Chapter 71 – Tsuru’s End of the Year Party

 

December 22nd, one day before the winter break started.

 

Though the weather was clear, the air felt dry and cold.

 

The long awaited winter break will start tomorrow. Everything would be perfect if this sh**ty thing called homework didn’t exist.

 

The closing ceremony this afternoon would serve as my mark for independence, my freedom from this prison life the society called ‘school’. But alas, time moved slowly when I needed it not to. Even though it felt like a hundred years had passed, I was unfortunately still stuck in the second period. Let alone the closing ceremony, even lunchtime was still far away from my grasp.

 

This year will end in a little more than a week and next year, I will be a third-year. After that, the hellish college entrance period awaited me.

 

I was a scholarly person by nature, so I chose to take on the science course, in other words, engineering, biology, geology and so on. Based on my capabilities and grades, I decided to focus on engineering.

 

Meanwhile Makoto, Tsuru, Shirona and Arina, they all took the liberal arts course.

 

Well, that wasn’t something unthinkable or anything, after all, the majority of the students in my school year took the liberal arts course, my friends just happened to be part of this majority. Nevertheless, even though all of us had chosen to take each of our career choices, that didn’t mean that there would be a big change in our school lives. The classes wouldn’t be divided between those who took the liberal arts course and science course. The time slots for both courses were the same, only the location of the classes would differ and we would still take the common courses together.

 

Anyway, I didn’t know which class I would enter in my third-year, but since this school was big and there were hundreds of students here, it was pretty much a given that my classmates would be people that I’d meet for the first time. Well, even I would feel sad to be apart from my friends but at the same time, I was excited to meet new people.

 

After a while, recess came and I was playing around with a can of tomato juice when Tsuru approached me while hopping around like a rabbit.

 

“Someone’s in a good mood.”

“I ranked first for the exam~”
“Congrats and thanks for the info. I don’t need to look up your name in the rank list then.”

“I got to keep my rank, I’m happy~”

“Ah, right, you are running for the student council secretary again next year? I thought that a freshman would do it.”

“I don’t want to be the president or the vice-president. It’s a pain.”

“You’ll make a good president though.”

“But I’ll have to wear the uniform all the time if I become the president. I don’t want to torture myself.”

“You’re in the student council, you’ll still have to wear your uniform all the time.”

“No one cares about the secretary, I can break that rule, nobody will find out.”

“…Well, you can do that because of your grade… Now, if only you’d be a bit dumber, the story would have been different.”

“Kyapi~”

“Waaa… Burikko-ppoi… So cute-ppoi… Waa… Waa… Deadly cute… I wish I could be as cute as you…” (T/N: I don’t know how to translate this)

“Thanks for the humiliating chant. That aside, I AM deadly cute though~ There’s a reason why I’m popular, you know?~”

 

That was the truth. She was definitely one of the most popular girls among the boys. She even made it to the boys’ unofficial ‘Who’s the cutest girl at school?’ ranking.

 

At first glance, she seemed like an immature, dumb gyaru, but she was actually more brilliant and talented than anyone else in the school year. This was the gap that won the boys’ over and made her even more attractive than she already was. She reminded me of an idol. (T/N: Gap as in gap moe, if you don’t know, it’s basically that irresistible feeling you get when there is a difference in the way someone/something acts and/or looks.)

 

Anyway, since she went out of her way to come to me, she must have had business with me.

 

“So, what’s up? Need something?”

“Can’t I approach you without any reason in particular?”

“Of course you can. Now, come, sink into my embrace!”

“No thanks.”

“Sorry, I got carried away.”

“Hehe… Anyway, what do you think about an end of the year party?”

“End of the year party?”

“You don’t know about the end of the year party? So it’s a party–”

“Look, I’m dumb but I’m not THAT dumb okay?”

“I’m sorry, so you do have a brain, huh?”

“Why is everyone around me like this?”

 

She covered her opened mouth with her opened palm while making a surprised face. This girl really loved to make fun of me, huh? Arina was right about her.

 

“So, who’ll attend the party? Our classmates?”

“I’m planning to invite my friends over, you should call yours too! Call Makoto and Arina over! Especially Arina! You have to force her to attend, okay?”

“So that’s why you come to me…”

“I mean, if you come, Arina will definitely come, that’s why I invited you in the first place, so don’t think that I did this because I like you or anything, okay?”

“Argh!! My heart!! It hurts!!”

“I was kidding! Hehe… I do like you, Sui~”

“Sure sure. Anyway, I just need to invite her, right?”

“…Why did it feel like you were rejecting my affection? …Well whatever, invite her, please!”

 

Before I realized it, she changed the way she referred to Arina from ‘Arina-san’ to ‘Arina’, proof that they had become good friends.

 

Since this was the case, even if I didn’t say anything to her, Arina would definitely come if Tsuru were to invite her. This should be something that she knew about but why did she bother going out her way to come to me?

 

Anyway, this thing sounded like fun. I imagined the scene where everyone gathered in their casual clothes while having a good time. Since I wanted to see Arina in her casual clothes again, I shouldn’t let this chance pass by.

 

For now, I’ll invite Makoto first.

 

“Oi, Takane Makoto.”

“What’s with you so suddenly?”

“Don’t tell this to anyone… Tsuru has been gathering manpower for her rebellion…”

“…Eh? Is she going to topple the school’s regime over?”

“Oi, I heard that! I’m going to tell Arina that you’re bullying me, Sui… Let’s see how you’ll like that outcome…”

 

Ugh. Not only her head, her ears were also sharp, huh?

 

“Actually, Tsuru wants to hold an end-of-the-year party and she’s trying to invite a few people. Are you in? Oh yeah, ask Ruka about this too.”

“Of course I’m in! When?”

“Wait a second… Tsuru! Baby, honey, come here!”

“Stop calling me that! What is it?”

“When’s the party?”

“Haven’t decided on a date. Depends on when you guys are free, I guess.”

“So she said.”

“Got it, I’ll ask Ruka.”

“‘Kay.”

 

I wondered how Makoto would spend his winter break? Would he spend it by going on a lot of dates with Ruka? What a busy person.

 

Personally, I would spend mine by letting myself rot inside my house. What was that? Touch grass? To hell with that. Staying inside doing nothing was the best!

 

Anyway, where was I? Right, invitations. I wondered who I should invite next, then I remembered the people who helped me out on the Arina Rehabilitation Project.

 

So I invited Miyazaki Shinji, the art club president, the guy who made Arina his model last time.

 

“It feels like everything happened a long time ago…”

“Well, it was months ago.”

“When you suddenly brought Arina-san in, I was afraid of what was about to happen but, in the end, everyone just focused on doing their sketches.”

“Watching that was amazing. You guys are really talented.”

“…Can we turn her into our model again? The art club members had been asking about it. If it isn’t much of a bother, can you ask Arina-san about it?”

“Well, she’ll be attending the party, you can just ask her later. Don’t worry, she’s much more amicable now, she won’t bite you anymore if you ask her.”

“Is that so? That’s all thanks to you, isn’t it?”

“Nah, she’s just matured, that’s all.”

“I wonder what’s the trigger for that to happen?”

 

After that, I invited the journalism club’s president, the tea ceremony club’s members, the tennis club’s members and so on. Surprisingly, Tsuru also happened to invite the same group of people, so there were awkward moments here and there.

 

After everything was done, I reported it to Tsuru and when she heard the names of the people I invited, she frowned at me.

 

“That’s a scary face you’re making… What is it?”

“You didn’t invite Arina?”

“I’ll do it after school.”

 

When she heard me saying that, she let out a sigh of relief and showed me a bright smile.

 

“Alright! You go, Sui, invite her!”

“Can’t you just invite her by yourself?”

“Dumb tomato addict… Try to read the atmosphere!”

“I’ll take that as a compliment.”

“Insults don’t work on you, huh? …Right, you hate Traditional Japanese, no? Okay, I’ll recite The Tale of Genji for you.”

“Stop! I’ll die!”

 

*   *   *

 

Lunch time.

 

Thanks to my advice, Makoto had started eating with Ruka lately. Seeing Ruka happy made me feel happy too. I could see that her cheeks were flushed in a tinge of red as she was eating together with her lover and I could see the same thing happened with Makoto. I opened a can of tomato juice and sipped it as I saw this heartwarming scene.

 

About ten minutes before the lunch break ended, everyone walked toward the gym, the place where the closing ceremony was to be held.

 

By the time we got there, the gym was already filled with a lot of students.

 

I found the line for my class and went to the very back of the line. The back of the line was a spot reserved for me, not because I was a loner but because of my height. This had always been the case since I was in grade school.

 

Diagonally to my left was Arina. She was wearing a scarf even during this time. She really hated the cold, huh?

 

“Heya, Lady Poisonous Rose.”

“The mosquito is noisy today.”

“What mosquito? I can’t even do soprano, I can’t be a mosquito.”

“You can’t even do that much, incompetent.”

“Yes, this Sakaki Sui is incompetent. Anyway, there’s an end-of-the-year party during this winter break. You want to go with me?”

“Just the two of us?”

“Of course not. Tsuru’s organizing it, there’ll be plenty of people. So, will you come or not?”

“Sure.”

“Alright, Tsuru’ll announce the date and time later, so just wait. Also, take off that scarf already.”

“If I take this scarf off, I’m going to die.”

“You won’t. Just take it off.”

“Sure, but lick my feet first, then die, then I’ll take it off.”

“What a weakling, it’s just cold.”

“…Shut up, go to hell.”

“Sorry, this great me can’t relate to your fear of cold. My body temperature is naturally warm like my heart. But still, I pity you, Madam. Do you want me to share my body temperature with you? Come here~”

“I swear to God, one day I’ll rip that face of yours off your head…”

 

Woah scary~ She’s out for my blood now, LOL.

 

Anyway, I asked her out, that should be enough to make Tsuru happy. Only Shirona left, but things were still awkward between us.

 

I guess I’ll ask Arina to invite her after the closing ceremony ends.