Episode 23: Riri and Ruri’s Goal
“Nanami-san, do you have a moment?”
The moment lunch break started, my homeroom teacher, Miyake-sensei, came into the classroom. A woman in her mid-thirties who’s taught at this school since she started her career.
“Y-yes?”
Did I do something?
Forget to turn something in, or is my grades situation just that bad?
Or maybe I’m getting scolded for my attitude in class…!?
The more I thought about it, the more possibilities I could come up with.
My stomach churning, I followed her, and she led me to the student guidance room. Worse, she carefully locked the door behind us once we were inside.
Not the classroom, not the staff room — a room that specifically locks.
…Maybe this is something really serious.
“So, Nanami-san. I would have preferred to tell your parents this directly, honestly, rather than you.”
“Wh-what is it…?”
“The third term’s tuition hasn’t been paid. It was due a week ago…”
“Eh…!?”
My eyes went wide, and sensei looked away, clearly uncomfortable. Maybe she’d already heard that my parents’ company went bankrupt.
Wait, does that mean my parents didn’t even pay the tuition!?
I’d been so consumed with just figuring out how to survive day to day that tuition hadn’t even crossed my mind.
I hadn’t even known it was billed per term in the first place.
“Um, sensei, just to ask, how much is the tuition…?”
“Third term is three hundred thousand yen. You can pay it in installments of one hundred thousand each, though…”
Just in case, sensei handed me a payment slip. On it, clearly printed, was the amount: “300,000.”
Three hundred thousand. Three hundred thousand… three hundred thousand!?
“Um, so, if — if I can’t pay it…”
“It doesn’t need to be immediately, but if there’s no payment of one hundred thousand yen by the end of next month, we’ll be recommending withdrawal.”
“W-withdrawal…!?”
It’s currently mid-October. Which means if I can’t pay a hundred thousand yen by the end of November, I’ll be expelled.
Can’t pay tuition, get expelled — of course that’s how it works.
But…!
If I get kicked out of here, what am I even supposed to do!?
“…S-sensei.”
“Yes?”
“Th-thank you for telling me. Um, I’ll… I’ll figure something out, somehow…”
I said it with a shaking voice, bowed my head, and left the guidance room.
Tsubakigaoka Girls’ Academy runs straight through to university on an escalator system. That’s exactly why someone with my terrible grades could still get into high school here without any trouble.
If I get expelled now, there’s no way any other high school would take me, and going to university would become impossible too.
Honestly, I can’t even imagine attending some unfamiliar school at this point.
“Somehow… I absolutely have to earn the money…!”
◆
“You need three hundred thousand for tuition!?”
When I told her, Möbius-san’s eyes went completely round with shock.
“That’s for one term, right!? Private school tuition’s really that expensive!?”
“Th-that’s what it seems like… I don’t actually know how much other schools charge, though…”
“Seriously…”
“Apparently there’s an installment option, but even then, I need a hundred thousand by the end of next month…”
“A hundred thousand…”
Möbius-san let out a sigh, then set her expression like she’d made up her mind about something.
“If it comes down to it, I’ll lend it to you.”
“Eh!? Ah, no, th-that’s really too much…!”
“I mean, living together and looking after you like this basically makes me your guardian, doesn’t it, kind of. If the money’s not enough, you’d try to earn it some way or another anyway, right, Ruri?”
“That’s… probably true…”
“To put it bluntly, a pretty girl like you could earn money through all kinds of methods, if she really wanted to. But there’s no way I’m letting you do anything dangerous.”
Möbius-san smiled gently and cupped my cheeks with both hands.
“Listen, Ruri. If you’re ever really in trouble, before you hurt yourself, properly rely on someone else first, okay?”
“Möbius-san…”
“Obviously I still want you to work hard at the job. But I’ll be your safety net, at the very least.”
Möbius-san patted my back gently.
Her words put me at ease, and tears welled up despite myself.
I don’t actually intend to rely on Möbius-san financially any more than I already do, but hearing her say “I’ll lend it to you” still made me happy.
“Thank you, Möbius-san… I—I’ll do my best!”
Sweet Stella pays fifteen hundred yen an hour, plus two hundred yen commission per cheki.
My current wages don’t leave any margin. The only way to make up the difference is through chekis, so if I need to make up a hundred thousand yen at two hundred yen a cheki…
“Five hundred chekis for a hundred thousand yen, right…?”
“Oh, you actually did the math right for once. Thinking of it as five hundred more chekis by the end of next month, it actually starts looking doable.”
The shop has one regular day off a week, but if I push myself, I could work six days a week. About forty days until the end of next month.
“Forty days, five hundred chekis, so…”
“That’s 12.5 a day.”
“Th-thinking about it that way, it actually feels pretty achievable…!”
Sweet Stella’s a brand-new shop, so it’s not like there’s always a huge crowd of customers.
And I’m already working as hard as I can for chekis as things stand. Pushing beyond that is going to be tough.
Still — it’s not an easy goal, but I don’t think it’s an impossible one either.
“Möbius-san. I’m going to do my best! The tuition… I’ll definitely earn it myself!”