Anime: Desolate Darkness

In the spacious and bright office, the air is filled with the faint scent of paper and ink.

As soon as she entered the door, Kita Yuyo's attention was attracted by the huge jar placed on Kimura Takumi's desk.

The transparent jar filled with colorful paper stars that Liuyin gave her now looked as dazzling as the twinkling stars in the night sky in her eyes.

Kita Ikuyo's eyes widened, and a dazzling light burst out of her eyes.

She couldn't help but quicken her pace, trotted to the desk, then bent down, put her face close to the jar, staring at the paper stars inside, her eyes full of amazement and envy.

"Teacher Kimura! Did you fold all these paper stars yourself? There are so many of them! And each one is so beautifully folded! So amazing!" Kita Ikuyo's voice trembled with excitement.

Kimura Takumi, who was standing at the door, did not get complacent because of her compliments at the moment, but said calmly, "You think too much. This was given to me by a student in my class."

Hearing this, Kita Ikuyo was not surprised at all. Instead, she found it extremely reasonable.

Without Kimura Takumi explaining too much, she was certain of one thing, "It must have been given by a girl, right?"

"Yes."

If it was given by a boy, Kimura Takumi would never accept it! It would be too weird no matter what.

"I really envy the teacher..." Kita Ikuyo murmured softly with a faint smile on her face.

Although he knew that the question was not addressed to him, out of curiosity, Kimura Takumi still asked, "What is there to envy? Kita-san is also very popular, right? I'm sure he has received many gifts."

As he spoke, he walked over to the sofa and sat down.

"Well... I have indeed received quite a few gifts, but I have never received anything as special as paper stars..." She responded softly as if she was talking to herself.

Kimura Takumi glanced at the wall clock and found that the get out of class was about to end, so he kindly reminded: "Let's stop talking about the paper stars here. Kita-san was worried that he would be late for class after finishing the question. Come over quickly."

"Ah? Oh! Okay!" Kita Ikuyo suddenly realized, and quickly put away the complicated expression on her face, quickly replaced it with her signature bright sunny smile, then quickly walked to the sofa opposite Kimura Takumi and sat down.

Kimura Takumi flipped through the textbook on the table, found the page where the question was explained, raised his head and looked directly into Kita Ikuyo's eyes, "Come over here, you don't have your textbook, it will be inconvenient to listen to the lecture at that angle."

"That's right!" If two people sit opposite each other with just a book, one of them will always feel uncomfortable.

Without thinking much, Kita Ikuyo stood up and sat next to Kimura Takumi.

At this time, Kimura Takumi had nothing else to remind him of, so he stared at the book and began to explain in detail.

At the beginning, Kita Ikuyo listened very seriously, but slowly her nose was attracted by a very pleasant smell. Following the source of the smell, she quietly turned her gaze to the profile of Kimura Takumi.

"Mr. Kimura, what kind of body wash do you use?"

Kimura Takumi frowned slightly and sniffed his shoulders on both sides, but didn't smell anything except the scent of laundry detergent.

"You may have smelled it wrongly. I didn't use any shower gel. I only smell like laundry detergent."

"Is that so?" Kita Ikuyo put her hands on the sofa, leaned her upper body forward, and sniffed the collar of Kimura Takumi's white shirt and face. The distance was very close and the actions looked very intimate.

Perhaps it was because Kita Ikuyo acted too naturally that neither of them thought there was anything wrong with it.

"No, it's not the smell of laundry detergent. Teacher Kimura really has another scent on his body." She looked serious.

Kimura Takumi raised his hand to his nose, but still smelled nothing. "Then I don't know. Well, don't worry about these little things anymore, and continue listening to the questions."

"Oh~"

Having said that, due to the influence of the smell, Kita Ikuyo would always glance at Kimura Takumi's profile from time to time.

After seeing it so many times, she couldn't help but sigh in her heart, it's really strange that Mr. Kimura is so handsome but still single.

After a while, Takumi Kimura finished explaining the topic near the start of the second class.

But what he didn't know was that Kita Ikuyo hardly listened to anything and her mind was drifting elsewhere.

"Kita-san, do you understand?"

"I understand!" Kita Ikuyo's face looked extremely serious, as if she really understood.

Not knowing the truth, Kimura Takumi hummed and then stood up and walked towards the desk.

Under Kita Ikuyo's confused gaze, he took out a brand new, white A4 paper from the drawer, accurately tore off a neat 16/ strip, and quickly folded it into an angular paper star.

The entire process was smooth and took less than a minute, and looked extremely skilled.

Walking up to Kita Ikuyo, he casually handed the paper star to her and reminded her, "Kita-san, please go back to the classroom quickly. Class is about to start."

"Eh?" Kita Ikuyo seemed not to hear what he said clearly, and her eyes were fixed on the white paper stars in front of her.

For some reason, an inexplicable throbbing surged in my heart.

Seeing her staring at the paper stars in a daze, Kimura Takumi explained, "Didn't you say you've never received something like this? Now let me satisfy your wish."

"Really, can you really give it to me?"

Although it was just an ordinary paper star, Kita Ikuyo took it with both hands and still had an incredible look on her face after putting it in her hands.

"I'm not the type to lie about such a small matter."

There was a faint smile on Kimura Takumi's lips, and Kita Ikuyo couldn't help but blush at the sight.

"Thank you, thank you."

A seed of unknown meaning was planted in her heart.

……

During lunch break, sunlight shines into the house through the curtains, creating patches of mottled light and shadows.

Kimura Takumi looked at the office in front of him that was "occupied" by Kitagawa Umi and others, and shook his head helplessly.

He decided to find some peace and quiet somewhere else, and then he remembered the text message that Rio Futaba sent him in the morning, so he walked towards the Science Department.

Gently pushing open the slightly old door, Kimura Takumi saw Futaba Rio and Goto Ichiri sitting side by side, eating their bento with relish.

Hearing the sound of the door opening, the two girls who were originally concentrating on the food raised their heads at the same time, and their eyes happened to meet Kimura Takumi who was at the door.

For a moment, time seemed to freeze.

Goto Ichiri's body trembled violently as if he had been electrocuted, and then began to twitch violently uncontrollably.

Her hands were shaking so much that she couldn't even hold the chopsticks in her hands and they almost fell to the ground. Fortunately, at the last moment, the chopsticks barely landed on the table.

Why did Mr. Kimura come to my house?

Could it be that he came here to criticize me because I was so rude yesterday? ! !

Not knowing what she was thinking at the moment, Kimura Takumi greeted them briskly, then looked at her curiously, "Goto-san, I heard from Futaba-san that you have something to talk to me about?"

……