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As preparations for the cultural festival kicked into high gear, the clubroom building became just as noisy as a different school after school.
It seemed that the Handicrafts Club, which Mei Onodera belonged to, was planning to make small fabric accessories for display and keychains for sale. I wasn’t directly involved, but I found out about it from a promotional poster posted on the bulletin board near the entrance. The poster, printed on pale-colored paper, featured rounded lettering and a small ribbon illustration. It had a cute design that looked exactly like something Mei would be involved in.
That afternoon after school, Shiori and I were heading to the storage room to pick up some classroom supplies.
At the end of the hallway, I heard Mei’s voice.
“Ugh, are we supposed to carry all of this? It’s way too heavy. Can’t someone help us?”
I turned around to see Mei standing in front of a cardboard box, looking flustered. Inside the box were bundles of fabric, cotton, and wire. Next to her were two girls from the same club and a first-year boy who seemed to have just happened to be passing by.
Mei leaned slightly toward the boy and smiled up at him.
“Hey, Yamagishi-kun. Could you carry this for just a little bit? Just to the home economics room is fine. My hands start to hurt when I hold this.”
The old me would’ve offered to help right then, even without being asked. Mei was in a bind. The box looked heavy. The atmosphere around us was starting to shift toward someone stepping in to help. In situations like that, if I took it, everything would work out smoothly.
But the first-year boy just glanced at the box and made a slightly troubled face.
“Nah, I’ve got to go shopping for my class, so I can’t. I mean, if that’s club gear, wouldn’t it be better for the club members to split it up?”
Mei’s smile faltered for a moment.
“Just a little bit, okay? Before, Segawa Senpai would help out with stuff like this all the time.”
“Senpai really did that every time, didn’t he?”
The boy named Yamagishi said it without any ill intent. Aizawa-san, a club member standing next to him, nodded slightly.
“We can manage if the three of us carry them. Mei, just take one of the lighter boxes. If you always act on the assumption that you’ll rely on someone else, we’ll never finish setting up.”
Mei’s cheeks flushed.
If she acted like a cute underclassman and played the part, someone would help her. At least, until now, there had been someone who’d respond to that. Me. But I’m not there anymore.
That was when Mei first noticed me.
The moment our eyes met, her expression wavered. She tried to make a troubled face but stopped midway. I think she probably wanted to ask me for help. But if she asked, I’d turn her down again. And right in front of Shiori, too.
“…Senpai.”
She called my name.
I stopped in my tracks. Shiori stopped beside me as well. She didn’t look at Mei with a reproachful expression. She was simply waiting to see what I would do.
Mei looked down at the box, then looked over at me.
“We have to carry this to the home economics room. If you guys are heading to the storage room anyway, you’ll be going part of the way with us, right?”
She didn’t say “Please carry this” directly. But I knew what she meant. The old Mei would have added, “You’d help me out, right, Senpai?” Today, since she couldn’t bring herself to say that much, her face instead showed her hopes.
“Sorry, but we’re carrying our class supplies too. We can’t help.”
Mei’s fingers gripped the edge of the box.
“……I guess so. You’re with Shiori-san, after all.”
“It’s not because Shiori’s here. I think club supplies should be carried by the club members themselves.”
Mei fell silent.
Aizawa-san spoke a little awkwardly, but clearly.
“Mei, let’s carry it. This isn’t something we should be asking Senpai to do. It’s our exhibition, after all.”
Those words seemed to really sting Mei.
After biting her lip, she lifted the lighter of the two boxes. Perhaps it wasn’t as heavy as it looked; she only staggered slightly before regaining her footing. Yamagishi said, “Well, I’m off then,” and walked away. No one was treating Mei any differently.
Before setting off, Mei looked at me and Shiori once more.
“You’ve really changed, Senpai.”
It was a reproachful remark, but it lacked the intensity it used to have.
“Before, you’d help me whenever I was in trouble—whether it was running errands, carrying stuff, or when I messed up in club activities. I thought you saw me as someone a little special.”
Shiori didn’t say anything. I didn’t answer right away either.
Because not everything Mei said was a lie. I had indeed helped her. I thought of her as a cute underclassman, and there were times when I didn’t mind being relied on. However, when that kindness was taken for granted, I gradually grew tired of it.
“Maybe I did treat you specially. But right now, the person I care about most is Shiori.”
Mei’s expression clearly clouded over.
Being treated specially as a cute underclassman is different from being cherished as a girlfriend. I think Mei understood that difference even without me explaining it to her at this point.
“If it weren’t for Shiori san…”
Mei started to say softly.
But she didn’t finish the sentence.
She must have realized herself that it wasn’t right. She could no longer say that if it weren’t for Shiori, I would still be the same as before. The reason I started saying no wasn’t because Shiori ordered me to. It was because Mei and the others had given me more and more reasons to say no.
Aizawa-san, standing next to Mei, readjusted the box she was carrying.
“Let’s go. We’re running out of time.”
“……Yeah.”
Mei nodded slightly and walked toward the home economics room. The box looked a little heavy, but not so much that she couldn’t carry it. She shifted its weight a few times as she made her way on her own.
We headed toward the storage room.
Shiori spoke quietly beside me.
“You didn’t step in, did you?”
“I almost did. To be honest, when I saw the box…”
“But you didn’t.”
“Yeah. Because that’s not my job.”
Saying it out loud made me feel a little lighter.
We picked up the wooden board for our class sign at the storage room and headed back to the classroom together. I held one side, and Shiori supported the other. The weight wasn’t evenly distributed, but Shiori wasn’t straining herself. When I tried to carry the whole thing myself, she immediately furrowed her brow.
“Minato kun, please don’t try to carry it all by yourself. We came here to carry it together.”
“Sorry. It’s just a habit.”
“Please try to break that habit, little by little.”
Shiori’s tone was matter-of-fact, but there was no hint of her using me as a convenience. It wasn’t a request to leave it all to me; it was a statement meant to encourage us to carry it together.
Across the hallway, I saw Mei entering the home economics room. She was placing boxes on the desks with Aizawa-san and the others. She hadn’t relied on anyone else to carry them for her. They were transporting their own display materials themselves.
Mei looked over at me just once.
Her gaze seemed filled with frustration and loneliness, as if she still wanted to blame Shiori a little. But she didn’t call out to me anymore.
I returned to the classroom with Shiori, still holding the board. My hands weren’t occupied with Mei’s belongings—they were busy preparing for my own class and working alongside Shiori.
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Episode 24 – Mei can’t compete when it comes to cuteness