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“SIGH...”
“That’s number five!”
“...What is?”
“Five sighs. You’ve sighed five times since noon.”
I hadn’t noticed.
However, it was a little embarrassing that anyone would be counting them.
“I’m the one who should be sighing anyway. I lost on Saturday and got Oboro all upset. It wasn’t my best moment,” Aritomo said before popping a piece of tamagoyaki into her mouth.
Ever since she began training for the cooking contest, Aritomo had been using the school lunchroom and the café less and less, instead eating her packed lunch in the classroom with me. It was mostly food prepared by her family’s chef, or food that she bought from a store, but her meals were very fancy.
She brought her lunch again today, and this time, it had many of the same items mine did.
“Did you make your lunch yourself today?” I asked, noticing that her food was different from usual, simpler.
Aritomo gave a pout and said, “Yeah, I guess. I mean, I happen to like this style of food and...it’s for practice...and okay, maybe I did promise him... Don’t say a word!”
What was she talking about? Ah yes...haha, that’s right—she promised to make some for Shimozuru. But she didn’t need to get herself so worked up over it.
Her face a light pink, she continued eating, looking pretty satisfied. Watching her made me feel a bit envious.
I had no idea why I felt that way. But coupled with my gloom that had lingered since Saturday, all these feelings I couldn’t seem to process just seemed to be piling up and weighing me down. And so, I sighed a sixth time.
“Hey, is this about that stuff with Tsukuyomi?”
Ugh...was it that obvious?
“Don’t worry about it so much. You were my partner from the start. That was how this whole thing started.”
“No, that’s not what I’m worried about... Haven’t you wondered why Chouko is doing this challenge? How she sees it?”
Thinking back, I felt that way since the piano challenge. She purposely played a song I would like, and she wanted to make my family’s favorites for the cooking contest, without concern for what the judges liked and with no attachment to the contest itself.
“It’s no big deal.”
Really?
“I mean, really it just seems like Tsukuyomi is doing this competition on a whim. My affinity stats with her aren’t going up, but just doing the challenge has worked out in my favor.”
Right, the whole reason Aritomo even wanted this competition was to live out some otome game in the first place.
“...You don’t really care for it, either, do you, Urara?” she asked me, tilting her head.
Don’t care for it...was that it? Lady Chouko was always so sweet and kind to me. And I didn’t get the feeling she genuinely saw me as an opponent.
That was it. So then, surely—
“Surely she doesn’t see me as an equal, and that hurts, especially because we’re friends,” I muttered.
Aritomo shrugged. “Friends, huh? You don’t have many friends, do you, Urara?”
Ouch! She hit me right where it hurt. But she was right. Lady Chouko was probably the only one I could consider a real friend.
I had always been more mature than my peers, likely a result of being reborn in this world with my memories of my past life in Lacrofine still intact. I was unable to make good friends like everyone else had.
“I try to be as genuine as possible with people, but why doesn’t that come through?”
“Isn’t that it, though? Why you can’t make friends?”
She was so quick with a response to my long-held self-doubts.
“I mean, you don’t want to lie or deceive people, but sometimes that happens. Treating your friends all formal isn’t going to go over well, either. Friendship isn’t just about sharing laughter and your tears. Sometimes you get mad, you fight, and then you make up. It’s all part of the package.”
“Is it really?”
“It is. But isn’t that great? For Tsukuyomi to get that upset over you means that you two are just that close.”
She had stopped moving her chopsticks, but she began moving them again, filling her mouth with spinach in sesame sauce. She exclaimed, “Whoa, this is tangy!” her eyebrows lifting dramatically.
“You two need to face whatever these uncomfortable feelings are. You’ll feel better if you do,” she said, trying to light a fire in me.
“Is it really okay for me to be that honest?”
“Of course, of course. I bet if you do that, you two will be close friends like we are now.”
Wait, we’re friends?!
“...Urara, you were thinking something rude just now, weren’t you? I can see it in your eyes!”
She puffed up her cheeks in protest. I couldn’t help bursting into laughter. I really hadn’t had a relationship like this ever.
This was the first time I could chat and laugh with someone so freely. Friendship wasn’t like this in my past life. It was far more confining and restrictive.
“I suppose there’s no way around it. We are friends after all.”
We are, aren’t we? I smiled at the thought.
“Hmph,” Aritomo said, expressionless at first, then she broke out in a grin. “Yes, we are friends, somehow!”
Finally, after entering high school, I had made a good friend.
“You two really are adorable. Urara and...Shizuku, was it?”
We were so caught up in bonding that we were caught off guard by the amused voice coming from someone standing over us. We both panicked and looked up.
“Ui, don’t flirt with them!”
“Ahh, sorry, sorry. Didn’t mean to interrupt girl-talk time.”
The owner of the cheerful voice was Mikazuki. The reason he had come to our classroom (even though he was a second-year) along with Shimozuru was likely to try to figure out the next challenge. Just as I expected, he plopped down in a seat next to us and flashed us his usual sly grin.
“Got a message from Mitsuru. He said he wants this whole contest wrapped up by the end of August. So we need to figure out the next challenge.”
He pointed both thumbs at himself, indicating he was the advisor this time around.
“So sports, then?” I asked.
“Yeah. I wanted to see what you thought about having it be a sports challenge. Then I can actually coach you like a good advisor should.”
“...Uh-huh,” Aritomo replied, seemingly unsure of what to say as she shared a look with me. Sports wasn’t exactly our forte.
When Mikazuki first arrived, the classroom had been almost empty, but now it was filled with shrieking girls. He met their excitement with a friendly smile and energetic wave. His waving only made them shriek louder, making me realize just how popular he really was.
In the beginning, Aritomo told me her so-called love interests were considered the crème de la crème in terms of popularity. No matter how much they hated all the commotion, they were careful not to show it.
However, it was Mikazuki, the jock, with decent grades and a friendly demeanor, whom they screamed especially loud for.
“Hard to hold a conversation in this little classroom with you around, Ui,” Shimozuru announced, making no attempt to hide his uncharacteristically sour disposition. He was right, though; all this excitement made it practically impossible to have a serious conversation.
“I see. I’ll come back after school, then. Later, Urara, Shizuku.”
He floated out of the room, moving his hands like he was dog-paddling. What an energetic, flashy guy.