Chapter 63: Late-Night Ramen

  "Hey, Hachiman, hurry up and come out to have ramen with me. I'm really hungry right now!"

  "Please, my good teacher, don't you see what time it is? It's already so te, and you're dragging a student out for ramen? You can handle it by yourself!"

  "What? You're letting a young, single woman go eat ramen alone? This is how you're never going to get a girlfriend!"

  "Sorry, I’m fine with Komachi."

  "How frustrating, I forgot you’re a sis-con freak!"

  On the other end of the phone, a certain unmarried woman in her 30s gritted her teeth, "I don’t care, you have 15 minutes. I want to see you in front of the ramen shop, or... hmph, you know what will happen!"

  "Wait a minute, I'm still a kid, I don't understand!"

  But the phone call ended abruptly. Hachiman angrily jumped out of bed, muttering about someone’s domineering and unreasonable behavior, while quickly changing into casual clothes.

  "Serves her right for failing every blind date. She’s a big, single woman who only threatens her students with her fists. No wonder no man would like her. Only a guy like me would even bother with her!"

  Hachiman gnced at the clock hanging on the wall. It was already 9 p.m.

  "Shizuka-sensei really... she doesn’t eat on time, that’s bad for her health."

  He grumbled to himself.

  Fifteen minutes ter, Hachiman arrived at the ramen shop Shizuka had mentioned in the call. It was still open at this te hour, and the customers were mostly workers from the artificial isnd.

  In simple terms, they were just office workers, but due to confidentiality agreements with the businesses and schools, these people wouldn't disclose any information about the Advanced Development High School.

  "There, over here!"

  From a distance, Shizuka had already spotted Hachiman. After all, with his dead fish eyes, he was like the brightest star in the night sky. Shizuka immediately noticed her student, and before Hachiman could say anything, she grabbed his arm and pulled him into the ramen shop.

  It wasn’t long before two steaming bowls of tonkotsu ramen were served.

  "I’m starting!"

  Shizuka rolled up her sleeves and began eating with big bites. She clearly seemed to have been hungry for a long time. Seeing this, Hachiman also felt his appetite stir.

  "Ah~ that’s so good!"

  Almost in the blink of an eye, Shizuka had finished one bowl of ramen, while Hachiman had only eaten half of his.

  "Boss, another bowl of soy sauce ramen, with extra seaweed and pickled radish, and another fresh beer!"

  "Okay!"

  Shizuka waved her hand in a grand manner, causing the middle-aged shopkeeper to ugh loudly. The few customers in the shop also marveled at Shizuka’s "manly" energy.

  "I’m telling you, eating so much at night isn’t good for your health."

  Hachiman couldn’t help but speak up.

  "It’s fine, it’s fine, my health is great!"

  Just after finishing her sentence, Shizuka gulped down half a gss of fresh beer in one go, causing Hachiman’s eye to twitch.

  "What I meant was... aren’t you afraid of gaining weight?"

  For most women, in order to maintain their figure, they typically eat very little or even skip dinner. This trend has even affected female high school students, so it’s common to see girls eating very little or not eating at all for dinner.

  Shizuka, however, was the complete opposite. She was ranked number one on the list of things women would never do, "Eating ramen alone," yet she was fond of it, especially te-night ramen. As she would say, the soul of ramen lies in the te-night offerings!

  "After eating, I’ll need to exercise and burn off the calories. By the way, I didn’t quite hear you earlier, Hachiman. Could you say it again?"

  Shizuka stretched her shoulders and neck, making a "crack, crack" sound.

  "Ha... haha, I was just saying this ramen is pretty good."

  Hachiman quickly grabbed his cup of water and mumbled.

  Actually, this wasn’t the first time Shizuka had dragged Hachiman out for ramen. At least once every half month, whether it’s this ramen shop or a te-night barbecue pce, sometimes on weekends, Shizuka would even drag Hachiman and Ayano to go py mahjong!

  By the way, the third floor of that unnamed teahouse has a rge mechanical mahjong machine from Daiyo Chemical in every private room.

  This was also Hachiman’s only form of group entertainment, aside from watching anime.

  "I heard you and Haruno joined the student council recently, how’s it going?"

  Shizuka casually asked.

  "Not much."

  Hachiman answered ftly, "That woman pushed all the work onto me, and I almost thought I was the only first-year in the student council."

  "Typical Haruno style, huh? After all, the more capable, the more work. You must be tired, Hachiman."

  Shizuka reached out and ruffled the boy's hair, suppressing a ugh as she comforted him.

  Hachiman curled his lips, he was just compining.

  Then Shizuka continued to chat with him about other trivial matters, even touching on off-campus topics. As a teacher, she could enter and exit the artificial isnd and have contact with the outside world, but any information regarding the school was strictly prohibited. However, some irrelevant information wasn't particurly restricted.

  After all, in this information age, the school couldn’t cut off students from the outside world entirely. Simir to a company’s internal network, students could browse the web and access external information, but they were constantly monitored by the school and had strict filters. It was like a sealed gss wall; you could see the outside, but the outside couldn’t see anything inside.

  Naturally, Shizuka wouldn’t viote school rules. She only told Hachiman about Komachi’s current situation, and that was all.

  But that "just that" information was enough to make Hachiman happy for a long time.

  At the beginning of the first month, the retionship between Hachiman and Shizuka was quite subtle. During css, they maintained a normal student-teacher retionship, and there wasn’t much contact outside of css, as the school’s rules were in pce.

  That said, Shizuka still found ways to talk to him under various pretenses, like saying his homework was sloppy or that someone needed to clean the club room. The purpose was not so much the work, but to find someone to vent her frustrations!

  Yes, during the first month of school, the terrible cssroom discipline in Css D was almost intolerable for Shizuka. If not for the school rules, those students in Css D might have been torn apart by this muscle-bound teacher. So every time in Shizuka's Japanese css, Hachiman was always on edge.

  "I can’t deal with these guys, can’t I deal with Hachiman?"

  Hachiman could always read that terrifying expression on Shizuka’s face!

  Fortunately, after the school revealed the truth, the cssroom discipline in Css D improved, and Hachiman no longer had to live in constant fear.

  And now, he could occasionally enjoy things like tonight—eating ramen with Shizuka in private.

  The boy with dead fish eyes gnced at Shizuka, who was shouting for "another drink," and couldn't help but smile.