<h4>Chapter 21: I want to hear Sendai-san''s voice — 21</h4>


    <i>Tranted by KaiesV </i>


    <i> Edited by KaiesV</i>


    Maika attends a cram school.


    Sendai-san goes to a prep school.


    Both have been told by their fathers that if they attend, they will handle the fees for it. But I don’t understand the difference between cram school and prep school.


    A ce to study.


    That’s the only way to recognize it.


    Even though I am not that interested in either of them, I feel bad enough to feel bad about calling Sendai-san, who attends a prep school, so often. So I decided to call her only once a week.


    I always called Sendai-san on days when I had a bad day, but I would put up with a little bit of a bad mood.


    I decided that after she leftst week. But I am already tempted to call Sendai-san.


    「I’m not motivated.」


    I leaned my back against the back of the chair, huffed, and exhaled, and Maika chuckled from across the room.


    「Today’s sacrifice, it was Shiori, wasn’t it? Such bad luck.」


    「I’m unlucky, seriously. Today, Dorabashi was in a very bad mood.」


    Next to Maika, Ami mentions the nickname for Dr. Takahashi, who wears only blue clothes. I remember the ss I just finished when they said it andin to Dorabashi, who is now gone.


    「Please stop hitting the students. It sucks, really sucks.」


    Dorabashi, the world history teacher, is famous for taking it out on her students when she is in a bad mood, and today she was snickering even before ss started, with deep wrinkles etched between her brows.


    I never want to be guessed at.


    That’s what I thought, but I was a great target. I was unable to answer the nasty questions andined persistently. Finally, my tension has dropped to the bottom of the earth because of the name-calling and even sarcasm back in the staff room.


    「I just want to go home.」


    I muttered to myself as I tucked my textbooks and notebooks into my desk, and was poked by Ami.


    「I know how you feel, but next is, PE. We should get moving.」


    「I know that.」


    I stand up with my gym clothes.


    The three of us leave the ssroom in good humor and walk down the hallway.


    As I was heading toward the gymnasium, nking my floppy jacket, Maika said,「Speaking of which,」as if she had just remembered.


    「Did you hurt your arm or something?」


    「I didn’t, but why?」


    「You’ve been touching it a lottely.」


    「…Touching it?」


    「You’re still touching it.」


    Maika’s words bring my attention to my arms.


    My hand, as if it had be a habit, was holding the area where Sendai-san had put it on and where the mark had now disappeared.


    「It really is.」


    I let go of the hand that was holding my arm.


    The hickey that Sendai-san gave mest week did not remain for long.


    Within two days, it faded and the red marks returned to a light orange color and assimted into me.


    What is this, then?


    I don’t like it, like she wanted it to leave a mark.


    「He—y, Shiori. You forgot to walk.」


    I hear Ami’s voice and she pulls me by the arm.


    Floating consciousness returned to my body, and Izily moved my halted legs.


    「I guess being bullied by Dorabashi was such a shock.」


    Maikaughs as she ps me on the back.


    That is not the case, but I will not deny it.


    As I walked along, Ami dragging me along, I asked her one of the questions I wanted to ask.


    「Ahh, right, Maika. Is cram school hard?」


    「If I say it’s hard, it was, but I guess I’ll just have to put up with it until the exams are over. Ah, does Shiori go to cram school too?」


    「I’m not going through it.」


    「If you n of going, go to ours. Ours is just pretty easy to find.」


    Maika promotes the cram school as if it were her own.


    Not that I want to study, but I wonder if attending the same cram school as Maika would be better than being alone in my room.


    If I went to the same prep school as Sendai-san—


    A thoughtes to mind that I have no intention of making real or bing, and I hastily expel it from my mind.


    If I had to attend either a cram school or a prep school, it would surely be a cram school. I don’t n to go through with it at the moment, though.


    「I’ll consider it.」


    .


    I gave a tentative answer to Maika’s enthusiastic solicitation and looked ahead to see a familiar figure at the end of the hallway.


    「They’re still standing out.」


    Ami, did not say, who it was. But I immediately recognize it as referring to Ibaraki and her friends who areing toward us.


    Of course, those friends include Sendai-san.


    The girls walked down the middle of the hallway as if to im the school as their own.


    「Yeah.」


    Maika says quietly and avoids to the end of the corridor.


    High pitched voices are heard from the front.


    The voices of Ibaraki-san and the others are soon close to me, and my eyes meet those of Sendai-san. But it was fleeting and we soon passed each other.


    The school isrge but the third years are in the same building, so this kind of thing happens often. But when I meet Sendai-san in the hallway, we don’t exchange words or wave to each other. That’s what we promised, and I’m notining about that.


    And yet, it feels strange, like something small is sticking to my body.


    I feel somewhat unrefreshed and depressed. The fact that Dorabashi took it out on me helped, and I wanted to call Sendai-san again.


    But I just want to call her out.


    I’ve decided to put up with a little bit of nastiness.


    「Oh, yes, did you know?」


    Suddenly, Maika, who had been looking behind her to follow Ibaraki-san and the others, looks at us.


    「About Sendai-san, a sophomore on the men’s bus, told her he had a crush on her.」


    When Maika mentioned in a quiet voice that she did not know where she got the information, Ami asked in a curious voice.


    「Eh? Who? Who is it?」


    「It’s Yamada, apparently.」


    The words she told me jogged my memory.


    I did not hear from Sendai-san that she was confessed by a boy in the basketball club. The subject of a boy named Yamada had never evene up.


    To begin with, I don’t even know who Yamada is.


    「That’s pretty cool~!」


    Ami says in a higher voice than usual.


    「Eh—, not so much, is it?」


    「Really? How about Shiori?」


    I stopped in my tracks when she spoke to me at a time I had not anticipated.


    「…About that. I don’t even know who it was. You know better than me. That’s.」


    「I heard from a person at the same cram school.」


    Maika says in a light tone and starts another gossip.


    Sendai-san has a prep school day today.


    Even if you call her, she will note until tomorrow.


    I feel bad for calling her so often.


    But I sent my usual message to Sendai-san after gym ss.