Chapter 84: Chapter 83 - The Teacher Nobody Knows

The existence of Minami Asakura encompassed two worlds.

The image depicted of her at school was that of the Ice Queen.

She was gracious.

She was mature.

She seemed unapproachable.

She was a learning facilitator who could cause an entire class of students to freeze in place from one glare.

All of the students respected her.

Some students were scared of her.

There were a few that believed that after school hours and weekends, the only thing she did was grade papers, evaluate the human race or engage in other similar tremendous acts of witchcraft.

Minami Asakura’s reputation at school was one of the best.

However, none of it was true.

The real Minami Asakura was a hot mess.

She was an absolute disaster of a human being.

And for years she had worked very hard to keep it a secret from everybody.

But for whatever reason, fate has once again selected violence as its method for delivering this terrible news.

Additionally, Kuro Kurogane was to be the weapon of choice for fate’s attack on Minami Asakura.

On a rainy afternoon the weather caused classes to end early due to a severe thunderstorm warning.

The sky was filled with shades of gray.

It was pouring heavily outside on the windows of the classroom.

The students wanted to get home before the weather got worse.

Kuro was prepared to do the same.

But the vice-principal had one last thing to ask Kuro.

"Asakura-sensei forgot some papers for a school committee and left them at her apartment," said the vice-principal.

Right there, Kuro knew he was in trouble.

"Could you bring them to her?" asked the vice-principal.

That confirmed it.

Thirty minutes later, Kuro is standing outside a small apartment building.

It is continuing to rain heavily.

Minami urgently required the documents regarding the festival, located in the folder that Kuro was carrying under his arm.

Kuro paused a moment before pushing the doorbell.

A slight wait occurred, before the door opened, and then Minami froze.

"Um...Hello Kuro?" "Hi Sensei" (very long pause)--"What the hell happened?" --"You look disheveled." Minami found it hard to believe that someone like her would have the nerve to go looking this way, when usually she would be dressed to the nines at work.

Her eyes were drawn downward to see her disheveled appearance, wishing she could disappear.

The difference in Minami’s appearance between the time she left for work and now was like night and day.

At work Minami always looked adorable.

Right now she looked like; Kuro’s oversized hoodie, messy purple hair, no glasses, Cat Pyjamas Pants with little cartoon cats on them.

The contrast between the two was overwhelming.

They stood looking at each other. 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

Neither of them talked.

At this point Minami thought to slam the door shut, but unfortunately Kuro was standing in front of the door, making it impossible.

"Sensei"

"Get away from me!"

"I have your festival documents"

"Leave them at the front".

"It is raining".

"...."

"...."

"....This is a form of blackmail".

"It is just the weather".

"Same thing."

Eventually Minami gave in; as if she were the fallen Roman Empire she opened the door fully.

"Alright"

Kuro entered the apartment, and without delay Kuro realized this apartment is not typical.

The floor is covered in books.

There are coffee cups on every conceivable surface.

There are clothes sitting on the furniture which is no way designed for the purpose of storing clothes.

The couch has a large pile of paperwork, and the dining room has another large pile of paperwork.

There was a third mountain in one corner forming all on its own.

The whole apartment looked like someone tried to organize it; and lost.

So badly.

Minami noticed where Kuro was looking.

Her spirit left her body.

"Don’t."

"Don’t what?"

"Look at it."

"It’s hard not to."

"Then try harder."

Kuro looked into the kitchen.

Then froze.

The sink was full.

Not full.

Overflowing.

There was enough unwashed kitchenware to build a restaurant.

"...Sensei."

"No."

"You haven’t cooked anything recently."

"No."

"That was not a question."

Minami buried her head in her hands.

This was the worst day of her life.

Probably the worst day of the entire human race.

Meanwhile Kuro kept observing.

The evidence started piling up quickly.

Instant ramen containers.

Convenience store receipts.

Energy drinks.

Unfinished paper work.

A number of alarm clocks.

A number?

That’s bad.

Then it hit him.

"...You cannot maintain even the simplest aspects of your daily life."

Minami waved her arms dramatically.

"That’s extraordinarily rude of you."

"So that’s a yes."

"Oh..."

"...Oh."

"Yes."

Kuro nodded.

Everything suddenly made sense.

The lost paperwork.

The lost files.

The incident in storage.

The coffee area disasters.

The continuous disarray.

He understood.

Minami was not cold.

Minami was not strict.

Minami was not scary.

All she was trying to do was show that she could do the job well enough to be taken seriously as a teacher.

The fact that she was only trying helped me see her as a person, not just the person who taught me.

Unfortunately for Minami, Kuro said it out loud.

"You put so much work into your image."

She blinked at him.

"What?"

"To maintain your image."

They both sat there in silence, looking at each other, while the rain pounded on the window.

For the first time, Minami struggled to find words.

I think it was because up until then no one had used that terminology to describe what she did.

Most everyone else just looked at the end result: the best teacher, and the most competent, calmest, and professional person on the planet.

No one thought about the amount of effort that went into being those things, or the number of times she had made mistakes or how many nights she lost sleep trying to hold everything together.

Kuro just bluntly stated it as if it were common knowledge.

"Because I have to."

His expression was calm when he asked, "Why?"

The question took her surprise because she didn’t think she would have a good answer.

She ended up sitting on the couch after she found a clear spot on it, but not until she had moved a pile of paper from the couch to create room for herself.

"When I originally started teaching," she said softly, "the students did not have any respect for me at all."

Kuro sat quietly and listened.

"Because I looked so young."

There was a pause as her eyes stared at the floor.

"And the students didn’t take me seriously."

Again, another pause.

"And the teachers thought I was too young for the amount of experience needed to teach."

She turned her attention to the window; it had rained for what felt like a long time, and was getting colder.

"So, I changed."

Her voice softened again.

"I became stricicter with my students."

"And more distant from them."

"And more professional than I had."

He recognized the scene.

Too well.

A self that is personaically created to be accepted by those around them.

Kuro understood that pain more than most.

"What happened to her true self?"

The question came out before he could stop himself.

Minami chuckled lightly.

A soft chuckle.

A small chuckle.

A somewhat sad one.

"She’s still here."

Her eyes moved around the apartment.

So disheveled.

So chaotic.

So evidence-filled.

"Too bad."

For the first time since he met her, Kuro grinned.

Not because she embarrassed herself.

Not because it was funny.

Because the answer was genuine.

Minami noticed.

And for whatever reason, her chest tensed up a little.

Dangerous.

Very dangerous.

A few minutes later, thunder raged outside.

The rain got heavier.

Neither of them moved.

The conversation had turned surprisingly comfortable.

Then Kuro got to his feet.

"It’s time for me to go."

Minami nodded.

She thought that was probably the best thing to do.

The longer he stuck around, the more secrets he would find out.

When he got to the door, she spoke.

"Kuro."

He stopped.

"...You won’t tell anyone, will you?"

There seemed to be something really vulnerable about the way she asked the question.

Kuro turned back to her.

Then shrugged.

"That’s not their concern."

To the point.

Direct.

Honest.

Minami stared at him for a long moment.

Then, softly, she chuckled.

Absolutely.

That’s precisely the response he would have.

Once Kuro departed from the apartment, the room returned to a quiet, peaceful state.

Only the sound of raindrops were left to be heard inside the apartment.

Minami now found herself alone in the entrance way of her apartment.

She was lost in thought.

Things had become troublesome.

Very troublesome.

Because Kuro had now discovered her secret.

Her actual secret.

Not her fictitious harem of boys.

Not her ludicrous detective work.

Or any of the many things that worried her.

He discovered who she was really.

The klutzy teacher.

The messy apartment owner.

The woman unable to control the chaos of her daily life.

The version of Minami Asakura that nobody had seen.

And yet, Kuro’s awareness of this truth scared her less than she thought it would.

As Kuro began continuing his journey home through the rain.

He was thinking about the apartment.

And the mess that was Minami.

The real Minami.

For Kuro. This was the first time he realised.

That the Ice Queen did not exist.

Not at all.

She was only a facade.

A well-crafted wall protecting someone totally normal.

Someone totally lonely.

Inside her apartment, Minami sat silently on the couch.

She was fixated on a document Kuro provided for her related to the festival.

And the front door.

A feeling of awkwardness began growing inside her chest.

A sensation unfamiliar to her.

A feeling of discomfort.

When Kuro first showed up at school, all she had ever thought about was whether or not he had been a student to be trusted or not.

But now, for the very first time since she’d been at school, all that she would think about was how this person (Kuro) had experienced her true self.

And had still remained the same person afterward.

This made her feel more unsafe than all of the misconceptions she had formed about him combined.