Ch.198Epilogue. Welcome to the Literature Club! (4)

# Tsugumi Tsuneda.

That was the name of the new student.

We only managed to recruit one person, but that’s better than nothing. There’s still a chance another student might join the club this year, and we can always get more members next year.

Actually, the second-year students just joined this year. If you count students who were in the literature club all of last year, there are only three new students including me, so the difference isn’t that significant.

Plus, all three of us joined during the semester rather than at the beginning.

Strictly speaking, I could say I joined at the beginning of the semester, but my case is a bit different from Tsuneda’s since I wasn’t at school during the club recruitment period.

Anyway.

This Tsugumi Tsuneda seemed like a nice, innocent girl in many ways.

She gave the impression of someone who might be outgoing, but she wasn’t good at initiating conversations, and she always looked a bit intimidated whenever Fukuda was around.

Maybe she pretended to be sociable but actually attracted genuinely sociable people?

To be fair, apart from her appearance, Fukuda herself was quite different from the common “gyaru” image, but that didn’t really matter.

What concerned me was something else.

She doesn’t seem to have any friends in her class.

Isn’t that right?

I often don’t walk home with Mako and her group after school because of club activities or part-time jobs, but we still occasionally go home together, eating or hanging out along the way.

In class, well, I can’t exactly say I naturally blended in with them, but I was always included among those three people. Even excluding Koko since she’s my sister, I’m not completely friendless.

Even outside our class.

I often walked home with Yuka. And Yuka is the same age as me.

I’m also close with Sasaki, and through him, I’m on greeting terms with Nakahara.

Honestly, my social circle expanded without much effort on my part… but regardless of how it happened, I couldn’t deny that I had friends.

In contrast, I’ve never seen Tsuneda hanging out with her friends.

Since joining the literature club, she’s always come to sit in the clubroom as soon as school ends.

Eating dorayaki that we bought with our additional budget.

“…”

Well, I suppose that’s fine.

I also went through a phase where I treated dorayaki as my emergency food, eating several whenever I came to the literature club to minimize my dinner expenses.

But she even eats her lunch here.

After school, she sits with a slightly awkward expression until someone else speaks to her first, but when she’s eating lunch and sees us come in, her face brightens up.

She gives the impression of someone who has never experienced the joy of eating with others.

Koko and I have quite cute appearances aside from our flowing hair, and Yuka might seem a bit stiff at first glance, but she doesn’t look intimidating when she’s alone.

Plus, her expression softens considerably when she’s with Koko and me.

Tsuneda seemed to feel a certain closeness to us because of this.

“…Do you make your own lunch?”

During lunch break, since it felt a bit awkward to leave Tsuneda out while the three of us chatted, I occasionally made light conversation like this.

“Oh, my mom makes it for me.”

“Same for us.”

Koko nodded emphatically beside me. She still thought of Tsuneda as her junior. Well, she is a junior.

For reference, Kagami is someone who thinks we’ll starve to death within two hours if we don’t eat three meals a day. Since we started living with Kagami, we’ve never skipped a meal.

And perhaps thinking that buying bread from the school store for lunch isn’t nutritionally sound, she always wakes up early to carefully prepare our lunches.

Thankfully, they weren’t three-tiered lunch boxes.

I no longer needed to mooch bread from Yuka like I did last year. Yuka looked a bit disappointed at first, but eventually understood when we showed her our nutritionally excellent lunches.

Yuka herself still eats bread bought from the school store. Every day, we repeat the same routine: the three of us go to the school store together, chat while waiting, and then head to the club room after Yuka buys her bread.

That’s why Tsuneda ends up alone in the literature club room, eating her lunch before we arrive.

The amount of rice left in her lunch box varies slightly each time I see it.

At first, she seemed to eat quickly, with less than half remaining, but now there’s much more left than before.

Yuka noticed this too, and we discussed it previously.

We wondered if she was deliberately eating slowly while waiting for us.

So, based on various evidence, I suspect Tsuneda might actually be isolated in her class.

Like Yuka and me at the beginning of our first year.

…Though in my case, I was just trying to save money.

The problem is that bringing this up would be very awkward.

Both Yuka and I are only one year older than her. In terms of months, it’s not even a full year. We can’t tell or advise someone like that to make friends.

Especially when we’ve experienced isolation ourselves.

Fortunately, Koko didn’t bring it up either. She’s just happy to have a junior in the club.

“How did you end up choosing this school?”

“Pardon?”

“I mean, it’s not a school you can just enter without a reason. I thought you might have… some specific reason for choosing it.”

Yuka carefully chose her words, trying to keep the conversation going.

Tsuneda rolled her eyes after hearing Yuka’s question.

And both of us belatedly realized that was the kind of question we shouldn’t have asked.

She’s someone who transformed her image when entering high school. Perhaps it would be better not to bring up memories from middle school.

Yuka, having attended numerous schools before finally settling here, probably didn’t think of that.

“Um… well…”

Beads of cold sweat formed on Tsuneda’s forehead.

Yuka looked at me anxiously.

I don’t know what to say in this situation either…

“The, the uniform,” Tsuneda finally answered.

“The uniform?”

I tilted my head and asked again.

“The uniform is pretty, isn’t it? It’s a style you don’t often see elsewhere…”

“Y-yes, that’s right!”

Yuka agreed with a slightly louder voice.

“The uniform is pretty! It’s unique. And it’s a sailor uniform.”

I’ll admit it’s pretty.

But that sounds like a lie.

I feel bad, so I can’t say it out loud.

“Tsugumi. The uniform suits you.”

“What?”

Tsuneda’s eyes widened at Koko’s words.

“The uniform suits you well. You look pretty.”

Koko repeated to Tsuneda.

“R-really?”

Tsuneda’s face gradually turned red.

“Yes!”

As Koko nodded firmly, Tsuneda’s face brightened.

“…”

Thanks to Koko, Yuka and I could breathe a sigh of relief.

*

“Let’s go outside today.”

I said to Izumi.

“Outside?”

Izumi, who was sitting and reading a book, looked up at me with surprise at my sudden suggestion.

“Yes. Let’s have a welcome party for the new student.”

We actually already had one. A modest one in the literature club room.

Even then, Tsuneda had blushed and looked touched.

But somehow, seeing today’s situation, I felt we needed something more elaborate.

When I glanced at Tsuneda, Izumi followed my gaze.

Tsuneda was diligently reading a book.

Koko was sitting right next to her, and Fukuda was sitting across from her. Fukuda seemed to really like Tsuneda’s small animal-like reactions, always claiming the spot next to her.

Mako was watching Tsuneda, who was sitting with a stiff expression and a wry smile.

Looking closer, Tsuneda was just pretending to read; her trembling eyes were fixed on a single page without actually reading.

“…”

After assessing the situation, Izumi let out a small sigh.

“Alright, let’s go.”

Izumi said, closing her book.

It feels a bit awkward to keep making such requests to Izumi, a third-year student, but she was still the club president.

None of the second-year students had stepped forward to take the president position. Well, someone will have to take over soon. We’re being a bit relaxed since it’s the beginning of the first semester, but by the second semester, both Kaoru and Izumi will be busy studying.

“Oh, are we going outside?”

“Yes. Well, a welcome party should be grand.”

I answered Kaoru.

“Everyone, attention please!”

When Izumi spoke, the club members’ attention focused on her. They’re all good kids.

Izumi seemed a bit intimidated by the sudden attention, but she still spoke as the president.

“Today, let’s go outside for a bit. It’s not good to always stay in the club room, right? We already had a welcome party before, but I think it’s good to have regular social gatherings. Especially since our literature club has suddenly grown in size.”

She didn’t mention having another welcome party for the new student as I had suggested, so perhaps she had already been thinking about this as the president.

“Who wants to go outside and have fun?”

Izumi asked jokingly, raising her hand slightly, and Fukuda immediately raised her hand high.

“I do!”

“Great, let’s go.”

Izumi said with a smile.

I glanced at Tsuneda’s face.

Her face was slightly flushed, and her eyes were wide open.

She’s not dead, is she?

When I waved my hand slightly in front of her face, Tsuneda’s eyes blinked.

Koko followed my lead and waved her hand in front of Tsuneda’s face too.

Tsuneda, not knowing how to respond, waved back at us.

Yuu was watching this with a slightly incredulous expression.

*

In my humble opinion, Mako is an expert in these matters.

Just as she had done for me last year, Mako was now doing the same for Tsuneda.

Perhaps she’s had experience counseling other troubled kids like this. Kids like Fukuda and Yuu.

Tsuneda, who was a bit flustered at first, was gradually blending in with the group, going around with a bright smile on her face.

“Kurosawa senpai, you sing really well.”

When people get excited, they tend to say whatever comes to mind to someone they think they’re close with.

“…Call me Kotone.”

When I said that, Tsuneda’s eyes widened a bit.

Is being asked to use a first name that surprising?

Fukuda was already calling Tsuneda by her first name.

“There are two Kurosawas in the club.”

And I gave that logical reason.

Yes. I’m willing to get closer, but I don’t want to skip the intermediate steps.

The reason I asked her to call me that was simply because there were two people named Kurosawa in our club, including me.

“Kurosawa.”

“Kurosawa Koko!”

When I pointed at Koko, she pointed at herself and spoke.

“And Kurosawa.”

“Kurosawa Kotone!”

When I pointed at myself, Koko pointed at me and shouted.

“It’s confusing.”

“Confusing!”

“Y-yes, indeed…”

Tsuneda nodded with an extremely cautious expression. She looked like she didn’t want to cross any lines.

Well… how should I put it?

It’s like her appearance and expression don’t match. Or maybe they do match Tsuneda. Somehow, the impression of “Tsuneda” was gradually becoming fixed in my mind.

“Oh, right.”

In the middle of our conversation, Harumi cut in.

“By the way, Kotone. You still call me Fukuda, don’t you?”

“…Do I?”

Oh, I guess I do.

I hadn’t really been conscious of it.

“You call Mako ‘Mako’ and Yuu ‘Yuu’, so why do you call me ‘Fukuda’?”

“…”

I have nothing to say to that.

Fukuda’s way of addressing others had also changed slightly. At some point, she stopped adding “chan” to names. If it were Fukuda, one might think she just got lazy and stopped using it…

During my time in Japan, I’ve learned about the culture here. After all, I’ve been here for a year.

Calling someone by their name without an honorific means you’ve become that close. Even using “something-chan” still has some formality to it since there’s an honorific attached. I’m not sure if adults use it with other adults, but for Fukuda, it probably feels comfortable.

“Come on, say ‘Harumi’.”

“Harumi.”

“…You said it too quickly.”

Well, you asked me to call you that. Did you expect me to be embarrassed or something?

Sorry, but if you wanted to see that kind of reaction, you should have asked earlier. I called Fukuda “Fukuda” out of habit, not because I felt any distance.

“Then, how about Tsugumi~?”

“W-what!?”

“Will you call me Harumi? Hmm?”

“Ah, um, how could I call a senpai…”

“Why? You’re going to call Kotone and Koko by their names, aren’t you? Don’t you like me?”

“No, no, that’s not it…!”

Hmm…

Harumi probably doesn’t mean anything by it, but somehow it reminds me of a military senior hazing a junior. It would be much worse with physical distance, swearing, and unpleasant expressions, but the conversation content is quite similar.

The difference is that Harumi would genuinely not mind if Tsuneda called her by her first name.

“Um, I, well…”

Tsuneda, who had been hesitating and mumbling to Harumi who was leaning in with her hands on Tsuneda’s shoulders, suddenly froze.

“Hmm? Tsugumi?”

Harumi blinked.

Since Tsuneda had stopped walking, we all stopped too.

I followed Tsuneda’s gaze as she stared wide-eyed at something.

There was a group of girls who looked similar to Tsuneda.

Girls with hair dyed in various colors, wearing much more ordinary uniforms than ours.

They were looking at Tsuneda, and suddenly burst into laughter. As if they had seen something incredibly funny.

And while continuing to look at Tsuneda and laugh, they turned and walked in another direction.

This is trouble.

I feel like I know what kind of girls they are. They’re probably from Tsuneda’s middle school.

And probably—

“…Tsugumi?”

Harumi asked anxiously.

“Yes? Oh, yes. I’m fine.”

Tsuneda answered, though no one had asked if she was okay.

We looked at each other, then back at Tsuneda.

Tsuneda’s hair was a yellowish blonde, but none of the girls from earlier had this hair color. I think I saw blue hair among them.

Their appearance… maybe a bit more delinquent than us? Their uniforms were extremely short, and their skin tone was slightly darker.

Hmm.

“Tsugumi-chan.”

Mako quickly addressed Tsuneda.

“Shall we go eat something delicious? How about ice cream?”

The weather had warmed up considerably, so it seemed like a good idea.

“…Yes.”

We somewhat forcibly dragged the dejected Tsuneda to an ice cream shop.

Wasn’t there a saying that eating something sweet is effective when you’re feeling down?

When we gave her a large chocolate ice cream, Tsuneda ate it all with sparkling eyes.

Thankfully, she seemed to feel much better after eating.

She felt better, but the problem still remained.

How could we help Tsuneda improve her situation?

It was something worth thinking about.