Chapter 39 – Changing Feelings

Next day. Our work with Amami-san continued.

"Eh? Seriously? Yuuchin, you drew this?"

"Yeah! Since it's my first cultural festival, I wanted to do my best on it and I got carried away. I finished this in a night and didn't manage to catch any sleep… Hehehe…"

Amami-san showed everyone the picture she had drawn with a shy smile on her face. The picture was based on the sketch we had decided to use yesterday and it was already fully colored.

Actually, Asanagi sent me the same picture over email earlier this morning, so I had already checked it out and gave Amami-san the ok. And since Nitta-san and the others gave their praises like this, we can safely say that the quality of the picture is great.

For the mosaic art sketch, we could scan the picture, then use a freeware to turn it into mosaic art. After some adjustment, Asanagi and I should be able to come up with a good enough draft. When that was done, we could hand it over to the rest of the class and the committee.

Thanks to Amami-san's hard carry, we could increase our pace by a lot.

"We did it, Umi! Our all-nighter was worth it!"

"Yeah! It was so hard to keep myself awake too. If I weren't the representative, maybe I would have stolen Yuu's bed and slept in instead."

Apparently Asanagi was up all night helping Amami-san. She looked so worn out, I felt bad for her.

Obviously, she was staying over at Amami-san's place, but since they were both girls, no one made a fuss about it.

Now, if they were of different genders, the atmosphere in the class would be very different. People would start to bring up malicious rumors and things would quickly turn sour. Well, that's how society works, so there was no point fretting over it no matter how unreasonable it was.

If only society were more tolerant about such things, I wouldn't have felt that nervous back when that incident happened…

…Well, let's forget about it and focus on my work.

Fortunately, today was Friday. I had more time to work than usual. It was the least I could do considering Amami-san and Asanagi had given their all. I had to reward their hard work with my own hard work.

Today's schedule would be making some minor adjustments and calculating the number of cans and other necessary materials needed for the mosaic art. Once that is done, we could finally work on the actual mosaic art starting from Monday next week.

No time to play even though it's the weekend, huh?

Well, Asanagi looked really tired today, I didn't want to force her to do any more work. Deadline? Screw that. We had plenty of time before the deadline, and if Asanagi were to push herself any more than this, she would collapse and I wouldn't let that happen.

[Maehara: Good work.]

[Asanagi: Praise me more.]

[Maehara: Good girl, good girl~ You worked hard didn't you?]

[Asanagi: I'm not a dog, stop that!]

[Maehara: Kidding… Was it hard? Helping Amami-san out, I mean?]

[Asanagi: Obviously, it was.]

[Maehara: Well, glad everything is over now. So head home and get some sleep, okay?]

[Asanagi: Mmm… Well, I'll do that. I worked too hard yesterday after all.]

[Maehara: Alright, thanks for your hard work. I'll send everything to you on Sunday, okay?]

[Asanagi: 'Kaay. I'll send it over to Yuu later.]

Her face looked so tired, but at least it seemed like her gloominess from yesterday was gone. She acted normally in texts too.

It seems like I was worrying over nothing yesterday.

"Ah, it's Maki-kun, hello ~! Let's do our best for the festival together!"

"…Y-yeah… sure."

When I looked up, I saw Amami-san waving her hands cheerfully at me.

Asanagi who was supposed to help her out was pretty much incapacitated, but the one who did most of the work looked perfectly fine.

Aside from talent, she had a ridiculous amount of stamina as well.

Seriously, is she even human?

…

After school. I felt a little tired because I still had to go through the classes like normal, even though I already had my hands full with the committee work. And I still had more work to do when I got home.

'Yes, it's Pizza Rocket!'

"Ah, this is Maehara."

'Ah! Hello! You're gonna order the usual thing ~?'

Since I'm a regular, I only needed to tell them my name and they would know what I was going to order. It's surprising that they actually bothered to remember my name.

But anyway, I ordered the usual pizza, fries, and nuggets set, though I asked them to change the drink to an energy drink instead. Not like it would actually help me, but it set the mood, you know?

Anyway, let's get started before the food arrives.

"…It's been a while…"

The room was unusually quiet.

The only sound that could be heard in this room was the sound of my PC fan and my mutterings.

When I thought about it, this was actually how everything used to be. Me sitting alone in this dimly lit room, playing games while eating junk food. If I got bored, I would read some manga or watch random videos on the internet.

Everything changed when that girl, Asanagi Umi, suddenly barged into my life uninvited.

Even though she didn't change my habits or anything, her mere presence livened up this gloomy room. The stagnant air in this room had changed into refreshing, sweet air.

I had known her for less than three months.

I made up my mind to let her rest this week.

But I guess I still missed her presence here.

"…Jeez, why am I such a mess…?"

Today, the living room felt rather spacious, but it felt quite stifling to me. Unconsciously, I grabbed my phone and made a call.

Of course, there was only one person that I would call in this situation.

{Hello? What's wrong?}

"My bad, Asanagi. Were you sleeping?"

{I was going to take a nap before dinner. I haven't bathed yet, so I'm not gonna sleep yet. I'm not an old man, you know?}

"Ah… I see."

{So, what's up? It's rare for you to call me like this… Is there a problem with the sketch?}

"Nah, I was just wondering, is it okay to leave all the adjustments to me?"

I missed you, I wanted to hear your voice. You've always been by my side lately, I'm lonely…

I wanted to tell her that, but there's no way I could do that.

{Yeah sure, and?}

"Uhh… well, I feel bad calling you like this even though you're exhausted…"

Why the hell am I so nervous?

I only need to tell her to come…

"Uhh… As expected, I can't do this alone, you see…"

{Mhm?}

"So, can you come over? Also, we can relax while we're working on the sketch."

If only I decided to text her instead, I wouldn't be this awkward. Why is talking so hard? I can't even express myself properly.

{…I see, so you miss me.}

"No, I don't."

{It's obvious, you know? I knew it, Maehara Maki can't live without me, the one and only, Asanagi Umi. I'm flattered.}

"N-no! Ugh, whatever. I called you because I was worried that you might feel lonely without me and this is what I get?"

{Hmm? Hmmm?}

This was completely on me. I shouldn't have called her. I stuttered for a second and now I had to deal with her teasing.

My face and cheeks felt extremely hot.

"Jeez, whatever. I'll do everything on my own, see you. Also, you don't have to forget about this call… Just don't mention it to anyone."

{Fine ~ Then, in exchange, can I ask you something?}

"What is it?"

After a short pause, Asanagi continued.

{Can I come over anyway? …I want to spend more time with you too…}

"Ah…"

Look at this girl, after all that teasing she said something like this to me.

I really can't beat her, huh?

"Uhm… I don't mind."

{Hehe, thank you. I'll come soon… Ah right, order some more food for me, I'll pay for it of course.}

As soon as she said that, she hung up the call.

Since this was her we were talking about, she would get here real soon.

"Well… Guess I gotta call mom, huh…"

This was going to be like any other Friday, but somehow I felt restless.