Haruno finally escaped the soul-draining, butt-numbing experience that was the entrance ceremony.
The chairman's speech had ended—miraculously—and students were being herded toward their respective classrooms like sleepy cattle. Haruno stretched his arms above his head as he walked, trying to shake off the lingering stiffness.
"Ugh... I feel like I aged five years sitting through that," he muttered to himself. "At this rate, I'll graduate before we even get to homeroom."
He turned the corner toward the hallway leading to Class 1-A when he spotted something unusual.
There, hunched over near the shoe lockers, was an elderly male teacher crawling on all fours like a lost Roomba. His glasses were askew, and his eyes were squinting so intensely it looked like he was trying to set the floor on fire with sheer willpower.
"Uhh… sir?" Haruno slowed to a stop. "Are you… okay?"
The teacher squinted up at him like a mole exposed to sunlight. "Young man! Excellent! Have you seen it?"
"Seen… what, exactly?"
"My contact lens! It popped out and vanished! I was just adjusting my glasses and then poof! Gone! Like my youth!"
Haruno blinked. "You're wearing glasses and contacts?"
The old teacher continued patting the floor like he was playing a tragic, solo round of Twister. "Layered defense! A man can never be too prepared!" he exclaimed proudly. "Come now! Help me, boy! Before I step on it and ruin my entire day!"
Haruno sighed but crouched down anyway. This was not how he expected his grand entrance to Sainan High to go, but as a generally decent human being, he couldn't just ignore an elderly man groping the ground like a lost mole.
And so, the search began.
Two generations of men, side by side, scouring the floor for a slippery, nearly invisible disc. A sacred quest, if you squinted hard enough. In truth, Haruno knew about contact lenses, but he'd never used them himself. He could only pray he wouldn't accidentally crush it under his own shoe—because wouldn't that be a tragic way to start the school year?
Minutes ticked by, and their grand search remained fruitless. Haruno could already tell he'd be late for class introductions at this rate. But hey, at least he had a solid excuse.
"Ugh," Haruno grumbled, shifting his weight as he continued feeling around blindly. "Rentarou had a classroom full of girlfriends. If my situation is anything like his, I'll probably be surrounded by them as soon as I step into Class A… high chance of Yui and Haruna being there too."
He sighed. The excitement he'd felt earlier was slowly fizzling out. The gods might have granted his absurd wish, but right now? It all felt weirdly... normal. Maybe too normal. Like nothing had changed.
Was it all just a dream?
Before he could fall too deep into self-doubt, the old teacher suddenly perked up. "Ah! Mikado-sensei!"
Haruno froze. His spine straightened like a soldier standing at attention.
That name—that name!
He turned his head, heart slamming against his ribs.
And there she was.
Ryouko Mikado, effortlessly gliding through the hallway in her pristine white lab coat, clipboard in hand. She spared the scene a brief glance and they eyes meet each other at that moment suddenly, the two of them feeling the same feeling.
Haruno froze.
The world didn't just slow down—it downright halted. The murmuring students in the background? Gone. The old teacher fumbling around on the floor? Forgotten. Even gravity itself seemed to hesitate, as if afraid to disrupt the sheer absurdity of what was unfolding.
Because at that moment, Haruno's gaze met hers.
Ryouko Mikado.
A woman so dazzling, so effortlessly mesmerizing, that calling her beautiful felt like an insult. No, beautiful was for ordinary, mortal-level attractiveness. She was a celestial being disguised as a school nurse, a goddess draped in a lab coat, a walking masterpiece crafted by the gods themselves after centuries of trial and error.
Her deep violet eyes shimmered, reflecting light in a way that made them seem like endless galaxies filled with untold mysteries. The kind of eyes that, if you stared too long, you might accidentally fall into another dimension—and gladly stay there.
Her hair? A river of liquid silk, flowing so smoothly it probably defied the laws of physics. Was there wind in this hallway? No. But her hair still moved as if there was, because even the universe itself conspired to make her look stunning at all times.
Her lips? A national treasure. Nay, an intergalactic treasure. The perfect balance of softness and allure, with just the right amount of curve to make any man question the meaning of life.
Her body? Sculpted perfection. No, beyond perfection. If Renaissance artists ever laid eyes on her, they would burn their brushes in shame, knowing they could never capture such divine proportions.
And her presence? It was like standing before an empress whose mere existence could bring peace to nations—or start wars between foolish men who thought they had a chance.
The sheer impact of her beauty hit Haruno like a truck. No—worse than a truck. It was like getting run over by a divine chariot carried by winged stallions, followed by an army of love-struck cupids playing an entire orchestra just for this moment.
The Big Bang had nothing on this.
And then… it happened.
That feeling. That absurd, overwhelming, nonsensical sensation. The electric charge that jolted through his entire body, as if his soul had just been forcibly upgraded to a new operating system. His brain struggled to process the sheer flood of emotions, the instantaneous certainty that something had changed forever.
Since Haruno had never truly fallen in love in his previous life—and had barely interacted with the opposite gender outside of his sister or the doctors who treated him—romantic feelings were completely foreign to him. Even in this life, he had never once felt anything for an adult woman like this.
And yet, in a single moment, all of those emotions came crashing down on him at once, like a dam bursting under the weight of an unstoppable flood. His brain short-circuited. His thoughts spiraled into chaos. His entire worldview was forcibly rewritten by the sheer, overwhelming impact of her.
Before he even realized it, his face had turned an alarming shade of red, hot enough to fry an egg. His mind, usually sharp and logical, was now filled with nothing but dramatic captions straight out of a shoujo manga.
Angels sang. Trumpets blared. Somewhere in the distance, a romantic violin solo that nobody was playing echoed dramatically through the school hallway.
Haruno's mind went into overdrive.
'What… What is this feeling?
'Is this meeting with soulmate look like?!'
'Is this what Rentarou felt? No—this is something even stronger, more profound! I've reached the divine enlightenment of romance!'
Haruno knew—no, he was absolutely certain—that this kind of feeling was supposed to happen only once, for one special person. A once-in-a-lifetime experience, the kind of moment that defined the very essence of love itself.
Wasn't love supposed to be gradual? Something that developed over time? Yet in that instant, his heart had thrown logic out the window and thrown itself at Ryouko Mikado like a desperate salaryman clinging to his last train home.
Love is blind, or so the philosophers said. And those happen to both women and men.
Meanwhile, Mikado—elegant, composed, and the very definition of a woman in her prime—stared at him with a similar expression of pure bewilderment.
Because she felt it too.
For several heart-pounding seconds, they just… stared.
Ryouko was the first to break the silence, her voice as smooth and soothing as a lullaby. "So you helped Mr. Tanaka find his contact lens? What a good student we have here…" She smiled, her expression warm yet teasing, as if she found the whole situation amusing.
Haruno barely registered her words. His mind had long since left the realm of rational thought. If his brain had a status report, it would simply read: ERROR. SYSTEM OVERLOADED.
Yet, what Haruno didn't realize was that the moment their eyes met, he wasn't the only one experiencing something strange.
Ara… ara… what a sweet boy. Helping an old teacher like that? Hm… now that I take a closer look… he's actually quite cute, Ryouko mused internally, tilting her head ever so slightly. His face is so red… is he sick? Or—huhuhu—could it be that he's attracted to me?
Her professional instincts kicked in. A sudden rush of blood to the head… perhaps I should inspect him? It wouldn't do for a student to collapse on his first day, after all. Hm… but why am I feeling so strangely worried about him?
She folded her arms, tapping her fingers against her elbow as she tried to make sense of the odd warmth bubbling in her chest. It wasn't just concern—it was something more. Something that made her want to ruffle his hair, to wrap him up in a soft hug like he was some kind of adorable lost puppy.
A cute dog… no, no, no! Ryouko mentally shook herself. What am I thinking? He's a student, and I'm his teacher! Not to mention, I'm not even human… this is ridiculous.
And yet… she couldn't tear her eyes away from him.
Author Note
You can read 10 chapter at patr*on.com/Iam_HaremLover123