I Was Hired As A Tutor By A Cute Little Devilish Junior - Chapter 60 Confession

She was the only one in the classroom.
The classroom seemed to be so spacious that her figure seemed small in proportion to the space.

A gentle breeze was blowing through the open window, and the curtain next to the blackboard was swaying.
Even in the after-school bustle that came in with the wind, her sobbing, gravelly voice echoed clearly in my ears.

I entered the classroom and slowly closed the door. However, the old door, which was a little rickety, released a dull thud as it closed.

“Nuh…?”

She, too, heard the loud noise and looked up to turn around.
Our eyes meet. Her eyes were straight at me, shining faintly with tears in the setting sun.

“S-Senpai…”

Her tear-filled eyes widened. Tears overflowed at once in response.
She noticed the tears running down her cheeks and quickly hid them with her arms so that I wouldn’t see them.

“I-I’m sorry…I…”

With her voice ragged with tears, she tried to utter the words as best she could.
I walked quietly to her. I felt it was wrong to let her say what she wanted to say.

I stood in front of her. She was still trying to speak, and I reached for her head as I always do.
Something was wrong, or more precisely, something was missing. She needed support.

It seemed my body knew the answer. I found myself wrapping my hands around her and holding her close.
I held her tightly to my chest so that there would be no more tears from her.

On the desk behind her was a sheet of paper.
It was crumpled and wilted as if it had been discarded in the rain.
Written in smudged ink were the results of her exams.

There was a glorious array of scores there. All of them were almost perfect scores.
But the number she was looking for was not what she wanted. It was just one number.

—And that number revealed a merciless and cruel result.

『Ranking』

That place was where the ink was smeared the most on that paper. But despite that, the number could be made out; I knew what it meant.
Her goal was not achieved. Her promise to me was broken without being kept.

“…Shiina.”

Without thinking, I called her name like that and hugged her body hard and strong without hearing her reply.
If I didn’t do so, she would disappear. She looked weaker than I thought.

Somewhere in the back of my mind, I thought Shiina was a strong girl.
She piled up effort upon effort, summoned up all her courage, and then aimed for a result she could be proud of.
Then, without being satisfied with the results, she would continue to work hard, and then she would make a decision for herself and work hard again.

I had seen her right beside me, and without any doubts, I had assumed…that she was a strong girl.

She was more serious than anyone else, cute, devilish, and a kouhai.
She was just an ordinary high school girl who has rarely shown any weakness so far.

Shiina made a promise shortly before the start of the exam period. At that time, I may have been somewhat spoiled by her.
I supported her goals and asked her to fulfill the promise.

Now that I thought about it, I wondered if that was a “sneaky” way of doing things, as she had said.

—So I set a goal for myself, too.
I set the same goal as she did for myself so that I could be confident and proud of Shiina’s feelings.

While making her support my top priority, I also worked on my own studies after I got home.
I hadn’t studied so ridiculously diligently since I took the high school entrance exam.

I hugged Shiina again tightly, who still wept into my chest, and stroked her hair gently.

“Shiina.”

I called her name.
Stopping her from saying further, I called her name again.

There was no answer, but she gradually calmed down as I rubbed her head.
I tried to untangle my hands from around her back to separate our bodies, but she refused to let me do so.
She clung to my back tightly and wouldn’t let go.

“…No, I don’t want you to see my face right now.”

She spilled this out in a muffled voice.
I apologized and hugged her back.

But I have to tell her these words.
I don’t know if this was truly for her sake. But it was what I have to do now.
I took a quick, deep breath and slowly form the words.

“Shiina.”
“…Yes.”
“First of all, I’m sorry. It was my fault. I couldn’t make Shiina come in first.”
“No…it was me.”
“I know. Still, let me apologize on my own end. I’m sorry.”
“…”

I understood that being apologized to by me was not satisfactory for Shiina.
However, as someone who was officially employed by her, I was acutely aware that I had not done enough.

This was not an apology in the sense of poor consolation. I understood her feelings.

I had a idea. And above all, it was a way to firmly end this mess.

“On top of that, I have a favor to ask of Shiina.”
“…?”
“I too, made the same promise to Shiina that you made to me.”
“Eh…”

A late, cunning, selfish promise.
Even so, I was convinced that this was the only thing I could do, the only thing I could do for her right now.
So I told her the words.

“’If I get first place on this test, I will tell you how I truly feel.'”

Regarding the contents of the promise, there was nothing different compared to the promise she made me. She definitely would have understood why.
And I was sure she also understood the meaning of bringing up that promise at this moment.

“S-Senpai. T-That’s…”

Shiina removed her hand from behind my back and our eyes met.
Her swollen eyelids were wide open and her tears had stopped.

I took a piece of paper out of the pocket of my uniform and handed it to Shiina.
She slowly opened the folded paper and looked down at the words and numbers on it.

『Ranking: 1st』

I exhaled and inhaled.
Then exhaled again. I said—

“I love Shiina.”

The wind blowing through the window shook her bangs.
Her beautiful eyes blinked in the red glow of the setting sun.

“So, I want you to answer me…and tell me how you feel about me, Shiina.”

The hands of the clock ticked regularly like a metronome, and my heart beat was in time with them.
I couldn’t see everything but her, and only her beautiful eyes reflected me.

“…I’m a very selfish girl.”
“Yeah, I know.”

“…And I’m a sneaky, bad girl too.”
“I also know you’re not like that.”

“…In the end, I’m just a clumsy kouhai who doesn’t get things right at crucial moments.”
“I also know that clumsiness is one of Shiina’s good points.”

I fell in love with her — I wanted to protect her because she was the one I wanted to protect, not anyone else.

“I—”

Everything about her attracted and fascinated me.

“I want to tell Senpai how I feel too.”
“…Please tell me.”

She closed her eyes.
Like me, she exhaled, then inhaled slowly, then opened her eyes.
A moment after her eyes meet mine, they have immediately closed again. The next moment, my vision was filled with her closed eyes.

“Mmm…”

Our lips touched each other’s.
She tiptoed to reach me and opened her eyes.

For the first time, the sensation surprisingly melted my brain and took me out of consciousness.
All of my senses, all of my consciousness, was filled with her, and my thoughts were cut off.

I don’t know how long we kissed.
My brain had gone through an incredibly long time and my body had only gone through a few seconds of time.

“Murakami-senpai.”

She called my name.
My cheeks were red, was it from the sun? Or—

“I love Senpai. I have been in love with you for a long time.”

A clear voice reverberated in my brain.
I felt a squeezing sensation in my chest, a kind of floating sensation.

From Shiina’s perspective, my cheeks would have been beautifully illuminated by the setting sun.
I couldn’t think of anything witty to reply to her words.
What finally came out of my mouth was a normal, commonplace expression.

“Thank you, Shiina.”
“I’m the one who should be thanking you.”

Shiina’s eyes were swollen, but she gave me her usual smile.
But she wasn’t nice enough to let it slide as it was.

“Ehehe…Um, you did it, didn’t you?”
“Ah, yeah.”

She deliberately puts her fingertips to her lips and smiles mischievously.

“…It’s my first time, so you’ll have to take responsibility for that, won’t you?”
“Responsibility…”
“Hmph, I won’t let anyone take my Senpai away from me!”

Shiina spun around and turned her back to me.
After a few steps, she stopped.

“I look forward to our future, Senpai.”

She turned around and left it at that.
Then she licked her lips with the tip of her tongue and gave me a small devilishly cute smile.

(EDN: THERE’S A FEW MORE CHAPTERS DON’T GO AWAY!)