He was finally back home now, though things were a little different. This time, the headmistress of the school was here. Specially to take care of him. That felt like it was a bit inappropriate for a woman in her position to be helping him out. Not to mention the age difference was a bit of a concern for him as well.

...Wait, what was he thinking? That shouldn’t be a problem, it’s not like they had that type of relationship. Kouji shook off his worries, it was pointless at this moment, as they entered his house.

“You should get changed.” She commanded him, pointing to the only bathroom available for them.

“Are you sure you don’t want to go first?” He asked. Personally, he felt a little bad that she had to spend her day and night here. Surely this was the complete opposite of comfort that she had at her own home. Whatever that might’ve looked like.

“Honestly, you really are something.” She ushered him to the bathroom with some more comfortable clothes. It would’ve been a lot better than sleeping in his school uniform, that’s for sure. He got in the bathroom to change, something that he rarely did considering he lived alone, then exited. “Great, I’ll just get them washed and folded.” She went to take them, but with some resistance.

“I can wash my own clothes.” He said, not loosening his grip on his old outfit. As someone living on their own, of course he made sure to keep everything in proper order.

“Judging by the size of this unit, you probably use public facilities to clean your clothes.” She made the obvious observation. The point being that one would have to go elsewhere to get this stuff cleaned. Something that he was in no position to be doing, nor did she want to wait for him to get better to handle this now.

“Fine.” He relented to her, handing the clothes to the woman.

“Thank you.” She made sure not to bunch them up, to avoid wrinkling such nice clothing. ”I’m assuming that you didn’t want me handling your more… Embarrassing wears.” She teased.

“I’m just going to lay in bed now.” He tried his best to ignore what she just said. But the small little blush he had, showed she nailed it.

“Anyway, I’ll gather all your clothes, and get it washed.” She looked at the clock. It shouldn’t take more than an hour, which was more than enough time to get back for the next thing she wanted to deal with. “Then I’ll cook dinner for the both of us.. Or maybe I could pick something up on the way back instead?”

“Aren’t you going to get changed?” He asked her, noticing that she hadn’t yet. Instead, she was still wearing her usual outfit that was expected from someone in the professional position she was in. That being a black blazer atop a grey polo. Accented with the yellow tie that was the common symbol of among all of the students.

Add to that her tight skirt and pantyhose, now he was starting to realize what Moku was referring to back at the carnival.

“I don’t have anything to change into.” She answered him, which continued to make him feel more guilt about her caring for him. “Oh, unless you meant if anyone might recognize me.” While she may have misunderstood his question, there was a point there. After all, some people would find it strange for the headmistress of this school going to some random laundry mat with the clothes of a boy.

In response to this problem, she did up her hair that was usually down. She tied them into a pair of buns, then scanned his room for something to put on her head. That was where she found a pair of shades, and a rather large hat forgotten by Anastasia during a prior visit.

“How do I look?” She asked him with pride, though he didn’t think this disguise was something to be proud of. If anything, this was more likely to attract attention, instead of avoiding it.

“I don’t know.” he told her with uncertainty in his voice. “I really don’t want you to get in trouble.” Between the two of them, she definitely had more to lose here.

“Nonsense, I can accept any consequences.” She assured him it would be fine and left.

Without anyone here, there wasn’t much that Kouji could do in this state. Luckily for him, a little dumpster hunting last week did provide for some entertainment in the shape of an old style TV. He was fortunate enough that the old owners just threw out a perfectly working television, even if totally outdated by standards of the last two decades.

The only thing he needed, was to find an antenna, and boom, some free entertainment. The only issue that anyone would have, was that the shows were far from what any teen would seek out. Not him though, things that aired from before he was born was a lot more interesting than he would’ve expected.

Time flew by, as he got sucked into the stories being told. He was so attentive to the TV, that he didn’t hear Isako returning until she announced her arrival.

“I’m back.” She held up a couple of bags. One being the freshly washed clothes, the other being the food she promised. She figured with the lack of supplies, that buying ingredients to make at home would’ve been too much a hassle. “Oh, what’s this?” She was surprised that he was watching a show that she had remembered seeing as a child.

“It’s an old TV.” He explained the reason. Though, if given the choice, Kouji would’ve seriously consider watching this over modern productions. She pulled out the fried rice and prepackaged broth that she bought. The broth was to help him get over his illness, which she began heating a pot for. The rice was to tide hunger for now, since she was certain he hadn’t eaten since breakfast, if even that.

“Looks like your fever’s gone down.” She check him with the back of her hand, after she was finished heating their food. Gently, she placed down the soup on his table for him to eat from. Meanwhile, she had finished his rice and was watching the show.

“Thank you.” He hung his head down while expressing gratitude. “You really don’t have to do all this, I’ll owe you big time.”

“Nonsense.” She replied. “It’s really not problem for someone like you.”

“But why?” He couldn’t shake what that really meant. Sure she said that she was a friend of his mother, but was that really enough to go to the lengths she did for him? Getting a boy to go to this school was far from easy, there just had to be more. “Weren’t you just a family friend?”

“I was more than just that.” She decided that now was the time to tell more of the truth to him. “You all were people I held dear in my life. Even your uncle.”

“I figured you knew him, but you never said anything specific.”

“Because I believed you weren’t ready then.” She still didn’t given that was only a couple week ago when it was first mentioned. However, seeing his curiosity, it was as good a time as any.

The truth was, that she was in a romantic relationship with his uncle while his parents were still alive. That practically ended after their deaths, as he made the choice to take Kouji away from town. She was against it, and chose to stay here instead.

“Honestly, I wish I could’ve had you stay.” Here was a much better place to raise a child, she believed. Seeing the school that Kouji went to during his junior high years, that belief appeared to be correct. “But he had the rights, and I’m sure he had his reasons.”

“Whatever they were, I doubt they were good.” Kouji crossed his arms in anger. His time with that man was hardly any good in his mind. Hardly a word was spoken between them, even when Kouji would get in trouble for fights he had gotten into then. His uncle still wouldn’t look at him. The change within himself was only because of a chance encounter, and had to be done on his own.

“Ah.” She raised her hands to back away from the subject. “It’s not something that someone as young as you should have to deal with. Really, just let the adults take care of themselves.”

“If you say so.” He replied, not certain how much of that statement he really agreed on. As they chatted, the TV showed its age as the picture quality worsened.

“Darn.” She muttered. “It looks like it’s on the fritz.” Kouji was about to get up to try adjusting things, but she stopped him. “You’re sick, so I’ll take care of it.” She figured it couldn’t be that bad.

But this thing was pretty ancient by tech standards, so she was a bit out of her element compared to what she had at home. However, for Kouji, her struggles with getting it working again wasn’t the problem for him. Well, the getting it working part wasn’t anyway.

At first, he didn’t think much of her doing it. Until she actually walked up to the TV, then had to bend down to all fours just to get a closer look at it. After all, he never got a table for the thing, so it was just sitting on the ground.

At face value, that didn’t sound like a problem. But that tight skirt of hers, just riding up and…

Instinctively, Kouji turned his head to avoid looking at her. Sure, it wasn’t like he hadn’t seen a lady’s underwear, but this was something else. At least with the girls, they were his age. Isako’s at least twice that, adding onto the fact that’s she’s the headmistress to his school. Honestly, why did he have to deal with things like this?

“I just can’t get it to work.” She murmured, turning her head to ask him a question. “Kouji…” It was when he noticed him awkwardly sitting, trying not to look at her.

“Y-yeah?” He responded, not moving a muscle.

“First off, look at me when I’m talking to you.” She commanded with a lightly stern voice. Not because she wanted to be mean to him, just was a little offended that he apparently didn’t want to look at her all of a sudden.

“O-okay…” He did as she asked, not wanting her to get more cross with him. Kouji looked at her, making sure that the only place he was watching was her face.

“I don’t understand any of this. Do you have an idea?”

“You could... try adjusting the antenna?” He suggested, it was usually what fixed the issues for him. She got up from her arms, and stood back up. However, in a standing position, she bent over to move the antennas around. She paid no mind to her outfit, which led Kouji to catch a glimpse of her…

In shame, he covered his face. His skin felt like it was on fire with embarrassment. The boy couldn’t believe what he just witnessed, how could she act so defenseless like this?

“There.” She was successful in fixing the TV’s connection issues. The picture returned back to normal quality. “Oh, whoops.” While admiring her work, she noticed how much her outfit exposed herself. “That’s probably why you didn’t want to look at me.”

“…” Kouji simply nodded in response to the question, it was too much just to put it into words. Slowly, he opened his eyes when she announced herself decent once more.

“Honestly, I thought you wouldn’t get flustered over a woman my age.” She joked, but she was hardly in her mid-thirties. It’s not as if aging had taken over her body yet. Isako was certainly a woman that could catch the attention of plenty of men.

“It’s still not appropriate.” He complained to her. “Someone in your position should be more careful.” He was seriously questioning how she got into this job in the first place.

“Sorry.” She apologized. “I guess I was feeling a little too much at home.”

“It’s fine.” He noticed the time, it was getting late and rest was pretty important. With what she had tomorrow, she was going to have to get up early in order to get ready. So he turned into his futon, but as he did. That was when Kouji wondered where’d she would be sleeping.

“I’ll be fine.” She pulled out a spare blanket that Kouji had held onto, just for situations like this. “It’s just one night, I’ll survive.” This skirt might be a little uncomfortable, so in secret, she figured that maybe taking it off under the sheets wouldn’t hurt him. It’s not like he had to know.

“Okay.” He accepted it, making sure that they had some distance between each other. “Good night.”

“Good night.” She replied, as the two fell asleep.