My Seatmate is Apparently My Wife from My Past Life; She Still Loves Me in This Life as Well

Now then, where should I kill time today?

As I half-listened to the end-of-day homeroom, I pondered such a thing.

That said, sadly, my repertoire is limited to things that can be counted on one hand, so it’s not like I have much to agonize over…

Even so, when there are choices, humans tend to think about which one to pick.

By the way, today’s choices are a family restaurant or karaoke. It’s a ridiculous two-choice dilemma, and I’ve been to both so often that I’m sick of them.

Well, since I’m not in the mood to sing at all, I guess the family restaurant will do… As I was thinking that,

“Oh, and Nagiura, come to the staff room later,”

A statement like a death sentence fell onto my head.

Did I do something wrong?

“Well, if you ask whether you did something wrong or not, it’s indisputable that you did.”

“Please don’t accuse me unjustly. I’m a person who lives with integrity!”

“Tandem riding, escape.”

“Damn it.”

After school, in the staff room.

I tried to sneak away with a nonchalant face, but Kamidama caught me as if she anticipated it, handed me over to Mr. Takatsuki, and I was taken away just like that.

The flow was too smooth. It was as if they had coordinated in advance, that’s how seamless their teamwork was…

Thanks to that, I was brought here without even a moment to complain.

Incidentally, Kamidama didn’t follow me into the staff room, saying, “I’ll wait outside.”

What am I going to be able to do now—I honestly have no idea why I was called here seriously.

Even regarding the tandem riding incident, Mr. Takatsuki isn’t the type of teacher who retracts his words and imposes punishment later, and if he did, Kamidama should have been called too.

In other words, it must be something confidential that can only be conveyed to one person.

So, could it be… about burying a body? I always thought it might happen someday.

This person is surprisingly the type to hold grudges, so she might have snapped and killed her deadbeat boyfriend in a fit of rage.

I sympathize with the teacher who did it out of circumstances… but murder is a crime.

I smiled kindly and took the teacher’s hand.

“Teacher, let’s turn ourselves in. I’ll support you as much as I can.”

“What!? What are you talking about all of a sudden!?”

“Isn’t this about burying your deadbeat musician boyfriend who you finally killed…!?”

“It’s not! Don’t make it sound like I’m a murderer so casually!”

Even as a joke, don’t say such things in the staff room! The teacher gave me a chop on the head. That was my bad.

While writhing in pain from the unexpectedly strong hit, Mr. Takatsuki let out a deep sigh.

“I’m going to assign you some… well, some minor volunteer work that got dumped on me.”

“Hey, you just said the truth.”

“…Since you know my secret now, you’ll have to disappear. Specifically, your grades.”

“Well, I recently developed a volunteer spirit! What should we do? Although it’s not clear where the donations go, how about participating in some donation campaigns?”

“The way you switch sides is awful…”

Sighing in exasperation, Mr. Takatsuki placed a bunch of keys in my hand.

They were so numerous that I didn’t even feel like counting them, and they looked quite aged.

Also, they were heavy. What is this, keys to a dungeon?

On closer inspection, faded stickers were attached to the keys, with some writing on them.

Could it be a cursed item? It seemed like they had classroom names written on them.

“These are the keys to the numerous classrooms in our school. We don’t know which is which, but we can’t just leave them unmanaged, so that came up in yesterday’s staff meeting.”

“I see, and Mr. Takatsuki was tasked with it.”

“Right, since I’m still a young teacher.”

“Wow…”

Although it was simply a task being pushed onto her, she accepted it blindly, turning it into something positive. I couldn’t help but feel a tear coming on seeing this pitiful adult woman.

I silently vowed to be kinder to her from now on.

“Teacher… becoming insensitive to unfairness isn’t the only thing about growing up.”

“Shut up! Don’t say something that makes you sound enlightened out of nowhere! It’s irritating that it made my heart skip a beat!”

“Wow, unfair!”

Mr. Takatsuki kicked my leg repeatedly. It was a scene of complete abuse, but the surrounding warm gazes made it feel surreal.

This easy-going teacher… it’s no wonder she got involved with a deadbeat boyfriend, though I couldn’t say that out loud.

While being kicked, I looked around, and Mr. Takatsuki leaned back in her chair, looking exhausted.

“Anyway, I want you to figure out which key belongs to which classroom. It doesn’t have to be right now, but it can’t be left undone, so I’m asking you. Can you do it?”

“What a hassle…”

“It’s fine, you’re free after school anyway, right?”

“…Oh, I see. Thank you, teacher.”

Mr. Takatsuki is one of the few people who knows my circumstances to some extent.

So, I can take this as her giving me an extra option to kill time after school.

Well, she probably just wanted to dump the hassle on me, but it ends up being a win-win, so I won’t complain.

Gratefully, I was about to take it, but the weight in my hand made me hesitate for a moment before stuffing it into my pocket.

With a metallic jingle, my uniform became noticeably heavier.

“Well then, I’ll leave it to you. You can go now.”

“Sure, see you, teacher.”

“Goodbye.”

I left the staff room with a farewell.