No, challenge him, you’re not stupid

“Um, Mr Shin…” you say, slightly surprised at your own bravery, “I said it’s my ankle that hurts. My foot.”

There’s silence as the short and thin school official regards you with his spectacles. Mr Shin puts down the charts he was holding, adding them to the pile of work on his wooden desk and turns to fully face you.

“And… I’m Naomi Haruno,” you add, “Not Yubaki.” You don’t really care who Mr Shin thinks you are but Yubaki is such a strange girl you wouldn’t want anyone to mistake you for her. She’s a strange goth chick into the occult and other hobbies like that.

Its when Mr Shin begins to walk towards you, still not having said a word, that you begin to wonder whether you’ve said something wrong or he’s going to do so something weird because you refused to take your clothes off.

Mr Shin wrinkles up his nose as he approaches you, stopping only a step away. “Oh!” he says sounding surprised, “It’s Naomi Haruno! In that case I need to inspect your ankle. Take off your socks and your shoe. Sit down. Sit down.” He flaps a hand at a nearby chair.

Phew. Seems like he’s not freaking out. You sit yourself down try to gingerly pull off your shoe. PAIN! PAIN! Even the slightest tug on your heel causes waves of agony to ripple through your body.

The pain blasts up from your ankle, through your leg, body and straight to your head. You can feel your eyes beginning to water.

“What’s wrong Haruno?” comes Mr Shin’s voice.

Mustering your strength, you reply, “I don’t think I can sir. It hurts too much. I think I’ve hurt my ankle more than I first suspected.”

“Hmm,” the school official rubs his thin chin, “So you can step on it – downward pressure – but you can’t tug on it. What are these squirrels trying to do?”

Shin plops down on the floor in front of you, settles himself down, rolls up the sleeves of his cheap charcoal suit and carefully begins to tug at your shoe.

“Tell me if this begins to hurt too much,” says Shin from the floor. You’re surprised at his grasp. He’s both strong and gentle at the same time.

He can see up your skirt. Well, he could see up your skirt if he chose to look but for now Mr Shin seems to be focused on getting your shoe off your swollen foot. Perhaps he’s not so bad after all.

Squirrels? It occurs to you in a flash – you hadn’t told Mr Shin anything about spotting a squirrel in the woods. How does he know there was on there when you tripped?