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Chapter 208 – Amami-san’s Change
It was the middle of July. The rainy season finally ended. The long-awaited summer vacation would start next week, but our exam was around the corner.
Summer was a season filled with excitement like club activities and romance, but the school dampened everyone’s mood with a heavy amount of assignments. Of course studying was important for us, but at the same time, I preferred spending my summer vacation playing around and doing nothing productive.
Well, I guess having to balance having fun and studying was the main hurdle of being a student.
After school, the day before the exam, the usual five-person group were hanging out at a family restaurant. Usually we would hang out at my place, but Umi said that we should go somewhere else once in a while, so we came here instead. On the table were our textbooks, along with our drinks.
“I see, I understand now… Thank you, Maki. Thanks to you I can avoid getting red marks again.”
“You’re welcome. You shouldn’t be that worried, though. Haven’t your grades improved lately?”
“Ah, now that you mention it, I took fewer remedials these days. Even my parents are surprised.”
I’ve been watching his studies for a while now. It seemed like he studied by himself in secret. He had been making some progress as his grades were better compared to when he first asked me for help.
He was still barely passing, but it was progress nonetheless.
“After losing in the previous tournament, I thought about my future… I want to continue playing baseball after I go to university…”
“Are you trying to go pro?”
“…Maybe. I mean, I know it’s just a pipe dream now.”
His face turned red as he said it. I don’t think it’s something to be embarrassed about, having a clear goal like that was admirable. It wasn’t impossible for him to achieve either. As long as he did well, a club or two would be bound to scout him. If they didn’t, then he had to do it the hard way, in other words getting into a university first. I guess that was why he decided to study.
He balanced his schedule between studying, practicing and resting, all for the sake of achieving his goal.
Compared to me whose ‘goal’ was only to get into the same university as Umi, he was way more admirable.
I respected him for that.
“…Yuuchin, Umi… Somehow, I’m seeing him in a new light now…”
“What a coincidence, me too, Nina.”
“Jeez, you two, you are being rude to Nozomu-kun! …Well, I feel the same way too, just a little though!”
“Aren’t you guys looking down on me too much?!”
The study session proceeded smoothly. Until now, I had hated crowded places, but lately I’d gotten used to it. I used to worry about my surroundings a lot, but I’d learned to just ignore them.
It may not seem to be a big deal, but it was a huge change for me.
“Ah, right! Do you have any plans for summer vacation, Yuuchin? I know Umi will be unleashing her carnal desires with Rep– Sorry, sorry, I’m just kidding, stop looking at me like that! U-Umi? Put the fork down please?”
“Seriously, what’s wrong with you… Well, it’s true that we’ll be spending our time together. I mean, we’re dating after all, right Maki?”
“Yeah.”
Unless we had other plans, we would be spending our time together at my place.
Playing games, eating whenever we got hungry and playing around until we were satisfied. My birthday would be in August, but I wouldn’t hold a party to celebrate it like Amami-san did. I just wanted to celebrate it with Umi.
So we wouldn’t be doing anything new, but I was still looking forward to it.
“We’re going off tangent. Are you going to visit your grandma this year, Yuu?”
“Hng~ I don’t know… Dad is busy with work this year, so I don’t think I’ll go… Mom hasn’t said anything either… Besides, we can’t exactly leave Rocky alone, you know? I can’t leave him to Sanae-chan or Manaka-chan this year because they’re busy with their clubs.”
According to Amami-san, Nitori-san and Houjou-san’s club had been doing well this year, so they would be busy with that all summer.
In conclusion, Amami-san was free for the summer.
“I see. Then, what do you think about spending your time with me, Yuuchin?~ We can go to the beach or the pool~ Oh year, there’s also that firework festival we didn’t go to last year.”
“Sure! But, I don’t think I can play that much though… I’ve been thinking that I should be studying more, so I’ll be doing that in my free time.”
I originally thought that Umi and I should try to hang out with her more since she had a lot of free time. But she had been thinking about what to do to fill in all that time.
“Woah, that’s rare. Yuu thinking about something other than playing around…”
“Mm… Well, this is the first time I’m telling anyone about this, so…”
Then she said something unexpected without losing her usual bright smile.
“I’m thinking about going to a cram school.”