The Classmate Who Is Adored by Everyone Smiles Teasingly Only at Me-Chapter 4Volume 3 .8 - The Cultural Festival
The Cultural Festival 8
“It was so much fun. We baked baby castella together, ate udon, went on a food tour, and watched dances. It was the most enjoyable day since I started high school.”
“I-is that so? That’s great.”
All Chika could manage was a flustered response.
Then Wakui looked at Chika with a challenging smile as if gauging her expression.
“Why do you think that is?”
“I-I don’t know… Why is that?”
She tilted her head awkwardly like a rusty machine. At this moment, she can’t move properly unless she’s conscious of it.
She doesn’t know the answer to Wakui’s question. But somewhere in her heart, she feels like she understands.
“I have a favor to ask of you, Chika.”
Wakui said, leaving her question unanswered.
Her short hair, mixed with shades of gold and black, swayed slightly.
“W-What is it?”
I wanted to run away.
I thought so from the bottom of my heart.
I don’t want to be here.
I don’t want to hear more of Wakui’s words.
I want to close my eyes.
I want to cover my ears.
But such selfishness was not permitted.
“About that cooperation you mentioned with Ichinose… I want you to end it.”
“What…?”
I felt like my breath was going to stop.
This was the first time anyone had ever said such a thing to me.
“W-Why would you say that, Wakui-san? This doesn’t concern you, and we’re not causing any trouble.”
“…Huh? ‘Doesn’t concern me’? ‘Not causing any trouble’? Are you serious?”
“B-But that’s true. This is between me and Sōma-san.”
As she stammered in defense, Wakui’s gaze suddenly sharpened.
“You’ve got to be kidding! It’s very much my business! It’s incredibly annoying!”
Malice. Hostility. Harm.
Chika had never been subjected to such negative emotions before.
Up until now, she has been cherished by her parents and friends, pampered by them, and treated kindly.
Everyone loved Chika. They said they liked her.
Therefore, she had no immunity to negative emotions.
Now, being struck by such feelings for the first time, she trembled as if she had been thrown naked into a frigid wilderness.
It was cold.
“Why…?”
“Don’t you get it even after I’ve said this much!? I like Ichinose!”
That was the answer to the first question.
“I’ve liked him since the first term! It’s my business and it’s annoying if another girl is hanging around the guy I like!”
“Ah…”
It was an answer that would have been clear upon a moment’s thought, yet she hadn’t understood until it was spelled out.
——A girl who has a crush on Sōma appears.
It’s a natural possibility and not something to be surprised about.
He’s serious, earnest, hardworking, and although a bit rough in speech, he’s kind.
But Chika hadn’t considered such a possibility at all.
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Probably because she liked the way things were now. Therefore, she had deliberately avoided thinking about anything that might disrupt that situation.
How selfish and childish I am?
Falling into self-loathing, her face turned pale.
Seeing Chika like this, Wakui unleashed everything she had been holding back.
“Recently, I finally started having more chances to talk to him, and I thought the cultural festival would bring us closer, and I was just starting to think about the future. Cooperation? A guardian? What is that!? Don’t take Ichinose’s side with such nonsense! That place is mine!!”
Wakui’s words pierced Chika’s heart.
Ah, she’s serious. She’s desperate. She loves Sōma-san with all her heart and soul.
Her emotions came through painfully clear.
She has a passion and feelings that Chika could never possess nor understand.
“If I’m next to Sōma-san, then you can’t get along with him, Wakui-san?”
“That’s right! Even a fool can see that!!”
Wakui’s voice was so loud it almost sounded hysterical, piercingly shrill to the ears.
“Chika, if you say you like Ichinose, then I can’t help it. I won’t complain and will just boldly snatch Ichinose away. If it turns out to be mutual love, I’ll back off… But, to sample sweets and in exchange, be watched over? Are you kidding me!? Anyone can do that sort of thing!! Don’t tie Ichinose down with such trivial matters!”
Trivial matters.
Indeed, maybe it is trivial.
The challenges Chika is undertaking are things that everyone else can do and should naturally do.
From an outsider’s perspective, it might seem like child’s play.
But… but I…
I want to argue back.
Words of rebuttal rise to my throat, but I can’t speak them.
I start to doubt whether I’m truly in the right.
My confidence, my convictions, wavers.
Chika’s desire to grow into a responsible adult seems to falter against Wakui’s feelings of wanting to be by the side of someone she likes.
“…”
In the end, Chika couldn’t utter a single word after that.
***
Chika and Sōma have a mutual relationship.
Chika samples the sweets Sōma makes or is interested in and gives feedback.
Sōma watches over Chika when she takes on a challenge, providing minimal assistance.
Both are indispensable to each other.
Chika and Sōma both think that forming this cooperative relationship was a good thing.
However, it’s not as if they are each other’s one and only.
As Wakui pointed out, anyone can take on the role of observer.
For instance, Shōhei, who already understands the situation, might accept the task if asked.
Even the role of taste tester that Chika fulfills is not unique to her alone.
She took it on because her sense of taste is sharp and she has slightly more knowledge about sweets than the average person, but it’s not something that only Chika can do.
Her parents, former pâtissiers, could certainly do it, and a young pâtissier acquaintance of her parents might also help out for the sake of a future colleague.
On the other hand, the person Wakui likes is just one person in the world, Sōma alone.
There’s no substitute.
Objectively speaking, the one who should be by Sōma’s side is probably Wakui.
According to the shoujo manga that Miki likes, I’m the villain.
——I’m the nuisance.
I begin to despise myself.
Dragging along a sticky self-loathing, Chika went home.
