Chapter 396: The Last Wish Ticket
"It's done! Finally done!!"
Fujiwara Chika shouted loudly and put down the fountain pen in her hand.
Half the ink was already gone—just imagining it was enough to know how much she had written.
"Isn't there a gentler way to study?"
"Doing homework is actually the easiest way to improve your grades. Besides, with your current performance, there's nothing you really need to patch up in terms of missing knowledge."
At this point, Sakurai Saki suddenly remembered the five Nakano sisters.
Teaching Chika was genuinely fun. Many things didn't need to be repeated, and she could even infer a lot from a little.
Compared to that, the Nakano girls weren't as smart. Even when he told them to firmly grasp certain points, they still couldn't remember.
There were too many knowledge points in the textbook, and it wasn't realistic to memorize everything—you could only choose the ones that appeared frequently in exams.
"Saki-chan, idiot number 3 is here."
Shijo Maki interjected, pointing with her fountain pen toward the study room door.
There, Nakano Miku, wearing headphones, was waving at Sakurai Saki.
"What is she here for?"
Sakurai Saki asked as he stood up.
"Who knows."
"I'll go talk to her. Chika, if you have something to do, you can head home first."
...
Outside the library.
Beside the vending machine, Sakurai Saki received a can of matcha soda from Miku.
The drink had a very unique taste. At first Saki couldn't drink it, but over time he got used to it, and sometimes even bought a few cans to keep at home.
"This is for you."
Miku took a piece of paper out of her bag.
Sakurai Saki accepted the note, which was so clean it barely had any creases, and said:
"A wish ticket? Miku, you still have one of these?"
It was a limited-edition item.
Sakurai Saki remembered he only made four tickets...
"This is the last one that Nino gave me."
"So that's how it is."
After Sakurai and Nino's relationship improved, she no longer had any reason to use these anymore.
"Saki-kun, when summer vacation begins… can you go to Kyoto with me?"
Sakurai Saki fell silent.
Seeing this, Miku asked sadly: "You don't want to?"
Sakurai Saki's feelings were extremely complicated.
He and Miku once had a promise. Even if Saki had all the reasons in the world to explain, the result was still: he broke that promise.
Back in their first year, Saki's attitude toward Miku had been cold, while she had been extremely enthusiastic.
After being ignored by him for several months, Miku finally managed to start talking to Sakurai Saki again.
He didn't know what Miku thought during that time, but he knew he truly owed her.
"You still remember the promise from that day, right?" Miku asked softly when he said nothing.
Sakurai Saki immediately shifted the topic, pretending not to hear: "Summer vacation, right? I'll go with you."
Hearing that, Miku nodded. "One more month."
"I know."
A while later—
As she watched his back leaving, Miku muttered: "Saki-kun really is an idiot."
He definitely heard her just now.
So why pretend he didn't?
...
Final exams were approaching.
Recently, everything had become noticeably busier.
After summer vacation, Shirogane Miyuki would fly straight to America. Once the new semester started, the student council would fall into a "leaderless" state.
Could Shinomiya Kaguya shoulder the responsibility?
Sakurai Saki felt the answer was no. That girl had completely entered a "love-brain" state recently—aside from acting spoiled, she wasn't doing anything properly.
During summer vacation, he also had to go to Hokkaido with Ichika for location shooting.
Because there was a winter scene in the background, they needed a place with low temperatures.
Before that, he had to go to Kyoto with Miku…
Sakurai Saki's vacation hadn't even begun, and yet his schedule was already packed.
He couldn't watch fireworks last year, so this year he definitely had to. He didn't go to the beach last year either, so this year he absolutely had to go once.
Senior year of high school—if he didn't gather enough memories, it would be such a waste.
"Why? Why that face? Today is Saturday." Nakano Ichika was checking her makeup in the mirror, adjusting it carefully and fixing her hair.
They had to film a scene today, and both of them needed to be present.
In this movie, Saki's role as the male lead wasn't too large, but also not small.
"Working even on Saturday… a break like this absolutely doesn't qualify as a proper day off."
Sakurai Saki snapped out of his thoughts and realized her makeup was already finished.
The makeup artist smiled: "Sakurai-kun, do you hate working?"
"Recently I'm a bit tired, so… yeah, I hate working."
"Studying at Shuchiin must be tough, right? Yet Sakurai-kun still has such good grades."
"Studying isn't tiring."
What was tiring was social interaction—and also "paying the nightly tax" to Ai-chan.
Makeup artist onee-san, you have no idea how exhausting it is to deal with three troublesome girls…
"Eh? Then what is making you tired?" The young makeup artist looked genuinely surprised.
"All sorts of things… in every way…" Sakurai Saki sighed.
"Sakurai-kun is clearly a high schooler, yet you talk like some middle-aged guy complaining about life."
Hearing that, Nakano Ichika quietly laughed beside them.
The two didn't chat with the makeup artist for too long.
After changing into their school uniforms for the movie—
They both left the temporary dressing room.
...
Today's scene was to be filmed inside the school, in the school library.
"You've been taking so many days off lately. If you fail the final exams, it'll be rough."
"I read books every day when I get home. Don't worry."
The two turned a corner and walked toward the library.
"After this semester, we won't see you in school anymore. Thinking about that is a little sad."
"But thinking carefully, we actually hardly see you guys at school anyway. Only during PE and elective classes do we get to study together."
This year was exactly like last year—he didn't share a single class with any of the Nakano sisters.
"You could've skipped the second half of that sentence." Nakano Ichika turned her head and gave him a side glance.
A mature and alluring onee-san role suddenly doing that made Saki's heart beat faster.
Sakurai Saki sighed: "The five of you really are all different."
Even though they looked identical, the inside was completely different.
That kind of aura was hard to describe, but it definitely existed.
"There are no two identical leaves in the world."
"Studying with me for over a year really had some effect—now you even say poetic things like this."
"You're so full of yourself, sensei-chan."
Nakano Ichika felt he'd been a little smug lately.
Ever since their teacher–student relationship ended, the strict and serious image of Sakurai Saki in her mind had completely disappeared.
One phrase summed it up—the filter was shattered.
"You're not my teacher anymore, yet you still call me that."
"It's a nickname."
Nakano Ichika teased: "It has this strangely forbidden feeling, kind of thrilling, right?"
"If a student thrills her teacher, the unlucky teacher gets fired. They've been strict about this in recent years—I've seen plenty of news about teachers losing their licenses on my computer and TV."
"Why are you suddenly talking about something so realistic?"
"It's hot today—it's already summer. Did you hear the cicadas outside?"
"That was way too fast! That topic change was so abrupt even I couldn't keep a straight face~"
...