It was only supposed to be a two-week temporary assignment. I was assigned to a small nursery school preparing for an upcoming recital. My supervisor was Saya-sensei, a long-haired, black-haired woman with sleepy-looking eyes who was extremely shy around people. Despite being the person everyone at the school relied on most, she was terrible at relying on others herself. On the eighth day, during lunch break, while the room was quiet for nap time, her attempt to “return the favor” began heading in an unexpected direction.

On day nine, I helped loosen up her stiff lower back. On day ten, she told me, “Today... it’s my turn.”
By the night of day thirteen, she was dressed in cosplay and saying things that made me wonder what had happened to that painfully shy woman I’d met two weeks earlier.