I did not regret what I did, but I immediately sensed the next day that something in the four eyes had changed. I did not suspect that the girl would finally follow my advice and let him know everything. Somehow, I bet she was waiting for the Eros part of him to fully develop. He didn't even look at me, although I stared at him quite insistently, and usually, he somehow reacted and tried to find me with his eyes.

Was my behaviour already bordering on being a stalker? No. I was just satisfying my curiosity about the four eyes and Cupids in general. I would treat it as scientific research that I had the opportunity to conduct since I had two of them at my disposal.

Kiyoshi walked towards the vending machines, so I followed him. Admittedly, I still had no idea how he should repay me, but it didn't hurt to just annoy him a little and maybe learn something interesting. I stood behind him and looked over his shoulder to see what he had chosen. So banana milk, I wondered if that was his favourite, or if it was what he liked most about what the machine had to offer.

I dug a coin out of my pocket and was going to use it now that I was here. But when I reached out, he grabbed my wrist and pulled it away. Although this contact lasted only a few seconds, it felt like an eternity, and the skin where he touched me seemed to burn, but the warmth that spread around was surprisingly pleasant. It took me a while to recover because nothing like this had ever happened to me before. I haven't heard that Cupids have any physical abilities. Kiyoshi was saying something to me, but I didn't hear him the first time.

"Choose," he said, pointing to the machine.

I quickly found my favourite aloe vera drink and waited for further developments, my hand still burning. The four eyes pulled out a bottle and handed it to me.

"We are even for everything," he announced in a firm tone and turned on his heel.

I wanted to say something, but I ran out of words, which was very rare for me. I could only watch as he made his way towards his class, and Hamada joined him after a while. When he saw her, he immediately beamed and smiled. I frowned, I was sure that the girl, like many others, had a crush on Tachibana. However, I found her hovering suspiciously too close to the four eyes, and it annoyed me a bit.

Immediately, my mood broke down and, to her misfortune, a girl from my class nabbed me. I looked at her and analysed how I could hurt her. She'd always taken care of her hair and had a flawless hairstyle, but today she had run out of time and was extremely worried about it. I sped up to catch up with her and bent over her.

"Did you oversleep today? " I murmured. "Everyone will notice, don't worry, but maybe they'll be kind enough not to point it out to you."

She looked at me behind the tears in her eyes, hoping that somehow she would be able to partially cover it up and no one would notice for now. She was wrong, I wasn't the first, but no one else would care to get her down. I wanted it to bother her all day, to worry about being talked about behind her back. I looked at the keychain, meeting today's quota should be a piece of cake.

It hit me, especially after being a bit more with Kiyoshi, that I miss the days when I wasn't like this. As a child, I took an interest in history, I read books with facts, educational fairy tales, and everything in order. I loved dressing up as different characters, acting out scenes in front of my father and then in front of my kindergarten friends. It was then that my great dream of becoming a history teacher was born. I decided that despite the bad opinion this subject has, under my wings, it deserves to be called my favourite one, and I would be the coolest teacher.

When I was twelve, her genes kicked in, and my hand went automatically to my pocket and tightened around the keychain. At least she took an interest in me and relatively checked in on me when I was going through my headaches. I had so much in common with the Cupids that we suffered similarly and were helped by the same mixture of herbs. Fortunately, in my case, it only lasted two weeks, but after that, everything changed especially me. Suddenly, from a boy dreaming of being a teacher, I became a grumpy, mean teenager who had no respect for anything or anyone.

I had everything handed to me on a platter, I knew where to hit and what to say, so being the bad guy was never a problem. At first, I believed it was my duty, after all, I was helping my mother, thanks to me, she grew stronger, I had to be like that. That's why I gave up my dream too, because I knew it would be stronger than me and the people around me would only suffer.

However, I had to find something to do to keep from going crazy, and once, while walking, I saw an old man sitting in front of an antique shop. His eyes were closed, and he was breathing very shallowly, so for a moment I thought he was just dead, but he opened one eye, then the other, as soon as he sensed my presence.

"What is it? I have a client," he said cheerfully. "Well, I need to finish the break sooner."

He invited me in and encouraged me to look around. I took a hesitant step as I looked at this collection of various objects. I looked around under the watchful eye of the old man, he hardly watched me as if he suspected I was going to steal something, but with the usual interest and politeness.

After a few minutes, a small wall clock caught my attention, I looked at the owner and asked if I could pick it up. He agreed with a smile and told me how the first owner was a woman, and it was a wedding gift from her husband. After their deaths, he ended up in the attic of their daughter's house. Their granddaughter found him, but he didn't fit in with the modern interior of her new flat, so she brought it here and is now waiting for someone to take it back.

"Maybe you want to help this clock so that its story doesn't end here?" asked the old man.

I don't know why, but I agreed, and I didn't even have to pay for the clock. I would come home strangely happy, I wanted to show off this to my father and ask him for tools. Fire up the computer and start looking for ways to restore the clock to its former glory.

Unfortunately, that day, I found my guardian lying unconscious on the table after drinking too much sake. He was mumbling to himself, and I could finally understand that he didn't understand why I had changed, how tired he was of constant meetings with teachers or unpleasant comments and looks from the neighbours. He was angry at himself for not raising me well.

It hit me surprisingly hard, I helped him to lie down, and in my first impulse of anger I wanted to break the keychain, but the little damn thing was indestructible. I couldn't back out of it, no one could, but that day I decided to do the bare minimum. I started to hate myself for the compulsion to be evil that sometimes took over me, especially in the presence of Cupids, no, I corrected myself, only in her presence. With Kiyoshi, the need to hurt others was almost nil, and I missed that feeling. Passing by their class, I wondered if he would change soon too, or maybe the fact that he appeared so late would not significantly affect his character.