← The Studious Boy and the Secret Account Girl
Volume 1
Chapter 06: The Old People Were Right – Part 2
Chapter 6: The Old People Were Right – Part 2
“There is a reason Matsurika-san puts so much effort into her makeup. That is because… the teachers who should be role models for the students come to work every single day, most diligently wear makeup.”
At Tsutomu’s words, the air in the staff room froze.
It wasn’t just the ones who’d been watching the three of them closely.
Even those who’d seemed indifferent shuddered.
“…You, what on earth are you saying?”
“Exactly. The teachers have nothing to do with this.”
The teacher chimed in with the exasperated Matsurika.
The two exchanged a glance, then looked away from each other in opposite directions.
He couldn’t help but give a wry smile that the two at the center of the commotion were the only ones who hadn’t noticed the shift in the staff room.
“Is it really so strange? Matsurika-san is a student. It’s not an odd thought for her to think, ‘If the teachers wear makeup, then I can too.’”
“No, it’s not about that. To begin with, we teachers are adults. The school rules apply only to you students.”
“It doesn’t matter whether one is an adult or a child. It’s not an issue of the school rules, either.”
As already mentioned, Tsutomu had read through the student handbook early on after enrolling.
He knew, even without being told, that ‘the school rules apply only to students.’
But… the ones living in a place called school weren’t just the students. Teachers were included as well.
“The school rules must be kept. Without rules, the order of student life collapses. Once control is lost, only ruin remains.”
He said words he didn’t believe at all, deliberately phrasing each one grandly and clearly so as to be easily understood.
He made a point of lifting up the ‘school rules,’ the discipline teacher’s golden signboard.
The older teacher frowned but nodded.
“However… in the school, there aren’t just us students, but the teachers, as well.”
“That goes without saying.”
“Right. The teachers restrain the students by wielding the school rules.”
“…Were you trying to be clever there?”
—It was a coincidence. I didn’t mean anything like that. This isn’t the time to be joking around!
He hadn’t been aiming for the pun between ‘school rules’ and ‘restrain.’
T/N: In Japanese, ‘school rules’ - 校則 kousoku, ‘restrain’ - 拘束 kousoku, same reading, so it’s a pun with the words
He threw a mental retort at Matsurika, who kept butting in at every turn.
On the surface, he only adjusted his slipping glasses.
“Imagine it. The students feel ‘we are being repressed.’ They think the ones repressing them are the teachers. And yet… the teachers dress freely and wear makeup without restriction. All while sharing the same school and the same hours.”
“Th-that is…”
The discipline teacher faltered.
He’d apparently become aware of where Tsutomu’s eloquence was headed.
“The space called school isn’t created by us students alone. Students and teachers create it together. If so, then order should be created by all of us, too.”
It might be easier to understand with a food analogy.
Suppose someone is forced into fasting for some reason, and there’s a person next to them eating deliciously.
Would order arise there? Would the fasting one silently submit, saying ‘the rules can’t be helped’?
Never. The two would surely clash. It might even escalate into a conflict.
It’s the same. If the teachers flaunt their makeup in front of students who are forbidden from wearing it…
“Your subject is classical Japanese and classical Chinese, isn’t it?”
He abruptly changed the flow of the conversation.
The teacher, well past his fifties, nodded hesitantly.
“…And what about it?”
“Then you must also know the idiom ‘start from Kai’ (T/N: 隗より始めよ - kai yori hajimeyo, start from the first step).”
‘Start from Kai’ is an idiom that originated in the Warring States period of China.
To summarize, it means ‘to accomplish a great undertaking, start from what’s near and familiar; begin with the one who proposed the matter.’
In this case… Tsutomu was saying that if you’re going to force the school rules on the students, the teachers should first hold themselves back.
Don’t overlook the snacks whose bring-in is forbidden by the school rules.
Crack down on the cell phones forbidden by the school rules.
And don’t permit the makeup forbidden by the school rules.
At Tsutomu’s words, the teachers who’d been watching with bated breath trembled.
Every single one of them, because they were all guilty of just these things.
They might have been able to take the stance of ‘as you wish’ when it came to putting Matsurika on the rack… but when it came to their own way of life being threatened, they couldn’t stay silent.
The discipline teacher, though his clothing was always a tracksuit and his figure unsightly, was a man faithful to his duties.
Which was precisely why he didn’t notice another of his colleagues shifting.
‘I’d be in trouble if you told me to hold myself back too.’
‘Why do you have to go so serious?’
‘Stop firing stray bullets. It’s a nuisance.’
Though none of them said it aloud, every face was saying it with their eyes.
Teachers aren’t a holy profession. They’re just one type of salaried worker.
And that, even so, presupposes decades of service.
To keep up an endless integrity and honesty for students whose ties would end in just three years was utterly out of the question.
Better to turn a blind eye to gray-zone things, take the easy route, and collect your salary. That was more efficient.
The staff room’s colors were repainted in an instant. The colleagues had now turned against the discipline teacher.
“Se-Sensei… a moment, if I may.”
It was the vice-principal who called out.
A woman, similar in age to the discipline teacher.
A refined suit, careful makeup.
On her face, which always wore a gentle smile, a somber expression was now engraved.
If this matter were left as-is, the staff room’s air would turn for the worst.
As an executive of the school — a nest of the ‘everything-is-fine’ principle — she couldn’t overlook it. It might even affect her advancement.
“N-no, please wait, Vice-Principal. We are, as teachers…”
“You say that, but… Hmm.”
When the vice-principal held out the bait, several teachers nodded hesitantly.
All of them were women. Tsutomu’s homeroom teacher nodded, too.
Not a single one of the other teachers sided with the discipline teacher.
“Kariya-kun, and Tachibana-san. We’ll take care of this matter for now. You two may leave.”
“Is that so.”
“…”
Tsutomu straightened his glasses and said just one word.
Glancing at the clock, lunch break was nearly over.
It should have been a pointless waste of time, summoned by his homeroom teacher with nothing to show for it… but all things considered, he didn’t feel bad.
Matsurika, the party in question, wore an indignant look at having been left out in the cold.
Her eyes seemed to say ‘I want to lodge a complaint,’ but this wasn’t the time.
An expression rarely seen in the classroom was oddly rare, and, unexpectedly, charming.
“Tachibana.”
“…I know.”
When Tsutomu lightly tugged her sleeve and whispered in her ear, the school’s heroine came to her senses and shook her head from side to side.
Along with her movement, her glossy black hair drew a beautiful arc.
Every little gesture shone; she was a girl who drew the eye.
The fragrance that drifted her way teased his nose and left him in a terribly unsettled mood.
“Then, we’ll be off.”
“Excuse us.”
Without saying anything extraneous, Tsutomu and Matsurika left the staff room.
A loud voice came from beyond the closed door, but it was something he couldn’t care less about.