Part 1
"Now then, a rock is dropped into a water well, travelling approximately 16t2 in t seconds. If the splash is heard 3.5 seconds later and the speed of sound is 1087 feet/second, what is the height of the well?"
Minori turned back, patiently waiting for someone to raise their hands and justify coming in today.
"…"
"Anybody want to try their hand at solving this one?"
Izayoi felt so bad for Minori. Everyone else in class looked so disinterested.
"How about we try a simpler problem first to warm up? We'll say two boats on opposite banks of a river start moving towards each other. They first pass each other 1400 meters from one bank. They each continue to the opposite bank, immediately turn around and start back to the other bank. When they pass each other a second time, they are 600 meters from the other bank. We assume that each boat travels at a constant speed all along the journey. Who can tell me the width of the river?"
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..
…
Parts of Minori's cheerful facade cracked.
"An examination consists of three parts. In part A, a student must answer 2 of 3 questions. In part B, a student must answer 6 of 8 questions and in part C, a student must answer all questions. How many choices of questions does the student have?"
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"I'd even settle for one student answering one question at this point," she says defeated.
"…"
"Come on everyone. You have to participate."
It was plain to see that nobody was paying any attention. Minori, for all her troubles, might as well have been addressing the wind or furniture. Or ghosts given how dead this class room seemed to be.
She let out a defeated sigh before moving on to the next question. Izayoi couldn't help but feel bad for her. Here she was, wasting her time trying to educate these idiots and nobody could be bothered to even meet her half way.
Reluctantly, Izayoi raised his hand.
"Izayoi?" Minori's shock was blunt.
"T1 plus T2 equals 3.5. T1 is the time is takes for the rock to reach the bottom of the well and T2 represents the time for the sound to reach the top of the well. Multiply that by 16 which gives us 1087. Multiple that by T2, the same distance of the height of the well. T2 equals 3.5 minus T1. If we multiply that with 16 then answer with 3.5 minus T1, we get T1, which is 3.34 seconds. Therefore, the height is equal to 178 feet. More or less."
Minori, accompanied by everyone else in class simply stared back dumbfounded.
"The answer to the other problems are 3600 meters and 84 respectively."
There was a long, heavy silence which lasted for a minute or so.
"Izayoi…?"
"Yes…"
"If you know all the answers, why are you in this class?"
⌠That, is the correct question.⌡
The rest of the day went by the same as it always did. Not that Izayoi could recall much of it. It was something he felt badly about; ignoring Minori, same as the rest of his peers, but ever since the incident with Akiza, he hadn't been able to concentrate.
He became aware of several voices chatting as he approached the school entrance; one of them belonging to Minori.
"It must be really tough being a teacher..." Kengo asked with Kai positioned next to him.
"Uh yes, it is", Minori replied nervously. "Maybe we should—"
"Hey, any idea what we'll be covering tomorrow?" Kai interrupted. From the way his eyes sized up Minori's body, Izayoi knew the young man had everything but education in mind.
"Hey there!" He proudly proclaimed to the rest of them. The outburst bewildered Minori somewhat. Kengo and Kai responded by give Izayoi the stink eye.
"Hello." It might just have been the hollowest greeting ever.
"Ms. Takagawa, I'm not sure I fully get what you were talking about in class. Would it be alright if we went through it with you again?"
"Maybe in private", Kengo added.
"Well I, I'd be happy to go through some of the material again in class tomorrow."
"Oh no, we wouldn't want to take away all the valuable time everyone else is putting into coming here every day."
"Just say when you're free and we'll be at your doorstep in no time at all."
⌠I bet you will.⌡
⌠Anything to be alone with her.⌡
"Ms. Takagawa..." Izayoi decided he might as well interrupt this cozy scene.
"Yes, Izayoi?"
"Do you mind looking over some notes I made of today's class? I keep rereading them but it feels they everything's going over my head. I think I lost you somewhere. It'll only take a minute."
"Uh, okay. Sure. We can do it right now. Kengo, Kai, why don't you two join us?"
The duo delinquents stared daggers at Izayoi, but realized they had to recover their composure.
"That's alright. We can do it some other time." The two of them left promptly, not allowing any time for further remarks. Izayoi let out a sigh of relief as soon as he felt it was safe to do so.
"Phew. That was a close one."
"Huh?"
"With Kai and Kengo." Minori genuinely seemed in the dark about his masterful plan.
⌠ Bless this adorably sweet woman.⌡
"Oh, I'm sorry. It looked like you needed some help back there."
"You mean with Kai and Kengo? So that's what you were doing?"
"Wait, you didn't need my help?"
"I'm more than capable of taking care of myself. But thank you anyway. It's sweet." Izayoi felt a twinge of embarrassment wrap around him. "When you look like me, this sort of thing happens a lot around young people."
"It doesn't exactly help that you don't look much like a teacher either."
"Excuse me?!" Minori yelped uproariously.
"No, no! I mean that literally. You look like you should be in class with us, not teaching us."
Without any prompt, Minori's concern became replaced with a sly grin. "I see. Well, I'm older than I look." She said it so playfully. "You'd be surprised."
"I'll bet", Izayoi responded in an uninterested voice. He only came over to see if he could help out. There was no desire to strike up a conversation.
"Izayoi?"
"Huh?" He saw her looking back at him with concern.
"Is everything alright?" Izayoi couldn't tell her the truth. He couldn't tell her about what had happened. He didn't even know.
"I'm fine. Don't worry about me."
"I'm your teacher. It's my job to worry."
He'd forgotten how nagging Minori could be. Perhaps that's why she reminded him so much of a student instead of an educator.
"Well, you don't need to worry about me. I'm completely—"
"You should come over to my place and tell me all about your troubles."
"What?!" Minori pulled on his arm, leading him towards the parking lot.
"Hold on! I haven't agreed yet!"
It was no use.
The grip was so intense, Izayoi couldn't be sure Minori wasn't really a veteran pro wrestler.
He eventually allowed himself to go along with her proposal. He didn't want to admit it out loud, but he really wanted this. Of course this was every young man's dream: To be invited to their sexy teacher's place of residence.