A Love Too Big to Hide (Patreon)

Yumi is thirty-two years old. A high school teacher, she is known by everyone as one of the most serious educators in the school—strict, demanding, almost beyond reproach.

Yet behind this impeccable façade, she maintains a secret relationship with Kyo, an eighteen-year-old student from her class.

No one knows about their affair. Both of them are fully aware of the risks they are taking, of the consequences such a relationship could bring… but the forbidden nature of it only fuels their desire. They have become addicted to one another, willing to take reckless chances just to be together.

On Valentine’s Day, the school empties faster than usual during the lunch break. Everyone rushes off to spend time with a close friend, a loved one, or a significant other. Yumi, meanwhile, heads toward an empty classroom, certain that no one will disturb them there. Kyo is the only one who knows she is waiting for him.

As she enters the room, she notices a heart-shaped box of chocolates resting on the teacher’s desk. Surprised, she smiles. Naturally, she assumes it is a gift from Kyo and, without giving it much thought, eats a few.

A little later, Kyo arrives. The door closes. The moment is brief, feverish, charged with a tension neither of them tries to resist anymore. The outside world fades away. They know it is wrong… yet Yumi lets herself be completely swept up by the moment, by the danger, by the passion she can no longer control.

Overwhelmed and breathless, she finally murmurs a “Happy Valentine’s Day” to Kyo, thanking him for the chocolates.

At those words, he freezes.

“What chocolates?” he asks, surprised.

Yumi’s heart tightens. A chill of fear runs through her. If they weren’t from him… then who were they meant for? And worse—who knew she would be here?

She has no time to think further.

A strange sound suddenly echoes through the room, like fabric tearing. The air around her feels oppressive, as if the space itself is shrinking. She turns and realizes, in horror, that it isn’t the walls closing in on her… it’s her.

Her clothes rip apart under the pressure of her own body.

She is growing.

Under Kyo’s petrified gaze, Yumi grows at a terrifying speed. The classroom becomes far too small, the ceiling dangerously close. Panic overwhelms her. She has no idea what is happening to her.

“Run!” she screams at Kyo.

The next instant, her head slams into the ceiling… and bursts straight through it with a deafening crash.

Soon, her gigantic form erupts through the school’s roof, shattering tiles and concrete. She struggles to straighten up, now towering over the entire building. When her growth finally stops, Yumi stands over thirty meters tall.

Terrified by her new size, unable to understand how such a thing could have happened to her, she steps over the shattered school wall to escape… leaving behind a devastated campus and a life that has just been irreversibly destroyed.