章 436: Chapter 4 Part V
Thursday morning, on the way to school…
Even though spring was approaching, today seemed colder than usual.
"Good morning! Good morning! It's so chilly~"
Behind me, I could hear a cheerful, energetic voice.
I didn't think they were calling out to me, but when I ignored it and continued walking, they became flustered and called out once more.
"W-wait a minute!? Ayanokōji-kun?"
Apparently, the greeting from earlier had been addressed to me after all.
I turned around to see Hoshinomiya-sensei, Class B's homeroom teacher.
"Wait up already~"
Her cold hand took hold of my own.
I found myself wondering what kind of female teacher just casually takes a male student's hand like this.
"My apologies. I didn't realize you were talking to me. Is something the matter?"
"Do I need a reason to say hi to you?"
With my hand still in hers, she looked up at me with upturned eyes.
Only someone who knew just how cute they were would act like this.
Perhaps I was beginning to catch on to this type of behavior because I had made a habit of watching Kushida's every move.
"It's not that, it's just…"
With a little force, I pulled my hand away and shook free from her grip.
For some reason, she grinned with a wicked smile upon seeing my reaction.
"Hey, hey. At least you've gotten yourself a girlfriend, right?"
"Nope. I'm not sure I'll even be able to."
"Huh? Really? Even though you've been blessed with such a perfect environment? What a waste."
I had no idea what she was getting at.
"Aiya~ You don't understand, do you?"
Hoshinomiya-sensei leaned in closer and whispered 'That's no fun.' straight into my ear.
"The students here are in like, suuuch a good, romantic environment, you know?"
"Why is that?"
When I asked this, Hoshinomiya-sensei jolted back just a little.
"You really don't understand?"
"Yes. Not in the least."
After I spoke, she patted me on the shoulder a few times as if to console me.
"Ya know, in a different light, you do look kinda adorable."
At this point, I had no idea what she was trying to get at. Not in the slightest.
"Lemme first let you in on a little secret… I'm not a fan of how things are these days. I've been thinking about this for a while now, but I think it's problematic to let boys and girls stay in the same dorm."
"Is that so?"
The individual rooms are separated, so I didn't really see any problems with it. I put some distance between us, trying to escape from having to hear her each and every breath. Or at least I tried to, as Hoshinomiya-sensei simply shortened it once again.
"Here's what I heard from a friend of mine. Apparently there's a tradition at a certain company where new hires undergo a two-month long training session in a company dormitory. Two people per room, separated by gender, of course."
"Huh."
Every time I tried to distance myself, she would come back even closer, so I decided to give up and just listen to her talk.
"But, there's bound to be trouble when two people live in the same room. There was one guy who really hated natto. Like, not only did he hate the smell of the stuff, he hated the thought of even looking at it. So, the first thing he said to the guy he was rooming with was 'don't you dare eat natto in front of me.' But the thing was, his roommate LOVED natto. The roommate figured that, even though the guy said he hated natto, it wasn't like he was gonna be forced to eat it or anything. So on their first day living together, he ate some natto right in front of his roommate, and as a result, the guy who hated natto got pissed and stormed out of the dorm."
What in the world was she trying to say? It didn't sound like it had very much to do with boys and girls living in the same dorm.
"I know you think I've gone off on a tangent, but this is important."
With that, Hoshinomiya-sensei continued.
"The company caught wind of the incident and abolished the room-sharing system that year. Starting that next year, every new hire would get their own one-person room, just like the dorms here at this school. But as a result, something changed drastically that year compared to the year before. Can you guess what?"
"Is it the problem with boys and girls you were talking about?"
"Yup. With the room-sharing system, there would only be at most one or two couples. But when they switched to having one room per person, there ended up being more like seven or eight. When you share a room, even if you invited your crush over to hang out, your roommate would always be someone getting in the way of things, no? After all, it would be really easy for strange rumors to spread, so everyone was kinda on-guard and love never really had a chance to develop. However-"
With single-person rooms, boys and girls would feel less apprehensive about meeting up in secret.
"The change caused romantic developments to happen like, way more often."
This appeared to be the reason why she was so surprised that I still didn't have a girlfriend.
"Then let me ask you this: Are a lot of students in actual relationships right now?"
"Well, somehow that isn't happening this year, like, at all."
Oi. If that's the case, isn't it wrong for you to be judging me for being single?
I wanted to say this, but it wouldn't make any difference to her, so I held back my words.
"Perhaps your theory is wrong?"
"No way!"
She denied it confidently.
"As a student, you just don't understand how much you've been blessed with a perfect environment."
I couldn't tell if her actions were fueled by mere positive thinking or something else entirely.
"You'll come to regret it someday, so wouldn't it be better to fall in love now, while you still have the chance?"
What in the world was she trying to teach a student who should be focused on studying?
While I'm well aware that there are many different kinds of teachers, in a sense, she just might be the most unpredictable one out there.
"Say, may I ask you something?"
"Hm? Are you wondering if I would date a guy who's younger than me? Sorry, a first-year high school student is a bit…"
"I never said anything like that."
"I know. This is the point where you should be laughing."
So this is where I'm supposed to be laughing? I was somehow getting swept up in her mysterious pace.
"So what is it? Ask me, ask me!"
Despite having just changed the subject, she immediately tried to bring it back.
"You support student relationships, but it'd be difficult for students from different classes to date each other, wouldn't it?"
"How come?"
"Because the classes are at war with each other, it could end up causing problems."
I gave her what I thought to be an obvious response, but then I noticed Hoshinomiya-sensei's sparkling eyes.
"Then that's, like, even better!"
"…Wha?"
"Normally, you would do your best for the sake of your own class, right? But here, your significant other would be from one of the rival classes. And that'll give rise to stuff like anguish and conflict. Drama!"
As if deeply moved by her own words, she nodded to herself repeatedly.
"If you put complex drama together with these relationships, won't the competition become even more exciting?"
"Well, I suppose that might be true."
Honestly, she probably wasn't wrong. Even if someone betrayed their own class in favor of their partner, it wouldn't be all that surprising.
Plus, it'd be virtually impossible to figure everything out and manage it all.
"What're you two talking about?"
"Hoh? Speak of the devil."
Devil? Hoshinomiya-sensei's choice of words was strange. The person she was referring to didn't seem to understand either.
At this point, Hoshinomiya-sensei stopped our conversation and put some distance between us.
"We were just chatting, Sae-chan. Don't look at me with such a scary expression, would you?"
"He's my student."
"You seem to care about Ayanokōji-kun quite a bit. Well, we'll find out what he's capable of soon enough thanks to this special exam. He's going to be facing off against Sakayanagi-san, someone rumored to be the best in the school year."
"Then there's no need for you to force yourself to get involved."
"Ah, that's for sure. What a typical thing for you to say, Sae-chan."
Teasing Chabashira, Hoshonimya-sensei smiled. From the looks of it, she hadn't chosen to reach out to me for no reason. After Hoshinomiya-sensei left, Chabashira looked over at me with some sort of sidelong glance.
It seemed she really wanted to know what we had been talking about.
"Do you want to know what we talked about?"
Since we were still on the way to school, I spoke up to satisfy her curiosity.
Chabashira didn't respond. She seemed to be waiting for me to continue talking.
"We were talking about room sharing."
"Room sharing? …Sounds like another load of crap."
Apparently, Chabashira was also familiar with the room sharing situation Hoshinomiya-sensei had been talking about.
It was reasonable for me to assume that the company Hoshinomiya-sensei was talking about earlier was none other than this very school.
Except, it was originally two people per room instead of one.
Well, if I wanted, I could verify this assumption immediately, but I simply didn't care at all.
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