Accidentally become a father-Chapter 50: The Staff Room and Compression Logic

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The elementary school corridor was still relatively quiet.

Most of the students were already in class. The only sounds were the clicking of a teacher’s shoes against the floor and the quiet hum of a ceiling fan spinning slowly overhead.

At the end of the hallway was a door with a small plaque that read Staff Room.

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Inside the room, I sat on a metal folding chair.

Back straight.

Hands resting on my thighs.

Yuna stood to my left.

Her hands gripped the straps of her sky-blue backpack so tightly that her knuckles had turned white.

She hadn’t spoken since we entered the room.

Across the desk, her homeroom teacher sat massaging her temples.

She was a woman in her thirties with neat, short hair and thin-rimmed glasses.

On the desk in front of us sat a plastic lunchbox.

Cracked at one of the corners.

---

The teacher let out a long sigh before finally speaking.

"Thank you for coming in so early, Mr. Nishida."

I gave a slight nod.

"It’s no problem."

The teacher pointed at the lunchbox on the desk.

"This belongs to one of the students."

I looked at it for a moment.

The crack was quite obvious.

As if it had been dropped from a height.

The teacher continued.

"Yesterday during lunch, Yuna showed off her lunchbox to her friends."

Yuna stiffened slightly beside me.

"Then she explained... that her lunch wouldn’t fall apart even if dropped."

I glanced slightly toward Yuna.

She looked down.

Her shoulders hunched inward.

---

The teacher sighed again.

"A few boys in the class took that as a challenge."

She pushed the cracked lunchbox slightly toward me.

"They tried dropping their own lunchboxes from the top of the classroom cabinets."

I traced the crack in the plastic with my fingertip.

The fractured edge was rough.

"No one was hurt," the teacher said quickly.

"But it caused quite a commotion. And two lunchboxes were ruined."

I gave a slow nod.

"I see."

Beside me, Yuna bowed her head even lower.

I could see the tips of her hair trembling slightly.

The teacher looked between the two of us. 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

"So, I just wanted to ensure... that this type of lunch doesn’t trigger a similar incident again."

I lifted the lunchbox slightly.

Weighed it in my hand.

"Yuna’s lunch does not defy the laws of physics."

The teacher blinked.

"Excuse me?"

---

I set the cracked lunchbox back down.

"It is merely a matter of rice compression."

The teacher looked even more bewildered.

I continued in the same flat tone.

"Compacted rice has a higher mass density. Its internal structure is naturally more stable against minor impacts."

The teacher stared at me for a few seconds.

"...I am not entirely sure third-graders would understand that phrasing."

"That is the problem."

The teacher opened her mouth.

Then closed it again.

For a few seconds, the room fell silent.

I stood up from the chair.

A simple movement.

Unhurried.

---

I bowed at an angle of roughly fifteen degrees.

"We will adjust the density of her lunch."

The teacher still looked as though she were trying to process the conversation.

"Ah... yes... I suppose that—"

I was already standing upright again.

I rested my hand lightly on Yuna’s sleeve.

"Yuna."

She gave a small start.

"...Yes."

"Let’s return to class."

She gave a quick nod.

"Okay."

We walked out of the staff room.

The door clicked shut quietly behind us.

---

The school corridor was a little busier now.

A few students passed by carrying gym bags.

I started walking in the direction of her classroom.

Yuna’s small footsteps followed behind me.

Ten steps.

Twenty steps.

Then, a small voice called out from behind.

"...Papa."

I stopped.

Glanced back.

Yuna stood two steps behind me.

She was staring at the floor.

Her hands were still clutching her backpack straps.

---

Her voice was incredibly soft.

"...I caused trouble again."

I waited for her to continue.

She took a sharp little breath.

"If I... keep being a burden..."

Her sentence trailed off.

She bit her lip.

Then, she finally asked.

"...are you going to... send me back to Mama?"

The corridor seemed to grow a little quieter.

A few students walked past without paying us any mind.

I looked at Yuna for a few seconds.

Her face was tense.

Like someone awaiting a verdict.

---

I turned fully to face her.

"Yuna."

She instantly straightened her posture.

"Yes."

"The incident in class today was not your fault."

She blinked.

"...it wasn’t?"

"The error was in conducting an experiment without a proper procedure."

Yuna tilted her head.

"...procedure?"

"Dropping objects from the top of a cabinet without a risk analysis is a terrible idea."

She fell silent for a few seconds.

Then, she asked hesitantly.

"...so... I won’t be sent back?"

I let out a soft sigh.

"No."

Yuna’s shoulders dropped a fraction.

The tension in her face slowly melted away.

I looked back toward the classroom hallway.

"Now, go to class."

"Okay."

She started walking.

Two steps.

Then she stopped again.

---

She looked back at me.

"Papa."

"Hm."

"...thank you."

I gave a small nod.

Yuna broke into a light jog toward her classroom.

The door opened.

She slipped inside.

The chatter of the teacher and students immediately drifted out from the room.

I stood in the hallway for a few seconds.

Then, I turned and headed toward the school exit.

It seemed the gravity experiments were over.

At least for today.

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