Chapter 295: Turbulent Valentine's Day
The winter camping trip ended, and Shuchiin students returned to their boring days of study.
Shirogane Miyuki had recently immersed himself in studying English, and his grades could be said to have dropped miserably—last month's test fell to 8th place. Luckily, he didn't care much about it. Having left the top spot in the year, Shirogane Miyuki actually felt much more relaxed, and the dark circles under his eyes had faded quite a bit lately.
At noon, in the student council room.
"Sakurai, there's a day coming soon." Shirogane Miyuki said absent-mindedly.
It was already February.
Speaking of February, besides the gradually warming temperature, no longer as cold as before, there was also an extremely important day.
"Umu, it's my birthday." Sakurai Saki picked up a piece of hamburger steak from the bento; yesterday he had made too much and hadn't finished it.
"Birthday? That's pretty important too, but isn't there something even more important?"
"Shirogane, I suddenly start to doubt whether the relationship between us can really be called close friends anymore." Sakurai Saki spoke in a disappointed tone while chewing: "Not putting your bro's birthday as the top priority, I'm very disappointed."
"Valentine!! Valentine!!" Shirogane Miyuki spread his arms and stood up, as if he wanted to embrace the whole world: "A wonderful day!! Even a guy that nobody cares about can receive Giri-Choco (obligation chocolate)!! That's awesome!! That's Subarashi!!"
"Long live Valentine!!! Banzai!!!"
♡〜٩(˃▿˂)۶〜♡
Hearing his shout, Sakurai Saki raised an eyebrow.
Forget it, better not shatter his illusion.
Last year Shirogane Miyuki had received quite a few chocolates, but all with strange flavors; among them there even seemed to be frog legs.
This year would probably be the same.
"Long live Valentine!!!"
♡〜٩(˃▿˂)۶〜♡
At the door, someone echoed another line.
It was Ishigami Yuu.
"Myuu-senpai, Sakurai-senpai, good noon!!" He carried a bento as he stepped in.
"Valentine is coming soon, just next week."
"Ishigami, you're looking forward to Valentine too?" Shirogane Miyuki walked over to Ishigami Yuu and high-fived him!
"No, for a gloomy guy like me, an outsider in the class, nobody will give me chocolate." Ishigami Yuu shook his head, then he spoke excitedly: "But! Tsubame-senpai might give me chocolate!! Just holding on to that hope is enough for me to keep living!!"
"That's bad. Ishigami, your current situation is really bad." Sakurai Saki commented with chopsticks in his mouth.
"There's no helping it, there aren't many girls close to me." Ishigami Yuu sat down beside Sakurai Saki.
At this moment, in the student council room there were only boys.
Therefore, Sakurai Saki decided to ask a topic he had wanted to ask for a long time.
"Ishigami, how are you and Koyasu Tsubame progressing?"
Since Christmas, it had already been more than two months!
There should be something by now, right?
"Just normal..." Ishigami Yuu said with a disappointed voice.
Ishigami: (╥‸╥)
"Not 'done it' yet?"
"D… done it, how could I possibly do that!" Ishigami Yuu shouted loudly.
Shirogane Miyuki, sitting opposite the two, recalled the situation a few days ago, in the hallway, Ishigami Yuu and Koyasu Tsubame had walked together chatting and laughing for a while before separating when they met a few other girls.
"You didn't make a move on Christmas Day?" Sakurai Saki couldn't believe it!!
A man could actually pass up having sex with the woman lying next to his bed! Was this reasonable? Just how gentle must one be to give that up?
Ah, during the winter camp I also passed up once, so that's fine.
Ara, Sakurai-kyun, you're really gentle~
"I… that night I only slept with her for one night, just sleep, do nothing." Ishigami Yuu turned his face away.
"Tch." Sakurai Saki and Shirogane Miyuki simultaneously curled their lips.
"Why do you two have that expression? If I had made a move that night! Afterwards there basically wouldn't be any chance at all!"
"Attacking the city is the inferior strategy, attacking the heart is the superior strategy." Sakurai Saki nodded.
A full meal compared to eating one's fill every time—the difference between these, Ishigami could actually understand.
"Do you regret it now?"
"…A little." Ishigami Yuu felt embarrassed about his own thoughts.
"But after that we also went on a few dates, actually it's fine."
"Dating, huh, nice." Sakurai Saki continued eating lunch.
He and Hayasaka Ai went on fewer dates; at first it was because she had to serve Shinomiya Kaguya, so there was no time.
After the autumn school trip, since the two of them were already stuck together so much in daily life, there was no need to purposely go on dates anymore.
When a man and a woman live together, is dating even necessary?
It felt like stepping into married life early.
"But love is hard to say, some people date many times and still don't work out." Sakurai Saki poured a bucket of cold water.
In fact, he suspected Koyasu Tsubame was stringing Ishigami Yuu along. Although in her heart she might not think that way, her actions were indeed like that.
"If it succeeds, it's a first love; if it fails, it's a first heartbreak. Different experiences—life is that short, so try to go through it all." Sakurai Saki stood while speaking, so he didn't feel back pain.
He had never experienced heartbreak at all.
Next, the three once again shifted the topic to Valentine's Day.
Valentine chocolate aside, normally girls give chocolate to boys; what they cared about more was White Day.
That is, the day to return the gift.
The process of the three discussing can be skipped, but the conclusion was as follows: on White Day you actually have to return a gift worth three times as much—this is really a scam!
Girls are truly a greedy species!
...
After school.
"Sakurai-san, here, your coffee." Shinomiya Kaguya handed him the freshly brewed cup of coffee.
The relationship between the two, although a bit more intimate now, was still only within the scope of friendship.
"Why are you suddenly treating me so nicely?"
"I learned how to brew coffee from Ai-san, give it a taste?"
Recently Shinomiya Kaguya had been thinking about how to make Sakurai Saki like her.
She felt very humiliated about her one-sided love for Sakurai Saki. Especially that previous time when she confessed her feelings to him and was rejected, that incident made Kaguya just want to sink into the ground; the dignity of a Shinomiya child had completely disappeared, shattered by Sakurai Saki.
Although she had decided that in the future she would remain friends with Sakurai Saki, she still had to make the other party like her once—only then would it be fair!
Kaguya: ᕙ( ᗒᗣᗕ )ᕗ
"The taste is very good."
Sakurai Saki of course had no idea of the thoughts in her heart.
Does true friendship between a man and a woman exist? Perhaps it does. Right now he absolutely could not see Kaguya as a romantic partner.
One can be unkind, but one cannot accept everyone.
Sakurai Saki tried to keep his final boundary.
Because today he still had to go tutor the five Nakano sisters, Sakurai Saki did not stay long in the student council room. Recently the student council's work was quite light, so light that not coming at all would not matter.
Shinomiya Kaguya watched his back as he left, and for some reason felt an emptiness in her heart.
Just now while talking with him, she also could never look him straight in the face.
Kaguya took out her phone and sent a message to Hayasaka Ai.
[Lately every time I see Sakurai-san, my mind gets all messed up, what should I do?!]
A few seconds later, a reply arrived.
[Tonight I'll come sleep over at your place, we'll talk then (smile).]
Shinomiya Kaguya felt that Hayasaka Ai was angry.
Hayasaka: ( ≖‿ ≖ )