It was one big artist after another right from the start, and the fest was in a whirl of excitement.
Though the headliner wasn’t out yet, the audience was wild and excited, and their enthusiasm got to me. Before I knew it, I was yelling with my arms up and swinging around a mini-towel. Komachi was also super-busy jumping and hopping around, and time passed in the blink of an eye.
But being in such a big crowd for this long really was exhausting, so when we headed to the washroom, I accepted Komachi’s proposal to take a little break as well.
“Ahhh, this is so fun…,” Komachi murmured, satisfaction and a comfortable tiredness clear in her voice. I nodded at her as we left the performance hall.
This fest was a pretty long one, so they had a few food stalls set up and a rest area stocked with drinks.
I was feeling a little wobbly from the ringing in my ears and the bass rumbling in the pit of my stomach, so I headed for the rest area.
There, we found a large crowd also recovering their energy for the second half of the battle. Given the size of the event, even the areas outside the performance hall were packed. I pushed my way through the waves of people until I got to the corner by the wall, where I let out a sigh.
Then suddenly, a familiar voice came from behind me. “Ahhh, this is so fun, huh?! The whole audience is really worked up!”
“Right? Too worked up, actually, so I need a break for a moment…”
“Y-yes… Agh…”
It seemed like three girlfriends had come to the fest together.
One of them seemed unused to these sorts of events, as her sigh sounded particularly exhausted and was followed by a remark of concern I could just barely hear. “Oh, you seem pretty tired, Yukinon…” I thought I could hear a little smile as she said a name I was very familiar with. The only Yukinons I know are the Yukino Yukinoshita at our high school and Yukino Bijin from Tracen Academy.
I turned back automatically to look toward the voices.
Komachi had apparently noticed as well, as she called out clearly, “Ohhh! Yui, Yukino!” and an energetic voice replied.
“Komachi, yahallooo! Oh, and yahallo to you, too, Hikki!”
“Oh, Hikigaya.”
One of these people was the type you’d expect to find at a fest, and the other was very much not. In other words, it was Yui Yuigahama, waving with lots of energy, and Yukino Yukinoshita, a little pale-faced as she quietly muttered my name. Iroha Isshiki was also with them.
The trio must have decided to wear matching outfits for the event, as they were all in fairly punkish attire: loose, oversized T-shirts with black leather jackets on top and damaged jeans and high-cut boots on the bottom.
Yukinoshita usually came off as modest and feminine, Yuigahama wore a lot of popular, casual clothing, and Isshiki wore a lot of cutesy, soft-and-flowy stuff, so they all had a pretty different charm that day.
“Oh…” I nodded back. The gesture was half out of surprise, like Funny meeting you here, while the other half was just confirming it was who I thought it was.
“Oh, it’s you.” Isshiki responded with a casual bow before giving a questioning look to Komachi beside me. “…And Okome-chan.”
Komachi scrunched her face up at that form of address. “Hmm… That sketchy nickname is starting to stick…” She immediately started hopping around, saying her own name again. “It’s Komachi! Komachi’s name is Komachi!”
With a pat on top of Komachi’s head as if to hold her down, Isshiki grinned. “Come on, what’s the problem? It’s, like, a cute nickname, right? Don’t you know that being the younger-girl character who gets teased has its benefits ?”
“Ugh, she really is kinda messed up…” Komachi jerked away in horror.
For some reason, Isshiki also had a look of horror. “I mean, he’s the one who said that.”
“Ugh, it totally sounds like something he’d say…” Then both of them looked at me with contempt.
I didn’t say that… I didn’t say that at all… False accusation after false accusation…
But this was to break the ice between the two of them, so I would resign myself and accept it.
Isshiki and Komachi had only met each other very briefly during the joint prom, and they hadn’t known each other for very long. The fastest way to get them to warm up to each other was to use some mutual acquaintance. Talking dirty behind someone else’s back to generate a sense of complicity is the real secret to making friends!
Well, this is Komachi, so I’m sure she’ll pull that off with aplomb.
Komachi does have impressive communication skills, if I may say so of my own sister, and has no problem talking openly about all sorts of topics even on first meeting someone or with people older than her. When we went to Chiba Village a while back during summer vacation, she’d managed to communicate well even when everyone else was older than her. She’d also chatted in a friendly way with Kawa-something’s little sister, Keika Kawasaki. She can get close to anyone without any prejudice. As expected of the little sister of the world.
That very moment, Komachi was zooming right past me to jump into a conversation with the others.
“I’m glad we could meet up with you, Komachi-chan!” Yuigahama said, waving her hands wide with a smile.
Komachi clapped as well with a gleeful laugh. “No, no, Komachi’s glad that you reached out!”
Huh. I see. I’d thought it was an eerie coincidence to just bump into them at a fest at such a large venue, but from the way these two were talking, they’d actually planned this. Now that I think of it, Komachi was the one to say we should go outside for a break. So that was her excuse, and meeting up like this was the real goal, huh…? Or so I nearly thought, but hold on a minute here.
“Huh? I wasn’t invited.” Why? Why did they skip over Hikki and invite Komachi instead?
Yuigahama answered a bit hesitantly. “If we told you, you’d say no…”
“Well, that’s true…” Even if they had talked to me about it, it would have immediately activated my instakill: “I’ll go if I can.” And even if I did plan to go, there’s a thought pattern common among losers where you gradually become more unwilling to do it as the day gets closer—that’s the kind of person I am. It’s like whenever you decide on a plan beforehand, it kind of becomes a hassle; what’s up with that?
But Komachi is the kind of little sister who will completely understand that temperament of mine. “And that’s why Komachi was the one to get the invitation,” she said with a smug look and double peace signs.
I’d expect no less… She’s got a good grasp on my quirks, knowing that I generally would be unable to refuse a request from my little sister, if it was forced through on zero notice the day of the event. Well, not just Komachi; Yuigahama had to also understand that well, too. That was exactly why she’d chosen to go through Komachi.
Oh no, that’s kinda embarrassing… How are they actually this informed about my mode of life? This is embarrassing; I got completely lured out.
I cleared my throat with a gefum, gefum and decided to turn the discussion in a different direction. “Huh? If you’re gonna say that, then isn’t Yukinoshita the same? She doesn’t seem like the type to go to events like this…”
When I looked at her, Yukinoshita’s weary affect and attention-grabbing classy aura just made my point for me. She stood out so much, it was clear she was unused to this.
A faint smile crossed her face, and she touched a hand to her forehead and looked down. “Y-yes. This is my first time coming here as well… Fests are…wild, aren’t they? Ah, hold on, I can’t even; I feel weak…”
“Yukino! You’re sounding like an otaku Twitter account post-concert!” Komachi jumped in with a comeback.
But indeed. She was talking like one of those female otaku out there live-tweeting Wait, I can’t even, I’m weak, GoYuu are basically already together… while she watches anime.
“Regardless, I’m tired…,” Yukinoshita said.
Well, she was lacking endurance to begin with. And being in an unfamiliar place like this only had to exacerbate that. That’s no surprise if you get hit all of a sudden by the enthusiasm of the crowds. When you’re surrounded by so many people, even just standing there is surprisingly exhausting. Getting pushed around by excited concertgoers makes you tired like riding a packed train at rush hour.
“Are you okay? Need a drink or something…?” I asked, just in case.
But Isshiki cut me off. “Oh, you don’t have to worry about that. It’ll arrive soon.”
“Arrive?”
It’ll arrive? What’s with that completely vague subject? Did you order something on, like, Uber or something? These days, everything is so convenient…, I was wondering, when in the distance, from the edge of the rest area, a familiar someone was laboring his way toward us.
“Dude. The shops were craaazy crowded. I could barely get any drinks at all. This fest is like, whoa.”
And there was Tobe, carrying a bunch of drinks in both arms, looking triumphant as he pushed his way over to us. Then when he noticed me, he raised the drinks in both his hands and raced over. “Whoa, huh? It’s Hikitani!”
“H-hey… No way, it was Tober Eats…?” I gave Isshiki a look saying, So you’re using the newest delivery service?
“Act now, and handling fee included, it’s basically free,” she said blithely.
“Pay him, please…” He is basically your senior.
Pretty harsh to send someone older to get drinks, you know… And not getting paid money is exploitation, you know… And it’s indescribably cruel to add that he’s basically free, you know…
This casual, dirty exploitation tore a cry of anguish from my throat, but it seemed the one being exploited wasn’t really bothered.
“Nah, nah, nah, we’re cool, we’re cool. Here’s your drinks.” Apparently totally used to this, Tobe started handing out the drinks he’d just bought.
“Thaaanks!” Yuigahama said with her usual level of energy, while Yukinoshita thanked him in a rather tired-sounding voice.
“Thank you…”
“Thanks so much!” Even Komachi was nonchalantly handed a drink in the process.
Meanwhile, Isshiki just thanked him with a very quiet “Mm-hmm.”