Our school was gradually starting to be influenced by the school festival, and I do mean gradually. While there was only a month until the school festival, on the same token, there were over three weeks left. Even though there was an increase in things to talk about among the students, there were only a few motivated classes who actually started their preparations.
Supposedly, at our school it was usually the second-years who took the festival seriously. Third-years were preoccupied with studies for entrance exams, and there were still a lot of things that the first-years didn’t understand, so they had a tendency to not be very enthusiastic about the whole thing, it seemed. Be that as it may, there were still first-year and third-year classes who were doing their best to enjoy the school festival.
For better or worse, my class was more on the disinterested side. We were somewhat lacking in enthusiasm, and we had a very meh attitude about how much work we’d do and how much fun we’d have at the festival.
Among this year’s first years, the only class that had been enthusiastic and started preparing was...
“Hey, Momota.” It was after school, and as I was walking down the hall preparing to go home, Ibusuki called out to me. “Have you seen Urano anywhere?”
“Ura? No, I haven’t.”
“Really? Seriously, where did he run off to? I even made sure to tell him to stay after school today...” Ibusuki said, crossing her arms and pouting her lips in discontent.
“It couldn’t be... Is he skipping out on preparing for the festival?” It looks like their class has already started preparing their attraction for the school festival. As the class representative, Ura should be the first one to act. Since I heard that he diligently attended the class representative meeting with Kana yesterday, I totally thought he was trying hard in his own way, but...
“Huh? No, he isn’t skipping out,” Ibusuki said, responding to my concern by shaking her head. Then, very normally, she said, “In fact, Urano is working really hard.”
“I-Is he really?”
“Our class’s attraction is a maid cafe, and Urano quickly found a place where we can rent maid outfits from. Right now, we’re looking at the sizes and types of outfits and discussing where we should put them.”
“Is that right?”
“He was saying, ‘Don’t go with any outfits with unnaturally short skirts because they’d just attract attention from teachers and the student council, plus it’s just indecent.’ So right now, we’re considering going the authentic route with the costumes.”
“I see.” That’s just like him. He’ll say, “I’m not that kind of otaku. I don’t have a thing for maids,” but he’s still way more knowledgeable about them than a lightweight otaku like myself. He probably has his own preferred aesthetics when it comes to maid outfits too.
“Also, he’s really picky with his criticism. I wanted to make real coffee from grinding beans for our cafe.”
“Yeah?”
“But Urano was all like, ‘There’s no way an amateur who doesn’t do it regularly can make good coffee from grinding beans. Don’t underestimate how difficult it is to make coffee,’ and got on me about it.”
“Oh...”
Are they going to go with a Dolce Gusto? That would be the fastest way to make it. I’ve used the one at Orihara-san’s house a bunch of times, and it really is convenient. I asked my dad to buy it for our house right away. With it, anyone can easily enjoy a delicious cup of coffee. It’s perfect for students running a cafe at a school festival. Making authentic coffee from grinding beans takes time for each cup, so if students who weren’t used to making it tried to do it, who knows how much time it would take...
Using a coffee maker would be the correct choice. Well, for an attraction that’s using coffee as a selling point, it does kind of feel like they’re cutting corners, but if it’s a maid cafe it’ll probably be okay.
“Wow, Ura’s really working hard on this.”
“Yeah, I was surprised too. Well, I expected Urano to complain while he helped out, but he’s working more than I expected. Looks like I was right to nominate him,” Ibusuki said happily and with pride like it was her own work.
Hmm. Kana thinks that Ibusuki likes Ura, but I wonder what kind of like this is? Right now, she’s straight-up praising Ura with a pleasant, carefree smile on her face. I think that if she really had a thing for him, it wouldn’t be unusual if she looked a little shy or embarrassed. It doesn’t seem like she totally likes him as a friend, though.
“...Wait, huh?” I came back to my senses after being lost in thought. “You said that Urano isn’t skipping out and he’s properly doing his job, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Then why are you looking for him?”
“Oh, today I had something else for him aside from the festival preparations.”
“Something else?”
“I thought I’d get him some more friends,” Ibusuki said with a big smile on her face like it was a brilliant idea. “It’s great that Urano is working so hard and everything, but he doesn’t talk to anyone aside from me. Whenever he has an idea or some criticism, he goes through me. Even though he’s so bossy with me, whenever another person enters the conversation, he gets all nervous.”
“...”
“So, I thought I’d give him a hand and help him adjust to our class.”
“...And exactly what do you plan on doing?”
“I thought that I’d have him introduce himself and have a small chat with the whole class.”
“Are you trying to kill him?!” I couldn’t help yelling. It just slipped out. “I-Ibusuki, what are you thinking? That’s like some new style of torture... Are you trying to ruin him for life?”
“What? It’s a good idea, though.” Ibusuki said begrudgingly.
It’s like she has no idea just how horrific her plan is.
“Urano doesn’t stand out in the class, so no one has any idea what kind of guy he is. It’d be normal for him to introduce himself first, wouldn’t it?”
“I mean, yeah, that’s true, but...”
She probably is doing this with purely good intentions without an ounce of ill will. That’s why it’s so bad, though. If I were forced to introduce myself in front of my entire class, it would crush my soul. For someone like Ura, whose mental fortitude is about as tough as tofu, it would be like having his soul crushed into nonexistence by some kind of gravity-based special move.
I totally get why he escaped home today. It wasn’t because it was troublesome or annoying; he sensed an instinctive danger and ran away at full speed.
“Ibusuki... In this world there’s some people who would find that kind of thing fatal. Ura is a prime example of that, so if you want him to overcome being bad at communicating with others, you have to be much more careful with him... imagine you’re disarming a bomb on top of thin ice.”
“You’re too nice, Momota.”
If my girlfriend had told me those words, it probably would have traumatized me for the rest of my life, but since it’s just my friend who’s a girl, I didn’t suffer too much damage.
“Isn’t he always like that because you guys spoil him? It’s like you’re the only friends he has, and he only wants to hang out with you.”
“...”
“It’s probably time for him to stop being so dependent on you guys.”
“That’s...”
I kind of didn’t know what to say. I wonder if she has a point. I thought that an outgoing girl who’s a popular member of her class like Ibusuki was thoughtlessly forcing her values onto an introvert like Ura, but it looks like she really had a plan. There’s no doubt that her good intentions were pushy, but they were good and filled with compassion and kindness.
“If Urano himself really likes being by himself and doesn’t want to get involved with anyone, then I think that that’s fine. But he does seem to enjoy himself when he’s with other people, doesn’t he? Even though he was always complaining, he seemed like he really had a good time when we went camping during summer break.”
“...”
“That’s why I nominated him to be our class representative for the school festival, and... yeah, I made the right choice. Who would have thought he’d be so proactive and work this hard?”
“...You’re right.” I had an indescribable feeling. I knew that Ura, who was an introvert among introverts and a self-proclaimed loner, was actually lonely and longing for companionship. And it’s just like Ibusuki said, he did have a pretty good time when we went camping, I think. However, perhaps the reason that Ura was working so uncharacteristically hard for the school festival was because...