I couldn’t find Itra in the lunch room. The crowd made it very hard to find one face in the crowd, even though Itra’s usually stuck out to me. Before I gave up though, I realized that she may have been in Mr. Hue’s room.

“Oh, that’s probably not a good thing,” I muttered to myself, scurrying across the school building in search of his room.

I quietly peeked into the room, and I found the teacher standing over Itra. A hurricane of emotions swirled inside me, as I saw his hand reach for her face. So, I slammed the door open before he could do anything.

“Mr. Hue! You’ve been found out!” I shouted, “Step back!”

“Huh?” Mr. Hue stepped backwards, “Oh, hi, you’re the one that was asking about Itra, weren’t you?”

“U-uh,” I suddenly lost my words, when faced with a face full of composure, “that’s right…”

“Yes…so what have you found out about me?” He questioned, “Could you tell me?”

“Um, well,” I forced my words out, “you’ve been blackmailing kids for weeks now!”

“Really? I have?” Mr. Hue smirked, “but Illate, I just started working here last week.”

“H-huh?” I backed off, “Wait, what?”

Itra turned to me, clearly confused, “Illate? What are you going on about?”

“I-isn’t he…doing bad things to you?” I asked, “L-like earlier, he was reaching for your face…”

“No, no, I was grabbing the pencil I had her use,” Mr. Hue corrected, “you must have mistaken that because of your limited view.”

“W-what about yesterday?” I pressed, “you were clearly lying that Itra never went on a meeting with you.”

“I thought she was keeping that under wraps,” Mr. Hue answered, “she wanted help on literary arts, the second class I teach, since I’m a higher level teacher, she thought I could teach her more.”

“T-then, what was all that with Mr. Pelt?” I asked, “He was talking about how you…”

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

“Mr. Pelt? Is he a teacher here?” Mr. Hue questioned, “I don’t think I’ve crossed paths with him before, so I don’t know what he’s like.”

“So…” I trailed off, “what was bothering Itra so much…”

“Heheh, it’s really cute, you see,” Mr. Hue began to answer, but was cut short.

“S-stop! I don’t want Illate to know!” Itra jumped in between us, “You promised that you wouldn’t tell him!”

“Tell me what?” I asked, “Why aren’t you telling me what’s bothering you…”

“Itra,” Mr. Hue placed a hand on her shoulder, “I think he deserves to know, don’t you?”

I couldn’t see Itra’s face, but I did know that she was clenching her fist, “Fine…”

“Go on, tell him,” Mr. Hue urged, turning her around.

Holding my breath, I waited for the answer that I’d been pursuing for the entire week. Itra bit her lip, and began opening and closing her mouth, unable to speak before she finally came clean.

“I’ve…just been scared,” she confessed, letting out a long breath that she must have been keeping in, “every day, you’ve kept coming to me for help with your writing, and…well, I’m scared that I might reach a point where I won’t be able to teach you anymore.”

A little bit of my breath escaped my mouth, but I dared not to speak.

“I thought that…if I couldn’t teach you anymore…” Itra squirmed, fidgeting with her fingers and twirling her heel, “you might replace me with a more suitable tutor…”

Itra turned her gaze down, and I realized that she finished. So, I finally exhaled, letting my nerves calm down.

“Is…” I started, “Is that it?”

“H-huh?” Itra turned her face up to me, “W-what do you mean?”

“Itra…there’s no way I could replace you,” I told her, “there’s more to why I like studying under you than what you teach me.”

“There is…?”

“That’s right!” I confirmed, “Not only did you teach me how to write better, but you also put so much attention into me…and, well, you’ve been such a great friend to me…”

“I…” Itra and I stared for a bit, before an intrusion sounded.

“So, uh, you two look like you’re bonding really well and all,” Mr. Hue interrupted, “but I think you’d better get going, lunch is about to end, and my class is about to get filled.”

“Oh right!” I broke from my mesmerization, “Come on, Itra! Let’s get going!”

“Right…” Itra followed me out of the classroom.

A little while later…

“So how far did you get on expanding your paragraphs?” Itra asked.

“Oh, uhh…” I trailed off, but added, “n-none?”

…

“We have a lot of catching up to do, Illate,” Itra scolded, “we’ll be meeting throughout all of fall break.”

Is it weird that I kind of looked forward to it?