"Go home, Takumi-kun. And don’t stay after tomorrow."
Then, so faint I almost missed it: "Nowhere. And that’s exactly why you shouldn’t come."
But I heard the lie underneath. The same lie I was living.
Up close, I could smell her perfume. Soap and jasmine. Nothing like the heavy scents the other female teachers wore.
I walked out into the wet hallway, my heart pounding. Behind me, the classroom light clicked off.
For a moment, neither of us moved. The only sounds were the distant chirp of cicadas and the thrum of my own heartbeat.
Then she did something that shattered me.