Chapter 315: The Girl Who Ran Away from Home
"Starting tomorrow is spring break."
Today, Shinomiya Kaguya and Sakurai Saki were on cleaning duty.
Yesterday, the whole school had already done a general cleaning, so today's class duty didn't have anything special.
"What's wrong?"
"After spring break, we'll have to change classes. Next year, we might not be in the same class anymore." Shinomiya Kaguya said while wiping the blackboard.
"Ara~ Kaguya-chan wants to be in the same class with me that much?" Sakurai Saki teased her, imitating her tone.
O' kawaii koto~
Shinomiya Kaguya let out a huff.
"I told you already, don't call me 'Kaguya-chan.' Are you treating me like a kid?"
"I actually wish you'd act a bit childish. If you just said earlier, 'I like Sakurai-kyun the most most most in the whole world,' I'd be really happy." Sakurai Saki continued teasing her.
He knew Shinomiya Kaguya couldn't handle this kind of thing.
See, her face was red already.
"…Like you." Shinomiya Kaguya mumbled softly.
"What? I didn't hear that." Sakurai Saki stepped closer, picked up another rag, and helped her wipe the upper part of the board that she couldn't reach.
"I like you."
Still in a very quiet voice.
"Huh?" Sakurai Saki started pretending to be clueless again.
Shinomiya Kaguya got angry, turned around, grabbed Sakurai Saki's collar, and pulled him down.
Until the two of them were almost face to face.
Kaguya-sama gritted her teeth and said each word clearly: "I said!! I like you!!"
Sakurai Saki was caught off guard by this sudden and straightforward attack.
"Don't be like that, you're making me embarrassed."
"Hey! Weren't you the one who wanted to hear it? Why are you blushing now! You're so annoying! I…" Shinomiya Kaguya hurriedly let him go, then grabbed the watering can and went to water the plants in the classroom.
Sakurai Saki calmed himself down and brushed the chalk dust from the board into the trash bin.
"Sorry," he said.
He had gone a bit too far teasing her — almost forgot that Kaguya really did like him. Mainly because throughout this whole year, he had always treated her as a rival, a friend, or rather, like a brother-in-arms. So when that "brother" suddenly confessed to him, it was honestly a bit scary.
"Haizz. It's fine, Just don't do that again next time."
Soon, the two of them finished their cleaning duty and got ready to bring the supplies to the staff office.
Sakurai Saki carried a stack of documents that had been placed on the teacher's desk, while Kaguya shared part of the load — actually even more than him.
The two walked down the hallway and happened to run into a familiar face.
It was Kojima, the captain of the kendo club.
"Yo, Sakurai— cough, and Shinomiya too." Kojima glanced at Shinomiya Kaguya several times before turning to Sakurai Saki. "The national tournament in March, do you want to join?"
He was talking about the kendo competition.
But Sakurai wasn't very interested.
"I'm not going. I plan to take a break this spring vacation."
Kojima nodded, then leaned close to Sakurai Saki's ear and whispered, "The Shinomiya family's been in a bit of turmoil lately. You shouldn't get too close to that young lady, or you might get dragged into trouble."
"Umu." Sakurai Saki didn't say anything more.
Kojima patted his shoulder and left.
'The Shinomiya and Shijo families are still fighting, huh?'
It seemed to be getting worse and worse — impossible to stop now.
But that had nothing to do with Sakurai Saki.
Maybe only when this planet was about to explode would he feel interested enough to care.
"He~yosh!! So heavy!!" As the two were about to reach the staff office, from the classroom up ahead, Fujiwara Chika came out carrying a huge pile of documents.
Turns out she was also on cleaning duty today.
"Eh? Saki-kun and Kaguya-san? You two are on duty too!"
Chika was carrying so many papers that it looked like a real struggle.
Seeing that, Sakurai Saki took part of the pile from her hands, then flipped it upside down to tell it apart from his class's stack.
"Thanks, Saki-kun~" Chika said, then glanced at Shinomiya Kaguya. "Kaguya-san, don't you need help? That looks like a lot."
"No need, I'm a member of the archery club — I'm stronger than quite a few boys. At least in the student council, not many could beat me."
"Really?"
Fujiwara Chika showed a thoughtful expression.
Just one look and Sakurai Saki could tell — she was already thinking about what kind of game to play later in the student council room.
"Let's hold an arm-wrestling contest!!"
"Boring, I'm not playing." Shinomiya Kaguya rejected outright.
Is anyone really curious about who's the strongest in the student council?
"I'd definitely win anyway, so there's no point in playing."
"Heh." Sakurai Saki chuckled softly.
This person sure is confident.
Even without using his ability, just purely on physical strength, even ten thousand Shinomiya Kaguya wouldn't be able to beat him.
"What? You're not convinced?"
"I've never compared physical strength with girls." Sakurai Saki could already see the teachers' office a few seconds' walk away.
"Coward."
She could say whatever she wanted.
The best way to keep his mood steady was to give up arguing with idiots — whether it was an argument online or in real life.
They handed the documents over to the teacher.
The three of them went together to the student council room to finish the remaining tasks.
After that, Shirogane Miyuki said he wanted to go have a party meal.
Everyone headed together toward the train station.
The sloping road next to the school was lined with cherry blossom trees, now in full bloom.
Cherry blossoms in Tokyo bloom earlier, and also fall a bit earlier.
The Japanese inherently revere the concept of "mono no aware" — feeling compassion for the fleeting beauty of all things.
While visitors are admiring the beauty of cherry blossoms, perhaps the Japanese are thinking — "The cherry blossoms have just bloomed and are already about to fall, how pitiful."
Incidentally, the concept of mono no aware originated from Murasaki Shikibu...
"Sakurai, why are you spacing out all of a sudden?"
Sakurai Saki snapped back: "What is it?"
"A few days ago you just moved house, right? I was going to ask if you needed help with your things or furniture."
"No need, I hired a moving company. Plus, yesterday I already finished setting up the new furniture."
Both Sakurai Saki and Hayasaka Ai were the type who didn't like dragging things out.
It's just that the old house still had a month left on the lease; the old furniture and bedding inside, Sakurai hadn't dealt with them yet, just left them as they were.
"That's good then."
...
After the meal, everyone split up and went their separate ways.
In front of the restaurant.
Before getting into the car, Shinomiya Kaguya also told Sakurai Saki that Hayasaka Ai would be staying at her place.
Sakurai Saki already knew about that beforehand, so the other party didn't really need to mention it again.
He took the train back, stopping by his old apartment — since the new place wasn't fully settled yet, tonight he could only temporarily return there to sleep.
Passing by the convenience store near home, Sakurai Saki bought a can of coffee from a vending machine.
Then walked home drinking it on the way.
Arriving in front of his house, Sakurai Saki stopped dead.
In his line of sight —
A pink-haired girl with a bow was squatting in front of the door, like a small abandoned animal.
The corners of her eyes still showed traces of having just cried.
"What's going on? Why did you suddenly come here?" Sakurai Saki asked Nino.
"I ran away from home. Now I can only rely on you." Nino lifted her head, her voice gloomy.
'This is so her style.'
Among the five sisters, this kind of running away from home stunt was probably something only Nino would pull off.