Chapter 46: If It's Hyururira, It's a Spring Seasonal Word; If It's Hyururirara, It's a Winter Seasonal Word

Reading Settings

Around the time the spring winds started blowing through Tohoku, TH University's entrance ceremony began. In other words, that meant I had become a second-year university student too.

Incidentally, after all that, nothing in particular had happened during my first year of university. Well, I would admit that, after going through that much awful crap, it would not have been strange if I had sworn off women for good.

However, just as every protrusion had its indentation, my belief that men needed women had not changed. Of course, I did not necessarily have to insist on the flesh-and-blood kind.

Well, reality was reality.

“Yuuya, sorry!”

“You're late, Temari. At this rate, we're barely going to make it in time.”

“What do you want from me? Women have all kinds of things to deal with.”

Temari, who had successfully managed to get into the university this year, came hurrying over while proudly showing off her made-up face.

To be honest, judging from things like her mock exam results, I had thought she was probably going to fail again this year, but maybe she had gotten lucky, or maybe she was the type who was strong when it counted.

“Actually, hold on.”

“Hm?”

“From now on, Temari, you have to call me ‘seeenpai.'”

“Ghk…”

Well, with Temari having come to the same university as me, this was the perfect opportunity to make her repay the debts she owed me from back in high school.

“You seem dissatisfied. But you're the one who declared you'd ‘do anything except pervy stuff,' Temari. Don't tell me you're going to go back on something you volunteered to do yourself, huh?”

“Do you seriously think making a friend call you ‘senpai,' even as a joke, isn't shady as hell?”

“That should be ‘seeenpai,' not just ‘senpai.' Listen up. As a junior girl, you need to properly distinguish between ‘senpai,' ‘senpaaai,' and ‘seeenpai.'”

“What the hell is that?”

“For the record, ‘seeenpai' is for when you're acting spoiled or begging for something.”

“That's the first time I've ever heard of that… In that case, Yuuya-seeenpai. Can I punch you with everything I've got?”

“Ha ha ha. What are you talking about, when your body is already starved for exercise after a whole year of being a ronin? If you suddenly try to punch me with all your strength, not just your legs—your entire body will cramp up.”

“You really haven't changed when it comes to being insanely good at getting on people's nerves… But it's true I'm out of shape. Maybe I should go with my mom to that ‘Port de Bras' place she attends.”

“The Pol Pot faction?”

“Are you planning to purge the Cambodian people to fix your lack of exercise?”

“It was just something I misheard.”

“That doesn't sound similar at all.”

By the way, to explain Port de Bras roughly, it was a kind of exercise based on ballet. Still, I could not help feeling that Port de Bras did not really seem like something a young girl like Temari would do. On top of that, it was way too niche.

“Still, they actually have places around here that do stuff like Port de Bras, huh?”

“The instructor is pretty serious, at least. They rent a dance studio on the main street called ‘Khmer Rouge' and hold classes there.”

“So it really is the Pol Pot faction!!”

“There should only be Japanese people there, as far as I know.”

As I wondered whether there was any possibility of them having defected to Japan or something, I asked Temari about something that had been on my mind, partly to change the subject.

“Come to think of it, what happened to Naegi-san?”

After that whole incident, Naegi-san had somehow been talked out of withdrawing from school and had chosen to take a leave of absence instead.

For some reason, Temari seemed to know every little detail about how Naegi-san was doing during her leave.

I remembered hearing that, since the problem had been resolved fairly quickly, Naegi-san would apparently return to school at the same time Temari enrolled.

Well, since she and I were in different years now, there was no doubt I would have fewer chances to run into her on campus than before.

“Oh, Sara isn't attending the entrance ceremony. We're supposed to meet up with her afterward.”

“You two are completely best friends now, huh?”

“…I don't know if I'd go that far, but I've also been meeting up with Mahiro pretty often, the three of us together, so I guess somewhat.”

I had been pretty surprised when I learned that, at some point, they had even gotten friendly with Mahiro.

But still.

When I thought about it calmly, no matter how close those girls became, it had nothing to do with me.

In reality, Temari was pretty much the only one I actually talked to. As for Mahiro, I had heard she had recently been devoting herself to her club.

I could only hope it was not the kind of club where she was physically devoting herself, but as long as she was having fun, it was not my place to get involved.

…………

What was this? Was I still a loner after all? Damn, that was depressing.

Maybe I should contact Nishida for the first time in a while.

I had heard he had somehow climbed all the way up to the number-two spot at a host club, but I had not seen him at all.

It was good that he had managed to pay off his debt, but knowing him, his gambling addiction might have relapsed again.