Navigating the world of teaching on a low salary and high hospital bills to pay

Just listen

"What are you doing?" It was 4AM when Kayano found him in the kitchen still; he'd managed to convince her living alone was too dangerous so she'd agreed to stay so long as she got his and Aguri's room while he slept on the couch.

Koro-sensei looked up from Aguri's beautifully prepared recipe card. "Cooking." He grinned, carefully folding the Tamagoyaki omelette in the square pan. "I'm making a nutritious breakfast and lunch for dear Karma!"

"What?" Kayano's brow furrowed, walking over to him. "Why? He hates you."

He chuckled. "Oh, no he doesn't." He patted her on the head. "He's just a jokester really." He smiled, slipping the omelette onto a plate to cool down; the colour was golden yellow and it smelt beautiful. "I'm sure he's a kind boy deep down."

His sister-in-law remained unimpressed. "He dunked ice cream on you and laughed."

Koro-sensei forced a chuckled. "All just teasing!" He turned off the stove. "Besides, he's still my student, so I have a duty to raise him up high so he can be the best version of himself."

"Ugh, forget it." Kayano sighed, rolling her eyes. "You're hopeless." She stole the omelette. "I'm going back to bed."

"Hey!" He exclaimed when she took the omelette. "Do you know how long it took me to—"

"Don't care." His sister-in-law disappeared into the bedroom with the food.

***

"Good morning, children!" Koro-sensei greeted his students in the morning as nearly the last of them arrived.

"Morning, sir!" Kurahashi greeted, smiling as she entered the classroom with Yada. "Oh." She frowned. "Did you any sleep?" She smiled sympathetically. "You look really tired!"

Koro-sensei chuckled nervously. "Oh, I slept fine! No need to worry!"

Kurahashi looked amused and Yada giggled before the two students took their seats.

He kept his eye out for Karma as he was the only one who hadn't arrived yet.

"Hey, sir, are we working on fixing up the field again today?" Kurahashi asked as she took her seat.

"Yeah, it beats spending all day inside," Maehara commented, earning a chiding nudge from Kataoka.

"Hm? Oh, yes!" Koro-sensei replied, smiling. "There's still a lot to do after all!"

Terasaka scoffed, rolling his eyes. "The only reason we're helping is that you're stupid enough to work yourself to death."

"Yeah, what kind of wack-job does that?" Muramatsu said while cleaning wax from his ears.

"It's not wacky, children, it's a show of a teacher's strong dedication to his students!" Koro-sensei replied brightly. "Though we'll have to save the outside architecture for this afternoon." He pulled out a Japanese poetry textbook. "Because we're covering poetry this morning!"

A number of students groaned in exasperation.

"Poetry sucks..." Yoshida complained.

"That's because you're too stupid to get it," Hazama said dryly while writing in her notebook.

"Hey! No, I'm not!" Yoshida yelled.

"Poetry is a gateway to another world children – a true honest reflection of the human heart." He wiped a tear from his eye. "And since they'll be a special announcement soon regarding a certain winner of a poetry competition..."

Kanzaki blushed and kept her gaze low. "...They haven't announced anything yet."

"Yeah, but your poem's definitely better than whatever those jerks submitted," Nakamura prised, grinning.