Ch.199Epilogue. Welcome to the Literature Club! (5)

I couldn’t see Tsuneda’s middle school situation at all.

She might have been severely bullied, or she might have just had a few kids she didn’t like.

There were too many unclear aspects to assume she was deliberately laughing loudly, and since Tsuneda didn’t seem inclined to talk about it right now, I decided to leave it alone.

Anyway, she’d be hanging out with us throughout our school years. At least until next year.

And next year, Shii would probably enroll in this school. Of course, which school she attends is entirely up to her, but with Shii’s personality, I’m one hundred percent sure she’ll come here.

The reason was right in front of my eyes.

“Souta~”

“N-Nanami.”

Since becoming classmates, Nanami had started clinging to Souta more aggressively.

Surprisingly, the two weren’t ostracized by the other students.

Sasaki has more friends than I expected. I didn’t realize it because he often hangs out with girls, but he apparently got along well with his friends in his class.

Some of those friends advanced to our class together.

By the way, I know one of them. I can’t remember his name, but you know how in harem stories, the protagonist always has that one weird, girl-crazy friend who isn’t popular?

He’s supposedly girl-crazy, but he can barely speak properly in front of girls, so I’ve determined he’s harmless for now. In the novel, I think he eventually got a girlfriend or didn’t… well, it’s been 20 years since I read it, so I don’t remember clearly.

Anyway, while his friends are jealous of him in various ways and occasionally tease him playfully, that’s about the extent of it—there aren’t any major problems with his school life.

The same goes for Nakahara.

She’s not exactly at the top of the social hierarchy, but she has plenty of friends. Like Sasaki, she has several friends in our class, and some visit from other classes during breaks. Plus, she gets along well with our group, which means she’s established decent relationships with pretty much all the girls in our class.

If Sasaki were the school idol or in a similar position, he might be called arrogant, but maybe because he’s classified as an “ordinary protagonist,” the school girls’ evaluation of him is the incredibly ambiguous “reasonably good-looking.”

Nanami’s friends generally supported their relationship rather than interfering with it.

So, the atmosphere in our class was pretty good overall.

Sasaki is the only boy in this school who talks to me comfortably. Nakahara doesn’t view me negatively either, because she knows I have absolutely no feelings for Sasaki.

The same was true for Shii, who isn’t at this school.

That’s why Shii thought to ask her brother for a favor related to me.

And that was the problem.

*

For about a month now, I’ve been working part-time a few days a week, and spending the rest of my time doing homework with friends in the literature club room or chatting lightly before heading home.

I can’t count how many times I’ve thought how nice it would be if school life had always been this peaceful.

Honestly, I wanted to bring in a computer or TV to make the literature club activities more enjoyable, but I held back. I had a feeling that if I asked Kagami for something like that, she would actually do it, which gave me a different kind of anxiety.

Usually when we arrive at the literature club room, Tsuneda is already there waiting. I wonder how she gets there so quickly, but thinking about it, we don’t exactly rush to get there, so it’s not physically impossible.

Today, we arrived at the literature club room as usual, but Tsuneda wasn’t there.

It wasn’t surprising when Izumi and Kaoru were late or absent due to third-year related matters, but Tsuneda’s absence was somewhat unexpected.

It’s not that she had never missed club activities before. Tsuneda would carefully write an “absence notice” and email it to us. Usually, it was because she had family dinner plans or something similar.

We were a bit puzzled, but we weren’t particularly worried at that point.

She might just be running late, right?

About ten minutes after we had leisurely prepared tea and taken out snacks as usual…

Just as we were starting to genuinely worry about Tsuneda, the literature club room door opened cautiously.

Coincidentally, we were in one of those rare moments when everyone was actually focused on club activities, so we all reacted simultaneously to that small sound.

Even though she’d been active in the literature club for a month now, Tsuneda still got a little flustered when everyone looked at her at once.

But today was a bit different.

She had a dazed expression.

Her eyes were slightly unfocused, her cheeks were flushed, her hair was slightly disheveled, and her uniform was a bit rumpled. Her knees were slightly red and swollen.

“Tsugumi!?”

Harumi was the first to react.

Is it because they both have the gyaru style? Or maybe because her original reason for joining was “wanting to have a junior.” Whatever the reason, Harumi’s affection for Tsugumi was genuine.

She immediately stood up, examined Tsuneda’s body, and placed her hands on her shoulders.

“…Which bastard was it?”

Harumi asked with a real delinquent aura. She looked ready to rush out and crush whoever’s name she heard.

“A handsome person…”

Hearing that, Harumi’s face turned even more blue.

“Tsuneda, hey, Tsuneda!? Were you deceived by some man?”

“Harumi.”

Mako stopped her.

“Calm down a bit first. Let’s hear the story.”

Mako also had quite a serious expression, but she was much more rational than the extremely agitated Harumi.

We sat the dazed Tsuneda down. Being in a dazed state, Tsuneda sat down without any resistance.

Well, even if she hadn’t been dazed, she probably wouldn’t have resisted anyway.

“So, what happened?”

“Ah, well, that…!”

Tsuneda suddenly reacted intensely.

“Actually, I have a collection of world literature at home that I don’t read anymore.”

At this point, I could somewhat guess why she was in this state.

Of course, I still had no idea about the identity of the “handsome person,” so I continued listening to her story.

“I’ve already read all the books, and my bookshelf was getting full, so I got permission from my parents to bring them here.”

“…How many books are there?”

“About fifty…”

No wonder her bookshelf was getting full.

Well, I probably would have been the same at her age. And I would have filled it with light novels and manga.

“Fifty books.”

As Yuu muttered in disbelief, Tsuneda flapped her hands.

“Of course, I wasn’t planning to bring them all at once!”

Fifty books would be too heavy to carry anyway.

Tsuneda said she was planning to move about ten books at a time. It was still very heavy, but apparently it was within her limit to carry herself.

“You should have told us beforehand.”

Realizing that she probably hadn’t been forcibly subjected to anything by anyone, Harumi’s tone had softened a bit.

“Ah, I didn’t want to bother the seniors…”

“Tsugumi, we don’t mind. We’re all in the literature club together. These books are for the club, right? Of course we’ll all help you move them.”

When Mako said that with an angelic face, Tsuneda’s expression became dazed again.

“Heh, hehe, is that so? Hehe…”

Maybe Koko and I could have moved all fifty books if we had gone. It would have looked extremely unnatural, but still.

Well, if the whole literature club moved together, we wouldn’t need to go that far. I want to stop appearing strange to others.

After laughing in a somewhat foolish voice, Tsuneda realized she had gotten sidetracked, quickly shook her head from side to side, and continued her story.

“So, I was barely managing to carry the books when I fell…”

“Are you hurt badly? Should we go to the infirmary?”

Harumi asked with a worried expression.

“Ah, no. It doesn’t hurt that much.”

“What about the books?”

Yuu asked.

“Um… Ah!?”

Tsuneda exclaimed, jumping up from her seat.

“That person said he would bring the books!”

“That person?”

Yuu asked, furrowing her brow as she looked up at Tsuneda.

“The person who helped me when I fell! He picked up the scattered books, and with a very gentle and benevolent expression, said ‘Are you going to the literature club room? I’ll carry these for you, so go ahead’!”

That explanation doesn’t help at all.

Moreover, I’m more surprised that Tsuneda actually left the books with him and came here alone. If it were me, I would have insisted on carrying them myself out of guilt.

Well, rather than being genuinely comfortable with it, she probably acted instinctively in a daze after seeing “that person’s” noble words and actions. Tsuneda isn’t brazen enough to be that shameless.

“I’ll go right now—”

See, she’s just now realizing and trying to rush out.

But before Tsuneda could open the door, the literature club room door opened gently first.

The person beyond it—

“Where should I put these?”

“…”

“Um… why is everyone looking at me like that?”

“That person,”

In other words, Souta Sasaki, was standing at the entrance, confused by the subtle gazes of the second-year literature club members.

*

“Here you go.”

What Sasaki handed me was wagashi.

It was… a confection shaped like fruit that I had somehow tasted once in my childhood.

Well, I know it’s delicious.

“It was a gift from one of my father’s acquaintances. We got several boxes, which is too much for just us to eat.”

Weren’t you on bad terms with your father?

Well, he said it was his father’s friend, so that could be different. I didn’t read about it in the novel, but it wouldn’t be strange for him to have people who help him.

Looking down at the expensive-looking premium wagashi set with a complicated expression, I contemplated.

By the way, Sasaki was still standing.

Tsuneda was sitting in her seat, head bowed, fidgeting.

I seriously considered whether Sasaki might have looks that could make someone fall for him at first sight.

Maybe the girls’ evaluation of “reasonably good-looking” was actually hiding their true feelings…

No, that can’t be right. The girls in the literature club here were immune to that.

Well, I used to fantasize about dating whenever I got even slightly involved with a pretty girl. Humans can imagine such things even about celebrities without any actual connection.

“Tsuneda. Did you go to an all-girls middle school?”

“Yes!? How did you know!?”

Seriously?

The others’ expressions became subtle at my question, but after hearing Tsuneda’s answer, they all nodded.

Not immune to boys.

And then she falls down on the street, and a handsome stranger kindly speaks to her and helps her.

He even sends her ahead and takes care of gathering and carrying all her belongings.

Creating such a simple premise and then changing the gender…

Is it enough to fall for someone? Well, I suppose it could be a reason to develop tremendous goodwill.

“…”

“…What?”

When I stared at Sasaki, he asked with slight confusion.

“Nothing.”

He’s so dense.

Well, that might be an unfair assessment of Sasaki.

What man would think a girl he just met had fallen for him at first sight? Usually, a woman who says such things is either involved in a pyramid scheme or a cult. Unless the man is truly handsome.

Feeling something vaguely unpleasant, I picked up a piece of wagashi.

The one I chose resembled a peach.

The outside was quite sticky, somewhat like rice cake. Inside was a filling I wasn’t familiar with, but it was soft and delicious.

Seeing Koko eating the wagashi with an expression that showed absolutely no interest in other people’s love stories, I felt like I shouldn’t worry about it either.

Right, who am I to say anything? It’s someone else’s love life.

I can’t help feeling annoyed, but I’ll just leave them be.

If Nakahara or Hagiwara become too defensive, I might take Tsuneda’s side a little.

…Come to think of it, I haven’t seen Hagiwara in quite a while. I hope she’s doing well.

*

Just as I had concluded not to take interest in others’ love lives, the others seemed to have reached the same conclusion.

We knew there were two strong-willed girls competing for Sasaki, but we didn’t mention it. It would feel like we were urging her to give up.

As for Tsuneda, due to her personality, she couldn’t approach Sasaki anyway, so the problem didn’t become serious for now.

If it was just passing interest, it would end like a brief fever, and if Tsuneda became troubled enough to ask for our help, we could help her then.

Though I’m not sure what help I could provide.

“I’m leaving first today.”

On a bright day in May, I told my classmates.

“Okay. See you tomorrow.”

I waved back to Mako and Harumi, who waved with bright expressions, and Yuu, who waved diligently despite her somewhat indifferent expression, then headed home standing between Koko and Yuka.

It wasn’t because I had to go to work early, but because Kagami had started singing nonsensical songs like “If we don’t eat out, I might shrivel up from loneliness~”

If she wants to eat out, she should just say so, not sing such depressing songs.

Has Kagami forgotten how to speak normally after living such a life?

…

That thought I just had was so plausible that I felt sorry for Kagami.

“What do you want to do? Given your schedule today, we won’t be able to eat dinner together…”

School ends much earlier than office workers get off work. Of course, there’s time to wander around in the afternoon.

“Then, shall we look around for a bit?”

“Sure.”

“Woah!”

When I answered Yuka, Koko raised both hands and cheered.

She really loves playing and eating.

When Yuka and I ruffled her hair, Koko was a bit surprised with an “Uu?” but still looked happy.

Since both Koko and I had to take the train for quite a while to get home, we decided not to go too far. Actually, there was no need to. The unnecessarily wealthy Hanakawa High School was built right in the center of Tokyo to begin with.

For the first time in a long while, the three of us wandered around together sightseeing.

None of us were particularly interested in clothes, and we rarely bought decorative items, but somehow when the three of us walked around together, everything was fun to look at. Maybe it felt that way because it had been so long.

And as we were walking around, we spotted someone.

A delicate body with a shortened sailor uniform skirt.

And above all, bright blonde hair dyed thoroughly to the roots.

…It was Tsuneda.

Why was Tsuneda here?

Moreover, Tsuneda was hiding behind a building corner, watching someone.

“…Sasaki?”

Yuka murmured, seeing who Tsuneda was following with her eyes.

The three of us looked at each other.

And then, moving as if it were the most natural thing—

“Woah?”

—we grabbed Koko, who was about to call out to Tsuneda, from both sides and quickly dragged her away.

We hid at another building corner just like Tsuneda.

Passersby kept looking in our direction, but since Tsuneda didn’t have enough field of vision to notice, we decided to just hide openly.

And we began observing Tsuneda.