Chapter 18:

Love Pass

Level Up at Love School

***

When I regained consciousness, I reawakened in a dimly lit room, reclining on a plush chair.

“Ouch…” I winced, placing a hand over my chest. The sensation of a burning pain nagged at me. It must be a side effect of months without any physical activity.

The room resembled one of the Love School's classrooms. Approximately thirty other people were still sleeping around me.

“Laska!” My gaze fell upon a familiar face nearby. “She’s asleep. Does it mean she’s still in Romancia? But that would mean she’s okay! What happened to the Brain Eater if it didn’t devour her EPs? Did she somehow defeat it?”

Countless questions swirled in my mind, but there was no one to answer them.

Despite not understanding how the connection or transfer of our minds was handled, I could feel that waking up Laska would be a bad thing.

Did I call her Laska again? She’s Sakura… Right now, she’s my precious Sakura. But the name didn’t matter. What mattered the most was that at least she was still at school, fighting for graduation.

“Graduation, eh?”

A surge of regret washed over me. I should've been more cautious. Now, I'd have to wait another year to reapply for Love School.

I’m such a useless idiot…

Our relationship… won’t be able to continue for a whole year just because I was so weak.

However, dwelling on past mistakes wouldn’t change anything. I gently brushed Sakura's face with my fingers and whispered in her ear, "I wish you the best of luck with your final exam, my love."

I decided to leave the classroom in search of teachers or staff members to retrieve my belongings. It was the middle of the night, and the corridors were deserted and shrouded in darkness.

At the end of one hallway, a faint light spilled from under a door. It seemed to be where the staff were congregated.

As I walked closer, murmured voices reached my ears. A meeting at this hour? I intended to knock but the conversation piqued my interest.

“I don’t care!!” an unfamiliar man's voice bellowed, “It’s your responsibility! It affects all the other facilities!”

“But sir, we don’t have enough power as we are now,” another voice, more composed, replied.

Svet-sensei? I'd recognize that soothing, cool voice anywhere. But who was he arguing with?

“I don’t want to hear any excuses. We don’t have time to develop another game, it would take about three years. So think of something or you lose the job.”

Summoning my courage, I knocked on the door. The rapid footsteps approaching the door indicated someone's arrival.

“Oh, Kiss! Oops, sorry, it’s Ren here, right? Hehe.”

Before me stood a man around thirty years old, his blond hair tied in a man bun, with striking green eyes and piercings adorning his left eyebrow. When he opened his mouth to speak, I spotted another piercing in his mouth. A small tattoo on the right side of his forehead read ‘love’.

“Uhm, excuse me sir, are you here alone?” I stared at him in awe. He was a male but even I could say how handsome and charismatic he was. When I looked behind him to scan the room, it was empty.

“I thought,” I continued, “that I heard somebody I know. But- … Wait! That sexy voice! It’s you!!”

“’Sexy’?” He wondered if he heard right but the laughter that resonated through the room made it clear.

This was…

“Svet-sensei!”

“Yeah, why are you so surprised?”

“Your bag…!” I pointed a finger at his head.

“Hmmm? … DAMN! I forgot to put it on before answering the door!” He quickly retrieved a peculiar bag he had been wearing and placed it back over his head.

“Why are you even wearing that thing?”

"Well, the government has strict rules about teachers' appearances at this school. With my tattoo and piercings, they wouldn't have let me teach. But I wanted this job so badly that I came up with the idea that all the teachers should wear these bags on our heads! You can guess how that went."

“Was that somebody from the government you were talking to?”

Svet-sensei fell silent, a serious aura enveloping him. “So you heard that?”

“Just some bits…”

“Oh well, it can’t be helped… Anyways. I’m very sorry you didn’t complete the school, dude. That sucks.”

“Yeah… I just wanted to retrieve my phone and go home for now.”

“I’ll get it for you… And also, I’ll need you to sign some papers.”

***

I got home around midnight. One would think that sleeping for months like that would leave your body fully rested, but I was feeling exhausted. So I fell to my bed and went through some photos I had in my phone of me and Sakura from our dates. The burning pain made me touch my chest again before falling asleep.

On the following morning, it took me a while to process that I was finally home again. My parents still weren’t home but I wasn’t in a mood to just say “Hey, it’s me, I failed!”, so I didn’t even attempt to call them.

I decided to take a shower. I put off my clothes and let the steaming water flow on my body. When I finished and dried myself off, I felt the sharp pain on my chest again. But this time I noticed what was hurting me.

“What’s that…?”

As I stared at my reflection in the mirror, I noticed flower-like patterns etched onto my chest, spreading like burn scars.

This was definitely not normal.

I dressed quickly and dashed back to the Love School institution.

***

I found Svet-sensei in the same room as the last night.

I found Svet-sensei in the same room as the previous night. Frustration boiled within me, and I slammed my hands against the conference table where he sat (without that bag again).

“What are you bastards doing to our bodies?!” I yelled angrily.

“What’s gotten into you, dude?” He wore a puzzled expression.

“This has gotten onto me!” I stripped to my waist to reveal the scars on my chest.

“What?” He stared at me, “Are you showing off your young body to a 30 year old geezer? Yeah, I know, you’re younger, so what?!”

“Can’t you see it?!” I looked down and saw… nothing. “Huh? But… I swear it was there!”

“What was there?”

“A burn… a scar… it was like flower ornament or something and my chest was in pain!”

“A flower ornament… burn scar?” He paused. I could read from his face he knew what I was talking about.

“But that’s not possible. You shouldn’t have it!”

“Well I do have it!”

Svet-sensei unbuttoned his shirt: “Love Pass.”

As he said those words, his muscular chest ‘glowed’ in the same flower-like scars. I blinked twice in disbelief.

“Got swag like this?” He asked, and I nodded. “Repeat those words, too.”

“Love…Pass…?” My chest glowed the same way as sensei’s. “Woah!”

“This is called a ‘Love Pass’. It’s a special permission for teachers of this facility to travel freely from this world to the world of Romancia. It can be used only in the classroom.”

As Svet-sensei explained everything, I kept staring at him, frowning.

“Don’t worry, it’s not a scar. It’s just a… painting? It can react to hot water in the beginning but otherwise it’s not visible on you. Think of it like a… vaccine that was input into your body.”

“Does that mean I can travel to Love School in Romancia again freely now?”

“Nope, only with teacher’s special authorization code. And I won’t give it to you. You shouldn’t even have the Love Pass. I don’t know what it is about you, Kiss – I mean, Ren, but why are these things always happening just to you?”

“Svet-sensei, please authorize my return! I have to go to check up on Sakura and try again! I don’t care what it costs me, I just want to return there and fight for my right to be with the girl I love!”

“Sorry, no means no. I would lose my job if anybody found out.”

I gritted my teeth and was ready to leave but then I remembered something.

“Svet-sensei? Wouldn’t you lose your job if they found out how thanks to you a certain student was able to retain his full memories?” I smirked mischievously.

“You… You wouldn’t!”

“Hehe, wanna try me?”

“Ahahaha! I love sly brats like you!”

Svet-sensei led me to the classroom.

“We’ll take this to our graves, got that? Not a single word to anybody!”

“You can count on me!”

“Now, open the textbook and say the words.”

“Love Pass!”

The display showed me those four words again.

[Start a New Game.]

Soon after that, another messages appeared.

[Teacher authorization complete.]