Ore wo Suki nano wa Omae dake ka yo - Chapter 5 Part 1

Chapter 5 – Our Hyakka Festival

 

 

“Oi, you guys over there! All good?”

“All good! Also, can someone tell the teachers that we need another stack of wood-free papers?”

“You don’t need to! I already got the paper for you!”

“Thank you, Asunaro!”

 

I walked into the classroom and was greeted by this chaotic scene.

 

Well, I wasn’t surprised at all. Today was the day of the Hyakka Festival after all.

 

No matter how unmotivated everyone was, they’d go all out when the event had started. It was the same last year too.

 

“Ah, Joro! Good morning!”

“Morning, Asunaro.”

 

With a stack of paper in her hands, Asunaro came over and bowed to me.

 

Her ponytail hung down in front of her face, it looked funny.

 

“Hm? Himawari isn’t with you?”

“She’s helping out the tennis club. We aren’t always together. It isn’t like we’re dating or anything.”

 

Alright, as I previously said, today was the day of the Hyakka Festival.

 

For those of you who didn’t remember, let me remind you the thing that Asunaro said to me a while back.

 

‘Don’t worry, I haven’t distributed the article yet. I also withheld the names of the victims for their safety. I’m going to publish it during the Hyakka Festival, so I’ll be keeping a close eye on you in the meantime! Depending on your actions, I’ll change the content of the article accordingly!’

 

That was what Asunaro said to me as she smiled with the most innocent looking smile ever. But in her hand, there was an article titled, ‘Scum of the Century! Kisaragi Amatsuyu Caught  Three-Timing!’ Unfortunately for me, the article was accidentally published, though whether the article would be altered to reflect the truth or not remained undecided.

 

Since it would be decided today, the day of the Hyakka Festival.

 

In other words, all this time, I had been trying my best to resolve Asunaro’s misunderstandings, to get her to change the content of the article so that it would tell everyone the truth of the matter, all while being harassed by the girls’ clique.

 

And the result of my hard work was…!

 

“Look forward to it tomorrow!”

 

I… Didn’t know yet.

 

Apparently, the article would be published tomorrow, the second day of the festival.

 

So, I could only hope that Asunaro had written something like ’the article that was released prior to this one was a mistake.’

 

“In the meantime, I’ll be continuing to keep a close eye on you, so, please take care of me today too!”

“…Fine.”

 

The content of article could go either way, thanks to Cosmos’ decision to stop practicing together a week ago.

 

Because of that, I haven’t been involving myself with both Himawari and Cosmos until two days before the day of the festival. On the other hand, I’ve been visiting Pansy pretty much every day since then.

 

Since I’ve always tried to run away from Asunaro whenever I visited the library during the lunch break, she was never there during that time. She also didn’t go to the library on the day Cosmos confronted her.

 

But, after that, she always came with me to the library every day after school.

 

She always gave Pansy suspicious eyes whenever Pansy was dancing with me, probably because she wasn’t a participant for the Kabuten.

 

In addition to that, she also watched me, Himawari and Cosmos dancing together on our last days of practice.

 

Though, both Himawari and Cosmos acted distant and we didn’t exactly talk with each other much.

 

I knew that it was the countermeasure against Asunaro, but it was still tough on me…

 

…Haah… I hoped that things would go well after we went this far, but who knows what was going on in Asunaro’s mind.

 

If I were to follow the trend of the misfortune following me, she’d most likely publish the article without changing anything, but there was a sliiight chance that she would show her mercy on me, so I was betting on that chance.

 

“Don’t you need to go and help the newspaper club, Asunaro?”

“Don’t worry! We just need to leave the articles we finished in the clubroom! We finished most of the preparations yesterday!”

 

Huh? The articles they finished?

 

“Oi. Does that mean–”

“Don’t worry! All of them are old articles!”

 

All of them were old articles?

 

But, there was still a chance that she slipped it in by accident again, so I probably should check it out just to make sure…

 

“Do your best during the Kabuten, okay, Joro? I’ll be rooting for you!”

 

…For a moment there, I thought she’d make another misunderstanding about me again.

 

Her support for me seemed genuine, it seemed.

 

Lately, I’ve been spending a lot of time together with her because of her antics.

 

My impression of her was… She was a good girl…

 

Unlike certain girls I knew, she never pushed me around selfishly and it was fun to talk with her because she knew a lot of stuff, probably from all the research she had to do for her club.

 

Now that I was isolated from the girls in my class, Himawari and Cosmos were also avoiding me for the time being, she was pretty much the only other girl I could talk to and honestly, I was thankful for her presence.

 

Well, then again, depending on how tomorrow’s article would turn out, she could be my most hated person on earth…

 

If only things were to develop differently and we were able to get along without me having to deal with this silly misunderstanding…

 

“What’s wrong, Joro? Why are you staring at me like that?”

“Nothing.”

“I see! I take it that you found me attractive and are falling over heels for me!”

“As if. Stop making up impossible scenarios in your head.”

“Hahaha! You really can’t take a joke, Joro!”

 

While having such a light conversation with Asunaro, I helped my class with our exhibit.

 

*   *   *

 

The Hyakka Festival had finally begun. There was a decently sized crowd by the time it reached 3 pm.

 

We students didn’t have much to do though. Essentially, the festival was just an exhibition, after all.

 

Some of us were manning our exhibit in our classes, others went around to see what the other classes or clubs were up to. As for me, I was visiting the newspaper club with Asunaro…

 

“‘The baseball club’s close loss! Dreams to Koshien Shattered!’ huh…”

“That’s an article from last year! I wrote that one!”

 

Asunaro said proudly after seeing the article I was holding.

 

This was an article that was published last year on the day after the baseball team’s match in the regionals’ finals.

 

Its front page showed the crying baseball club members and Sun-chan comforting them with a smile.

 

…What a nostalgic scene. I noticed how depressed Sun-chan was back then, so I rushed out of the stadium to look for a kushikatsu stall.

 

I didn’t know if it was divine intervention or I was just lucky, but there was one nearby, so I bought their whole stock.

 

Now that I think about it, would they open up the stall again this year? I wish they would, their kushikatsu tasted good. Also, I wanted to treat Sun-chan to more kushikatsu this year, whether he ended up winning or not. Though, the good looking stall owner complained to me that their sales weren’t good, so there was a chance that they wouldn’t open up their stall again.

 

“You seem to be concerned with that article, Joro.”

“Well, yeah. I really want Sun-chan to go to Koshien this year.”

“You really love Sun-chan, don’t you, Joro? Are you guys actually dating?”

“No! We’re just—”

 

Huh? My phone rang. Who was it, calling me at times like this? …Sun-chan?

 

It had been a while since I last talked with him.

 

I knew that he had been trying to clear up the baseball team’s misunderstandings about me though. But, I haven’t seen him much lately as he always went somewhere before class started and during the recess.

 

…So, why was he calling me now?

 

“Hello. What’s up, Sun-chan?”

{J-Joro…}

 

Hm? His voice sounded less energetic than usual. Ah, I got it. He was trying to troll me, surely.

 

Just watch, after this, he’d say that he ate purple colored steamed buns someone gave him, then he got an upset stomach so bad that he couldn’t participate in the Kabuten. Haha, no way that would be the case! Sun-chan wouldn’t go that far—

 

[S-Sorry… I ate purple steamed buns someone gave me… I got a really bad upset stomach… I don’t think I can participate in the Kabuten…}

 

It actually happened! He said exactly what I was thinking about, except that it was real!

 

Why the hell would you eat something like that?! Just look at its color! That thing was totally suspicious!

 

“O-Oi, are you okay?! S-Should I call an ambulance for you?”

{N-No need to! I’ll just open the pandora’s box–}

 

Would that be enough?

 

{T-That’s the situation. S-Sorry, I— Ugh…}

 

Ah, the call got cut off!

 

“Sun-chan? Oi, Sun-chan?! Hello?!”

 

F**k! His phone was dead! I couldn’t even call him again now!

No good. He withdrew his participation at the worst possible time.

 

There was only a little time left before the Kabuten started…

 

“…U-Ugh…”

“What’s wrong, Joro? Your face is pale.”

 

Not good. In a normal circumstance, Asunaro’s concerned look would make me happy, but I couldn’t feel that way at all.

 

W-What should I do? If Sun-chan couldn’t make it to the Kabuten— W-Wait!

 

I had to contact Cosmos first before panicking! Quickly, quickly!

 

“Sorry, Asunaro, I gotta make a call!”

“E-Eh? O-Okay!”

 

C-Calm down! Let’s write the word for ‘person’ on my phone and swallow– Wait, no! (T/N: One of the Japanese’s beliefs is that if you write the word 人 in your palm and act as if you swallow it, it’ll make you calm down.)

 

I had to operate my phone properly and make a call!

Please… Cosmos… Answer me… I needed you to answer me right now…!

{Hello?}

“P-Prez!”

{What’s wrong, Kisaragi-dono? You sound distressed.}

 

What happened to you, Akino-dono? Why were you talking like a samurai again?

 

Were you nervous because of the Kabuten? …No, wait, there was no time for this!

 

“U-Um, Sun-chan just told me he can’t make it to the Kabuten.”

{Now, if that’s true, that would be a disaster, wouldn’t it?}

 

Get back to reality, it was true! Also, stop talking in that samurai accent!

I had heard it before, but it sounded so weird on the phone call!

 

“It sounded like he was really sick when he called me earlier. He isn’t sick enough that we have to call an ambulance, but he won’t be able to leave the toilet for a good while!”

 

He already opened up Pandora’s box, but there was no need for me to tell her that.

 

Whether it was a disaster or a blessing that Sun-chan was unable to participate in the Kabuten, I didn’t care!

 

I wanted to bring justice to whoever it was who made him like this!

 

The heavens might allow him to get sick, but not me! 

 

{Then, I’ll have to find someone to fill in for him.}

“But, wouldn’t it be hard to ask someone else to participate? Especially considering that they haven’t practiced the dance at all!”

{It’s still better than nothing. The main attraction of the Kabuten is the part where we have three girls and a boy dancing together… In any case, I’ll see what I can do to look for a substitute.}

 

You said that, but our lineup this year was two boys and two girls.

 

“I’ll look for someone from my end as well. I’ll contact you again when I find someone. You should contact me when you find them, okay?”

{Understood.}

 

So I ended my call with Samurai Cosmos.

 

Seriously… I never expected that this would happen!

He was the last person I would expect to get sick. The dude always kept himself in a perfect condition! He admitted that he was at least ‘Kanemoto-class!’ (T/N: Kanemoto Tomoaki, the baseball player that holds the world record for consecutive games played without missing an inning.)

 

“Um, Joro?”

“What is it, Asunaro?”

“From your words just now, I’m guessing that one of the participants withdrew from the Kabuten?”

“Yeah, Sun-chan got an upset stomach and now he can’t participate. We have to find someone to fill in for him now.”

 

Could Cosmos and I even find someone?

 

We haven’t cleared up the misunderstandings. Even if we were to try to look around for a volunteer, chances were that they would reject the offer without a second thought. We were screwed, weren’t we…?

 

Worst case scenario, I wouldn’t be the one who was affected by this, Himawari and Cosmos too…

 

“What about me?”

“Hm? You? You want to participate, Asunaro?”

“Yes, if you like me to! I’m confident that I can do the dance at least!”

“Thank you! You saved me!”

 

What an unexpected stroke of luck!

As expected of Asunaro! You were worthy of being called the best girl!

 

“Alright! I’ll contact Prez immediately! Thank you again, Asunaro!”

“Don’t be! You’ve been providing me with some good materials for my article, Joro! Just take it as my thanks to you!”

“I guess we’re even then!”

“Oh, your complexion looks better already! Alright, you should contact the President as soon as possible! We don’t want my participation to be canceled because she found another volunteer, right?”

“Got it!”

 

No matter how hard Cosmos looked, there was no way that she would be able to find a volunteer in such a short time.

 

After all, it had been less than five minutes since I made the previous call.

 

Man, Asunaro really got my back! Anyway, time to give Cosmos a call!

 

{Hello?}

“Prez! I found a volunteer!”

“Ah, that so? I actually already found one myself.”

 

Hm? She dropped her samurai accent, but I felt something strange.

 

Her voice didn’t come from the phone, but it came from behind me…

 

“Here.”

“Waaah! It came out!”

 

That surprised me! I thought it was Sada-Cosmos that appeared behind me, but it was the normal Cosmos!

She didn’t come out of a well or a cursed tape, but from the student council room!

…Wait, why was she here?

 

“Heya, Joro-kun, Asunaro-san.”

 

But, Cosmos brushed over my reaction and greeted us calmly.

 

“H-Hello…”
“Hello, President…”

My answer and Asunaro’s were a little jumpy because her smile looked so scary!

It looked like her usual calm and gentle smile at first glance, but there was a thick dark and gloomy aura emanating from behind her.

 

“I was looking for you two, but I never expected that I’d find you two together in a place like this. I guess I was lucky.”

 

Huh? She was looking for Asunaro too?

 

Maybe she was planning to invite Asunaro to participate in the Kabuten?

 

If so, I should just tell her that she already volunteered to participate.

 

“U-Um, Prez, Asunaro already volunteered to participate in the Kabuten, so we don’t need to look for another participant. Right, Asunaro?”

“Yes, that’s right!”

“I see. Well, I’m here to tell you about exactly that, so I guess I don’t have any more business with you, Joro-kun.”

 

Amazing. So, she already knew that Asunaro would be volunteering to participate from the start! As expected of Cosmos! But, there was something wrong, I could feel it…

 

“As for you, Asunaro-san. Come with me to the student council room. There’s something I want to talk about with you.”

“Um, is it about the Kabuten? Then, shouldn’t Joro–”

“No, his presence is unnecessary. I only want you and you alone to come with me to the student council room, Asunaro-san.”

“But…”

“W-Wait, my presence is unnecessary? But why?!”

 

I shouted, unintentionally interrupting their conversation. What was this all about, seriously?

 

“I don’t need to tell you why. This is something that you don’t need to know, Joro-kun.”

 

Alright! Roger! Then, I’ll keep my mouth shut!

Wait, no! Don’t be intimidated, me!

 

“If this is about the Kabuten, of course I have to know what this is all about.”

“But…”

“If Joro doesn’t come with me, then I won’t come with you…”

“Haah… Fine…”

 

With a fed up sigh, Cosmos let me accompany Asunaro to the student council room.

 

I knew it wasn’t appropriate to interrupt a conversation between two girls, but considering the circumstances, it was the right action to take.

 

“Come with me quickly then. There’s no time to waste.”

 

What in the world was this all about?

 

Cosmos telling me that I didn’t need to know this just made me want to know about it more…

 

TL: Iyo

ED: Iyo

 

 

Support me on Ko-fi!