Volume 1 - CH 7.2

‘The cafe is closed’

Nakaoka stuck a paper with that written on it on the door, sighed, and walked into the classroom. And then Sandai’s classmates began to complain to Nakaoka one after another.

“It’s not like there was any physical contact!”

“We just put on a slightly lewd outfit, didn’t we…?”

“It was a little embarrassing, but some people gave a tip too, so…”

“We just ran a cafe with a peculiar outfit! The people who think this is erotic are the one who are perverted!”

Nakaoka glanced at the bawling out classmates, sucked in a deep breath, and rebuked loudly. “DON’T COMPLAIN! BE SILENT!”

Although Nakaoka would at times amuse herself over the recklessness of students’ youth, she would also at times get serious. She was the type who would respect the independence of students, but would get firm and mad if a line that must not be crossed was crossed.

And the classmates, perhaps as one would expect coming to an understanding that they had gone slightly over the bounds of common sense, began to yield one after another.

“Y-Yes.”

“…Sowwy Nakaoka-teacher.”

“So sorry.”

“Gomenasorry.”

“What’s with that language? Are you really feeling sorry? …Well, no matter. Anyway the school festival is open to the general public, so a large number of people will come. If any complaints are made, and the vice principal or the principal hears about it, it will turn into a big problem. I might not be able to fully cover up for you either. Good grief… garter belts and bunny girls suit and whatnot… I don’t know where you gathered these from, but I’m confiscating it all,” Nakaoka said and crammed the numerous outfits into a cardboard box. “Then you’re all dismissed! Go enjoy other classes’ programs as a guest for the rest of the school festival!” she said, closed the door with a bang and left.

An awfully heavy silence befell the class, but… the number of people coming to terms with the reality of the program getting canceled increased with time, and one by one, they disappeared from the classroom.

Sandai and Shino were originally not so strongly interested in participating, so unlike other classmates, they were not discouraged.

Not in the least.

“Somehow… poof, the school festival ended just like that, didn’t it?”

“Nothing you can do about what’s gone spoiled. Let’s go check out other classes or the school year’s program, since we’re free and all.”

“Okay.”

When Sandai and Shino left the classroom as if nothing had happened, they heard the sorrowful cry of the class president from behind.

“UUUOOOOOOHHHH!!! IT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE A MEMORABLE SCHOOL FESTIVAL AND YEEEEEETTTT!!!”

The class president’s zeal for the school festival was certainly the real deal.

That was plain to see.

However, there was a limit to everything. Having lost one’s cool because ‘in essence it was the last school festival’ was not good.

Paying for one’s mistakes, in short… However, there was also a classmate who was worried about that class president. It was Takasago; she hurriedly rushed to the class president’s side.

If there was a lucky break from this cancellation, it would be that the relationship between Takasago and the class president might be taking another step forward. Being nestled up in times of sorrow is a classic recipe for kick-starting romance to move forward.

Since it would be best to not become a hindrance in such a time, Sandai decided to quietly leave them alone and began to tour around the school festival together with Shino.

One by one, they went around to see the program of each class in each school year. There were those running an exhibition of something, those performing a live concert or drama in the gymnasium; the school festival’s programs were diverse, and it was a school with a large number of students with many classes as well, so touring around was also a pain.

“I’m pooped~. Piggyback me~,” Shino said with her eyes turning into an X, seemingly tired from walking; easy to understand wanting to get spoiled.

“…Guess I’ve got no choice. Here.”

“Uww.”

He knew of this because he previously had also carried Shino on his back, but she was really light. Even Sandai, whose stamina and strength weren’t that much, didn’t get that much trouble with it.

Although Sandai got a boundless interest in Shino’s slender and soft body, like a healthy young man would, he nevertheless like last time tried not to enjoy the sensation.

Precisely because he didn’t openly express his desires, precisely because he didn’t think only of satisfying nothing but himself that Shino was fawning on him.

The only thing he wouldn’t want to do was any action that would betray that.

“Go~ go~.”

“Yeah yeah.”

“That doesn’t sound like a horsie’s neigh~.”

“Neighhihin. …Are you happy with this?”

“Good.”

The sight of him carrying Shino on his back was attracting attention in various senses, but inquisitive gazes and the like had always been showering them until now. Sandai had always been on the thick-skinned side, but he had become more so recently and was now in a position where he would no longer care about how others looked at him.

Sandai spotted a bench as he made his way through the gaps in the crowd, and then bent down to lower down Shino.

“Wee~ a chair spotted. Break time~.”

“I’m gonna go get some drinks from the vending machine. Anything you wanna drink?”

“I’m OK.”

“I want you to let me do boyfriend-like stuff, like taking action for my girlfriend. Besides… Now lately you’ve always been making lunch for me after all.”

“…Thanks. Then I wanna drink milk tea! It should be there.”

“Roger.”

4

Clang, the milk tea fell down into the vending machine’s outlet with a clang. Sandai took it and leisurely made his way back.

That was when.

Weird voice could be heard coming from the school infirmary he just happened to pass by. Sandai spontaneously came to a stop.

“Pyo-Pyon.”

“Nakaoka-sensei… looks like there’s still embarrassment left in you. It’s not bunny-like.”

“No, imitating a rabbit in this outfit at this age indeed really is…”

“I’ve said it’s fine. It’s still totally do-able. We’re still just barely young people after all. Just barely.”

“Is that so?”

“Yup, that’s right. Thirty something women are youngsters, you know? …Now then, one more time with the mind of a true bunny. One, two, three—go!”

“Pyon!!”

There was a conversation that made him curious about what was happening inside, so Sandai quietly opened the school infirmary’s door.

In there, there was his homeroom teacher in a bunny girl suit. In rhythm to the clapping beat of the school nurse lady, his homeroom teacher put her hands on her head to make rabbit ears while shaking her butt, repeating, “Pyon. Pyon.”

“Nakaoka-sensei… what are you doing?” Sandai asked like to murmur while speechless.

Nakaoka and the school nurse looked back at the same time. The two women in their thirties froze as their eyes opened wide, and gradually sweat broke out on their foreheads.

Gulp, Sandai swallowed down his saliva.

What Nakaoka was wearing was one of the clothes she’d taken away after scolding her students. And she had borrowed that willy-nilly and was imitating a rabbit.

“Sensei…”

“…P-Pyon. You’re mistaken-pyon. It’s just a little bunny here-pyon. There’s no woman called Nakaoka-pyon. Fujiwara-kun, you didn’t see anything-pyo… n.”

Sandai had a hunch that it would be better to pretend he hadn’t seen this.

Even Nakaoka was a person before she was a teacher, so she’d probably committed an error out of passing, sudden impulse. No mistaking that she hadn’t even thought that she would be witnessed by a student, moreover by one she herself was in charge of.

He could tell from seeing that shaken state of hers.

This was a situation where Nakaoka’s honor as a teacher and then, more than anything, Nakaoka’s dignity as a woman were being threatened, so this was a spectacle that should be forgotten if it were to protect those.

If it were someone who would think of crooked stuff like making others do as one pleases after obtaining some dirt on others, this would probably be a situation where they would say ‘I’ve got a good material’ in joy, but unfortunately Sandai wasn’t such a guy.

Besides, Sandai was also indebted to Nakaoka. He owed her one. Despite having witnessed Sandai and Shino kissing just recently, Nakaoka had read the mood and pretended to have not seen it.

Thinking that this was the perfect opportunity to return the favor, Sandai made a right about-face in a robot-like movement, stepped into the corridor, and slammed shut the school infirmary’s door.

“…That boy, is he a student from your class?”

“…Yeah.”

“…”

“…”

“You’ve been… seen, isn’t it?”

“Th-This is your fault! You made me do it!”

“It-It’s certainly me who recommended it, but the one who decided to do it was you, Nakaoka-sensei! You’re an adult so you’re responsible for your own act—”

“Shuddup shuddup shuddup! I don’t wanna hear excuses! In the first place what’s this perverted body even!? Huh?”

“Please stop~ don’t fondle it~.”

Sandai resolutely swore to himself that he would pretend to have not seen the whole thing. That being said, forgetting the scene just now was certainly also fairly hard.

It was such a shocking scene that even after returning to Shino’s side, the shocking image of Nakaoka in a bunny girl suit remained etched into Sandai’s mind and couldn’t go away.

However, he must forget it. Sandai shook his head and forcibly kicked Nakaoka out of his memory.

“…What’s wrong?”

“I just kinda came across a big rabbit. It’s because of that.”

“Rabbit?”

“Nakao—nah, it’s nothing. That aside, here’s the milk tea.” Sandai swallowed down the name he’d almost blurted out without thinking, handed the milk tea, and sat down next to Shino.

Shino was tilting her head, but without making any attempt to ask about it in particular, maybe because Sandai was also making eyes like a dead fish, she put the can on her mouth and began to drink.

“…Dewicious.”

“Glad to hear that.”

“Yep. Thanks. …Wait, speaking of which, you didn’t buy one for yourself?”

“Just because I’m not that thirsty.”

It was not a lie and it was the truth that he wasn’t thirsty, but, “Nn.” Shino stopped drinking the milk tea halfway through and held it out to him. “…Let’s go halfsies. I already drank half so drink the rest.”

Sandai could’ve just refused and told her not to mind it, but Shino probably wouldn’t have agreed to that, so he took the offer. He gulped it down and threw away the now empty can into the garbage can for empty cans. Clang, the sound of the can falling echoed into the hallway.

The evening sun streaming into the hallway was about to begin to sink. The school festival was over, and the students were also starting to clean up.

Many classes went out for launching fireworks, an evening party, dinner, or karaoke and such. Sandai’s class as well, despite their program getting canceled, there were those who were finding their classmates still at school and passing such talk around.

But Sandai and Shino opted not to participate. After all, wanting to prioritize their time together was their reason.

“…Let’s go home.”

“…Yeah.”

Taking a stroll downtown, heading back to his apartment and chilling around together—after spending such a time together, Sandai went to walk Shino to the station.

And then, they kissed. After that he saw off the train and then checked the clock.

“Ten o’clock…”

When he thought about the time until the start of late night anime, he wondered whether he could do studying a little.

As Sandai left the station while yawning, his phone rang.

“…Is it Shino? Nah nope. It’s an SMS… who is it?”

He thought that it was perhaps a for-the-first-time-in-a-while message from his parents, but even if that was the case, it would show the name. As for this one, only the telephone number was shown. In other words, a message from someone not registered in his contact.

“Is this the kind of prank where they send a message to a random number?”

That was the first thing that popped up in his mind, but there was also a possibility that it was an urgent message from a government office or power company and such, so he checked the content just in case.

>Don’t tell anyone what you saw in the school infirmary today. Please. I’ll do anything.

It was a message that immediately let him know who the sender was.

“…Sensei.”

As for how Nakaoka had got to know of Sandai’s number, probably through the contact information previously given. Due to the fact that his parents were overseas, Sandai had put in his own phone number on the class’ contact information. She had sent the message after taking a look at it.

Maybe it was embarrassing to talk directly from the fact that she had sent an SMS and not given a call. Well anyhow, Sandai sent, ‘I didn’t see anything, though.’

Although Sandai was unsure whether Nakaoka was perhaps relieved or perhaps sensed his tight-lippedness, no further reply came.

“Good grief.” Sandai shrugged his shoulders, but however, he received another message from someone else. Sandai’s phone was just so busy today. “What is it now…” He took a look at the sender as he groaned, and saw it was from the aquarium where he’d gotten a part-time job offer.

The content was about asking him to come next Sunday at 1 pm for the job’s detail explanation and training, and also an apology for contacting him at night.

“Next Sunday, huh…”

He would have no particular things to do on next Sunday, and Shino would also be working during the day. In other words, Sandai would be free during the day. He sent back his acknowledgement as he also got no reason to refuse.