Immediately brightened up after seeing Ohara Nanako.
He excitedly jumped up and kept shouting towards her.
"Long time no see, Shin-chan~"
Ohara Nanako greeted Nohara Shinnosuke with a smile.
"Sister Nanako, are you here to pick me up and take me home?"
Nohara Shinnosuke asked shyly, covering his flushed little face.
"No, I'm here to see your Teacher Kobayashi and deliver the proof copies to him."
Ohara Nanako gently patted Nohara Shinnosuke's head and smiled at Kobayashi Itsuki, who was approaching from a distance.
"Proof copies?!"
"Is Teacher Kobayashi's novel going to be serialized soon?"
Ageo Masumi, who had been like a little ghost beside them, plucked up her courage and asked in a low voice after hearing Ohara Nanako's words.
"Yes, if all goes well, it should be in the next issue of Fujimi Fantasia Library. Please give it your full support."
Ohara Nanako smiled gracefully and replied to Ageo Masumi.
The sound here also reached the ears of the wives who came to the entrance to see Kobayashi Itsuki.
"Teacher Kobayashi is a Physical Education Teacher and he writes novels?"
"It seems so, and it's about to be serialized."
"He's so talented..."
Listening to the praise in his ears, and the occasional burning gaze, Kobayashi Itsuki said with a smile.
"Thank you, Miss Ohara, for making a special trip."
"It's what I should do, after all, it's my job."
Kobayashi Itsuki greeted Takakura Bunta, Yoshinaga Midori, and the others.
"Then I'll be going now."
Nohara Shinnosuke watched wistfully as Ohara Nanako left with Kobayashi Itsuki, while Matsuzaka Ume, standing nearby, showed no difference, also staring intently at their departing figures.
"Sister Nanako!"
"Shin-chan, be good. Next time I have time, I'll pick you up from Kindergarten."
Ohara Nanako said, waving at him.
Their departure left two more sad people in the Kindergarten.
Especially Matsuzaka Ume, who originally had some confidence in herself, after all, 'the one nearest the water gets the moon first'.
But now, her confidence was completely gone.
Yesterday, a police officer whose looks and figure were in no way inferior to hers came.
And today, yet another youthful and beautiful university student arrived.
Compared to them, Matsuzaka Ume truly felt like she had no advantage, except for being Kobayashi Itsuki's colleague.
But even if she could interact with him normally, she couldn't find an opportunity to advance their relationship.
Thinking this, Matsuzaka Ume felt very frustrated.
'No, I can't just give up like this!'
'The more this happens, the more it proves how excellent Teacher Kobayashi is. Compared to those men before, it's too difficult to find someone even better than him...'
'Come on, Ume, you can do it!'
Matsuzaka Ume silently cheered herself on.
Kobayashi Itsuki, however, was unaware of all this. At this moment, he was sitting with Ohara Nanako in a coffee shop, flipping through the proof copy in his hands.
It must be said that the quality of Fujimi Library's magazine was quite good.
Whether it was the layout design or the quality of the illustrations, there was nothing to fault.
Kobayashi Itsuki held the proof copy and, following the page numbers, turned to his work.
What caught his eye was the illustration that Ohara Nanako had sent to his email earlier, which he had personally chosen.
In a desolate, ruined city, a sweet girl with a hint of melancholy in her expression, holding a mechanical flower assembled from machine parts, trying hard to smile, looked so out of place.
The thick, heavy lead-gray clouds gave a faint sense of oppression.
After turning past the illustration, the main text followed.
"...Welcome everyone to the Planetarium.
Here, there is beautiful, endless light that will never disappear.
The stars fill the sky, waiting for everyone's arrival.
Welcome everyone to the Planetarium..."
After carefully reading the magazine in his hand, Kobayashi Itsuki smiled at Ohara Nanako, who was waiting for his reply.
"No problems at all, I think it's great!"
Ohara Nanako took a small sip of her cappuccino, her smile gentle and sweet.
"No problems, that's wonderful! When I came, I was wondering what to do if Teacher Kobayashi wasn't satisfied."
"Of course, I'd send it back for a redo, and let Miss Ohara experience the feeling of increased workload."
"Teacher Kobayashi, if you maliciously make things difficult for your Editor, you might get 'worn out shoes'."
The two exchanged glances and both laughed at each other's words.
"I probably won't have time to send you the follow-up manuscripts for your lie in april these two days. I'll give them to you all at once in a few days."
"That's fine, but does Teacher Kobayashi have something busy to do? If so, maybe I can help."
"It's okay, it's nothing too troublesome. Mainly, I'm conceptualizing new works, so it might be a bit slow."
Kobayashi Itsuki quickly said, harboring a mischievous thought in his heart.
He had almost finished writing your lie in april.
The subsequent plot would start to 'hand out knives'.
At this point, it would be more satisfying to just stab all at once. If he sent it out bit by bit, it wouldn't have that effect of making people burst into tears.
Kobayashi Itsuki really wanted to see what kind of expression Ohara Nanako would have then.
"New work?"
"What genre is it, roughly?"
Hearing about a new work, Ohara Nanako immediately became interested.
"It should be similar to your lie in april, also a school romance."
Kobayashi Itsuki's next work was to bring out i want to eat your pancreas.
There were also others like 5 centimeters per second, Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day, and grave of the fireflies... Kobayashi Itsuki didn't know about others, but these works would definitely make Ohara Nanako cry buckets of tears.
These last few works were all around a little over 100,000 characters.
With a bit of effort and pushing, he could probably produce several new works next month.
Kobayashi Itsuki had a premonition that Ohara Nanako would definitely be crying her eyes out next month.
"School romance, Teacher Kobayashi seems very interested in this genre."
Ohara Nanako said to Kobayashi Itsuki with some curiosity.
"Because it's beautiful, isn't it? After all, don't they all say that romance during school days is the purest?"
"Of course, I don't plan to only write this genre; I have ideas for others too."
"It's okay! Teacher Kobayashi!"
Ohara Nanako suddenly became serious, her beautiful eyes full of encouragement.
"Even if you become a novelist who only writes school romance, you will definitely succeed!"
Kobayashi Itsuki looked at Ohara Nanako, who had inexplicably "fired up," and couldn't help but reflect on whether he was being too cruel.
Someone was encouraging him like this, and yet he was thinking of ways to make her cry.