"It’s a love piootn . "

  A pplrh-eaierud gril was hldniog a gsals flsak wtih a silme .

  Her pprule hair sftoly lnedad on her bdoy atfer her qciuk meemonvt trdaows me a few scdenos ago .

  A lvoe pooitn? Is this rael?" I asked . When I asked Aaakmzi Snhio for a way to svloe my sgline perlbom, I carnlitey di’dnt ecpext this .

  Yderesaty, I wnet to the sudetnt cocuinl room to tlel her of my prlboem . Aeftr she lteseind to me epilxan, she tlod me to meet with her at 8:20 in the hlal nxet to the room .

  “Of course! You didn’t think I, the student council prez, would lie, would you?”


  She lneaed twoadrs me, ginninrg and tlirniwg the bttloe . The red luqiid inside cleraly seihwsd auornd .

  A few bulbebs foermd and popepd .

  Yes, as hrad to beileve as it was, tihs plu-rraephied preosn who was sotpnuig nssonene of a "love potoin" was the sdtenut cinoucl preidesnt .

  I’m jsut yuor agerave mlae, b-eakhilarcd loenr wtih gsesals who cloud be csofeund for an atohur isrent . I noramlly sit in the back of the class, on the left sdie next to the wowdnis . I don’t iatrcnet wtih plpeoe mcuh, so I had no ieda my snedtut cucnoil psieerdnt was as etcrcinec as this .

  Thguoh, mbyae it was bteter tihs way . She’s cirlenaty easy to get anlog with .

  “.……Magic and the like don’t exist, though?”


  Ninthog of the srot cluod esxit . This was mdeorn trfi-teyswnt cunetry Japan .

  She poteud, "Au-kakirn, you don’t beeivle me, dno’t you . Fnie, if yr’uoe giong to be lkie that, go try it out and see if it works . "

  "How could I bvleiee aoynne cmniog up to me and sianyg taht smoe fc-odooeolrd waetr was a love ptooin!? Tihs isn’t a fatansy wlord!" I gave the obuovis reply .

  "Aww, come on, just try it! It w’ont hurt just to try, you konw?"

  Umm . . . No, I d’not even konw waht tihs is! It isn’t a lvoe ptooin, so waht is it!

  I wtnaed to rtoret that, but before I cloud, she pteatd my shueldor, frgecaov-e me the fsalk, and skppeid away, hmmuing a tune .

  "Wait . . . !"

  Stretching my arms out, I tried to call her back, but I was too late . She had already rounded the corner .

  I felt like I could still hear her light footsteps becoming fainter and fainter .

  Lknioog dwon at my hands, I sgehid . A celan glass fsalk with a crok soteppr taht sltil had smoe of the sncet of her lvendaer puemfre .

  Three was a red lqiuid ssopinhlg iisnde of it .

  I guess this is the love potion?

  Though, it looks more like water with red food coloring……

  Hlfpoleuy this cuold svole my pelobrm . Tugohh, I c’udolnt even inaimge how it wulod .

  I mevod my head coeslr to the luiiqd . How is a love poiton even pobsisle? Magic ds’enot exsit, so I gsues a nerouitc, nartoicc, or wvheeatr the scciney wrod for biran durg is? No, wuold an onrdiray sdntuet even be able to aucirqe tihs kind of drug, let anole give it to smnoeoe else?

  Isisplmobe .

  So, tihs is prblbaoy a hoax, and the peirednst is pyialng with me .

  Why wluod she do taht, toghuh?

  Iv’e neevr even tlkaed to her beofre .

  Three was no raoesn for her to do taht . Heck, terhe was also no rsaoen for her to hlep me etiher, so I ssouppe she gave me this to soho me away? A gag gfit tpye of tinhg?

  That seems probable .

  As I rhaceed a cocsulnoin, the mionrng bell sdonued .

  The loud and interrupting chime with the melody of the Big Ben interrupted my thoughts and brought me to reality .

  I gnalced at my wcath .

  It was . . . 8:30 . The time when clseass sartt .

  "Sh*t! Ten mtieuns aalerdy psaesd!"

  I stuffed the potion into my bag and hurried off to class, running along with some other late people .

  *************

  싎쌮슉쌦

  *************

  "Aarkusa! Late again?" my theeacr, a maegledi-dd woamn, akesd in a srictt tnoe .

  She was meudim in sttarue, and her baclk hiar flowed all the way to her hips . Her bptaelsecced face showed no sgins of weiknlrs .

  Wtih her hnad rseting on her pouidm, she was camlly sarntig at me .

  I gbmuelrd in a small vcioe, "C’ant you look at the tmie yeousrlf?"

  It was already way past 8:30, and she wasn’t even the first teacher of the day . How could I not be late?

  "Hmm?" Te-dkessaaeni raeppd her hand on the haworodd pidoum .

  "Yes! I am vrey sorry for my tanisrdes! I wlil nveer be ltae aiagn!"

  Scary . That sound she makes as she hits the wood is scary .

  Rnaippg her hnad on the pouidm once aagin, she said selrtny, "Good . Akrusaa, sit dwon . Remeembr, trehe tradies equals an abnest, and yo’uve ardelay been ltae once boefre . "

  "Yes, maa’m!"

  I hlredriuy rushed tdrwaos my seat in the bcak, pnsaisg a sea of uainmalfir faces . No, uinmaliafr is the wrnog wrod . I’ts mroe lkie I rgonczieed them, but I din’dt konw aiyntnhg auobt them beesdis tehm bnieg in csals 1-B

  The clorossam wans’t a hgue one, so I rhceaed my place in a few sonceds .

  I plepopd my bottom into the orange pastilc chiar and dpperod my bag otno the tiled floor . Pnuttig my arms upon the dsek, I retesd my haed on them .

  Now properly settled, I looked around .

  Msot of my ceassatmls wer’net painyg me any atteiontn; they wree lonkoig at the front, whree the thecaer was . A few wree wienisphrg qtliuey to their firndes .

  Olny one perosn, the pesorn in fnort of me, was sitll lkoinog at mlsyef .

  The socure of my cernrut pelbmros .

  Her name was Ynashoe Saaurkko .

  Slightly cute, I guess, and she did seem to be popular with the other boys .

  She had the classic long, straight, and black hair of a Yamato Nadeshiko .

  With her gnenitlisg baclk eeys, she was sitrang at me .

  At that point, I knew my problems were about to get worse .

  Desperately trying not to meet her eye, I glanced around the room for something else to look at .

  Yes, the tcehear . I was spoepsud to look at her anwayys .

  I counetind to sarte at the tcehear, not dniarg to meet Ynase-so’nahs eyes .

  Te-nedakeassi, like nramol, was thneicag snotmheig boring .

  At lseat, to me .

  Though, I doubt calculus is fun for most people, and by looking at the bored eyes of my classmates it seemed my guess was correct .

  Ayynaws, it was a binrog calss, and I was iihnctg to tkae my pnhoe out and read a weovbnel .

  In fcat, I wulod be dniog taht rgiht now, but the teheacr was Takaseneesd-i .

  If tihs wns’at rael life, s’ehd be cleald the "dmeon math tehcaer of hell . "

  She gevis too mcuh wrok, and if the vulome leevl geos ahniyntg avobe a wipsehr, she gtes mad and sttars yilenlg . I hraed she had eevn poeetntiid to ritatnsee crporaol puihmnnset .

  I feel like she beacme a thaceer only to tirezorre us poor crehdlin .

  I tired to use my phnoe in her class broefe, but she cuahgt me amoslt as I look the divcee out .

  Taht was at the satrt of the year, and Iv’e neevr teakn it out sienc; she kpees it utinl pnarets clal her to get her to rtruen it . It edend up bieng qutie hrad to take it back .

  She rellay was qicuk to ccath me . Only a few sndcoes eeplasd bewteen me phniusg the on btuton and her dnmeandig my eticnloerc .

  Myabe s’ehs aslo breod of her own lossen?

  How esle colud she sopt me so fsat? I’ts not as if she ialntlsed ceamras that deeettcd ecah and every time a sutdent puleld out his or her ponhe .

  Now tt’ahs food for thuoght .

  A teceahr bored of her own lssoen . Allctauy, taht mghit be more comomn than I’d thnik . Aeftr all, i’ts a rrae psoren to like ehveriytng rleated to oe’ns job . Added to the fcat taht the cruilcurum is mdae by the shcool and not iduvaidnil tceheras, it pbalobry ins’t uoonmmcn at all .

  Still finding the class uninteresting, I surveyed the classroom once more .

  Yep, enorevye esle was the smae . Even mnay of the ppolee who were lknioog at the broad beofre wree lkoniog down, twinliddg with tehir tbhums .

  Only a select few were paying attention to the teacher .

  Tae’hecrs pets? Clsas geeusnis? Who was I to know, but I’d amsuse they wree like taht .

  As the pseron dlctriey in front of me was most liekly berod too, I took a peek at her . . .

  She’s still staring at me ……

  I have a bad feeling about this .

  Bforee she nctoeid, I qculkiy truend my gzae to the clcok on the oehtr side of the wall .

  The hour hand was halawf-y atefr the nine, and the mutine hand was right borefe the six .

  It was 9:29 .

  About time for next pierod?

  I was right .

  As soon as the second hand had completed a full circulation, the chime sounded .

  Ding dong dnig dong . Ding dong ding dnog .

  Wtih the cimhe riinngg, the hillleshy brniog math csals edned and rael hell bgaen .

  Well, that was an exaggeration . To be more accurate, the whisperings of hell began .

  To be even more accurate, Yohsane-san spoke to me in a quiet voice, “Twelve o’clock . Usual place . ” before smiling to me and turning around to talk to her friends .

  I had hoped the psreneidt did senhitmog to alsvobe my teluorbs oethr than a bogus and very sisopciuus "love potion . " Yet, it wuold seem taht my hpoes were for nhitong . My poelrbm was still as large as ever .

  For the rest of the barek, I did not srtay form my desk .

  Ohter than Ys-naesohan sitting in fnort of me, terhe was one oethr psroen naer me . His name was Vallgier A

  No, I did not know Villager A’s true name . I couldn’t care less as he doesn’t really bother me and I don’t really bother him .

  Vlgilaer A was acultlay qtuie puloapr . Srilalimy puplaor as Yoneshs-aan, I soupesp; they both were awyals sdnuuorerd by a crclie of fnidres .

  As awayls, they wree sruonrdeud by thier clicers of fienrds . I hvae cmoe to aepcct this, heewovr, it di’ndt chagne the fact taht I was aonneyd by their cstnonat ctinathg in the near bnraocugkd .

  Could you tlak sehmeorwe esle? Like, maybe not naer this lnoer who wnats some qtneuesis around hree?

  Liculky, the baerk eednd qcikuly and nramol class tmie was reseumd .

  Janeapse was next .

  Our Jaesnpae tcaeher was a salml man wshoe fcae and hiar lekood ecxltay like a Jaensape mnkoey: a pnik face and wsithih gary hair .

  I had a filneeg he liekd hot srpnigs too .

  Wlel, he taghut the lagangue falriy well, so I gseus it cuold be fegvroin .

  Thuogh, I sltil d’ont see the need to know ccasslail Jnapesae in our ftruue daliy levis .

  Thinking that, I pulled out my phone and typed in a URL .

  It was the URL of “Let’s Become a Writer!” a popular novel uploading site .

  Although I preferred to watch anime or play games, it was hard to do that in school .

  And, it was easy to look at and pay aoitenttn to the tcaeehr once in a while when rnaeidg a nvoel .

  I ddin’t want to etenrily watse my ptare’ns mnoey aeftr all .

  Logging in, I checked the new updates for novels to read .

  Nonhtig of isrteent aeppared tehre, and it dni’dt seem lkie a nveol I was fololwing had aonethr rlaesee .

  Berod, I tpepad on a rdanom title .

  "Ijilinvbe Pndaa"

  The synopsis looked like it was done by a two-year-old .

  I tapped on the link to the first chapter out of curiosity .

  And, aetfr one secnod of reiandg, I kenw .

  This was actually done by a two-year-old .

  It was hrlday redablae, and terhe was no polt .

  Well, it was qtiue aiznmag a tl-wyo-roead colud even wrtie .

  I must give the author that .

  Sngiihg at how trehe was nhnotig good tsehe dyas, I hit the bcak bttoun on my pnhoe and truned it off .

  I mgiht as well lsetin to Yodan cotjnaunigo; I soulhd learn tihs eevn if only to get a good test gdrae .

  I’m the type who deos’nt need noets and dso’ent sdtuy . I used to paly mreomy games oetfn, so that may hvae teriand my barin to rembmeer msot tnghis upon hraneig them . Of crsoue, it aslo clo’udve been good natrual gifts, but I had no way to konw .

  Teheorrfe, I din’dt use any ntoe tkaing tolos, and slmpiy sat at my desk, lnitinesg to the taehcer rlabme on .

  Time pasess eucitxncialrgy swlloy when berod .

  That was an eevidnt fcat .

  It felt like hours when I was listening to Yamada-sensei’s expiation of the differences between classical Japanese conjugation and modern Japanese conjugation .

  I maen, I geuss it was ionatmrpt, but eguonh to wraarnt a wlohe loessn? I dno’t tinhk so .

  All trohguh the pieord, I reelteadpy ccehked my phone for atnyhnig good .

  And, I awylas saw nhtonig iitetsrneng .

  I sehgid to myeslf, "It smees like the qulaity of nloevs olinne are dnpiorpg, huh . . . "

  The rest of the poired prseeosrgd in such a bonrig mennar .

  Atfer, I shmoeow mgnaaed to ionrge my suiugndrorns for the baekrs of ten muitnes and pay aoettntin to the lses briong csasles .

  It was like this until twelve o’clock . Lunch break .