Chapter 193A Drop of Moisture
"Yeah, yeah... ...okay."
Near the school gate. The girl — Natsukawa Aika — smiled from the comfort of the cool autumn breeze and wiped her sweaty cheeks. Then she inserted the pen into the assignment checklist paper in the binder in her hand, narrowed her eyes with the satisfaction of completing one big task, and put her hair next to her ear. It was one hour and thirty minutes after the closing ceremony ended.
The members of the Cultural Festival Executive Committee were in charge of directing and guiding the students in the task of cleaning up the school after the Cultural Festival. They were responsible for making sure that every part of the school was back to the way it was before the Cultural Festival. When Aika saw a colorful piece of tape in the corner of her eye, she picked it up and put it into a trash bag held by a boy nearby.
Would the members of the Cultural Festival Executive Committee be leaving soon? Thinking that, Aika looked around her, and there was a shadow stretching across her back.
"─He-Hey!"
"?"
A boy's slightly hoarse voice rang out as if he was about to change his voice. Along with the surrounding students, Aika turned her head in the direction of the voice. There, a boy wearing a white hoodie and large cargo pants, with short hair slicked back with styling products, stood by the school gate. Perhaps because of the sunburn, his skin was striped and was his trademark. If it was indeed not his imagination, the boy was looking straight at Aika.
"Oh, wait a minute. There's no one else here."
"—There is, this one in front of me!"
"Eh?"
"I-I've been thinking about you ever since you showed me this high school. I find myself thinking about you all the time...! If I get accepted to this Kōetsu High School, please go out with me!"
The sudden, passionate confession was shocking. His voice was loud and echoed strongly throughout the school building. Coupled with the content of the message, Aika was so shocked that she froze in place. What came to her mind was the memory of taking a group of middle school students around the Kōetsu High School grounds during summer vacation. Of course, she remembered that back then, there was a middle school boy among them who was very rebellious.
"Eh, what is this, a confession, huh?"
"Seriously, a middle schooler?"
"Wow, is that true...?"
"...Yeah...!"
After a five-second pause was created, Aika's train of thought restarted with a low, whispering voice. Feeling embarrassed and aware that her face was heating up from being so conspicuous, Aika turned her attention to the middle school boy, realizing that she had to do something about it.
"─Oh, you. You should know the time and place, middle schooler."
"Oh!"
Instantly, the arm of a large male student wearing a black T-shirt wrapped around the middle school boy's shoulder. This was the male senpai who was in charge of dismantling the props. There, there were one or two more students from Kōetsu High School who approached and kept the middle school boy away from the school gate.
"Hey, wait a minute...!"
"This kid's guts are amazing, huh...?"
"Leave her alone."
"Hey, are you okay? First-year girl."
"Oh..., Y-Yeah."
Thanks to the efforts of several male senpai-s, the situation temporarily calmed down while Aika was dumbfounded. The senpai wearing the black T-shirt had already returned from outside the school gates. Aika didn't know how, but they seemed to have talked to the middle school boy and in their own way. Aika could hear some sounds of relief from the male classmates around her and some disappointment from the girls, who loved colorful love affairs.
"Um, if that kid really got accepted to this high school, why didn't you consider him?"
"Um, ...Ahaha."
A female senpai who was near Aika said this to her as if it was someone else's problem. In reality, it was true, but even though she did not suggest it so easily, Aika was shrouded in a feeling of inconclusiveness. She managed a friendly smile and used that as her answer.
The task continued. Even so, all that was left was to pick up the luggage and clean up. Aika followed the crowd with a loss of concentration. Inside her head, the hot ideas that were told to her directly were repeated over and over again. The impression was completely embedded in her mind.
However, strangely, it wasn't a sense of surprise from meeting people she didn't recognize, but something that made Aika somewhat nostalgic. That repetitive voice had unknowingly turned into another boy's voice...
♦
Many students had already arrived at the Cultural Festival Executive Committee meeting room. Aika arrived late. Feeling sorry that she might have kept her senpai-s waiting, she lowered her posture and walked quickly to her assigned seat. Sasaki, the male member of the Cultural Festival Executive Committee and Aika's classmate, sat to her left, and Inoue, the female senpai from the second-year, also sat behind her.
As Aika got closer, her eyes met the eyes of her senpai-s.
"─I heard that there's a boy who confessed his love to you, huh?"
"Heh!?"
Inoue let out that sentence while smiling with a grin, Aika was surprised at the sentence that she had never said before, but came out of her senpai's mouth, and unconsciously closed her mouth. Aika felt embarrassed and deflated by the fact that all the eyes around her were on her again, and then Inoue was delighted as she let out her rant.
"She's freaking out! Gosh, it's so cute!"
"Oh, ugh..."
"Wait a minute, Senpai...! You're right, you're right...!"
"Wow, that's disgusting."
Inoue grabbed Sasaki and patted Aika on the back. Aika naively accepted the teasing, which she rarely experienced, with her face still flushed. Sasaki received his senpai's girlfriend's chest next to his head as much as possible, and he seemed unable to hide his anxiety. May there be salvation for him, who just got a girlfriend—.
After the final speech, the drama-filled Cultural Festival was finally over. Among the members of the Cultural Festival Executive Committee, the most notable change in appearance was probably the President, Hasegawa. Her pigtails, which symbolized her seriousness were gone and had been replaced with a short cut. She replaced her glasses with contact lenses, giving the impression to those around her that she had become stronger. It was as if she was heartbroken. The sound of this event closing made her regain her composure.
"Alright! Then, let's get back to the classroom!"
"Saitou-san is also waiting for you, isn't she?"
"Y-Yeah, that's right!"
Aika managed to regain her composure during this last meeting, this tense meeting until it was dismissed. Aika responded to Sasaki, who was angry at being able to return to class, by chatting about recent trends. A girl starts to fall in love, and — Aika was no exception — her level of attention to Sasaki was definitely higher now than it had been before she started her relationship with Yamato Nadeshiko who was probably waiting for him in the classroom.
(—I see...)
Aika, not walking side by side with Sasaki, but walking one step behind him, she thought while looking at Sasaki's back, who had no room for anything else. Lately, there has been an increase in such stories, according to Aika. Aika could no longer help but feel the passage of time, as her relationships with people had changed from when she was in middle school.
(What should I do, huh...?)
While recalling the shocking incident earlier, the middle school boy's emotional cries, Aika opened the cover of her shallow layer and peered into it.
Deep down, Aika had a vague feeling. Perhaps this was a new feeling. It's like a collection of dewdrops in photons, and when you trace that surface, it returns a strong stimulation to Aika. When Aika touches it with a single thought, she feels the urge to raise her voice and sends uncontrollable energy to her hands and feet. That's why she can't touch it carelessly.
Sasaki, who was walking in front of her, and the girl who was in a relationship with him, must have felt the same as Aika did. As she traced it, when she was touched, she must have been surprised to feel the same stimulation being transferred through her body. She must have been bothered by that. And now, with the existence he could finally grasp, he must be ready to touch her with all his might. Of course — that's in an idealized form.
(What should I do, here...?)
The thirst in his heart was so fast that it felt like it was still not enough. Only then did he regret the past. The way to annihilate it is not written in the guidebook, which is called "instinct". The human heart is incomplete.
Humans rectify such divine faults by controlling themselves through reason. Only when one has achieved this, does one become an adult. Aika, who did not realize that she sometimes needed others to fulfill herself, had already reached the final limit of her immaturity.
In the midst of all this, she discovered how lonely her inner thirst was. What should she do to avoid losing this drop of moisture? Through her special ability, the girl's tuition, Aika sensed that the answer might lie in the fate of the sample in front of her.
"─Oh!"
"Oops."
Aika sensed some kind of incident and raised her gaze, which she realized was directed at the floor. In a corner of the corridor, a petite girl seemed to have bumped into Sasaki who was walking in front of Aika. Fortunately, she didn't seem to have been knocked down or seriously injured. The girl was holding her smartphone to her chest with both hands as if it were a talisman. Seeing that the girl was so dedicated, Aika's eyes narrowed.
"Hey, Ichinose-san. What's wrong?"
Aika wondered if Ichinose Mina also had the same feeling as her in her heart.
Author's Note: My Writing Skills... ...are reactivated!
TL Note: Author teased us about Aika's potential rival?
ED: Reeze27
PR: Reeze27
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