Chapter 7

Tanaka Ayumi seemed fine the next day. In fact, during the entire week, nothing significant happened at work.

Actually there was one thing. Hina-sensei messaged me over LINE and invited me eat lunch together. I thought of how Sayaka said that in her universe, Hina-sensei had feelings for me.

I ate lunch with my colleague feeling self-conscious, but it turned out that Hina-sensei just wanted to discuss the compensated dating incident with me.

Hina-sensei had managed to identify the third year girl, and wanted my advice on what do.

I told her that it was better for us to do nothing — for now. If the girl wasn't from a broken home, had a healthy circle of friends, and still chose to sell herself to middle aged salarymen, then it was her own choice.

Demand and supply. The laws of the free market.

It was a cruel world out there.

As an educator I felt that I should do something about this, but for now, I advised Hina-sensei, it was better for us to keep a close eye on this girl and take action when needed.

Hina-sensei agreed.

The week passed, and life continued to flow uninterrupted until I got message from an old friend on Friday evening.

It was a message from Hiroshi-senpai. He was a senpai from university, and even though he was three years older than me, we had become close friends.

When I met him at university, he was quite the womanizer. But he was a nice womanizer.

Allow me to explain what I mean by that.

He was the type of guy who would always be dating two or three girls at the same time. He told me did that because he just liked all the girls, but didn't want to be tied down to a specific girl.

He treated all of his girlfriends well. He never showed up late to a date and always used protection in bed. He never forgot anyone's birthday, and he'd be up all night messaging his different girlfriends.

Hiroshi-senpai was a womanizer, but he was a nice guy in his own way.

Normally I'd feel too tired to meet friends on a weekend, but ever since Sayaka appeared in my life, I felt less lethargic.

I agreed to meet him on Saturday evening.

"Will you be alright on your own?" I asked Sayaka on Saturday morning.

We were sitting at the kitchen table, eating breakfast.

“Mmhhh, I'll be fine."

"There's money in entrance drawer cabinet, and wear a face mask if you need to go out so that no one can recognize you. Use the phone in the apartment to call me if there is anything — "

"Gezz, you're acting like you're my parent."

"Well..."

"I'm a married woman, okay? I'll be fine. A married woman needs to let her husband go out and play, or else he will suffer from a lack of libido."

"I've never heard of that."

"You are not a married woman."

"I guess that makes sense."

"Just don't go to hostess bars or cabarets, okay? I consider that cheating."

"I never go to those places."

Sayaka crackled with laughter, and her shoulders shook slightly.

"If you want to, you can go hang out with Tanaka," I said.

"Eh? I thought you said I should avoid contact with people whom I knew in this world."

"Tanaka has already seen you. It wouldn't make much of a difference now."

"Hmm...I'll think about it."

Sayaka cleared the plates from the table and carried them to the kitchen.

Today she wore a light blue sweatshirt and sweatpants. Seeing her in casual clothes made me feel more at ease around her. Honestly being around a high school girl in her uniform at home made me feel a strong sense of immorality, even though we hadn't done anything.

"That color suits you," I said.

"Eh?" Sayaka turned head and looked at me from her kitchen. "You mean what I'm wearing right now?"

"Yeah, the color suits you."

"The other Seiji also liked it when I wear light blue."

“Huh…”

Whenever she mentioned the other Seiji, it made me wonder what kind of person I was in another universe. Based on what she has revealed so far, I could paint a vague picture, and it wasn't pretty. I mean how broken would I have to be in order to fall in love with a high school brat?

It would be interesting to meet this other Seiji. But then again, the thought of meeting my self from another universe was kind of weird.

That evening, I took the train into the city. Hiroshi-senpai and I decided to meet up at the station closest to Waseda University for old time's sake.

When I saw him at the station, I immediately noticed that Hiroshi-senpai had aged. He looked less like a handsome recent graduate and more like a handsome middle aged guy. Either way, still handsome. He kind of looked like a younger Takeshi Kaneshiro.

"I know we can both afford to eat something better," Hiroshi-senpai said, "but how about we go to the university canteen, for old time's sake."

This surprised me. When we first met after graduation, he got a high paying corporate position through the connections he made at university, and insisted that we dine out somewhere expensive. Every time we met after that, he showed me to new places he discovered while working.

This was the first time he wanted to go back to eating the junk we had as students.

We left the station and made our way to the campus. Nothing had changed. Everything was still the same as before.

"Everything is still the same," I said.

"M-hmm, that's true. Maybe it's better that way."

"What happened to your motto? That thing that Winston Churchill said: 'To improve is to change, to be perfect is to change often.'"

"Ah..." he smiled wryly. "Well, I think that is still true," he said and paused. He looked around at the lecture buildings, the trees, the students walking past us. "But it's good when some things stay the same."

Suddenly I got the feeling that Hiroshi-senpai called me out today for an important reason.

Which suited me just fine; there was something I needed to confide in him too.

We went to the university canteen, ordered the same meals we had here five years ago, and sat at a table in the corner. The ladies working here were still the same, the chairs and tables were the same, even the flavor hadn't changed.

I ordered katsudon. Hiroshi-senpai had ramen.

“Still tastes like shit," Hiroshi-senpai remarked.

"Yeah," I agreed.

The taste hadn’t changed. It tasted like the past.

After we finished, Hiroshi-senpai clapped his hands together.

"There is something I need to tell you."

I was still eating the last bite of my katsudon.

"I am getting married."

I dropped my chopsticks.

"You're getting married?!"

Hiroshi-senpai was taken aback by my response.

"Why are you so surprised? I am thirty years-old, you know? It's about time for me to get hitched."

"Yeah, it's just that...I never imagined that you'd be able to settle for one woman. During university you kept dating several girls at the same time."

"And you were my only real friend," Hiroshi-senpai said. "Even though you knew about my habits. That's why I'm telling you first."

"I'm honored, I guess?"

I laughed, he did too.

"Who are you marrying?"

"A girl I met.”

“Yeah…no shit.”

"She is twenty years-old."

"W-Wait..."

I did the maths in my head.

"She is ten years younger than you?!"

"Yeah... Actually about how I met her, you have to promise me to keep it a secret, okay?"

"I promise."

"Three years ago I decided to visit a…well, erm…I decided to visit a soapland. And when I was there, I picked out this girl who looked like this girl I had a crush on when I was in high school.”

“Right…I never thought you would be the type to go to a soapland since you always had girls around in university.”

“That’s true, but…I guess working life is different from university, you know? It doesn’t matter how good looking you are; at the end of the day you are too tired. You know that feeling right?”

“Yeah…”

“So I felt lonely and I decided to go to a soapland, and on the selection menu I saw this girl who looked almost exactly like my first crush from high school.”

"Oh dear..."

“Don’t give me that look! Just hear me out.”

"Okay, then what happened?"

“In the end I chickened out and we didn’t do it. Instead we just spent an hour talking about random stuff. She was really kind, you know? And later I was really glad that I didn’t do anything because it would’ve been a crime.”

“You mean because soaplands are kind of illegal?”

“No, erm…well, there were some circumstances, and she and I somehow met up outside the soapland. It turns out that she is underage and was actually a real high school girl.”

“Oh man…”

“Yeah…I dodged that bullet. She was on bad terms with her guardians, so in the end she ended up staying at my place at night while going to school during the day. That went on for three years until..well…you can imagine.”

Neither of us immediately said anything after he finished.

This story was dripping with immorality, and at the same time there was something wholesome about it. It’s something out of a light novel, but it also aligned with reality. There were lots of runaway high schoolers who had problems with their families in Japan.

Actually, that made me think. I was twenty-seven, the same age Hiroshi-senpai was when he met his fiancé. And his fiancé was seventeen when they met, the same age Sayaka was right now.

And they were getting married.

"I guess that's why I felt you changed the moment I saw you," I said.

"Really? I look different?"

"Not on the surface, but the air around you has changed."

He smiled slightly. "I guess I've finally grown up."

"Actually, there is something I need to tell you."

"Go on?"

"Remember how only I knew you were cheating on all of your girlfriends all the time, and I kept it a secret from those girls, and you said you owed me a favor?"

"I remember that."

"I'm calling in that favor. What I'm about to tell you, you absolutely cannot tell anyone else."

"Okay."

I told Hiroshi-senpai about what happened with Sayaka. I skipped the parts where Sayaka turned into a piece of bread and came from a parallel universe with a signed marriage form in her pocket, and instead told him that one of my female students confessed her love to me, ran away from home, and is currently living with me.

Hiroshi-senpai's jaw dropped when he heard that.

"I-Is this a crime?" he asked.

“I don’t want to hear that from you! And besides, we haven't done anything! She's just staying at my place. But I don't know what to do. Right now she cooks breakfast, lunch and dinner for me, and says that she wants to be my wife. At the very least she seems happy."

"You will lose your job and go to prison if anyone finds out."

"I know. That's why you can't tell anyone."

"Your secret is safe with me. What do you plan to do about this?"

"I don't know… That's why I'm telling you about this."

"Hmm..." He folded his arms. "First tell me, have you fallen for her?"

“Of course not.”

"You have to remember that at the age of seventeen, high school students are just children. In the next three years, they will grow up a lot and turn into adults — especially the girls. Somewhere in those three years, girls will turn from brats into proper adult women, both in mind and body. There is a huge difference between seventeen and twenty. I know that because I went through that in the past three years.”

"I suppose so." I couldn't tell him that the me in a parallel universe married this so-called brat.

"You have to be very careful with this. It's dangerous for both of you, especially you. Things can't stay like this forever, because she will need to go out into the world and grow up."

Hiroshi-senpai paused.

"Although I've also heard stories of high school girls who turn eighteen, take off their uniform, tie their hair back, put on regular clothes, and become housewives. Like the moment they turn eighteen, their mindset suddenly changes, and they turn into adult women ready to take on marriage."

"Women can be mysterious."

"Yeah."

Neither of us said anything for a while.

“What you said makes me think,” I murmured. “What is an adult anyway?”

“My boss asked me what during my initial job interview.”

“Oh? And what did you say?”

“I just gave him the tradition answer. An adult is someone who can contribute to society, work hard and have others rely on him.”

“That does sound very traditional. I assume you have a different answer now?”

“I think an adult is someone who can endure the loneliness that is part of living in society. You have to leave your youth behind and take on the harshness of life. And if you can survive that, you can call yourself an adult. But nobody can stay alone forever, so you need to find someone to share your heart with.”

Sayaka was seventeen right now. She was at the age when she was at the end of youth and had to step into adulthood.

“Huh…it sounds like you’ve put a lot of thought into that.”

“Of course.”

Another lengthy pause. Then Hiroshi-senpai spoke up.

"I've never met this girl, so I can't judge her. But my advice to you is to be careful with your feelings. Don't fall for her because she is your student. And don't let anyone find out about this."

"You're right."

We left the canteen, walked around campus for a little bit. While walking around, we saw a couple of university students walking around in suits and pencil skirts. They looked like children going to their first job interview.

Hiroshi-senpai pointed at them.

“I was just like them at one point. I couldn’t wait to finish university and go out into the world and become a white collar worker.”

“I guess I was like that too.”

“Most people like that think they are doing something important. Actually a lot white collar workers like to think that they are important. But most don’t realize that they don’t make any difference. Those who throw themselves into work and think that they are so important and appreciated are stupid. Sure, it feels good to be praised by a boss, but in the end it doesn’t mean anything. The company doesn’t need you. You like to think that they do, but it’s all meaningless. Even if you don’t go to work, everyone will be fine.”

I glanced at Hiroshi-senpai. He wore a rueful expression.

“I realized when you enter a large company and become a cog in the machine. But I’m really glad that I met this girl at this soapland. I realized that as long as there is someone waiting for you at home, that person is what gives work meaning. Just working hard for the sake of the company is meaningless. The company doesn’t care about you, and it can function without you. But that person at home waiting for you, that person is the one you fight for.”

I said nothing in response. I understood that feeling. I thought of Sayaka.

Eventually we ended up back at the station.

Hiroshi-senpai said he'd contact me when the wedding date had been decided, and then we went our separate ways.

I took the local train out of Tokyo, and soon arrived at my little town. From the station I walked home, opened the door, and found Sayaka in the living room, watching TV.

"I'm home," I said.

"Welcome home~"

She got up, came to me, and gave me a hug. I felt her soft body against mine. A gentle scent travelled up my nose. It seemed like she had just taken a bath.

"Hey, why are you hugging me?"

"Hmm? You just looked a little down. So I thought I might cheer you up."

"Stop it, this feels weird. Your chest..."

"I'm not wearing a bra."

"You - !"

Sayaka burst out with laugher, and let go.

After she calmed down, she asked, "How was your meeting? Did you go to any establishments of ill repute?"

"We just walked around Waseda Universty, had dinner there, then went home."

"Waseda University, huh? I never went to university in the universe I came from."

"Why not?"

"Because I married you! You said, 'Sayaka, I want wake up every morning seeing your smile.'"

"Did I really say that? It sounds like some line out of a shoujo manga."

"M-hmm! You were head over heels in love with me."

Sayaka put her arms on her hips and puffed out her chest with pride.

"I still think you should go to university," I said. "It's an important part of growing up."

"Ehh~ Going to university isn't that important, you know? Ayumi isn't going."

"Is that so?”

“She’s planning on joining the Japanese national swim team. In my universe she has already qualified.”

“But only a few geniuses can make it that far.”

“Hmm, I guess you’re right. But it’s useless to worry so much about something in the future, right? Stop worrying about me, and go take a bath. I kept it hot because I thought you might come home at this time.”

I went to take a bath. While I was soaking in the tub, I thought about what Sayaka said.

Not going to university, huh...

I guess in her universe, future Sayaka didn’t go to university. Actually a lot of kids these days don’t go to university because their families can’t afford it. Instead they start work immediately after graduating high school.

What path would the Sayaka in this universe choose?

But right now the timeline of the this Sayaka is suspended due to cosmic dissonance.

In the first place the Sayaka in my apartment didn't belong in this universe. This time line wasn't supposed to exist. How long would things stay like this?