Hoshinomiya Chie.
On the surface, she was an energetic, approachable young teacher who always liked to mingle with her students.
However, Akira's mind couldn't help but recall the perplexing information he had obtained on the first day of school:
[Intelligence 3: To satisfy physiological needs, please knock on Hoshinomiya Chie's door three times at exactly 2:00 AM.]
'Wait! The mysterious person rumored to be "open" is actually this teacher?! She's a teacher?!'
'Could it be... I misunderstood? Perhaps "physiological needs" doesn't refer to that kind of thing...'
The concept of "physiological needs" is far broader than imagined—besides sex, it also includes basic needs for survival such as air, water, food, and sleep.
However, Hoshinomiya keenly sensed that her conversation with Horikita was difficult to continue, and her gaze naturally turned to Akira, who had remained silent.
"Oh my! Isn't this Shimizu-kun?!" She suddenly leaned in closer. "You're even more handsome in person than in your photos!"
Akira politely asked, "Does Hoshinomiya-sensei know me?"
"Of course~" She raised her index finger and playfully wiggled it. "The girls have a secret 'First-Year Hotties Ranking,' you know, and Shimizu-kun is at the top of the list!"
"Girls make these kinds of rankings too?..." Akira subconsciously looked at Horikita beside him, who immediately interrupted coldly:
"Don't look at me, I didn't vote." Horikita's tone was still cold, but there was no surprise on her face, clearly indicating she had long been aware of the existence of this list.
"Shimizu-kun~" Hoshinomiya suddenly leaned even closer, her eyes twinkling with gossipy light. "A handsome boy like you must already have a girlfriend, right? You must have received quite a few confessions from girls?"
Akira subtly turned sideways, creating some distance. "I don't have a girlfriend yet."
"Eh~" Hoshinomiya drew out the sound meaningfully, tapping her chin with her finger. "You only denied the 'girlfriend' part... which means you have indeed been confessed to, right?"
"...Yes, I have." Akira paused for a moment, then added, "But I rejected them."
The scene of Karuizawa's confession flashed through his mind. That should count as a confession.
"Oh my~" Hoshinomiya suddenly drew out her words, her mischievous gaze flitting between the two. "Shimizu-kun couldn't possibly be..."
"...We're not like that." Horikita interrupted reflexively, but realized her blunder the moment she finished speaking.
"—in love with our Ichinose, right?" Hoshinomiya finished the second half of the sentence with a smile, her eyes still fixed on Horikita's face. "This student, I'm talking about our class president Ichinose. After all, Shimizu-kun spoke to her last week. Don't be so quick to react."
Horikita's expression instantly froze.
Only then did she realize that she had completely fallen into the other party's linguistic trap.
This Hoshinomiya-sensei was looking at her, but deliberately spoke another girl's name.
'This name... where have I seen it before?'
Horikita suddenly remembered the phone's friend list Akira had shown her last week—among those dense texts, the name "Ichinose" had indeed appeared. Her full name should be Ichinose Honami.
'She did it on purpose, absolutely on purpose.'
Horikita's gaze gradually turned cold.
Her earlier deliberate disregard of the other party had clearly provoked this carefully designed counterattack.
'These teachers are even more unqualified than the last!!'
Horikita coldly made her judgment.
First, there was her homeroom teacher, Chabashira—that woman who always wore high heels and left work on time.
Since the start of school, let alone class meetings, even the most basic class affairs had been handled half-heartedly.
Other classes had long since elected class presidents, but Class D remained leaderless, like a flock of sheep left to graze on their own.
And this one in front of her...
Hoshinomiya was tilting her head, fiddling with her slightly curled hair, and with her long legs under a miniskirt, she looked exactly like some party girl from Shibuya.
Even more absurd was that she was openly prying into a male student's romantic privacy at the teacher's office door, and even held a grudge over being ignored just now.
Horikita took a half-step back with a cold face. "The teacher employment standards of this school are truly questionable. Your frivolous attire alone completely fails to meet the professional standards of a teacher."
"Waaah~ Mini Sae-chan, so scary, so scary~" Hoshinomiya exaggeratedly covered her chest, but her smile grew even brighter.
She suddenly stood on tiptoe and pointed at the surveillance camera in the hallway. "But you know, under surveillance, publicly questioning the school authorities and teachers will deduct quite a few points~ It seems Sae-chan's plan is going to fail again. I'm afraid she's going to hit me again!..." Saying this, she suddenly changed her expression, her mouth drooping as if in distress, and looked at Akira with a wronged expression. "Shimizu-kun, you have to testify for me! She started it."
"Right! Shimizu-kun even gave me beer to drink, so you'll protect your teacher well, right? Don't worry! As long as you protect your teacher, I'll give you plenty of 'rewards'." Hoshinomiya stretched out her hand coquettishly, but Akira agilely stepped back half a step to avoid her.
He never expected that his first backward step after learning boxing would be against the delicate Hoshinomiya.
'So that's it...'
He finally understood the whole story—those cans of beer, given as a token of gratitude, had been regifted by Ichinose to her homeroom teacher.
And this teacher in front of him had, as a matter of course, taken the student's goodwill as a sign of affection toward herself.
So she was also an alcoholic?
'The so-called "reward"... couldn't possibly be what I'm thinking, could it?'
This ambiguous term continued to ferment in his mind, causing his previously firm judgment to waver—perhaps that "physiological need" indeed meant what he had initially understood.
Our Advanced Nurturing High School is visibly improving.
Extremely strict with students, yet unusually lenient with teachers.
'But... this person is actually the homeroom teacher of Class B!'
Akira suddenly realized something, his eyes flickering slightly.
Hoshinomiya's seemingly casual words and actions just now—deliberately provoking Horikita with a frivolous tone, instigating an argument in a spot where surveillance cameras could clearly capture it—were probably all carefully designed traps.
Horikita, as she had predicted, naturally lost her composure, and had already had a portion of her class points deducted.
From the perspective of other classes, this kind of behavior, tripping up a competitor, was indeed unbecoming of a teacher.
But from the standpoint of a Class B student, having a homeroom teacher who thought of the class's interests in every way should perhaps be a cause for celebration, right?
However, overall, his impression of this female teacher was not very good.
No matter what, a teacher indirectly targeting students is problematic no matter how you look at it.