Volume 27 Chapter 6 (1/2)
The electric kettle had brought the water to boil.
”Do you want black tea? Coffee? j.a.panese tea?”
s.h.i.+mako asked the girl seated at the table. The girl look depressed.
”Uh.”
That was such a non-answer, it was as though the girl hadn't noticed the question. Reluctantly, s.h.i.+mako spoke.
”Right, right, we're having onigiri for lunch. We should have j.a.panese tea, after all.”
She poured some of the hot water into the teacups to warm them. Then she added tea leaves to the small teapot and poured in the hot water.
Lined up on the table on the second floor of the Rose Mansion was the food they'd bought in the bas.e.m.e.nt of the department store, all except for the cake.
As she prepared the tea, she looked over them. Six onigiri, six pieces of fried chicken, 300 grams of marinaded fish and vegetables &h.e.l.lip; all the portions seemed a little too large.
Surely there was no particular significance to this. However, there was often quite an important reason hidden behind seemingly insignificant actions. In other words, she shouldn't overlook these signs.
”Uh.”
Once more, the response came quite late. Apparently she agreed with the decision to have j.a.panese tea.
She hadn't been particularly courteous from the start, but this was taking it to a whole new level. After the fight (although s.h.i.+mako wasn't sure if it was right to call it that) with her cla.s.smate outside the toilet block, the wind seemed to have been knocked out of her sails.
”Hey,”
After pouring the tea, s.h.i.+mako asked.
”That girl from before, she's your cla.s.smate, right? When was it &h.e.l.lip; right, the first time I went to your first-year peach group cla.s.sroom, she was the one who went and brought you to me, wasn't she?”
”That's probably right.”
”It is right. Otherwise, there wouldn't have been consistency.”
”Huh?”
The eyes of Ami-san swum with surprise. Then she looked towards s.h.i.+mako-san's hands, pointed, and said, ”Ah.”
”There's three teacups.”
”Yes.”
s.h.i.+mako nodded.
”Invite your friend, and the three of us will have lunch together.”
When s.h.i.+mako said this, she was highly pleased with the hitherto unseen look of pleasant surprise that floated across the girl's face. So she could make that sort of expression too, huh.
”I wonder if you could ask her to come here.”
”Me?”
”Yes. This time around, I'd like you to bring Igawa Ami-san to me.”
s.h.i.+mako smiled.
That's right. You don't have to keep this charade up.
It wasn't yet too late. Things could still be properly amended.
Yos.h.i.+no thought that Chisato-san might be out for revenge.
A year ago, when she unexpectedly won the date with her 'beloved Rei-sama,' she'd been flying high, only to have Rei-chan's failure deal irreparable damage to her.
(So much so that she came to me with her troubles.)
At that time, even if it had been a mistake, Yos.h.i.+no felt compa.s.sion for Chisato-san, and they both cried together. Even just thinking about it made Yos.h.i.+no tear up a little.
But calling it revenge might not be the best idea. Removing the aggressive connotations of revenge and calling it overwriting might be better. Taking the places from those unpleasant memories and repainting them with pleasant memories. That was incredibly good. Yos.h.i.+no found herself instinctively wanting to raise her hand in approval.
And so, she immediately made a proposal.
”Hey, hey, hey, can we go to the zoo too?”
”What?”
That's not in the plan, Chisato-san scowled. However, Yos.h.i.+no was not deterred.
”It's unfair that we're only going to the places you remember.”
”Unfair?”
”On that day one year ago, I went and looked at the elephant, and the deer, and the rabbits all by myself.”
” &h.e.l.lip; I see.”
Chisato-san said admiringly, apparently understanding Yos.h.i.+no's intentions. However, as they approached the zoo entrance her face grew dark.
”The entrance fee's 400 yen.”
”We should have that much left. We were going to get coffee somewhere, right?”
In this case, they could drop the coffee. They still had some tea remaining in their thermos.
”We have 1000 yen, so we can go in. But if we do, there's not enough for your bus fare home, Yos.h.i.+no-san.”
”Huh?”
”The plan was originally to go to a cafe, but we had to change that to 300 yen coffees from a basic coffee shop so there'd be enough for your bus fare.”
”No way.”
Yos.h.i.+no opened her left palm and traced out some figures with her finger as she calculated. People who used an abacus would probably flip imaginary beads in the air at times like this, but that would be overdoing it. The movie ticket and the zoo entrance fee, times two, take that from 4000 yen, and if there's enough left over for the bus fare &h.e.l.lip;
”Ah. Ahhh.”
10 yen short.