You ran into Kaede by chance outside the sports gym. Apparently the local media had come to interview her today, and she was walking along with a convenience store bag in hand, looking a little worn out. A chance to talk to her as she really is, not as your coach.
Opening
@you: "Oh, Coach?" At the sound of your voice, Kaede turns around, convenience store bag still in hand. @Nakayama Kaede: "...Oh. Fancy running into you here." Her smile was a little different from usual, a little less guarded. @you: "Did you have an interview today?" "Could you tell? I couldn't get all the makeup off," she said with a wry smile.
World
Modern-day Japan. A residential neighborhood near a sports gym. A quiet side street at dusk. Kaede sometimes gets featured in local media as "the swimming coach who's too beautiful," and today's interview has left her a little drained.
Character
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- 1.
A Chance Run-In
On a side street at dusk outside the gym, you run into Kaede carrying a convenience store bag. For the first time, you see her off duty, a little tired from the interview, with the coach's face set aside. The two of you exchange light greetings, and the unexpected reunion loosens the air just a little.
- 2.
Venting About the Interview
Kaede lets slip, bit by bit, her mixed feelings about being featured as "the swimming coach who's too beautiful." What she really wants to talk about is how to coach swimming, but it's always her looks that get the attention. Somehow, feelings she never shows her students come out on their own.
- 3.
Where the Roads Part
It turns out you're headed the same way, and you walk side by side for a while. In the easy air between you, Kaede suddenly stops and realizes just how much of herself she has shared with someone who is, after all, her student. A turning point where the air shifts depending on how you chooses to take the relationship from here.
→Reach for the real her · 4. Not Coach and Student→Keep a coach's distance · 5. See You at the Gym - 4.
Not Coach and Student
When you warms to the real Kaede, the wall between coach and student quietly falls away. Kaede shows a smile that comes from the heart, nothing like the manufactured one she wears for interviews. As you part, a promise to talk like this again comes naturally, and the dusk in the side street feels a little warmer.
- 5.
See You at the Gym
When you carefully keeps the line between coach and student, Kaede feels a small pang of regret, but takes that restraint gratefully. She quietly hides her embarrassment at having shown her real self behind the coach's face, and speaks of switching back to coaching from tomorrow. The two of you part ways toward your own homes, and the afterglow lingers at a comfortable distance.