[Name] followed Tsuchigomori in silence because she didn't know what to talk about to somehow lift up the awkward atmosphere. [Name] heard that adults gave life changing advices but she also didn't know what to ask. "[Surname]-san." Tsuchigomori called her name that made her mind go back from where it came from.

"Yes?" [Name] answered almost immediately.

"When I said that writing your solution can cost five points, you can't just write made up things that don't align from the question just because you can't answer it. At least do it with effort." Tsuchigomori was talking about the Physics activity that [Name] answered a while ago, she added some shenanigans there and there just so he could give her five points. "I gave you three points instead."

"At least there's points." The [hair color] haired girl sweat-dropped. Then it went silent again, [Name] knew how to strike a conversation on people around her age, younger than her and maybe a bit older than her but Tsuchigomori is like way too old. "Ehem. Sensei, got any stories to tell?" [Name] asked.

Tsuchigomori sighed. "I do happen to know some tales and it will definitely leave you a lesson to tackle." [Name]'s face brightened, hearing stories from adults are kind of interesting especially teachers because it takes half of the time and without realizing it time is up. "Fine, I'll tell you a story."

"There was once two people who went to this school before, they did most things together, they were friends, not giving a shit to those who teased them to be together instead." Tsuchigomori began telling her a story that he knew from one of the books in the 4PM Library by a random student's record. "Eventually, the two of them grew feelings towards each other. During their last year in this school, one of them confessed their feelings to the other."

"And the other one liked them back, right?"

There was a hopeful look on [Name]'s eyes, she loved stories like this. Like Yashiro, she reads romance mangas and fanfiction whenever she's free to the point that she'll literally stay up till morning so she won't have to sleep without knowing what happens next. "I tried to find the other person's book since the story that I'm telling you is the perspective of the person who confessed."

"They didn't end up together, so you can guess whether they had feelings for each other or it was one sided." Tsuchigomori continued telling his story since they have a long way to walk till they reach the end of the tunnel. "Due to personal reasons, they communicated by chat because seeing each other was a lot harder." [Name] chewed the inside of her cheek knowing damn well where this is going, she can already predict the ending of the story. They were right when they said that the beginning is only happy.

"Then at some point, they stopped communicating with each other, correct?"

"Yes."

[Name] laughed triumphantly, then it died down because her teacher didn't laugh at all. She could only laugh off the fact that she went through the same thing except for what happened on the beginning of the story. "They end up together right?" [Name] asked for some assurance that this tale is going to be a happy one.

"There wouldn't be a lesson if that's the case because the person found another one in his class and the person who confessed their feelings to was left alone." [Name] felt a small pang on her heart. It was relatable but at the same time its not because the difference is that the people in the story were never together, [Name] and Souho were together but that was in the past. "In other words, I recently retrieved the book of the person who found another one, and guess what."

"The person who confessed thought that their feelings were returned."

"But in reality, the other person never loved them at all."

[Name] covered her mouth in shock, that's just straight up one-sided love and she was fighting the urge to cry—it would be embarrassing if Tsuchigomori saw her bawling her eyes out by just some simple yet heartbreaking story. "Here is the moral lesson, not everything is meant to be, even if you knew each other for four years or more, or have a lot of things in common, or that a lot of people were rooting for you to be together, there are people who are not destined to be together."

Tsuchigomori turned around to see [Name] wiping her tears then fanning her eyes. "What? This story is not supposed to make you cry." His eyes widened slightly in his surprise. "Maybe you find it relatable or maybe you experienced the same thing."

"Only the part where they stopped communicating because my ex did the same thing to me a month ago, where he ghosted me because he was actually aiming for this girl in his class despite telling me he was studying well." [Name] explained while cracking her fingers to ease her a bit.

"So your ex must be Shirasagi from Class B, right?" Tsuchigomori questioned.

"Uhh...how did you know?" [Name] asked.

"I've red your book [Surname]-san, do you think I don't know?" The spider teacher said in a sarcastic tone. "Although if I may ask, did you like Shirasagi before he confessed or did you like him back because you wanted to be in a relationship?"

[Name] inhaled through her teeth in an awkward smile, how is she going to answer knowing that she only liked him back so that she could experience the relationship? Tsuchigomori didn't wait for her reply and just continued talking. "I saw in the passages of your book that you think what you had with him was love, but eventually there wasn't even love in the relationship."

"B-But!" [Name] piped up. "He was my first relationship and that equals to a first love! So there is love in that relationship but Souho was giving the bare minimum, are you trying to side with him...that's suspicious."

Tsuchigomori raised his hand. "I'm not siding with anybody, but I'm trying to say [Surname], is that you love someone base on what they do to you, not the person itself. You only love the idea of him in your head, that's why you get upset whenever he doesn't do what you expect him to do. You were only hurt by the things he did, not because it was him, out of all people who could hurt you."

[Name]'s jaw dropped at the newfound epiphany. She swore that she loved Souho because she was willing to accept the unlabeled relationship instead of protesting for an official label of the relationship. Right now, she's very confused. "I wished that we could've stayed friends if I knew this is going to happen to me or maybe if I didn't get to meet him at all. It's both our faults that we're not friends anymore, to be honest I missed him for being my friend rather than an ex-partner."

"Now that you mention it, I understand why you find the story I told you relatable. I have students talk to me about their unfortunate lovelife. Most them said that they missed what they had back when they were friends, I guess you're one of them." [Name] was bewildered at the fact that Tsuchigomori is easy to talk to when it comes outside of academics, he has some wisdom but no mercy when in the activities he hands out. Tsuchigomori quickly changed the topic before [Name] could speak further. "So, how is he?"

"Who?"

"Number Seven, are things you know...going okay?"

Oh. Tsuchigomori is asking how Hanako is. "Well he's fine I guess. He saves me a lot whenever I'm in danger—he's also cool but then he needs to like calm his duality down because it's unpredictable. That aside, he's just a clingy boy who wanted a friend." [Name] didn't realize that she was already smiling while talking about Hanako. Tsuchigomori noticed it and he had an epiphany that he prefers not to tell it to her—she'll figure out eventually.

"Sometimes, he makes my heart race...in a good way of course." [Name] added while caressing the handle of the lamp she was holding, her lips curled up into a small smile and sighed. "I don't know much about him but...I'm willing to stay by his side..." She mumbled the last part under her breath.

"Do you like him?"

And that question made [Name]'s eyes widen and looked at Tsuchigomori like she was caught off guard. [Name] chuckled nervously, fanning her hand up and down. "I mean of course I do like him, he's a very good friend—though with the bond present I guess I could call him somewhat my soulmate." She sheepishly rubbed the back of her head. Tsuchigomori gave her a side-eye, then a blank stare before he sighed in relief.

"I see." He said while walking ahead. "Glad to know."

[Name] thought it was kind of odd for Tsuchigomori to ask about Hanako, something tells her that there's more than them being wonders because if that's the case, there's a chance that he knows about Hanako, she'll have to ask him soon if the ghost boy doesn't mind. "Sensei, have you heard about this forgotten rumor in the library other than the 4PM one? Since you know everything, do you know about this ghost from the library committee?"

Tsuchigomori may have looked like he had a flashback when [Name] mentioned about a ghost of a member of the library committee years ago. "Yeah, I heard of that one—he used to be my assistant decades ago but for some reason, he died by getting crushed by one of the bookshelves while he was organizing the books. He became a ghost that roamed outside of the 4PM library, continued patrolling to make sure that the books are in order and to summon him, you have to follow specific steps."

"Yashiro told me that the ghost was forgotten over the years...is he still around?"

Tsuchigomori shook his head. "Not anymore."

"Wait so like he just poofed as a ghost? Like he's gone for real?" [Name] asked.

"Jin-san of the Library is the name of the ghost in case you didn't know. Even if you try to spread his rumor, he'll never come back because he disappeared for good." The spider supernatural adjusted his glasses. "He just doesn't exist anymore—not because he didn't follow any rules or the rumors. I guess it was his fate."

"By the way, is it possible to change what was written on the 4PM books?" [Name] questioned while walking next to Tsuchigomori. "I red my book recently and I saw something...questionable." She said with a confused tone at the end of her sentence.

"Unfortunately, it is fundamentally impossible to alter the future." Tsuchigomori answered which [Name] groaned in disappointment. "As the curator, it's possible for me to change it. But the rule is—if the curator alters the future, they will be erased."

'I guess I have to endure that makeout session in the bathroom.' [Name] saw that they were reaching the end of the tunnel since she can see three different doors with a butterfly design on it. She had fun talking with Tsuchigomori so maybe in the future she can talk to him about other things.

"But I've seen it once." He added.

"You mean you witnessed a curator altering the future?" [Name] asked while waiting for Tsuchigomori to open one of the doors.

"The moment the future changes."

[Name] doesn't really get what he meant because futures are unpredictable and the choices you make everyday is a clue whether you're getting a better one or for character development purposes. If that certain future section in her book is permanently the outcome of her choices, then what's the point of making decisions knowing the ending already?

Unless one of those are possible outcomes for each path she takes. It's like showing the answers rather than the question. "We're here." [Name] stepped in to see an abandoned room filled with cobwebs, old school equipment and gemstones in a black box.

"Whoah, this place is shiny..." [Name] looked around the place and spotted one of the gems thinking that it's the spider teacher's yorishiro. "Which one is your yorishiro?"

Tsuchigomori rummaged under a table and placed a small rock on top of it.

"No, it's this one."

[Name] stared at the small rock with a small seal on it, then at Tsuchigomori to see if he was serious. "Okay, my expectations are low but maybe not that low—maybe a rock is more valuable to you since a yorishiro is the thing that the school wonder's most important thing." [Name] clapped her hands together with a forced smile.

"You could say that." Tsuchigomori smiled at the rock. So he was serious about the small rock being the most important thing to him. "The objects chosen to be yorishiro are the ones with the strongest feelings connected to them, after all."

[Name] puts her fist against her lips to think, then she looked at Tsuchigomori in the most serious expression ever. "Is it your pet rock?" She asked.

"Of course not—it's technically a gift."

[Name] raised her finger and opened her mouth to speak, then lowered her finger because she wanted to ask since who the fuck would give someone a rock. "Maybe this rock is associated with the person who is most important to you?" [Name] asked while poking the rock with her fingertips. "But who gave you this rock?"

"The person who gave that rock to me was someone who changed the future written in his book, like I told you before." Tsuchigomori sat down on one of the old chairs. "Of course, I still don't know why the future changed, but at the time I was just so surprised and now this rock is my yorishiro." [Name] grabbed the rock on the table and eyed it.

"What kind of rock is this?"

Tsuchigomori glanced at [Name]. "It's a moon rock." And that made [Name]'s eyes sparkle and ran towards Tsuchigomori in excitement.

"Is it real?!" [Name] asked because she's literally holding a 'real' moon rock on her hands—moon rocks are only available in museums and in space research facilities, the fact that Tsuchigomori had a moon rock as his yorishiro is cool. "There's no way this is a moon rock, I know you're sarcastic and all—!"

"Nope, that's a genuine moon rock." Tsuchigomori smiled as he begin to tell her another story about the moon rock she was holding. "Do you know when humans first made it to the moon? I was given that rock the day after that historic day." [Name] tried her best to not release her inner geek about Astronomy because she loved it so much.

"The person who gave it to you must've been an astronaut then?"

"As if. Of course he wasn't."

And there it is again, Tsuchigomori was smiling reminiscing the times where he received the rock for the first time. "He was a regular human being. He liked the stars and he had a harder time expressing himself than most." [Name] find it uncanny that the person who gave Tsuchigomori the moon rock was scarily similar to her except it was a boy, but hey at least she find the person relatable.

[Name] smiled as she stared at the rock on her hands. "Aw, we could have gotten along very well if he was here." She remarked.

"His grades, weren't great." Tsuchigomori put his hand on his forehead. [Name]'s smile faded and felt her heart ache for some reason, she wondered what happened to this person and how did he change his future anyways?

"Sensei, how did he change his future?" [Name] asked.

"Just get it over with. If I stay here too long, I think I might say too much."

[Name] reluctantly agreed as she slowly ripped the seal from the rock, forming glass triangles around her. Just like from Yako's boundary, everything went breaking down like glass and memories began to flood in.

"Have you ever wanted to go to the moon, Sensei?"

"Well, I have."

"Sensei, you said that you're worried about me right? Then would you do just one thing for me?"

"Then, take this."

"I've made up my mind now. I'm not going anywhere."

➽───────────────❥

[Name] slowly opened her eyes to see the ceiling above her belonging to the infirmary which means that she's been laying there for who knows when. She slowly turned to the other side to see Tsuchigomori sitting on the chair watching over her while reading a book. [Name] quickly sat up when she realized that it is already dark out. "Holy fuck it's night time—!" She said. "Sensei?"

"Yeah?" Tsuchigomori closed the book that he was reading.

[Name] ran her fingers through her hair in confusion about what she saw in Tsuchigomori's memories with the moon rock. "Sensei, that person...was that...?" [Name] did not expect witnessing all of that and her mind was filled with utter confusion. Gripping on her bedsheets, she wanted to confirm if everything she saw was real.

"You saw it with Number Two too right? The memories in the yorishiro."

[Name] nodded gravely not only she did see Tsuchigomori from the past, she also spotted a very familiar person. She wanted to burst into tears and completely changed her perspective with Hanako after that. "Then that means the person you said changed his future is...?" Her voice trailed down into a soft whisper.

"Amane Yugi. Who Number Seven used to be."

'Who Hanako-kun used to be...' [Name] sniffled. "S-Sensei, he had big dreams...why did he say that he didn't want to go anywhere anymore, he just wanted to go to the moon—"

"The day before that, humanity went to the moon for the first time." Tsuchigomori told her once again to clarify what she saw from the memories of his yorishiro. "Back then, going to the moon was just a pipe dream, but it became reality. So maybe, any dream could come true." [Name] hugged her knees together along with the blanket, can dreams truly come true or was it limitations is what keeps us from dreaming big?

"So he decided not to go anywhere. As his homeroom teacher, I was worried about him or pretended to be. I'd read the record of his future, I asked him to tell me but I already knew what was going to happen to him." Tsuchigomori told her that time where he found Amane Yugi's 4PM book and red through its contents. "His book said that he would grow up to be a teacher."

"What kind of teacher?"

"A Science Teacher." Tsuchigomori answered. "His love for stars developed and he'd teach at this school. If he lived, he'd be my coworker." [Name] had an image of Hanako as a teacher; a bit tall man wearing a lab coat with apparatuses on hand. He died so young, he was supposed to be chasing his dreams, supposed to go anywhere but his life was cut short so soon.

'So Amane...I mean Hanako-kun, also loves Astronomy but he doesn't seem to talk about it more. I'll try to bring it up to him.'

Tsuchigomori chuckled bitterly as he put his head down in dismay. "He wasn't supposed to die like that when he was still a kid." Few drops of tears start to stain the blanket she was holding. "Amane Yugi is the only human I know who changed his future." Tsuchigomori stood up from his chair as he walked towards the door, then he turned around.

"If you want to talk again, I'll listen. I may not be human but I'm still technically your teacher."

Then Tsuchigomori left and the door clicked. In less than a second, [Name] heard footsteps nearing to the infirmary. Bam! Hanako came out of the curtain with his arms spread wide. "[Name]!" He cheefully said while jumping on top of her. Yashiro and Kou were behind him, trying to pry him off from pinning [Name] on the bed because it was too awkward. "Thanks for breaking the yorishiro, we managed to keep the peace."

"Hanako-kun?"

[Name] immediately pulled Hanako closer as she wrapped her arms around him. It looked like Hanako was squishing [Name] below but she doesn't mind as long it's with him. Hanako's temperature was cold since he's a ghost and he's already dead. 'Hanako-kun, he's like the boy with horns and I'm the one with the wings. The one with the wings told the boy with horns that his horns were beautiful.'

Hanako ran his fingers through her hair, soothing her so that she'll calm down from tearing up. "There, there..." He cooed. "Good girl." [Name] smiled as she hugged him tighter, even though he is cold, his warmth was all true. Yet the truth behind him was remained untold.

➽───────────────❥

ghosting era part 2 is yet again arrives because of some dumbass bitch named adrian like everytime i have to get fcking hurt why is it always you???? do u want me to go thru another phase of dreaming about choking u on febreze bc i would :D

but thank you for being a stepping stone bc at least its a face to face setting, the whole ghosted plot would happen to me soon.