Korogane Ryushi was a quiet man who liked to read, greeted people politely, and had perhaps the largest, most boisterous family his neighbourhood had seen.
He had moved in, alone and looking quite lonely. But he hasn't dated much time in renovating the bottom half of his house into a flower shop, showing off a variety of flowers that were hard to procure.
He had a terrible eye for business in spite of that, though. He would give away flowers to anyone he felt like, offering a flower to a crying girl or a middle aged man who looked particularly depressed. He presented expensive bouquets to his neighbours, along with fruit baskets and talked to everyone warmly.
He was a kind person, his neighbours could agree.
But his only flaw or maybe another aspect of his charm started when a beautiful looking girl entered his flower shop. She had a friendly chat with the owner, before coming back two days later with a group of people.
The numbers of people who came to visit the man only increased since then, and people started to recognise the actress among them, or the occasional people who came by while wearing suits and left without buying a single flower.
The rumours started when a grim-faced man and a beautiful woman came in, hand in hand, and when they were leaving, one of his neighbours curiously asked who they were.
The woman offered the older woman, who introduced herself as Nori, a warm smile before looking at Korogane and the man, who had accompanied her, talking through the window.
"We're here to visit my brother," she told her, a mischievous smile on her lips. Nori patted her arm.
"You have a really kind brother. I hope you visit him more, he seems awfully lonely at times," Nori told her. The woman blinked a few times, seemingly surprised, before she smiled even more mischievously again.
"Thank you. I'll make sure to keep him busy from now on," she grinned. The woman laughed, thinking about the antics she and her own brother used to get up to.
"Don't trouble him too much," she called out, tone friendly, as the woman latched onto her husband and started chattering away, waving at her brother teasingly.
Korogane gave Nori a doubtful look, but the woman kept smiling at him knowingly.
They were definitely siblings, she thought when the man turned around and said something to the woman that had her turn around and stick out her tongue at him.
Soon after that, a blonde girl and a few more, stopped by, making sure to thank Nori for her advice as they left. Nori watched in amusement as the number of children dropping by increased drastically.
There were even two boys who dropped by, both good looking enough to be in the entertainment world, like one of the girls that dropped by frequently. The red haired one came by often enough that she and a few others suspected they were actually related.
His interactions with Korogane were certainly close enough to indicate a paternal one, but, Nori doubted a biological relation. Korogane would never have allowed the boy to live alone like he clearly was, if they were.
The man had already taken in half the neighbourhood children, along with the two dozen that came with him, under his wing already, and if Nori didn't already know how good of a person the man was, the amount of animals that dropped by, would certainly have convinced her otherwise.
The red head always seemed to drop off his cats whenever he was too busy to take care of them, and slowly, the neighbourhood cats seemed to immigrate in with the man as well.
The man certainly didn't lack company, that's for sure. Nori was glad she told his sister, because the man only seemed happier.
Even as the children are older, some moving out in their adult years, most likely for college or jobs, there was a study number of people who dropped by.
There was a blue haired man, who came by to visit Nori too, at times. They would share a meal if it was close to Nori's meal times, sometimes she gave him cookies to share with his father figure even though Nagisa insisted he was only his middle school teacher.
Nori knew better though.
Korogane had two dozen children and nothing would convince her otherwise. Even Nagisa had started to- wisely- give up that argument after the fifth time she not-so-accidentally referenced Korogane as their father.
Nori tended to forget that the children actually had parents until she had yet another conversation with a stern looking man leaving Korogane's house.
His hair and features looked almost exactly like one of the children, which was why she had become curious about the man.
He introduced himself as a teacher and vaguely told her about Korogane's past as a teacher which led him to adopt the two dozen children who visited him far more frequently than even Nori's own blood children.
Nori would admit to being slightly jealous, but whenever she would see one of the children brightly greeting Korogane as Koro-sensei, bringing alone gifts that filled up his home to full, all she would feel was warmth.
Korogane was a nice man, she would admit, and an even brilliant teacher and father, if he could bring out the best in so many people.
And when Nori started seeing more familiar faces on the billboards, she wasn't even surprised.
Korogane did seem like the kind of man who would have his children live up and beyond, if only to show the world how good of a teacher they had.
To show how good of a father they had.
He just seemed like that kind of a man, with that kind of children.