February 1
Weather: On and off rain
Recorder: Katori
It seems like the coldest time of the year is supposed to be from January to February, but today really feels like one of those days.
“The rain is colder than the snow, you know…”
“Ah, I totally get that. When it snows, there’s some insulation, but with rain, it feels like it attacks the temperature directly.”
Yeah, yeah. That’s exactly how it feels.
Today is one of those days when the rain keeps starting and stopping, and, of course, it rains right around the time to go to school and the time to go home… What do you call this? Murphy’s Law?
“And when it snows, we run around the yard, which warms us up! But with rain, we don’t run around, so we don’t get warm!”
“Why don’t you try running in the hallway?”
“Got it. So, should Hagasaki-kun run with me too?”
“I’m not running.”
When it’s cold, you just don’t feel like moving. I get what Maito-san is saying, but yeah, it’s probably better not to run in the hallway. The other day, she was running in the hallway and got scouted by the basketball coach to join the team…
“But hey, this is our chemistry club! There’s no air conditioning, but we have a heater! And more importantly!”
“We’ve got a gas burner! Yay!”
“Yay!”
…And well, this is better than running in the hallway.
Yeah. This chemistry lab, for some reason, doesn’t have air conditioning. Every classroom has it, but for some reason, the lab doesn’t. So, in the summer, it’s unbearably hot… but in the winter, well, it’s a bit drafty, but if we huddle around the heater and light the gas burner, itโs actually quite warm.
…Well, at least for now.
“Okay. I’m done too. So, Katori, sorry, but could you handle this?”
“Yeah, sure.”
Unfortunately, I lost the game of Daifugล we were playing here earlier.
And since the cold tasks are the job of the Daihinmin (the poorest player), I have to leave this warm chemistry lab…
“Sorry for sending you out in the cold to look for Sensei…”
“If you hadn’t played an Eleven Back then, Katori wouldn’t have become the Daihinmin.”
“Sorry again… but a gameโs a game, so off you go.”
“Yeah. I’m going.”
I take the clear file Maito-san handed me and head out.
Where to…?
Where could Hibiki-sensei be…?
…Yeah. The job of the Daihinmin is to search the entire school for the elusive Hibiki-sensei…
Being a school teacher is tough enough with teaching and homeroom duties and advising clubs, so they’re always busy. But Hibiki-sensei disappearing all the time… yeah, that’s a different issue.
I mean, Hibiki-sensei wasnโt in the chemistry lab, nor in the staff room, as usual.
Itโs kind of amazing that the school’s chemistry teacher isn’t in either of these places… Aren’t teachers supposed to be in their subjectโs room or the staff room?
Hibiki-sensei is also a homeroom teacher, so I checked there too, but naturally, they weren’t there either.
Where could they be…? Where could they be…? Why does Sensei always disappear…?
The reason I’m looking for Hibiki-sensei is for proofreading.
We were discussing how we should add some new experiment demonstrations for the upcoming orientation for next year’s freshmen, so we created some new procedures and scientific tricks and were asking for proofreading.
We picked out a few that we thought might get scrapped, and we wanted to hear Sensei’s opinion on those as well.
…But Sensei isn’t anywhere to be found!
Why does Hibiki-sensei disappear so often…? Why is that…?
I hope he shows up soon… Itโs cold… Itโs cold…
“Why are you here, teacher?!”
“Oh, sorry.”
In the end, I found Sensei in the first-floor hallway! Right below the chemistry lab! Why there, of all places?
“I was just having some tea in the home economics research room.”
How was I supposed to know that?! I was searching through the physics lab, the biology lab, and the computer room, while Sensei was leisurely drinking tea the whole time! This is unforgivable!
…Well, yeah. But I guess it can’t be helped. Teachers have their own social circles too, after all. Yeah, it can’t be helped.
“So, sorry. What did you need?”
“Oh, right. Please take a look at this.”
Finally, I managed to hand Sensei the clear file. After carrying it around for so long, it’s warmed up to body temperature.
“Oh, this is what you were talking about the other day. Okay, okay. Well, this isn’t the best place to review it, so should we head to the staff room?”
“Sure.”
From here, it’s just a quick climb up the stairs to the chemistry lab, but if we cut through the courtyard, we’ll reach the staff room just as quickly, so either way works.
I followed Sensei to the staff room and watched as he began proofreading.
Teachers really are amazing. They read and write so quickly. Watching our project proposals turn red with advice and corrections made me feel a bit guilty.
“Oh.”
“Huh?”
Just as Sensei finished marking up the first proposal and started on the second, he made a strange sound.
“My pen ran out of ink.”
…
“Sorry to keep you waiting!”
A minute later, Sensei came back from his desk with what looked like a backup red pen and started writing again.
Yeah, yeah… I guess teachers use a lot of red pens. So it’s only natural they’d run out of ink often…
“Oh.”
“Huh? What is it this time?”
“Sorry, I just remembered I have to take something to the office. They close at 5, so can I just drop off this document real quick?”
“Oh, go ahead…”
“I’ll keep reading while I’m waiting at the office.”
…Sensei left the staff room, still reading our proposals. Yeah, school teachers are busy. Can’t be helped…
“Sorry to keep you waiting, really.”
Three minutes later, Sensei returned from the office. The office is right next to the staff room, so it was pretty quick… Maybe Sensei, like Maito-san, runs down the hallway sometimes.
…If Sensei ran down the hallway with his build, it would be quite a sight. Yeah, Iโd kind of like to see that.
Come to think of it, wasnโt Sensei reading the proposal while walking? If he was running down the hallway like Ninomiya Kinjiro, that would be really dangerous. Given Sensei’s build, a collision could be quite serious…
“Oh…”
“What’s wrong this time?!”
“Ah, I think there was a book that might be helpful for this… where did I put it?”
…
“You know, the price of this chemical seems a bit… I should probably check.”
…
“Yeah. Let’s swap out chloroform for dichloromethane. Let’s avoid using restricted substances. Oh, and my red pen ran out of ink again.”
…
“Where’s the correction tape…?”
…
…Well, a lot happened.
A lot happened, but in the end, Sensei reviewed all the proposals in about 15 minutes.
…It took longer to find Sensei than to get the reviews!
“These look pretty interesting. Yeah. Everyone did a good job.”
But it was worth the trouble of finding Sensei. Even just glancing at the advice we got, it was all incredibly useful. Teachers really are amazing. Thatโs clear as day.
“Alright, I’ll go make copies of these. None of the experiments seem like they should be scrapped, so can I go ahead and order the necessary chemicals?”
“Wait, none of them got scrapped?!”
“Yep. They all look pretty interesting.”
“Even the one where we vaporize ether and ignite it?!”
“It’ll look flashy, right?”
Uh… I see. Well, I mean, it’s great that none of the experiments got scrapped, but… I didn’t expect that…
While I was feeling a mix of emotions, Sensei left the staff room and went into the printing room across the hall. The copier was already in use, so we had to wait a bit…
…But once the copier was free, he quickly made a bunch of copies, and then put the originals back into the clear file for me.
“Alright, start preparing what you can. I’ll place orders for the chemicals we don’t have, but you might be able to start with the ones we already have.”
“Oh, thank you very much.”
“But I probably won’t be able to check in on you today, so I’ll see you at the next club meeting.”
…
I wonder where Sensei will disappear to after this…
“I’m back.”
“That took a while. Were you searching for Sensei?”
“Yeah. I spent more than half the time just looking for him.”
There’s nothing quite like the feeling of emptiness you get while wandering the hallways thinking, ‘What am I even doing?’ Cold and a little depressing.
“Where was Sensei?”
“In the home economics prep room.”
“Why?!”
“Apparently, they were having tea.”
“That’s awful… Katori was searching so hard, and Sensei was just drinking tea…”
“Well, I guess it can’t be helped, right? I mean, it kind of seems like the home economics teacher might be interested in Hibiki-sensei.”
Oh, I see. I kind of wish I hadn’t learned that…
“Hibiki-sensei is definitely young.”
“Hibiki-sensei is tall too!”
“Hibiki-sensei is also good at cooking and very capable!”
“And his face is pretty well-structured too.”
“But marrying Hibiki-sensei would definitely wreck your food budget.”
“And they disappear all the time…”
“In a few years, he’ll probably start growing sideways instead of up!”
…Uh, no, but overall, doesnโt that still make him a pretty good catch…?
“So, did you get it checked?”
“Yeah, I got it proofread.”
…Anyway, setting the Sensei talk aside for now.
I took out the papers from the clear file I brought back and spread them out on the desk so everyone could check their own work…
“…Huh? It looks like mine wasn’t corrected at all.”
“Wait, mine isn’t marked either.”
“…Mine neither. Could it be because it was rejected for being too dangerous?”
…Yeah. This is a bit strange.
A few of these donโt have any corrections…
But there wasnโt supposed to be a single experiment that got scrapped… Didnโt Sensei say he checked everything?