Chapter 186: I'd Like Some Peace and Quiet
Translator: imperfectluck Editor: vb24
Seiji’s cheek twitched violently.
Why did this all seem so abnormal to him?
He recalled when he first arrived at school…
The first thing he saw were all the students busy with the school festival preparations. It was a lively and bustling atmosphere.
There were no traces anywhere to be found of the fierce battle from last night. All the holes left in the ground and everything else had completely vanished.
The ground had returned to its original state, with not a single blemish to be found. At the very least, the students didn’t notice anything wrong.
Those…"Cleaners" were too amazing! Just how did they do it!? In such a short time…
Seiji was rather astonished.
This ability to wipe all traces seemed almost on par with turning back time.
If it wasn’t for the fact that he personally experienced it, he never would have imagined what had happened here last night. Seeing how everything was normal at school, with all the students ignorant of what had happened, he almost felt as if last night had been nothing more than a dream.
Of course his expression didn't betray his thoughts.
Seiji arrived at his shoe locker and opened it.
A huge pile of envelopes tumbled out from his locker.
Seiji was rendered speechless by this situation.
Although he somewhat expected it, seeing this "explosion of love letters" that he had only seen before in anime and manga still gave him an impact!
"They’ve been accumulating for so many days, so it’s only natural there’d be this many." Mika’s eyes were cold and distant.
"Oh my, Harano-kun is so popular." Kaede smiled faintly. "I can almost feel the passion emanating from those love letters~"
Seiji couldn’t find any words to answer them with.
It wouldn’t be easy to take all those letters with him… He should have brought his backpack. There weren’t any classes during the school festival, which was why he hadn’t brought his backpack. That was a mistake.
He was still lacking in experience. Just what was he supposed to do?
‘Let’s just not take them and leave them in the locker until later.’ In the end, that was the idea Seiji came up with.
Having decided to leave the letters, he changed his shoes, stuffed all the letters back into the locker, and closed it again.
Kaede left after saying, "If you get tired from playing around at the school festival, you’re welcome to rest in the infirmary at any time."
Seiji and Mika walked together to class and discovered a wild Chiaki standing outside the room. She was chuckling while holding her hand over her mouth.
Seiji and Mika were mystified at this.
"Ah… Seigo!" Chiaki saw the two of them and waved. "You’ve finally come to school again! It’s been so long!"
"It’s been so long… the hell, it’s only been a few days. What are you chuckling about?" Seiji asked.
"I just feel like it’s so interesting… Hehe…" Chiaki continued laughing as she pointed inside the classroom.
Just what could be inside?
Seiji and Mika walked to the classroom door and peered inside.
The preparations were already complete.
Most of the tables and chairs had been moved to the back of the classroom and stacked up to make space. The remaining tables had been put together with "Honey Candy Girl" tablecloths on top, making them seem like lunch tables. They were also outfitted with stylish borrowed chairs to make the seem like a real café.
Anime posters were plastered on the walls, and anime accessories were also everywhere to be seen. Character figurines were placed in appropriate locations, and some character balloons and ribbons were hanging from the ceiling to help give this place the atmosphere of a cosplay café.
The blackboard and the area at the front of the classroom was cut off from the other areas with plastic and was turned into a temporary kitchen where they would prepare the food.
While this wasn’t a perfect café by any means, Seiji felt that it was good enough already. There didn’t seem to be any obvious problems that he could find.
The students acting as the servers were all wearing cosplay uniforms. All these uniforms and everything else related to the anime "Honey Candy Girl" had either been borrowed from the Divine Taste confectionery shop or through its connection to Peach-sensei.
The student servers and cooks as well as some students from other classes were all attentively listening to a beautiful blue-haired girl wearing a cardigan and a lace miniskirt.
'Wait a moment!'
A blue-haired "girl?"
Seiji’s sealed memories of a dark history resurfaced as he looked at that figure!
"He was asked by the confectionery store's owner to oversee our cultural festival café's progress, and to tell us everything we needed to know… But the way I see it, his main goal was to meet you again." Chiaki couldn’t stop laughing as she explained the 'girl's' presence. "The reason why he’s dressed like that is because his own class is doing a ‘crossdressing’ coffee shop—all the boys are dressed like girls, and the girls are dressed like boys. The moment he arrived at class this morning, he was pressed into changing his clothes and applying some makeup, so he could only come over here looking like this."
"Everyone in our class... none of our classmates know about his real gender! And as for all the boys’ reactions… Haha, it’s so funny!"
The tomboy was unable to talk anymore as she broke out into yet another fit of laughter and had to cover her mouth.
Seiji and Mika couldn’t find any words to say.
"Seigo…"
"Don’t look at me; don’t talk to me."
‘I’d like some peace and quiet.’
Seiji’s cheeks kept twitching non-stop.
Why did he see this sight again?
Why did he see this ‘girl’ that he never wanted to see again?
‘Did I jinx myself today? Did I come to the wrong school!?’
Yep, everything here was fake. Just a hallucination.
The real school and classroom were somewhere else. Yep, that was how it was.
‘I should turn around and leave now to seek the truth of the world.’
But right before he was able to take any steps, the beautiful ‘girl’ seemed to detect something as she turned around and looked in his direction.
When ‘her’ light blue eyes spied his figure, her eyes widened slightly as her red lips pursed open and smiled dazzlingly.
"Harano-senpai!" Hoshi Amami (in female clothing) called out in delight.
The students that were originally listening to him speak all turned their heads in unison and saw Seiji and his friends.
"Harano-san’s here!"
"You finally healed, did you… Magic-devouring Dragon?"
"He’s still so handsome! No, wait… he’s more handsome than before?"
"That cute young female junior knew him after all."
"She didn’t actually come here for him, did she… Damn it…"
Seiji suddenly felt numerous gazes fall upon him, each one containing a different emotion.
The most passionate gaze among them was...
Hoshi daintily walked in front of him and smiled while looking into Seiji’s face. "It’s great to see you again," he chirped happily.
There was no problem with this perfectly ordinary sentence.
But the feelings contained within those words and how he said it was certain to make everyone misunderstand!
"As expected! This junior has feelings for Harano-san…!"
"When did Harano-san attract such a beautiful female student?"
"So he liked them young…"
"Hooking up with such a cute middle school girl. Damn, I'm so jealous… whoops, I meant disgusted!"
The spectating students were gossiping among themselves.
Mika was stunned by the crossdressing boy’s alluring beauty and fell into a daze.
Seiji heard the clear sounds of Chiaki doing her best to suppress her laughter and failing.
He really wanted to escape from everything right now… his current expression was one of having given up on the world.
"Senpai, what’s the matter? You don’t look so good." Hoshi noticed that his senpai’s expression seemed somehwat abnormal and was concerned.
"Oh… it’s nothing," Seiji responded vacantly, his eyes hollow. "I heard that your aunt, the store owner, made you come here… Thanks for your hard work, Junior."
"It’s nothing—I’m delighted to have a reason to come meet Senpai," Hoshi said while smiling widely.
This caused another ruckus among the students.
‘Please stop saying such subtle words that are easily misunderstood! Please be a little bit more self-aware!'
Seiji felt incredibly drained of energy.
"As long as you’re happy... you should finish your main work here first."
"Yep, Senpai, chat with you later!"
Hoshi daintily walked back towards the other students again.
Seiji was unable to take the stares of all the other students that didn’t know the truth of the matter. His eyes became hollow and distant as he entered a meditative state.
'Fine, I admit it—I'm just escaping from reality.'
This was the beginning of Seiji’s school festival.