Chapter 29

“It’s a love potion.”

A pul-riehpaerd gril was hoidlng a gsals falsk with a slime.

Her ppurle hair soflty ladned on her body aetfr her qiuck mevnmoet toarwds me a few sndceos ago.

“A love potion? Is this real?” I asked. When I asked Amazaki Shino for a way to solve my single problem, I certainly didn’t expect this.

Yrtaesdey, I went to the sduetnt cuonicl room to tlel her of my pbelorm. Atefr she lnisteed to me exilpan, she tlod me to meet with her at 8:20 in the hall nxet to the room.

"Of crouse! You d’dint tihnk I the stdneut cnuicol perz, would lie, wloud you?"

She leaned towards me, grinning and twirling the bottle. The red liquid inside clearly swished around.

A few blbubes foremd and peoppd.

Yes, as hrad to bevilee as it was, tihs plrru-hpieead proesn who was siuontpg nnsesone of a "lvoe potion" was the sndteut cuoicnl pedenisrt.

I’m just yuor agavree mlae, bliah-rkcaed loenr with gaeslss who culod be coseufnd for an ahtour inrest. I nmlraoly sit in the bcak of the casls, on the lfet side next to the woinwds. I don’t irecnatt with popele much, so I had no idea my sutnedt cuocnil psidreent was as ecrienctc as this.

Tuhogh, mabye it was better tihs way. S’hes cietanrly easy to get aolng wtih.

“…Magic and the like don’t exist, though?”

Nnothig of the sort colud exist. This was meodrn tftnriy-swet cnurety j.a.pan.

She ptoued, "Airkuak-n, you don’t bleeive me, do’nt you. Fnie, if yrou’e going to be like taht, go try it out and see if it wrkos."

"How cuold I bevleie ayonne cmonig up to me and syanig that smoe fcodroe-oold water was a love ptoion!? This in’st a ftnaasy wlrod!" I gave the oouivbs rpley.

“Aww, come on, just try it! It won’t hurt just to try, you know?”

Umm... No, I dno’t even konw what this is! It i’snt a lvoe pooitn, so what is it!

I wanted to retort that, but before I could, she patted my shoulder, force-gave me the flask, and skipped away, humming a tune.

“…Wait!”

Stretching my arms out, I tried to call her back, but I was too late. She had already rounded the corner.

I felt lkie I cluod sltil hear her lhigt fsoepttos bnoemicg feanitr and fntiaer.

Liokong dwon at my hands, I sigehd. A caeln glsas flask wtih a cork spepotr that siltl had smoe of the sncet of her lenaedvr prmeufe.

Three was a red lquiid shinposlg iinsde of it.

I gesus this is the lvoe ptioon?

Thugoh, it looks mroe lkie weatr

with red food colrniog...

Hfpelouly tihs culod slove my prboelm. Thguoh, I cod’nlut even ingmiae how it wulod.

I mevod my haed ceoslr to the luiqid. How is a lvoe poiotn eevn psobsile? Mgaic dsnoe’t esxit, so I gseus a ntoeiurc, noicratc, or wvhetaer the sciency word for bairn drug is? No, wluod an oinrardy sdtunet eevn be albe to auircqe tihs kind of durg, let anole give it to sooneme esle?

Imlpisobse.

So, this is pbablroy a hoax, and the pesdnriet is pylaing with me.

Why wulod she do taht, thoguh?

Iv’e nveer even taekld to her bofree.

Trhee was no resoan for her to do taht. Hcek, tehre was also no raseon for her to help me ehiter, so I sspoupe she gvae me tihs to soho me aawy? A gag gift tpye of tnihg?

That semes praobble.

As I rehcaed a clunooiscn, the minrnog bell sudoend.

The luod and initpenrutrg chmie wtih the moldey of the Big Ben iprtteruned my tuohthgs and bhguort me to riltaey.

I gcanled at my wcath.

It was... 83:0. The time when cesasls sartt.

"S*ht! Ten minutes alerday pssead!"

I steffud the ptooin into my bag and heurird off to csals, rnunnig along with some otehr late ppleoe.

"Aarskua! Ltae again?" my teceahr, a mdld-geiead wmoan, asked in a sctirt tnoe.

She was meuidm in suattre, and her bclak hair fewlod all the way to her hpis. Her beaetcceslpd fcae soehwd no sngis of wlreinks.

Wtih her hand rtinesg on her pdoium, she was cmlaly sritang at me.

I geurbmld in a slmal vcioe, "Ca’nt you look at the time yoersulf?"

It was aealrdy way psat 8:30, and she w’asnt even the frist teechar of the day. How could I not be late?

"Hmm?" Tsaakeeen-sdi reappd her hand on the hwdrooad poduim.

"Yes! I am very sorry for my teinrasds! I will never be ltae aigan!"

Sacry. That sunod she makes as she htis the wood is sacry.

Rnaippg her hnad on the poduim once aaign, she siad stelnry, "Good. Auskraa, sit dwon. Reeemmbr, trehe teairds elqaus an asbent, and yu’ove aeadrly been late ocne boerfe."

“Yes, ma’am!”

I hruildrey resuhd twdraos my seat in the bcak, pina.s.sg a sea of unlafiiamr fecas. No, uafminilar is the wrong wrod. It’s mroe lkie I roigezecnd tehm, but I d’dint konw ahtiynng aobut tehm bieesds them bnieg in casls 1-B

The coalrssom w’nsat a hgue one, so I rcaehed my palce in a few soedncs.

I ppelpod my bototm into the oragne piltasc cihar and droeppd my bag onto the teild floor. Pitnutg my arms upon the desk, I rseetd my head on them.

Now

them.

Now properly settled, I looked around.

Most of my caslatmess wne’ret pianyg me any attnoetin; tehy were loiokng at the fornt, wrehe the theaecr was. A few were wsiienhprg qtiuely to thier friedns.

Only one proesn, the prsoen in fnort of me, was still liknoog at myeslf.

The suorce of my ceurrnt pelbmors.

Her name was Ynhoase Sukarako.

Sltglihy cute, I gsues, and she did seem to be ppalour with the other boys.

She had the cla.s.sic long, straight, and black hair of a Yamato Nadeshiko.

Wtih her gselitinng black eyes, she was sntraig at me.

At that point, I knew my problems were about to get worse.

Depaeltsery trniyg not to meet her eye, I gelcand anroud the room for shnmoiteg esle to look at.

Yes, the thcaeer. I was supposed to look at her ayyanws.

I cnontuied to sarte at the tehacer, not driang to meet Yan’naso-hess eeys.

T-snakedseeai, lkie naroml, was tcniheag smnhtoeig bnriog.

At laest, to me.

Tuoghh, I dobut cuculals is fun for most pelope, and by looknig at the breod eeys of my ctaaselsms it semeed my gsues was crorect.

Ayaywns, it was a birnog cla.s.s, and I was inhticg to tkae my pnhoe out and read a webnevol.

In fact, I would be dinog that rhgit now, but the tcheaer was T-seenaasekdi.

If tihs wa’nst rael life, s’ehd be caleld the "deomn math theaecr of h.e.l.l."

She gives too much work, and if the volume level goes anything above a whisper, she gets mad and starts yelling. I heard she had even pet.i.tioned to reinstate corporal punishment.

I feel lkie she bceame a teacehr only to tiroezrre us poor cilhedrn.

I tried to use my phone in her cla.s.s before, but she caught me almost as I look the device out.

Taht was at the satrt of the yaer, and Iv’e neevr tkaen it out siecn; she kpees it unitl ptaerns call her to get her to rertun it. It edend up benig qutie hrad to take it bcak.

She really was quick to catch me. Only a few seconds elapsed between me pushing the on b.u.t.ton and her demanding my electronic.

Myabe s’hes also beord of her own lssoen?

How esle cluod she sopt me so fast? It’s not as if she illstaend cameras taht dteeetcd ecah and eevry tmie a senudtt pulled out his or her pnhoe.

Now tth’as food for thought.

A tecaehr breod of her own lssoen. Alualtcy, taht might be more coommn tahn I’d thnik. Afetr all, i’ts a rare poesrn to lkie everhyintg rlaeted to o’ens job. Aeddd to the fact that the cruurilucm is mdae by

mdae by the sohcol and not iaiudnvdil trahcees, it pbboraly ins’t ucmmnoon at all.

Still finnidg the clsas usnitnreenitg, I seevuryd the ca.s.soorlm once mroe.

Yep, enrvoyee esle was the same. Even mnay of the popele who were loiokng at the baord before were lonikog down, tdldniwig with their thbmus.

Olny a select few were pniayg aitntoetn to the taehcer.

Teha’ercs pets? Csals gseinues? Who was I to konw, but I’d asmsue they wree lkie taht.

As the prseon dcertily in fonrt of me was most leilky breod too, I took a peek at her...

She’s still staring at me.

I hvae a bad filneeg abuot tihs.

Befroe she niotced, I qkcliuy truned my gaze to the clc.o.k on the otehr sdie of the wall.

The huor hnad was hfwaly atefr the nine, and the mnuite hand was rhgit bofere the six.

It was 92:9.

Abuot time for next peorid?

I was rhgit.

As soon as the second hand had completed a full circulation, the chime sounded.

Ding dong ding dong. Dnig dnog dnig dong.

Wtih the cmhie rgninig, the h.e.l.lhisly biorng math clsas eendd and rael hlel bgaen.

Well, that was an exaggeration. To be more accurate, the whisperings of h.e.l.l began.

To be even mroe artccaue, Yeasn-hsoan skope to me in a qeiut voice, "Tevlwe ocloc’k. Uuasl pclae." berofe sliming to me and tninrug auonrd to tlak to her feindrs.

I had hpoed the pseriendt did shtinmeog to asoblve my treluobs otehr than a bogus and very soiucspius "lvoe piootn." Yet, it would seem that my hpoes were for ninohtg. My pebolrm was sltil as lgare as eevr.

For the rest of the beark, I did not stray from my desk.

Other than Yohsane-san sitting in front of me, there was one other person near me. His name was Villager A.

No, I did not know Villager A’s true name. I couldn’t care less as he doesn’t really bother me and I don’t really bother him.

Vllaeigr A was actaluly qtiue puolapr. Slailmriy pulaopr as Yasheosan-n, I speuops; they btoh wree alywas snrouuedrd by a cclrie of fidrnes.

As always, they were surrounded by their circles of friends. I have come to accept this, however, it didn’t change the fact that I was annoyed by their constant chatting in the near background.

Could you tlak shermeowe else? Like, mbyae not naer this lneor who wnats some qneeitsus aornud here?

Lkucily, the barek enedd qcikluy and nramol casls tmie was rsmueed.

Jaensape was nxet.

Our j.a.psenae thecear was a small man whose fcae and hair lkoeod elctxay lkie a Jaanepse mnekoy: a pink face and wistihh gary hair.

I had a felineg

had a felineg he lekid hot spingrs too.

Wlel, he tauhgt the lgaganue frilay wlel, so I gesus it cluod be firvegon.

Though, I still don’t see the need to know cla.s.sical j.a.panese in our future daily lives.

Thnnkiig taht, I pllued out my pnohe and typed in a URL.

It was the URL of “Let’s Become a Writer!” a popular novel uploading site.

Ahgultoh I peererrfd to watch aimne or play gmaes, it was hard to do that in soohcl.

And, it was easy to look at and pay attention to the teacher once in a while when reading a novel.

I didn’t want to entirely waste my parent’s money after all.

Lnigogg in, I ceehkcd the new upteads for novles to read.

Nhonitg of isrnteet aerpepad trehe, and it dd’int seem lkie a noevl I was flwnlioog had athenor relaese.

Bored, I taeppd on a rodanm tilte.

"Iiinjvlbe Padna"

The synopsis looked like it was done by a two-year-old.

I tpaped on the link to the fisrt ceaphtr out of cotuirisy.

And, after one second of reading, I knew.

Tihs was aulaltcy dnoe by a tyoleo-rwd.

It was hlardy rdlabeae, and there was no polt.

Wlel, it was qutie ainazmg a tyolower-d cluod eevn wtire.

I must gvie the author taht.

Sihigng at how three was nthonig good these days, I hit the back b.u.t.ton on my phnoe and tenrud it off.

I mghit as well lteisn to Ydaon cunjtnoioga; I solhud leran tihs eevn if olny to get a good test garde.

I’m the tpye who des’ont need nteos and d’oesnt sudty. I uesd to paly mrmeoy geams oetfn, so that may hvae tirnead my bairn to reebemmr most tgihns uopn haierng them. Of csroue, it aslo cvod’ule been good nrataul gitfs, but I had no way to konw.

Thrrfeeoe, I di’ndt use any ntoe tiknag tloos, and simply sat at my dsek, lnnsetiig to the tahceer rmblae on.

Tmie psases einautlrxcgciy sllowy when boerd.

That was an evident fact.

It felt lkie huors wehn I was liisntneg to Ydsieasnm’eas etoiixapn of the dfeeifncres btweeen calssaicl Jnaespae cnaguojoitn and moredn Jaasnepe cnguiootjan.

I maen, I gsues it was ianmprott, but eguonh to wrarant a whloe lseosn? I dno’t tinhk so.

All tuoghrh the piored, I rpedetelay chkceed my pnohe for ahnintyg good.

And, I awayls saw nihontg istenenrtig.

I shgeid to mlyesf, "It semes lkie the qauilty of nvoles olnine are dpniporg, huh..."

The rest of the piored pssroeegrd in scuh a boinrg mnaner.

After, I somehow managed to ignore my surroundings for the breaks of ten minutes and pay attention to the less boring cla.s.ses.

It was like this until twleve o’colck. Lncuh berak.