It was like a mother always telling you that you were about to be late, when in fact there was still plenty of time.
Plenty enough for the four of them to finish breakfast at a crawl, change clothes at a crawl, and get to school at a crawl, and the bell for class still had not rung.
After saying goodbye to Hanaka, who was not on the same floor, Nadeshiko pulled Rakuraku into Class B.
Behind them Mawata kept her head down and tugged at the hem of Nadeshiko’s clothes, as if she were doing everything she could to lower her own presence.
“Ah! Nadeshiko, Rakuraku!”
The moment the little gal group gathered at the door saw the two of them step into the classroom, they called out a warm greeting.
“Good morning!”
Rakuraku answered loud and full of energy, and Nadeshiko waved a sleeve in place of a hello.
“Hey, Nadeshiko, don’t tell me these are couple shirts or something?”
Sharp-eyed Friend A spotted the oversized uniform Nadeshiko was wearing today at a glance and circled her once.
“They really are~”
“Hey, hey, you came with Rakuraku again today. Don’t tell me you’ve already gotten to that step?”
“Ah, this is my favorite part, where they did it all night and put on the wrong clothes in the morning, right, right!?”
High school girls in a cluster were noisy to begin with, and Rakuraku and Nadeshiko were both popular in class, so more and more people joined the discussion.
Everyone put in a word, and in their mouths Rakuraku and Nadeshiko had already pledged themselves to each other for life.
“Everyone, cut it out!?”
Rakuraku waved a hand, shy, and put on a look of “if you spread one more rumor I really can’t take it,” when in fact she was already grinning from ear to ear inside.
“This uniform is actually Mawata’s.”
Nadeshiko spoke up to correct them and shifted aside so everyone could see Mawata hiding behind her, though she could not have blocked her anyway.
“A new classmate?”
“No, you dummy, it’s Amagi.”
Someone who barely came to school had suddenly walked in with the class celebrities, and everyone’s curiosity only grew.
They started guessing at the relationship between the two.
“She’s the ikemen type. The exact opposite of Rakuraku!”
“Oh my, oh my, Rakuraku has a rival~”
“Hey, you lot, don’t scare her.”
Rakuraku put on an angry face and told them off. (She actually was a little angry.)
Nadeshiko secretly took Mawata’s hand and found it already ice-cold and covered in sweat from nerves.
“Everyone’s easy to get along with. Don’t be nervous.”
She spoke softly to Mawata, trying to soothe the tense girl in front of her.
Just then the bell for class rang like a savior, and everyone scattered at once and went back to their seats.
“Shall we go back to our seats too?”
Nadeshiko took Mawata’s hand and led her over to sit down.
Mawata’s seat was two rows behind Nadeshiko, on the right, and from there she could see Nadeshiko’s face in profile perfectly.
The first period on a Monday was enough to make a person drowsy, and this class was the dull, boring national-language class on top of that.
The teacher held an old lesson plan that was about to go moldy, bobbed his head as he wrote on the board, and most of the class had already entered a sweet dream.
Mawata was not listening, but she was not sleeping either.
She turned her head toward Nadeshiko.
Sunlight cut a perfect angle across Nadeshiko’s desk, and the shadows jumped on Nadeshiko’s face.
Rakuraku was chatting and laughing with Nadeshiko about something.
Now and then Nadeshiko covered her mouth and laughed softly, and those eyes glittered as if they had stars hidden in them.
A sour feeling suddenly welled up in Mawata’s heart, as if a heavy hammer had struck her.
Is this what a friend feels?
Mawata did not know.
She only thought how nice it would be if the person talking with Nadeshiko right now were her.
She might not be that interesting, and she was always crying and needing Nadeshiko to comfort her… but if she could make the girl in front of her laugh, Mawata would gather even the stars in the sky for her.
Does that count as a friend?
“Then this question — let’s have classmate Amagi Mawata answer it.”
At some point the teacher on the platform had started going over exercises, and for some reason he did not call on the ones talking in class, or the ones sleeping, but on Mawata, who was spacing out.
Mawata obediently stood up, her heart in her throat.
Of course she did not know what the teacher was talking about.
She did not even know whether she had this book.
On instinct she looked toward Nadeshiko, and she met those glittering eyes head-on.
“C —” Nadeshiko mouthed it silently.
“This one is c…”
Mawata answered softly, and to her surprise the teacher still heard.
“Looks like someone was listening properly after all.”
The teacher let her sit down, pleased, and the moment she took her seat admiring looks came from the classmates beside her.
“Amazing, Amagi. Don’t tell me you’re the delinquent honor-student type?”
“Rakuraku’s in danger.”
“Nadeshiko looks like she’d prefer the smart type, right?”
“Opposites are the best!”
Once Nadeshiko was involved, the classmates stopped sleeping and went back to discussing, as if they had not put the teacher in their eyes at all.
Mawata did not join the discussion, and she did not have the nerve.
She did not actually know what she ought to say. That Nadeshiko was only her friend?
But Nadeshiko was her only friend, and Nadeshiko had so many.
She wanted to be a little more important in Nadeshiko’s heart, a little more special.
Maybe she should not be just a friend?
Mawata looked toward Nadeshiko.
Nadeshiko was looking out the window, and she left Mawata only a back.