“Hmm…” She let out a sigh of deep interest before suddenly giggling. She was amused, but I had no idea what was so funny about the exchange we’d just had.
“What?” I asked.
Yukinoshita gave her head a little shake, but she was still smiling like it was funny. “Oh, no. This conversation is just making me think of university.”
“University? How?” What’s with your image of university? You don’t think it’s just unbalanced because the sample closest to you is your big sister? Does she actually go to university?
When I gave her a questioning look, Yukinoshita folded her arms and said, “Well…” Her gaze shifted up and to the left as she considered. “This is just how I imagine it, mind you, but…,” she began, before continuing in a dreamlike murmur, “…I think it’s meeting up after classes. Like, taking different lectures and then talking in the cafeteria after… I thought it might be something like this.”
“Ahh, I get it…” Now that she put it like that, I could see how this was similar.
In that imagined vision, we wouldn’t be in school uniforms anymore, and there was no timetable decided by someone else.
In the clothing we’d chosen, taking the classes we’d chosen, we were spending our own free time in the cafeteria together.
Our expressions would probably look more grown-up than now, but we’d be having the exact same conversations.
I wanted to see that, too.
But I also assumed I wouldn’t.
“…Well, if we go to the same school, maybe something like that could happen. Not likely,” I said with a dry laugh.
Yukinoshita looked huffy. “This is just a fantasy, so it’s fine, all right…? You can be so pointlessly realistic sometimes, Hikigaya.”
And you can be so pointlessly romantic sometimes… But I figured if I said as much, that pout of hers would get even poutier.
But her lips stuck out anyway, and she flicked her gaze away sulkily. “…Besides, you still don’t know. We’re taking exams for similar institutions after all,” she muttered in a teeny-tiny voice before looking at me for confirmation.
We were going in slightly different directions: Yukinoshita was going for public liberal arts while I was going for private liberal arts.
I’d given up on sciences from the start, so I wasn’t going to take any public exams, but Yukinoshita would probably be applying for more than one school, and she would also apply for some private ones. There wasn’t a zero chance we’d go to the same school.
But that was ultimately talking about possibilities.
No matter how hard I tried, I’d never get accepted into a national public university, and Yukinoshita wasn’t going to go out of her way to come down to my level to choose a school… Right? If she went that far, that wouldn’t be making me happy; it would just be scary. If that happened, I would do everything I could to stop her.
…But imagining her waiting for me at the cafeteria does kinda get me right there. Even today kinda got me right there.
So if I were to choose a plan of compromise…
“Well…it’s all the same, either way. Even if we go to different schools, I’m sure we’ll see each other,” I said, rubbing my jaw as I pretended to think, hiding the smile that threatened to spread on my cheeks. I hoped we would do that, even if I couldn’t know what would happen next year.
Yukinoshita looked at me closely in response, as if trying to decipher my true intentions. But eventually her pout broke into a smile. “Yes…we will.” That nod was somewhat more innocent than usual; it made her seem soft.
But then she immediately giggled, and her usual indomitable smile rose to her face. “Although that’s only if you don’t fail all your entrance exams.”
“Could you not target the exact thing I’m most anxious about?” Seriously and unironically, that one isn’t even funny…
Well, my parents’ policy is “We’re not letting you take an extra year to study; go wherever you can get in,” so even if I wanted to, I probably couldn’t. So then I had to dedicate myself pretty seriously to studying for entrance exams. Wahhh… Once you fail, you can’t crawl your way up again. Japanese society is too scaaaary…
As I was literally shaking and crying in terror, Yukinoshita shrugged in exasperation. “If you’re doing that badly, I’m surprised you were interested in asking about scholarships.”
“That’s an important source of funds for me,” I said.
Yukinoshita gave me a little nod. “Ahhh. You did say something like that in the past.”
Some prep schools have a system where they partially exempt class fees to students with excellent grades as a “scholarship.” If I could get that, then the difference between tuition and the money I got from my parents would all go in my pocket. This is the birth of the Full-Wallet Alchemist.
Well, that hurdle goes way up once you’re in third year, and with everyone else hitting the books, it’ll be difficult…, I thought with a sour sort of look.
Concerned, Yukinoshita asked me, “Are you struggling that much with money?” She was looking at me with such worry, eyes all dewy and eyebrows in an upside-down V like she might pull her wallet out that minute… I kinda felt like I’d become her sugar baby.
Hmm, this is actually not bad. No, it is bad—in terms of comfort level and social reputation.
I cleared my throat with a gfem, gfem to briskly cover up that discomfort. “If I have any problems, I’ll borrow from my parents. Worst case, I’ll get a job. If it’s an ultra-short-term one-day contract, then, well, it should work out somehow.”
As I rambled with my random nonsense, Yukinoshita sighed in mixed relief and exasperation as she lightly pressed her temple. “So getting a job is the worst-case scenario…” Then she looked up as if she suddenly had an idea. “…You could work for us? I think it would pay better than an ordinary part-time job.”
“Ha-ha-ha-ha, absolutely not.”
I’d heard Yukinoshita’s family managed a civil engineering and construction-related company, but even if she suggested I work there, I didn’t know what I would be doing, specifically. Was it just normal blue-collar labor? Wait, wait, this was the Yukinoshita family. The real big unknown wasn’t what I would do, but what I would be made to do.
I didn’t know what their official corporate structure was or anything, but Mamanon was functionally at the top, right? Just that alone would be workplace harassment…
Besides, I very much doubted Papanon would approach me favorably, either. I still hadn’t met Papanon, but a guy who got anywhere near his dear daughter had to be a target for expulsion. If I were Yukinoshita’s father, I know I would kill any boys who approached her.
And so I politely refused her offer. But Yukinoshita wasn’t offended, putting a hand to her chin to consider. “I see… I thought it was perfect timing, though…”