'I barely touched him! How on earth did he hit the door?!'
With his back turned to the rest of the room, Supervisor Inoue's utterly flabbergasted and bewildered expression was visible to no one but the little boy on the floor.
To the other teachers in the room, it looked as though he had aggressively shoved the young student, causing him to smash his head and fall.
A student getting injured by a teacher on school grounds was a severe offense.
The entire office instantly grew tense.
Among them, the ones panicking the most were Yukari and Supervisor Inoue himself.
Bolting from her seat, Yukari rushed to the doorway and gathered the crying child, who was clutching his head, tightly into her arms, then glared up at Supervisor Inoue, and demanded sharply: "Supervisor Inoue! What do you think you're doing? Why did you push my student?!"
Utterly bewildered as to how the boy had ended up on the floor, Inoue frantically waved his hands, his face pale with panic.
"I didn't... I didn't mean to..."
"Yukari-sensei, I'm okay. It's just my tummy hurting again."
As if to prove the injury wasn't severe, the little boy quickly stifled his cries, then reached out a small, innocent hand and gently tugged on Yukari Sasaki's sleeve.
Hearing that the boy was fine, Inoue let out a massive sigh of relief and chimed in hastily,
"It's good that he's fine, it's good that he's fine! Sasaki-sensei, hurry and take him to the infirmary to get checked out."
Carrying the little boy out of the staff room, Yukari asked with deep concern,
"Fuyumi, are you truly alright? Maybe we should visit the hospital just to be safe."
"I'm perfectly fine! I only pretended to have a stomachache because I heard those people making things difficult for you, Yukari-sensei."
Clutching his stomach, the little boy grinned up at her mischievously.
"What I meant was..."
Reaching up with his tiny hand, the boy gently rubbed the furrowed space between the older sister's brows, his smile radiant.
"Yukari-sensei shouldn't frown so much~ Mama says people who frown all the time age much faster."
"Oh, right. Does that guy with the glasses always harass you like that, Yukari-sensei?"
Interrupted by his sudden affection, the lecture Yukari was about to give died in her throat.
Hearing his question, she shook her head with a soft smile.
"No, not always. It's just..."
Explaining the harsh realities of adult life to such a young child felt inappropriate.
Besides, Fuyumi was already far too precocious for his own good; if she told him too much, he would only overthink it.
It was better to shield him.
Thinking about it, she continued gently, "Supervisor Inoue wasn't harassing me. He simply invited me to a dinner gathering tonight, and it just wasn't very convenient for me to go."
"Mmh."
Whether he truly understood or not, the little boy's smile remained unchanged.
Afterward, Yukari took the little guy to the infirmary for a quick checkup.
Once the school nurse confirmed there were no injuries, she prepared to take him home.
However, Fuyumi insisted that his mother was already on her way to pick him up, urging Yukari to leave first while he waited by the school gates.
Taken aback by his stubborn insistence, and seeing no reason to doubt him, she relented and headed home.
Yet, the moment she stepped through her front door...
Riiing~
"Hello? Is this Ms. Sasaki?
We are calling from..."
Yukari had barely slipped off her shoes when her phone rang.
Having answered it absentmindedly without checking the caller ID, it wasn't until the voice on the other end clarified their identity that her heart dropped.
It was the police station.
The officer informed her that her student, Fuyumi Sasaki, had reportedly suffered severe bullying at school.
As his homeroom teacher, she was required to report to the station immediately.
When a panicked and utterly bewildered Yukari arrived at the station, she found not only the school principal already waiting, but also Fuyumi's parents.
Through the officers' detailed account, Yukari finally pieced together what had happened.
The clever little guy had marched right into the police station entirely on his own to file a report.
He claimed that a specific male teacher at his school frequently physically abused him.
A teacher dynamic involving the abuse of a child was a massive scandal anywhere—and the fact that the young student had personally walked into a police station while clutching his head made it impossible for the authorities to ignore.
Whether his claims were true or fabricated, the police were legally obligated to launch an immediate investigation.
Shortly after her arrival, the rest of the faculty members filed in, followed by a drenched, heavily sweating Supervisor Inoue.
Because he had undeniably pushed the student in front of witnesses, resulting in an audible impact, the police heavily scrutinized the boy's use of the word frequently and launched a deep-dive investigation into Inoue's background.
Ultimately, while they didn't find much substantial evidence regarding physical abuse, the investigation blew the lid off something far worse: a massive paper trail detailing his illicit affairs with multiple female colleagues and the heavy embezzlement of school funds.
Because the stolen amount was staggering, compounded by the severe charge of child endangerment, the legal system showed no mercy.
Inoue was sentenced to over thirty years of imprisonment.
Meanwhile, Yukari watched the entire legal circus unfold from the sidelines.
She couldn't speak for his financial crimes... but she knew better than anyone whether Inoue had "frequently" laid a hand on her student.
Once the dust finally settled, she found an opportunity to question the boy in private.
Letting the clingy little guy rest his weight against her back while she organized her teaching materials, she asked in a casually light, probing tone,
"Little Fuyumi, why did you tell the police that Supervisor Inoue frequently hit you? Teacher was scared out of her wits when they questioned me."
Although his parents and teachers always instructed him to be honest, the little boy didn't care to extend that courtesy to everyone.
He had seen kids bully others at school, which taught him early on that the world wasn't filled with good people.
And since adults always taught him to call the police or tell his parents whenever he encountered bad people or problems he couldn't solve, he had simply followed their advice to the letter.
So, facing the older sister he adored, the boy gave his completely honest, unfiltered justification. "He scared me once, and he hit me once. Doesn't that add up to 'frequently'?"
Children really do have the simplest logic...
Yukari realized he hadn't picked up on her subtle hint at all.
Ensuring the other children in the classroom were occupied and out of earshot, she shifted her wording, asking directly, "What I really want to know, Fuyumi, is why you went to the police station in the first place. Didn't you tell me earlier that you were perfectly fine?"
Though his reasoning was limited by his young age, Fuyumi was incredibly sharp.
After pondering her words for a moment, the boy grasped what she was truly asking, paused for a while before answering in his soft, childish voice, "I didn't tell you beforehand because... because you're too... too..."
Struggling to find the right word, the little boy scratched his head, knitting his brows in deep thought before finally stumbling upon it.
"Too defenseless? Mmh, too defenseless! You clearly didn't want to go to dinner with them, but when they were making things difficult for you, you should have just turned around and walked away. I heard everything from outside the door,
Yukari-sensei, but you just stood there. You're far too silly."
"..."
Yukari's eyes crinkled as a helpless, deeply touched smile spread across her face.
Rather than trying to explain the exhausting complexities of adult society to a child, she remained quiet, listening to the rest of what he had to say.
"Mmh. And I told the police officers because Supervisor Inoue is a bad man."
"A bad man?"
Inoue's embezzlement certainly made him a criminal, but the little guy couldn't possibly have known that beforehand.
Unable to contain her curiosity,
Yukari voiced her confusion.
"How did you know he was a bad man, Fuyumi? Did you see or hear him doing something bad before today?"
?
Hearing the words, the boy tilted his head and stared at her blankly.
Supervisor Inoue had been bullying her right in front of his eyes, trying to force her to play with him against her will, and he had listened to the entire exchange from the hallway.
'She already knows this. Why is she asking again?
He didn't quite get it, but since Yukari-sensei wanted to hear it again, he didn't mind repeating himself.
"Because he was bullying you, Yukari-sensei! Anyone who bullies you is a bad person!"
The little boy's voice was light and youthful, yet anchored by absolute, unwavering conviction.
"And bad people belong in jail!"
His soft words hit Yukari's chest like a wave of warmth, leaving her entirely speechless.
Initially, she had assumed the little guy was simply holding a petty grudge, looking to retaliate against Inoue for ruffling his hair.
That would have been the most logical explanation for a child's tantrum.
But to think... he had orchestrated the entire thing entirely for her sake?
Which meant... his head hitting the doorframe had been completely deliberate.
Recalling how Inoue had desperately tried to protest his innocence to the officers, Yukari felt her theory solidify.
What followed was a profound sense of disbelief, intertwined with an incredibly complex wave of emotion.
She, an adult woman, had actually been protected by a child.
The persistent, suffocating harassment she had endured from Inoue had been decisively severed by a little boy.
He had truly shielded her.
Never having been cared for in such a fierce, unconditional manner, Yukari's heart swelled with a gratitude so heavy she couldn't find the breath to voice it.
For one, she didn't know how to articulate it properly; secondly, even if she did, he was likely too young to comprehend the depth of it.
And judging by his oblivious expression... he didn't seem to care about rewards anyway.
Even so, she couldn't simply sit back and do nothing just because he didn't expect anything in return.
Verbal expressions might fly over his head, but physical actions were a language a child could easily understand.
Allowing her fabric-covered knees to press firmly against the wooden floorboards, Yukari shifted her weight, pulling the little guy from her back and wrapping him securely in a tight, protective embrace.
Resting her chin gently on the crown of his soft hair, she spoke in a quiet, trembling voice, her gratitude ringing with absolute sincerity. "Thank you, little Fuyumi. Truly... thank you."
"Hehe, it's only natural!"
Deeply enjoying the soft, fragrant, and immensely warm embrace of his beautiful teacher, the little boy buried his face into her shoulder, nuzzling against her affectionately.
"The people on TV say that it's a husband's duty to protect his wife.
You don't need to thank me, Yukari-sensei. We're not strangers, after all."
'Husband... wife... marriage promise...'
.
.
.
Ring! Ring! Ring!
The vibrant colors of the memory shattered instantly as a loud, frantic alarm cut through the silence.
Yukari opened her eyes, a familiar, lingering ache settling deep within her chest.
Wiping a stray, unconscious tear from the corner of her eye, she rolled over and tightly clutched the beautifully carved wooden box resting on her nightstand against her chest.
"I dreamed about that time again..."
.
.
.