CH 100

Chapter 13 – Photograph

Translator – Vodka

There is a single sub-chapter under this chapter. Will proofread later.

100th chapter, huh. Nice. Btw, remind if I had been using Ren instead of Rei. Kirasaka’s first name is Rei. I feel like I had been using Ren for some reason.

Although it couldn’t be said that the work experience program had gone off without a hitch, I was able to part with it without causing any big issues. With that, Sakuranogaoka school too returned to its peaceful days.

Summer was just around the corner, and students were done with the semester-end tests. Now, they just waited for the summer vacation to arrive.

The restlessness has spread throughout the school.

The upcoming vacation was going to be a long one that would last for about forty days. I too should have been looking forward to it, but……

Today, on this valuable holiday of a Saturday, I had come to school alongside the members of the student council.

Having to attend school on a holiday……how repulsive.

However, there were no Shizuku, Kirasaka or Yuuto in the school today.

It was calm and quiet, and I could be somewhat at ease. This was the only solace in having to come to school on a holiday.

The purpose of today’s gathering was to organize documents of a certain kind. A while back, the president had asked us to be present today.

“Can I bring this to the storehouse?”

“No, please take it to the reference room next door.”

The president rolled out directions, and since the documents had to be put in different places depending on whether they were necessary or not, we asked the president for her input and put away the documents in their respective card boxes accordingly.

The documents I was in charge of had the words ‘School Entrance Ceremony’ written on the flank of the cardboard. I was carrying it to the designated place.

Every year, this school takes photographs at the school events and gives them away to students who want it.

After the event, they would post the pictures on the walls of a classroom not ordinarily used. There, the students could ask for the pictures they were in, and they would be given the same. It was that kind of a system.

It was a rather popular event, but the student council was involved in that too.

From the school entrance ceremony to the graduation ceremony, there was a multitude of events, and a large number of photos was being pumped out during each of those. The job of sorting out these pictures every year fell upon the shoulders of the student council.

There was also a picture of the president in her freshman year. Until only a while ago, all of us members of the student council were looking at it and having fun while comparing the her in the picture with her current self.

The president’s cheeks flushed red; her head hung in embarrassment. Her maiden like expression was overflowing with freshness.

“……This is too heavy for just a box.”

The box I was carrying contained documents pertaining to our school entrance ceremony from last year, but it probably weighed around two to three kilograms.

It weighed several times more than any box that I have had to carry till date.

What is in this?

The president did say that it was mostly just photos, but it would make for some unusual photos to weigh this much.

As I was having thoughts of wanting to have a look inside, a student approached me from behind.

“Isn’t it fine to take a look? It should be fine since it’s ours’ anyway.”

Koizumi, who was in charge of sorting out pictures from earlier years, called out to me.

Miura and Hino-kun too drew near. They seemed to be in a mood to immerse themselves in the recollections of the past.

I acted as the representative and peeled off the tape. Several thick albums were neatly arranged inside the box.

No wonder it was that heavy……

“Oh, is that the album from your year? By the way, that year supposedly recorded the highest number of photographs ever taken. So, we bought a ton of albums, you know.”

The president, who was looking at her own photo with nostalgia in the president’s seat, suddenly raised her face and said so.

Well, she probably took a few pictures herself. Figures she knows.

One by one, I took the albums in my hand and reminisced. I got excited while thinking about finding myself in one of these photos. I ran my eyes over the album that was hidden at the very bottom of the pile.

It wasn’t very interesting to look at photos that didn’t have so much even a speck of myself.

“I have seen most of them”, was the feeling I got when I saw the students in the photos.

Amongst them, the several photos of Shizuku and Yuuto were the cream of the crop.

That figures. They are good models after all.

All their photos came out stunning.

Even the photographer must have had fun photographing them. Theirs’ stood out from the rest.

However, strangely enough, there were none of Kirasaka in these albums. I wondered what could have had happened, though, it could have been just that she was not in this place at that time.

She could decide to skip the likes of the school entrance ceremony without batting an eye.

I didn’t pay it much heed. Then, as I turned over to the last page, I finally found it.

“Oh……it would seem there is a photo of me too.”

This is a memento.

As I was thinking of asking the president if I could bring it back, I noticed a female student sitting next to me in the photograph.

She had shoulder-length black hair.

She too was clad in a brand-new uniform, so, I figured she was probably a fellow freshman.

Due to the photograph having been taken from a certain angle at a distance, I couldn’t make out the identity of the girl sitting next to me.

I know it wasn’t Shizuku though……

After all, back then, her hair was a little longer.

As I was fixedly staring at the photo, the president approached from behind and peered into it.

A soft aroma of flower wafted into my nostrils. I involuntarily leant backwards and looked up at the president. She saw the photo and muttered.

“This is quite the rare photo……a two-shot of you and Rei.”

“……Kirasaka and me?”

I immediately re-examined the photo.

True I could make out that she was pretty, but isn’t Kirasaka’s hair shorter?

The air around her was completely different too.

I stared hard at the picture doubtfully, but the president confidently stated.

“There is no mistake. This is Rei for sure.”

“……”

The place in the picture was the not so popular courtyard inside the school.

On the day of the entrance ceremony, I was indeed there.

It was because the school gate-front was overflowing with people. So, I felt sick and moved there.

However, there, at that time, that is to say, a year ago……I had met with Kirasaka.

The resplendent smile of the girl in the photograph was as if unconnected from reality. It was impossible to connect it to the Kirasaka I knew.