As the year-end approached, we became increasingly busy.
I started to understand a bit why Kaoru and Izumi seemed so busy last year.
Studying is something that you can never perfectly finish no matter how much time you put into it, and every time I thought I had memorized something, I ended up forgetting something else.
In the midst of all this, I tried to continue with the literature club activities as minimally as possible, and I think I was trying extra hard not to skip the really important ones.
Although I wasn’t the club president, I couldn’t just leave the juniors to prepare for the cultural festival without any help.
So I came out early in the morning to help at the literary café, where we also worked hard in our maid outfits.
I was relieved to see that all the juniors looked happy.
It seemed that the literary café on the top floor of the old building gained some buzz since we opened it last year, and this year we had even more visitors.
I thought that maybe some future first-years who would enroll at Hanagawa High School next year might have come too, which made me try even harder and appear even more cheerful.
Our latest literary magazine turned out to be more polished than last year’s, and even if it might be sitting in a corner of a bookstore, it’s still—well, maybe there’s a bit of awkwardness, but it seems like a somewhat decent publication for an imperfect publisher.
Kaoru and Izumi, now university students, were impressed when they saw it.
When I told them to come visit, I think I understood why they refused.
Thinking that this year was the last made each second feel precious. Knowing that this time once passed would never return made me more anxious.
In a way, more so than university-related exams.
In reality, if you weigh it, university exams are indeed much heavier, but for some reason, that’s how I felt personally.
It’s only the third time, but the last.
We still have a few months left until graduation, but thinking about that made me feel a little sick inside already.
“……”
Yuka, Koko, and I climbed up to the school’s rooftop and briefly looked down.
It felt a bit strange for three people in maid outfits to be looking down from the rooftop, but…
“It’s been a while.”
Yuka said that.
Yeah.
Now that I think about it, I hadn’t come up here much this year.
There hadn’t been a reason to come up. I didn’t have to eat something alone.
In fact, if I had clung onto Mako, Harumi, and Yuuki at that time, it wouldn’t have been difficult at all to have meals together.
All three of them were so nice that they sometimes seemed almost too innocent, and they already knew that my family situation wasn’t great.
But for some reason, I didn’t want to do that.
Yet, I had a bit of pride, and I didn’t want to show myself eating alone in front of others, and I thought it was really ridiculous to eat in places like the bathroom.
It was really fortunate that the rooftop door was opened.
And there was Yuka who followed me and insisted on eating those plain cream puff pastries.
“Thinking back, you really were persistent.”
“Huh?”
“Uh-oh?”
Yuka and Koko both turned their heads at the same time in response to my mumbling.
“No, you always followed me up here whenever I came to eat.”
“Ah.”
Yuka’s face turned a bit red at my words.
“I-it was nice to have someone to eat with, right? Isn’t that right?”
Back then, Yuka also didn’t have any friends.
Because she transferred around for work, her friendships kept starting and breaking, so it was only natural that it was even harder for her since she hadn’t been here long.
Perhaps Yuka following me was her own kind of effort.
I didn’t know how long we would stay together, but during our time at school, she probably wanted to create some proper memories.
In the original work, Yuka was somewhat popular in class. Even if it weren’t for me, she would have slowly adapted to school over time.
“…… Yeah, it was good.”
When I answered so simply, Yuka looked at me with a mildly surprised, blank expression.
“Wow?”
Only Koko seemed puzzled, not understanding what we were talking about.
As we were petting Koko’s head, the rooftop door opened.
“There you are.”
Kagami said with a laugh, as if in disbelief.
“I sent you an email earlier.”
“Yes, that’s why I came up here.”
Kagami came close, rustling a plastic bag in her hands.
And then she looked down from the rooftop—
“Hmm, what a view…”
“Not so great, right?”
Kagami couldn’t quite answer my question.
And how could she? It’s a school right in the middle of Minato Ward, with taller buildings right beside it.
Well, to begin with, I hadn’t come up for the view.
Still, I thought it felt a bit open. It felt like I was outside the school without actually leaving.
But then again, it didn’t matter if it wasn’t the rooftop.
“What do you have in your hands?”
“I bought a bit from downstairs. Crepes, do you want some? I got a little cream on them while putting them in the bag.”
Kagami brought up exactly four for herself too.
Out of all the pastries we had here, those were the fanciest.
If you’re going to call super-thin pancakes bread, then sure.
“……”
Yuka, Koko, Kagami, and I stood side by side, looking down at the school.
People were bustling around below. The joyful sounds were mixed, somehow conveying that lively atmosphere even here, which felt somewhat detached.
Really, this is the end.
Everything we’ve done this year is coming to a close in this school.
Three years.
When I first started, three years felt so long, but now that I’ve spent time here, it has flown by way too quickly.
Every day was enjoyable. I just regretted that I couldn’t recall all those joys perfectly.
“… Shall we go take a picture?”
“Sounds good.”
Feeling the year’s end approaching, Kagami said with a smile.
“Oh, the photography club over there is taking pictures again this year. Want to have a go at that?”
“Sure.”
At Kagami’s words, I nodded and smiled.
I turned back to Koko and Yuka and said,
“Well then, shall we go?”
“Yeah.”
“Wow!”
The two of them nodded with smiles.
We didn’t rush, slowly making our way down the steps, one at a time.
After all, time will push us forward without us having to intentionally catch up.
We walked with each step, savoring the regret.
Leaving rustling footprints over our memories, we slowly walked toward the last events of our high school days.
*
It seems the Christmas party is thankfully still on schedule.
Thanks to the two second-years and four first-years getting to know each other, it feels like a vibe where exchanging Christmas gifts wouldn’t be weird.
However, we didn’t borrow Yuuki’s house, where the first and second parties were held. Is this natural?
Instead, it seems we got permission from Tsugumi’s friend who’s in the second year to have the party there.
“I’ll send you the pictures!”
Shii said with a bright smile.
Her cheerfulness was befitting of someone who would take the lead starting next year.
Of course, Koko, Kagami, and I, along with my friends, continued studying diligently during the break. Now that the exams were truly around the corner, it was a time where slacking off wouldn’t do us any good.
There are cases where you don’t need center exam scores if it’s not a public or national university, but whether it becomes a feast or boiled rice, I intend to sit for the exam. After all, Yuka and I are aiming for a place that requires those scores, so we naturally have to keep an eye on it.
I think I’ve done pretty well with my studies.
In my first year, I couldn’t focus 100% on studying for various reasons, but starting in my second year, influenced a bit by Izumi and Kaoru’s diligent atmosphere, and the slight sense of crisis from my juniors, I’ve studied quite hard since then.
Though I didn’t study as vigorously as in my third year, I believe I did well for a second-year. My introverted nature has also improved considerably.
That said, it might have helped that I was surrounded by overachievers.
And now, with Kagami’s smarts, I can even get help from her if I don’t know or get something wrong.
Truly, everyone around me seems to have stepped out of the realm of human.
But I consider that a stroke of luck.
After Christmas passed, the atmosphere in the class after school resumed was different from before.
It seemed lax, yet everyone wore an anxious and tense expression.
When I was younger, I thought the concept of a “studying atmosphere” was just nonsense, but at this point, I had to admit there’s something real about it.
Well… the truth is at this point, trying to learn anything new is tough, especially since my head feels full from everything I’ve absorbed so far, and just keeping it from overflowing is already challenging.
In the end, I completely gave up on trying to cram anything more in, deciding instead to focus on maintaining what I already have.
“It’s going to be alright. We all can go where we want to.”
Mako said that to me, and it felt like she was saying it to herself too. Yuka said something similar, and other friends in the same class shared similar sentiments that hinted everyone was feeling somewhat alike.
Thus, we scrambled through what was probably the most nerve-wracking period of our lives.
The time I didn’t want to come flew by regardless, and finally, the fated day arrived—
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