By the time Zhong Siji hurried to the first-year office, there was almost no one left inside.
That was only natural.
The busy period of the start of term had already passed, and for the time being there was nothing that required the teachers to wear themselves out—except for that big forehead pressed extremely close, staring fixedly at the computer screen.
Zhong Siji gave a helpless smile.
This person really was like this whenever she got serious, unable to hear a sound from the outside world.
He had already knocked on the door several times, and she still had not reacted at all.
“Teacher Wu Di, if you don’t want to wear glasses, you still shouldn’t press your eyes that close, you know?”
Hearing someone call her, Wu Di rubbed her eyes and slowly poked her head out from her workstation, a little like a marmot gradually sticking its head out of a burrow, inexplicably a bit cute.
But Zhong Siji did not dare say that out loud.
In the present world, praising an adult woman as cute meant you were either a rich man looking to keep her, or you were simply picking a fight.
He did not want to eat a round of Wu Di’s paddle just like that.
“Siji?” There was actually a trace of puzzlement in Wu Di’s eyes.
“Does seeing me surprise you that much, Teacher?”
Zhong Siji skillfully pulled over the chair from the neighboring workstation and sat down beside Wu Di.
“I just didn’t expect you to come over on your own.” Wu Di shrugged.
“What do you mean on my own? Didn’t you tell me to come by… ah.”
The motion of Zhong Siji picking up a disposable cup to pour himself tea froze.
He tried hard to recall.
Today Wu Di really did not seem to have told him to come by after school.
Seeing him like that, how could Wu Di not know what had happened?
She leaned back against the chair with a touch of smugness and crossed her legs.
“Yo yo yo, wasn’t a certain someone still complaining that I nag? How come you ran over here yourself?”
“…Teacher, sorry for the disturbance! Teacher, I’ll take my leave!”
I knew it, habit is a terrifying thing!
If I keep staying here, who knows how this self-proclaimed wolf-king chuunibyou teacher is going to tease me.
Better to take the Thirty-Six Stratagems and make fleeing the best plan!
“Wait wait wait wait, since you’re already here, chat with Teacher a few sentences as usual, okay~~”
Wu Di pressed the rising Zhong Siji back into the seat.
She had only just sat him down when she could not help looking at Zhong Siji’s face and bursting into laughter.
Pfft~~
“As I thought, I should still take my leave.”
“Don’t, don’t. It’s not like I’m laughing at you. I already heard, you know. You wanting to make bento is for your little sister, right? Aiyah, Siji, you really are a good older brother.”
“Teacher, how did you know that? And your reaction is way too exaggerated… You don’t actually think I started dating, do you?”
“Don’t look down on my intelligence network! And what kind of thing is that to say! I’m a teacher! How could I just decide on my own that my student has a romantic partner worth working hard to make bento for, and then just decide on my own to be jealous that he started dating before I did!”
“…That was a long sentence, Teacher. Isn’t that a complete confession without anyone beating it out of you? And didn’t you already confess everything this morning?”
“The me from this morning is the past me, not the present me.”
“…How should I describe you~~ most fittingly~~”
“What can I compare you to that would count as special~~”
The teacher and student fooled around like that for a good while before they finally settled down.
Wu Di picked up her teacup and moistened lips that had gone a little dry from matching lyrics.
“How come you’re suddenly not being your lone wolf anymore?”
Zhong Siji of course knew what Wu Di was talking about.
“A few things happened.”
The figures of Xu Runhui and Yan Yanyan floated up unbidden in Zhong Siji’s mind.
“Eh, you were still acting so determined before.”
“Sometimes only after you take that difficult step do you discover that the things you thought you couldn’t do weren’t actually that hard. And I think what you said was right, Teacher.”
“This involves me too?”
“‘Some times, once you let them slip away, even if you can make up for them later, the feeling from that moment will never come back.’ That’s how you put it, right?”
She had not expected this student who stood out so much he seemed rebellious to have actually taken her words to heart.
Wu Di felt a little gratified.
“It’s not too late that you understand now. From here on, just enjoy your youth to the fullest.”
“Thank you, Teacher. I sincerely thank you.”
“Being that greasy doesn’t sound like you. How about you answer Teacher one question and count that as your thanks.”
“Ask whatever you like, Teacher. I’ll tell everything I know and hold nothing back.”
“Runhui and Yanyan—which one do you like more?”
Pfft~~
The tea Zhong Siji had just taken into his mouth sprayed across the floor in an instant.
“Cough cough cough cough, Teacher, you… what did you just say?”
“Do you like Runhui more, or Yanyan?”
“Why does everyone think I like the two of them! We’re pure friendship! Pure! Friend! Ship!”
“Eh? You don’t have even a little feeling?”
“Feeling for what! We have a pure, clean, spotless, pure friendship!”
“Eh~~ now that is a youthful enough way of putting it.”
“The me who thought Teacher would ask a proper question was the idiot after all!”
Zhong Siji drained the little tea left in the cup in one gulp and walked toward the office door without looking back.
“See you!”
“Next time don’t come over all foolishly on your own again, okay~~” Wu Di’s unhurried reminder came from behind him.
“I won’t come even if you call me, Teacher!” Zhong Siji’s voice grew lighter and lighter with his footsteps, until it vanished.
“Then Teacher will feel a little lonely too, you know?” In the quiet office, Wu Di said softly.
“Youth… it really is nice.”
Wu Di stood up and stretched.
No matter how much personality he had, he was still a little brat overflowing with adolescent energy.
As long as he had not sunk completely, being down for a month or two did not count as anything at all.
Wu Di could not help remembering Zhong Siji on the first day of school.
He had not even spoken during self-introductions, his gaze sharp in a way that did not seem like a boy’s, his whole body giving off an aura of ‘I’m not to be trifled with! Don’t come near me!’
Is this person really a boy?
Wu Di had not been able to help thinking that at the time.
Even though she was the teacher, she had not wanted to get close to him in the slightest.
Only…
“Here. Are you all right? Teacher?”
Something like that had happened.
She had been given a lesson by her own student.
Perhaps out of compensation, perhaps because she wanted to turn over a new leaf, she seemed to have cared about him just a tiny bit more than the other students.
But even that kind of concern had finally come to an end today.
Free at last, free at last~~
When she got off work today, should she go eat something tasty to celebrate?
“…Forget it. I don’t have much appetite. I’ll just make do with a bucket of instant noodles back at the dorm.”
♪♪♪♪♪♪~~~
Wu Di’s phone rang at this inopportune moment.
When she saw the contact note on the screen, she could not help sighing.
“Hello? Dad? What’s up?”
“…I said I don’t want to!”
“How is it as simple as you say? Boys these days…”
“What? What do you mean you’re coming over to my place in a while to see me? Hello? Hello!”