Can I Still Be Your Heroine Even Though I'm Your Teacher?-Chapter 1Volume .7 - An Unexpected Home Date

An Unexpected Home Date 7

“Nishiki-kun, sorry to keep you waiting. You can come in now.”

Called by Sensei, I, who had been out in the hallway, returned to the room.

Even though her tears had stopped, I had stepped out for a while until she calmed down.

“I made some tea if you’d like some.”

“Ah. That’s nice.”

Her response was much quieter, likely due to exhaustion from crying.

Tenjō-sensei’s eyes were still bright red, and the nearby trash bin was filled with tissues.

She wrapped her hands around the mug of warm tea, blowing on it to cool it down.

I sat beside her, quietly waiting for Sensei to start talking while sipping tea.

“I’m sorry you had to see me like that earlier. Please, forget everything.”

After a while, she spoke.

“It’s a secret that Sensei is in my room, so I won’t tell anyone.”

I wouldn’t say it because I don’t want people to suspect anything.

Also, no one would believe it anyway.

“Right. Ah, I’m glad our conversation is a secret. I was really out of my mind earlier.”

Sensei forced a cheerful voice.

However, her voice was hoarse from crying, making her fake-cheerfulness obvious.

“Can I ask a question?”

“Go ahead.”

“Why did you cry?”

I asked bluntly.

“Do you really want to know?”

“Of course. I want to know everything about Sensei.”

“That seems to mean something different to me.”

“If you don’t explain, my biggest high school memory will be stroking Sensei’s head while she cried at my house.”

I deliberately brought up what Sensei was trying to avoid.

“That’s a no-no! Forget it! I just got weak and spoiled myself! I think it was too careless of me, but I couldn’t help it! It’s not like it had a deep meaning or that I have special feelings for you or anything…!”

She stammered, desperately making excuses.

“Sorry if I made you uncomfortable.”

“Nishiki-kun…”

“If you forgive me, can we just call it even and move on?”

I suggested a resolution by asking for her forgiveness.

Instead of agreeing, she began to explain why she cried.

“While you were waiting in the hallway…I thought about why I cried.”

“Did you get an answer?”

“Maybe…I was moved by your cooking.”

“Don’t make fun of me.”

“It’s the truth.”

Sensei confessed in a whisper.

“…It’s been a very long time since I had someone’s homemade cooking.”

“Sigh.”

As I struggled to understand, Sensei continued to speak.

“You see, curry made by professionals outside is delicious, but homemade curry at home is something different, right?”

“Well, the ingredients, equipment, and skills are different, of course.”

“Yes. But for me now, your home-cooked meal was comforting. And before I knew it, I couldn’t stop my tears…”

Sensei had a somewhat relieved expression.

“Your cooking was so sweet to me. It’s a simple, unpretentious meal made by an ordinary person that felt warm and made me happy; I think it gradually threw off my tension, and then your ‘thank you for your hard work’ was the last straw. I probably wanted someone to recognize my hard work…”

Sensei confessed, somewhat embarrassed.

“You’ve been under a lot of pressure, haven’t you?”

When you start living alone, you rarely get words of appreciation that aren’t just out of habit or politeness.

I understand that from my own experience.

“Entering my second year of work, there’s more to do, and I have to make more decisions on my own. But because I lack experience, I’m not very efficient, and often it’s difficult.”

It seems there were various tensions and struggles that were invisible to the students when she first took charge of a class.

Even though she’s an adult, Reiyu Tenjō is still in her early twenties.

It’s easy to forget, but she’s only been a teacher for a year. And as a working adult, she’s still a newcomer.

No one is perfect from the start.

“It’s natural to get tired if you work hard.”

I remember the scene when I first saw Sensei in the staff room a year ago.

“I guess so. I was surprised to find out how little leeway I had left.”

“You’re doing a great job as a Sensei.”

Even a swan seen gliding gracefully on the water is actually moving its feet frantically under the water.

She simply maintains a composed expression all the time so as not to let anyone realize that.

“Really?”

“Yeah, I’m ashamed that I didn’t even realize Sensei was having such a hard time that she would cry.”

“You’ve seen my worst side…”

Her tense face relaxed.

“Now that I’ve seen your worst side, one or two more bad sides won’t change anything.”

“Don’t threaten me just because you have something on me.”

“That’s not a bad idea. If I start skipping school and seem like I’m going to repeat a grade, I’ll use it.”

“Before that, I’ll take you to school every morning.”

Sensei flashed me a mischievous smile.

“Isn’t that too generous? There’s no need for Sensei to care for her students beyond the school grounds.”

“I can’t leave it alone now that I know.”

“Being neighbors is inconvenient, huh? I can’t easily skip school.”

“You’re not the type to do that, are you?”

At the end of our silly banter, Sensei and I burst out laughing at the same time.

Laughing together lightened the atmosphere of the room.

“Ah, it’s nice to have someone to talk to after coming home,”

Sensei mused deeply.

“It’s been a while since I’ve had dinner with someone at home too.”

As Sensei gradually regained her composure, she started to vent.

“Because I’m new, I get loaded with all sorts of chores besides my own work, and I’ve also been staying late because of club activities. I rarely get to leave on time these days.”

“It’s impossible to do housework if you’re always coming home late, right?”

I nodded.

As a student, I only manage household chores after school hours.

If I were in clubs, on committees, taking additional lessons, or working part-time, I’d have to resort to convenience store meals or eating out for dinner too.

“Exactly! All I can do at the end of the day is just to get home. Plus, in a dark, empty room, there’s no one to say ‘welcome back’ to me. It’s really lonely!”

“I can somehow relate to that. You end up talking to yourself more than necessary if you’re living alone.”

I could empathize with the common experiences of living alone.

“It’s empty, just emptiness. It’s something created by the darkness of my heart. That’s how my weekdays go, just coming home to sleep. On weekends, I sleep until noon to recover, and by the time I finish catching up on chores, the day is over, and before I know it, it’s Monday again.”

She vented her pent-up frustrations as if casting a curse.

It seemed Sensei was on the edge as a working adult, more than I had imagined.

“Thank you for your hard work…”

There was nothing else I could say.

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“Thanks to that, my QOL is plummeting, and I feel like I’m about to die!” (TN: quality of life.)

‘Laugh if you want,’ says Sensei with a sense of resignation.

“If it’s that hard, don’t you ever think of quitting being a teacher?”

“Of course not. I haven’t even seen my first graduates off yet. Can I just quit easily?”

Yet, light and determination returned to her eyes.

I’m sure these were words from her heart.

People who strive towards their ideals with such effort like her are too dazzling.

While eating strawberries previously shared by Sensei, we passed the time with trivial conversation.

I stood up to make another pot of green tea, having finished the last.

Waiting for the water to boil, I decided to bring up the main topic.

We should establish some rules to avoid any troubles that could arise from being neighbors with Tenjō-sensei and to smoothly continue school life while protecting our privacy.

In fact, it was also necessary for me.

If things continued this way, I felt I might lose my self-control as a man.

I was hopelessly nervous but also excited.

“How bold of me…”

Even if she had been crying, to stroke the head of an older woman!

And not just any woman, but Reiyu Tenjō! My homeroom teacher! My neighbor!

The moment I was alone in the hallway, I was internally in agony without making a sound.

As the new tea was ready, I gathered my courage and went back to the room.

“…Seriously?”

Sensei was quietly breathing in her sleep. She was sleeping soundly, leaning against the bed.

“Of course you’d be sleepy after a day’s work, a big meal, and crying a lot.”

She lay there, vulnerable and peaceful.

I felt a bit guilty to glance at a woman’s sleeping face, but this was my room.

It’s her fault for falling asleep here.

I quietly placed the tea on the table and watched Reiyu Tenjō’s sleeping face for a while.

“Even her sleeping face is cute. That’s so unfair.”

She was so beautiful it was mesmerizing.

She looked relaxed and happy, perhaps having a pleasant dream.

“But falling asleep in a guy’s room, isn’t that a bit too careless?”

It made me worry.

“Really, I guess Sensei really doesn’t have a romantic interest in her students.”

I felt a little hurt, wondering what to do next.

I had been thinking about Sensei all day.

“…I’ll feed bad if I forcibly wake her up. I’ll let her be for a while.”

She would probably wake up on her own eventually.

“I’ll do the dishes first. By the time I’m done, she’ll probably wake up and go back to her room.”

That’s what I thought.