Seishun Buta Yarou Series - Volume 12 - Chapter 2.6

6

Three answer sheets on the table. From left to right: thirty points, one hundred points, and forty-five points. Kento, Sara, and Juri, respectively.

“Yamada, is thirty your favorite number?”

That had been his score on the midterms, too.

“Sakuta-sensei, don’t leak personal info.”

Kento tried to hide his grade from Sara, but it was too late. The lack of circles was all too evident. Cross-shaped flowers bloomed everywhere, and Sara had a bird’s-eye view.

“Then we’ll focus on what Yamada and Yoshiwa got wrong. Himeji, this’ll just be review for you.”

“Got it.”

Worse, the only one really listening was Sara, who already understood all this.

Once he’d gone through the explanations, he gave each of them a set of practice problems solved the same way. Three questions total.

Sara had them all done inside ten minutes. She said “Done!” and put her hand up, and her page was covered in neat figures, all answers correct.

He gave her some extra problems and checked on how the other two were doing. Kento was making lots of noises and glaring at one of the problems. Juri’s hands had stopped dead on the second problem.

“Yoshiwa, you can solve that with the thing we just covered,” he said, pointing at the example still on the whiteboard.

“Like this?” she asked, her hands moving again. Her handwriting was adorable.

“Yeah, and…”

“Sakuta-sensei! Help me out, too!”

“Just a moment, Yamada. Once I’m done with Yoshiwa.”

“Uh, I can wait,” Juri offered with a brief glance at Kento.

“We’re almost done. Go ahead and solve it,” Sakuta said, pretending not to notice.

“Yamada, can I help?” Sara asked. She leaned in to look at his page.

“Nah…,” Kento said, pulling back.

“Wow, rude,” Sara said with a smile.

“I didn’t mean it that way!”

“Then let me help.”

Sara pulled her chair closer and started going, “Use this formula, like…” while writing directly on his page.

Kento’s shoulder was pressing right up against hers, and he’d stopped moving at all. Only his eyes followed what Sara wrote. He was desperately trying to keep it together.

And Juri’s pencil stopped again, right before Sakuta’s eyes. Her eyes never left the problem. They were pointedly fixed right on her page, but her mind was clearly elsewhere. Entirely focused on what was going on between Sara and Kento.

“Get it?” Sara asked, ducking low to get a better look at his face.

“Y-yeah,” he stammered.

“Then give it a try, Yamada.”

“Um…I use this formula…”

Kento solved the problem just like she’d taught him to. This mainly consisted of plugging numbers into the formula she’d written out for him. Naturally, that made it easy to get the answer.

“Like that?”

“See, you can do it, Yamada. Try the next one.”

“It looks hard.”

“Well, with this one…”

Sara was running her pencil across his page again.

“Oh, okay. Then here…?”

Solving one seemed to have given him confidence, and this time he even asked Sara a question of his own.

While Kento made steady progress, Juri’s pen was still stuck on the second problem. It didn’t seem likely to move anytime soon.

“Uh, Yoshiwa?”

“I get it. I can solve this. I know how.”

“If you’re sure…”

The class went on, and there were signs of improvement in math—but their relationships seemed to be getting more and more complicated. Sakuta couldn’t help much on that front.

“That’s all for today,” he said as they hit the eighty-minute mark.

“Thanks, Sakuta-sensei!” Kento said, bounding to his feet and shouldering his backpack.

“Make sure to review what you learned today, Yamada.”

Kento turned back, one foot out the door, and made a face.

“See you next week at school!” Sara said with a wave. That brightened him up. If he’d had a tail, he’d have wagged it.

“You aren’t leaving, Himeji?”

“I’ve got another class and need Teach’s advice.”

Sara glanced at Sakuta.

“Ah…”

Wanting to talk to her longer, he tried to come up with another topic but couldn’t think of any.

“You’re in the way,” Juri complained while trying to push past Kento.

“I’m leaving, too!” he said, giving up and moving on.

Sara watched them go, stifling a smirk.

“You shouldn’t tease your classmates,” Sakuta said as he erased the whiteboard.

“You mean Yamada?” Sara asked. She approached the board to help.

“And Yoshiwa.”

That name made her hand stop just above a cosine.

Sakuta erased it for her.

“You’re very hands-on with your students, Teach.”

“If their grades don’t improve, I’m in trouble.”

Sara erased the final tangent. Now the whiteboard lived up to its name.

“Okay, I’ll stop trying to mess up your classes.”

She accepted his criticism easily, seemingly meaning it. But she didn’t sound guilty. And her promise was a tacit admission that she’d been doing that deliberately.

He was starting to get why Toranosuke had been concerned.

“But there’s nothing I can do about Yamada’s feelings.”

“That’s fine. He’ll have to sort those out himself.”

“Nothing I can do about Yoshiwa’s feelings, either.”

“That’s fine. She’ll have to sort those out herself.”

“You’re very hands-off with your students, Teach.”

This was the exact opposite of her earlier appraisal, delivered with a grin.

He straightened up the whiteboard pens he’d used, and Sara grabbed a stray blue one for him.

“That aside, Teach…”

“Mm?” He accepted the blue pen from her.

“Did you do my homework?”

From the next booth, he could hear a teacher discussing world history. Both found their eyes turning that way.

“Best we talk outside. I’m hungry anyway.”

There was no telling who might overhear.

“Oh, I was hoping to grab the new donut from the café by the station.”

“I’m not buying.”

“Teach, look close.”

Sara held up her perfect answer sheet.

“I worked very hard.”

She tapped the part that said 100 points with a triumphant smile.

He made Sara wait twenty minutes while he wrote up his classroom logs, and then they left the cram school together.

The sun had set, but the area around Fujisawa Station was lit up with holiday lights and felt brighter than it did by day.

The temperature had dropped like a stone, and as they walked toward the station, their breaths were white.

“You got plans for Christmas, Teach?”

“If that dream comes true, I’ll end up on a date with you.”

“A teacher with a student? Scandalous!”

She was clearly joking.

“But why were we together?”

“Good question.”

He’d yet to uncover any clues.

“Any ideas, Himeji?”

“I’ve gotta assume you’re just cheating, Teach.”

“Reeeeal convincing.”

“Dripping with sarcasm!”

Laughing, they headed up the stairs to the pedestrian overpass. The café she’d mentioned was just outside the north gates, on the second story of the building opposite the electronics store.

Inside those big glass panes were students studying and suits with their laptops out. Half the seats were occupied. By day, you often couldn’t get a seat at all, but at this hour, the crowds had thinned.

It was perfect for their talk.

As they stepped in, the staff greeted them cheerily.

“Find us a seat,” Sakuta said, and he moved to the register, where he ordered a hot caffe latte, a caramel latte, and the new Christmas donut. He paid with his IC card and moved his tray to the next counter over.

He glanced at the tables and didn’t see Sara anywhere. Her coat and bag were sitting on a table by the windows. He found the girl herself standing by a table closer at hand.

A boy and a girl sat there, wearing Minegahara uniforms. Sara was smiling, and on the surface, they all seemed happy to chat. But behind their smiles, he caught a whiff of unease, possibly desperation. Like both the boy and the girl were forcing their smiles. Was that all in his mind?

Sakuta sat down first, and when Sara spotted him, she bounced back over. She used both hands to pull her chair out and plopped herself down directly across from him. Her eyes locked on the powdered top of the donut.

“Thanks!”

“Don’t tell Yamada.”

If he heard, he’d try to get free food out of Sakuta, too.

“I’ll tell him you’ll buy him something if he scores one hundred points.”

Sakuta wouldn’t have minded if that actually motivated Kento to do better, but he was fairly certain it would just make Kento drop the idea.

“But I bet Yamada would just go, ‘Never mind, then.’”

Sara was clearly on the same page as Sakuta.

Laughing, she reached for her pocket and pulled out her phone. She then started taking pictures of her donut and caramel latte. “So cute!” Snap, snap, snap.

“You know them?” Sakuta asked, eyes wandering back toward the Minegahara couple.

“She’s a friend from class…,” Sara said, glancing at the girl. “And the boy she’s with is a second-year. I worked with him when we planned the sports festival.”

She turned to the boy seated closer to them.

They saw her looking, and she gave them a little wave. They waved back, and then the boy picked up their trays. It was plain to see they were getting ready to leave.

Once they’d deposited their dishes, the girl waved at Sara once more on her way out. They kept waving to each other until the couple was out of sight.

The boy looked rather at a loss the whole time. Sakuta was increasingly sure of it. He seemed very ready to get out of here. Part of that might have just been feeling left out when the two girls started chatting, but there was likely more to it.

“Something between you and the boy?” he asked, sipping at his caffe latte.

“You’re a sharp one, Teach,” Sara said.

She’d cut her donut into bite-size pieces and popped one into her mouth. “Oh, that’s good!” she said with apparent delight. “He asked me out two months back,” she added.

“What did you say?”

He could guess the answer. It certainly hadn’t been a yes.

“I turned him down. Said I couldn’t date him right now.”

“Right now.”

“Well, it was true! I didn’t really know him yet.”

“And you told him that?”

“Yep.”

That was why he’d looked so uncomfortable. That phrasing made it sound like he still had a shot. Made him pin his hopes on the future.

“Does your friend know he asked you out?”

“I didn’t tell her myself, but I bet she knew. Girls can sense these things.”

And she’d gone up to talk to them anyway. Talk about moxie.

“Oh, but I don’t think they’re actually a couple yet. That’s why I said to let me know when they are. Personally, I would never date someone a friend rejected.”

“You could have just let them be.”

“Two months is not nearly long enough.”

That’s how she justified her behavior.

“If he’s got no shot at turning your head, I think it’s better for him to move on.”

“Would it be that easy for him to give up, though? Right after he asked me out?”

She acted like she couldn’t believe it.

“I tend to carry a torch myself,” Sakuta admitted.

“Teach, sometimes you look like you’re lying, and then you say the truth.”

“Then are you still in love with Kasai?”

His abrupt swerve made her eyes go wide. She blinked twice. And in that brief moment, she worked out how he knew.

“Aha. Tora-chan…I mean, Kasai-senpai fed you some facts?”

Her deduction was spot on, but she looked a little put out. Sakuta was a little taken aback himself.

“He said you’re old friends. And that he was worried about you.”

“So he feels guilty about effectively dumping me?” she asked, smiling the whole time.

“More or less.”

“I’m more worried about him, frankly. Falling for a prickly customer like Futaba-sensei? She’ll never say yes.”

“Kasai seems like he’d do well otherwise.”

His earnestness came on strong, but fundamentally, he was a good-natured jock.

“He comes across as a good dude.”

Sakuta really had only a surface impression at this stage. But Yuuma had also called Toranosuke a “good guy.” Since Toranosuke had come to Sakuta at Yuuma’s word, Sakuta figured he should take Yuuma at his word, too. Yuuma himself was a good dude, so he should know how to recognize one.

“He is that,” Sara said, feigning a pout. “I mean, he’s even worried about the girl he dumped.”

She couldn’t quite bring herself to admit it without a bit of snark. He had more or less dumped her, so he likely deserved a little spite.

The way she joked about it now suggested she wasn’t still dragging him around. So he felt like he didn’t have to make her spell out how she felt right now. He knew.

“When I first learned Kasai-senpai didn’t love me, I hated him so much.”

Her grimace hid any hint of awkwardness.

“You might already know, but through junior high, everyone thought the two of us were dating.”

“So I’ve heard.”

“There were plenty of girls who liked him, but I was the only one allowed to be at his side. I was kinda proud of that, I guess? At least, I didn’t object. But when I got to high school…”

“Kasai had fallen for someone else.”

Toranosuke had said that, for the first time, he knew what love was.

“That really shook me. I’d thought he was in love with me, and everyone else had said we were good together. But none of that was real. I didn’t know what to believe. Couldn’t even trust my own mind, much less what anyone else said. I felt like the world as I knew it had been a complete fabrication. And that’s when I got really scared. Like everyone had just been laughing at me the whole time. I didn’t even want to leave the house.”

“This was during Golden Week?”

“Yeah.”

“But getting Adolescence Syndrome helped you recover.”

She’d said as much before.

“It did.”

“I hear you’re pretty popular these days. Is that related?”

“Teach, you really did do your homework.”

“I’m surprisingly hands-on with my students.”

“But wrong answer. Popularity is not my Adolescence Syndrome. Honestly, even I’m starting to be like, ‘Damn, I’ve really got it going on.’”

“Seems like you’re enjoying it.”

He didn’t need her to confirm that. Sara’s expression was full of life.

“If I admit that, I’ll sound like an awful person.”

“I think you’ve got a great personality.”

“That doesn’t sound like a compliment.”

She was clearly enjoying their banter, too. One fun thing made everything else in life a good time. Sara was evidently in the midst of one of those positivity chain reactions.

“You’ve made it clear, Teach. You don’t like me being popular.”

“I wouldn’t say that. Just…no matter how many people ask you out, no matter how many people hit on you, no matter how much attention you get—that won’t get you what you’re really looking for.”

“……What does that mean?”

She’d been with him every step of the way, but he’d lost her at last.

“I’m super happy right now. There’s nothing missing!”

Sara looked Sakuta right in the eye, demanding a response.

This whole time, she hadn’t once said the most important thing. She’d talked about how Toranosuke felt, what their friends had said—but never once spelled out her own feelings. She’d almost answered his first question—but not quite.

Was she still in love with Toranosuke?

Sara had neither confirmed nor denied.

“I just think true happiness doesn’t lie in the number of conquests.”

“So how do you define it?”

“Okay, let me try…”

Sakuta paused, thinking about Mai.

Someone whose company he enjoyed.

Someone whose laugh was infectious.

Someone he wanted to share his life with.

Mai was all those things.

He channeled those thoughts into a quiet reply.

“In my mind, true happiness comes when the person I love the most loves me the most.”

A lot had happened to bring him to that truth. To make those words possible. There was no varnish or veils here. No awkwardness or shame. Just the plain facts.

“If you’ve got that, you don’t need anything else.”

“……”

Sara was staring at him so hard she forgot to blink. Her smile had disappeared. It was as if she’d never heard anything like this and didn’t know how to respond.

“Let me ask again, Himeji. Do you still love Kasai?”

“……”

Sara didn’t answer. Or more likely, couldn’t.

He’d expected as much. Something had felt off the whole time, since she first joked about his dumping her.

That day, and today, she’d never said a word.

Not about grief.

Not about suffering.

Not about how much she’d cried.

Nothing like that at all.

She’d been upset, yes, but that was because Toranosuke’s feelings turned out to be different from what she’d expected. Everyone else’s assumption had been wrong. The truth had betrayed her expectations.

“Or even before that—did you ever love him?”

“You’re implying I’m just like him?”

“I think it’s a distinct possibility.”

Everyone had said they were good together, so they’d believed it.

“……Then tell me this,” Sara said after a brief pause.

She looked up at him, a challenge in her eyes. And voice.

“How can I love someone the way you do?”

For the first time, Sara managed a genuine answer to his question.