/
Mayuzumi answered her ringing cell phone.
“Hello, Saki?”
Speak of the devil! They were just talking about her when she called!
Well, these types of coincidences weren’t all that uncommon.
“I’m with him right now… I’m fine, it’s… it’s going well. Wah… Sorry, it’s actually not going that well.”
“No, no, I’m fine! You don’t have to come over—don’t you still have work you’re busy with?”
Judging from the half of the conversation he could hear, Editor Yoshizawa sounded extremely concerned for Mayuzumi.
Seiji recalled the figure of that icy female editor.
He felt that with her personality, she would definitely rush over if she knew what had happened.
Seiji was about to take another sip of his tea when his cell phone rang as well.
The caller ID showed that it was from Mika.
“Seiji, are you back at school?”
“No, I’m still outside. Some things happened while I was on my way over with Sensei,” Seiji explained. “I’m currently at a coffee cafe together with her.”
“Oh… How’s Peach-sensei doing?” Mika’s voice contained obvious concern for him.
“Her condition wasn’t too good earlier,” Seiji replied in a low voice, “but she’s doing much better now. We’re currently having tea and chatting.”
“Are you guys coming back to school?”
“It depends on the situation. If Sensei wants, then we’ll go. If she doesn’t, then I won’t force her.”
“Oh…”
“Don’t mind us—go ahead and have fun with Chiaki.”
“Okay…” Mika’s voice sounded a little lonely.
Their call ended there.
When Seiji looked across from him, he saw that Mayuzumi just happened to finish her call as well.
“Saki’s really worried about our situation and wanted to rush over immediately. I stopped her from doing so.” Mayuzumi smiled wryly at her friend’s concern.
“Editor Yoshizawa’s really concerned about Sensei.”
“Yes, and I’m truly grateful to her… it’s just that sometimes, I think she can be too much of a worrywart.” Mayuzumi sighed. “This one time when I was having a phone call with her, my cell phone ran out of battery, causing the phone call to be cut.”
“As a result, she took only five minutes to rush from the editing department to my home and check on my situation.”
Five minutes!?
Seiji was astonished at this.
While he didn’t know just how far away Thunderbolt Literature’s editing department was from Sensei’s home, five minutes… sounded too incredible!
Did Editor Yoshizawa fly? Did she actually have the ability to secretly transform in phone booths!?
There must be some mistake… or was it that Editor Yoshizawa was a mystical ability user?
‘No, no, it isn’t possible to meet someone with powers so easily! I should stop randomly guessing.’
“I was so shocked at that time. She was still panting with sweat pouring down her face, but after she confirmed that I was fine, she acted like her normal self.”
“I’m truly grateful for the way she’s taken such good care of me and her concern,” Mayuzumi muttered. “But I also hope that she wouldn’t worry so much.”
“So, she’s like an overly protective big sister?”
“Yeah… you could say that.” The female manga author tilted her head slightly. “I think that sometimes she treats me like a little child, or as if I can’t do anything by myself without someone else around.”
‘…Honestly,’ Seiji remarked silently, ‘I do get a little bit of that impression from you as well, Sensei.’
Although he hadn’t known Mayuzumi Amami for very long, he had now fully realized why Editor Yoshizawa had told him that Peach-sensei was a woman who really needed someone to take care of her.
Even though Mayuzumi was a popular manga author and professional who was already mature on the outside, she would break out into tears at simply a bus ride…
‘No, no, stop thinking like that—it would be too rude to Sensei, who’s working so hard to confront her fears.’
At any rate, Seiji had such an impression already from just the short time he spent with her. In that case, it was perfectly understandable why Sensei’s close friend, Editor Yoshizawa, would be so concerned about her.
Seiji concluded that if Editor Yoshizawa knew about what just happened to Sensei on the bus, she would have rushed over here at top speed without listening to Sensei telling her not to come!
Would it be a repeat of the astonishing five-minute record?
He actually wanted to see it a little…
Mayuzumi continued talking about some past events that had occurred while she was together with Saki Yoshizawa.
Seiji now had a better understanding of the deep friendship between Mayuzumi and Saki and had learned more about both of them.
After a while, he glanced at the time.
“Sensei, do you still want to go to the school festival?”
“If we go now… is there still time to look around?”
“There is, although there’s not much time remaining.” Seiji smiled lightly. “It’s up to what Sensei wants—even if we don’t go today, we can always go tomorrow. The school festival lasts more than one day.”
Mayuzumi lowered her head and remained silent for a considerable amount of time.
“Let’s go see it.” She lifted her head again. “Just as Haruta-kun says, while the school festival lasts more than one day, just returning like this feels…”
“Like you’re admitting defeat?”
“Yeah…”
Seiji’s faint smile arced upwards upon hearing this.
“Okay, let’s get going then.” He indicated to the server that he wanted to pay the bill.
This time a female waitress brought them their check, and, when Seiji brought out his wallet, he saw Mayuzumi placing some cash on the check first.
“Sensei…”
“Let me pay the bill—I’m the adult here!” Mayuzumi smiled. “Haruta-kun is really gentlemanly, but you don’t need to concern yourself with money.”
Seiji was rendered speechless.
This was the most adult-like he had ever seen this female manga author act.
…
The two of them hailed a taxi to Genhana High School.
Mayuzumi started tensing up again at the scene of so many people teeming around.
“Sensei, let’s go in.”
“Yeah… yeah.”
Mayuzumi did her best to walk forward under Seiji’s watchful eye.
She tried walking as normally as possible in order to avoid attracting attention.
Although she was a bit scared and instinctively wanted to walk slower, walking slower caused people to look at her inquisitively which made her even more scared.
Walking and acting normally was the right way to do things.
‘I… can do it!’
Mayuzumi kept inwardly encouraging herself.
A boy passed by her side.
She was almost scared to the point of stopping dead in her tracks, but forced herself to continue only with her willpower.
“Just like this, Sensei,” someone praised from behind her. “Excellent job.”
Mayuzumi turned around to see Seiji Haruta looking gently in her direction.
His expression bore resemblance to that of an adult encouraging a child.
Mayuzumi felt both warm and embarrassed inside.
“Haruta-kun, don’t look at me like that.”
“Oh… sorry, I got lost in my thoughts.” Seiji retracted his gaze and fixed his sight forwards.
“Sensei, you’re… really beautiful.”
“Er?”
Mayuzumi felt like she received a sudden impact from this unexpected praise as something tightened in her chest.
“Although you have a phobia and felt such discomfort on the bus earlier, you still resolved to come here and resolutely walk towards the crowd,” Seiji said with a voice full of admiration. “Sensei, I feel that you’re truly beautiful when you act like this.”
This was his honest and sincere praise.
For someone to face his or her greatest fear and try their best to overcome it without escaping or stopping and resolutely pushing forwards… this type of spirit and willpower was doubtlessly admirable.
Peach-sensei, who had such resolve, could only be described as beautiful by him.
That’s what Seiji believed, and he told her this directly.
Mayuzumi’s heartbeat quickened, and her cheeks began to heat up upon hearing Seiji’s praise.
‘This… this… Haruta-kun…’
She looked at the side profile of his face while inwardly feeling like she wanted to scream.
‘How… how on earth are you able to say something so embarrassing so naturally!?’