the cram school he worked at up ahead. It was on the fifth floor of an office building.

He took the elevator up and, despite the hour, said “Good morning” to the front desk staff.

Unlike regular school offices, there were no doors or walls here—the whole floor was visible.

There was an open space for students with several tables in it, and the only thing dividing that from the staff room was a waist-high counter. It was a setup designed so students would have easy access to the teaching staff.

Even now, there was a student at the counter, asking a teacher about their English essay.

“Morning, Azusagawa. Make it a good one.”

This came from the school’s principal, a man in his midforties. From the way he was nervously keeping an eye on the phone, something must have gone wrong.

Sakuta wanted no part of that, so he simply bobbed his head and moved to the locker room.

He opened the locker with his name on it and took out a garment that looked like someone had combined a white lab coat and a suit jacket, then split the difference. This was the teachers’ uniform here, worn over their regular clothes.

He took the textbook out of his backpack, dumped some more mints in his mouth (just in case), and left the locker room.

He headed for the the row of classrooms in the rear of the main area.

Despite being called “rooms,” these were just little study cubicles, maybe eight feet by six feet each. The entrances had no doors, and the walls didn’t reach the ceiling. If you listened closely, it wasn’t hard to hear people talking in the next cubicle over.

There were two students waiting for him, one boy and one girl. They were seated across the central aisle from each other. The girl was sitting quietly, but the boy’s attention was on his phone. Since he had headphones on, he was likely playing a rhythm game.

“Let’s begin.”

“Okay.”

Only the girl answered. She already had her book open to page 25.

Her name was Juri Yoshiwa.

She sported a healthy tan but had a quiet, unflappable disposition. She was on her school’s beach volleyball team and was attending this school to keep her grades up. She wore the uniform of Minegahara—the high school Sakuta himself had attended. She was five foot three, on the short side for her sport of choice.

Most junior athletes Sakuta had met were Mai’s height or taller. This girl might only be in her first year of high school, but most girls stopped growing around then.

The boy muttered “’Sup” but failed to look up from his phone. He just kept tapping away at his game.

His name was Kento Yamada.

Like Juri, he was a first-year at Minegahara. But they were in different classes and didn’t really know each other there.

In his case, his first-term grades had been so bad, he’d started coming here in summer to improve his baseline knowledge…and he’d spent a chunk of the first class grumbling about how his parents had made him come.

He was five foot five but looked taller because his hair was spiky. He hadn’t mentioned sports at all, but from his build, he’d probably been on a team in junior high.

“Yamada, we’re starting.”

The clock showed exactly seven PM, and class was in session.

“Just two more seconds!”

“One. Two. Page twenty-five, quadratic functions.”

“Argh, Sakuta-sensei! You made me blow a perfect run!”

Ignoring Kento’s moaning, Sakuta started explaining how to use the functions. This had been on the first test after summer vacation ended, and they’d both missed it. He took the example and worked through the solution on the whiteboard. Once that was done, he had them each solve a practice question that followed the same pattern as the example. He was ready to help each individually as they got stuck.

Juri did as she was told, working through the problem in her book.

Kento frowned, thinking—and then gave up.

“Sakuta-sensei!” he said, slumping down on the desk.

“What?”

“I don’t get it.”

“What don’t you get?”

“How to get a cute girlfriend.”

Not the answer he’d expected.

“Focus on classroom problems.”

“You’ve got the world’s cutest girlfriend—you must have tips!”

“I might have the universe’s cutest girlfriend, but I can’t teach you that.”

This was not the first time Kento had brought this subject up.

“I only picked your class because I thought you’d have insider knowledge to share! Augh, I should have gone with Futaba-sensei instead. At least she’s got big tits!”

The “Futaba-sensei” he’d mentioned was Rio Futaba, a friend of Sakuta’s from high school. She was now attending a national science university and had started tutoring here a month before he had.

“I’d start by remembering that girls hate it when guys say stuff like that.”

He glanced at Juri, but she was grimly working her way through the problem.

“So keep it to myself?”

“I think you learned about freedom of thought in social studies.”

“Freedom to be lewd!”

Sakuta had no clue how he’d reached that conclusion, but it wasn’t necessarily wrong.

“I get wanting a girlfriend in general, but do you even have someone in mind?”

The class was clearly not getting anywhere otherwise, so Sakuta played along.

“I’m game for any girls, so long as they’re cute.”

That answer was downright refreshingly dumb.

“I think what’s inside counts, too. Might not be convincing when I say it, I realize.”

“I like big boobs, too.”

“By inside, I meant personality.”

Not what they had inside their clothes.

“Azusagawa-sensei.”

Juri finally voiced an objection. He glanced down at her page, and she’d solved a single problem and stopped. It must have been hard to focus with this conversation happening next to her.

“Best we got back on topic.”

“Then tell me how to get a girlfriend!”

“Nothing but math here.”

“Whyyy?!”

“Because that’s what I’m paid for.”

“I can’t focus if I don’t have a girlfriend!”

“Yamada, why are you so desperate?”

“I mean, if you’ve got a girl, you can have sex all the time!”

“……”

Sakuta figured this was what Yamada had been getting at, but hearing it out loud still left him speechless.

“……What, is that wrong?”

“As long as you think that, you’ll never get a girlfriend.”

Even if he was a student, that would just earn him pity. Kento hadn’t noticed, but Juri was giving him a look of frosty contempt.

At this point, there was a knock—since there was no door, someone had rapped on the cubicle wall.

“Azusagawa-sensei.”

He turned around and found Rio Futaba in the entrance. Since she worked here, too, she had on the same uniform.

“Got a moment?”

She was acting distant and was clearly annoyed.

“What?”

“Out here.”

Her glance ordered him out of the room.

“Solve those problems,” he said, and he left Kento and Juri to it, exiting the cubicle.

Rio led him over toward the free space and sighed the moment she stopped moving.

“Keep your classes focused. We’re getting complaints from the neighboring cubicle.”

She glanced at the cubicle next to his, where she’d been teaching physics.

“I’m taking things seriously.”

“The words we’re hearing suggest otherwise.”

There was little doubt that meant boobs and sex.

“I didn’t say them.”

If he glanced down to see how taut her shirtfront was, there was no telling what she’d say, so he diligently avoided that.

Rio sighed dramatically. Again.

“Try not to get yourself fired, too.”

“Too?”

Like someone else had.

“Look.”

Rio glanced at the free area outside the staff office. A young male teacher was busy pleading with the principal.

“It’s not true! I swear!”

“Calm down. We’ll talk in my office.”

“This is all a big misunderstanding! Right?”

The teacher turned to look at a female student standing a good three yards away. She was also wearing a Minegahara uniform and had a female teacher with her. Her head was down, and she looked plagued by guilt.

“I’m sorry. I never thought of you that way.”

What did she mean by that? He didn’t have to ask. The awkward tension made it all too clear what had gone down here.

Teacher-student romantic complications. Judging by the student’s comment, she’d never intended to start anything like that.

So likely the male teacher had seen signals where none existed and made a pass at her.

“You said you rely on me! That you wanted my help with stuff outside of school!”

On his way here, Miori had cracked a joke about this exact situation.

 “Showing high school girls all the tricks. Naughty.”

But seeing it actually happen for real hit different.

“I’m sorry,” she said, striking down his pleas, though doing so seemed to pain her.

“No…,” he whispered, staggering.

“This way,” the principal said. “We’ll talk this through.”

“…Right.”

The principal put a hand on his back and pushed him away, like he was a captured criminal. But he looked less like a man who repented his misdeeds than a spurned suitor.

They vanished into the office.

“Um, what’s gonna happen to him?” the girl asked, concern written on her face.

“Don’t you worry about it,” the female teacher said.

It was obvious there were certain steps they’d have to take. Given what he’d done, that was unavoidable.

“Don’t be too hard on him. I’m really okay.”

“I’ll let the principal know. For now, you’d better go home.”

“…Yeah,” the girl said.

But she didn’t move, clearly still worried about what consequences the teacher would face. Her eyes never left the office door. Sakuta had a better view now, and she looked like a straight-A student, the kind of girl who was nice to everyone. Her hair was done conservatively, and her uniform was impeccable. What little makeup she wore was natural-style. In high school, he’d definitely have mistaken that for no makeup at all.

“Don’t end up like him, Azusagawa.”

“Do I look like I’d go for a student?”

“No, but…”

“See?”

“But what about the other way around?”

“I’m more popular than you’d think.”

“Yes, that’s why I’m warning you.”

“…Uh, Futaba.”

“What?”

“You’re supposed to deny that. I was joking.”

“But you are more popular than you’d think.”

Rio’s tone made it clear this was a statement of fact, and he couldn’t argue with that.

“Then we’ll just have to hope having the cutest girlfriend in the universe keeps me safe.”

“Didn’t you say you hadn’t even seen Sakurajima for, like, a month now?”

Mai was in Hokkaido, filming a movie. College summer vacation ran for nearly all of August and September, so she’d filled that with two starring roles.

The first had wrapped in August, and she’d come back from Niigata with sasa dango. She’d called the other night to tell him the second would take her till the start of next week.

“Don’t worry, she’ll make up for it.”

“Then I’ll get back to class.”

“No time for my corny bragging?”

“Just keep them on task.”

With that, Rio headed back to her class, and Kento poked his head out of the cubicle.

“Sakuta-sensei, are you done yet?”

“Yeah, I got yelled at ’cause of you.”

“Whaaat?”

He really didn’t seem to get why. But then he blinked, looking over Sakuta’s shoulder.

“……”

Kento said nothing, but he was obviously looking at the girl from before. She was still lingering in the free space.

“You know her?” Sakuta asked.

“Sara Himeji. She’s in my class,” he said.

“Hmm.”

He knew both her names. Interesting.

“What?”

“That your type?”

“?!”

Sakuta had been talking off the cuff, but that had apparently touched a nerve.

“No!” Kento said, clearly irate.

“Cool.”

“C’mon, Sakuta-sensei! Teach!”

“Well, I’m glad to see you motivated.”

If Kento tried to derail class again, he might have to bring this back up.

As it was, the rest of the class stayed focused. Rio didn’t have to yell at him twice.