Confessions

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Those who've finished drinking, return your...

...empty cartons to the correct number and sit back down.

Our school has been selected from ten thousand candidates...

...all across the country to promote milk for middle schoolers.

You're currently approaching your second growth period.

The calcium in milk not only strengthens your bones,

but also nurtures your brains.

These are porn movies I confiscated from Kamiyama last month.

He digitally removed the mosaic on them at Watanabe's house,

and planned on giving them to all the boys in the class.

I'm sure you know that your bodies and hearts are about to...

(You're kidding me! You kissed him!?)

...go through an immense period of growth known as puberty.

I don't know how effective milk will be on thirteen year old bodies and minds.

But I'm sure we'll see some changes in you come the March health checkups.

Though I'll be gone by then.

I've had enough, so this will be my last month as a teacher.

You gotta be kidding!

Awesome!

(25th March

End of term ceremony for Year One Class B)

I don't really know whether I've been a good teacher.

Stop messing around! The teacher's trying to say something!

Thank you, Hoshino.

Do any of you know a teacher called Masayoshi Sakuramiya?

Yeah!

He's the super-teacher that wrote this book, right?

He's totally awesome.

He's a truly passionate teacher who has published books,

and has appeared on television.

Originally he was a total deadbeat, right? He dropped out...

...of school and travelled the world before becoming a teacher.

That's right.

Last year he was told he only had a few months left to live.

Yet he wasn't discouraged, and continued to put his...

...all into his classes until the very last.

He taught at...

...the first school I ever worked at.

Seriously!?

!?The weak will always hurt those weaker than them.

Are the only choices available to bear it or die?

No, the world you live in is not so limited.

If you're stuck in a difficult situation,

it's okay to retreat to somewhere safer.!?

Retreat, huh?

Guess we better had then!

I'm outta here!

Already taking Mr. Sakuramiya's words to heart.

Truly, the man is a genius.

Well, I suppose it hardly matters.

Compared to Mr. Sakuramiya,

I might never have been much of a teacher.

But there were two rules I chose to work by.

One:
Address the students politely.

Two:
Do my best to place myself on the same level as them.

Speak with them as I'd like to be spoken to.

Be frank with them as if we were friends, talking to them about anything they wanted.

I think I must have been quietly influenced...

...by drama characters who spoke in such ways.

I'm sorry, Nagaguchi.

Even though you sent me late night e-mails,

telling me you wanted to lose weight, or that you wanted to die,

I could never answer you kindly.

Because frankly I never completely trusted what any of you told me.

Hey, what's that supposed to mean!?

I remember a certain event.

A girl wrote to a young male teacher saying she was in love with him.

I remember this!

That she'd kill herself if he didn't meet her. He panicked and agreed to meet her at a love hotel.

The girl waited there, and got a photo of him.

Then she showed it to her parents, who stormed into the school.

Ridiculous...

It was just a stupid prank by a girl who was angry for being scolded.

The teacher was a fool to trust her.

So you don't believe us about anything!?

It's just because students...because all of you...are so good at lying.

(I'm waiting up on the roof.)

Miss, I'm feeling ill. Can I go to the nurse?

Go ahead.

Anyway, after that, if I was called out by a student of the opposite gender,

even one of my own, I'd get a male teacher from...

...another class to go instead.

Just as whenever one of the boys in this class...

...asked to meet me, I'd send Mr. Tokura from Class A.

I feel that's deeply irresponsible as our teacher.

Oh you do, do you?

I see. I suppose you can look at it that way.

Spending your every moment thinking about marrying a Johnny's Jr.

you can become quite self-absorbed, and completely wrapped up in your own little worlds.

It's easy to forget what it means simply to live.

I'm going to make sure none of you ever use words like 'I want to die' so lightly again.

I'm going to give you one final, very important lesson.

(Life)

As you know, I'm a single mother.

I had intended to marry the father of my daughter Manami.

We were both teachers, but he was someone I really looked up to.

Shortly before we were due to be married, I became pregnant.

And he was diagnosed with HIV during a physical examination.

HIV. A virus which destroys the immune system.

The virus which causes AIDS.

He contracted it as a relief worker abroad.

It's okay, you can breathe.

It doesn't pass through the air.

It also won't pass through handshakes, sneezes,

baths, or swimming pools.

Even if you're close to someone infected regularly, it doesn't pose problems.

So I'm not even infected to begin with.

HIV isn't guaranteed to pass via sex.

Though I myself couldn't believe I wasn't infected, and demanded a reevaluation.

In the end, I gave birth to my child, but didn't marry.

That was the decision I took.

Why didn't you marry him?

Even though the child wasn't infected,

her father was. And if that became...

public knowledge, she'd face discrimination.

Who cares what people think!

The specter of his illness would hang over her even after he had passed.

It would only make her suffer. That was his judgement, and I agreed.

That's so cruel on the kid!

It would've been crueler to do otherwise.

Even though he wanted to hold Manami more than anyone, he couldn't...

As hard as it was for me, I think it was a hundred times harder for him.

I gave Manami every bit of love I had.

When she turned one, I went back to work.

Until she was six, she'd wait for me at the local nursery.

And after that, I entrusted her to a Ms. Takenaka I met via a volunteer center.

She took care of a dog called Shaggy.

Manami really loved that dog,

so she put her in charge of feeding it.

At the start of this year, Takenaka was hospitalised.

Every day I finished work by the time she finished nursery.

Except on Wednesdays, when there were staff meetings.

Then I'd go and meet her early, and have her...

wait until the meeting was over in the school infirmary.

Manami really loved a character called Cotton Bunny.

Her bag, her handkerchief, her tissues, her shoes...

Hey, Shimomura, you remember this pouch, right?

Buy it for me Mommy!

I already bought this one for you.

Why don't you just buy her it? It's only a pouch.

Thinking about it now, you were probably right.

Because in the end...

Manami?

Manami! Manami!

...it was the last thing Manami ever asked me to do for her.

Miss!

On the 13th of February...

Miss!

...the police determined that she had slipped into the pool, and drowned.

There were bread crumbs beside Shaggy,

and it was the same bread Manami was given at the nursery.

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