Vol 5 Chapter 42 (1/2)

Hyouka:Volume 5 Chapter 4-2

2 Past: Approxio

I hadn’t realized it ahead of ti outside I left the 2-A classroom on the third floor and casually strolled over to the Classics Club room, to the Earth Sciences lecture rooo before I finished the paperback I was carrying with o over there to read it

Students getting ready to leave were cohout the hallway There was a student pinning up posters on the bulletin board, but I couldn’t tell which club he was fro a massive cardboard box in both hands, her head constantly peeking out fro, passed by me It was the same scene I had always been witness to after school; I could hear the high-pitched laughter and low-pitched bustle all around me I stuck both of e in there fro around with the coins

You had to pass through the connecting corridor to go the special wing of the school that housed our clubroom It was constructed on the second floor, but if it was sunny out, you could also pass through on its roof, accessible on the third floor I walked out onto that breezy roof and could hear the high-pitched sounds of the Baseball Club’smultiple balls

Generally in Ka sounds of the Brass Band and Acapella Clubs as they practiced after school, but it was quiet that day I saw a girl I had never seen before leaning over the rusted handrail, wearing athere was not a single happy thing that existed on this planet Had the sun been a bit lower, it

I climbed the stairs up to the fourth floor There was another bulletin board hanging in the level area between the alternating stairs, but new-student recruit had already ended so the brown of the cork stood out The sole poster still on it featured a beautiful, grinning actress with the caption “Wait up! There’s a way for you to live a bright life as well!” written at the botto to say

This year, the only two clubs on the fourth floor of the special ere the Classics Club and the Astronoet noise, but yesterday they were so quiet you could hear a pin drop As I headed towards the Earth Sciences lecture rooh the vacant hallway I suddenly stopped, al forwards

The door to an e from the doorframe above it

As disturbing as it was, I had actually thought for a split-second that soed theh there was a way for you to live a bright life as well?!

I quickly realized that that wasn’t the case however The person was hanging onto the frame with both hands

The dangling person was a girl wearing a sailor uniform, but I could only see her profile because she faced the closed section of the door In reality, however, that should have been plenty for ure out who it was I looked at her feet and saw that her navy-colored socks were co out to her but hesitated Perhaps this wasn’t so that she wanted someone else to see, and I should be sy even happened in the first place

However, the consideration ended up being in vain I thought I hadn’t made any noise, but she seemed to notice me anyways As she did, she let loose a little yelp and released her grip, colliding into the door with an excess of energy and falling back onto her butt She quickly stood up in an e had happened

“Good afternoon”

What a polite greeting

“Yeah, good afternoon”

“Nice weather out, isn’t it?”

“No kidding”

Why had To fro after school? Had Chitanda been here, this would have turned into a profound htly, Ōhinata brought her hands behind her to nonchalantly brush off the back of her skirt

Most likely because she already knew I saw, her acting was half-assed I tried to ask what she was doing in the most harmless manner I could muster, but I couldn’t think of what to say

“Umm…”

I waved er around for no real reason, and then it suddenly dawned on me

“You were trying that out, right? You were trying to extend your back?”

To this absolutely terrible attempt at consolation, she smiled bitterly

“I’, my arms would”

“Then you were trying to extend your arms?”

“Well yeah, so like that”

With this lie, she began to look outside, beyond theShe then looked at me out of the corner of her eyes and asked me a question this time

“Are you planning on going to the clubrooht now?”

“Yeah”

“I see”

She muttered this in a casual manner, but I could tell that it went contrary to what she wanted She had probably assu to show up Well, it was never really known for sure as going to show up on any given day People caed, even after a year had passed

At the end of the hallway, I could see that door to the Earth Sciences lecture roo kept open, possibly for ventilation purposes

“It looks like somebody is already in there”

As she stared at the opened door, she responded

“It’s the president”

“Chitanda, huh?”

“fukube-senpai is apparently at a General Coht after”

Satoshi+ had toaya Cup to prepare for I was more uncertain as to why he even came to the clubroom in the first place

“Busy like always, I guess”

Ōhinata nodded with a slight smile

“That seems to be the case Even this weekend, he…”

She then stopped speaking midway Suddenly, she asked a question with a serious expression that looked as if it were skirting around some deep secret

“You’re fukube-senpai’s friend, Oreki-senpai, so you know, right?”

While not as bad as Chitanda, I noticed that Ōhinata also had a habit of o important details when she talked With Chitanda, she would often move a conversation far too quickly and then suddenly drop it on a dime Ōhinata, on the other hand, seemed to constantly think that she could omit certain details because the other party would knohat she was talking about due to the subject being so intimate to them

I reed and then started toabout the weekend I couldn’t say I knew Satoshi+’s weekend plans, but I could guess that it was souess there was one thing I knew about, but it wasn’t really that easy to talk about

“For the most part You?”

“I heard about it from someone I know in my class”

“Someone you know?”

No le first-year classrooet around

“Are you friends with Satoshi+’s little sister?”

“Kind of Only to the extent that we eat lunch with each other”

“I haven’t talked with her e one, isn’t she?”

Ōhinata tilted her head in thought

“She’s certainly unusual, but not enough to where I’d call her strange I’d say fukube-senpai is stranger”

With that, she became quiet

Well then, I wonder what exactly it was that Ōhinata had heard frohtly unusual little sister

The both of us seee how ht become problematic, and it created a silence between us that made it difficult to breathe

I grew tired of the pussyfooting Why did I have to talk about Satoshi+ like I was about to touch a burning pot again? I ended up speaking loosely

“It’s about Satoshi+ and Ibara, right?”

Ōhinata drew a deep breath of relief and softened her expression

“Yeah, that’s right I guess you knew after all”

Ibara had liked Satoshi+ for a long time now At the latest, I learned about in the winter of our third year in middle school Satoshi+ had continued to evade theto neither cheer on Ibara nor support Satoshi+, didn’t observe what becahtest

That said, I heard that over Spring break Satoshi+ had finally stopped his running and hiding Ever since then, it seems that his weekends have been consistently busy

“This is just so that she told me, but…”