Source
https://ncode.syosetu.com/n4533ij/21/
“Class president, I need your help.”
As I was chatting with Ageha before I left, a male classmate spoke to me. Tanaka, was it? I asked him what was wrong. He glanced at Ageha for a moment, lost in thought, then moved his body toward Ageha and glanced at her as well, before opening his mouth.
“There aren’t many people working in the library today, and I’m the only one in charge of the library. I can return and check out books on my own, but if I’m alone, I’ll be home too late to put away the books before closing the library.”
“I see. I’m the class president, so naturally I have no problem helping my classmates if they are in trouble.”
“Eh, Uh… uh…”
“What’s wrong?”
Tanaka also looked at Ageha as if he was lost, I turned my head and looked at Ageha. Ageha looked at me, then checked her watch and gave me an apologetic look.
“I have to go home today as well because I have some things to do at home, but do you mind if I don’t help Hisanobu-san?”
“Yes, it’s not something Ageha asked me to do, it’s something I undertook, so you don’t have to worry about it at all.”
“Eh!”
“But…”
“I’m the one who accepted to do it. That’s all.”
Tanaka gave a small cry of shock at my response, but at any rate, since I was the one who took care of it, Tanaka would not be troubled by this. I once again assured Ageha with a smile that everything would be fine. And if she checked her watch, then she must be running out of time.
“Ageha, you have to go home, right? Be careful on your way home.”
“Yes, I will. Goodbye, Hisanobu-san.”
I take a note on my phone so I don’t forget what I just said. What time is it? I check again with Tanaka and set the alarm. I have no intention of forgetting, but it is necessary to be prepared in case of an emergency.
I answered Tanaka who thanked me again and again and told him not to worry about it.
I had to hurry, too, I thought to myself, as I was a little late in getting to the library to help. I have one more thing to help with.
I run to the place where the committee members are meeting to take the place of a girl who is unable to work as a member of the beautification committee because of a sprained ankle. Another committee member from the same class explained the situation to me, so I was able to take her place smoothly.
After finishing the beautification committee member’s activities, I headed to the photography club’s clubroom, as I was a little late to start the club’s activities.
As I opened the door to jump in, I found a petite girl sitting on the sofa, gracefully drinking bottled tea and organizing photos on her computer.
“I’m sorry I’m late.”
“Heeey.”
The photography club was quiet again today. I greeted the head of the club lightly by raising my hand in greeting. I looked at her with a wide grin, and she smiled.
“It’s true that today is the official day of activities, but unfortunately, everyone is gone except you. After confirming what they were going to do, they all went home.”
“I see.”
The manager was done with her explanation and turned her attention back to her computer. I sat down on an empty folding chair. I wanted to transfer the data to the computer, so I put the camera beside her so that I could work on it right away if she would change.
The manager glanced at me and opened her mouth.
“You’re unusually late today, what’s the matter? You used to come here right away every day, even when it wasn’t an activity day.”
“A member of the beautification committee in the same class couldn’t participate in the activity because of a sprain, so I joined in and did the work instead.”
“Why you?”
“Because I’m the class president.”
“Just because you’re class president doesn’t mean you have to take over for them.”
“I was asked for advice.”
“If you’re going to be such a class president, there’s going to be a lot of people who are going to take advantage of you.”
“I hope I can be of some help. I’m available anyway.”
The woman with a puzzled look on her face hesitated, then said, okay, and returned her attention to the computer again. I wondered whether to ask her what she was going to do, and decided after a roundabout detour of thought that it was useless to worry about it since I didn’t know whether she would listen to my request after all.
“Marumiya san, I have a favor to ask of you.”
“Hmm, as much as the head of the photography club can do, I will.”
“I’d like to take a portrait of you and a picture with you.”
“Haa?”
She looked up at me with a look of astonishment as if to express that she had heard words she did not understand. I looked straight at her,
“The number of pictures of you working with the photography club has increased over the past week, but there are no pictures of me working with you with the photography club at all.”
“You don’t need to take those, do you?”
“I need”
“…… why?”
“Because there are no pictures of me doing club work with you in the photo club.”
I answer strongly and she smiles and takes a sip of her tea with a troubled smile on her face. I wait, watching her closely, and she keeps her troubled look on her face.
“I don’t like to be photographed,”
“I know, I know.”
“I’ve been a full-time photographer ever since I joined the club.”
“Yes, I’ve heard that many times. But I’ve been filming this past week while working with the manager.”
“Yes, …… yes. I thought I understood a little bit about the emotions you were photographing, but I actually don’t know very well what your intention was in photographing me. But I didn’t have any unpleasant feelings there, so I put aside whatever intentions you had for me and didn’t stop you strongly. And now, out of the blue, you tell me, and I’m confused.”
She moves closer to the window to escape my gaze and looks out. The view from the photography club room is blocked by other school buildings standing in the way. I could see sparsely placed and tended flowerbeds in the vicinity.
“I know I’m annoying you,”
“If that’s the case.”
“But I’d also like to take a picture of me being in the photography club with you.”
“trouble …….”
“I’m sorry.”
“If you’re going to apologize, I’d appreciate it if you’d just give up.”
“I’m sorry. But I can’t withdraw my desire to take pictures.”
“I don’t understand. I don’t know what you want to shoot.”
“……, I can’t explain it well.”
“Yes, …… yes. I wonder if the photos you take with me will fulfill even one of the reasons why you joined the photography club.”
“Not …… the photography club.”
“Yes.”
She patiently waited for me with her doll-like clear eyes as I struggled and tried to speak even though I stumbled over and over again. Those staring eyes made me wonder what kind of person I was to her. I had never been photographed by her, so I had no idea.
“It would fulfill the significance of why I started taking pictures.”
“Fulfilled, huh?”
She lets out a long, long breath and looks up at the ceiling. Her skin is a slightly tanned color compared to Rinen’s and Houchou’s. It is probably due to the fact that she is often outside with her camera. I looked at her slender neck and waited patiently for her to answer.
I don’t know how long we waited, maybe ten minutes, and we just sorted through the words in silence.
“I am, you know”
“Yes.”
“I have very few photographs of me, including those taken by my family, as a matter of fact.”
“Not as a …… photography club?”
“I don’t much like being photographed.”
She says this and silently looks into my eyes with those eyes. I took in her words, thought about them, and then shut up. I waited for her to speak. Because she has been saying all along. She doesn’t like to be photographed. She has never said why, but I guess she has been strongly refusing to be photographed since her freshman year, because she has assured me that she does so while in the photography club.
She wet her little lips slightly and let her words slide as if to confirm them. I nodded straight at her words.
“But you took my picture.”
“Yes.”
She was silent again, and then, after a few moments of contemplation, she suddenly relaxed and picked up my camera, which was on the table. She pointed the camera straight at me. She held the camera in front of her so that she could not see her own expression.
“Why did you take a picture of me?”
“I’m…”
A sharp voice echoed. My desire to speak out is interrupted.
My words are interrupted by hers, and she turns her voice, as hushed as she can manage, to me.
“Don’t answer me.
Why did you take my picture?
Why did you give me the picture?
Why did you hold the camera in the same place as me?
Why are you following me?
Why did you join the photography club?
I don’t know. Now I don’t know a bit.
But since I said I would ask as much as I could as the head of the photography club, I’m willing to be photographed only when it’s just the two of us.”
“Th-…”
“Don’t answer me. I told you, didn’t I?”
I was about to thank her, but she interrupted me. She was holding a camera on her slender arm, and she was looking at me through the camera, still and silent.
The only sound that shook the air in the clubroom was the disgustingly loud ticking of the hands of the clock on the wall. I waited until she was satisfied.
She says she doesn’t know, but she doesn’t want me to explain, and I’m sure I can’t explain right now why I really want to take a picture with her.
She looks through the lens of the camera and sees me, and I feel as if she is peering into my mind’s eye, and my hand trembles with anxiety.
She puts down the camera. I couldn’t see her expression because the pin in her bangs, which had been pulled up earlier, had been removed and pulled down.
“I don’t know what kind of pictures you want to take with me, but as the head of the photography club, I will try my best to take them. As a member of the photography club, you should try your best to take good pictures.”
“Thank you very much. Then”
“But I’ll allow you to do that next week. Not this week.”
“Why not?”
“I said I would listen to you as the head of the photography club to the best of my ability, but if you don’t do what I want, we’re not going to have this conversation.”
“No, I understand. I’m sorry.”
“You are really a junior who I don’t really understand because you gives in where you can.”
“Hahaha, I’m sorry.”
After that, she kept her bangs down, which she usually wore up, and kept staring at the computer, not talking to me. I asked her to save my photos, but she refused, saying she would see me tomorrow, so I was left with nothing to do but stare at the book on photography in storage.
Occasionally I would get a crappy feeling from the direction the manager was sitting, and I would look up, but I tilted my head at nothing in particular.
“Today.”
Just as the manager is about to say something, the alarm on my phone that I had set goes off, although it is still some time before school dismissal time. Perhaps startled by the sound, the manager spluttered.
“I’m sorry for being so loud. I’m going to the library to help my classmates for a bit.”
“……What, that’s”
“I’m really sorry. It’s time for me to go help out right away, so I don’t have time to explain! See you tomorrow!”
“Eh, oh, Orikawa-kun!?”
The school building where the library is located was farther away from the club building than I had expected.
“Tanaka, I’m here to help you.”
“Oh, yeah. Suminodo san…”
“Yeah? I’m the one who took care of it, so it’s not like you are asking Ageha to help”
“Uh, yeah, yeah. Yeah, right.”
“Then let’s get right to it!”
There seem to be more students borrowing books at this school than I had imagined. The school is probably popular because it also lends out reference books.
As Tanaka had predicted, it was indeed time-consuming to put away the books until the very last minute. By the time he was finished, it was past dismissal time, and the teacher rushed him home.
I said I didn’t mind Tanaka thanking me and went to get my stuff to go home, but I realized that I had left my camera in the club room.
I tried to go to the club building, but a teacher I met on the way turned me away, saying I could no longer enter.
“I’ll go get it first thing tomorrow morning. Oh, but I’ll have to tell the head of the club to open it for me, so I guess I won’t be able to get it until club activities start after all.”
As I walked through the school gate pushing my bicycle with disappointment, I was greeted by an ostentatious and stern voice.
“You’re late, Orikawa kun. Really you”
“Manager, why?”
“I waited until it was too late to leave school and after I was kicked out, I waited here for a long time to give it to you. Here it is.”
“T-Thank you!”
The manager handed me the camera and I gratefully put it away in my bag and picked up my bag again. It had already been more than forty minutes since I left. She must have waited for quite a while. The manager, who was pushing her bicycle with her petite body, was angry and pointed out to me that it was not good for me to be distracted.
I apologized to her, and when we came to the usual fork in the road, she stopped. Normally, she would be the first to say, “Bye,” and then leave.
“It’s not good that I can’t get in touch with you. If I had Orikawa-kun’s contact information, I could have sent him a message and left gracefully.”
“No, it’s a problem because I couldn’t receive it until tomorrow’s club activity if you go home.”
“That’s not what I meant. It’s no use, I’ll give you my grateful contact information. Orikawa-kun, you too, take out your phone.”
She then took out her phone from the bicycle stand. She operated her phone with a sense of disapproval and exchanged contact information with me. She had not done so until the other day, so I express my honest gratitude.
“Thank you!”
“In the meantime, try not to contact me unnecessarily!”
“Yes!”
I responded more frankly, and she nodded, “Okay!” I nodded, told her I’d see her tomorrow, and quickly got on her bicycle and rode away. It all happened so fast.
“I should go home too.”
It was a little too late for me to leave without a call, and everyone was already working on dinner. My mother, sister, and Rinen demanded that I call them, and I had no choice but to apologize and sit down for dinner.
After dinner, I touch my phone and send a message to the manager with whom I exchanged contact information today. It’s a basic greeting, so it’s probably not an unnecessary contact.
“Thank you for today. Please take care of me from now on.”
“Best regards.”
The message is immediately read and a stamp is sent. I sent a stamp to it, and then I sent a photo of the manager that I had saved on my phone but hadn’t been able to share.
It was a picture taken at a coffee shop. It was a picture of Yuisa san and the manager together, but I took it because Yuisa san told me to and then forgot to send it to her or to the manager. I think Yuisa san forgot about it because of the selfie she took.
It’s one of the few photos I have now that I have precious memories of.
“I’ll share this with you.”
I sent the photo to the manager, and she immediately read it. With an angry stamp, she said, “Delete it!” I just said okay and turned off the screen without deleting the photo. She sent me a more frustrated message, perhaps understanding that I haven’t erased the photo, but I just let it go until the other party gave up, so I sent her an honest good night and turned off my phone.
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