4.1
On the first floor of the special building, stall number “Special 02”.
Students decorated this space, which was usually used as an empty classroom.
The girls mainly did the work, with the boys assisting them. Interestingly, the girls were by far the best at this type of decoration. It's probably safe to leave the setup to them with Horikita in the lead. Preparations for the concept café were steadily underway in the back of the special classroom on the second floor.
Unlike our maid café, the concept of Ryūen’s class was “Traditional Japanese style.” The food and beverages were also completely different from ours, including Japanese sweets and tea.
While preparations were underway, I found a unique presence. There was a girl sitting alone in a chair reading a book dressed in a kimono.
“Hello.” When she noticed me, Hiyori lifted her book and, for some reason, hid everything but her gaze.
“It's been a while. I haven’t seen you showing up at the library lately.”
“It's not that I haven't been. I've just, you know, changed my hours a bit.”
I thought it was odd for a bookworm to disappear from the library, but I guess she just changed her visiting hours.
“It seems you’ll be working as well.”
“I specialize in checkout. I'm not very good at interacting with people. I'm also not very good at moving around, and I practiced carrying food on a tray, but it didn't work out.”
In short, she’s not very good at anything in general. However, working as a cashier isn’t hard and if she can handle it smoothly, it’ll be fine.
“By the way, Ibuki-san will be joining us.”
“Ibuki? I had the impression that she would never wear this kind of costume.”
“I heard that she had an argument with Ryūen-kun for complete exemption from helping at the festival.”
“And she lost.”
Hiyori smiled a little funny as if she was remembering that time.
“So, where is this unlucky Ibuki?”
“She's not participating today. She said she absolutely hates wearing it outside of the festival.”
I can understand that feeling, but I hope she can serve her customers well when she helps on the actual day. Well, Ryūen would deal with such matters in a flexible manner.
I wanted to check on Ryūen, who owns the restaurant, but I couldn't see him. I wondered if he left the rehearsal preparations to other students.
“It seems that Ryūen-kun went to check Class A.”
“Class A?”
“Because they haven’t disclosed what kind of presentation they were going to put on.”
Indeed, the details of Sakayanagi’s class had been unknown until the day before the festival. It's not strange to want to find out what they will be doing. As long as all the classes were participating in this pre-opening the day before, there was no doubt that they would be preparing to open a stall somewhere.
“I'm going to go over there for a bit too.”
After talking with Hiyori, I decided to look for Sakayanagi's class.
“Um, Ayanokōji-kun...”
“Hmm?”
“Ryūen and the others went up to the third floor, so I think that's where Sakayanagi-san probably went.”
“I see, that saves me the trouble.”
She seemed to want to say something else, but Hiyori immediately shook her head from side to side. Three second-year classes concentrated in a special wing, and yet they are on different floors?
“I'll be showing up at the library again next time, so please do so as well, Ayanokōji-kun.”
“Yes, I will.”
I raised my hand to say goodbye, and then walked up to the third floor. The third floor of the special wing is the farthest from the school gate and the hardest to reach. There were three classrooms available here, but until the previous day, they were not popular and had not been rented.
“I didn't think that Sakayanagi’s class would rent everything there, though.”
As it's currently an exclusive floor, the 2nd year Class A students roamed the third floor corridors as they pleased. At first glance, it's hard to imagine what kind of display they are trying to put on. There were only several cardboard boxes scattered about, their contents not visible, and the students were still in their school uniforms. Since it’s impossible to cook indoors due to fire regulations, that field disappears.
“Surprised by the unexpected?” Hashimoto, who was supposedly keeping an eye on the students coming, approached and called out.
“What's this all about?”
“You can't even understand what you’re seeing?” Hashimoto laughed quietly, perhaps amused that I didn't grasp it. “Well, that's understandable. But I can't answer you easily.”
I guess they intend to finish the preparations the day before, but have no intention of making them public. As if to symbolize this, a sign was posted on the stairs leading to this floor.
It read, “Due to an issue, the second-year Class A will not be presenting their activities today.”
“That's what it means. I'm sorry you had to come all the way up here, but I'm going to have to ask you to leave.”
Even if I persisted, we would still not be able to find out the details of the exhibit.
“It looks like Ryūen will be leaving soon, too.”
Ryūen came out of a classroom in the back and walked toward us with his hands in his pockets. After a quick glance at me and Hashimoto, he walked straight through and headed downstairs.
“Or are you going to do the same as him and take a closer look, even if you know it's useless?”
“I'm going back.”
“Good choice. You’ll have to wait until we open to see what happens.”
I was on my way back to the second floor when I noticed that Ryūen had turned his back to face me and stopped. I turned my gaze and stared directly into his eyes. Ryūen raised the corner of his mouth slightly before opening it.
“Tell Suzune that it will be our class that wins tomorrow.”
“I bet the Japanese attire cost more than the maid uniforms, didn't they? If you're going to challenge her to a match, at that point, you could have just worked together.”
“It's simply my taste.”
After replying with words that could be taken either seriously or jokingly, Ryūen started walking away. Without paying attention to Hashimoto's presence from the upper floor, I also turned back to the maid cafe.
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