Haruya inhaled and exhaled deeply, as if to wash away the stagnant feelings in his heart.
The scorching heat that usually burned his skin now felt surprisingly pleasant.
He caught himself almost slipping into a dream, a fantasy, thinking this couldn’t possibly be the cultural festival season. N
Noticing his thirst, he gulped down green tea from a plastic bottle.
“…Wow, it’s even hotter today than I Haruya muttered to himself.
With a rusty creak, the door opened, and a beautiful girl with glossy, flowing hair came running towards him.
Glancing at his phone display, Haruya noticed a message had arrived a few minutes ago.
[…Akasaki-san. There’s something I’d like to discuss. Please meet me on the rooftop during lunch break.]
The sender was none other than the girl now standing before him – Himekawa Sara.
Usually, she’d send messages with cute stickers, but this one conveyed a sense of seriousness.
“I’m sorry for calling you out in this heat…” Sara began.
“No, it’s fine. Actually, this heat feels quite nice right now,”
“Eh~ You’re strange, Akasaki-san. How can this heat feel nice? It’s just humid and stuffy,”
Sara said, narrowing her eyes and fanning her uniform in front of her chest.
Though Haruya wanted to stay in the sun a bit longer, he moved to the shade, considering her feelings.
They sat down together and opened their lunch boxes.
“Wow, Akasaki-san. Meat-wrapped bell peppers and… what’s that?”
Sara asked, her eyes widening as she peered into Haruya’s lunch box.
“Oh, this is chicken tsukune with shiso leaves and pickled plum. It’s quite tasty and perfect for this season,” Haruya explained.
“Heh~ That’s quite elaborate,” Sara commented.
“Your simmered chikuzen looks delicious too, Himekawa-san,”
“In that case…” Sara offered her lunch box to him.
Taking the cue, Haruya also turned his lunch box towards her.
“…We’re swapping, aren’t we? …Hehe,”
“…”
Haruya, a bit embarrassed by her shy smile, couldn’t help but turn his face away.
As Sara had said, they had started exchanging items from each other’s lunches when eating together on the rooftop recently.
At first, it was Sara offering food to Haruya out of concern for his health, but gradually, feeling guilty, Haruya started cooking for himself and they began exchanging dishes.
“Well then, let’s eat,”
Sara said, taking a bite of the chicken tsukune from Haruya’s lunch box, her face lighting up.
“Mm~ The light seasoning is delicious.”
“…I-Is that so?”
Haruya responded, his face flushing slightly at her compliment.
Her smile was both childishly innocent and somehow mature.
Seeing her genuinely enjoy the food made Haruya happy.
Perhaps he was putting effort into cooking just to see and bring out this smile.
Her smile now seemed to shine so brightly to him.
(…The old me, before getting involved with Himekawa, would be shocked if he saw me now.)
Haruya nostalgically recalled a time when he had tried to make her dislike him.
But recently, he’d been interacting with Sara as his true self, without putting up pretenses just because she was popular in class.
As Haruya reflected on their first meeting, he took a bite of Sara’s cooking.
“This is good…”
the words naturally slipped out.
“I’m glad…!”
Sara beamed at him, then deliberately cleared her throat.
“By the way, Akasaki-san…”
“Y-Yes!”
Haruya instinctively straightened his back at her cold tone and the change in atmosphere.
Where had their pleasant meal gone?
Sara took a sip of mineral water and sighed.
“…There are two things I’d like to ask you.”
It seemed they were getting to the main reason she had called him here today.
(The atmosphere is heavy, but two things? Ugh, I want to run away.)
Unaware of Haruya’s inner thoughts, Sara continued.
“It’s about the Eika Festival… and about Yuuna-san. Which would you prefer to discuss first?”
It seemed he wasn’t allowed a third option.
How nice it would have been if he could activate the “I won’t answer” choice.
Haruya sighed lightly and faced Sara.
“Let’s start with the Eika Festival, then.”
“Understood. Well then, I’ll get right to it… Why did you agree to be on the executive committee!?”
Sara puffed out her cheeks, looking disgruntled.
She seemed dissatisfied, but honestly, Haruya was more dissatisfied.
He hadn’t agreed to it.
More accurately, he had been made to agree.
“…Don’t be so mean. You should know, Himekawa-san. We’re in the same class. I’m not mentally strong enough to refuse in that situation.”
“I understand that, but… you agreed so easily, so…”
Sara mumbled something under her breath, “I thought…”
“Hm? You thought?”
“I thought that maybe, like the other boys in class, you agreed because Rin-san is on the committee. You know… as a chance to get closer to her.”
“That’s not happening.”
Haruya immediately responded, raising his hands in front of his chest.
“As I’ve told Himekawa-san, I want to avoid standing out at school as much as possible.”
“Yes. I don’t know the circumstances, but I’ve heard that you don’t want to be noticeable.”
“That’s right. I try to act as inconspicuously as possible at school. That’s why the one who should be wondering about this isn’t me, but—”
Sara interrupted Haruya’s words and answered.
“Rin-san.”
“Exactly. Well, she chose me because I was sleeping… in the end, it’s my fault.”
“I… I understand.”
Sara nodded, though she didn’t seem entirely convinced.
Seeing her reaction, Haruya couldn’t help but push further.
READ THE ORIGINAL TRANSLATION AT GADGETIZEDPANDA.COM
“Why do you look so displeased… If anything, I’m the one who doesn’t want to be on the executive committee.”
“The executive committee is definitely going to be busy, right? We talked about going out after the rainy season, but then exam period came right away and it was postponed. And now with the Eika Festival… It’s frustrating that one postponement leads to another, and we might not be able to go out…”
“Complain to the school about that, not me.”
Haruya sighed and continued.
“…Besides, summer has just begun. There will always be opportunities.”
In truth, Haruya wanted to avoid going out with Sara as much as possible.
This was because the last time they went out together, his actions were overly idealized, planting an unrealistic image of him in her mind.
Haruya feared that his actions would be further deified and spread throughout the class.
Unaware of Haruya’s inner thoughts, Sara moved on to another main topic.
“About Yuuna-san… There really isn’t anything between you and Yuuna-san, right?”
“Ah~ yeah. Well…”
“She came to the practice game just because Akasaki-san likes basketball, right?”
“That’s right.”
Ever since the basketball incident with Yuuna, Sara seemed to be suspiciously curious about it.
Though he wasn’t quite sure of the reason himself, Haruya had become close enough with Yuuna to exchange contact information.
However, he couldn’t possibly tell Sara about this and could only evade the topic.
“If that’s the case, then it’s fine. These two things were what I wanted to ask about. Thank you for taking the time. And I’m sorry for being unnecessarily suspicious. Dad and Grandpa want to meet Akasaki-san again, so please, by all means—”
“Sorry. That would be awkward… but I’ll go if I can.”
“‘If you can’… That definitely means you won’t come!”
Min~ Min~ Min~
Sara’s voice echoed across the rooftop, drowning out the cicadas’ chirping that had been in the background.
With the main topics concluded, the conversation naturally shifted to the Eika Festival.
What committee role they wanted, how they wanted to contribute to the class, what kind of class event they wanted to do, and so on.
Sara was excitedly throwing questions at Haruya.
A play, a food stall, a haunted house, fortune-telling, a maid café.
Seeing the many ideas coming from her alone, Haruya was certain that organizing and managing all of this would be incredibly challenging.
…And that prediction would prove to be spot on.
The classroom after school was filled with commotion.
They were working out the details for the Eika Festival.
The very topics Haruya had discussed with Sara during lunch were now being debated on a class-wide scale.
Standing at the podium were the two chosen executive committee members.
The one leading the discussion was Kohinata Rin.
She was the class beauty, admired by everyone.
“Well then, as a result of the majority vote… our class will be doing a ‘play’!”
Applause erupted from the class.
The word [Play] written on the blackboard was circled with red chalk.
(Finally decided. I didn’t expect it to take so much effort just to decide on a class event.)
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