Volume 14 Chapter 4 (1/2)
”So what happened then?”
Yuuki asked, spinning around on his chair
”Not much”
Yumi answered, as she leaned back on her brother's bed and tossed a cushi+on in the air
”We went to the old greenhouse and they took photos ofit the ”Rose Name Series””
A recent shot of a Rose family member from a Takeshi+ma Tsutako photo-shoot and afor joy as she paid for the pastries
”Is it okay for you to be doing that on your own?”
Her little brother asked as he tossed the towel he'd dried his hair with over the bed's headboard Yued out of the way
”I got permission from Sachiko-sama I only co-operated with the newspaper club because she said okay The Yamayurikai's busy too, so it's a pain if the newspaper club follows us around looking for so it a series, we'll be able to keep them quiet for a little while with just a photo and a short comment”
Still, Rosa Chinensis was a perennial so they could find one blooreenhouse at any tiantea? Well, as long as they had the name of one of the Roses in the title, the newspaper club probably didn't care about the actual flower
”Het to talk thaton at your school too, Yumi”
”Well yeah”
Yumi adjusted her pajaed
She longed for a quiet and peaceful school life, but she couldn't really spend norance She was Rosa Chinensis en bouton after all
Yuuki was just as busy, or probably even ht for a while now The Hanadera Academy's school festival was next weekend
The upshot of this was that they'd been having dinner separately and Yuuki was so tired that Yuht he'd gone for a bath
Since, unusually, he got hoether for the first ti time since they'd chatted like this before bed
”By the hat about Alice? What happened after that?”
Yu at her
”What do you mean?”
”That thing before, where it was like he was being haunted … as it, shi+vers?”
That was it The victi but it's probably actually a huawa Kintarou-kun, also known as Alice
”Ah Alice has been fine since then”
”Alice has?”
So it sounded like someone other than Alice hadn't been fine Her curiosity piqued, Yumi questioned him further
”Kobayashi+'s been acting kinda strange”
Was the response she got
”Does Kobayashi+-kun have a bad feeling like he's being haunted by so too?”
”No, it's the opposite He seeood mood”
Yuuki shrugged
”A good mood?”
”He says soot a crush on him, so he's on cloud nine”
What was that all about? Yued Well, Kobayashi+-kun was the sort of person who could get a bit carried away
”Alice is one thing, but I think Kobayashi+ has the co impression He hasn't noticed it himself, but he's picked up Alice's shadow”
Apparently one or two days after Alice had said so, Kobayashi+-kun had happily announced, ”Me too”
”But one's a bad feeling and the other a good feeling They're the complete opposite”
”Not necessarily They both involve so emotion towards the on how they interpret that, they could have either a bad feeling or a good feeling, don't you think?”
”I see”
That was another way of looking at it
So them
Whether they took it as a friendly gaze or a hostile gaze would vastly alter their impression of the onlooker
”Ah, right”
Yuuki suddenly changed the topic, as though he'd just re
”Are any of the Roses afraid of heights?”
”Why?”
”Everyone sort of got carried away and they've made enormous towers”
”Towers?”
”Yeah For the Roses to judge from”
”Ah - ”
Yuether
That's right, Sachiko-saes and presenters at Hanadera Academy's school festival Fro
”It's tall, huh”
”Well … yeah”
Yuuki answered somewhat reluctantly
He said that while they were building it, they kept going, ”More, er than the original blueprint
According to Yuuki, ”When building this sort of thing, guys tend to be generous” But then he said, ”Their eyes were sparkling, like little kids playing with building blocks” Boys were hard to understand
”If there's soe the towers But in that case, the sooner you let me know the better”
”Alright I'll ask around”
Having agreed to this, Yuer brother's bed
As she left the rooht but Yuuki was already nodding off in his chair
”Heights? Ah, Sachiko's no good with them”
Rei-sama said, after school in the Rose Mansion
”That's what I thought”
It was just as Yumi had expected
”That's what you thought? So you knew about it, Yumi-chan?”
”Well, a while ago she told ht it ht be because of that”
”The roller coaster? Ah, from when you asked her to take you to the amusement park”
As a coreed to go on a half-day date at an amusement park For a number of reasons it had been put off and pushed back, and at present it had been shelved for four months
”Although back then I sort of felt as though it was because she didn't want to go on so fast”
”Ah, but she doesn't like cars either You should know that, right Yumi-chan?”
”Youdistances?”
She knew that h the fact that Sachiko-sa she'd been reminded of recently
”Right, right But despite this, she still blindly followed her father overseas when he asked Did you hear about that?”
Rei-sa that Sachiko-sama had a father-complex proportionate to her man-hatred
”One ofon a plane, to distract hie, so she can't get drunk, right? So what does she do? She relies on the power of medicine She'll have so to eat, more medicine, and sleep Like that On the plane trip for the school excursion, people get up out of their seats to go to the toilet, right? Passing Sachiko's class, all anyone could see was her passed out with drool running down her face”
As Rei-sa their throat
”Who did you say was drooling?”
Unluckily, it was Sachiko-sama herself who had opened the biscuit door and stepped inside She had an incredible presence, because she'd apparently met up with Yoshi+no-san, shi+mako-san and Noriko-chan so her like a retinue
But
”Oh, I was just speaking figuratively No, eration, I suppose”
Rei-saood friend Sachiko-sah
”Yumi, you mustn't believe Rei's horror stories”
On her way past, Sachiko-saently poked Yumi on the forehead
”Ah, right”
Still, Yu was a horror story The part about her sleeping for almost the entire time in the air sounded like the truth and shethis -
”That'd be nice, going on a school trip”
She'd unconsciously said what she was thinking, which made Sachiko-sama smile
”It's not long now until your turn, Yumi”
”Yes”
She obediently responded then stood up to go and prepare the tea However
That wasn't it
The words, ”That'd be nice,” hadn't sprang froo on a school trip Yu on a school trip with Sachiko-sama”
They'd both attended Lillian's Girls Acaderade apart they'd never been on a school trip together
Of course, that wasn't limited to just school excursions - they'd never been in the saraduation project, nor shared the sae in a school yearbook
And it ithout saying that the majority of her time at school was spent separated from her beloved onee-sama
Just think, if she was in the same class as Sachiko-sama and had a seat near hers, she could spend all that ti her Yumi was suddenly jealous of Sachiko-sama's classmates
Although if they were in the sarade, Yumi couldn't have beco for too much
”Yumi-sama, I can do the rest”
Noriko-chan offered to help but Yuot it”
She wasthe tea for Sachiko-saether, the accumulation of trivialities, as her treasures
That hy she politely and carefully prepared the tea
All the while hoping this would make it just that little bit more delicious
”By the hat led you to discussing aeroplanes?”
Sachiko-sama asked as she sipped the tea that may or may not have tasted a bit better than usual
”Ah, ere talking about the Hanadera Academy school festival”
Sachiko-sa the details, much like Yumi had expected
”Uood, my brother said they can remake them”
”But that would also increase the cost And all the ti, right?”
As expected of Sachiko-sama Since she was so involved with their own school festival, she ell aware of things like costs and construction schedules
”It'll be a bother to theht?”
Sachiko-sah
Naturally, it would be a probleer than planned, but that didn't h they hadn't stated that the platforht
”Understood Then I'll humbly take your place atop the tower, onee-sama”
Yumi thumped her chest, ”Leave it to me” At which point Sachiko-sama nimbly took hold of her fist and said:
”Please stop, Yumi I'd rather do it ht, I'll fulfill my duties as Rosa Chinensis superbly, so just watch on quietly”
”But he said it was like looking down at the ground from a second-floor ”
”The second floor?”
”Yeah”
Yuh-pitched ”Hohoho”
”In that case it's coh as the first-floor roof, right? Leaning out aat that height is nothing at all You couldn't possibly think that I can't go to the third-floor of the school building, right?”
”… No”
She hadn't thought that
She hadn't thought that, but had Sachiko-sama properly considered how she'd feel out in the open without the walls and ceiling around her? To say nothing of the fact that the toere built by untrained high-school students
Shaky and precarious Even without seeing theh
”Enough, noPlease just tell Yuuki-san that we understand Don't say anything more than necessary”
”… Alright”
Even though Yu, she knew that Sachiko-sa ht she should be prepared to step in quickly if the real thing turned out to be too much for Sachiko-sama
”You've beco Sachiko, Yumi-chan”
Rei-sama whispered softly
”Huh, no That wasn't what I intended”
It wasn't what she intended but somehow it had worked out like that
Although it felt like she'd unwittingly pushed Sachiko-sama to the top of a tall tower
”shi+mako-sa~n”
Yoshi+no-san called out leisurely, since it didn't affect her directly
”Are you okay with heights, shi+mako-san?”
”The second-floor? It ht be a little scary”
By putting it into words like that shi+mako-san showed she was the type of person who could look at reality and calmly assess the situation
In contrast
”Oh, don't look so worried It'll be a piece of cake Now, let's get to work, to work”
Sachiko-sama was the type of person that convinced themselves they'd be fine then tried not to think about it anynervous
Tsutako-san was sitting in her classroo
”What's thehome?”
”Ah, Yu … or bad, maybe”
Yu on school festival related tasks but they'd reached a break in their work so she'd returned to the classroootten
They'd had PE today so she had to take her PE clothes ho September and she didn't dare leave her sweat-stained shi+rt and leggings in her locker for two days
”What's up?”
There were a number of photos on Tsutako-san's desk She was probably in thethem, since they were spread out face-up like a deck of cards Because Tsutako-san took a lot of hidden-camera photos around campus, it wasn't that unusual to see her like this
Sorting them by person, or by those that were okay to publish and those that weren't, or by those that would inevitably be torn up How she divided the on the occasion
”Oh, are all of these photos of me?”
Yumi picked up a few to have a closer look About ten photos of fukuzawa Yumi, all taken without her notice
”That's right”
Tsutako-san never tried to talk her way out of these situations
She had indeed taken them She wouldn't publish theive you a copy if you wanted one But they were such good shots that you should share theenerally went
”I was thinking about the school festival when I took these photos of you For the photography club's display”
”But why me?”
”Because it was a huge success last year That giant panel of you and Sachiko-saain this year”
”Hey”
So was that why she'd said, ”Good ti or bad?” But at this point Yumi couldn't see as ”bad” about it