The preparations for the culture festival are speeding ahead. Despite us being busier than ever, the school acted like it was a national duty to still continue its classes. Since I was both helping out in the culture festival executive committee and my own class’ offering for the culture festival, I felt like a commoner, maybe even a grade school student…Wait, why am I a shota? Anyway, I may be complaining like this, but I still can’t hope to compare to Ichinose-san, who is working part-time on the side and still studying above all.
“……”
The only saving grace is the faint scribbling sound of Natsukawa’s pen behind me. A lot happened, and I expected things to be awkward between the two of us, but I never anticipated feeling such bliss and happiness simply by having the person I like close to me. Although I feel a bit of regret being unable to watch the goddess from afar, I found another joy in life.
Indeed, I would get arrested if the police knew of my feelings. Just thinking about Natsukawa looking at the back of my head makes it speed up—the teacher writing on the blackboard, that is.
“All right, next one~”
Gaaaaaaah?! I sped up my hand movement even further, forced to stop my ‘Natsukawa started day-trading and’ beginning of my notes. Is she the daughter of some wealthy merchant? A high school student with connections to royalty is way too crazy. I want to marry her right now.
With heartbroken feelings, I erased the part I started to write, and looked for the right answer in the textbook. Turns out it was ‘Ashikaga Yoshimitsu’ after all. Hey, Natsukawa looks a lot better than this guy. Well even if she didn’t, my feelings for her won’t change! Though I don’t know if she’ll even reciprocate them!
In the meantime, the teacher continued chanting random words that apparently were important. Crouching in front of the blackboard like that, my notes were full of empty spaces. Who knows, maybe they’ll fire a fireball at me without my knowledge. Well, as long as I can protect Natsukawa, I can go out in peace!
“Hm, this should do it for today.”
The teacher uttered these words, and I could feel everybody in the classroom relax at once. The mood felt like after a long battle, and even the teacher reacted with ‘Maybe I rushed too much’ with a bitter smile. You damn bastard. Looking at the time, it’s been 50 minutes already. I feel like classes that require a lot of note-taking generally pass by so quickly. I can’t tell if I’m happy or annoyed.
Right as my nose started to itch, I saw a black area on my hand’s small finger. Yeah, I’m not happy after all. I prefer classes that allow me to observe the scenery outside. Even better if I can doodle on the portraits of important figures during history classes. No guilt there if I mess up Ashikaga Yoshimitsu’s head a bit, right?
“Stand. Bow.”
“Thank you very much!”
Finally, it’s over…I sank back down onto my chair. While looking up at the ceiling, I tried to preserve as much mental and physical energy as possible, I suddenly felt something hitting my head, followed by a faintly chilly sensation.
“…I fixed your hair whorl.”
“……”
“Ah…”
…Why is she so god dang cute? (Directed at the entire world.)
Judging from that sensation, Natsukawa used the tip of her pen to fix that hair whorl on my head. That is totally fine. What truly leaves me baffled is the fact that Natsukawa even cared enough to undo that whorl for me. I never would have imagined the day would come where I suffer defeat against my own hair. I want Natsukawa to be interested in me instead. I turned around, and found Natsukawa apologizing to me in a bashful way. I guess the curiosity just got the better of her.
“Well, I’m sorry…”
“It’s fine…”
“I probably…shouldn’t touch you there, right?”
“Hold on, where did you get that fake information from?”
She seemed awfully awkward while saying so, which led to my body reacting faster than my brain, and I retorted without even thinking if I should or not. I simply wish that it wasn’t her father who said that. I bet he must have lots of trouble with a girl her age. Please take proper care of your scalp during the weekdays.
“…Counter-clockwise?”
“Yeah…”
“I see…”
I often see Big Sis trying to hide her whorls with a comb, which is why I see them on a regular basis. Her’s go counter-clockwise as well. It seems like we might just be blood-related after all. Either way, we barely have ten minutes between classes, so I would have loved to take out my laptop, and open it up so that I could at least lessen the burden on Natsukawa a small bit…but I’m severely lacking time here. And even if I did have time, I can’t work here without Yamazaki or somebody else bothering me. Even if I moved elsewhere, I would need more time.
…Hold on, when doing the online meeting with Hanawa-senpai before, I didn’t need the school’s network, right? If I could work on the documents on my phone instead of the laptop, and create a work-friendly environment, I might be able to use even this small amount of time. Well…the rules of the school might be against it, but whatever. For now, I should move to a place where the wi-fi could reach…
“…Are you wandering off to work again?”
“Huh?”
I got up from my seat, heading for the hallway, when Natsukawa called out to me. Her expression seemed a bit perplexed, but also hesitant. She might think that I’m overworking myself. I don’t know how I feel about bragging about it either…I guess I should just cover it up.
“Nah, just heading to the toilet.”
“But your face looked like you were planning to work.”
“Huh? My face?”
Face…Wait a second, do I have a different expression when I’m working? That’s the first time I’ve heard of that. Is it at least cool? I hope it is. That’s the most important part.
“…Do you have a mirror on you?”
“I do, but your face is normal now.”
“N-Normal…”
Normal…that hurt. I never expected such a comment to hurt just because it came from Natsukawa…Ahh, the lights in the classroom are inviting me.
“Are you not going to the toilet?”
“…I am, I am.”
“Okay, see you later.”
Suddenly, Natsukawa showed a faint snicker, and sent me off—to the toilet. Weird. Being blessed by Natsukawa, I suddenly felt the urge for real. I didn’t expect her smile to be this powerful. I guess my body is just a lost cause at this point.
“…Phew.”
After relieving myself, I carefully washed my hands at the sink. Since time passed far too much at this point, I’ll continue working on the committee work next break. Not like I have to take care of all of it myself. Overworking myself won’t do anybody any good. I should take some proper rest when I can. When I made my way back to the classroom, I heard quick and nimble steps approaching me from behind. I guess someone’s in a rush, maybe I should make room. The second I thought that, a small shadow leaped at me.
“Sajooooooo!”
“Huh?”
“Sajooooooooooo!!”
“Huuuuuh?!”
The small shadow that rammed right into me—turned out to be Airi-chan, who screamed loudly while pointing at me. She clung to my leg while bawling her eyes out.
“Waaaaaaaah!”
“Wait, Airi-chan?! Why are you here?!”
I was simply awestruck at this sudden development, and tried my hardest to calm her down, so I picked her up Natsukawa style, gently caressing her.
“A-Airi-cha—Oh? Did you grow? You feel a bit taller than last time.”
“Waaaaaaaah!”
Her small figure weighed a lot more on my arms than I remember. Maybe she’s grown heavier? Well, it’s already been two months since the last time we met…It seems like I underestimated a child’s growth massively. Leaving aside the fact that she’s such a crybaby.
“Sajou-kun.”
As I was left baffled, Ootsuki-sensei approached me from the same direction Airi-chan came from. Unlike me, she didn’t seem too surprised, and instead showed a wry smile.
“She’s Natsukawa-san’s younger sister, right? She wasn’t crying until now, I guess she was just holding back.”
“I mean, okay? I still don’t get why she’s here…”
“I personally was curious myself. The second she saw you, she started running.”
“Ah, that’s, well…”
“—Airi?!”
“Waaaaah! Onee-chaaaan!”
Sensei seemed quite curious about the circumstances behind this fact, but Natsukawa got the jump on her, rushing out of the classroom. She seemed utterly baffled at seeing Airi-chan here. Even to the point she would wish this to be a dream, and I totally get it. With swift yet calm movement, Natsukawa stole Airi-chan from me, approached her, and tightly embraced her. I see, this is how she hugs her now.
“So, why is your little sister here, Natsukawa?”
“The thing is—”
*
This is the gist of it. The kindergarten Airi-chan attended had a building that had to get renovated because of the deterioration, and it apparently was closed today. However, today seemed to be bad timing overall, because Natsukawa’s mother couldn’t make time to take care of Airi, and her father was already way too busy with work, whereas Natsukawa obviously had school to attend to. As a result of that, the family reached a certain conclusion—Maybe she’s old enough to stay at home alone?
Worse of all was that they only learned of the renovation happening a day prior, namely on Sunday morning. Together with her mother, Natsukawa tried her best to drill everything necessary into Airi-chan, such as ‘Don’t answer the door no matter who rings’ and so on, and we fast forward to today. This morning, Airi-chan seemingly was more than motivated, and saw off Natsukawa. However, it seemed to have been too early for her after all.
As soon as Airi-chan’s mother left the home, she started to feel lonely, put on clothes, and dashed out of the house. At the very least, she properly locked up the door by using the ‘Turn it into the direction of the garden’ trick when turning the key. From then on, she went on an adventure. On rainy days, Natsukawa’s parents would sometimes drive her to school, and since Airi-chan would always tag along then, she remembered the way. Relying on her memories she trotted down the streets. It was a sight to behold when she said ‘I held up my hand at the traffic light!’ while bawling her eyes out.
Because she acted totally fine on the way without crying once, she managed to make it here without anybody calling out to her. That being said, she definitely wasn’t feeling too great on her way here. Once Airi-chan made it here, she apparently flashed a bright smile, or so a teacher present at the teacher’s office explained. Following that, the school nurse Shindou-sensei gently talked to Airi-chan, getting as much information from her as possible. Through that, they found out that she is Natsukawa Aika’s adorable younger sister. Ootsuki-sensei even seemed a bit excited at finding that out. Hey now, hey now.
“Dummy!”
“Waaaaah…!”
Since we gathered too much attention from the other students, we switched locations. That’s when Natsukawa’s fury showed for the first time. Of course, her anger was a result of her love and care for Airi-chan, nothing more. And it seemed like Airi-chan’s crying didn’t calm Natsukawa down for a while. Me? I’ve fallen for her all over again, tehe. Of course, we couldn’t just disregard the next class, so we quickly returned to the classroom.
“…Sniff.”
“………”
Our next class happened to be English, which is taught by Ootsuki-sensei. Natsukawa and the others came back as well, and Airi-chan joined our class as well…although she for some reason was sitting next to me on a borrowed chair, holding onto my clothes. She apparently didn’t fancy the idea of staying with the older sister who just scolded the crap out of her. I get how she feels, since I went through that myself. But even so…
“………”
“…Hmph.”
Eeek, she’s scary…I could feel sheer siscon pressure hitting my back, making me tear up. I looked to my side, and saw a grinning Ashida as well as my other classmates, clearly enjoying the situation.
“…Mm.”
“Ah…”
Airi-chan collapsed to the side, her head falling onto my lap. Is she asleep now?! Or so I thought, but I could see her clearly pouting. Ahh, I get it, I really do…Showing a rebellious attitude, Airi-chan took out a Japanese history workbook from my desk, and looked through it like a picture book. There are a lot of pictures on there. Even if she can’t read the text, enjoying the pictures is plenty of fun. Not to mention that she’s really docile right now.
“Airi-chan, let’s go buy some sweets later.”
“Don’t spoil her too much.”
“My bad…”
I heard Natsukawa’s resentful voice, which led to laughter from our classmates.
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