Chapter 1: Hoshinomiya Chie’s Soliloquy

Chapter 1: Hoshinomiya Chie’s Soliloquy

Chapter 1:

Hoshinomiya Chie’s Soliloquy

T O ME, SAE-CHAN is my best friend.

To me, Sae-chan is my rival.

It might seem like a contradiction on the face of it, but, surprisingly enough, that’s the kind of relationship we have. Besides, I don’t think it’s that unusual to have two emotions running in parallel. Despite how it looks, I have quite a few friends. Friends from elementary school and junior high, friends I met in high school and college, and friends I came to know when I became a working adult. However, Sae-chan’s the only person with whom I have an ongoing relationship, with whom I can talk honestly, about how I really feel. I don’t know exactly what she thinks about it, though.

Even if I lose to someone else, I cannot lose to Sae-chan. The days that we spent together in the same class, aiming for Class A together, instilled such feelings in me. Originally, Sae-chan did not want to be a teacher. But that day, the day that we were made to understand that we wouldn’t be able to graduate from Class A, I knew for certain that Sae-chan wanted to become a teacher to try to go for Class A in a different way. That’s why I decided to aim to become a teacher too.

Frankly, this profession is a far cry from what I wanted to do. Day after day, I get made fun of and treated with contempt by arrogant students, and I can’t expect much of a paycheck either. Even so, I still became a teacher.

I have only one goal: to keep Sae-chan from getting any hope of achieving her goal of graduating from Class A.

I mean, it’s obvious why, right?

That day, we couldn’t graduate from Class A anymore because of Sae-chan’s trivial romance. Had it not been for that, I wouldn’t have become a teacher and would have led a more glamorous life. And yet, Sae-chan is the only one to get her students to graduate from Class A?

And like that, she just squares up her past, with a sense of self-satisfaction?

I can’t allow that.

Not when I’m still held prisoner by the past, even now.

So, as long as my eyes are on her, I will never let her win.

If my class loses in the End-of-Year Special Exam…

If Sae-chan’s class ends up becoming Class A, then…

In the worst-case scenario, I will have to do whatever it takes to put a stop to it.

I don’t care if I’m branded as an unfit teacher.

I don’t even mind if I’m ousted from my teaching position.

I am definitely going to put a stop to it, even if I have to force my way through, to take her down with me.

That’s what I had vowed to myself, deep down.

The special exam for the end of the second year will begin soon.

Depending on whether we win or lose this time, the fate of my class, which has been pushed to the brink, will be decided.

For both me and my students, an important battle that we absolutely cannot lose is about to begin.