The look on President Kuze’s face was unfavorable. I could immediately see that he wasn’t going to go along with this sudden proposal. To be honest, I would have been against it myself had it not been Touko who had proposed it. “There are so many problems and things to do. We couldn’t manage it.”
“Problems?” Touko questioned him in a slightly firm voice.
I was dubious that he was going to say anything other than that he didn’t want to participate in a play, but Kuze-senpai was unexpectedly talkative. “Well, first, getting together the props will be hard. We’d just use the gym or whatever, so that’s fine. But the real question is, what kind of play are you talking about exactly? I mean, do you even have a script?”
“Ah.”
He was pointing out reasonable things an upperclassman normally would, which came as a surprise to me.
“Even finding someone who can write a script will be difficult, and we don’t have a drama club, so we don’t have anyone to guide us. And since we don’t have one, we don’t have anyone with acting experience, either. Don’t you think all this is kind of a big ask?”
His words were somewhat harsh, leaving little room for argument. For the first time, I recognized that this person was an upperclassman and the student council president.
“That’s my opinion, at least,” Kuze-senpai added with a weak smile, as though feeling guilty for rejecting the idea so bluntly. “If you’ve got more details to share, then I’ll hear you out some other time. Although I’ll probably still be against it.”
He looked over his shoulder, clearly reluctant to keep away from practice for too long. “See ya.”
With that, he waved his hand at us and quickly went back to what he was doing. Maybe he was also afraid things would go downhill if Touko kept pushing to persuade him. But Touko’s attention had already shifted to something other than pursuing further conversation with Kuze-senpai.
“A script, huh…”
I could tell the wheels in her mind were spinning about the deficiency he had pointed out. She showed no signs of moving from the entrance as she mumbled to herself, so I pushed her along and left the kendo area behind us.
“The president sure is strict when he’s against something,” I remarked as I accompanied Touko, whose feet trudged towards the student council room. “I don’t think that the things Kuze-senpai was saying were wrong, though. Putting on a play is a lot of work.”
“You’re right… I wonder what the previous upperclassmen did about scripts.” Touko was crestfallen. Evidently even she didn’t have the talent for that kind of thing. “I wonder if we have a literature club.”
“We do.” I remembered seeing them at the club introduction.
Touko straightened out a bit. “Maybe we can ask them for a script.”
“I think that’s a good idea. But the question is whether they could finish it by fall if we asked them now.”
If they absorbed themselves in that work all summer break, they might be able to do it, but it would be difficult to find someone who would be willing to help us to that extent in the first place… Though, if Touko passionately asked someone, I wouldn’t be surprised if their heart was moved enough to do it.
“Maybe I should have proposed it after becoming president.”
This seemed quite a confident claim, although at the same time, she spoke almost as though she were talking about someone else.
“Perhaps. Everyone would react differently if it were the president proposing it.”
I didn’t know whether people would be for or against it, but they would hear her out, at the very least. Then she would just have to work the crowd in her favor. Right now, if the president was against it, there was frankly nothing more she could do.
“But there’s no guarantee I’ll become president next year.”
That’s why I wanted to do it starting this year and make it happen as soon as I can. That was probably what Touko was actually thinking. Though it seemed like she had plenty of opportunities in theory, in practice all she really had was this year and next year. It wasn’t as though the student council could do the play at any time other than during the cultural festival.
“You’ll make it happen, Touko.”
“You’re just saying that.” Touko smiled weakly.
She might have thought I was only trying to console her, so I decided to tell her more definitively, “No, I really do mean it. I’m sure that if you just continue forward like you are now, you’ll get to what you want. I believe in you, Touko.”
Nanami Touko. When I saw her in the classroom, it seemed like there was nothing she couldn’t do. Of course, now that I was actually working with her, I knew she could hit walls like this sometimes. But I expected her to scale those walls and to keep moving ahead of me. That was the type of person she was.
“What I want, huh…”
I didn’t know what was behind Touko’s smile as she murmured those words. At some point, I hoped that she would share it with me. I wanted to be someone who Touko would unquestionably present her desires to. But because she couldn’t do that now, all I could do was offer her my own words.
“I know that this is your dream, Touko. Is it something you absolutely need to happen this year?”
I realized we had both stopped walking. The branches of the trees in the background rustled sluggishly.
If she could wait…
“Let’s give it a year. We still have plenty of time to make sure it happens.”
It wasn’t as though we could just sit on our laurels, but still, some things could only be solved by the passage of time. Until I came to this school, my thoughts were always negative, trapped in the past. But just one glimpse of Touko, just being by her side…was enough to change me completely.
Instead of answering right away, Touko paused. “Can I really have a year of your time, Sayaka?”
“I don’t mind.” If it was a year in which I could get close to Touko, there was nothing I wanted more. And perhaps my own wish would come true…not in a year, but on a more distant day.
A smile came over Touko’s face, and I answered with a smile as well. Without a doubt, neither of us could perceive the other’s true feelings.
“Thank you. We’ll make the student council play happen for sure.”
“Right.”
“In that case…okay, we need to get back to the student council room.” Her attitude recovering completely, Touko’s feet lightly carried her forward, so fast that I couldn’t keep up with her.
For better or worse, Touko pulled me along. I was incredibly comforted to have found someone who would walk ahead of me. I had started high school life with no special goals, but now I knew exactly what to focus on.
Touko sought a friend she could rely on in me. And as long as I provided that, I could stay by her side.
I believed with all my heart that I could do it.
I believed.