Chapter 3

I sat in the living room reading a book while Sayaka was hanging up her laundry on the balcony.

It was a beautiful day. Summer was around the corner and the flowers were blooming. It was usually on days like these that I would daydream about what it might be like to have a cute girlfriend.

"Seiji?"

"Hmm?" I glanced at her. She was on the balcony, hanging up her clothes, with her back turned to me.

"You look like you want to go outside."

"How did you know?"

"The Seiji of this universe is almost identical to my Seiji. I can read your mind just by looking at your face."

"You can't even see me."

"Were you thinking about how nice it would be to go to the park with a cute girl?"

"Eh..."

"There's a cute JK right in front of you, you know?"

"Seriously, you should stop talking like that."

"Ehhh~"

"There's something I want to ask you."

“Hmm?"

This was something that had been bothering me the entire time.

"In your universe, how did you and I end up going out?"

"Hmm, that's a long story."

"I've got time."

Sayaka finished hanging up her laundry and came inside. She sat down besides me.

"I think it started around my first year of high school," she said. "I noticed you when you began to teach one of my classes, and I thought, 'he seems nice'."

"He seems nice?"

"That's what I thought. He seems nice. It's not like I fell in love with you right away, but I think that is where it started. And then...let's see...I think it was around the end of my first year when I went to your office to ask you if I could be in your homeroom class in the second year. I was soooo nervous at that time, I had to ask Ayumi for support."

I remember this conversation. At this point, our memories match up. I had to find the moment where our memories diverge. That will be the moment when the Seiji from her universe took a different path — a path that led that led to marriage.

Sayaka continued to tell her story.

"Then when the second year started, I felt sooooo happy. I wanted to cry when I saw the class list, you know? It was like, I couldn't believe it. Did God help make my wish come true? Or did my beloved Sato-sensei really arrange for me to be in his class?"

"Eh..."

I remember Sayaka requesting to be in my class, and when it came to finalizing the class lists, I just mentioned to the head teacher that I wanted to be in charge of students I wasn’t familiar with. I argued that it would broaden my experience as a teacher.

Incidentally Sayaka was among those students.

You could say I tried to fulfill her wish, but at the same time it was also a bit of a coincidence.

"To be honest," Sayaka said, "I really thought that you had responded to my feelings, and I started the second year thinking that you might also...you know..."

"Have feelings for you?"

"Mngh, yeah." She seemed embarrassed by this admission.

"Go on?"

"But you never looked at me when I tried making eye contact, and you never smiled at me. I noticed that you liked to eat lunch alone in your office, so I kept visiting you during lunch hours. I thought that with no one else around, you would open up to me, but you treated me like I was just another student!”

She puffed up her cheeks, and looked like she was upset.

"Oh...I'm sorry?"

Why was I apologizing? I mean she was complaining about a different version of me, which wasn't even me.

"After a month of not getting a response from you, I wanted to make sure that you didn't have a girlfriend. I mean at that time, that was the only explanation that made sense to me. There's that super cute JK visiting you every time you were alone, and you didn't respond at all! The only way that made sense was if you already had a girlfriend."

"Uhh...uhm..."

I'm not sure that made any sense. It’s normal to look at students as brats growing up. Of course there were stories of teachers and students falling in love, but honestly, outside of manga and light novels, these things were rare.

"Hmmm?" Sayaka looked at me, leaning close. She was way too close. I could smell the feminine scent coming off her. "Seiji you look like you have something to say."

"It's just..." I stammered, feeling intimidated by her gaze, "that usually it's impossible for a teacher to look at a high school girl as a woman."

"Gezz, I know!" She planted a kiss on my cheek. "That is why I had to become aggressive."

"Hey, why did you do that?"

"Heh-heh~ I just felt like it. Anyway, I wanted to make sure that you didn't have a girlfriend, so I came up with a plan. I decided to go to your office and act all casual, you know? Then once your guard had been lowered a little, I would innocently ask if you had any plans for the weekend, and after you admitted that you had no plans, I would tease you. I would then ask about your friends, maybe you tease you some more, and then naturally ask if you weren't going to spend your weekend with a girlfriend."

“Ah— " I remember this exchange. It was the last conversation I had with Sayaka before she disappeared for a week.

Which also meant that starting from this point, our timelines would diverge.

"When you said that you didn't have a girlfriend, I felt like my heart was going to jump out. I felt so happy, like I was so glad that you were single. It meant that even though you didn't see me as a woman, there was still a chance."

"And what happened after that?"

"Heh-heh~ After I found out that you didn't have a girlfriend, there was no reason to hold back. A lot of things happened, but I think there was one moment that stands out. Do you want me to just tell you about that?"

"Hmm, okay."

Sayaka glanced at the clock.

"Dear, it's almost lunch time and your fridge is empty. Can we go out to buy some ingredients so that I can cook something? It’s a bit late to cook lunch now, so how about we eat lunch out and I’ll cook dinner?”

"Hey, don’t just take the topic all of the sudden.”

“I can tell you the rest of the story while we eat lunch.”

"...fine."

Since Sayaka's uniform was still in the drier, she went out wearing the T-Shirt and sweatpants I gave her. They were too large for her, but I didn't have anything suitable for her.

Sayaka didn't seem to mind the baggy clothes.

"Heh-heh~ These are Seiji's clothes after all."

I reminded her to call me “Sato-sensei”.

She simply replied, "Yes-yes~", and then said, "If you don't want me to call you 'dear' or 'husband', then at least let me say your name. Although I can’t promise that I will stop calling you ‘dear’ or ‘husband’ right away because I am so used to it.”

Negotiating with a student wasn't something that was supposed to be done, but in this case I decided to settle on this compromise.

When we left the apartment, Sayaka reached for my hand like it was the most natural thing to do. She grabbed my hand, and for the first time in a long time, I felt the soft warmth of a girl's hand.

"Sayaka..."

"I know, I know! In this world we’re not lovers yet. But just for a bit, okay? Until we reach the convenience store at the corner, okay?"

Her pleading voice made it impossible to reject her.

"But only until the convenience store."

"Mhhh!"

We walked down the streets while holding hands. Or rather, she was holding my hand. Either way, if someone from school saw us, we'd be in trouble.

Sayaka didn't seem to be the least worried though. She hummed and walked with an easy smile on her face. I had to admit that without her uniform, on a normal Saturday morning like this, she almost didn't seem like a high school girl.

While walking through the neighborhood streets, I kept a lookout for anyone I might know. Luckily, it seemed like the entire neighborhood decided to sleep in.

We reached the convenience store.

"Alright," I said and looked at her.

"Hmm?"

"You said until we reached the convenience store."

"Ehhh~ Just a little longer, okay?"

"No, this far is enough. What if someone saw us?"

She pouted, but let go of my hand.

A little further down the road, and we reached the local AEON mall, which had a supermarket in the basement.

I pushed the cart while Sayaka walked out in front, picking up things and putting them in the cart.

Sayaka and I decided to buy some ready-made bentos at the grocery store, and then have them for lunch at the park.

"The weather is lovely; it'd be a shame to eat inside," Sayaka said, to which I wholeheartedly agreed.

I carried one big bag of groceries. Sayaka offered to help, but I said it was a man's job to carry the heavy stuff.

"You don't have to act like the big strong man in front of me, you know," Sayaka said.

"I still have my pride as a man."

"Hahaha," Sayaka crackled with laugher. "In that case, please carry the groceries, Mister Big Strong Man."

We arrived at the local park, and sat down on a bench near the playground.

"Itadakimsu!" Sayaka split her chopsticks.

"Itadakimasu." I did the same.

I had the curry katsu bento while she went for the fried shrimp bento.

When I graduated from university and started working, I ate almost nothing except cheap supermarket bentos. Since I was living alone, I just couldn't find the motivation to cook something or go out to eat something better.

Cheap bentos tasted like nothing. But now...somehow this cheap supermarket bento tasted differently.

"Delicious," Sayaka sounded.

"Mh-hmm," I agreed.

Was it because I was eating in the park? Or maybe because I was eating together with someone else?

We finished our meals and drank our bottled tea.

"Thanks for the meal," I muttered.

"Heh-heh~ Tasted good didn't it?"

"Yeah."

"Every meal with me next to you will taste good. That is a Sayaka guarantee."

"So...you promised me," I said. "Tell me the rest of the story."

Sayaka finished her tea, and put the bottle cap back on. A gentle breeze rustled the leaves in the trees above us. A few children cried as they chased each other across the playground. A little bird chirped somewhere.

“The incident that changed everything happened about four months after the second-year started, right around the summer holidays. I was really sad that I wouldn't get to see my beloved Sato-sensei for the entire summer, and there was no way for me to contact you since I failed to get your LINE ID. But then one night I was going to the convenience store, and I saw you sitting alone in the park. I didn't know what happened, but you looked like you were about to cry. You looked like you needed a hug, like you needed someone to just give you some love because your heart was going to break — that's what you looked like."

"Ah..."

"So I went over and asked if something was wrong. You looked at me, and you were all confused, like you were drowning in your own little dream and I had saved you by waking you up. You looked so broken, so I grabbed your head and pressed it against my chest. You resisted at first, but then I stroked your head and said that your Sayaka was here, and everything was going to be okay~"

"Heh..." I laughed slightly. To imagine that I would be reduced to that state. But I suppose all adults feel like that at one point or another.

"I managed to make you feel better, and you asked me not to tell anyone about this." Sayaka grinned mischievously. "I told you that if you wanted me to keep this incident a secret, then you'd have to give me your personal LINE ID. Not your school email, but your PERSONAL contact, heh-heh-heh~"

"And what did I do?"

"You resisted of course, but in the end you gave into my demand."

"That kind of thing..."

"And I used the power of LINE to slowly break apart the shell you show to your other students, until you finally saw me as someone who was not a student, but a friend, and then eventually a woman."

"Are you serious? That worked on me?!"

"Heh-heh~ Peace~" Sayaka made the victory sign.

To think that Sayaka had found a way to get me to look at her as a woman. I wonder how broken the me from this parallel universe was to end up being comforted by a student. But at the same time it made me think: what could possibly break me so badly?

Did something bad happen to me?

Or rather, right now it was May. Will something bad happen to me around summer?

But now that future Sayaka had entered my universe, it meant that the timelines had already diverged. Would my life be significantly different?

I was going to ask Sayaka to tell me about the moment when I agreed to go out with her, to become her lover, to commit to a forbidden student-teacher relationship, when something stopped me.

A person I recognized showed up at the playground.

Tanaka Ayumi.

Sayaka's friend. The girl who came with Sayaka when she asked to be in my class in the second year.

She had her shoulders turned to us, so I could only see the side of her face, but it was definitely her. She wore shorts and a blue sweater.

What the hell was she doing here?

I don't think she had noticed us yet.

"Sayaka, we need to get out of here."

"Ehh~ But the weather is so nice. Let's stay a little longer."

"Your friend, Tanaka-san is there."

"Tanaka?!"

"Not so loud!" I hissed.

Sayaka sprung up from the bench, and looked around.

"Ah! There she is! Ayumi — "

I grabbed her and pulled her down onto the bench.

"Shhhhh!!"

I was on top of her, with one hand on her shoulder.

"Seiji?" She looked at me with surprise, and in the next moment she blushed. "R-Right here? I'm not against it, but can we go to a love hotel? There is one nearby… We used to meet up there in secret to make lo— "

"Quiet!"

"Eh?"

"You idiot! Why are you calling out to Ayumi like that?!"

"Because she is my friend?"

"But what do you think will happen when Tanaka sees us together like this?"

"Hmm...you're right; that might be troublesome. But Ayumi already knows that I'm trying to seduce you, so..."

I sighed deeply.

“You are a Sayaka from a different universe; you are from the future. What do you think will happen when you talk to Tanaka's past self?"

"Uhm...I'm not sure?"

"Exactly. You've already messed with cosmic laws once. Do you want to meet your friend and risk changing her life?"

"Hmmm...you might be right."

I helped her get off the bench, and we left the park as quietly as we could. I don't think Tanaka saw us.

In the evening, I faced my greatest challenge yet: my apartment only had one bed.

"I'll sleep on the floor, you can sleep on the bed," I said.

"Ehhh? Aren't we going to sleep together on the same bed?"

“Don't be stupid."

"It's fine, isn't it? Married couples sleep together on the same bed, and even if you say there is a big age gap, you know that these days a lot of couples have an age gap of ten years or more. It's just a sign of the times."

She pulled out the marriage form. "Look, this makes everything legitimate."

"A sign of the times, you say."

"That's right~"

"No."

Sayaka let out a long sigh. ”Are you afraid that something will happen if we sleep together in the same bed?"

"That..."

"I am a youthful JK, you know? When a man and a cute high school girl sleep in the same bed, they will almost certainly do lewd things together, heh-heh~ That’s just reality."

"That gives me even more reason to sleep on the floor," I said.

“Ehhhhhh!"

"I will sleep on the floor, and you will sleep on the bed. That is my final word. If you try anything at night, I will kick you out, and the birds can eat you."

"You're so mean!!"

In the end, I slept on the floor while Sayaka slept on the bed.