The Proper Way to Address Someone at Work

Ichinose fell silent for a long time.

Hiyori just watched Ichinose with a gentle smile. Sakura had her head bowed like a hamster, not daring to look at anyone, while I sipped the tea Hiyori had brewed for me.

"I understand. Thank you, Masaryu. I'll help Sakura change."

At last, Ichinose managed to steady her emotions, desperately holding back her feelings so the tears wouldn't spill from the corners of her eyes.

Ichinose agreed to help, and Hiyori gave me a timely wink, signaling that Sakayanagi was almost here.

"Masaryu, I have one last question."

"Go ahead."

"Isn't Hiyori suited to guide Sakura?"

Ichinose waited until she had left the Activity Room and seen that Hiyori hadn't gotten up to see her off before asking me that.

"Which would you like to hear, the truth or a lie?"

That was what I said, but whichever Ichinose chose, I wasn't going to tell her the truth.

"The truth—no, the lie. Just tell me a lie, Masaryu."

Ichinose instinctively wanted to hear the truth, but she was also afraid of hearing it from me. She feared the truth would make her suppressed feelings erupt again.

"Hiyori already has too many specific responsibilities in the class. After all these days of tutoring, I'm sure you have a good understanding of the students' academic abilities in Class C. Class C needs everyone focused on preparing for midterms, so we can't spare anyone to help Sakura.

"Besides, Class C and Class D don't get along very well. If the students in Class D found out that someone from Class C was getting close to Sakura, they'd ostracize her."

I naturally went with the version of the lie that had the most holes in it. Class C could get through midterms just fine right now, and even if we couldn't spare anyone before the exams, that didn't mean we couldn't spare someone afterward.

"Thanks, Masaryu. See you tomorrow."

"Have a safe trip."

After hearing the answer she wanted, Ichinose returned to her usual energetic self and left the club building.

"So, what's the truth?"

After watching Ichinose leave, Hiyori came over and continued the conversation.

"I couldn't bear to."

I wouldn't tell Ichinose the truth, even if she asked me. But when Hiyori asked me the same question, I would.

When Sakayanagi arrived at the Activity Room, she first had Kamuro help her change her shoes, then sent her to stand guard outside.

"What a shame. I arrived late, so I missed seeing Ichinose cry."

Sakayanagi spoke about something sad in a cheerful tone. If I hadn't seen her downstairs from the hallway window, where she'd run into Ichinose and chatted with her for a bit, I might have thought she was just gloating.

"You've already seen something fun on your way here. What we're about to discuss, however, isn't so pleasant, future chairwoman Sakayanagi Arisu."

I clasped my hands together on the table and propped my head up on them. Hiyori took a pair of glasses with only one lens from a drawer and put them on me.

"Why has the mood suddenly become so serious and ridiculous?"

Sakayanagi, who had been grinning just a moment ago, was taken aback by Hiyori and me.

"When we're fooling around, anything goes. But when we're discussing work, we should address each other by our titles."

I pulled up the evidence on Sakura's phone and showed it to Sakayanagi.

"This is sexual harassment? Are you saying someone at school has been engaging in an improper relationship with a student of the opposite sex?"

Sakayanagi couldn't make sense of the bizarre art the shop clerk had sent to Sakura. Maybe a sheltered young lady like her simply didn't understand stalkers and obsessive fans.

"If it were just a relationship between students, I wouldn't have come to you. If I'd caught them in the act and had evidence, I'd have taken the person and the evidence straight to the school to demand points."

If only I could catch Nagumo. Then I could rake in a fortune from the entire second year later.

"You came to me because it was a teacher sending messages to a student? Mashima doesn't seem like the type. You wouldn't come to me if it were Sakagami, so was it a male teacher from the second or third year?"

Once Sakayanagi realized how serious the matter was, she began running through the school's faculty in her mind.

"Sakayanagi, you're still too young. Your perspective is too narrow. Who says that kind of message can only be sent from a male teacher to a female student?"

I was so angry I could hardly speak. If I posted Sakayanagi's assumptions on the Western internet, maybe she'd get a little taste of the shock of gender politics.

"You mean a female teacher sent it to a female student?! Who was it? Chabashira or Hoshinomiya?"

Sakayanagi's eyes widened. The idea was completely new to her—a gap in her knowledge.

All I could do was shake my head.

"Then who could it be? Could Sakura have been mistakenly registered as the wrong gender when she enrolled?"

Once every possibility had been ruled out, the least likely option became the only one left.

"No, that's not it. I—I'm a woman."

Feeling Sakayanagi's sharp gaze, Sakura quickly confirmed that she was biologically female.

Sakayanagi then turned her attention back to me. Judging by her expression, if my next answer didn't satisfy her, she would definitely make things difficult for me.

"Why are you focusing entirely on the teachers, Sakayanagi? There are other people at this school besides students and teachers, you know."

I wasn't sure whether a shop cashier counted as a school employee, so I gave Sakayanagi a broader category.

"School staff? Their overall quality is certainly a mixed bag. If one of them did this, then the school really does need to step in. You already know who the suspect is, don't you, Masaryu?"

After weighing the pros and cons, Sakayanagi decided to take a hard line with the suspect.

If this scandal got out, the Sakayanagi Family's influence over the school would take a serious hit. Even an academic scandal would be preferable by comparison.

"I'm a witness in this matter. I saw the suspect commit the crime with my own eyes, and I know who they are. If I remember correctly, there are cameras near where I saw it happen. The suspect also stored the record of the crime on the shop's computer."

"If this were such a simple matter, Masaryu wouldn't have asked Hiyori to invite me here. You're doing this for Sakura, aren't you? What a sentimental man you are. Hiyori has such a difficult future ahead of her."

Sakayanagi started making snide remarks about me. When it came to this kind of childish behavior, I couldn't exactly punish her in front of everyone.

"Well, if the school isn't going to look out for its students, we can just arrest the person in front of everyone. I've seen plenty of photos from Japan of female students jumping from rooftops after their pictures were exposed."

Stating the facts was the sharpest weapon of all.

"Of course we'd look out for our students. We can use the midterm exams as an excuse to block his signal with a jammer first, then arrest him. No one will know something like this happened at school during the exams."

Sakayanagi was reliable at times like this. That settled the matter.