Chapter 15 Peaceful Lunch

Peaceful Lunch

“Hey, Hiiragi-kun. You know. Maybe this is what I really wanted to do.”

“What’s wrong? Suddenly…”

“No, I’m just saying I’m glad we can really enjoy our lunch while chatting like this.”

“I see.”

After the morning commotion, I arrived at school with an indescribably awkwards atmosphere, finished my morning class, and had lunch with Aoi-senpai.

“I just wanted to enjoy my casual life with my friend like this. It was hard for me to be tense as usual, listening to what was going on around me and not enjoying anything.”

“…I see.”

Saying that Aoi-senpai took a bite of the omelet from her bento, chewed it, and emptied the rest of the contents of her bento.

Since that day, I’ve been having lunch with Aoi-senpai. As she mentioned earlier, this is the first time we’ve had lunch with someone like this. It’s also the first time for me to share a meal with such a friend and just talk without doing anything else. I don’t know what to say.

It would be too superior to say “It’s not bad…” and I would shake my head if you asked me if I enjoyed it.

It was a difficult feeling to describe, but anyway… Well, I guess I could say that it was comfortable.

“By the way, Hiiragi-kun.”

“Yes, what’s it?”

After we finished eating, she looked at me as if she wanted to ask me something.

“You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to, but what did you do after school yesterday? You couldn’t have gone home with me.”

I remembered that Aoi-senpai had invited me to walk home with her, but I had refused without saying why.

“Yesterday, I had a meeting with Sensei about my future career.”

“I see. Hiiragi-kun, have you decided to go to college?”

“No, I’m not going to college.”

When I said that, Aoi-senpai looked at me and then turned her eyes to the sky.

“I see. Because of family reasons?”

“Well, yes. I’m a useless person who can’t do anything, so I can’t cause trouble for my family. It’s a waste for them to pay a lot of money for me to go to college.”

“…I see.”

Aoi-senpai looks at me after a few moments of silence.

“I’ll support Hiiragi-kun no matter what path you take, but I’ll be happy if I can go to the same college with you.”

“Me and Senpai go to the same college?”

“Yes, I’ll graduate from this school and go to college in half a year. Thanks to Hiiragi-kun, I was able to express my feelings to my parents, so I started my own way. But if possible, I want to spend my college life with you, Hiiragi-kun.”

She looked at me with serious eyes.

“…Even if you could go to college with me, I don’t think you’d enjoy it. Besides, I’m not good enough, I’m useless.”

“That’s not true. I really enjoy being with Hiiragi-kun right now, and I never thought of you as useless. Hiiragi-kun is my friend.”

Her serious eyes.

They seemed to contain nothing but pure emotion.

My will was shaken a little.

“… I’m not forcing you to do what I want, but I want you to do what you want. I’m not forcing you to do anything, it’s just my wish. I’m just saying that I would be happy if you felt the same way.”

She said this with a slight blush on her cheeks and her serious eyes going back to the sky.

I didn’t know what to say. But I knew I had to say something.

“Okay, I understand. I’ll think about it.”

“Oh, really?”

When I said this, she looked at me with a slightly excited expression on her cheeks, as if she was happy.

“I don’t think my decision will change, but I’ll think about it again.”

“Oh, that’s good. I’m glad you’re rethinking about it.”

Just as she said that the bell rang.

“Well, thanks for today. Do you think we could walk home together after school?”

“Yeah. I don’t have any plans.”

“Okay. Then let’s walk home together.”

“Understood.”

I said goodbye and went back to the classroom.