Can I Still Be Your Heroine Even Though I'm Your Teacher?-Chapter 1Volume .4 - An Unexpected Home Date
An Unexpected Home Date 4
After getting home from school, I quickly tidied up my room and then started preparing dinner.
Tonight’s menu is curry rice with a side salad and soup.
As the cooking is finished, the room’s intercom rings just in time.
I head towards the entrance, take a small deep breath, and slowly unlock the door.
“Good evening, Nishiki-kun.”
Updat𝒆d fr𝑜m freewebnøvel.com.
Tenjō-sensei stands there with a somewhat stiff expression.
“Good evening. Sensei.”
I try to appear as natural as possible.
“Sorry I’m late.”
“No, don’t worry about it…don’t you seem tense?”
Her confident demeanor from school has subdued and she seems somewhat awkward.
“Ah!? N-no, it’s not like that. I’m normal!”
She waves her hands frantically, denying it.
“A home visit at night…are you nervous?”
“Don’t make it sound so suggestive.”
She pouted her lips.
“First, let me confirm! This isn’t some kind of bad prank or hidden camera show, right?”
Brushing off my nonsense, she asks again with a cautious look, even though she knows it’s a bit much.
“I assure you, this is genuinely my room, number 102.”
“And I am in 103. So, that means...”
“We’re an actual neighbors.”
As I state the conclusion, Tenjō-sensei held her head.
“It’s just too absurd that a student coincidentally lives next door to me!”
Tenjō-sensei exclaims with a voice close to tears.
“Well, these things happen sometimes.”
I couldn’t help but laugh at the miraculous coincidence.
“This isn’t funny at all! What should we do!?”
“That’s why you came over, to talk.”
“Nishiki-kun, why are you acting so… normal about this?”
Sensei seems dissatisfied with our difference in reactions.
Even with a sulky face, she gave off a charming impression.
She was older than me, but she was so endearing.
“Well, I am surprised that my homeroom teacher is my neighbor, but as a guy, I also think I’m lucky to have a beautiful woman living next door.”
I answer her honestly.
“You’re so carefree.”
“Not really, I was observing all day because I wasn’t sure.”
“You’ve been looking at me too much! I was really on edge the whole time.”
She didn’t seem that way at all in class.
“It’s admirable that you can still stay in work mode. I think that’s really cool.”
“Nishiki-kun, you’re very eloquent, aren’t you?”
“I was strictly taught by my mother to always express good thoughts directly to the other person.”
“That’s nice. I agree with that way of thinking.”
Tenjō-sensei’s expression had relaxed more than before after she found a point she could relate to.
“...Looks like you’ve relaxed a little.”
“Are you perhaps teasing me on purpose?”
“It’s making me nervous too to talk informally to someone older.”
I shrugged my shoulders lightly.
“How pathetic. To be worried by a child…I’m still immature.”
Sensei sighed.
Her exasperated expression was somehow attractive.
“Then, how long have you been living here?”
She shifted the topic, trying to move the conversation forward.
“Since I started high school. I’ve been living here for over a year.”
“I moved to this apartment when I got the job.”
“Well, if you’re renting a place considering the commute to school, it makes sense it would be in this area.”
“Even so, it’s not just the closest station, but the same apartment building. It’s strange we haven’t met each other until now.”
“I guess so.”
I wholeheartedly agree.
“I would have preferred it if you hadn’t noticed me until you graduated.”
“But now that I know, you can’t ignore it. That’s why you came, right?”
“Because what you said made sense.”
Tenjō-sensei spoke as if resigned—then the sound of a growling stomach interrupted us.
The noise wasn’t mine. Startled, Tenjō-sensei touched her stomach with an embarrassed look.
“Why don’t we stop standing around and have some food while we talk at my room?”
Even though it is early spring, the nights are still cold. I’d would feel bad if she caught a cold.
“Eh, but…”
It’s only natural for Tenjō-sensei to hesitate.
Even I’d be hesitant to give an immediate answer if our roles were reversed.
But it would be better than me, a male student, were to go to her, a female teacher’s apartment.
“Tonight’s dinner is curry. Do you dislike curry?”
“I love curry, but…”
“I made a lot, so don’t hold back. It’s hard to have a calm conversation on an empty stomach.”
“Still, this feels wrong…”
“Think of it as a return for the strawberries.”
“I told you, you don’t need to worry about it.”
Sensei doesn’t refuse because she understands the need for a talk.
However, it’s natural that the psychological hurdle is high.
“Let me make it clear, my wish is to continue living a peaceful life as before. I have no weird intentions of threatening you or anything like that, so please be assured.”
I try to ease her reluctance by assuring her of my harmless intentions.
“Really—?”
I’m met with a skeptical look.
“I won’t lay a finger on you.”
I respond immediately.
Of course, I’m also a man. If a woman enters my room, to say that I wouldn’t hope for a sweet development would be a lie.
But I don’t have that kind of boldness, nor do I have the confidence to handle such a situation well if it did arise.
However, dreaming about it surely can’t be a crime.
“Alright, I’ll trust you.”
Reiyu Tenjō finally let her guard down and showed me a genuine smile.
“———”
A full-faced smile from such a close distance is too powerful. It makes my heart flutter.
I turned to the side blinded by her brightness, covering my mouth with my hand to hide a smile that was about to leak out.
“Please, come in.”
“…Sorry for disturbing you.”
Sensei hesitantly enters the entranceway and awkwardly removes her shoes.
——Reiyu Tenjō has come to my room.
