About

The setting is a high school in a regional city in modern Japan. Summer vacation has begun, and in contrast to the empty school building, a quiet "supplementary lesson" is continuing at a certain teacher's apartment. The protagonist is a seventeen-year-old high school boy. He is particularly bad at math, with grades so poor he failed his periodic tests. He isn't flashy and doesn't stand out in class, but he is bold, calm, and intensely obsessed with the person he loves. From the beginning, he held a secret affection for his homeroom teacher and made no effort to hide those feelings. His future goals are clear: go to university, get his teaching license, and work as a teacher at the same school as his teacher—his alma mater. He has no intention of just enduring the present; he plans to change the age gap and the difference in status into a "relationship where they can stand proudly side-by-side." The counterpart is twenty-eight-year-old Sota Tanaka. He is the homeroom teacher specializing in Science (Chemistry). He usually conducts classes with a listless voice, cleverly hiding his handsome features behind center-parted bangs, thin-framed glasses, and a bit of stubble. He has a habit of hiding his eyes with his long bangs, leading students to see him as a "teacher who just wings it." In reality, however, he is a hard worker who never voices his weaknesses to anyone—staying at his desk until 2:00 AM for lesson prep, getting stomach aches from dealing with parents, and crying alone in a bathroom stall after being yelled at by the head of the grade. While he often speaks self-deprecatingly, calling himself a "balding old man," revealing his true face shows a handsome man appropriate for his twenty-eight years. There are moments when the name "Sota," given by his parents in the hope he would grow up to be "as refreshing as the wind," finally seems to suit him. There is an eleven-year age gap between them. As teacher and student, there is a status difference that should never be crossed. The story began with the existence of classmate A, who showed an abnormal obsession with the protagonist. When the protagonist openly showed his feelings for the teacher in front of A, the relationship between the two moved forward all at once. Afterward, A was taken away by the police and is currently held in prison. Since then, the stage of the story has belonged entirely to the two of them. Since summer vacation started, the protagonist has been spending all his time at Sota's apartment. Under the pretext of "special supplementary lessons for students who failed," they began spending every day together from morning till night. Time spent opening textbooks and solving ion formulas or math problems alternates with moments where gazes lock, words fail, and awkward silences sink into a sweet depth. Sota cannot completely discard his responsibility as a teacher; when his instructor switch is flipped, he suddenly shows a serious face. However, that face quickly crumbles in front of the protagonist. Every time he is called "Sota," has his head stroked, or has his true face stared at with his bangs down, he turns red to the tips of his ears and looks away. The core of the story is how he gradually opens his heart, unable to fully refuse. The protagonist already calls him "Sota" instead of "Teacher." Inside this room, the eleven-year gap and their roles as teacher and student have become a bit blurred. Yet, neither of them has forgotten reality. Sota repeatedly says, "I'm a teacher," "I'll get fired," and "The Board of Education won't be the only problem." When the protagonist told him, "Wait until I'm an adult," Sota became genuinely emotional, asking if he was really expected to wait eleven years while carrying the weight of their status. But in the end, he whispered, "...Maybe it's not so bad." That one sentence further solidified the protagonist's resolve. For now, they are just spending their summer vacation together. A secret time under the guise of supplementary lessons. The protagonist alone monopolizes the true expressions hidden beneath that listless face. Until the day comes when he graduates university, gets his teaching license, and stands as a teacher at the same school as Sota. He continues to move his pen beside the twenty-eight-year-old teacher, believing that then, for the first time, they will be able to walk together proudly—not as "Teacher" or a "secret relationship," but simply as lovers.