Affair And Love

“Both of you know each other?” asked Yuki-san.
“Actually, Takada-sensei and I teach at the same school,” answered Fujiwara-sensei.
“Really, Souma?” asked Yua-san.
“Yes.”
“What a coincidence! By the way, do you know about Chisa-chan’s fiancé?” Yuki-san asked me.

“She told me about it before. Wait—does that story earlier mean Fujiwara-sensei?” I was a bit shocked.
“Yes. I never thought you would be here too. I wanted to ask you this earlier. Are you Masamura Yua?” Fujiwara-sensei asked Yua-san.
“Yes, I am Masamura Yua, Yuki-neechan’s younger sister,” replied Yua-san.
“You have a sister, Yuki-san?” Fujiwara-sensei became even more confused.
“It’s not that I wanted to hide it; I just forgot to tell you. Sorry about that,” explained Yuki-san.
“Yuki-neechan, you’re cruel for not telling Fujiwara-sensei about me.”

“It’s okay. You can just call me Chisa,” said Fujiwara-sensei.
“Really? Then you can call me Yua. I heard from Yuki-neechan that you’re similar to me. Nice to meet you, Chisa,” Yua-san said as she held out her hand to shake Fujiwara-sensei’s.
“Nice to meet you too, Yua!” replied Fujiwara-sensei.

“I don’t know if I can be of any help, but could you tell me a bit about your situation, Fujiwara-sensei?”
I almost forgot the reason I came here.

“It feels strange to hear you call me Fujiwara-sensei here. Maybe you can drop the ‘sensei.’ We’re outside of school, right?” suggested Fujiwara-sensei.

“I’ll call you Fujiwara-san then. Is that okay?” I asked. She seemed a bit unsure.

“You really have no tact, Souma. You already call me and Yuki-neechan by our first names. Shouldn’t you do the same for Chisa?” Yua-san whispered softly into my ear.

“O-okay. I’ll call you Chisa-san. Are you really okay with that?” I asked, hoping she wouldn’t mind a colleague calling her by her first name.
“I’m okay!”
She looked a little happier than before.

“I don’t want to interrupt your newly formed friendship, but can we get back to the topic?” Yuki-san finally spoke up.

“Right, I almost forgot! The story is like this…”

From her story, I learned that her fiancé had proposed to her, and their wedding was scheduled for two weeks later. However, last week she saw him hugging another woman. What shocked her the most was seeing him kiss that woman. After that, she ran away. She wanted to ask him directly but had no evidence. That’s why she asked Yuki-san for advice. And that was how I ended up here, after Yua-san suggested asking my opinion. Thinking about it, I still didn’t understand why me. This situation had little to do with being a teacher; it was more about how a person should act.

“I think you should tell him, Chisa, so he can realize his mistake,” Yua-san suggested.
“But it’s a bit dangerous. We don’t really know what happened. I think we should investigate a little first.”
I wanted to be cautious since we didn’t know the full story.

“Hugging and kissing are enough to show he’s having an affair. What more do we need to investigate?” Yua-san asked.

“Maybe the woman is a family member. What Chisa saw might just be how he acts around his sister.”

“Do you always do that kind of thing with your sister too, Souma-san?”
Yuki-san started distancing herself from me and looked at me strangely.

“No! I mean—maybe it’s just their family dynamic. I can’t even imagine doing that with Mayu.”
“Right. Did you take a picture of them at that time?” asked Yuki-san.

“Unfortunately, it didn’t cross my mind. I couldn’t process what was happening in front of me.”

We all fell silent. Confronting him directly would be easy, but if it was just a misunderstanding, it could affect their relationship. Investigating would take time, and the wedding was just around the corner.

“Can you show me your fiancé’s picture, Chisa?” asked Yua-san.
“Here,” Chisa said, showing us a photo on her phone. He had a large build. His face looked familiar, but I couldn’t recall where I’d seen him.

“Are you dating Ishigami-sensei?” Yua-san looked surprised.
Right—that was Ishigami-sensei. A famous surgeon with many followers on social media. I hadn’t expected Chisa-san to be dating him.

“Is this true, Chisa-chan? This is my first time hearing about it,” said Yuki-san.

“Yes. We first met during the same volunteer campaign about three years ago. After that, we started seeing each other more often. One day he confessed and asked me to be his girlfriend. Our relationship continued until today,” explained Chisa.

“Now imagine what would happen if this really is an affair. It would cause chaos on social media, especially since he’s a famous figure,” said Yuki-san.

“That’s why I hesitated to ask him. I’m afraid to accept this as the truth.”
Chisa looked anxious.

“You shouldn’t hesitate, Chisa. This is about your happiness. Why should you care about others when he didn’t even protect your feelings first?” Yua-san said firmly.

“As an adult, I don’t want to interfere too much in someone else’s love life. I’ll leave the decision to you,” Yuki-san said calmly.

As a teacher and an adult, I agreed. We could only give opinions, not decide for her.

“I think I want to gather more evidence before confronting him, so I can prepare myself. You’re right, Yua. I should think more about my own happiness. Thank you, everyone.”

Chisa looked more confident. I hoped she would find the answer she needed.

“Sorry for troubling you by having you walk me home.”
“It’s fine. It’s dangerous to walk alone at night.”

Yua-san said she would stay over at Yuki-san’s place. Chisa’s house was in the same direction as mine, just three hundred meters farther.

“How about your sister? Don’t you need to go home for dinner?”
“Don’t worry. She said she’s having dinner with her friend.”
She messaged me ten minutes ago that she was eating with Kanzaki-san.

“Really? Then… would you like to have dinner with me tonight?”
“W-with you? What are you saying, Chisa-san?”
It felt like something out of a TV drama.

“I know it would be wrong to eat at my place. That’s why I’ll eat at yours.”
“Shouldn’t you think about this again? You’re getting married next month. Wouldn’t your fiancé be angry if he knew?”

“It’s okay. There’s something I haven’t mentioned yet.”
“What is it?”
“The woman he was with—she’s his ex-fiancée. A famous actress, Nakajima Kaya-san.”

Nakajima Kaya… They had dated for years before breaking up. Recently, there were rumors about her—

“C-Chisa?!”

That voice belonged to the man in the photo—standing with the very woman we were talking about.

Chisa froze again, facing what she least wanted to see.
“Kenji-san?!”