Shizuku Fukuda

“Takahashi-sensei, don't you think you're cutting things a little too close?”

The vice principal glared at him sternly over his thin-rimmed glasses, a wrinkled scowl plastered right across his face. Takahashi sighed as he gave him another remorseful nod of acknowledgement.

“We're very close to coming to a decision soon, sir, I swear.”

“The deadline for deciding what your class will do for next month's school festival is coming up in three days,” the vice principal continued dispassionately. “Any longer, and your students might not have enough time to set things up for their event.”

“Of course. I promise that I'll have the matter settled before it gets too late.”

“I should hope so. I know that it is only your first year teaching, but you really should have a better handle on your students.”

Takahashi bit his lip and simply bowed before leaving for his first class. The vice principal seemed to think that he was lax in reminding his students to consider what they'd be doing for the school festival, but in truth, he had been quite diligent in doing so. However, his students seemed to be completely uninterested in doing anything labor-intensive, and some had even suggested simply setting up a rest area for the festival. Takahashi didn't want to waste their school festival on something so lazy, so he continued delaying making the final decision as he continued to try to persuade them to do something different.

After all, you really only had three chances to enjoy a high school festival. It was an event where the students put in time and effort to create memories that they would remember for the rest of their lives. Putting together and making a great event for the school festival with your classmates was a fundamental part of your youth! At least, that's what Takahashi wanted to convey to his students.

Unfortunately, his students didn't seem to think the same way. Once again, Takahashi broached the subject of the school festival during homeroom, but they were no more interested than they were the day before. At the very least, no one was trying to suggest doing a rest area again, but that was merely the slightest of improvements. With no conclusion to the problem in sight, Takahashi concluded homeroom and decided to bring up the subject again at the end of the day.

Eventually lunchtime rolled around, and the students all went off on their own in order to eat lunch. Takahashi watched the throngs of students pass by him as he walked through the halls and sighed. He was still worried about the school festival, and he wasn't sure that his students would miraculously come up with an idea by themselves. He needed to come up with something, even if he had to do it all by himself.

For that, he needed to find a quiet place where he could think by himself. There were a few unused classrooms on the third floor. He decided to use one of those classrooms, and headed up there with his lunch. As he looked for a place where he wouldn't be disturbed, Takahashi suddenly heard the sound of someone speaking. Takahashi stepped forward and listened in for the voice again.

“O Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art thou, Romeo?”

Takahashi was surprised. It was a line from Romeo and Juliet, and it was being recited by a female student. A member of the drama club practicing a play? Takahashi continued to walk down the halls as the monologue continued.

“Deny thy father and refuse thy name, or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love...”

Takahashi continued to follow the sound of the monologue until he finally reached the room that the monologue was coming from. He glanced into the door's window and was surprised at what he saw.

It was one of his students, standing all alone in the middle of the classroom. He recalled by her thick-rimmed glasses and long black hair that her name was Shizuku Fukuda. It took a moment to remember her because while she was in his class, she was very quiet and never drew much attention to herself. Yet that Fukuda was now vibrantly performing one of Juliet's famous monologues as if it was the show of her life.

Takahashi found himself unable to tear himself away from the scene. She was wearing no costume, and she was only acting out Juliet's lines. But she had an impassioned expression that told him that she was engrossed in the act.

“...What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would not smell as sweet...”

He could not say that she was an extremely skilled actor, not that he really knew what truly exquisite acting was. However, he did know that she was enthralled by acting, so much so that she was doing a monologue in the middle of school.

Eventually, Fukuda finished her monologue, and she ended her role with a flourish of an imaginary dress. She let out a sigh of exhaustion and turned to grab her bottle of water on a nearby desk when she noticed Takahashi still watching her from the outside of the classroom.

“Eeeeek!”

Fukuda nearly tripped over herself in surprise, dropping her bottle of water and spilling it all over the floor in the process. Takahashi quickly emerged from his hiding spot behind the door and rushed over.

“Fukuda-san, are you all right?!”

“Y-Yes, I'm fine, but... my water...”

Takahashi quickly grabbed a mop from a nearby closet and quickly cleaned up the spill. Once that was done, however, he was now sitting in an empty classroom with a completely embarrassed Fukuda. He was having a hard time figuring out how to talk to her, and the awkward scene beforehand didn't help matters.

“...Did you see?”

Her voice was so quiet that Takahashi nearly missed it.

“I heard it, mostly. Didn't really see anything until halfway through.”

Fukuda's face turned red with embarrassment. She grabbed her things and rushed towards the door before Takahashi could say anything else. Before she left, she whirled around and glared at Takahashi with a slight blush. “P-Please don't tell anyone about today.”

“D-Don't worry about that,” Takahashi said assuringly. “I wouldn't do something like that to my students.”

Fukuda seemed doubtful, but she left without saying another word. Takahashi sighed and sat down to eat his lunch. He was a little surprised by what he had just seen. Fukuda had always seemed very intent on not leaving an impression, and everything from her hairstyle to her accessories seemed plain and uninteresting. It must have been mortifying to be seen doing something as attention-grabbing as acting.

Eventually, lunch ended, and Takahashi returned to teaching his classes. As he taught his students, he realized that there was still another problem that he had yet to deal with: the school festival. He'd planned to figure out a solution during lunch, but that didn't happen for obvious reasons. He wasn't blaming Fukuda, but their conversation did end up occupying his mind for quite a bit. Of course, he couldn't spare the time to think about what to do during classes either, meaning he was in the same situation he was in earlier this morning.

As he feared, the conversation at the end of the day hadn't changed a single bit. “Let's change our approach a bit,” Takahashi suggested desperately. “Name something you'd like to see at the school festival. Maybe we'll come up with a good idea that way.”

“Well, I'd like to see a haunted house,” one student brought up. “I don't really want to be in charge of one, though.”

“How about a maid cafe?” joked another student.

“Ugh. I am definitely not doing a maid cafe, so don't even try.”

Takahashi sighed. Even though they were now lobbing out actual ideas, motivation remained at an all-time low. He wondered if the students in the other classes felt this listless about the school festival. Don't students normally look forward to these things? He had no idea how to get them to take this whole thing seriously.

“Never mind,” Takahashi groaned as the bell rang. “Please think about what you want to do for the school festival tonight. We only have a few days until the deadline to decide! You don't want to be the only class stuck with nothing to show during the festival, right?”

The students picked up their things and began to leave the classroom. Takahashi straightened his tie with a heavy sigh and walked over to his desk to collect his teaching materials. As he did, he suddenly heard the sound of books clattering to the ground. He looked up to see the source of the commotion and noticed Fukuda bent over picking up her books off of the ground. Although she had dropped her books so obviously, the other students didn't bother to help her and simply passed by as she picked up her things by herself.

Takahashi didn't know Fukuda very well, but he did worry for her. It was pretty obvious that she didn't have any friends in class, and it didn't seem like she had friends outside of class either. But he felt it would be weird for him to reach out to her about it, especially if she did. He may be her homeroom teacher, but she didn't seem like the type of person to talk to her teachers if she was having problems.

Takahashi kept musing over this until he reached the teachers' room, so he decided to ask Ueda, whose desk was placed next to his. She was a fashionable young teacher who was only a couple years his senior, so he felt fairly comfortable asking her any questions he'd had about the job.

“Fukuda-san?” Ueda asked with a confused expression on her face. “No, I'm afraid I don't know too much about her. She seems to keep to herself, so I end up not noticing her very often.”

“I'm a little worried. She doesn't seem to have any friends, but I don't know if it's appropriate for me to speak to her about it.”

“There's no need to be so self-conscious,” Ueda replied with a smile. “I think it's good to take an interest in the well-being of your students. Still, don't forget about the school festival! Your class still hasn't decided what they want to do, right?”

Takahashi nodded sheepishly. Before he could really deal with anything else, he needed to get this school festival plan sorted out first.

*****

The next day was not any more fruitful than the last. Takahashi just could not get his students to even show a modicum of interest towards the school festival. At least if they were arguing about what to do, he could force a vote and end it at that. Maybe he could still force a vote, but there was the worrying possibility that the majority of them would respond with “nothing”.

As Takahashi continued to stress over the school festival, lunchtime rolled around again. His mind wandered towards Fukuda, and he wondered if she was somewhere in the school acting out another play. Probably not; she'd be too embarrassed from being seen yesterday to do it again so quickly.

Curiosity got the better of him anyhow, and Takahashi found himself roaming the halls once again. As expected, Fukuda wasn't in the classroom he saw her in last time. She didn't seem to be in any of the other classrooms either. Takahashi considered just giving up when he caught sight of her eating her lunch outside in the courtyard.

“Fukuda-san!” Takahashi called out as he approached her. Fukuda jolted up in response and immediately glared at him with a complicated expression on her face.

“Sensei,” she muttered glumly. “You didn't come here to try and catch me acting again, did you?”

“Not at all!” Takahashi answered nervously. “Is it alright if I eat lunch with you for a bit?”

Fukuda seemed wary, but she ultimately nodded. Takahashi sat down and unwrapped his yakisoba pan. He glanced at Fukuda, who seemed laser-focused on her book in the hopes that it would deter conversation. Takahashi decided not to tiptoe around the subject and broach it directly.

“I was surprised to see you acting out a play by yourself, Fukuda-san. Were you practicing for the drama club?”

“No. I'm not part of the drama club.”

“What a shame! I thought your acting was pretty good, you know? Better than me, at least.”

“That's not true.”

“It is! Do you want to pursue acting, Fukuda-san?”

“Absolutely not.”

Takahashi was slightly surprised by how definitive that reply was. Fukuda seemed like a rather demure person, but it seemed like she could be quite assertive when she wanted.

“Why not? You seem to like acting. Why not consider it as a career?”

“It's not a viable career path,” Fukuda answered dispassionately. “The road to becoming an actress in Japan is filled with roadblocks, and the chances of me finding success are astronomical. Even if I did manage to succeed as an actress, I'd have to deal with paparazzi and strangers on the internet being obsessed with my every move. My income would be unstable and a short lapse of popularity would be enough to end my career. Add to that the multitude of-”

“Okay, okay, I get it.” Takahashi interjected. “You're not interested in becoming an actress.”

He sighed as he took a bite of his yakisoba pan. Everything she said might have been correct and logical, but since when did kids have such a cold and mechanical approach to deciding their futures? Wasn't high school the time to have big dreams?

Fukuda sighed and took another sip from her water bottle. “Well, I do admit that when I was a child, I dreamed of being an actress. But I don't think that way anymore.”

“Is that so?” To Takahashi, Fukuda still had several years to go before she was done being a child. Was it so bad to have dreams like that even as a teenager?

Before he could ask, the bell rang, signaling the end of lunch. Fukuda picked up her things and got up to leave. “Excuse me, Takahashi-sensei, but I've got to get going to class.”

“Oh, of course.”

Fukuda stood up and walked off as she joined the crowd of students walking back to class. Takahashi sighed as he threw away his trash. There was something about the way Fukuda spoke to him that rubbed him the wrong way. Like she didn't really believe what she was saying.

Takahashi walked back into the main building to continue teaching classes. However, he found his mind wandering back to his conversation with Fukuda during lunch. He wondered just why she was so dead set on not pursuing acting even though she clearly liked it. Perhaps it wasn't any of his business, but it just seemed like a shame. It's rare to find something you're passionate about, and for Fukuda to give that up so easily just seemed wrong.

Soon, the day ended, and Takahashi found himself dealing once again with the problem of the school festival. He looked hopefully towards his class, but they hadn't seemed to come to any kind of decision over what they planned to do for the school festival. In the middle, he saw Fukuda studying a notebook and paying no attention to the conversations of the students around her. It looked like she wasn't all that interested in the school festival either.

Takahashi tried his best to garner ideas from the students, but ultimately they merely repeated the same ideas they had thought up yesterday. Takahashi let out a sigh of resignation. At this point, they were probably going to end up choosing something at random. It was still better than doing nothing, but it bothered him. He wanted them to do something that they would actually enjoy doing.

“Why not just come up with something yourself?” asked one student.

“Huh?” Takahashi asked.

“I mean, you're the only one who really cares about this whole school festival thing, right?” chimed in another student. “Shouldn't you suggest something too?”

“Well, the school festival is for you kids, right? I thought you guys might want to make the decision yourselves.”

“Yeah, but that's not happening. So shouldn't you just come up with something for us to do?”

Takahashi thought about it for a moment. To be fair, they weren't exactly wrong. If Takahashi decided for them, it would settle the issue right then and there. But would the students really be all that motivated to work for something they were just told to do? Still, it was them suggesting it in the first place, so maybe it'd be fine?

In the end, they couldn't come to a decision. Takahashi sighed as he quietly dreaded the scolding the vice principal was sure to give him. As he watched his students leave, he noticed Fukuda walking out of class by herself, not speaking to anyone or even offering a passing “see you later”. Maybe it was because it was too late for the school festival, but he found himself thinking about Fukuda's situation again. Even if she wanted him to leave it alone, he couldn't really bring himself to ignore her. It would be one thing if he knew she had people to talk to about it besides him, but...

Takahashi suddenly stood up out of his chair. Maybe it was inappropriate, but he really did have to have one more talk with Fukuda. There might not be a lot he could say to convince her, but he could tell that she wasn't really being completely open with him. And how could she? After all, he was a teacher that she had barely known for more than half a year. They had barely spoken before today. It might have even been the first time they'd had a face-to-face conversation!

Takahashi sprinted out of the room. Hopefully he could catch up to Fukuda before she left campus. It would be awkward to talk to her about this at her house, after all. He ran down the steps and spied Fukuda walking alone just outside the school gate.

“Fukuda-san! Fukuda-san, please wait!”

Fukuda turned around, as did the other students who were also heading home for the day. Takahashi smiled awkwardly as he jogged up to Fukuda, who seemed to be glaring daggers at him under her glasses.

“Sorry for the bother, but could you hold on for a bit? I'd like to speak with you about something.”

“Will it take long?” Fukuda asked glumly.

“...Honestly, I'm not sure,” Takahashi answered earnestly. “But I'll try not to take too much of your time, I promise!”

She seemed uncertain, but ultimately she gave him a nod. “Then, can we speak while walking? I don't want to get home too late.”

“Of course.”

Takahashi straightened his clothes out and followed after Fukuda as she walked across the street and into the nearby suburbs. Takahashi didn't know exactly where Fukuda lived, so he was surprised to learn that she lived so close to school.

“Can I assume you want to continue our talk at lunchtime?”

“Was it obvious? I guess there isn't much else I could be bringing up at a time like this.”

“Just so we're clear, I'm not remotely interested in pursuing acting as a career. I've put that completely behind me. You're not going to be able to change my mind on that.”

Takahashi gulped. He was learning a lot about Fukuda today. Not only was she actually quite assertive, but she was pretty stubborn as well. He started to think that the quiet, unassuming girl that Fukuda passed herself off as was more of an act rather than her true personality.

“Okay, so you aren't interested in an acting career. I think that's fine! But I also think that you should allow yourself to indulge your passion for acting more. Joining the drama club couldn't hurt, right? Or you could take a look at the amateur film club! I heard the movie they shot last year was really popular with the students!”

“No thank you,” Fukuda answered curtly. “I don't need that kind of consideration. Besides, club activities would cut into my studying time.”

Takahashi winced. True, Fukuda was a diligent student with high scores, so she did seem like the type that would actually say something like that. Still, even that felt like an excuse. He didn't know why, but Fukuda was still trying to avoid giving him a straight answer.

“You seem pretty dedicated to your studies,” Takahashi noted. “Is there a certain career path you had in mind?”

“Not really,” Fukuda answered. “I just want to get into college. I'll decide later.”

That was a strange answer. For someone who was so concerned with her study time, she had a pretty unstable plan for college. Usually, someone who was focused on their grades would at least have an idea of what career path they wanted to take, but Fukuda didn't even seem to know what college she wanted to go to.

“If you're not certain, then I can't imagine exploring your options would be a bad idea,” Takahashi suggested. “I know you think otherwise, but don't you think that it'd be worth a shot?”

“No thanks.” Fukuda's answer was short and sweet. “Like I said, I don't plan to pursue acting as a career.”

Takahashi sighed. She was immovable as a rock. He knew this was going to be a pretty hard task, but he wished she'd wait a bit longer than a millisecond to shut him down. Honestly, it seemed less like she had a concrete plan for her future and more like she was just refusing to consider acting as a possibility.

Before he knew it, however, the two of them had already come up to Fukuda's house. He looked up and was stunned by the rather lavish-looking house that clearly stood out amongst the normal suburban homes. So Fukuda-sama was a rich girl. Today was turning out to be quite enlightening.

“Is that all you wanted to ask about?” Fukuda asked, snapping Takahashi out of his awe. “If so, I'd like to go now...”

“Ah, I'm sorry,” Takahashi mumbled awkwardly. “Oh, should I greet your parents, since I'm here? Might seem a bit odd otherwise...”

“It's fine,” Fukuda replied glumly. “My parents aren't living with me right now anyway.”

“Oh! Sorry. Didn't mean to pry...”

“Don't worry about it.” Fukuda pushed open the gate leading to her house and locked it behind her before walking up the steps to her house. Takahashi cursed himself for his lack of preparation. In the end, he couldn't say anything of value to someone who was supposed to be his student. Someone who he was supposed to guide on their way through life. He knew that most people didn't have such a romantic view of teachers, but at the very least, he wanted to live up to that ideal.

“Fukuda-san!” Takahashi shouted, surprising her as she pushed open the door to her house. “After all, I don't think it's right for you to suppress your desire to act like this!”

“I'm not trying to suppress anything,” Fukuda countered with a surprisingly irritated tone. “What do you know about me anyway? We've never spoken until today.”

“I understand I might be intruding, but I could tell! When you were doing that monologue in that classroom alone, you did it with such passion! No one with only a passing interest in acting could have done something like that!”

“Don't be ridiculous! Any respectable actor could perform far better than I could have!”

“It's not about skill!” Takahashi slammed his hands on the gate. “It's about the look on your face! It doesn't matter what excuse you give me, I just know you love acting!”

Fukuda fell silent and didn't respond. As the lull in their conversation continued, Takahashi began to feel a bit self-conscious about what just happened. He'd been shouting in the middle of a rather quiet suburb. As he swiveled back and forth looking to see if anyone had been bothered by the ruckus, Fukuda finally spoke up.

“So what?”

“Eh?” Takahashi turned back to look at Fukuda. Her head was down and her hands were clutching the ends of her skirt. She was clearly angry. Takahashi realized that he may have gone a bit too far.

“So what if I like it?!” she shouted out in anger. “In the end, it's still impossible for me to stand up on a stage and act like... like I'm some kind of star!”

“Why not?” Takahashi asked. “Why do you think it's impossible for you?”

“Because I'd be laughed at! No one wants to see a plain-looking girl like me on the stage, acting like I'm some kind of heroine!”

“That's not true! If people could see you act, there's not a person in the world who would laugh at you!”

“Don't lie,” Fukuda muttered with her lip trembling. “I know how other people see me.”

Takahashi gritted his teeth and leapt over the gate. He walked over to Fukuda, who was desperately trying to wipe the tears from her eyes.

“Do you have a makeup kit at home?”

“Huh?” Fukuda was understandably confused.

“A makeup kit. Your mother's will do!”

“Uh, she might have an old one somewhere, but...”

“Let's get it!”

Takahashi nearly dragged Fukuda into the house. Perhaps he was being a bit overbearing, but he finally understood. What was holding Fukuda from following her heart and jumping into acting was her own lack of self-esteem. That sort of thing wasn't going to be something that could be so easily fixed in just one day, but at the very least he was going to give her a bit of a push.

Fukuda went upstairs to retrieve her mother's makeup kit while Takahashi waited downstairs. Her home seemed rather normal for a suburban family's house, but it felt like it was not very lived in. Fukuda mentioned that she lived alone; that might have had something to do with it.

Once Fukuda returned, Takahashi quickly set up a mirror and opened up the box of supplies. It was a fairly standard kit, but that was really all he needed.

“Um, Takahashi-sensei, do you know how to apply makeup?”

“A little bit. While I was studying abroad, I learned how to do some while working at a boutique.”

“Really? What were you studying abroad for?”

Takahashi gingerly removed her glasses, forcing Fukuda to look in the mirror at her bare face. She looked down as if to avoid her gaze, but Takahashi gently lifted her face while he got to work.

“You know, I spent a lot of time in my youth not sure of what I was going to do with my life,” Takahashi remarked as he gently applied foundation to her face. “I was kind of just drifting through high school, and then in college I just had no direction whatsoever. But then I went around the world, and I met a lot of people with dreams so vibrant that it seemed like they were shining themselves. I wanted to become a teacher because I wanted to help students like you dream like they did.”

Takahashi grabbed a comb and brushed Fukuda's bangs out of her face. “I get that you genuinely may not want to pursue a future where you act for a living. But even if that's the case, I'd like to see you indulge in what you love while you're still young. You won't get too many chances once you're older, you know?”

His work done, Takahashi angled the mirror towards Fukuda again, allowing her to take a look at her new appearance. “They say makeup does wonders to build confidence. I'm an amateur at best, but I think I did alright, yeah?”

Fukuda's transformation was not as dramatic as a proper makeup artist or stylist would have been able to achieve. Nevertheless, she felt as if she was looking at a completely different person in the mirror. It was more than just makeup; Takahashi had also styled her hair lightly and pulled it into two low ponytails, framing her face flatteringly.

“I didn't know makeup was this effective,” she said quietly.

“It can't all be makeup,” Takahashi said encouragingly. “I think you underrate yourself a bit too much.”

Fukuda stared at herself in the mirror for a second. The silence was deafening, and Takahashi was starting to worry that he had messed up when Fukuda suddenly spoke.

“Is it really okay for me to act?”

“Of course!” Takahashi answered quickly. “I guarantee it.”

Fukuda fell silent again. “Then maybe I will give it a try.”

“You have nothing to lose! I guarantee you'll stun everyone.”

“Maybe. Though I won't have an opportunity to actually do so anytime soon.”

“That... is a problem.” Takahashi scratched his chin thoughtfully. “Or maybe not.”

“Maybe not?”

“Well... they did tell me to think of something myself, didn't they?”

*****

“A play?”

As Takahashi had expected, there was quite a lot of pushback from the students when he announced what he had planned.

“You're the ones who wanted me to come up with something, right? So let's do a play.”

“But a play takes so much effort!” whined another student. “And it'll be so embarrassing if we mess up.”

“Don't be so pessimistic,” Takahashi argued. “We'll have plenty of time to do rehearsals, and besides, it'll be fun!”

“I don't really care,” remarked one student. “As long as we can finally decide on something already.”

“Yeah, a play is way better. We'd only have to put it on for like, one or two times throughout the festival, right?”

“I didn't think about that!”

Surprisingly, some of the students already seemed pretty receptive to the play idea. The other students continued to clamor with complaints when a voice suddenly cut through the noise.

“I'd like to do a play.”

The students turned to look at Fukuda, who was the one who had spoken. It was a total surprise, especially since Fukuda had yet to even chime in on these conversations once.

“It'll be a lot of fun... I think.”

It was only a small statement that none of the students really gave much thought to. However, it put a small smile on Takahashi's face.

“Alright, we're doing a play and that's final! I don't want to hear any complaints after you couldn't figure out what to do on your own!”

Some of the students still complained, but Takahashi didn't care. He felt like it was enough that Fukuda was starting to take an interest, and most of the students seemed to have come around to the idea already. As he inwardly celebrated his success, a question from one of the students brought him back to reality.

“So, what kind of story are we doing for the play?”