I am a teacher at a girls' school in Tokyo

"Teacher Hirakawa, what do you think?"

"..."

Her smile faded, and she seemed to be asking for his opinion seriously again, making it hard to figure out whether this young lady was serious or joking.

Tetsufumi Hirakawa fell into silence.

Hmm... what is this? Not forgetting your original intention?

He complained silently for a moment, then stepped into the shoe closet.

"You can't do that even if you expel me, Shinohara-san."

After changing their shoes, the two walked together along the connecting corridor towards the club building.

"Why not?" asked Shinohara Shiori, continuing the topic.

Although he didn't know whether the young lady was serious, Tetsufumi Hirakawa still stated the reason for his refusal quite seriously.

"The inappropriate emotions that arise during the teacher-student relationship will continue to have an impact even if the teacher-student relationship ends. Therefore, it is unacceptable."

Tetsufumi Hirakawa explained without any emotion, and at the same time, he tried to persuade the girl again, hoping that she would return to the right path.

"That's my view, so Shinohara-san, you'd better give up your ridiculous idea."

But Shinohara Shiori didn't listen and kept pondering.

"Hmm... I know what you mean, Sensei, but Shiori isn't someone who gives up easily."

When he raised his face, he said this.

"Like playing music?"

"Ah."

"Ok."

Tetsufumi Hirakawa nodded and walked up the stairs to the club building.

However, between the person who says he will never change his mind and the person who says he will never give up, obviously one of them will change in the end.

who can that be?

——Both of them firmly believed that they would not be the ones to change.

If you think about it this way...

As footsteps sounded, Hirakawa Tetsufumi and Shinohara Shiori turned their heads together.

"Student Shinohara."

"Teacher Hirakawa."

"..."

"..."

"You speak first." Hirakawa Tetsufumi gave way.

Shinohara Shiori did not refuse, but nodded and said directly: "As I said before, I still firmly believe that there will be a day when Mr. Hirakawa will be able to feel Shiori's feelings."

Hirakawa Tetsufumi did not refute, but insisted on his position: "The existence of the teacher-student relationship and my personal feelings will not be affected."

"Then I look forward to the day when Mr. Hirakawa changes his mind." The girl smiled. In the narrow space of the stairs, her beautiful face bloomed with a smile that was enough to make people's hearts beat.

The look in his eyes, the confidence, the anticipation… that’s it.

"..." Hirakawa Tetsufumi looked away, "Too close, Shinohara-san."

"is it?"

“Keep a safe distance.”

"Is Mr. Hirakawa worried?"

"What am I worried about?"

"I'm worried that if I get too close, I'll fall in love with me, or something like that."

"..."

"After all, Shiori is still very confident about her appearance." The proud young lady said without any modesty, in a calm and matter-of-fact tone.

Well, it is true that there is no doubt that Shinohara Shiori is a beautiful girl. If she were not in a girls' school, she would definitely be the kind of student in light novels who has a shoe cabinet full of love letters.

Even Hirakawa Tetsufumi has to admit this, but——

"Is this what Mr. Hirakawa is worried about?"

Faced with the girl's words, Hirakawa Tetsufumi was not moved at all: "Your provocation is too obvious, Shinohara-san. It won't work on me."

The next steps would be something like, "If Mr. Hirakawa isn't worried, then why is he opposed to being too close?"

Tetsufumi Hirakawa has seen through it.

——Yes, it is

"..." The young lady beside him sighed and said, "It seems that plan two has failed."

"…Excuse me, what is plan one?"

"You are fired."

"...Has Mr. Shinohara really considered this?" asked Tetsufumi Hirakawa in surprise.

"Yeah." He nodded calmly.

"..."

Hirakawa Tetsufumi opened his mouth and then closed it again. He didn't know what to say for a moment.

It turns out that dismissal is not just a casual statement?

All I can say is that, that night, when she expressed her feelings in the rain, the girl had really done a lot of mental preparation and had made a great determination - she could actually come up with such a plan.

Really, I remember that at the beginning of this semester, Shinohara Shiori apologized to him for the initial threat. And now it happened again.

Thanks to his excellent memory, Tetsufumi Hirakawa can still vividly recall the scene at that time - the young lady apologizing shyly.

At that time, he was still thinking that it was a good thing that the problem students recognized their mistakes under his guidance.

It turns out that it was all pretending after all.

Tetsufumi Hirakawa made his judgment.

He now had reason to believe that the young lady apologized not because she realized her mistake, but because... she had some unspeakable feelings for him.

After all, she is Miss Shinohara, who has a bad temper, is willful and arrogant, always seems to be alone, and she also says "Excellent people will be targeted wherever they go". Such a lady will not bow her head easily.

What made the proud girl bow her head was not her mistakes, but...her love for him. Because she loved him enough, she bowed her head.

Just like a proud young lady who will lower herself and actively pursue someone because she likes him enough, and will know that she is being rejected but still remain true to her heart.

This is Miss Shinohara's love, the kind that lowers her head, cautiously, for fear of being discovered.

Until there is an outlet for venting, just like the clouds that clear away during the rainy season, the covered emotions finally appear openly in the sky——

Before the midsummer sun unscrupulously controlled the sky, there was a plum rain that lasted for more than a month.

Before Shinohara Shiori expressed her emotions without any scruples, the proud young lady carefully hid for a semester.

"..."

The quiet footsteps in the stairwell suddenly felt like they were stepping on my heart.

The pounding heartbeat appeared in my ears without warning.

An inexplicable atmosphere began to linger around me.

The communication of one’s thoughts does not begin with speaking them out loud, as the power of language is limited - therefore, it begins with the person who hears them understanding the thoughts.

Perhaps, it was not until this moment that Tetsufumi Hirakawa unexpectedly realized, at an unexpected time, in this ordinary staircase, how passionate a certain girl's emotions were, so passionate that... it was difficult to look directly at.

Looking directly into the sun will burn your eyes.

Unable to control it, he felt the sound of his footsteps gradually coincide with the sound of his heartbeat, which was getting faster and faster.

"..."

"Teacher Hirakawa, what's wrong?" Shinohara Shiori looked at Hirakawa Tetsufumi in confusion as he suddenly quickened his pace.

“……”Hirakawa Tetsufumi didn’t say anything.

"What's wrong?" Shinohara Shiori asked again.

"……nothing."

As if his calm tone was hiding something, Tetsufumi Hirakawa walked up.

In order to keep up with the pace, Shinohara Shiori had to speed up, while staring at the male teacher who was walking fast and blinking in confusion.

There is definitely something abnormal.

The clever young lady came to this conclusion.

why?

Something was happening that she didn't know about, right?

Shinohara Shiori thought about it, and then she saw the teacher in front of her walk around the corner of the stairs and continue to go up. Up there was the fifth floor, where the wind band was located.

More importantly, the moment she turned around, she saw the teacher's expression - pretending to be calm.

No need to guess, this is definitely what happened.

Because I often pay attention to this teacher, every bit of his expression is extremely familiar to me. His expression is not calm, but a disguised calmness.

Shinohara Shiori thought about it and quickened her pace, trying to catch up.

"Teacher Pingchuan." She called again, but there was no response.

From the stairs on the fifth floor, white light diffused in and entered my eyes.

Tetsufumi Hirakawa walked up the last step.

He had blocked out the voice of the girl behind him, and he just wanted to stay away from her.

This is not a crush, nor is it love, but just as strong sunlight needs to be blocked, Tetsufumi Hirakawa now needs to find shade.

"Don't tread on the sunshine."

In my mind, I recalled the childish games played under the tree shades at the school gate the day before yesterday.

What emerged in the picture was the girl's upright figure when he raised his head.

"..."

Tetsufumi Hirakawa paused for a moment and cleared the association from his mind.

Then he moved forward again, trying to get rid of the girl.

But just as he was about to walk out of the stairwell, he heard a small exclamation from behind him.

"..."

He finally stopped, hesitated for a moment, turned around, and looked down at her:

Shinohara Shiori grabbed the handrail and leaned against it, her delicate face and beautiful eyebrows furrowed.

"Teacher Hirakawa... Shiori seems to have sprained her ankle."

"..."

-

Taking a deep breath and calming himself down, Tetsufumi Hirakawa came to Shinohara Shiori's side.

"…Twisted your ankle?"

The girl was still frowning and didn't look well.

"Yeah. I was concentrating on Mr. Hirakawa and didn't pay attention to my feet. I missed a step."

"..."

Indeed, this is the light that the sun shines without any obstruction.

Hirakawa Tetsufumi didn't look at Shinohara Shiori's eyes and squatted down.