Ryu heard how his
sister got things more and more under control, and by now both
student council and festival committee were firmly dedicated to
finish the festival in good style.
He decided to
spend the last hour and half together with the girl from Irishima
High who hooked up with him a little earlier. According to her they
had met before summer break, and he owned her a goukon.
Ryu did have a
vague recollection of bantering with a group of girls on his way to
the old mall, and when she insisted they had already exchanged
email-addresses he put her to the test.
That event took
place just before he decided to spend the afternoon with her, led to
him spending it with her if he was honest with himself. Ten seconds
it took until his phone flagged an incoming mail. Ryu's weakness for
girls who dared him and won got the better of him.
She had an older
brother here, or had had if he understood her correctly. The brother
of hers transferred abroad, to their sister school in Sweden of all
places.
There was an
interesting tale involving a girl to be told, and Ryu made a mental
note to himself to check it out later, but right now he wanted to get
to know the tomboy by his side better.
He turned in the
direction she wanted when yet another slap smarted in his lower back;
her very special way of getting his attention in the noisy bedlam
around them.
“You know I'll
have bruises there if you keep at it?” he said to her.
“Sorry about
that Wakayama-san,” she said with a toothy grin that revealed
exactly how sorry she was.
Ruy pretended to
growl and pulled her to the stall she pointed at. “Something to eat
together with the ramonade Ai-chan?”
She shook her
head. “Someone's behaves pretty familiar with me,” she said.
“Prefer
Hasegawa-san?” Ryu countered and exchanged some coins for two glass
bottles. The girl in the stall gave him a long look and Ai-chan an
even longer.
Ai-chan shook her
head. “First name is fine.”
“Then call me
Ryu like everyone else please.”
The girl in the
stall gave him another stare. 'Everyone else' didn't include those
outside 3:1, their club or the remains of his fan-club, but he wasn't
about to say that.
He had to shield
her back from the crowd when they fled indoors, but as they climbed
the stairs to the topmost floors the mass of people thinned out. When
they reached the last flight to the rooftop he found them ample space
beneath the windows to sit down and share a meal.
“Meat-bun?”
Ryu asked and picked up some of his bounty from his bag.
Ai-chan gave him
a pair of big eyes before accepting. “When?”
Ryu unpeeled the
paper wrapping and grinned back at her. “Your third or fourth slap.
When we rounded the corner to the main street.” He put his teeth
into the food and waited for her to say something.
“Our cultural
festival was nothing like this,” she said.
“Missed it. We
were busy planning our own.”
Ai-chan nodded.
“Juniors told us we never get many guests from Himekaizen. Sucks.”
She joined him in
attacking the food, and they ate in silence only broken by two pops
when Ryu pushed down the glass beads sealing their ramonade bottles.
Before they ran
out of drink he produced two paper wraps with bean paste cake.
“Second last
slap,” Ryu said before Ai-chan had the chance to ask.
She grinned
sheepishly and downed the cake together with what little soda she had
left.
“So how come
you have time for me,” Ai-chan asked and pointed at the armband
hastily prepared the evening before.
Ryu got to his
feet and looked out through the window. He didn't have that time to
be honest, but he also didn't care all that much any longer.
“Something came up.”
Ai-chan joined
him by the window. “Something came up and you got more spare time?”
Student
council finally got their heads out of their arses, he thought,
but I can't say that. “Yeah. A matter of getting your
priorities straight,” Ryu said instead. You're our guest and you
don't need to know the one who managed this madness got jumped by
those Red Rose bastards.
Ai-chan wiped her
trousers clean. In Yukio's 2D world anything female spent every day
all year round in short skirts, but in reality the girls were a lot
more sensible than that.
During the walk
here Ryu had made an effort to remember her. If she was the one he
recalled from summer she had filled out a bit in the chest area
since, as well as grown her hair some. And wasn't it dyed that time?
“What do you
want to do next?”
She looked at him
and smiled. “I'd like to visit that famous club of yours.”
Of all things she
could have said that was about the last he had expected, but it made
sense in a way. Her brother attended the school on the other end
after all.
Ryu dragged her
all through the main building corridor to the left wing, past one
classroom turned café and another displaying whatever the literary
club found interesting or produced themselves. The next door was
their club room.
“Sorry if it's
a bit chaotic, but we're running the festival from here,” Ryu said
before he even realised it came out as boasting.
Ai-chan grabbed
his arm before he pulled the door open. “The cultural exchange club
runs the festival? What about your student council?”
“We're
helping,” Ryu said. The truth wasn't something he should tell an
outsider. With that he peeled her hand from his arm and opened the
door.
Noriko sat inside
and looked up at him when he entered. Then Noriko's eyes wandered to
Ai-chan and back to him again. Ryu smirked and shrugged. What could
he do? Ai-chan interested him, there was no denying that.
“So, this is
where we sit,” he said.
Ai-chan looked at
the recharging rack with walkie talkies loading and stared at him.
“What on earth?”
“We borrowed
some,” Ryu said. Then he noticed the over-abundance of armbands
present. He let his eyes walk over three festival committee members
and student council treasurer who shared the office area with Noriko.
“We help each other,” he added. Because you usually have four
members of the festival committee sitting in your club
room. Way to make an arse of yourself, Ryu.
A concerto of
snores from the lounge area told him Midori-chan and Sho-kun took a
break from the madness, and at Ryu's side Ai-chan bent forward to be
able to see who produced the impressive sound.
Superb timing
guys.
“Nothing more
interesting to show your guest?” Noriko asked.
Ryu grimaced.
“Most of the festival should be more interesting than this, but she
wanted to see our clubroom,” he said and nodded at Ai-chan.
Noriko's eyebrows
rose.
“Her brother
transferred to Sweden,” Ryu said.
Noriko's eyebrows
rose some more.
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