CH 29

T/N: So, while I am not exactly back yet, I found the translation error from few chapters ago and fixed it . If you don’t want to go there/don’t understand by just looking, basically during the celebration, the only reason Kaede let MC go to celebration/Kirasaka participated in celebration was because they are also tagging along for the amusement park trip.

For students, weekdays are like work days for employees. Working in a white company1, which has weekends as holidays. If there is no overtime, then there is no sales quota to fulfill as well.

However there is just one thing; there are no problems unless you get results below a certain score.

On top of that, student life has many long vacations and several kind of events. Most people after becoming a working adult, always remark “It was really enjoyable, when I was a student.”

On the contrary, during your time as a student, you always think about becoming a working adult as soon as possible so that you have freedom of buying with your own earned money.

In short, it is asking for the impossible.

However for someone like me, who thinks that going to school daily is annoying and furthermore not wanting to become a full fledged adult as well, weekends are equivalent to paradise.

With that, today is Saturday. I wonder if within the duration of a week, it is the most desired day by students.

I am also not an exception. I had planned to use the day off efficiently, by sleeping. The reason is my first experience with the student council work… Although I say that, it has only been yesterday but I realized that it was harder than I imagined.

Even if it is a post of secretary, it is not just the work of creating documents and keeping records of council meetings as conveyed by the president. Patrolling inside the school, making visits to clubs and also discussing with teachers about the future; I wonder if I worked three times more than I imagined.

Not only physically but fatigue had accumulated mentally as well. So, I decided to spend the holiday leisurely at the house, however…

“Nii-san, please wake up!”

“Hm…Ow!”

My sister Kaede came stampeding inside my room and without stopping, as if leaping on the bed, assaulted me. While robbing off the blanket that covered me till mouth, Kaede loudly said.

“Please get up quickly, Nii-san! We have to go shopping!”

Kaede, while horse-riding me and shaking my body, exclaimed in a slightly excited manner. I skillfully scooped up the stripped blanket with my feet and covered over the place where Kaede was not riding.

“…Shopping? If it is shopping, why not do it in the nearby supermarket, during the evening…”

“It’s different! I want to purchase western-style clothes for tomorrow.!”

…Western-style clothes for tomorrow? I wonder if there were any plans…

I tried finding memories related to tomorrow, with my half asleep brain. Then I recalled that inside the schedule in my memory, among the Sundays which should be blank, only tomorrow was filled in.

“…Amusement park”

“That’s right! It is the amusement park, Nii-san!”

Yes…It was the amusement park. I heard about it from Yuuto afterwards, but it seems that Yuuto tried to invite Shizuku to an amusement park on the day of the ball game tournament.

Since I had listened to his feelings during the spring break, I was not particularly surprised. But after listening to the flow of conversation between Yuuto and Shizuku, I was slightly astonished.

Contrary to Yuuto who was trying to go out with just the two of them, Shizuku thought it was for everyone including Kaede and I. And before one became aware, Kaede, I and then even adding Kirasaka, five people were set to go to the amusement park.

At the time when I listened to it, I thought of refusing. But when I saw Kaede full of motivation, fearing that something bad will happen if I entrusted her to the girls, I reluctantly agreed to participate.

And now, that day was finally happening tomorrow. These past few days, since I had been involved with student council and kouhai-kun, I had completely forgotten about it.

Tomorrow seems to be a troublesome day for me, but as expected it seems to be an enjoyable day for Kaede. The face of my sister going for shopping, was sparking more than usual.

“Where are we going?”

While pushing away Kaede who still shaking my body, I straightened my body and asked.

“Let’s go the shopping mall built in the neighbouring town.”

“…Ah, that one.”

Recently, a large scale shopping mall has opened in the neighbouring town. I have seen many of its leaflets and have also often heard about it in the shopping district, we usually go to.

Several similar shopping malls have opened within the whole country. When I went shopping the other day, the fish market uncle was grieving, saying that due to the malls’ influence, customer traffic had been dropping sharply.

The shopping mall naturally has various kind of groceries. With their grand advertisement for opening sale, the shopping district in front of the station seems to have lost around half of their customers.

Since we had been visiting the shopping district since childhood, without changing till now, we siblings had been doing shopping there. I wonder if we cannot avoid deficits, until we settle on it.

The other day while I was returning from school, the shopping district was empty. When I saw that scene, I wondered if this was the end of it.

Well, I got side tracked for a bit, but that is why we are going to that shopping mall today. Certainly, if you are buying clothes, you have to go there.

To say frankly, the town we live in, is categorized as a rural area inside the Kanagawa prefecture2. It doesn’t have well suited clothes, aimed for the female students. If there is something… Then only the shops containing plain clothes, which are the preference of older women.

So, it became usual for the youth residing here, to use the train and purchase clothes from places, a little far away.

However, in case of that shopping mall built in neighbouring town, it has a quite a big collection of western-style clothes. Understanding the reason why Kaede wanted to shop, I looked over my bedside to confirm the time in the alarm clock.

It was 6:30, currently.

“…Isn’t it too early”

“The early bird gets the worm!”

Listening to Kaede spouting off lines like a grandma, I couldn’t avoid smiling bitterly in my heart. I could feel her spirits higher than usual, different from my feelings for tomorrow.

I, who had woken up completely due to my sister, reluctantly rose from the bed and went towards the living room. The breakfast had already been prepared on the table. I sat in my usual seat, poured the coffee made by Kaede in my exclusive mug and put it in front of me.

I drank a gulp of the freshly brewed coffee and watched the weather girl reflected on the TV, giving the weather forecast.

“Tomorrow’s weather is the best for outing!”

“…Don’t joke with me.”

I, who had been slightly hoping for the bad weather to cause suspension of our plans, had my hopes crushed first thing in the morning, by the weather girl. From now on, I decided to not believe in the weather forecast of this channel and changed it.

“Will Nii-san not buy clothes?”

Kaede sitting besides, asked me who was eating the grilled fish from today’s breakfast. While enjoying the well-cooked grilled fish with its attached eye, I thought a little but could not hit upon something I wanted to buy.

I do not particularly wish for western clothes. While going out, I will let Kaede decide for me. Mostly likely if there are clothes that catches Kaede’s eye, I will buy it. That is to say, I have few times I want to buy something.

“…No, I won’t buy.”

When I answered such, Kaede replied with “Then, if we find something good, we will buy it.” Hearing the reply, I went back to stuffing my cheeks with the fish in front of me again.

While it changes according to the day, there are many days when the Japanese-style food is made inside the Shinra house. Both siblings love to eat Japanese-style cuisine, however one of the reason is our mother cooking only Japanese dishes since the past.

While eating the grilled fish, I took a mouthful of the miso soup and attached “90 points” to it. Hearing my score, Kaede satisfactorily nodded next to me. I wonder if she thought, she made it well.

Afterwards Kaede and I, didn’t particularly talk much and continued eating our breakfast. While we were finishing it, the ringtone of our house’s telephone started playing.

1. 2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanagawa_Prefecture