Part-3 Ch-04 Ep-04

By the time it passed 10 PM, almost no students were left sitting at their desks.

Some had already begun to doze off here and there, so we claimed a spot in the corner of the library as well and spread out the sleeping bags we’d been given, the two of us together.

These weren’t the kind of sleeping bags you had to wriggle into like a bagworm. They could be unzipped and laid out flat like futons.

We placed them right next to each other, snugly side by side for Maki and me, then pulled over the blankets we’d each brought.

For the humid heat of a summer night, that was more than enough.

The sleeping bags the school provided had been stored away for a long time, so they carried a faint musty smell. Even so, that only made it feel more like we were spending the night somewhere other than home.

When I lay on my back and looked up, I could see the night sky through the glass skylight.

It wasn’t a sky full of countless stars, but there was something strangely beautiful about lying down and gazing up at them.

“It’s beautiful,” I said without thinking, and from beside me came Maki’s gentle reply.

“It is.”

I hadn’t realized that in this very place, where we’d been solving differential and integral calculus problems just earlier, a starry sky would spread out above us if we simply looked up.

I’d studied pretty seriously today too.

The reason I was working this hard was because I was an exam student. When I thought about it, it hit me all over again, even this late, that I really was one now.

“Maki, did you know? It feels like we’re exam students already,” I said.

“Oh? You only just noticed?” she replied teasingly.

“No, I knew too.”

I did know, but somehow it had started to scare me a little.

Back during the high school entrance exams, I hadn’t been nervous at all.

After all, I knew I’d pass.

I knew I’d pass, end up in the same class as Maki, and meet Kagami-kun and the others.

But from here on, things were different.

Entrance exams, finding a job, or choosing some other path, none of that had ever come up in the game.

There hadn’t been any story after the graduation ending.

Thinking about that made it a little frightening.

“Mari.”

Suddenly called by name, I turned to look at Maki and saw her beckoning gently.

We were already close, but I shifted a little nearer.

Then her hand reached out and softly took mine.

“Hold me tight.”

“Eh, here?”

“Yeah.”

“Come on…”

I acted reluctant, but honestly it worked out for me too.

When I felt anxious, the warmth of another person calmed me down.

And being next to Maki was the most comforting of all.

I lifted myself slightly, moved onto her sleeping bag, and wrapped my arms around her slender body from above.

“Kiss me too.”

“Okay, okay.”

As she asked, I gave her a small kiss on the cheek.

“No.”

“Not that?”

Apparently that wasn’t what she meant.

When I gave a wry smile, she glared at me.

“You knew that, didn’t you?”

“Honestly…” Maki muttered with a quiet sigh.

Then, without another word, she placed her hand on my cheek and held my face in place so I couldn’t pull away.

Her face drew closer, and our lips met.

Her lips were soft and warm, a gentle kiss.

“When I’m with you, Mari, I feel at ease,” Maki murmured as she pulled back just slightly, still close enough that our lips nearly touched.

Her breath brushed against me.

“You mean excited, right…?”

Before I could finish, the hand on my face tightened, and I let out a croak like a squashed frog.

Still, feeling at ease with Maki was the same for me, so I was happy.

“I can’t put in any effort at all if you’re not there, Mari,” she said.

“I don’t think that’s true,” I replied.

Her eyes widened in surprise for a moment.

“Because…”

I shifted my gaze slightly away and checked her status for the first time in a while.

It hadn’t reached the cap, but her level was already quite high.

Maybe because it was so high, it had become harder to raise further. Even so, her stats were more than solid.

If she were a hero, she could probably defeat the final boss. Though, of course, nothing like that existed in this world since the genre was completely different.

“Maki, you’ll be fine. You can overcome anything. I guarantee it.”

I repeated the same words I’d used to encourage her since we were kids.

She replied with her usual quiet “thank you,” but then added in an even softer voice,

“But you don’t get it.”

I thought, I do get it, that’s why I’m saying this, and simply answered, “Sorry,” while scratching my cheek.

“But I still think you’ll be okay, Maki.”

When I said it again, she sounded slightly annoyed.

“That’s not what I mean.”

“…Did I say something wrong?”

“You really don’t understand a girl’s feelings.”

“But I’m a female high school student too.”

“You’re way too dense. You always have been. I thought you’d gotten a little better lately, but… well, whatever.”

As if she’d given up on continuing, she moved the hand that had been on my cheek and smoothly wrapped it around my back.

It seemed we were going to sleep like this in the same bedding.

Eh, this is kind of embarrassing.

When I instinctively turned my head to check our surroundings, she firmly turned it back.

Apparently, that meant I shouldn’t think about unnecessary things.

In other words, I should just look at her, so I gave up and decided it was better to sleep like this.

“…Good night.”

I murmured that, adjusted the blanket over both of us, and closed my eyes while loosely holding Maki.

The next morning, we were shaken awake by Godaiin-kun, who for some reason looked embarrassed, and Kagami-kun, who stood there with his arms crossed like a teacher saying, “Be more aware of your surroundings.” We couldn’t help but feel a little remorseful.

End of Chapter 4, Part 3

┳⁠━━━━⁠━⁠⁠━⁠━⁠━━━⁠┳  

Authors Note  

┻━⁠━━━━⁠━━⁠━━━⁠┻  

It might’ve ended a bit flatly, but I hope you’ll take it as a small summer break side story.

Next time, there’ll be a bit of a time skip, and it’ll move on to the story after summer vacation.

Please continue to take care of the two of them <m(__)m>

From Chirichiri