— — — — — —
"Most of the standard events are basically decided already. But I kind of want to make things more interesting. Tone down the competitiveness a little and focus more on fun."
"For example, instead of a normal fifty-ter sprint, we could make it a three-legged race. Of course, there should still be competitive events. But more than anything, I want everyone to be able to participate in the school sports festival and actually enjoy it."
Oikawa looked straight into Yukino's eyes, his expression unusually serious.
"I understand, Oikawa. But pulling that off won't be easy."
Oikawa had expected Yukino to pour cold water on the idea like usual. Instead, she gave him a rare smile and said, "Oikawa-kun, then let's work hard together."
"Yeah. Let's do it together."
Oikawa decided he'd hold off on bringing up the rooftop apology incident for now.
Just for now.
...
..
The Service Club—
Even though Oikawa passed by the room every day, he rarely ever stepped inside. Most of the ti, he didn't even glance at it.
But today, he had to admit it. Compared to the Literature Club, the Service Club felt a lot cozier.
Though in Oikawa's opinion, that wasn't because of the people. It was mostly thanks to the pot of tea sitting on the table and the snacks beside it.
Oikawa took a sip from his cup and nodded approvingly.
Milk tea. Sweet aftertaste, silky texture. Pretty good.
Kawasaki, on the other hand, didn't seem to like it much. She took one sip before pushing the cup aside.
"Alright, let's hear everyone's ideas."
Yukino looked around the room. The whole point of this eting was to settle on the events for the sports festival as quickly as possible.
"I don't want this to turn into so exhausting sports festival." Yui frowned slightly. "In those class-vs-class sports festivals, girls usually get the short end of the stick. And then they end up getting judged by the guys too."
"That's true." Zaimokuza, who had plenty of experience in this area, imdiately chid in. "I actually hate sports festivals. Every ti, you're forced to carry the class's expectations on your back, even when you're already trying your best."
Being overweight was a huge disadvantage in sports.
If it was the kind of sports festival where participation was optional, Zaimokuza could at least hide in the corner and cheer people on.
But the really awful ones required every student in the class to sign up for sothing. Then they added everyone's scores together and compared classes.
Guys like Zaimokuza always ended up becoming targets for complaints. In a way, wasn't that just another form of bullying?
"We definitely need to take that into consideration." Oikawa thought for a mont before continuing. "A school sports festival is supposed to help students relax and blow off stress from studying, not turn into so giant comparison contest."
"How about making this year's events club-based instead?" The mont Yui suggested that, Zaimokuza imdiately started complaining, saying it would be the sa as before for people like him, maybe even worse.
So Oikawa walked over to the whiteboard in the Service Club room and wrote:「Club Competitions」
Then, without hesitation, he drew a thick line straight through it. Rejected.
Yui imdiately looked dejected.
Oikawa comforted her, "It's fine. We're brainstorming. Nobody cos up with a perfect idea on the first try."
Kawasaki quietly raised her hand.
"Kawasaki, you can just say it. No need to make it all formal."
Kawasaki spoke up. "How about breaking up the classes? Mix students from different classes together into teams for the sports festival."
"That would take way too much ti to organize, and it'd probably turn into chaos. And more importantly, if you throw strangers together, there's no way they'll genuinely work as a team." Yukino rcilessly pointed out the flaw in the idea. "At best, your plan would just create a bunch of new couples at Sobu High."
Kawasaki shot Yukino a cold glare, then instinctively shifted her body farther away from her.
On the whiteboard, the words「Break Up the Classes」 also received a thick line through them.
"Feels like the only thing we can really change is the events themselves. The competition format still has to revolve around classes." Oikawa let out a quiet sigh.
"Yeah, class-based is still the safest option. Soone tried the club route a few years ago. It ended very badly." At so point, Shizuka Hiratsuka had entered the Service Club room.
Behind her was another familiar face: student council president guri Shiroguri.
"Yukino, long ti no see... Oikawa, you're here too? That's great." guri greeted them cheerfully.
Shizuka lit a cigarette, but before she could bring it to her mouth, Yukino's voice rang out. "Shizuka-sensei, smoking is not allowed in the Service Club."
"Huh? Really? Can't you make an exception, Yuki-chan? This is my first cigarette of the day!"
"No." Yukino rejected her instantly and without hesitation.
Oikawa gave her a huge thumbs-up in his heart.
"Fine, fine…"
Shizuka reluctantly stubbed out the cigarette, looking genuinely pained, then pointed at the girl beside her. "This is the helper I found for you guys. guri was the executive committee chair for last year's sports festival."
"If the cultural festival run by Yukino and Oikawa hadn't turned out so successful, she'd probably still be the executive committee chair this year too."
guri stuck out her tongue playfully. "Yukino-chan, Oikawa-kun, thanks a bunch."
Apparently, she also thought being committee chair was a huge pain, which was why she sounded so grateful.
"I'm only doing my job." Yukino's expression remained as calm and indifferent as ever.
"No need to be so formal, senpai. I learned a lot during the cultural festival too." Oikawa smiled and exchanged a few polite words with guri.
After that, the discussion about the sports festival resud.
With guri joining in, things moved much faster. Quite a few ideas they'd originally thought were brilliant got rejected on the spot.
After all, those ideas had already been tested at previous sports festivals year after year.
The results had been diocre at best.
What everyone thought would be a quick eting sohow dragged on for over an hour.
The whiteboard looked absolutely tragic.
「Performance Competition」
「50-ter Three-Legged Race」
「Triathlon」
「Ping Pong Tournant」
「Doraemon Outsmarts the Genie of Aladdin」
「Cosplay Perfect Day」
Every single one had a giant line drawn through it.
By the end of the eting, everyone had completely lost it and started throwing out nonsense ideas after ntally collapsing.
Then Oikawa casually suggested "Cosplay," and the eting officially died on the spot.
...
"Let's continue tomorrow. Go ho tonight and think carefully about what events could actually work." Shizuka rubbed her temples while taking out another cigarette and heading for the door. "See you all tomorrow."
"Ok!"
After talking nonstop for over an hour, Oikawa felt like his throat had completely dried out.
He picked up the nearby cup of milk tea and drained it in one go. Only then did he finally feel alive again.
What Oikawa didn't notice was that Kawasaki had frozen completely the mont she saw him pick up the cup she had been drinking from.
Indirect… kiss?
Those two words suddenly flashed through Kawasaki's mind.
Then her thoughts drifted away entirely. It felt like her soul had left her body and floated off sowhere unknown.
"Kawasaki? Why are you just standing there? Don't you still have work later? If you don't leave now, you're gonna be late."
Oikawa's voice snapped her back to reality.
Kawasaki hurried out of the Service Club room, then suddenly broke into a run, disappearing from Oikawa's sight in monts.
Oikawa scratched his head in confusion.
"Did she really need to run that fast? There's still ti, isn't there?"
"Whatever. More importantly, I need to find sowhere to eat. I'm starving."
...
..
October in Chiba. Before six in the evening, everything in sight had already been dyed red by the setting sun.
If soone went to the seaside right now, they'd probably see a beautiful scene where the ocean and sky lted together into one line.
Sothing like the final episode of Your Lie in April.
"So cold. I seriously need to wear thicker clothes tomorrow." As Oikawa rode his bike out of Sobu High, the chilly wind brushing against him carried the bite of autumn.
Then, all of a sudden, he thought of the convenience store where he used to work.
"Wonder how that fat bastard manager's doing these days."
Oikawa imdiately decided to revisit the place.
He stood up on the pedals and sped off on his bike, arriving at the convenience store in no ti.
"Welco."
The person at the register looked like a college student. Oikawa walked over and asked. "What happened to the old manager?"
"The old manager?"
"The fat guy. Always had that creepy leering look on his face."
"Ohhh, him." The college girl laughed. "His wife kicked him out and sent him to work construction. She runs the store herself now."
Then she suddenly seed to realize sothing, "Wait… you're not the part-tir who reported him, are you?"
Oikawa smiled faintly.
Serves that fat bastard right. Today really was a day worth celebrating.
After walking into the store, Oikawa decided to grab a quick al. But after wandering around for a bit, his eyes suddenly lit up.
They actually sell these Korean noodles here?
Nongshim Shin Ramyun, only 550 yen a serving. No way he was passing that up.
After grabbing the noodles, he also picked up a 440-yen chicken-and-egg salad, a 198-yen cheese crab stick, and a small Korean fried chicken pack for 290 yen.
On top of all that, he bought a box of Oden too.
Total cost: 2,000 yen.
If Kawasaki saw this, she'd probably start lecturing him again, muttering about how she could've made the sa al for less than half the price.
After carrying everything ho, Oikawa treated himself to a satisfying dinner before turning on his computer.
But today, instead of gaming, he opened his writing software for the first ti in a while.
After hesitating for a long mont, he finally typed a title into the blank field: CLANNAD
Originally, it had been a romance adventure visual novel released by Key.
Then it beca a soul-crushing ani adaptation.
Even though neither Chris Yamada nor Full-Drive Bunko had pressured Oikawa to start a new project, he still felt he needed to offer sothing as a proper introduction gift.
After all, Full-Drive Bunko was adapting Your Lie in April into an ani for him. It was only right to return the favor.
After organizing the mories in his head, Oikawa quickly slipped into writing mode.
This ti, he planned to prepare a proper proposal first instead of dropping the finished work on them afterward like before.
Ti flew by.
Before he realized it, two hours had passed.
The docunt had already reached thirteen thousand words.
Along with the rough outline of the story, Oikawa also wrote an opening chapter draft to send to Chris.
"Done! Now it's ti for the nightmare of League of Legends to return. The world will rember my horrors again—Mwahahahaha!"
Oikawa stretched lazily, letting out an exaggerated, villain-like laugh, before finally sending the CLANNAD proposal to Chris Yamada's email.
...
..
One match ended. A completely humiliating defeat.
But for so reason, Oikawa couldn't help feeling that the next match was definitely going to be different. He just needed a bit more ti to warm up—he was only getting started.
With that thought, he hit the queue button again, then picked up his phone while matchmaking continued.
He was planning to browse through so sarcastic internet quotes to update his collection. But the mont he unlocked the screen, he noticed a ssage from Kawasaki.
『Kawasaki』: Oikawa, can you co to my workplace around ten?
He checked the ti. The ssage had been sent a little after nine.
It was already 9:40 now.
"Oh crap!"
Oikawa instantly canceled matchmaking, threw on a jacket, and rushed out the door.
Kawasaki had never been the type to fear the dark. If she specifically asked him to co over, sothing had to be wrong.
Hopefully she hadn't run into trouble.
Oikawa frowned slightly.
Kawasaki's current part-ti job was at a KFC near the train station.
She worked from six in the evening until ten at night, earning 1,050 yen an hour.
The pay was considered pretty good, though the work itself was exhausting.
Around six or seven every evening, the place got so busy that employees practically ran themselves ragged without a mont to rest.
Oikawa had tried several tis to convince Kawasaki to switch jobs. But she refused every ti.
...
..
The night air in Chiba had grown even colder.
The station wasn't particularly close to Oikawa's apartnt, and since he didn't bring his bike, he ended up taking a taxi instead.
Less than five kiloters. 960 yen.
Absolutely outrageous.
After getting out of the taxi, Oikawa stopped by a convenience store and bought two cups of hot milk before jogging toward the KFC.
There were still several tables occupied inside.
He checked the ti— 9:57 PM.
Instead of going in, he sent Kawasaki a ssage saying: "I'm here."
Then he waited outside for her.
Another guy was standing outside the KFC too. Around Oikawa's age, probably a high school student.
"Bro, you waiting for your girlfriend too?"
Oikawa nodded, clearly uninterested in continuing the conversation.
The guy was dressed in flashy clothes and looked exactly like the stereotypical delinquent from a Japanese drama. The mont he opened his mouth, Oikawa ntally classified him as "ntally ill."
But the guy clearly had no intention of shutting up. He kept rambling enthusiastically.
" too. My girlfriend's super pretty and really smart. Jealous yet?"
Oikawa still didn't reply. For so reason, he just didn't like that guy.
Soon, three quiet minutes slipped by.
Then Kawasaki walked out of the restaurant.
But she wasn't wearing her school clothes anymore. Tonight, she had on a slightly sexy white hoodie, paired with a black mid-length skirt that revealed just a bit of her pale thigh.
The mont she saw Oikawa, a faint smile appeared on her face as she hurried toward him.
"Bro, this is my girlfriend. Pretty cute, right?" The guy beside him grinned proudly.
Then, right in front of him, Kawasaki wrapped herself around Oikawa's arm.
Oikawa awkwardly turned toward the guy.
"Uh… did you mistake my lovely girlfriend for soone else?"
.
.
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