Chapter 10: Secret Canvas
As if struck by the heat of the sports festival, today’s sun blazed, pushing the temperature past 30 degrees Celsius by noon.
With the first half of the sports festival program over, it was time for the lunch break.
While other students moved to have their lunch, Saito showed no signs of getting up. He lay there with a towel over his face, groaning “Ah~”.
Seeing Saito like this, his classmates couldn’t help but smile wryly, thinking his condition was quite serious.
The reason for Saito’s state was the tug-of-war event just before the break.
Thanks to the class’s unity, they had somehow made it to the finals. However, their last opponents were a cheat class full of sports club members, and they lost miserably.
Having declared they would win all events, losing at the last moment must have been quite a shock.
He had been in this state ever since returning to the tent.
While Lily thought he might be taking it too seriously, this was also one of Saito’s good points.
Because he genuinely enjoyed school events, those around him were drawn in and had fun too.
In fact, this sports festival was more exciting and enjoyable than the one before the time leap.
That’s why she couldn’t ignore her childhood friend, who had provided such a fun time, feeling down.
“Saito. Hamburger.”
Lily brought out the special treat she had prepared for today.
“Alright, let’s go! Lily, where can we get hamburgers? Tell me!?”
The effect was instantaneous.
He recovered at such a speed that it seemed as if his depression had been an illusion. With sparkling eyes, he grabbed Lily’s shoulders.
His appearance was just like a dog presented with its favorite treat.
“Okay, okay, calm down. Mom and Dad brought them. Let’s go meet up with them first.”
“Got it. Um, I saw Lucy-san over there earlier. We should be able to meet them if we go this way. Let’s go, Lily.”
Despite Lily’s attempts to calm her tail-wagging childhood friend, it had no effect, and he started walking ahead.
“You’re really simple-minded, Saito.”
Lily shrugged her shoulders with a sigh and followed her pet Saito.
“Welcome back, hic. You two were amazing. Saito and Lily-chan. As a parent, I’m so proud. By the way, Lily-chan, your chest has grown quite big, just like Lucy-san’s~”
When they reunited with their parents, the first to greet them was Saito’s father, Yo.
Yo’s face was slightly flushed, indicating that the adults had already started enjoying themselves.
“Wee~ Good job, you two. I bought some juice. Want some? Dahaha, Dahaha!”
“Shpee… Shpee…”
“Yabana-chan is so cute, chu chu. Oh, Lily, let’s kiss. Chu~”
As expected, the adults were all drunk, probably feeling good about their children’s achievements.
Yo, the pervy uncle.
Masanori, whose personality becomes flirty when drunk, turning into a happy drunk.
Saito’s mother, Yabana, sleeping soundly and contentedly.
Lucy, who becomes a kiss-maniac, but only towards women.
The usual chaos field that forms whenever the parents gather had already taken shape. Lily and Saito immediately exchanged eye contact.
“…(Let’s escape)”
“…(Yeah. There are hamburgers in that basket, take care of it)”
“…(Got it)”
With practiced ease, the two retrieved the picnic basket containing the hamburgers and retreated to a shady spot a little distance away.
“Dad and the others are drinking in broad daylight. Looks like coming to see our sports festival was just an excuse to drink after all.”
“Well, as long as my mom is here, it’s fine. I kind of expected this would happen.”
While complaining about their parents, the two started preparing lunch.
Saito spread out the leisure sheet, while Lily placed and secured the water bottles and the basket they brought at the edge.
They sat down side by side and took out the cooler bag and plates from the basket.
They placed cut round bread on the plates, added the ingredients from the cooler bag, and finally stuck skewers through to keep everything from falling apart.
“Here you go, American-style burgers.”
“Whoa! Looks super delicious. I never thought I’d be eating such authentic hamburgers at school. Can I eat it? I can eat it, right? Let’s di—” “W-wait a second!” “—What?”
As soon as it was ready, the childhood friend tried to eat it despite having dirty hands. Lily stopped him.
Saito looked displeased, but Lily had her pride as the creator.
She couldn’t allow the taste to be ruined by sand on his hands or risk him getting a stomachache because of this.
She took out wet wipes from the basket and handed one to Saito. “Oh, right, I hadn’t washed my hands,” he realized.
Lily sighed, thinking about how high-maintenance her childhood friend was.
“Now then, let’s eat!”
Next to her, Saito, who had finished wiping his hands, bit into the hamburger and his eyes widened.
“Delicious! … Delicious! … So good!”
“I’m glad you like it.”
Saito’s judgment was excellent.
Watching him devour the hamburger, Lily breathed a sigh of relief and grabbed her unruly cowlick that had started to bounce around, trying to forcibly stop it.
Even so, the tips were still moving slightly, which was embarrassing, but probably not noticeable from a distance. Probably.
Once her cowlick settled down, Lily took a big bite.
“Mmm, it’s delicious.”
She thought she had done a good job.
The only regret was that it had cooled down.
If it had been freshly made, she could have made Saito even happier.
“Right? Especially this teriyaki sauce is amazing. The sweetness with just a hint of spiciness is perfect.”
“Why are you bragging about it?”
However, seeing Saito puff out his chest with sauce on his cheek, she decided to forget about the dissatisfaction that had just surfaced. It wasn’t worth thinking about.
As she was about to take another bite, having switched her focus, she caught sight of Koyuki walking somewhere out of the corner of her eye.
She followed Koyuki with her eyes and saw her enter a small storage shed where tents were kept.
(I wonder what she needs in there?)
As she was puzzled by Koyuki disappearing into the back of the nearly empty storage shed, she saw Haruki arrive at the shed shortly after and enter, closing the door behind him.
(I have a bad feeling about this…)
If Lily hadn’t met Koyuki on the rooftop that day, she probably would have overlooked this.
But Lily had met Koyuki that day and knew she was in an unstable state.
It no longer felt like she was just getting help as she used to.
Something was happening in there.
Lily’s intuition whispered to her.
“Hey, I’ve got something to do, so I’ll be right back.”
“Okfay. Wherf are youf goinf?”
“That warehouse over there. I’ll be back soon, so wait here.”
“Alright.”
With such a certain premonition, Lily left those words with Saito and started running towards the warehouse.
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Clang.
The sound of the iron door closing echoed in the dimly lit warehouse.
“Haruki-kun, you came. Thank you for taking the time during your precious lunch break.”
“…Koyuki-senpai.”
As Koyuki greeted Haruki with a smile, he awkwardly averted his gaze.
That was only natural.
After all, Haruki and Koyuki had a history of rejection between them.
Anyone would react similarly if the person they rejected asked to talk again.
In fact, most people wouldn’t even respond to such a request.
Despite being called out by the person who rejected him, Haruki still came. He truly was kind.
Recognizing this once again, Koyuki’s lips curved into a smile.
“…What did you want to talk about?”
Unable to bear the heavy atmosphere, or perhaps finding Koyuki’s usual demeanor strangely out of place, Haruki timidly asked about the matter at hand.
“There was something I forgot to ask that day. May I ask you a few questions?”
Koyuki answered in a light tone, as if she had come to retrieve something forgotten in the classroom.
“…If it’s something I can talk about, I don’t mind.”
In contrast, Haruki’s face tensed up.
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