Chapter 5

The next day, after work. Sayaka and I went to the local AEON mall, home to the Uniqlo closest to where I live.

"Pfffue...so this is what you meant."

"Why are you so disappointed?"

"I didn't think that we'd spend out first date at a Uniqlo..."

"I never said we were going on a date."

Sayaka pouted.

I sighed. She could still be childish at times like this.

"But after this we can do something fun."

"Really?" She brightened up.

"Yes." I handed her a 10,000 yen note. "You've got nothing but your uniform, so take this and go buy some indoor clothes and other things."

"Hmm...I don't really need other clothes."

"Isn't it uncomfortable to wear your uniform all the time?"

"But you like seeing me in my uniform, right? The Seiji from my universe did."

"Why do I get the feeling that the Seiji from your universe is a degenerate?”

"Ehhhh, that's not true. He was a true gentleman who never laid a hand on me until I got aggressive. It wasn't until after we did it several times that he revealed his uniform fetish to me."

“…”

"Can you say with one-hundred-percent certainty that you don't feel attracted to school uniforms? Don't you feel anything? Not even a tiny little bit?"

Sayaka did a little swirl, causing her skirt to fly up a little.

I had to admit that the uniform suited her, or maybe I just got used to seeing her in one. It was a truth universally acknowledged that every man liked uniforms, it was just that some were aware of it, and some were not.

"Heh-heh~ You know that high school girls hold a special status in society, right? And there is a super cute JK right in front of you."

"You little..."

Sayaka handed the money back to me. She crackled with laugher, and stepped into the Uniqlo.

"Don't worry about money~" she said. "God said that divine powers will make sure I always have money when I needed it."

"God gave you Japanese yen?"

"Not exactly. Just watch, and you will know what I mean."

I followed her into the Uniqlo.

Sayaka picked out a pair of blue sweatpants and a sweater, along with some casual T-Shirts, jeans and a set of pajamas.

After trying them on, she confidently strolled towards the cashier without a cent in her pocket.

"Let's put God to the test," I muttered.

I watched from a few steps away.

Sayaka put the clothes on the counter, and —

"Ah, look."

Sayaka bent down and picked up a 10,000 yen bill.

She turned to me and made the peace sign.

She paid with the money she found on the floor, then came back to me.

"Heh-heh~ Did you see that? Somebody must've dropped that while pulling something else out of their wallet."

I was speechless.

"Seiji? What's wrong?"

This world was so unfair. God was literally leaving money on the floor for this girl. Just how much did the heavens love her?

"Here," Sayaka handed me the change. "I don't have a wallet, so you keep it for me."

"Oh, sure..."

We walked around the mall, and Sayaka strolled into an accessory store to buy a shoulder bag and a wallet since she couldn't take her schoolbag across dimensions.

The entire time I glanced around, making sure that no one we knew was here. This was the type of store that was popular with students, and it was likely that students might come here after school to hang out.

"You go inside the store," I told her. "I'll stand guard outside and tell you if I see anyone who knows us."

"You're like a bodyguard," Sayaka commented.

"It would be bad if someone saw you."

"That's true, I guess.”

Sayaka went into the store.

It must be nice to be a carefree high school student. I still remember my days of youth; I spent most of my middle school and high school years playing video games with friends. After school we'd go to the convenience store for snacks, then stroll along the riverbank while talking about things that didn't matter.

Suddenly I felt a little envious of my students.

"Ehhh? Ayumi?!"

It was Sayaka's voice.

"Sayaka? What are you doing here? I haven't seen you in ages!"

It was Tanaka's voice.

My stomach sank.

I glanced into the store, and saw Tanaka putting her arms around Sayaka.

I quickly turned away.

Shit, shit, shit.

Meeting Tanaka here was the worst possible outcome, since Tanaka was already starting to become disaffected by cosmic dissonance.

Now that she has met future Sayaka, what would happen?

"Sayaka I missed you so much!"

"Ayumi..."

I wonder how Sayaka must feel seeing Ayumi like this. This was second-year Ayumi talking to a third-year Sayaka from a parallel universe. In a sense, Sayaka was talking to a past version of her friend.

With my back turned to the store, I listened to the girls talk about all sorts of things. Sayaka was smart enough to say that she came here alone, and did her best to reassure Tanaka that everything was okay.

"We should do some shopping together!" Tanaka said.

"Uhm...erm..."

“Are you busy?"

"Not really..."

Crap, this meant that they were going to leave this store.

I put my hands in my pockets and quietly walked away. Behind me, I could hear Sayaka and Tanaka leaving the store.

They hadn't seen me.

I had no idea how I would meet up with Sayaka later, but for now, this was the best possible move. Sayaka knew where I lived, so in the worst case, she could go home on her own.

Sayaka and Tanaka sounded like they were going to turn left. Naturally I turned right. With every step their voices faded. I let out a breath of relief.

Now what? Should I go home? Or maybe watch a movie? Come to think of it, it has been ages since I’ve watched a movie in the cinema. Once I started working, I became too busy to keep up with what is new. Even the music I like was from my student days.

Every day was all about work, with no time to think about anything else.

Thinking about this made me recall the university friends I haven’t met in ages. I should message Hiroshi-senpai sometime and ask him how he was doing.

“Seiji-sensei?"

Huh?

A familiar voice.

I turned around and saw Hina-sensei. She was still in her work clothes and carried a light blue handbag. It looked like she came here before going home.

"Seiji-sensei? What are you doing here?"

"Hina-sensei?"

I stood there, frozen. Why was everyone at the mall today? Was there some kind of special sale going on?

"You're here to do some shopping?" she asked.

"Uhm...err.."

Fortunately, Tanaka had taken Sayaka away. If Hina-sensei had seen me and Sayaka walking together, then this would’ve turned into a disaster; Hina-sensei's cosmic dissonance would've come undone, and I would have to explain why I'm walking around with a female student who had been missing for two weeks.

"Yeah, I'm doing a little shopping."

"Hmm? What are you looking for?"

"Oh...uhm...I was just thinking of going to the bookstore."

"Hahaha, that's so like you."

"Is it?"

"Mh-hmm, how about we go together?"

Honestly I just wanted to go home, but the way the conversation went, there was no polite way for me to reject her. I had no choice but to go to the bookstore with my colleague.

"Seiji-sensei," Hina-sensei said as we went up the escalator, "do you usually come here after work?"

"Not really. I usually just go home, eat something, do some work, and then sleep. What about you?"

"Hmm, I do the same. But today I just felt like coming here even though I’m tired from work. Sometimes you just feel stuck in a routine, you know? And I got kind of annoyed."

I understood what she meant. For the past two years, I was just traveling between home and work. Summer vacations were spent on more training and further education. There was no time for a break for working adults in Japanese society.

"Yeah, I feel the same," I said.

"I know, right? And I don't even have a boyfriend, so I spend my weekends doing nothing."

"I thought you had a boyfriend from university?"

"Hah? Where did you get that idea?! I never even had a boyfriend in university! I just spent the whole time studying. I went to a few mixers, but I just didn't know how to talk to people there. And before I realized it, I graduated and my youth was over."

It was hard to imagine someone as pretty as Hina-sensei without a boyfriend.

We arrived at the bookstore and began to browse. Neither of us found anything interesting right away, so we continued to chat.

"Then why don't you find yourself a boyfriend?" I asked.

"Why don't you find yourself a girlfriend?"

"Because I'm too busy with work."

"There's your answer."

We both sighed at the same time.

"You know, sometimes I've thought about quitting my job as a teacher," Hina-sensei said.

"Why?" I was curious.

"The economy is bad as it is, and no matter how much money I save, I will never have enough to buy an apartment and a car and live a good life. I'm just scraping by. So if I can never get anywhere in life like this, then why not just quit and do something else? I've got senpais from university who just said, 'screw it’ quit their office jobs and travelled to Thailand."

"Thailand?"

"Or was it Taiwan? I forget. Anywhere that isn’t Japan."

"Hmm, I think I've had a few classmates who did that as well."

"Right? Right? I think we should do that too!"

I smiled wryly. It would be a lie to say that I hadn't fantasized about doing something like this.

"But - " I said.

"But - " Hina-sensei said.

We both sighed.

The idea of quitting a stable job was scary.

We continued to browse the bookshelves without looking for anything in particular.

"Then do have a plan for getting unstuck?" I asked.

"I do!"

"And what might that be?"

"Marry a high ranking government employee or a successful businessman who works in a big company like M*stubishi or T*yota, then become a housewife. As long as Japan stands as a sovereign nation, I will never have to worry about money again!"

What a frank and realistic answer. Although many people would find this kind of answer despicable, it was true that this was the easiest way to escape the dumps of working life and join the elusive upper middle class that was now almost impossible to achieve through your own hard work in today's economy where all the money is concentrated at the top of society.

"Heh-heh~ Don't tell anyone I said that."

“Your deepest darkest wish is safe with me.”

"But honestly, I just want to meet a guy who is about my age, settle down and live a quiet life. I'm not really into guys who are much older than me. I've got university and high school friends who got married to guys fifteen years older than them. That's crazy, right?!"

"Twenty years is a bit much..."

Sayaka's words came to mind.

Just a sign of the times.

"You know, what I said about marrying someone rich and living as a housewife — that isn't my idea."

"It's not?"

Hina-sensei shook her head. "I heard some of the third-year female students saying this the other day."

What is happening to today's youth...

Compared to that, Sayaka was still a pure-hearted wholesome kid.

“To think that even high school brats are thinking about the state of today’s job market — something must’ve gone really wrong,” I said.

When I was in my third year, I began to study seriously for the first time in my life, and didn’t even think about wealth distribution in society.

"Seiji-sensei!"

Hina-sensei grabbed my hand. Her hand felt small and soft.

"Hina-sensei?!"

"Shhh!" she hissed.

She dragged me behind a bookshelf. What was going on?

"There!" she whispered.

"What?"

She pointed at a girl in a high school uniform. She had smooth shoulder length hair, wore a blazer, brown leather shoes, white socks, and her skirt was rolled up much too high. You could almost see her panties.

And she was holding hands with a man who looked much older than her. He wore a suit and tie and carried the bag that all salarymen carried.

I immediately knew what this was.

"Compensated dating," I said.

"Yes~"

I glanced at Hina-sensei. Her eyes were sparkling.

"This is the first time I've seen something like this in person," she said. "Let's follow them and see what happens."

"Isn't it our job as educators to stop something like this?"

"This is a third year kid," she said. "She is eighteen years-old, so we have little authority. It's a free country after all."

What a cold and realistic assessment.

"We should at least make sure that nothing dangerous happens to her."

"That's why I said we should follow them~"

Something in her voice told me she had other reasons for following them.

We followed the third year girl and her salaryman partner out of the bookstore and into a restaurant where they had dinner. Then they went into a store where she tried on some outfits, and he kept an open wallet.

This might have looked like a father-daughter relationship, if you ignored the fact that he liked to keep his hand on her bottom.

Seeing this made my blood boil. Scumbag adults like this earned a lot of money and used it to indulge in their high school girl fetish. It was one thing to go to the backstreets of Ueno and ask for a girl in a high school uniform, it was another if you went after a real high school girl.

Hina-sensei and I followed them without being noticed.

Eventually the girl and her partner left the mall. They walked down some quiet neighborhood streets until they arrived at an old rundown love hotel that was near the road. It was one of those local love hotels that couples used when they couldn’t get privacy at home.

We watched the girl and her partner enter.

"I don't think we can follow them in there," I said.

"Hmm...I guess that's true."

Hina-sensei and I looked up at the old rundown building. There were some cars parked in the garage that was provided on the ground floor of the love hotel. The garage had no lights so that people passing by couldn't see the license plate numbers. It was one of the many things love hotels did to preserve their guests' privacy.

"Heh-heh~ Wasn't that exciting?"

"Yeah, yeah."

"That really got my heart pounding."

"Yeah, yeah."

“Doing this really made me feel like a kid again. Ah…I can’t remember the last time I had this much fun. Actually, let’s exchange LINE IDs.”

“Why?” I never exchanged personal contact information with colleagues. It wasn’t because I was against it; it just never happened.

“So we can keep each other updated about this girl!”

“Ah yeah, that makes sense.”

I took out my phone, and we exchanged contacts.

Then Hina-sensei's expression grew dark. "But for a high school girl to do something like this..."

"It makes me wonder if we failed at our jobs."

She agreed with a small nod.

She looked up at the building at again.

"At least he didn't seem like a bad guy."

"Let's hope so."

Hina-sensei looked at her watch, and said that it was time for her to go home. Tomorrow we both had to go to work, and as teachers, we had to wake up earlier than regular corporate employees.

Hina-sensei and I went out separate ways. I walked away from the love hotel, but it wasn't long before I felt a pair of eyes on me.

Sayaka poked her head out from behind a concrete pole.

"Why were you walking along the love hotel street with another woman?"

Her eyes were on me, her voice dripping with jealousy.

"Sayaka? I thought you were with Tanaka."

"Answer the question."

I gulped. I felt the anger of a wife trained on me.

"That was Hina-sensei, and we aren't going out or anything like that."

"So you two were going to hook up for one night?"

"No! We saw a third year girl from our school holding hands with an older man, and we wondered if that was a case of compensated dating. We just wanted to make sure that she was safe, so we followed them here."

"Reallyyyy?"

"Yes, that is the truth."

Sayaka emerged from behind the pole. Her expression changed suddenly. The anger disappeared.

"Heh-heh~! I knew you would never cheat on me, Seiji. I just wanted to see how you would react if I got angry at you."

I let out a deep sigh. Suddenly I felt exhausted.

"Can you show me where they went?"

"Why?"

"Just show me."

"Fine."

I retraced my steps to the love hotel.

"Ohh! A lot of girls in my class talk about this place! But in my universe, the outside walls are blue and not pink."

"Huh...I guess not everything is the same between parallel universes."

"Say...Seiji..." She had her hands behind her back and looked at me with upturned eyes. "Since we're already here...you wanna...?"

She smiled gently.

I chopped her on the head.

"Ow, ow! It was a joke, sheshh!"

"Don't make jokes like that."

"It wasn't a joke. The offer still stands."

I chopped her on the head again.

"Ow, ow!"

I grabbed her hand and dragged her away from the love hotel. If someone saw me standing in front of a love hotel with a female student, I'd be in deep trouble.

Afterwards, we went home.