So that was that. Mrs. Minagawa was a complete goody two-shoes. After a few sessions, Mugi was convinced that she had never spoken a bad word or had an impure thought in her life. She hummed while she worked and she had a smile plastered on her face all the time. She never got frustrated with him, despite his slow progress with math. The only notable reactions she had was when she couldn't solve one of them problems herself. She would go "Ehh?", furl her eyebrows, and flip furiously through the answer key to find the correct method. Otherwise, her appearance remained immaculate. Honestly, it was a little scary.

Part of the reason Mugi wasn't learning so well was because Mrs. Minagawa smelled so damn nice. His room smelled of her when he entered and after she left. None of the girls at school ever smelled so good.

"...and that's your assignment this week. Got it?"

"Yeah, smells good! I mean… sounds good!" he blurt out.

"Ok Mugi, I'll see you next week then. Please try to make more progress…" she chastised with a playful grin. She bent over to pick up her bag. Without shame, Mugi's eyes drifted slightly. He could swear she paused a bit longer than she needed to before she lifted the bag up and wore it on her shoulder. She then looked at him with the sweetest expression and said, "Bye now!"

With a twirl, she was gone. Oh, how wonderful it was to be in the presence of a real woman. And how miserable it was to be stuck doing math the whole time.

"Mom, I'm going to the convenience store. I need to treat myself after all this hard work."

"Yeah, whatever, honey. See you later."

Mugi picked out a popsicle and a bottle of soda and was checking out when he felt someone poke him in the back. He flinched and almost dropped his belongings. He turned around; it was none other than Mei Hayakawa. She was one grade higher than him, but they hung out so often that they could be classmates.

"You dolt. I barely touched you," Mei giggled.

"I'm sensitive there. You hit my weak spot."

"Oh, man up!" she responded, playfully shoving him.

"Can this wait until I buy this stuff?"

"Wow, you bought a popsicle for me? You really know how to respect your elders."

"Ugh..."

"Eww. Why'd you pick grape?" she asked between slurps. They sat at the bench outside the store. Mugi sipped on his soda while Mei was working at the popsicle.

"Umm, because I like grape?"

She sighed. "You're so weird. You're never going to make it in the real world with taste like that. What am I going to do with you?"

"I don't know, keep taking my stuff?"

"Sounds good to me."

They slurped at the same time.

"Hey Mei, I got a question for you."

"Oh, really? Have you been thinking? That's a dangerous pastime for you, you know."

"Oh, shut up! I was just wondering… do you ever wear perfume?"

"Sometimes. Why?"

"My math tutor wears this really strong perfume and… it's really stinking up my room. I want to get the smell out."

"Yeah, no kidding. I can smell some of it on you right now."

"No way." Mugi smelled himself. "Oh, you're right."

"That makes sense. My running hypothesis was that you wanted to explore your feminine side, but I guess it makes sense that it was from your tutor."

Mugi snorted. "Anyways, no joke though, she's really pretty."

Mei blinked. "Oh? Is she princess pretty or what?"

"Kind of. But I'd describe her more as 'hot' pretty."

"Oh, I see… no wonder you still suck at math!" she exclaimed and laughed.

"Yeah, I know. It's honestly distracting. With that, on top of her perfume, I can't think at all."

Mei put her hand on his shoulder and gave him a grave look. "Mugi. Your education is of the utmost importance to me. As your senior, it is my duty to make sure that you excel in your studies. Let's see… meet me here at the same time tomorrow, and I'll see what I can do to help." She nodded, determined, mostly to herself.

"Uh, alright, Mei."

She gave a thumbs up with her popsicle still in one hand and took a swig of his soda with her other. Before he could react to the sugar theft, she got up and left.

"I'm home!"

Mugi made his way back up to his room and braced himself. He opened the door and stepped in. The wave of perfume hit him and he closed his eyes. When he inhaled, he could picture Mrs. Minagawa sitting next to him, her gentle hand working its way across his pages, looking at the equations with purpose. He saw her gently tuck a strand of her hair back behind her ear, slowly running the hand along the side of her head. He saw her turn to look at him, but he couldn't quite place what her eyes were saying. She wore a smile, but her eyes were empty like a doll's eyes. He felt a sudden urge to hug her and put some life back into her, but he opened his eyes and stood in the middle of his room, alone.

Man… what am I doing? He laid down on his bed and opened his math textbook over his face.

I always knew that math was going to kill me.