Chapter 159: Photography Assignment
Lunch break.
Sakurai and Hayasaka Ai were having lunch.
Today, the two of them chose to eat on the rooftop, where there were long benches specifically meant for resting.
In reality, not many students came up here during lunch. One reason was that the rooftop door was sometimes locked. Another was the strong wind up here.
The wind on the rooftop was very strong—this sentence might sound redundant.
There was nothing romantic about it. If it were night time, with clear skies, maybe you could even see the stars. In that case, the rooftop would lose its daytime flaws and take on a bit of romantic charm. But unfortunately, it was currently blazing noon, the sun was glaring, and the temperature was nearly 30 degrees.
And the wind was strong.
As for whether the rooftop was nice or not, classmate Ryuju—who was in the astronomy club—certainly had the right to speak.
This place was the domain of the astronomy club, and even though the club only had one member, Ryuju Momo was still actively participating.
As for how this strange club was founded, you'd have to ask the current student council president—Shirogane Miyuki.
Last year, Shirogane rarely used his presidential powers for personal matters, but that time he did.
No one knew what had happened between the two of them, probably some life-and-death relationship—like, for example, Shirogane's little sister was being targeted by the yakuza, and the one who handled the situation was Ryuju Momo.
After finding out, Shirogane Miyuki wanted to repay her, but fate is unpredictable. Just one day after the incident, before Shirogane could return the favor, she was kidnapped by a rival organization!
Shirogane immediately evolved from "Abyss Dragon" into "Berserk Dragon Sangen" (his house was near Sangenjaya), and at night, he infiltrated the yakuza organization, single-handedly broke through their defenses with a sword, and rescued the yakuza boss's daughter (Ryuju Momo)!
Otherwise, how could the story go on?
All of the above was purely Sakurai Saki's personal speculation and might not be accurate.
——
The two of them ate and chatted.
Unlike couples in the midst of passionate love, Sakurai and Hayasaka had a relatively calm relationship. Even other couples didn't necessarily stick together all day long.
"The rainy season's coming soon." Sakurai shared something he saw a few days ago: "Yesterday while jogging, I saw hydrangeas in the park already blooming, with a lot of dew on them."
Hydrangeas—called ajisai in Japanese—usually bloom from around May to July.
A month ago, after the cherry blossoms had fallen, Sakurai saw bunches of wisteria hanging down like waterfalls from trellises in the park, and there were also small white wild jasmine flowers.
Now it was the hydrangeas' turn.
Sakurai Saki took out his phone to share a photo.
The wallpaper had already changed; the purikura photo with Chika from last time hadn't lasted long.
The photo on Sakurai's phone was shown.
"So pretty." Ai-chan looked at it several times.
Hayasaka: (๑✪ᆺ✪๑)
The angle was excellent.
"Used a camera, so the image quality is really good," Sakurai Saki added. "It's for an art class assignment."
The last art class on Friday afternoon had covered photography, and the teacher told them to try it out at home, so Sakurai Saki dug out his long-neglected Sony camera.
"Is the assignment due today?"
Hayasaka Ai also pulled out her phone—an iPhone 12 Pro. She always cared about electronic devices.
Last year, Sakurai Saki gave her a pair of Sony noise-canceling headphones because she had mentioned them while gaming, so Sakurai Saki just gave them to her.
After that, on Ai-chan's birthday, she personally said not to give her any more electronic devices, so Sakurai Saki bought her a two-player game instead and included a long-term co-op service.
"Look, puppy." Hayasaka Ai opened the photo album on her phone.
Inside was a Shiba Inu with a dumb-looking expression, the background was a roadside.
Dog photo: ૮´⍝˶• ᴥ •˶⍝`ა
The photo had been taken just a few hours earlier.
This was clearly just doing the assignment to get it over with, wasn't it?
"You're late this morning, was it because of a train delay?" Sakurai picked up a piece of grilled beef, wrapped it with some vegetables, and popped it into his mouth.
The seasoning was good, and he was quite satisfied.
"I got lost by accident," Hayasaka Ai replied.
On purpose.
Who told Kaguya-sama to say something like that?
Couldn't she just call him "my boyfriend" herself? If she liked him, why bother hiding it? It's not like she was cheating!
"Then how about I come pick you up in the morning? I've been thinking of getting a motorcycle lately," Sakurai Saki asked.
"Really?" Hayasaka Ai instinctively wanted to say yes.
But thinking about her relationship with Kaguya, she declined: "We're not going the same way, so never mind."
After renting her place, Hayasaka Ai had sent her address to Sakurai Saki, just in case he wanted to take her home after a date.
This made her realize one thing—dating really costs a lot of money. She barely had enough as it was, and the cash she left in her bag yesterday as a backup had now disappeared completely.
Did she lose it while sleeping?
So strange...
"It's just a bit of a detour, I don't mind,"
After saying that, Sakurai noticed Ai-chan seemed reluctant to trouble him, so he added: "But no rush, think it over. I haven't even taken the license test yet."
"Umu."
Hayasaka Ai nodded.
After that, the two finished lunch, chatted for a bit, and returned.
————
In the afternoon's art class, Sakurai Saki's work was projected on the teacher's computer for everyone to see.
Shinomiya Kaguya wasn't too happy about it—she had put a lot of effort into her assignment, but because her phone's camera wasn't strong enough, the photos came out a bit blurry.
Kaguya: ( ｡ •̀ ⤙ •́ ｡ ) !
Kaguya had deep sentimental attachment to her flip phone. Even though it was the age of smartphones, she had no intention of changing.
After school, in the student council room—
Kaguya brought up the matter.
"You should just switch already." Sakurai Saki sat on the sofa drinking tea while Shinomiya Kaguya made tea and talked about the class earlier.
She believed her photography skills were better than Sakurai's.
Sakurai Saki showed no resistance.
He didn't think he was good at photography either. Normally, Sakurai didn't use social media much—at most just Twitter, YouTube, and LINE. Stuff girls liked to use, like Instagram, he didn't even have installed.
Guys who used Insta were probably just there to look at pretty girls, right? Sakurai couldn't think of any other reason—unless the guy was super into taking photos and sharing his life.
Sakurai knew this was a stereotype, but he didn't want to change. As an Esper, he preferred doing things his own way.
"But this phone has been with me for a long time," Shinomiya Kaguya said as she took out her flip phone.
"All the data and pictures can be transferred. You can ask Hayasaka-san about that—she knows this stuff really well," Sakurai Saki said, taking a sip of tea.
Being attached to an object... was quite normal.
Time made things more charming—childhood memories, food you hadn't eaten in a while—time always added a layer of nostalgia.
'...Of course I know that.'For the first time, Shinomiya Kaguya felt like someone was lecturing her about her "level of understanding of Hayasaka Ai."
She was obviously the one who understood Hayasaka Ai best!
Sakurai Saki's understanding of Hayasaka Ai was probably only about eighty percent of Kaguya's. But to catch up on over a decade of closeness in just one year—Sakurai was pretty impressive.
"Talking about phones?" Shirogane Miyuki walked in.
He was a bit late today.
"Oh right, Sakurai, come with me to the student council's old storage room later. Help me look for some documents—your memory's better than mine. We went there once last year."
Sakurai Saki nodded, "No problem."
He had nothing to do today.
And tomorrow was the weekend.