Chapter 11

I didn’t answer Kouhai-chan’s question on「How about trying to change the school rules together?」.

Seeing that the sentence was in interrogative form, it meant that it was a question. And I had no obligation to reply to other questions that were not counted as『today’s question』with honest answers.

While saying so to myself, I didn’t answer her at all.

You could even say that I ran away.

To be honest, I myself also felt quite fuzzy inside.

I wonder if it would really be possible.

Even if there is a possibility, is there any meaning in doing it?

What will happen to me after I revised the school regulations?

My mind was not profound enough to think about those questions. I didn’t have enough time to think too.

That’s why, I had no choice but to reply to her question with silence, and just sent my message as on hold.

…I just dropped my earpiece at the beginning, but why did this story became so complicated now?

The date has changed into Wednesday, and I couldn’t answer her yet.

Ah, but if she used『today’s question』, I have to answer properly, right? What should I do…

＃　＃　＃

「Good morning!」

When I arrived at the station, Kouhai-chan was waiting for me while putting her right hand on her forehead with straight standing pose facing me.

「What’s with the salute？」

「I’m thinking of paying my respect to Keita Iguchi-senpai, as the student council president, so I’m doing it now!」

She remembered my name, eh… She told me that she found it on the homepage, so she remembered it after that?

On the other hand, I couldn’t remember her surname. I remember her first name since when she sent me LINE messages every day, there was「Maharun♪」written on the account name after all.

If I couldn’t remember her full name, I won’t be able to talk back to her, though. What was that again…

Err…

Even though her first name is「Maharu」, I had the impression that her surname was very autumn-like. Ah, it’s autumn now. September… October…

Autumn’s reading, that’s not it… Sports, not that too… Autumn’s craving… I felt that it was something related to this.

Chestnuts, mushrooms, new rice…

Ah, that’s it. It’s rice, kome.

I finally remembered.

「I see. I appreciate your efforts, First Lieutenant Yoneyama.」

That rank was quite suitable in my opinion.

「Which one is better, the first lieutenant or chairman?」

「I don’t think that there is any chairman position in the military in the first place, you know?」

「Then you can be the commanding officer.」

「But the commanding officer should have platoons or troops, though.」

「Since we are high school students, you can have the highest amount of them!」

「No, if we’re counting the amount, it should be little, medium, and many, right? Then it would be called battalion on paper.」

Is girl’s military knowledge something like that? Or is she just being silly?

「Heee, so it would be battalion on paper, eh. I was way out of a paper bag, but I understand now.」

She made another pun with a serious face, making me almost burst out in laughter. I endured it.

「What rank will a commander with a battalion have anyway? Let me find it out.」

I searched it on my smartphone. Being able to find out about what we want to know just by googling it should be the best mental care in this world.

「Hoo. It seemed like they were called a major. They should make the papers with that rank.」

Kouhai-chan slowly turned her face towards me.

「Rehashing sure is dull, Major.」

「Don’t say that with such a serious look, you will hurt my feelings greatly.」

「I’ll request for you to send in your paper.」

「Aren’t you rehashing it too!」

＊　＊　＊

I don’t really know much about military stuff, but it seems like chairmans position is even higher than lieutenant.

「What happened to you today, doing that kind of thing so suddenly? It feels like you are somehow different than usual.」

When we got on the train and I settled myself in the usual position, senpai started to question me. As expected, he noticed it, eh.

「I thought about it yesterday. Our conversation has been too serious these days, and it made us feel a little choked, hasn’t it? It’s not like it wasn’t interesting and fun, but we would be tired if we kept talking about serious things.」

「That… might be right.」

「So, we won’t have any serious conversation today. Let’s just talk about something stupid.」

「Talking about something stupid, huh… Something like that『terrible』just now?」

Actually, what kind of conversation is a stupid conversation?

I’m sure that since we will be thinking about that, we won’t be able to completely do a stupid conversation, but it won’t do any harm to try it.

「I think that kind of conversation will need vocabulary skills and tact, though.」

「Your face is saying that my tact is not good enough, you know.」

Well, I didn’t say that kind of thing, okay?

「First of all, what is considered stupid?」

Senpai asked so in a philosopher-like speech, how unfitting.

「If you said something like that, it won’t become a stupid conversation, senpai.」

「Ehh, so we will really do that stupid conversation…?」

「If you don’t like having stupid conversation,『weak-headed』is okay too.」

Speaking of which, I haven’t thought of how to use my『question』for today. Should I ask him now?

「I understand it even less now…」

＃　＃　＃

I understand the part that she was tired talking about serious things these last few days.

But I don’t understand the part that she wanted to have a stupid conversation with me.

「Okay, senpai. This is my『today’s question』. How would you imagine a『weak-headed conversation』is?」

Even if I say that I don’t know, she would somehow force me to give an answer in her own way. Well, this was still better than being asked about yesterday’s matter.

「Weak-headed conversation」, huh…

Talking about having a weak-headed「conversation」, it feels as if even though one can just talk normally, yet they still go as far as making it worse, huh…

What kind of situation is that… Ah, I suddenly thought of something.

「…Senpai?」

Uwahh, I don’t want to say it to her… She would definitely tease me. But a contract is still a contract…

「Err, maybe something like… the love birds’…」

「Yes?」

The voice from my throat was smaller than how I wanted it to be. My ears also felt somewhat hot.

「I said, it’s the conversation of love birds. Like when they see nothing but each other, and make a barrier towards their surroundings. 」

「Ahh, love birds… a couple!? Sickeningly sweet and sappy couple? Senpai was imagining that kind of thing!? What a precocious child!!」

「Precocious child… I’m not an elementary schooler though?」

「Senpai’s love experience is surely at the elementary school level, isn’t it?」

「What a shame.」

「Eh? Ah, so it’s at middle school level? Senpai already did something like kissing?」

「You don’t have to worry, I don’t even reach the elementary school level.」

I never even held hands with a girl! I’m amazing, right!

「Ahh… So it’s like that.」

「By the way, this is my『today’s question』. What do you think『weak-headed conversation』is, Kouhai-chan?」

Kouhai-chan put her right index finger on her chin, looking as if she was thinking for a moment. She then showed her side profile to me, and said this with a raised voice.

「Banana! 1 」

「That’s the『weak-headed person』in Twitter, right?」

「It’s like a conversation that will reply to anything with『Banana』, right?」

「Can you even call it a『conversation』? How can it even reach a conclusion? Isn’t it just words dodgeball?」

「It certainly won’t reach any conclusion. Which means, it’s not a conversation.」

I feel like the speed of our conversation development is so fast today.

Even though we already talked this far, we still only reached the third station.

「Then, senpai. Let’s do your『weak-headed conversation』’s idea.」

Hah?

「It’s true that we kept having a serious conversation recently. That’s why, let’s try to do this.」

What is this girl saying now?

「Alright, we will start when the train door is closed. It’s just until the next station.」

As soon as she declared so, the train door closed.

At that moment, Kouhai-chan entwined her fingers to my left hand, and suddenly pulled it tight. There’s no need to guess, what she tried to do is the couples’ way of holding hands.

「Oi, what are youー」

「Senpai~♡ Look, am I cute?」

She spoke with a mushy voice, filled with all sugary feelings that I never heard before.

The sugary amount entered into my tympanic membrane, and penetrated my brain cells. I even had the delusion that her voice was reverberating inside my mind.

Her eyes were slightly moist, fringed with long eyelashes. There was no acne on her face, her skin glows in natural color.

And then, I couldn’t take my eyes off from her pink lips, the source where that sweet voice came from.

What can this be called other than「cute」?

「Yeah, you’re… c-cute…」

Even though my words were stumbled, the moment I said「cute」, my whole body became hot, and my heart started to palpitate and thumped crazily.

「Ehehe. Thank you very much~ Senpai, how cute am I in the world?」

「The most… cute in the world…」

Everytime I said the word「cute」, the embarrassment and elation was mixing up and rushed to my brain, causing my thoughts to overflow.

I couldn’t think of anything else, but I only know that I am happy.

＊　＊　＊

I just held his hand a little, brought my face close a little, and talked to him with my raised voice a little, but senpai’s face became this red already. This is why he is cute.

「I reaaally like senpai, really really like, to the point that it’s unbearable, but…」

Every time I said「like」and every time he said「cute」to me, I felt like there was something flowing from the top of my body all the way to the bottom of my body, mixed with happiness and uncomfortable feelings. My cheeks and ears were hot as well.

Doing this is pretty embarrassing…

「Senpai, what about you? Do you also like me?」

Senpai should’ve missed how the train was about to arrive at the next station because of how embarrassed he is, but since I said that it would be「until the next station」, I had to keep my promise.

The door opened shortly without any time for senpai to respond to me.

「Senpai?」

I returned to my original face, and patted senpai’s hand who was still on absentminded mode.

「Senpai?」

「Nn? Er, you’re close, too close…」

Ah, he came back. Senpai who was still red all over his face took a step back from me. My ears were still hot too, so we would definitely look much the same from our surroundings.

「…Weak-headed conversation is frightening…」

Senpai seriously muttered so.

「Yes… I didn’t think that it would be so exhausting even with just a station.」

「I was surprised with Kouhai-chan’s voice. What’s with that sickly-sweet voice? Where did it come from? Also, don’t just start doing something so suddenly.」

「Making this kind of voice is a girl’s speciality, you know?」

「What kind of speciality is that, so scary!」

After heaving a big sigh, senpai concluded our conversation.

「Anyway. With this, we proved that『bright conversation』is better in a lot of ways. It will make us less tired too.」

「That’s right… Let’s seal this off. It is too frightening.」

Senpai who would usually take out his book even with ten second gap didn’t do so and looked completely exhausted, while swaying together with the train.

I also didn’t feel like looking at my smartphone, and stared at the window absentmindedly.