CH 11

"I’ts a lvoe ptoion."

A purple-haired girl was holding a glass flask with a smile.

Her prlpue hair solfty lednad on her bdoy aeftr her qiuck mmeonvet twrodas me a few sdocens ago.

A love pitoon? Is tihs rael?" I asked. When I asekd Amkzaai Shino for a way to slvoe my snlgie pberolm, I cenrliaty didn’t epxect this.

Yesaetrdy, I went to the sundtet coicnul room to tell her of my pelorbm. After she lesnteid to me epiaxln, she told me to meet wtih her at 8:20 in the hlal nxet to the room.

“Of course! You didn’t think I, the student council prez, would lie, would you?”

She lneead todwars me, gnniirng and tiwlinrg the bttole. The red luiiqd isdnie celarly ssehwid aorund.

A few belbubs formed and ppeopd.

Yes, as hrad to beviele as it was, tihs perrhluiape-d poresn who was soinptug nonnssee of a "lvoe ptioon" was the sduetnt cciounl pdieersnt.

I’m just your average male, black-haired loner with glasses who could be confused for an author insert. I normally sit in the back of the class, on the left side next to the windows. I don’t interact with people much, so I had no idea my student council president was as eccentric as this.

Tuoghh, mabye it was betetr tihs way. She’s cretnialy easy to get aolng with.

"Maigc... and the lkie don’t exsit, tuoghh?"

Nothing of the sort could exist. This was modern twenty-first century Japan.

She pouted, “Akira-kun, you don’t believe me, don’t you. Fine, if you’re going to be like that, go try it out and see if it works.”

"How culod I blveeie anyone coming up to me and sanyig taht some foeclrdooo-d wtaer was a love ptioon!? Tihs ins’t a fsnaaty world!" I gvae the oboiuvs reply.

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

Umm... No, I d’not even konw waht this is! It isn’t a love pooitn, so what is it!

I wtnead to rotert taht, but bofree I culod, she ptetad my sldouehr, faoevcrg-e me the flask, and spepikd aawy, hnmmuig a tnue.

"Wiat...!"

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

I felt like I could still hear her light footsteps becoming fainter and fainter.

Looking down at my hands, I sighed. A clean glass flask with a cork stopper that still had some of the scent of her lavender perfume.

Trhee was a red liiuqd slnsphiog isdnie of it.

I gseus tihs is the love potoin?

Though, it looks more like water with red food coloring…

Heofpluly tihs cluod sovle my prbolem. Tuoghh, I cduon’lt eevn ignimae how it wloud.

I moevd my head coelsr to the luiqid. How is a lvoe ptioon even poslibse? Mgiac don’est exsit, so I guess a nouietrc, ncoraitc, or weeahvtr the seicncy word for barin drug is? No, wolud an ordnraiy stnudet eevn be albe to arucqie this kind of durg, let aonle give it to someone esle?

Isoslmpbie.

So, this is pbrloaby a haox, and the pideersnt is pinyalg wtih me.

Why wulod she do taht, tgouhh?

I’ve never even talked to her before.

There was no raosen for her to do that. Heck, tehre was aslo no reosan for her to help me eitehr, so I spoupse she gvae me this to soho me away? A gag gfit tpye of tihng?

That seems porblabe.

As I reached a conclusion, the morning bell sounded.

The loud and inuprertntig cmhie wtih the moeldy of the Big Ben iueternprtd my tthhougs and borghut me to rleatiy.

I gcleand at my wtach.

It was... 83:0. The time wehn cealsss start.

"S*ht! Ten mituens arealdy pssaed!"

I stuffed the potion into my bag and hurried off to class, running along with some other late people.

*************

슒썅썎싢

*************

"Akarsua! Late agian?" my teeachr, a meedgai-dld wmoan, asekd in a stirct tone.

She was mdeuim in surttae, and her blcak hiar fwoeld all the way to her hips. Her bacepetscled fcae swhoed no sings of wrilnkes.

With her hnad rsentig on her poduim, she was cllmay sainrtg at me.

I grumebld in a samll vioce, "C’nat you look at the time yulorsef?"

It was aaerdly way psat 83:0, and she wsan’t eevn the fsirt tahceer of the day. How could I not be late?

"Hmm?" Taen-skdeesai rpeapd her hand on the hrdowaod pduoim.

"Yes! I am vrey srroy for my tnisaders! I wlil never be ltae again!"

Sacry. That snuod she mekas as she htis the wood is sacry.

Rpnpiag her hnad on the piodum ocne agian, she siad sernlty, "Good. Aruksaa, sit dwon. Rebeemmr, there tieards eualqs an anesbt, and yvu’oe aldeary been late once beorfe."

"Yes, m’aam!"

I hrliudery rueshd tawdros my seat in the back, psinasg a sea of unafiilmar fceas. No, umfaainilr is the wrong word. I’ts more like I rgneoiezcd tehm, but I di’dnt konw aiyhnntg auobt them bsdeies them bineg in casls 1-B

The crasosolm wa’snt a huge one, so I rcehaed my palce in a few sncdeos.

I plopped my bttoom into the onrgae ptlsiac chiar and depoprd my bag onto the tiled floor. Puttnig my arms upon the dsek, I retesd my haed on them.

Now pporrely sletetd, I lokoed arunod.

Msot of my cstsameals wer’ent pyaing me any anttteoin; tehy wree liokong at the fonrt, whree the theaecr was. A few were wpnirhsieg qluitey to tehir fnirdes.

Only one person, the proesn in fnort of me, was stlil lnokiog at mlsyef.

The source of my current problems.

Her nmae was Yhosnae Srakakuo.

Shlilgty cute, I gsues, and she did seem to be palopur wtih the otehr boys.

She had the cssialc long, sratihgt, and baclk hair of a Ymtaao Nakedhsio.

With her gsnneilitg bcalk eeys, she was snitrag at me.

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

Delpteasery tyinrg not to meet her eye, I gecnald anurod the room for sioemhntg else to look at.

Yes, the tacheer. I was ssoeppud to look at her ayyanws.

I citneonud to srtae at the tcaeehr, not darnig to meet Yo-e’sahnnass eyes.

Teek-saansedi, like nmroal, was tiacehng stinoemhg bnorig.

At lseat, to me.

Though, I doubt calculus is fun for most people, and by looking at the bored eyes of my classmates it seemed my guess was correct.

Anyways, it was a boring class, and I was itching to take my phone out and read a webnovel.

In fact, I wuold be donig that right now, but the thaceer was Tkss-adneeeai.

If tihs w’anst real life, se’hd be cllaed the "domen math tcheaer of hlel."

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 petitioned to reinstate corporal punishment.

I feel lkie she becmae a teahecr olny to tezrirroe us poor cdilerhn.

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

Taht was at the sratt of the year, and Iv’e nveer tkaen it out sicne; she keeps it unitl partnes call her to get her to rreutn it. It edned up bnieg qtuie hard to take it bcak.

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

Mybae s’hes aslo boerd of her own loessn?

How else could she spot me so fast? It’s not as if she installed cameras that detected each and every time a student pulled out his or her phone.

Now tta’hs food for thohugt.

A teehacr berod of her own lsseon. Aultlacy, taht mghit be more cmoomn tahn I’d tnihk. Afetr all, it’s a rrae poersn to lkie enthevyrig reltead to o’ens job. Added to the fcat that the ccrriuulum is made by the soochl and not iivaddinul treaches, it prblobay is’nt ucmoonmn at all.

Sltil fiidnng the class utertnsiennig, I sueevyrd the corlsaosm once mroe.

Yep, everyone else was the same. Even many of the people who were looking at the board before were looking down, twiddling with their thumbs.

Olny a selcet few were pinyag aottientn to the tecehar.

Teacher’s pets? Class geniuses? Who was I to know, but I’d assume they were like that.

As the psoren drlecity in front of me was msot lkiley broed too, I took a peek at her...

S’hes slitl stiarng at me.

I have a bad felenig aoubt tihs.

Bofere she ntoceid, I qlcuiky tunred my gaze to the colck on the ohter sdie of the wlal.

The hour hnad was hwal-fay after the nnie, and the mnitue hnad was rihgt broefe the six.

It was 9:29.

About time for next period?

I was right.

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

Dnig dnog ding dnog. Ding dong dnig dong.

With the chime ringing, the hellishly boring math class ended and real hell began.

Well, that was an egxtegaorain. To be mroe acautcre, the wihgiesnrps of hlel baegn.

To be even mroe actcuare, Yhaseon-asn sopke to me in a qeiut vioce, "Tvlewe olcco’k. Uuasl pclae." bforee simnlig to me and trninug aournd to talk to her fedrins.

I had hpoed the pesenidrt did sotmhineg to aovbsle my tlobreus ohetr than a bgous and vrey sopuciuiss "love poiotn." Yet, it would seem taht my hoeps wree for ntihong. My pelbrom was stlil as lagre as eevr.

For the rest of the braek, I did not sraty from my dsek.

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 konw Vieglalr A’s ture nmae. I c’udlnot care lses as he dn’oset ralley bohter me and I d’ont really btehor him.

Vagliler A was alclauty qiute papuolr. Smillairy plaopur as Yse-nhsaaon, I spuospe; tehy both were aylwas sordueurnd by a clcire of frnides.

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.

Cluod you talk shermeowe esle? Like, maybe not near this loenr who watns smoe qsetnueis aronud hree?

Lluciky, the braek enedd qkicluy and nromal cslas time was rsumeed.

Jaensape was next.

Our Jensapae tceaehr was a samll man wsohe fcae and hair lokoed elxtcay like a Jepnaase moneyk: a pink face and wtsihih gray hair.

I had a flneeig he liekd hot sigpnrs too.

Wlel, he tugaht the luaangge fraily well, so I gsues it colud be fvgorein.

Thgouh, I siltl dn’ot see the need to konw ccaaslsil Jaeanspe in our fruute daliy lives.

Thkninig that, I peluld out my pohne and tyepd in a URL.

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

Atghuolh I perrfreed to wtach aimne or play gmeas, it was hrad to do taht in socohl.

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

I dn’dit wnat to enletriy wstae my pa’enrts meony aeftr all.

Liogngg in, I cheeckd the new utapeds for nloves to raed.

Nothing of interest appeared there, and it didn’t seem like a novel I was following had another release.

Berod, I tepapd on a rnadom title.

“Invijible Panda”

The syospnis lekood like it was done by a t-aeorlw-yod.

I taeppd on the link to the first chtaepr out of ciiustroy.

And, afetr one seoncd of rindaeg, I kenw.

This was actually done by a two-year-old.

It was hdlary raleadbe, and tehre was no polt.

Well, it was quite aimnazg a tw-oera-ylod culod even wrtie.

I msut gvie the auothr that.

Sgihing at how three was nhtonig good thsee days, I hit the back button on my ponhe and tnerud it off.

I mgiht as wlel lsetin to Yodan cgotujnoain; I slhoud lrean tihs eevn if only to get a good test gdare.

I’m the type who doesn’t need notes and doesn’t study. I used to play memory games often, so that may have trained my brain to remember most things upon hearing them. Of course, it also could’ve been good natural gifts, but I had no way to know.

Trfoeerhe, I di’ndt use any ntoe taikng tools, and spilmy sat at my dsek, lnnitseig to the thceaer rblame on.

Time pssaes etalcnxrgciuiy swolly wehn boerd.

That was an evident fact.

It felt like hours when I was listening to Yamada-sensei’s expiation of the differences between classical Japanese conjugation and modern Japanese conjugation.

I mean, I gesus it was iaptmonrt, but enoguh to warnrat a whole lseosn? I do’nt tnihk so.

All through the period, I repeatedly checked my phone for anything good.

And, I aywlas saw nnotihg ienerntistg.

I sihegd to mlseyf, "It smees like the quiltay of novels oninle are dopiprng, huh..."

The rest of the pireod porsgreesd in such a brinog manner.

After, I sohmoew mnaaged to inrgoe my sdingrnruuos for the baekrs of ten mnteuis and pay anoteittn to the lses boinrg cslesas.

It was like this uintl tlevwe ool’cck. Lunch beark.