After the leader of He Sen

I said on the phone that I wanted to talk to Kunikida in private, but he actually vacated an empty conference room to talk to me alone.

"Mr. Kiyoe, can you tell me why you want to investigate Tomie Kawakami now?" Kunikida pushed the brewed tea in front of me and asked seriously.

"This may sound narcissistic." I held the handle of the cup and stared at the tea stem sinking slowly in the water. "Fu Jiang seems to have feelings for me that go beyond the teacher-student relationship."

Kunikida let out a short ah, it seems that he knows what I want to express.

"The relationship between me and Tomie has progressed after that scandal... No, it's not that kind of progress... It's just a little closer." Seeing that Kunikida's expression was wrong, I quickly added, "At first I thought he It was because of Mr. Maeda that he became close to me, and after a long time of contact, he discovered that Fu Jiang had other purposes."

"Purpose?"

I didn't immediately answer what I was thinking, but went around in circles: "Kunikida-kun, have you ever had a strange feeling? That is... my feelings are like a swing, dangling dangerously on the boundary between right and wrong. "

"Are you saying that you are trying to restrain yourself from liking him?" Kunikida pursed his lips, obviously disapproving of this behavior that violated the teacher's morality.

"No, I don't like him." My feelings for Fu Jiang are not mixed with love-related factors at all, but when I watch his every move, occasionally at a certain moment, the dangling swing in my heart will go to the wrong direction. The direction swung high and high, trying to make me fall heavily and look embarrassed.

Kunikida showed a puzzled expression.

"I suspect that Fu Jiang has the ability to manipulate emotions or confuse others, and I am the target of his current teasing." I directly expressed my thoughts.

"Is...is that so?" Kunikida's face was in a daze for a moment, but soon he put on a professional poker face.

"He just wanted to see the ugly face I showed after I fell in love with him." Although it is a bit cruel to say this, I am sure it is the closest guess to the truth, "So, I would like to ask you to help me find out his family background and whether he There really is this ability to manipulate other people’s emotions.”

Perhaps because we used to be colleagues, Kunikida received very little commission, and I doubt that their detective agency would be able to make ends meet according to this fee standard.

When I went back, I couldn’t take the elevator anymore. First, I declined Kunikida’s kindness to take me downstairs, but I ran into Oda Sakunosuke at the stairs of the spiral staircase.

"I'll take you back."

"No need." Let him see such an embarrassing side of myself in the elevator, I still feel burned when I think about it.

He didn't argue with me, but followed me silently, I took the next step and he took the next step, and the two of them went downstairs at a fast pace.

It's really embarrassing to go down to the first floor without saying a word, my God, I turned my head around, and struggled to pick out a topic that I could barely talk about: "Mr. Oda, the sea monster you mentioned on the phone earlier What does it mean? Mr. Dazai seemed to have mentioned this word just now."

"That..." His gentle expression showed some difficulty, but he still explained to me the ins and outs of the dream about the sea monster.

This unfolding like a fantasy story did not frighten me at all. I carefully observed his expression when he said these words, trying to see if he was lying, but his sincerity did not appear to be a lie at all.

"Do I really look exactly like Miss Siren in your dream?" I couldn't help asking.

"Well, exactly the same."

"But I hate the sea very much, Miss Siren will definitely not hate it." They are all sea monsters, they must live in the sea, have long fish tails, and can swim freely in the sea.

Oda Sakunosuke struggled for a moment, and said: "Miss Siren also hates the sea, she says she wants to vomit when she smells the sea."

"...I see, that's such a coincidence..." I recalled the first time I met Sakunosuke Oda, "That's why you asked me if I liked the sea on the rainy day?"

Oda Sakunosuke hummed again.

Now I can 100% rule out the possibility that he lied to me. At that time, I still felt strange, why would I ask that kind of irrelevant question when we met for the first time? Now it seems that there is a reason.

I was thinking about Oda Sakunosuke's intriguing dream, but I didn't notice that there was another staircase under my feet. I didn't find the strength of my crutches and I almost stepped on the air and fell down the stairs.

It was Oda Sakunosuke who held my arm again and kept me from falling.

Today is the second time I have made a fool of myself in front of him, and I feel that it is more appropriate to find a crack in the ground to sneak in now.

"If this fall is real, 100% of my right leg will suffer, and I will be in trouble if I can't use both legs." I said something else to cover up my embarrassment.

He didn't tease me for my carelessness, and he continued in a very polite way, but the topic turned to the family that I didn't want to talk about: "If you get injured in an accident, the family will help take care of it no matter what?"

"I have no family members. My left leg was amputated when I went camping with my family in a car accident."

He bowed his head like a child who made a mistake: "I'm sorry."

"There's nothing to be sorry about." The death of my parents did not hit me as hard as outsiders imagined.

Probably to express his apology, he also said about himself: "I am also alone, and I came out very early... to work."

I sighed: "That's it."

I'm not very good at hiding things. After I asked Kunikida to help me find out Tomie's identity, I always felt awkward seeing him. I often deliberately avoided his gaze, and looked for him when he wanted to talk to me. Reason to avoid.

Once or twice was okay, but after a few times, he was pissed off by me.

"Why do you always avoid me!" He learned to be smart and stopped blocking me at school, but at home instead.

This is not the key, the key is: "How did you get in?"

"I saw it when you entered the password that night."

I also admire the fact that it is a matter of course to enter someone's house without permission. Arguing with him is a waste of effort. I can only silently decide in my heart to change the password as soon as he leaves.

"Teacher, you haven't answered the question of why you keep avoiding me!" Fu Jiang asked repeatedly.

"Didn't I say that you need to keep your distance in school." Obviously he had done nothing wrong, but this sentence sounded inexplicably like a scumbag speaking.

"Is that keeping a distance? You are obviously avoiding me!"

"I—" Now I'm at a loss for words, probably because I was too tired today, and the manuscript sent to Yuko's editor was said to need to be revised in a few places, so I sat on the sofa exhausted, "Fu Jiang, please let the teacher go good?"

He pretended to be stupid: "Mr. Lixiang, what are you talking about?"

"I'm just an ordinary person. What good is it to try to make me like you?"

"Do you need a reason to like the teacher? I like the teacher, and I want the teacher to like me too, and put me in a different position from others." He looked down at me with a downward gaze.

Where does he just want me to put him in a different position from others, he wants me to be crazily obsessed with him like Maeda Kaori, and completely fall into his emotional slavery.

"But you have to know, Fu Jiang," I looked up at him, "It's not that you like me, I will like you."

He pursed his lips and looked at me with dark eyes. Just when I thought he was going to get angry at me, he suddenly shouted: "I don't care, I don't care, I want the teacher to like me, so I will I want it!"

"Teacher, try your best and like me too, okay? Okay?" He rolled from the ground to the sofa, and then to my side, with his head resting on my shoulder, twisting and turning like a bear child to his mother. Acting like a baby wants to buy expensive toys.

I couldn't get angry with him: "How can there be such a simple thing, liking is not a goal that can be achieved by hard work alone."

He leaned on my shoulder silently and didn't speak. At this time, Fu Jiang was much cuter. I stroked his hair lightly, like stroking the fluff of a puppy.

"Then am I special to the teacher?" He asked, with an aggrieved tone in his voice.

The word "special" is a stocking with a quirky cartoon pattern in bright colors. The word "like" is a bubble machine that blows heart-shaped pink bubbles.Stockings are warm to wear, I prefer the former.

"To me, of course you are special." In my limited life, it should be difficult for me to forget this beautiful and weird boy.

"Really?" The puppy looked up from my shoulder.

"Really." I nodded affirmatively.