“Minato-kun, are you not going home?”

“Ah, I have to write the daily journal.”

“Can I help you with that?”

“Thank you. But I’ll be fine.”

“Alright. See you tomorrow then.”

“Yeah.”

November 5th, Thursday.

Today was the day I was in charge of being the daily journal writer.

While my classmates were busy with club activities or on their way home, I sat at my desk and faced the journal.

If I had written more efficiently, I could have gone home earlier, but my tendency to procrastinate on unpleasant tasks had led to this result.

After finishing the journal in the empty classroom, I let out a deep sigh of mixed satisfaction and fatigue, and stood up briskly.

All that was left was to deliver it to my homeroom teacher, Sakuramiya-sensei, who was currently in the staff room.

And with that I headed to the staff room with my school bag in hand.

“Excuse me. I’m Minato Segawa from class 2-C. Is Sakuramiya-sensei here?”

I knocked twice and opened the door to the staff room.

I looked for Sakuramiya-sensei while bowing lightly, and found her smiling and waving at me. How can she be so cute…

I walked towards her, saying ‘Excuse me’ again as if it was my catchphrase.

Sakuramiya-sensei’s seat was located away from the door. Seats were assigned by grade level. It also seemed that the teacher in charge of the second-years was not at their seat.

When I reached Sakuramiya-sensei’s seat, she blushed and looked down. She looked up at me with upturned eyes.

“Did you come all the way here to see me? You could have just told me and I would have come immediately. The key to the student guidance room is over there.”

“No, I just came to deliver the daily journal.”

“Oh, I see…”

When I took out the daily journal, Sakuramiya-sensei looked disappointed.

I smiled softly and approached Sakuramiya-sensei, close to her ear.

“Did Sakuramiya-sensei want to meet me?”

“Um, not really… We see each other in the classroom and always talk on the phone and email.”

“I wanted to meet you though.”

“Oh, that’s sneaky! I wanted to meet too… The staff room is so boring, you know? You might not know about it, Segawa-kun.”

“Boring… it’s work. What are you complaining about?”

Well, if it’s work that is done in the staff room, it would probably mostly be administrative work, so it wouldn’t be fun work. Especially in the case of Sakuramiya-sensei, she seems to be the type who likes to teach things to others. The classes themselves probably aren’t hard.

With a sigh, she tugged on the sleeves of my uniform and approached close to my ear and asked me in a whisper,

“Just now, there aren’t many people here, so can you stay a little longer? It’s fine to sit here.”

This teacher of mine is really… I chuckled wryly and looked around.

Sure enough, the population density in the staff room is low now. As long as we speak in low voices, there’s no need to worry about being overheard by anyone. I sat down next to Sakuramiya-sensei as she asked me to.

“Why is it so empty here?”

“The teachers in charge of the 3rd year students are having a meeting right now.”

Saying that, Sakuramiya-sensei pointed at a door. That must be the conference room. I didn’t know that there were multiple rooms in the staff room.

“But if that’s the case, then why are there so few teachers in charge of the 2nd year students? They’re not having a meeting, are they?”

“Many of them are advisors for club activities. At this time, they are usually out on their duties.”

“Is Sakuramiya-sensei not an advisor?”

“I am, sort of. I’m in charge of the literary club.”

“You don’t have to go to the club activities?”

“There’s nothing to do there. The days of activities are sparse and I only rarely show up there.”

Sakuramiya-sensei suddenly remembered something and said “Oh, that’s right,” and began to search through the things on her desk. It’s pretty messy.

It was the desk of someone who was not good at keeping things organized.

Then, after about ten seconds of rummaging through the contents of her desk, she found something and handed it to me.

“Here. A reward for Segawa-kun who wrote this diary well. Keep it a secret from everyone.”

“Chocolate?”

“Yeah. I eat it when I’m tired. Here, open your mouth.”

“Isn’t it a bit too casual…?”

Even though it’s the staff room with few people, and there’s no one around, maybe she’s being too careless.

She brought the rectangular chocolate that she took out of the wrapper to my mouth. I quickly ate it to avoid being found out in this situation.

But because I was in a slight hurry, I accidentally bit her finger.

“Ah, I’m sorry.”

While chewing the chocolate, I lowered my head slightly.

“It’s… it’s okay. Don’t worry about it.”

“Wait, I have a handkerchief.”

“What for, to wipe it?”

“Why would you leave it like that? It’ll be dirty.”

“I don’t think so…”

“Hurry up and stop staring at your fingers.”

As I wiped Sakuramiya-sensei’s fingers with the handkerchief, she grumbled complaints in dissatisfaction.

After I put the handkerchief away, I looked at her desk.

“By the way, can I organize and tidy up this desk?”

“Why?”

“I’ve been wondering since a while ago.”

“Do you like to be in neat and tidy places?”

“Not really, but wouldn’t it be more inconvenient if it wasn’ this messy?”

“Well, I guess… but I’ve never been good at keeping things organized.”

“Then it’s my turn to help you. I’ve always been good at this kind of thing.”

“I see… then, please go ahead.”

“I got it.”

Sakuramiya-sensei moved a little to the side and I sat in front of the desk. I immediately began to organize the desk. It was a really simple task.

All I had to do was remove unnecessary items and then rearrange the remaining items so they

were easy to use.

“Why do you have two mobile chargers? Aren’t they unnecessary?”

“Well, you never know when one might break.”

“They won’t break that easily and even if they do, you can charge them through your computer. You only need one at home and one at work.”

“That’s not fair… both of them are important to me.”

“Where is this emotion coming from? And this and this, these are also not needed for work.”

“They are needed. I re-read these comics for a change of mood.”

“When was the last time you re-read them?”

“I think it was about two years ago.”

“We’ll leave the items that you don’t use often as they are.”

“But…”

She is too lacking in self-management. I couldn’t possibly do something like decluttering by myself.

While somewhat listening to Sakuramiya-sensei’s requests, I started eliminating unnecessary things from the desk. And by rearranging the placement of things, it became quite tidy.

“Well, I guess this much should be fine.”

“Wow, now I can work too easily on this.”

“Isn’t that a good thing?”

“Ugh, I can’t argue against that.”

“Why are you dissatisfied?”

Sakuramiya-sensei puffed out her cheeks in dissatisfaction. And suddenly, there was a shadow creeping up behind me.

When I turned around, there was a female teacher in her mid thirties. I hadn’t received any lessons from her, but I had seen her before. I think her name was Kunimoto-sensei or something like that.

“Oh, that’s amazing. Sakuramiya-sensei’s desk is now so clean! Did you do this?”

Come to think of it, I had completely forgotten that this was the staff room.

Since I was focused on tidying up, I didn’t pay attention to what was going on around me.

Well, fortunately, it seems that Kunimoto-sensei doesn’t suspect anything about my relationship with Sakuramiya-sensei.

I replied as normally as possible.

“Yes, it was a personal request of Sakuramiya-sensei.”

“Wh-what do you mean by personal request?… Segawa-kum, weren’t you the one who said, ‘Leave it to me’.”

Sakuramiya-sensei grumbled from behind, while denying my words.

Kunimoto-sensei then looked at me and put her hands together apologetically.

“I see… If it’s okay with you, would you mind tidying up my seat as well? You seem really good at that kind of thing.”

“It’s not a problem. Leave it to me—”

“I’m sorry. He has supplementary lessons starting now, so…”

“Oh, I see. Well, if the timing works out next time, please let me know. And good luck with your supplementary lessons.”

Kunimoto shows a disappointed expression and slowly walks back to the desk where the first-year teachers are gathered.

As I watched her back fading away from my sight, Sakuramiya-sensei tugged on the hand sleeve of my uniform. She was having a sulky expression and was slightly glaring at me.

“Segawa-kun, you can’t do that to anyone other than me…”

“Eh? What’s wrong with that though?”

“If you want to do it again, I’ll make a mess of my desk again, so till then bear it.”

“Please don’t do that. I’m not particularly interested in organizing things again and again… But, I understand. I won’t do it to the other teachers. So please don’t be jealous anymore.”

“Really? I am believing you for now… But get ready for a punishment if you are lying to me.”

“Do you have so little trust in me?”

“Because, in the end, during the seat change, you ended up sitting next to Shinozuka-san.”

Sakuramiya-sensei muttered those words with a downward look.

Hearing her, I had an awkward expression on my face.

“That was just a miracle… Well, let’s do this. If, next time, I break my promise, I’ll do one thing you ask.”

“Anything?”

“Yes, anything.”

As I nodded my head in approval, Sakuramiya-sensei’s eyes began to sparkle like stars.

They looked so innocent and pure, like a child’s. I guess her mentality sometimes still is that of a small kid. That’s cute in its own way.

“Well, for now I am averting my eyes. So, why don’t you go tidy up Kunimoto-sensei’s desk.”

“Your change of heart is too obvious… Do you really want me to do something that bad?”

“Th-that’s not it… well, maybe yes?”

“Tell me. Depending on the content, I might do it normally.”

“Wha—what? I… I can’t tell you! Definitely not here…!”

“What do you want me to do?”

I smirked while looking at her as she was blushing hard and fidgeting slightly.

After that, I stayed in the staff room for a while, but I decided to leave when the meeting for the teachers in charge of the third-year students ended.

Once in a while, I thought that visiting her in the staff room would be refreshing…