CH 24

“So, she is my cousin and not my girlfriend. Right now, you can say that I am playing the role of her boyfriend…”

Currently, we have shifted our location and are now on a deserted staircase landing. I was desperately trying to make an excuse to Sakuramiya-sensei’s father.

Sakuramiya-sensei’s father recognized me unilaterally through the photographs, and because the thought of him was at the corner of mind, I forgot that he might also visit the school’s cultural festival. It was careless of me.

“Hmm…”

Sakuramiya-sensei’s father Souji-san, looked at me and Kaede alternately.

Kaede had a confused expression on her face and she hesitantly tugged on my hand sleeves.

“Umm, Mi-kun I can’t keep up with this situation.”

Kaede doesn’t know about the relationship between me and Sakuramiya-sensei, even if I try to explain everything to her, there are certain parts that I must not tell her.

So, I asked her in a slightly low voice which only she can hear.

“For the time being please testify that you are not my girlfriend. I will explain the details later on.”

Kaede made a displeased face and her eyes met Soji-san’s.

“…Why is Sakuramiya-sensei’s father meddling in Mi-kun’s love affair?”

I’m not really sure what to do in this situation.

Well, it can’t be helped that Kaede, who doesn’t know about the circumstances, is interested in it. It’s rather natural, but I wanted her to refrain from knowing too much about it right now.

As my eyes rolled left and right, still trying to think of the ways to escape this situation, Soji-san smiled gently and said,

“Oh, you don’t know. Minato-kun is my daughter’s, Yumi Sakuramiya’s fiancé.”

“Eh?!”

“Fiancé. In short, the person you promised to marry.

“No, it’s not that I don’t understand its meaning.”

“But I’m in trouble. What should I do if my daughter’s fiancé has another girlfriend?”

Kaede stood in a daze without blinking and when she woke up from her stupor, she suddenly turned towards me and grabbed my collar.

“Nee, Mi-kun. What is he talking about? I haven’t heard anything about you getting a finacé.”

And then she shakes my whole body back and forth with teary eyes.

Somehow, I grabbed Kaede’s shoulder and stopped her rampage.

“Hey, calm down. Let me explain!”

“There is no way I can calm down like this, Mi-kun you are still in high school, marriage is off limits.”

Kaede’s expression changed and she tightened the hold on my collar.

As much as I would like to clear up all the misunderstandings happening right now, I can’t because there is Soji-san who might ask about it.

If that happens then all the preparation and execution of the supposed fiancé act will be utterly worthless.

While my semicircular canals were being stimulated, I decided to take a desperate measure.

“… Yes, that’s right. I will get married when I turn eighteen years old, and that won’t change no matter how hard you try.”

“Ugh… lies!! You’re an idiot! Pervert! I don’t know anything anymore!”

Kaede with teary red eyes, rants at me and leaves the place as if seemingly trying to run away from me.

Even if I try to follow her, I certainly can’t, when Soji-san is observing me. I’m going to make a good excuse to Kaede when I get home.

“I’m sorry. I think I caused a rift in the relationship between you and your girlfriend.”

“No, it’s alright. Like I said earlier, Keade is just my cousin and not my girlfriend.”

“Do you expect me to believe that story?”

“Well… I’m going to have to ask you to believe me.”

If I were in Soji-san’s position I certainly wouldn’t believe this story. But I have to make him trust us somehow.

My mind started thinking of all the possible scenarios that can be executed here… But much to my avail I can’t come up with a single solution.

It was at that time when I was sweating profusely and was facing a desperate situation an announcement was being made up.

“The Sotomi High School Beauty Pageant Contest will begin at 15:00. If you are interested, please come to the gymnasium. I repeat—”

It was an announcement inside the school at a timing that made me feel as if a revelation had come down from heaven.

“Ah, yes. Do you know? Sakurami── Yumi-san is going to participate in the competition that just aired. Would you like to go see it now?”

“I see. That’s fine, but the story isn’t over yet.”

Yes, certainly the story is not over.

But I have to somehow make our way to the Contest venue here. Afterall, only Sakuramiya-sensei can take us out of this situation.

We have to get Sakuramiya-sensei and Soji-san to meet and break this situation. That is the only solution I can think of right now.

Fortunately, Sakuramiya-sensei knows that Kaede is my cousin, and she is also aware that I am playing the role of Kaede’s boyfriend.

If Sensei can come up with a good excuse then we might be able to get over this predicament.

“Let’s go for now. We can talk afterwards.”

“Hmm, that’s right. Let’s go, Minato-kun.”

Soji-san’s pressure was incredible.

Even though he is not showing it on his face, the atmosphere around him clearly tells that currently he hates me to his core.

I turned on my heel toward the gymnasium with tension seeping through my body.

_____________________________________

Reaching the gymnasium, what we saw was chaos, with the majority of them being boys, around 80%. And due to the long line of crowd, it took us longer than expected to reach our destination.

The beauty pageant competition had already started, and every time a contestant appeared out, there were cheers of excitement seeing them.

“And, the next one is…”

A girl with an extremely tense expression was currently hosting the contest while standing on the stage.

Along with the sound of drum rolls reverberating in the background, the curtains parted and a girl with her hair in a ponytail appeared.

She was wearing a white one-piece dress that somewhat revealed her skin.

The judges of the beauty pageant competition were judging the contestants on mainly three basis; looks, clothes and how they presented themselves.

The final scores are revealed only for the top 3 participants. As long as it is a rating system, there is a slight chance that the lower ranked ones might also be considered, which should not be used in competitions like these.

The girl who appeared was standing on the stage with an embarrassed expression on her face. She picked up the microphone and introduced herself.

“I’m Mizuna Shinozuka, second year, class B. If I win today’s Beauty Pageant Contest, I’ll confess my love to the boy I have a crush on. Please support me, everyone!”

After that all the boys shouted in unison, “Ohhhhh!! ”

I didn’t know Shinozuka-san was the type of person who would participate in such events. She is indeed a cheerful person by nature, but as far as I know she doesn’t like to attract unwanted attention from her surroundings.

You all might be wondering who Shinozuka-san is. She is one of my classmates and was also among the two girls who approached me and Kaede in the morning.

“It looks like Yumi hasn’t appeared yet.”

“Yeah, that’s right. I think she will be in the upcoming ones.”

“Is that so?… I think she will definitely be in the top 3.”

“I agree.”

Moving on to the ‘special skills’ corner, Shinozuka-san is performing her signature magic trick.

She pulled out a bouquet of roses out of nowhere and made them disappear in an instant. She also changed the color of water in a bottle from crystal clear to pitch black, and performed a series of other magic tricks that even from a distance were astonishing.

“Isn’t this competition supposed to be a beauty contest?”

“I thought the same, But apparently when the winner was solely decided on who was more pretty, there were some who thought of it as an act of criticism, so in the end they came up with this new idea.”

“Hmm? Then why was this contest organized in the first place?”

“Well, I don’t really understand that either.”

And then a loud voice from the stage interrupted our ongoing conversation.

“Thank you very much… Now let’s go to the next one!”

The magic show was over and Shinozuka-sa went offstage.

The curtains closed again, and the host continued the event. We waited but apparently Sakuramiya-sensei’s turn didn’t come for the next 30 mins.

“It seems there are quite a few participants this year.”

“Well, If someone wins the top prize in this contest, they will get a prize. In the first place, you get a pair of tickets to an amusement park.

“I see. So they are doing it for the prizes.”

In addition to the prizes for the winners, the participants will get a golden ticket that could be used at the festival. The reason for this is that some boys were also cross-dressing in the event as a joke. As proof of this, currently there is a boy standing on the stage right now, wearing thick makeup and looking like he is about to have stomach acid reflux. Thanks to him, my ears were in pain because of the laughter and screams from the surroundings.

And when the transvestite was removed from the stage, it was finally the time for the last person to appear.

And now, it was finally Sakuramiya-sensei’s turn.

_____________________________________

TL & ED : Zenon #4120