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Chapter 134 Part 1

The Night of That Day (2) ~Serenade of the Night Sky~

Partly because the school camp, a boys-girls social event, started in the evening, participation was apparently voluntary until last year.

As such, only about half of the boys came, and many of the girls in sports clubs did not participate, prioritizing practice as the summer tournament preliminaries were coming up.

As a result, only about half to two-thirds of the students participated; so Yuu had heard at the student council office.

This year, however, not only did they change it so that everyone participated in the folk dance also, they even assigned cooking duty to the boys.

This apparently stimulated the girls’ motivation.

Thanks to this, it could be said that the event ended in a success.

However, it should not be forgotten that this was only possible thanks to the hard work of the executive committee, which was mainly made up of third-year students, and the efforts of the security team, who patrolled the school to make sure there were no suspicious people, behind the scene.

By the time the last folk dance ended, it was already almost 9pm.

The majority of the boys were walking towards the entrance of the second school building to catch the shuttle bus home.

The executive committee members were starting to clean up.

Most of the work would be done during the day the next day, but there were some tasks that just could not be left undone, such as putting out the fire and storing borrowed items.

Right after saying goodbye to his male friends who were going home first, Yuu was surrounded by more than 10 girls from class 1-5.

「Y, Yuu-kun… A, after this…」

「Do you want to look at the stars with us?」

「Ah, stargazing.」

From this point on, participation was voluntary, but the remaining students went up to the rooftop of the school building, where the summer stargazing, led by the Astronomy Club, took place.

However, only a few of them observed the celestial body seriously.

For many of the girls, it was an opportunity to spend a romantic time looking up at the stars with the boy they had their eye on.

For that reason, a number of groups of girls had already formed around a small number of boys on the grounds.

Because it was nighttime, they had been told to act as a group, but some couples seemed to be spending passionate moments in the special male-female communication rooms, which they reserved many days in advance.

The eyes of the girls looking at Yuu were full of expectation.

Yuu also wanted to respond to that.

But unfortunately, this one time, he couldn’t do so.

Yuu shook his head regretfully and said.

「Sorry. After this, I’m going to spend time with the student council members.」

「「「「「Aah…」」」」」

Upon hearing Yuu’s reply, voices of disappointment leaked out.

Although they didn’t say it openly, everyone acknowledged that the three members of the student council, including Sayaka, were the closest to Yuu at this school.

If it was Komatsu Sayaka-senpai, who was like the embodiment of good looks, intelligence and beauty, and also the student council president, it was inevitable, and they had no choice but to back down.

「It, it can’t be helped, everyone. We had a great time dancing with Yuu-kun today, so let’s see him off on a high note.」

「Yeah…」

「I, I suppose so… I think it’s exactly as Yocchan says.」

「Thank you for today, Yuu-kun.」

「「「Thank you!」」」

The person who tactfully brought things together at times like this was class committee member Aramaki Yoshie.

Some girls looked down, and some even had tears in their eyes, but upon hearing Yoshie’s words, they began to let out words of agreement.

「I’m really sorry, everyone. Even though you’ve taken to the trouble to invite me.」

「It, it’s okay. Don’t worry about it.」

「Tomorrow we have club activities since the morning anyway, so we’ll be staying at the boarding house later. That’s why, we’ll have fun until midnight, with just our fellow girls!」

「Unlike a school trip, there won’t be any teachers, so we’ll probably get scolded if we make too much noise, though.」

「Heh~, is that so? That sounds fun.」

「You can come too, you know, Yuu-kun? We’ll welcome you with open arms!」

It was a joke that Youko deliberately said in a cheerful tone.

Yuu thought about it for a moment, then muttered softly, 「That sounds good, too」.

He then reached out his right hand and lightly touched the hair of the Youko in front of him – which had been in a short bob when they first met, but had grown long enough to reach her back – and then stroked her cheek.

Normally he wouldn’t do such a thing in front of so many people, but maybe Yuu was in a state of excitement after coming into contact with so many girls tonight, or maybe it was because his affection for Youko, who was looking at him with those big sparkling eyes, had grown.

Feeling the touch of Yuu’s hand, which suddenly reached out to her, Youko’s face flushed.

Yuu’s hand, which had been on her cheek, moved all the way to her chin.

「Ah…」

「「「Wow!」」」

Yuu kissed Youko in a very natural movement.

It lasted only 2 or 3 seconds. It was so fast that it was only after Yuu’s lips separated from hers that Youko realized she had been kissed.

「I guess that’s it for now.」

「Haan…」

「「Yuu-kun!」」

Throwing themselves onto Yuu from both sides before his body moved away from Youko’s, were Kazumi, who had been at about the same distance as Youko, and Maegashira Yuma, who had been looking at him from a little distance away.

Yuu held Kazumi’s waist with his left hand and kissed her while rubbing her buttocks.

Next, he kissed the short Yuma while stroking her head.

More than half of the girls gathered there had had physical relations with Yuu.

That was why they no longer showed reservation.

After Kazumi and Yuma, Gotou Mashiro followed suit, followed by Yoshie, Mao, and Sati, who all exchanged hugs and kisses with Yuu in succession.

By this time, the campfire had gotten considerably smaller, and the floodlights were only around the morning assembly platform and the headquarters.

The area around the entrance to the school building was brightly lit by lights, but the place in which they were surrounding Yuu was the edge of the grounds a little distance away, and it also happened to be in the shade of trees, so it was dark, preventing others from noticing.

For the girls who had come there with the intention of asking him out together, through their connection with the class committee member Yoshie, Yuu, whom they had longed for, became their first kiss partner.

Some were overjoyed at the sudden good fortune, while others were so moved that they burst into tears right then and there.

As the majority of students left, they realized that they were about to be left behind, so the group surrounding Yuu finally decided to head towards the school building, too.

Then, he parted ways with the girls from class 1-5 in front of the headquarters tent, smiling and waving as they headed towards the school building.

When Yuu passed the headquarters tent and reached the area near the entrance to the administration building where they were supposed to meet, he caught sight of Sayaka sitting on the stone steps, leaning limply on Riko’s shoulder, not moving a muscle.

「Sayaka!」

「Ah, Yuu-kun’s here.」

「Hmm… hmm?」

Perhaps noticing Yuu approaching, Sayaka raised her head, but her expression looked even more haggard than before she ate the curry.

「A, are you okay…?」

「Um…」

As Riko was about to interject, Sayaka stopped her with her hand, before then lowering her head to Yuu.

「My apologies… I threw up the curry rice that you had taken the trouble of making, Yuu-kun.」

「No need to worry about such a thing! More importantly, you look really pale. W, what should we do… I, I think we should go to the hospital.」

「You’re overreacting, Yuu-kun.」

「But…」

The person he loved clearly looked unwell. Telling him not to worry would probably be a cruel thing to do.

However, in contrast to Yuu who was panicking, Riko remained calm.

If you think about it, Riko, her best friend, was by her side, so if she was in a really bad state, she would have taken her to the doctor.

「Yuu-kun. You see, since Sayaka has a stronger sense of responsibility than most people, she hasn’t been getting enough sleep these past few days, and fatigue must have built up, which I believe are the main reasons for it. That’s why I told her to go home and take a good rest. But Sayaka insisted that she wanted to meet and talk to you in person.」

「I, I see.」

「I mean, even though Yuu-kun said he’d spend the night together with us, here I am in this kind of state.」

Not letting her continue with her words, Yuu sat down and hugged Sayaka.

As soon as she moved away from Riko, Sayaka’s body, which was usually firm, staggered and leaned on Yuu.

「Thank you so much for all your hard work. Take a good rest today. Once you get better, let’s do it a lot. I promise.」

Hearing that, Sayaka managed to somehow show a smile.

「Yeah, I promise. I’ll do it… a lot with, Yuu-kun… Nmm.」

It was a light one, but he had a farewell kiss with Sayaka.

「At that time, let me join you, too, okay? Today, I’ll drop Sayaka off and stay the night there. If it doesn’t look like she’s getting any better by tomorrow, I’ll take her to the doctor.」

「Yeah, if you’re staying by her side, it’ll put me at ease, Riko.」

Yuu reached out and touched Riko, and when she leaned over, he kissed her, too.

It was a distance that could easily be traversed by foot, but for the sake of Sayaka, who would end up staggering if she was on her own, it seemed that they had called a taxi.

After seeing the two off in the taxi, Eimi, who had been standing a little distance away, perhaps having read the mood, moved closer to him.

「Yuu-kun. Um, you see… no, it’s nothing.」

「Eh~, what’s it? It makes me curious now.」

「Umm…」

For a girl who was always so full of life, she was unusually reserved, or rather, refusing to make eye contact with him, she was hesitant to say the things that she wanted to say.

It was just a hunch, but now that Sayaka and Riko had gone home, she was probably unsure of what kind of attitude to take; so Yuu thought.

There, he approached Eimi from the front, hugged her tightly, and whispered.

「Thank you for your hard work at headquarters today, Amy!」

「Aha… Thank you, Yuu-kun!」

Eimi happily hugged him back.

After hugging each other for a while, she uttered her wish in a small voice.

「Y, you see… It’s hard for me to say this in the absence of Saaya-senpai and Riko-senpai, but…」

「Don’t worry about it, go ahead and say it.」

「Mm… do you want to… go to the rooftop with me?」

「Ah, sure, let’s go.」

「Ufufu. Yay!」

Finally, she showed the smile she usually had.

◇ ◇ ◇

Apparently, the stargazing on the rooftop was carried out in two places, the administration building and the first school building.

After most of the students had moved on, Yuu and Eimi, who were the last to go, went to the rooftop of the school building.

That was because although he had been to the administration building for classes that were no held in their classroom, he had never set foot in the first school building, which was used by girls, except on special occasions like the self-introduction event in April, so Yuu wanted to try going there.

Though, in part due to the lack of human presence, the inside of the school building wasn’t much different from the high school Yuu remembered.

In fact, because they had only the bare minimum of lights on, it was dark, putting it more on the eerie side.