Vol 5 Chapter 53 (1/2)

Hyouka:Volume 5 Chapter 5-3

3 Present: 189k

The scenery opened up before us

As we finally passed through the narrow residential streets, we neared Arekusa Shrine’s rear approach The street ide and shops lined the left and right sides of the road It nor the spring and autumn festivals, but at this moment, it was dead silent and only the shops’ banners retained their festive colors

“So we get out here, huh”

Ōhinata started toconvinced

“Once you take that path through the shrine, you can connect back up with the original course Feel better now?”

“Oh co”

I wonder about that

The sun shone brightly as it approached midday Our shadows took on a deep shade as they stretched along the asphalt Summer was already just around the corner

“Senpai”

Ōhinata raised her are, old-fashi+oned umbrella and tatami-styled bench were set up in front of it

“I want to eat soo”[1]

“What’s up with that all of a sudden?”

“I’o”

Afterthis one-sided state to the store I followed behind her, flustered

“Hold on a sec We’re technically in the ht now”

It didn’t stop her in the slightest

“You broughtrules? We ht as well break all of them at this point”[2]

“Do you even have money on you?”

Hearing this, she finally turned to look at me over her shoulder

“You have soht?”

She smiled as she said this

“I could hear the coins clinking around in your pocket”

Surely enough, I had brought soh the course, but

“I swear, you never stop once you get going What if I don’t have enough?”

“Oh, I didn’t think about that Do you have enough?”

I reached into my pocket and pulled them all out In my palm, I counted ¥240 worth of ¥100 and ¥10 coins[3]

The shop Ōhinata had pointed out was very reasonably priced Even though there were people here ould still probably buy it at a n on the wall said “¥80 for one stick”

“I guess I do”

“Then it’s decided”

Ōhinata lightly sprinted over to the shop and called out in front of it

“Excuse o please”

Was she planning on suckingher in the first place? The questions didn’t stop co at this point anyways considering she had already ordered I guess I could act like a good upperclassh Talk about a cheap favor

The one working the shop was an old, sweet-looking lady The two of usere still in our gy any attention to it, she sii”[4]

“Three yoi”

“I think mitarashi+ is better”

“It’d be annoying to deal with any questions if the bean paste got on our clothes”

Thinking about it, that was a very good point She really payed attention to the strangest things

Before I fully realized as going on, the two of us ended up sitting on a bench eating dango Although I thought I preferred etation-like s really refreshi+ng The sweet taste sank into my bones

“I feel alive again”

As Ōhinatait It had a certain kind of feeling to it Even though this long-distance running event seemed to carelessly stretch on forever, it was alued as well

Five balls of dango were stuck on her skewer She ate two , drawn-out breath

“Ah, I feel so refreshed I haven’t felt like this in forever”

She then suddenly said so to me

“Senpai, there’s so on purpose, isn’t there”

“About the dango?”

“Of course not”

Yeah, there’s no way it would be about the dango There was certainly a very large gap present in our previous conversation I hadn’t intended on saying anything about it, but Ōhinata brought it up herself

“There was a certain ‘friend’ of mine that I wanted to conceal, and I was afraid that Chitanda ht’ve known about this person andto conceal the existence of this ‘friend’?”

“I haven’t the slightest idea”

“You’re so full of it If you’re going to be kind and tell ood one”

Without saying anything, I stared at the dango in my hand

I guess she saw through ht’ve happened It ht even be ured out what I had that I was even able to put everything together in the first place

I hadn’t intended on talking about any of it however I thought it was so that she wouldn’t have wanted anyone else to know about That said, it wasn’t like I was entirely certain that I knew the entire truth

“Man, why did it have to come to this”

As she o off with her teeth

She then started to speak

“I thought she was a good person Just like you said, senpai, she that girl transferred here in her third year She was a really strange one I didn’t know if she had troubleany in the first place, but she was really independent

“I was her very first friend and probably her only friend in this entire city She told me this herself, after all The two of us made a promise that’d we’d never leave each other”

“That’s a tough promise to keep”

“I didn’t think so when I made it, apparently I was pretty dumb”

She beamed at me

“I mean, I was in middle school after all Kids in middle school are all pretty dumb, aren’t they”

You’re one to talk considering you just graduated froo

“We didn’t really talk that much while ere in school It felt like a secret between the two of us That’s why I don’t think anyone really knew about us being friends even though ere in the saot out, however, she’d show ood tihtlike a little band She was also the one who taught me about ‘MilleFleur’ jaot this snow tan fro, but it was the first time I ever tried it when she took me on a ski trip It was really fun”

“It wasn’t sobarding?”

“I keep saying it was skiing, jeez”

As so lifestyle, I didn’t really know a lot about the different ways one could mess around

That said, there was so To have that kind of fun, you needed money

Ōhinata had gone on a ski trip to Iwate She had followed a band on tour fros, I alondered what she was doing about the money

My sister travelled the world on a whim, but the only reason she could do that was because she earned enough money to make that possible Ōhinata wouldn’t have that ability ht that her fah for those kinds of expenses to be covered by her allowance, but judging by the complaints she accidentally talked about while in Blend, I ruled that out as being impossible

“And then I ran out of money”

Only her

“If I remember correctly, your faht?”