October had arrived. Sadly, Japan didn't celebrate National Day, meaning no golden week vacation, and Kuroba Akira still had to attend school as usual.
But October did have something special in store—the upcoming Culture Festival in the middle of the month. Excitement had already started building as students eagerly prepared for the event. It was the school's biggest highlight since the Sports Festival back in June.
Unlike the Culture Festival, the Sports Festival had divided students into red and white teams rather than competing by class. Akira, still utterly invisible back then, had been drafted by Kozaikawa-sensei into a tug-of-war match, which their white team eventually lost.
But the Culture Festival was different—each class was responsible for hosting its own event, pending approval by the festival committee.
As Class Rep, Anri Hitomi naturally held a key role in deciding Class 1-A's event. But right now, she had no good ideas, so she brought it up to Akira as they ate lunch together.
"Akira-kun, what do you think we should do for the Culture Festival?"
"Hm, honestly…anything sounds fine to me."
When Akira thought of the Culture Festival, maid cafés immediately came to mind—mostly thanks to anime from his previous life.
He definitely approved of maid outfits. Especially with thigh-high stockings—those were the best.
Unfortunately, no JK maid cafés were happening this year, and that was truly tragic.
The student council had explicitly banned any class from opening maid cafés unless the girls wore those formal, ankle-length dresses. Nothing appealing about that.
Apparently, some parents had complained about previous festivals, claiming the maid outfits were too revealing, inappropriate, and risked embarrassing wardrobe malfunctions.
And of course, more risqué concepts like swimsuits or gym uniform cafés were strictly out of the question.
Besides, if maid cafés were allowed, practically every class would apply, creating a mess. Easier to ban them altogether.
Ironically, "butler cafés" featuring guys dressed as maids were perfectly acceptable, but no boys wanted to humiliate themselves like that.
As for haunted houses, the elaborate setups and tiring cleanup afterward made them unpopular. Akira certainly wasn't volunteering to become manual labor.
Food stalls were another standard option—yakisoba, hot dogs, crepes, bubble tea—though painfully common and uninspired.
Dance or band performances were always popular among JKs, but that would overlap too much with club activities.
Unable to think of anything better, Akira shrugged and suggested:
"Why don't you ask Shiori-san? She might know what other classes are planning; we could use that as reference."
Class Rep fed him a piece of his favorite potato croquette before replying:
"I already asked her. Class 1-C is apparently doing a quiz competition."
"Oh? What are the prizes?"
"No idea… Wait, Akira-kun, we're supposed to be discussing our class right now. Please take this seriously."
Pouting, Hitomi stuffed a piece of broccoli into his mouth—knowing perfectly well how much he hated broccoli—as punishment for changing the subject.
Chewing reluctantly, Akira sighed inwardly. In his past life, his entire high school existence had revolved around tests and textbooks. With zero experience of exciting school events, how was he supposed to have good ideas?
"How about Ryouta, then? Isn't he pretty active in class? He probably has tons of ideas."
Akira shamelessly dumped responsibility onto Sumitomo Ryouta, figuring that someone as sociable as him must have plenty of suggestions. And since Ryouta was second only to Hitomi in class influence, his ideas would surely receive wide support.
"Sumitomo-kun hasn't been focused on school lately. Even his usual group doesn't hang out as much anymore. Haven't you noticed class has gotten a lot quieter recently?"
"Nope."
Akira genuinely hadn't noticed, having spent last month buried in his novel-writing business.
"What's up with him, then? Did he get a girlfriend outside of school or something?"
Wait, don't tell me he's rebounding onto Hitomi because he got dumped?
"I don't think so," Hitomi replied. "I heard he got obsessed with boxing recently. He runs off to the gym every day after school and even quit the soccer club. It's such a waste; he was one of the rare first-years who made the starting lineup…"
"Oh, he was in the soccer club?"
Akira felt a surprising surge of camaraderie. He'd played soccer himself in his past life, and hearing Ryouta was also a soccer player suddenly made him feel oddly closer.
Boys' friendships were always that simple—just kicking a ball around once practically made you buddies.
"Yes. He and Mitsui-kun were both famous junior-team players… Ah, Mitsui-kun was another boy we used to play with as kids…"
She paused, sneakily peeking at Akira's expression, wondering if he'd show even the slightest sign of jealousy.
But Akira's face remained perfectly indifferent.
Mainly because he'd already met this Mitsui guy—Mitsui Soujirou, if he remembered correctly.
Seeing his complete lack of reaction, Hitomi felt a bit disappointed but quickly recovered and went on.
"They've played soccer together since childhood, and even won a national junior championship once."
"Oh? Sounds impressive."
Akira recalled Mitsui Soujirou's tall, muscular physique—probably a striker or center-back.
"Mitsui-kun got into a sports-specialty high school with a strong soccer program, and he'd invited Sumitomo-kun to go together, but Sumitomo-kun chose to come to our school instead."
Akira didn't even need to think twice to guess Ryouta's motive—he'd obviously followed Hitomi here due to his crush.
Hitomi was well aware of this but tactfully decided not to mention it in front of Akira.
"Huh. Even after going your separate ways, you still care about them quite a bit, huh?"
Looks like she still keeps tabs on her childhood friends, even secretly…
Hitomi took this as a rare sign of jealousy from Akira, secretly pleased, but quickly explained herself to avoid misunderstanding:
"Well…I don't deliberately ask around. It's just that we all live nearby, so even if I'm not curious, their parents keep telling me about them."
"Right. Sure, let's go with that."
Seeing Akira's obviously half-hearted reply, Hitomi irritably shoved a piece of carrot into his mouth—another of his disliked vegetables.
"Geez, Akira-kun. I'd never lie to you, you know. Right now, you're my closest friend."
"What about Shiori-san and Momo-chan?"
"Well, obviously they're good friends too…"
But you're the one I care about most, Akira-kun.
She didn't say it aloud. Instead, she gently placed a crispy shrimp tempura into his mouth.
It was his absolute favorite food.
She remembered.
---
T/N: mmmm i love shrimp tempura and omg, this guys is gonna be ripped apart... in the future no wonder he goes missing