Chapter 83: Chapter 82 - The Festival Committee

Minami Asakura thought she was a cursed person.

Not in a catastrophic way.

Not in a way that you are struck by lightning, or win the wrong lottery.

Just an ordinary type.

The type that spills coffee on important papers.

The type that misses trains by ten seconds.

The type that accidentally locks herself in a storage room.

Last Friday was just another example of bad luck again.

This time, her bad luck’s name was Kuro Kurogane.

The faculty office was unusually busy today.

Countless teachers were walking around, carrying every type of document for the upcoming school festival.

This was just a few weeks away.

Planning.

Paperwork.

Scheduling.

Meetings.

More Paperwork.

And somehow even more paperwork.

So it is safe to say that everyone is currently suffering.

While Minami was paying in the festival documents on her desk, the Vice-Principal walked up to her.

"Asakura-sensei."

She immediately looked up.

"Yes?"

"We need to find someone to supervise the student festival committee."

Minami felt danger.

The kind of immediate danger that arrives immediately before disaster strikes.

Unfortunately for Minami, there is no way she could have gotten out of this situation.

Before answering her vice-principal, she continued with the following statement.

"Kuro Kurogane has volunteered to help with the organization of this year’s festival."

At that point, Minami felt beyond helpless.

She could see all of her alarm bells had all been triggered.

And then came the nail in her coffin.

You may be cooperating with someone else.

No talking.

No sound.

Minami just gaped at the vice principal and wondered how he could still smile.

"You have my appreciation."

He turned and went away, leaving a destroyed teacher behind.

Meanwhile, someplace else at school was Kuro sneezing.

Again.

It seemed to Kuro that somebody truly had an issue with him.

Kuro walked into the empty committee room where the festival planning meeting would start soon.

Several students were at the tables in front of him.

There was a mountain of paperwork on the tables.

There were schedules, budgets, activity proposals, and so much craziness.

And then the door opened.

Minami walked in.

The two made eye contact for a couple of seconds without speaking.

Then Minami adjusted the glasses on her face, which had become a habit whatsoever Kuro had seen her before.

"Good afternoon," she said.

"Good afternoon, sensei," replied Kuro.

The two exchanged normal casual pleasantries. Well, normal on the exterior.

On the interior, Minami was regretting every life choice she had made that had landed her at this meeting to begin with.

The meeting started out badly and continued to get poorly.

Not due to Kuro; however, due to Minami.

She had brought the incorrect folder and then realized that she had forgotten some essential documents in the faculty office.

The final event was when she discovered she somehow printed a copy of last year’s festival budget when she needed to create a current one for this year’s festival.

The mistakes mounted more rapidly than she had anticipated.

Very painfully fast.

Every time, though, she had the same icy expression.

As if everything had remained under control.

Unfortunately for Minami, Kuro was not blind.

He saw it too.

Halfway through the meeting, Minami reached for a stack of papers.

A different stack of papers that had fallen.

Then again.

That made the papers fly all over the place, again.

Silence fell on the room again.

Everyone looked away in sympathy for her.

Meanwhile, Minami stared at the floor.

She wanted to scream.

But, she acted calm.

Mostly.

Before Minami could help herself down from her chair, Kuro crouched down next to her.

"I’ll help."

Within seconds, many people helped Minami pick up her papers.

Minutes later, all of the papers were picked up.

The crisis was averted.

Minami received her papers and softly said, "Thank you."

Almost like it was an automatic response.

For some odd reason, Kuro smiled.

A small smile.

Nothing huge.

But immediately Minami turned her head in a different direction.

Ugh...so annoying.

Why does he have to act like it’s just a normal thing for him to help others?

The meetings for the next week were all scheduled.

The disasters were all scheduled for the same week for Minami.

One day, she erased her entire two hour schedule.

Another day, she misplaced her very important budget notes.

Another day, she left her laptop charger at home.

Another day, she couldn’t find her glasses.

They were on her face.

Kuro was there for all of it!

When Kuro first entered Minami’s life, she expected a certain reaction.

Perhaps a judgment or a laugh.

Or maybe something embarrassing.

Yet all Kuro ever did was help.

Each and every time.

Even when he could have complained, made smart remarks, etc., all he ever did was lend her quiet support.

And that, quite frankly, was very irritating.

Because that made it impossible for Minami to dislike him.

One day after class, members of Minami’s class committee stayed behind to complete event plans.

By this time, all the other students had left.

So the only two remaining in the classroom were Kuro and Minami.

The classroom was dark and quiet, with the only sound coming from the windows as sunlight streamed in.

For the first time in days, Minami almost felt as if things were going to be normal.

Right until she knocked over her coffee right on top of her pile of papers.

Minami’s life was truly cursed.

Just before she started to freak out over having ruined her papers, Kuro picked up several nearby sheets of paper.

Kuro’s quick action prevented most of the papers from being destroyed.

A miracle.

Minami hung her head mournfully and said, "I’m so sorry."

The minute the words fell from her lips, she sought to retract them.

Kuro looked at Minami, puzzled.

"Why are you apologizing?"

"I destroyed your paperwork."

"Not entirely."

"I spilled my coffee all over it."

Kuro shrugged, "We still have most of the papers."

As Minami stared blankly at him, she couldn’t comprehend why Kuro didn’t seem to be bothered by her spilling coffee on his paperwork.

To most people, they would have been annoyed, frustrated, or at the very least mildly inconvenienced, but not Kuro; Kuro was eerily calm and continued to organize paper as though mistakes were a non-issue.

For a few moments the room was quiet.

Then, Minami broke the silence.

In a soft voice, Minami said, "You’re strange."

At which point, Kuro looked up at her.

"That doesn’t sound like a compliment."

"That’s because it’s not."

"That’s fair."

Minami’s response made Kuro unexpectedly smile at her.

For maybe only a second.

Then she looked away immediately after.

Kuro noticed that.

Minami realized this right away.

Her smile was gone.

She reverted back to professionalism.

"Emergency shut down very soon."

Kuro continued to sit there quietly.

Thinking about what was wrong with the new teacher.

The new teacher is so very strange.

Not cold and not uncool.

But really awkward.

Very surprising.

The wide gap between her public persona vs private behavior had started to show poorly.

Throughout each day the work has to keep on for the final preparations for the festival.

Something very surprising has occurred.

Minami has started to be more relaxed around Kuro.

Not a lot more relaxed but a little bit more relaxed and you could notice it.

Talking has started to be easier.

There has been less silence and less awkwardness about it.

Minami no longer expected Kuro to get mad at her for every single mistake she was to make. 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

The reason for this was because Kuro never acted negatively towards her.

While going over some applications for events, Minami found herself focusing on Kuro. And, as she realized later, was actually staring at him.

Not for long.

He appeared to be really focused.

The same look he had when helping someone.

She found this look to be oddly familiar.

Because over the last couple of weeks, she had noticed many little things about Kuro that she never paid attention to before.

How students naturally approached him when needing assistance.

How younger students recognized him around the school.

How teachers would trust him with responsibilities.

How he never appeared to be seeking any recognition for what he did or how he helped.

He just went out and did it.

And then moved on.

In other words, he didn’t match the idea she formed of him as being a playboy.

Not even close.

And this caused her a problem.

Because her theory that she had developed about Kuro was starting to break down.

One night, after a committee meeting, Minami sat by herself in one of the classrooms.

As she went over her notes for that meeting, she used the same notebook she had used from the beginning of her investigation on Kuro.

She found the page that had Kuro Kurogane written on it and stared at it.

Soon there was silence.

She finally crossed out one item.

Possible Troublemaker.

Now it was gone.

She paused again.

Then she crossed out:

Possible Manipulator.

Now it is also gone.

That page now appeared to be much more blank than before.

She sighed.

This was beginning to be difficult.

The evidence just isn’t supporting her theory anymore, no matter how much she looked.

Regardless of how intensely she studied.

Kuro would continue to act in the same manner.

The following day, in a festival meeting, Minami dropped her pen.

It was a small, insignificant item when you think about how she usually would go down to get her pen.

Kuro quickly handed the pen back without her having to go get it.

It was a small, ordinary event.

It was an insignificant occurrence.

Despite the ordinary nature of the pen’s return, Minami took a moment to pause.

Just for a brief moment.

"Thank you," Minami said quietly.

"You are welcome," Kuro responded.

Their eyes locked for a brief moment.

Nothing occurred between them.

And there should not have occurred anything between them.

And Minami found herself very aware of the quietness that followed.

The door swung open.

Akari fell through the door, creating an instant chaotic scene in which to disappear.

Still as she watched Kuro deal with Akari’s endlessly active spirit and Aoi’s quiet, but relentless teasing later that day, a thought struck her.

It was a very dangerous thought.

What if she had misjudged him?

What if the problem didn’t lay with Kuro?

What if the assumptions made by the Minami Asakura were in fact the problem that she had with Kuro?

That was not a pleasant realization because coming to that conclusion also forced her to come to terms with the fact that she had been wrong.

Minami Asakura did not like being wrong.

Minami Asakura did not like the warmth that was growing in her each time Kuro looked at her with a smile when she had made mistakes instead of judging her for them.

That was also a very dangerous situation.

And one which she would definitely be ignoring.

For the meantime.