So that’s it. The second prospect that I had come up with was correct, then.
Touko said, “What I want to do in the student council is put on a play.”
“…A play?” At first, I wasn’t sure whether I had heard her correctly. The two ideas didn’t seem connected at all until Touko explained.
“Right. A theatrical drama organized by the student council officers. I want to put it on at the cultural festival.”
That was an entirely unexpected request. Just as she had prefaced earlier, it was a weird topic indeed. If someone wanted to put on a play, they would normally join the drama club. Didn’t our school have one?
“Why a play with the student council?” There must be some special reason why it had to be through the student council, then.
“Because it apparently used to be a tradition.”
“Huh…”
I wondered how long ago that must have been and how Touko knew about it so soon after starting school here. I already had my doubts after this brief exchange, but first, I felt I should hear Touko out until the end.
“And you want to revive that tradition?”
“I wouldn’t call it something as big as a revival, but…it’s just, don’t you feel like doing something grandiose now that we’ve joined the student council? Otherwise, I feel like we’re going to spend two years doing nothing but organizing documents.”
Touko glanced at the student council room. Other than the election, we certainly had only been doing clerical work since entering the student council. There would probably be more behind-the-scenes work to do in the future, but evidently, Touko wasn’t satisfied with that.
“So this is sort of like how sports clubs have tournaments?”
“I suppose it’s similar to that. It’s always easier to find something to do when you have a goal.” Touko was committed and energetic; she certainly didn’t seem to be harboring some inner obsession.
Still, I had to wonder. It seemed plausible, but I also felt as though she was going about something in a roundabout way. Was it shallow of me to think that she should have joined a sports club from the start if all she wanted was to achieve a goal?
“I’d like you to help me with that, Sayaka. So…what do you say?” Her humble smile and voice sought my answer.
A play, huh? I felt like refusing at first. Theater wasn’t normally my thing, and I doubted I could ever aspire to the stage at my present level of connection to it. Besides, tradition or not, I still couldn’t see a link between the student council and putting on plays.
I wondered what this meant to Touko. Though she spoke as though it were trivial, I suspected that there was actually some sort of immense meaning behind everything. Did Touko feel that revealing her secrets would be a sign of weakness? Or was it that she couldn’t tell me what it was because we weren’t close enough?
Either way, I felt vexed. But at the same time, I was admittedly happy that I was probably the first person Touko had spoken to about her goal at the student council. That genuine joy rendered me into a simple creature.
I couldn’t tell her that I refused to help unless she explained everything to me. If anything, knowing the truth might leave me all the more paralyzed.
I was starting to become cowardly.
In that case, I would turn a blind eye to the many uncertainties and accept the hand that was reaching for me. Touko needed my help. I knew that much for sure.
“If that’s what you want to do, Touko, then I’ll help.”
As a fellow member of the student council, as a friend, and… I kept my other reason secret as I pledged to help her.
Right. I was keeping secrets from her, too.
“Thank you.”
“But I’ve never put on a play before, so I might make a terrible actress.”
“I don’t have experience either. So let’s practice together.” Touko cracked a smile, one full of almost childish relief.
The student council was going to be busy enough working on the cultural festival in addition to its regular tasks. Adding rehearsals for a play on top of all that seemed like a dizzying amount of work. I couldn’t see Kuze-senpai, who already didn’t even show up at the student council most days, approving of something that would be such a hassle. And putting on a play with our five current members… What could we possibly produce? It was hard to imagine doing it with so few people, especially when we would likely need backstage help as well.
Many hardships awaited on the journey towards Touko’s dream.
“Out of curiosity, does our school have a drama club?”
“It does not.”
So we couldn’t even ask for help. “In that case, we’ll likely have a hard time getting props together for the performance.”
The teachers probably wouldn’t be much help with the play, either. Maybe these were some of the reasons the tradition died out, I thought. Touko smiled patiently as she waited for me. Clearly, she wasn’t going to give up so easily.
I decided I wanted to give her the response she was expecting. “All right. Let’s give it our best shot.”
Though my heart wasn’t terribly interested in theater, it was happy to show its devotion to Touko however it could.
She closed her eyes gently, as though content with my reply. “You’re so pleasant to be around, Sayaka.”
I think she was trying to praise me. My own eyes shut and my body froze in place as I thought over her words, imagining the sound of insect wings buzzing in the air.
Pleasant…right.
I couldn’t help wondering if what she really meant was “convenient,” but perhaps that miserable distortion was just the result of my past experiences.