CH 5.1

Truancy and Temple – Part 1

After school, as soon as homeroom was over, Sayaka (サヤカ) came to pick up Haruki like a bolt of lightning. Haruki was about to leave the classroom while being pulled by her hand, but.

「Wait, Kunieda.」

Haruki was stopped by their homeroom teacher, Aiura.

「I’m sorry to bother you on your way home, but please come to the staff room for a moment.」

Haruki, who was caught off guard, couldn’t say anything back, and Aiura walked away without waiting for a reply.

「Haa-chan? What’s wrong, let’s go home.」

As usual, Sayaka (サヤカ) didn’t seem to care, and was ready to ignore the summon and go home right away.

「I wanted to go home, but it seems I have to stop by the staff room.」

「You made a promise with Sayaka (サヤカ) first.」

「Yeah, I know. What a trouble.」

「Just ignore him, that guy.」

「That guy you say, so far as it goes, he’s a teacher…」

「What about your promise with Sayaka (サヤカ)? Are you going to break it?」

「It shouldn’t take long. When it’s over we can properly go home, so it’s not like I’m breaking my promise, right?」

「Buu… But still.」

Sayaka (サヤカ) puffs up her cheeks slightly, showing her dissatisfaction.

She might be thinking that their promise is going to be broken again.

「It’s okay. I don’t know what it’s about, but I’ll wrap it up as quickly as possible.」

When Haruki said that to reassure her, Sayaka finally agreed.

「…I’ll be waiting, in front of the school gate.」

She said. Even Sayaka (サヤカ), who never wants to leave Haruki’s side even for a moment, didn’t seem to want to follow Haruki to the staff room.

When Haruki went to the staff room alone, Aiura made a somewhat relieved expression.

「I’m relieved. I thought Mishiro would come sticked to you..」

「If we’re together, is there something inconvenient to talk about?」

「It’s not like that, but it’s kind of hard to talk. That is, to have a serious talk in front of you two who are in such a clingy state.」

Aiura’s mocking tone was annoying, but it wasn’t something that started just now.

More than that, Haruki wanted to finish the conversation quickly and return to Sayaka.

「So, what do you want to talk about?」

「Ahh, right, right I have a favor to ask of you, Kunieda. It’s about Senzaki.」

「Senzaki-san?」

On this day, Senzaki Yuuki didn’t come to school after all.

If it was a regular absence, Aiura would report it in homeroom, but Haruki thought it was strange that there was no such report.

「I’d like you to deliver today’s printouts and such to Senzaki’s house. Can you do it?」

With that, Aiura handed over a rectangular No. 2 brown envelope.

Of course, Haruki didn’t accept it straight away.

「I think this kind of thing is the job of the class representative though.」

「Of course, I did consider that, but they flatly refused because they have club activities. Kunieda is in the go-home club, right?」

「If it’s the go-home club, I think there are plenty of others…」

「There are probably not that many. At most, one in five.」

「Why me out of that one in five?」

「When I asked the guys in the class, they said Kunieda would be the best choice. You’re close with Senzaki, right?」

「Ehh?」

「They said you were chatting amicably yesterday morning. Isn’t that so?」

Haruki sighed quietly.

It’s hard to say it’s completely baseless, but at least Haruki understood that the class’s ability to judge other people’s relationships is lacking.

Or maybe they pretended to be thoughtless to avoid trouble. Either way, it was too annoying.

「It’s not like I’m close with Senzaki-san, and besides, I don’t think there is anything urgent in the printouts distributed today. Can’t we just give them when Senzaki-san comes back to school?」

「You’re cold, Kunieda. You won’t be popular like that.」

「Popular… Sensei, don’t you have any the concept of moral or sexual harassment?」

「Sorry, it was a joke. It’s not funny when you bring up those words.」

「It wasn’t funny from the start…」

「Don’t be so uptight. Besides, is that, right? Kunieda is already popular. Always sticked by the two Mishiro.」

Haruki was fed up. Aiura also perceives Sayaka as two people after all. Only that didn’t seem to be a joke.

「If you’re just going to talk about that, I’m going home, okay? I’ve got someone waiting.」

「Ah, no, wait. I apologize for teasing you… Besides, the printouts are just an excuse, there’s something else I really want to ask you to do.」

「Something else?」

「Yeah. Besides, is a situation where it’s hard to say when Senzaki will come to school next.」

「What do you mean? Isn’t it just an absence?」

「It seems to be more than that… From what I’ve heard, seems that Senzaki is currently in a shut-in state.」

「Ehh…?」