Chapter 7 (1/2)

Aida Miou

Birthday: March 3

Horoscope Sign: Pisces

Blood Type: A

A close friend of Natsuki’s In the Art Club Trustworthy, as well as a hard worker See ith Haruki

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practice 7

The road froht amount of incline for a marathon

But unless it was for PE class or they were late for school, no one would ever think of running there

In fact, it was Natsuki’s first ti full speed for a reason other than those mentioned above

‘N-No one’s… coht?’

She hesitantly looked behind her, but she couldn’t see anyone

The flood of students leaving school had dispersed, so there wasn’t anyone in front of her, either

She was only able to relax for a h her knees

“W-Woah…!”

Her legs tangled together, and Natsuki was forced to make an abrupt stop

The or or stamina left to hop back to her shoe, she si the sock on her shoeless foot touch the ground

“…G-Good thing no one saw that…”

Honestly, that was just way too lame

While suffering a bit of a blow to her spirit, she ed to pick her loafer back up

“A, looks like I’ll have to wash the inside once I get home…”

Were loafers even washable? Just thinking about the tiave her a headache

Still, it wasn’t like she could just go home with only her left shoe on

As she bent down to put her loafer back on, sweat dripped down from her forehead and into her eyes

She tried wiping it aith her cardigan sleeve, but her forehead was still sweaty Her shi+rt was also da uncomfortably to her back

“Ugh, it’s just one thing after another…”

As she took out a towel froh

“…The sky is so high up…”

The air in autu a bit when she inhaled

Soon, the back of her nose started to tingle too, and she quickly patted her cheeks with both hands

‘If it’s so frustrating that you want to cry, you should have just tried harder…’

She bit down on her lip, and mentally scolded herself

It didn’t see over spilled milk,” today

She remembered what had happened in the classroom earlier

The moment she’d entered the art room, their adviser, Matsukawa-sensei, had a wide smile spread on her face

Just as she started to wonder why, Matsukawa-sensei’s cheerful voice rang out through the room

“Hayasaka-san, Aida-san, congratulations!”

She didn’t even need to hear the rest to know that it was to announce that the two had won prizes in the contest Akari’s entry had been chosen for the Grand Prize, and Miou’s entry had been given an Honorable Mention

The written notice with the contest results was hung up, and half-unconsciously, Natsuki scanned it for her name

As she tried looking a second ti, and let out a forced laugh

‘Noto be there…’

She felt a slight pain in her bottom lip

She’d bitten doithout realizing it, and the faint taste of iron spread through her mouth

‘Huh? Why a like this? Shouldn’t I be used to this by now…?’

Surprised by her own reaction, Natsuki stepped back fro the notice

She didn’t think that she would be this disappointedThis wasn’t her first ti rejected, and she’d never placed a prize before, anyway

“Senpai, congratulations I knew that you would get picked!”

“Looks like you were able to keep your winning streak~”

“Come to think of, wasn’t there also a time when the President and Vice President took 1st and 2nd place together?”

She could hear the voices of the underclass Akari and Miou a distance away

Natsuki thought about joining them, but she realized that her facial expression seemed frozen in place

Her expression drooped, and she couldn’t lift the corners of herthe two like this, it would only worry them

‘I need to get out of here… I should just go home for today’

Natsuki quickly ht for the door

However, they must have heard her footsteps, as Akari and Miou soon called after her

“Nacchan? Where’re you going?”

Akari sounded surprised As much as possible, Natsuki replied in a way that made it sound like she was in a hurry

“Dentist appointot moved to an earlier date”

Akari and Miou see, but Natsuki pretended like she hadn’t noticed and shouted back,

“Sorry, I gotta go!”

For the tiet away fro as fast as she could

She knew that no one was following her, but she was scared to look anywhere else but down

‘…What did I even want to do?’

If she earned a prize in the contest, she would confess to Yuu

That hat she had declared in front of Haruki, but it hadn’t been like a hopeful prayer or anything

She’d siet a little confidence boost, instead of being ht that she’d be able to proudly tell his

‘But even that isn’t going to happen anymore…’

“Nacchan!”

Just as her eyes started to burn with onco tears, she heard someone call out her name from behind

She thought about running again, pretending that she hadn’t heard them, but she couldn’t round

“I’o home with you”

Although she was gasping for breath, Akari’s voice sounded cheerful

‘Why…? Why won’t you just let me be by myself?’

Natsuki desperately held back the urge to scream, and instead, answered like she usually would

“…Just you? Where’s Miou?”

“Serizawa-kun cao help out the Film Club”

“I see…”

“Yeah”

It was only one word, but she felt like Akari’s voice had suddenly lost its cheerfulness

Right as she started to wonder why,glossy black hair flitted into her vision Akari’s long hair fluttered as she came around to stand in front of Natsuki

As Natsuki stared blankly at her picturesque figure, Akari’s large, dark eyes focused on her

“Nacchan, when are you going to confess to Setoguchi-kun?”

At first, she couldn’t comprehend what she’d just heard

When Akari saw Natsuki gaping with heropen, she tilted her head

“H out with Ayase-kun?”

This time, her jaw literally dropped at the unexpected question

Anger gradually started to build up, and it felt like she ht then and there

“…Akari, ould you ask so?”

Natsuki held back the urge to scream, and spoke as calmly as she could

After all the advice that Akari had given her up until that point, this was a really terrible thing for her to say, she thought But even so, there was a part of her that didn’t want to admit it

Akari looked down sadly, and spoke in a glum tone that she never used

“I don’t really understand you, Nacchan… You like Setoguchi-kun, and even though you said you’d confess to hio on a date with Ayase-kun?”

Natsuki passed her limit all too soon, and she shouted back reflexively

“I already said before, that wasn’t a date!”

“Miou-chan told me that Ayase-kun probably intended it as a date”

“Wha…?!”

As she was suddenly confronted by the reality that she’d been avoiding, her vision flashed red

When even Miou was brought into this, her dried eyes started to blur again

‘Coether! You’ll ht’

The harder she tried to control her tear ducts, the more difficult it became, so as a last resort, she turned her face away from Akari

“…I don’t know anything about that Honestly, Koyuki-kun didn’t say anything…”

“Nacchan, that’s not fair! Are you going to pretend you don’t care about Serizawa-kun either?”

Akari’s quivering voice interrupted Natsuki as she sounded like she was going to make more excuses

‘No way, Akari’s… crying…?’

She looked over in confusion, and saw an expression she’d never seen on her friend’s face before

Akari always sry or cry

Other girlsher overly optimistic, but Natsuki and Miou knew better It was because Akari was too nice that she smiled all the time, because she never wanted to bother anyone or make them sad

‘That’s right That’s the kind of person Akari is…’

There had been a tiht of her the sairls did She even went as far as to think that she was always s to earn points with people

But as she got to know her, she realized that it was simply because Akari was a nice person

‘There are tiuess that’s just how honest she really is’

Even now, Akari was giving a just and sound argument

She was asking these questions because she felt so was off, and she wanted to understand

‘…I have to face her’

Natsuki clenched her fists, and began to speak to Akari, whose eyes were red fro

“I’ll ads, but what did you mean about Haruki…?”

Akari sniffed and mumbled,

“Natsuki-chan, you were the only one that he said he liked”

“…Eh?”

When she heard those words, her head went into shock, like she’d just been punched

‘Could it be that… Akari heard Haruki’s confession rehearsal…?’

Just as she was about to clear it up as a , she stopped short

She had no idea about how to prove that that had been a confession rehearsal As the one who Haruki had rehearsed with, all she could do was try to convince Akari, the third party in this

‘I wonder if she’ll believe me if I just explain it honestly’

“Listen, Akari…”

She ht that Natsuki was about to say some kind of excuse, and shook her head to shut her out

“Nacchan, just be honest and tell me the truth Because in the end, he never said he liked s, or Miou-chan’s either, you know?”

“…Huh?”

Realizing that she sounded like an idiot saying that and nothing more, Natsuki quickly closed her mouth

Akari furrowed her eyebrows together with a pout, and then expressed her thoughts fervently

“As I was drawing the pictures to be used in the s I wondered, what is love? What kind of feeling is it? And then I realized that, forat a drawing that I like”

‘Then, in other words, that means…’

Although her head i in confusion, Natsuki tried her hardest to think, and soon came to one conclusion