Volume 2 - CH 2.4

The day to carry out the tailing came.

Although both Sandai and Shino would usually get ready to head to their part-time jobs once it was after school, today was a day-off. Without any hurry they were getting ready to leave, and carefully making sure every single move of Prez.

Speaking of which, the result of the talk: it would be just Sandai and Shino doing the tailing. Takasago had been feeling hesitant no matter what, so she had refused to join.

Apparently she was fine with just receiving the report of the investigation.

“Say, you got no work today, Shino?”

“It’s a day-off, but I have something to do today.”

“Must be on a date with your bf, isn’t it? Fujiwara already totally your priority after all.”

“Yeah.”

“Haaah~… bfbfbfbfbfbfbfbfbf, I want a bf too~.”

“Good luck.”

“See ya.”

Shino’s friends languidly walked out of and left the classroom. As time passed, the number of other classmates were decreasing as well, and when they noticed, most of them were gone.

However, the Prez was still in the classroom.

Apparently absorbed in reading something, he was staring at the book with a serious face while seated in his own seat.

“The Prez, I wonder what he’s reading. A pocket book?”

“Probably some kind of academic book, I guess.”

“A difficult book?”

“It’s a difficult book, I’d say.”

“If you read something like that… will your test score go up?”

“Your results in like modern Japanese can probably go up—hmm?”

Prez checked the time, closed the book, put it in his bag, and headed out of the school. Sandai and Shino followed after him.

“…Maybe he’s going home?”

“He checked the time, so rather than going home, it sure feels like he got somewhere to go.”

“I wonder where he’s going.”

The Prez pushed up the bridge of his glasses with his middle finger once, suddenly stopped in his tracks and looked back.

“Is it my imagination? I feel like someone’s watching, though…”

Sandai and Shino hurriedly went into cover to hide.

“That’s close!”

“C’mon, don’t suddenly look back, Prez.”

Prez tilted his head like, “?” and started walking once again. And then, he went into a multi-floor building near the station.

There was a list of names of preparatory schools on the building’s nameplate. There were all kinds of preparatory schools, ranging from a well-known to an unheard-of one.

“Sure is a building with all kinds of prep schools.”

“Uwaah… I absolutely don’t wanna go to a prep school. I mean, it costs like lot of money too, right?”

From Shino’s perspective, who wasn’t good at studying, apparently the act of devoting oneself to studying so much that one would even voluntarily pay for it was hard to understand.

The feeling was understandable.

Sandai as well, he would rather spend money on light novels or animes and wouldn’t consider studying so hard he would pay for it, so he had been doing the so-called self-study style at home until now.

However, he also understood the good points of preparatory schools.

“Because if you have eyes set on college entrance exams, prep school will help. You’ll get taught the tendency of your desired college and the strategy for it. It’ll take time if you try to do it alone. It can be a shortcut.”

“Studying for entrance exams… Is it something you do now? Even though we’re still in second year.”

“It also depends on the college you want to go to, but when it comes to aiming for somewhere famous, probably there are also people who have been preparing for it ever since middle school.”

“I totally can never do it…”

“Well, it’s also hard to maintain your motivation. Unless it’s someone with some kind of motive or reasons, you won’t last.”

“Do you have any kind of goal or something, Sandai? You’re pretty good at studying, right? I mean, you’re good enough you can help me avoid failing.”

Sandai was certainly good at studying.

But not because he liked studying, nor because there was some kind of strong motive that he was devoting himself to it. It was simply killing time.

“It’s because I’m a loner and time is all I got. I just got nothing else to do, so I’ve always been studying.”

“I see now. But now that you mentioned it, you sure are pretty monotonous and don’t seem like there’s something you wanna do.”

“Guess so. That aside, we can’t just keep on standing in front of the building, so let’s go to the fast food over there. We can also see this building’s entrance if we take the window seat.”

“Roger.”

Sandai and Shino entered the fast food restaurant, and took a vacant window seat. From here they were monitoring the building’s entrance, and waited for Prez to come out.

However, Prez never came out even after several hours of waiting.

Next thing they knew, it was already 8 pm.

Perhaps the Prez had a lot of courses, or maybe he was doing a considerably serious course. Although they had never asked the person himself, he did seem to have a goal, and from his usual speech and conduct they could tell that he also got a high motivation to study.

Why is someone with a good head like you in our school—Sandai had once been told so by Nakaoka, but it seemed that applied to Prez as well.

It meant that with academic ability being close to Sandai’s, he could at least get 70 or 80 even if he were to take the national university entrance exam now.

“Prez doesn’t come out at all… Do you study this long in a prep school? This is basically like a normal school.”

Shino’s patience seemed to be considerably wearing thin due to the tailing getting stretched out, and it was beginning to show on her face.

It seemed it would be good to bring up a topic that could improve her mood a little.

“…Speaking of which, do you remember how I said I would give you a reward for working hard studying? Let’s choose it together now. It’s an effective use of time.”

“I do remember~! You’re right, let’s think about it now!”

As they were chatting, “How’s this?” “How about this this one?” while searching on their phones, Shino’s mood was getting better.

Shino was so cute with such a simple side of hers.

That was why Sandai now wanted to spoil her a bit, and when Shino just now murmured, “I wanna go to a hot spring,” he ended up wanting to fulfill that wish.

Next thing he knew, he was making a phone call to a hot spring inn that seemed to have availability on the spur of the moment.

“Thank you for calling. This is OO Inn.”

“I’m calling to make a reservation…”

“Certainly. Then I would like to ask for the desired date, if I may.”

“Is there any availability after the 24th of December? It will be for two people, one female and one male. For one night.”

“Outside of the 31st, we do have rooms available for reservation, however…”

“I see. Umm, by the way, do the price… differs depending on the day?”

“From the 29th of December to the 5th of January of the following year, a special surcharge will be applied. For dates outside of these, a surcharge will be applied for Sundays and national holidays, and then the regular rate will be applied for weekdays.”

“Err… I’m not sure what date will be good… How about the 28th…?”

“The 28th is a weekday, so the regular rate will be applied. Would you like your reservation to be for this date?”

“Ah, I see. Then for the 28th please. One room for two people, one female and one male, and the least expensive one please.”

“Certainly. Then may I ask for your name?”

“It’s Fujiwara. It’s Fujiwara Sandai.”

“Thank you very much. Then I would like to confirm the information, if I may. It will be one room for two people, one female and one male, and since the least expensive room has been requested, we will prepare a normal sized, traditional room. Only breakfast will be served. The reservation is for one night on the 28th, and the name of the reserver is Fujiwara Sandai-sama. Is there any mistake?”

“N-No. It’s all correct.”

“Thank you very much. We OO Inn has received your reservation. We look forward to seeing you on the day of your visit.”

Sandai regained his calmness only after ending the call and seeing Shino looking slightly apologetic.

“Is it really okay…?”

If we were to express Sandai’s honest feeling currently, it would be: I went for an overnight trip on the spur of the moment. What should I do?

However, it was also hard to make another call to cancel it immediately after making a reservation. Besides, there was just a little bit of putting on airs as well.

“It’s fine.”

No backtracking, Sandai encouraged himself so. And then, riding on this momentum, Sandai also decided to brace himself to face the problem that had been put on hold.

“As expected, I think it’s very insincere to go for an overnight trip while I still haven’t greeted your parents. That’s why I’ll go and greet your parents before we head to the hot spring.”

“Err… I don’t mind, but… somehow it’s like you’re suddenly ready on the spur of the moment. Are you like being rash or anything, Sandai?”

“I’m not. It’s just, I want what can be done done while there’s still the momentum.”

“O-Okay, I got it.”

The making of the decision owed everything to Sandai’s own conflicted feelings, but it seemed to look so sudden to Shino, making her bewildered.

However, Shino looked somewhat happy as well.

With such an event on one hand, the clock was almost about to turn to 9 pm. Shortly after, Prez finally came out from the preparatory school building.

“There’s the Prez coming out.”

“You’re right. He finally came out.”

Sandai and Shino let out one big sigh, quickly paid the bill, got out of the restaurant, and once again began following Prez.

Despite not looking to the front as he was concentrating on flash cards, Prez was skillfully walking without bumping into anyone passing by.

Experience would be essential to do something like this. So to sum it up, Prez was regularly studying even when he was walking.

As Sandai couldn’t help but be impressed from seeing such an untiring endeavor from close by, Prez entered the biggest bookstore in the commercial district.

“He entered a bookstore.”

“I guess we should enter, too.”

“Yeah.”

They entered the bookstore and continued tailing Prez. Prez was looking for a university entrance exam workbook in the exam preparation section.

Completely serious and loyal to his studies.

“Hey hey, Sandai. What’s that red book?”

“That’s gotta be a collection of past questions. The college entrance exam stuff.”

“Does it mean he’s still thinking about studying even after he’s done with prep school?”

“I guess so.”

“As for me, rather than studying for exams, I’d rather do this kind of studying!”

Perhaps having spotted it somewhere, Shino held a book titled 20 Ways to Kiss to Deepen Your Love and thrusted it out in front of Sandai.

“…It sure is a one-of-a-kind book.”

“But, something like this makes you wanna take a look at it, right? 20 kinds of kissing that’ll deepen your love!”

It certainly was a book more intriguing than a reference book, so Sandai nodded. Shino went to pay the bill as she puffed out, and then came back.

And at that moment.

Prez suddenly turned to look over here. Sandai and Shino hurriedly hid themselves.

“I think I heard a familiar voice…”

Could it be that they had been noticed?

Not sure.

Sandai and Shino held their breath, and decided to wait for Prez to think that it was his imagination.

“Umm.”

Prez was still looking in their direction. They hoped Prez would quickly look back at the bookshelves, but…

“Umm, Yuizaki-san, Fujiwara-kun.”

“What now? We’re currently on the verge of getting found out by Prez.”

“Yeah yeah. Be quiet for a—wait, Takasago-chan!?”

Shino was greatly surprised. Sandai was surprised as well and looked back.

Takasago was there for some reason.

She wasn’t supposed to come for the tailing, though…

“Why are you here, Takasago?”

“…I thought you said you’d wait for the report.”

Asked in rapid succession by Sandai and Shino, Takasago mumblingly and nervously spoke. “Umm, in the end, I felt bad just leaving it to you two, and I actually have been following you from the start, so…”

What an unexpected development. Sandai and Shino had been tailing Prez, and then it seemed that she had been tailing them tailing him.

Still, even though no one could’ve expected this, Sandai and Shino getting surprised by Takasago’s appearance was a bad move.

Because of them making loud voices, they ended up getting noticed by Prez. Next thing they knew, Prez had already arrived before them.

“Today I felt like there’s some weird gazes on me… so it’s you guys.”

Prez pushed up the bridge of his glasses with his middle finger.

Because of the light inside the store reflecting off the glass of his glasses, it was hard to tell what kind of expression Prez was making, but he must’ve understood that he had been tailed.

Sandai and Shino looked at each other’s faces.

Both of them had a sour expression.

As Sandai was worrying whether it would be better to honestly apologize, Takasago dashed out in front of Prez.

“U-Umm, Shihouin-kun.”

“Takasago? Were you also following me? Just for what purpose?”

“N-No, that’s not.”

“Could it be that you received some bad influences from Fujiwara-kun and Yuizaki-kun? You’re supposed to be a proper student.”

As to be expected, Prez seemed to be angry as well.

That was also clear to see from him using sharp words, calling Sandai and Shino bad influences.

“Yuizaki-san and Fujiwara-kun didn’t do anything wrong. It’s because I requested them to look into you, so…”

“You did? Do you have any reason? If you did any of this for no serious reason, as expected, you will hurt my… feelings…”

Prez suddenly began to lose his words.

It was because the tears running down Takasago’s cheeks were dropping on the floor.

“Umm, I… umm… I want to know about you…”

“You want to know…?”

“Because I like you.”

“Eh?”

“I like you, so I want to know about you. I also know your birthday is close, so I want to know what you like, and so…”

Takasago’s tears were increasing and eventually became like a waterfall.

Takasago crouched down and cried on and on, perhaps incessantly overwhelmed by the feelings of love, and regret of having done something to get herself hated.

And then, “I’m sorry,” she repeated nothing but those words. In the meantime, a crowd had formed in the surroundings.

“What? Why’s there a girl crying?”

“Looks like that four-eyes is the cause, bro.”

“Don’t go around making a girl cry, dude.”

“Is it a couple’s quarrel?”

Prez was flustered, perhaps not knowing what he should do, but it seemed he understood that only he could do something about this situation.

Prez crouched down, and when he and Takasago were eye level, he placed his hand on her shoulder.

“Umm… When you said like, did it mean as the opposite sex?”

“Hyesh.”

No matter how many times Takasago tried to wipe her tears with her hands, it never stopped. However, the moment Prez wiped it with his finger, her tears stopped.

“I hope this won’t hurt your feelings, but to be frank, I don’t understand a girl’s heart at all. I have little connection to such matters, and then I’m unfamiliar with it above anything else. That’s why I don’t know what I should do.”

“Doez ith mean… doez ith mean you hate me?”

“I never said that. It just means I don’t understand. That’s why if you don’t mind, how about we start as friends?”

Prez still looked troubled, but at the same time, his voice carried some kind of gentleness in it.

Takasago closed her lips tightly, and then like a metronome, nodded again and again.

This was probably a development completely beyond expectation for Takasago, but concerning the result, it seemed to have turned in the good direction.

“Not bad, four-eyes.”

“Way to go, four-eyes. That’s exactly what being a man is.”

“Now that’s what I call youth!”

Sandai and Shino quietly slipped away from the crowd and sneaked out of the bookstore.

“I wasn’t sure how it would turn out for a time, but it seems it worked out, huh.”

“When things are like that, it’s better to quietly leave them alone, isn’t it?”

“And they probably can handle the rest themselves. Guess it’s time to go back. It’s also time for your train, right?”

“Ah, you’re right.”

Regardless of the particulars, Takasago had conveyed her feelings, and the Prez had accepted it in his own way. And they should be able work out the rest themselves.

To meddle in it from that point forward would be boorish.

Regarding Takasago and the Prez after that, Sandai later was told some details by Shino. Takasago apparently prepared the birthday present for Prez by directly asking the person in question by herself.