I am a teacher at a girls' school in Tokyo

So, at this moment, looking at the Moritani Orchestra on the stage, Tetsufumi Hirakawa's thoughts seemed to be standing there, feeling the solemnity and tension of the scene.

In such a tense mood, he stared at Ogasa Suzukiko's back until one moment, he caught a glimpse of movement.

He saw the arm swing down.

Then, the gentle and melodious tune slowly and quietly began to flow to the entire venue like a clear spring, enveloping the hearing.

……

The game ended at around eleven o'clock in the morning.

The heavy rain that has been accumulating in the sky has not yet fallen, but it should be soon.

Tetsufumi Hirakawa looked out through the window in the corridor of the conference hall.

The clouds gradually darkened.

He stared at it expressionlessly, not knowing what he was thinking.

"Teacher Hirakawa, Teacher Hirakawa."

"..."

Hirakawa Tetsufumi looked to his side and found that Ogasa Suzukiko had come to his side again without him knowing when.

She glanced out of the window curiously, then at him.

"What are you doing hiding here, Mr. Pingchuan? You can't hear me even if I call you."

"…Did you call me?"

"Of course, Mr. Pingchuan went to the bathroom and disappeared. I came over to check and found that he was in a daze."

"...I see." Hirakawa Tetsufumi smiled apologetically, "Sorry, Mr. Ogasa."

"It's okay, but we should go now. The students are waiting."

"Yeah, okay, let's go."

"..."

"..."

The two of them took a step forward.

It was quite noisy around me, with cheers, encouragement, "continue next year"... such voices from students from various universities lingering in my ears.

suddenly.

"Teacher Pingchuan, I feel like you don't seem happy."

After walking a few steps, Hirakawa Tetsufumi, who was lowering his head, heard Ogasa Suzukiko say this beside him.

He hesitated for a moment and looked over, only to be greeted by her concerned gaze.

"What's wrong with Mr. Pingchuan? We all advanced, are you not satisfied?"

"...No, how could it be." Hirakawa Tetsufumi smiled at her question and denied, "Of course I am happy that we were able to qualify, even though it was only the Tokyo Metropolitan Competition, I am happier than last year when I learned that we had advanced to the National Competition. "

"Then why...?" Ogasa Suzukiko was still confused.

Hirakawa Tetsufumi tried to make his smile more brilliant: "Teacher Ogasa, you think too much."

"Hey, is that so?"

"Ah."

After walking a few steps forward, Tetsufumi Hirakawa saw the group of students from Moritani.

Although there was still some distance between them, one could still see the students' relaxed postures, their occasional jokes, and their smiles.

Then, he and Shinohara Shiori's eyes met for a moment across the air.

There was no expression on either of their faces.

……

Get on the return bus.

This time, the seat next to Tetsufumi Hirakawa was no longer empty.

Shinohara Shiori sat next to him, but she never looked up at him. Instead, she looked out the window.

And throughout the entire process, until they returned to Moriya, no conversation took place.

In the back row, the rest of Moritani’s students were playing and fighting.

"Kyoko Kyoko, you know what? When we were sitting on the stage, I saw Mayumi next to us, she was so nervous that she was about to cry."

"Eh—really?"

"Hey, Liu Yi, don't talk nonsense. Where do I get it?"

"Yes, I saw it."

"Mayumi, this won't work. What will we do when the national competition comes?"

"Huh? Kyoko, you don't believe me either? It's just the Tokyo Metropolitan Competition, I'm not nervous. I knew we were going to win before I even went up there."

"——The guy who was still saying he was too nervous to sleep before going to bed last night, stop bragging."

"hateful--"

"Oh... No, it's so itchy, stop scratching, I give up."

"Humph."

The laughter continued until they reached the Dasen Valley.

Tetsufumi Hirakawa and Shiori Shinohara got off the bus together.

……

After we lined up, he said a few words of encouragement and encouraged us to keep going. Then he announced that we would have a holiday and we didn’t need to come to the wind band for practice anymore.

"Thank you for your hard work this summer. Now that we have advanced to the Tokyo Tournament, the summer vacation is almost over. You don't need to practice in the next period of time. See you after school starts."

After saying this, he put the instruments back into the wind band, and the summer practice of the Moritani wind band officially ended.

Then, after all the students had left, Tetsufumi Hirakawa and Shiori Shinohara were the last to walk out of the Moritani Wind Ensemble and close the door.

……

The atmosphere at the entrance of the quiet orchestra was heavy, just like the heavy rain that was about to fall from the sky.

Hirakawa Tetsufumi stood where he was and glanced at Shinohara Shiori. The girl was also looking at him, with a delicate face and a gaze...cold.

There was silence for a long time.

"Shinohara-san, let's go."

"..."

After a silent response, Shinohara Shiori looked forward and walked out.

Tetsufumi Hirakawa walked side by side with her.

"..."

"..."

How to speak?

At this point I don’t know what to say.

Hearing the dull footsteps in his ears, Tetsufumi Hirakawa also looked at the low dark clouds in the sky with a rather dull look.

Until he turned and walked into the stairwell, his eyes left the sky and instead stared down at the descending stairs.

"It's going to rain." he said suddenly.

"Yeah." Shinohara Shiori responded.

"Did Shinohara-san bring an umbrella?"

"Bring it."

"..."

"..."

"… Let's talk about this."

"What to talk about?"

"About dreams."

"Well, Mr. Hirakawa, please go ahead."

Shinohara Shiori's tone remained cold.

Tetsufumi Hirakawa tried hard to adapt to this coldness.

"…I don't know if Shinohara-san believes it or not, but what I said and did during that period of time was like a dream to me. It's not an exaggeration or an analogy, but it is exactly like that."

"Is it really so?" The girl's tone finally changed as she asked.

"Well, it's like a dream, or to put it another way, it's like being hypnotized."

Shinohara Shiori's mouth curled up slightly: "Have you been hypnotized by Shiori?"

"……possible?"

"and then?"

"Then on the 14th, I met Mr. Hisada, and the dream was broken by external forces, and I woke up."

"That's it."

"Ah."

"..."

"..."

"Teacher-student love is not allowed." Before silence was about to fall again, Tetsufumi Hirakawa spoke again.

"I know." said Shinohara Shiori.

"After waking up from the dream, I can no longer continue to indulge in it without caring about anything."

"Ok, I know."

"..."

"Teacher Hirakawa, is there anything else you want to say?"

"I want to hear Shiori... hear Shinohara-san's opinion."

"Shiori's opinion?"

"Ah."

"..."

"..."

After walking up the stairs, they reached the corridor on the first floor and walked towards the shoe closet together.

"In Shiori's opinion, Mr. Hirakawa is really terrible." Shinohara Shiori said this before entering the shoe closet.

"..."

Hirakawa Tetsufumi paused, looked at her back with a complicated look, and then walked into the shoe closet silently.

……

After changing their shoes, they walked out of the shoe closet together and walked under the cloudy sky.

He saw Shinohara Shiori beside him glanced at him, her eyes still cold.

"Have you ever thought about what Shiori was thinking when she received that message that day?"

"…I've thought about it." Tetsufumi Hirakawa nodded.

"Have you ever thought about just walking away? How would Shiori feel?"

“…I have thought about that.”