Ms.
Haibara wasn’t especially popular among the students—though that wasn’t entirely true.
After all, she was a young female teacher, not bad-looking, and her laissez-faire attitude was quite popular with some of them.
For certain students, especially the girls, Ms.
Haibara’s cold, androgynous style was unexpectedly appealing.
And if you looked closely, her skin and figure were both excellent—even her features were quite refined.
Huh…
then why did people think Ms.
Haibara looked so plain?
But compared to Ms.
Haibara, there were plenty of others who were more popular still.
Take Ms.
Suzuki, the music teacher—gentle and elegant, young and pretty, and kind to all her students.
Some of the boys had even worked up the courage to confess to her.
This morning was Ms.
Suzuki’s music class.
The music room was temporarily out of use for some reason, so today they were having class in the regular classroom.
“This song—after last lesson, everyone should have it pretty much down by now.
The class next door happens to be in P.E.
right now, so would anyone like to come up and sing it?”
Ms.
Suzuki stood at the podium.
Even an ordinary teacher’s outfit looked graceful on her—hair tied up in a high ponytail, young and pretty, with a lovely voice to match.
She was basically the kind of teacher students liked best.
No one raised their hand.
Ms.
Suzuki looked a little troubled.
She scanned the classroom and spotted the petite girl in the front row with the flippy, slightly curled chestnut-gold hair.
“Sakaki, would you like to give it a try?”
The song wasn’t difficult—just a very basic vocal exercise piece.
As an idol, Sakaki Chika should be able to sing it with ease.
At the mention of her name, everyone turned to look at Sakaki Chika in the first row—after all, they were all still curious about this idol girl.
But the instant she was called on, Sakaki Chika’s shoulders went rigid.
“I…”
She stood up as if at a loss, frozen in place, glancing around uneasily.
Seeing the state Sakaki Chika was in, Ms.
Suzuki paused, then gave a gentle smile:
“Sorry, Sakaki, why don’t you sit down for now.
I’ll sing it for everyone again—you can all sing along with me.”
Blushing, Sakaki Chika sat back down, and good-natured laughter rippled around her.
Once seated, Sakaki Chika buried her face in both hands, head lowered, letting out tiny little groans, as if bubbles were rising off the top of her head.
Kirishima Ai, her deskmate, glanced at her but said nothing.
Sakaki Chika looked over at Kirishima Ai:
“Xiao Ai, what do I do…
I couldn’t get a word out just now.
Did I make everyone super uncomfortable…?”
Kirishima Ai just watched her coldly, gazing for a moment before letting out a soft sigh:
“Relax.
You didn’t.”
She couldn’t quite handle this idol in front of her—for all sorts of reasons—so her attitude was generally on the cold side, avoiding conversation whenever she could. You are reading on novelping dot com, the official source.
Before long, Sakaki Chika, still cupping her face, peeked cautiously at Ms.
Suzuki:
“Ms.
Suzuki…
she’s so gentle.
I like her.”
The idol blurted the line out of nowhere.
Kirishima Ai froze for a beat, but soon regained her composure.
She was already used to this side of Sakaki Chika.
Sakaki Chika was a very strange person.
Normally she was as timid and skittish as a rabbit.
But the moment she Transformed into a magical girl, she became Star Flower—a magical girl brimming with the urge to show off and a flippant way of treating others, confident and self-absorbed.
Her performances as an idol on stage probably ran on a similar principle.
On top of that, this girl developed a crush on people at the drop of a hat.
The moment anyone was even a little gentle with her, she’d blush instantly and start fantasizing about becoming friends with them, that sort of thing.
So whether before or after Transforming, Kirishima Ai had gotten into the habit of calling her the “flighty idol.”
Kirishima Ai always got the feeling that Sakaki Chika was the kind of love-brained girl who’d one day marry some weird, flaky man.
The type who might get beaten every day, while her husband took her money off to play pachinko.
Out of politeness, though, Kirishima Ai kept all of this to herself.
Of course, the one she was most concerned about wasn’t Sakaki Chika.
It was Ms.
Haibara.
If you looked closely, you’d notice something odd.
—Ms.
Haibara was in the classroom right now, too.
Normally, during other teachers’ classes, Ms.
Haibara would head back to her office to slack off, not in the mood to linger in the classroom for even a moment.
Yet somehow, only during music class, and every single time, Ms.
Haibara would stay in the corner at the very back of the room.
It was truly baffling.
Could it be that Ms.
Haibara and Ms.
Suzuki were close?
It wasn’t impossible—they were both young female teachers, after all, teaching the same class.
But Kirishima Ai had always assumed Ms.
Haibara was the type who couldn’t even be bothered to make friends.
…
At the very back of the classroom, Ms.
Haibara sat in an empty seat in the last row, quietly watching Ms.
Suzuki teach.
Just like her students, this weekly music class was the moment she looked forward to most.
Ms.
Suzuki looked lovely today, too.
And that gentle side of hers—she loved that as well.
Haibara nodded silently to herself.
As much as she admired and cared about Ms.
Suzuki, Haibara didn’t want to be some heavy, gloomy woman peeping every single day, so after watching for just a while, she turned to playing on her phone.
Scrolling on her phone while listening to Ms.
As a female teacher, she didn’t actually have many hobbies.
Binging shows, movies, browsing gravure photos of pretty girls, teasing her Snake a bit, and the occasional stroll outside.
On Saturday and Sunday, there’d be one day she spent money to hire a JK to go shopping or catch a movie with her—what’s commonly called playing around with women.
Just the plain, everyday life of an utterly unremarkable female teacher.
Nothing special about it at all.
As for the rest, it was chatting with the handful of people she actually knew.
A few online friends, for instance.
Oh, right—and the ex-boyfriend she’d dated in college, her first love, more or less, whom she still kept in touch with to this day.
The reason they broke up was that she found the guy a little too girly.
His online handle was literally something like “Magic Queen Al-chan♡.”
Way too dumbass, way too girly—Haibara simply couldn’t take that kind of stimulation.
Today, however, the one texting her wasn’t Mr.
Ex-Boyfriend, but rather…
“Cyber Sorcery Girl.”
That’s right—it was her childhood friend, Kounoue Kage.
That science-research Weirdo.
That name, though, was just the contact label Haibara had saved her under.
Apparently, once Kounoue found out what note Haibara had filed her under, she’d stayed up that very night changing her online handle to match it exactly.
So why had Haibara even bothered writing a note in the first place…?
Cyber Sorcery Girl: [Waifu, waifu, do you want to go out for a meal with me this weekend?
I know a really nice restaurant—I’ll treat you to a romantic candlelit dinner♡]
Come to think of it, Haibara remembered this childhood friend used to be really introverted and timid.
So how had she turned into such a total extrovert now?
Even though their relationship was only so-so, she still talked to Haibara this warmly.
Magical Girl Lily-chan☆: [Pass.]
Haibara replied curtly.
Almost immediately, a huge block of text popped up from the other end of the screen, making Haibara wonder whether this person was monitoring her display.
Cyber Sorcery Girl: [Waifu, then how about we watch a movie together?
I heard there’s a really good horror movie out recently—you’d probably love it.
I’ll rent out the whole theater, just the two of us watching, okay?]
A horror movie?
Haibara did quite like horror movies.
She had no interest in any of those Hollywood blockbusters or artsy teen romance flicks—horror movies were far more entertaining.
But if she was actually going to watch one, she preferred to watch it alone.
Magical Girl Lily-chan☆: [Not interested.]
Cyber Sorcery Girl: [Okay then, Waifu, make sure to drink plenty of water and take care of your health♡]
……
Inside the laboratory, Dr.
Kounoue Kage scratched at her disheveled, long gray-black hair, sinking into thought.
Where exactly had it all gone wrong?
She looked toward the large screen in front of her—that is, her AI smart butler, “Halo.”
Utterly stumped, Kounoue Kage could only interrogate her AI butler:
“Halo, did your analysis mess up somewhere?
Why doesn’t Lily like that movie?”
According to the data analysis, that movie was clearly exactly Haibara’s type.
On the big screen, Halo fell silent for a moment:
[Is it possible that the one she doesn’t like…
is you?]
“?”