The Classmate Who Is Adored by Everyone Smiles Teasingly Only at Me-Chapter 4Volume 3 .6 - The Cultural Festival

The Cultural Festival 6

Stepping out into the hallway with Wakui, the place was far more crowded than usual—a stark contrast from everyday school life.

There were not only students but also many general public visitors wearing slippers.

“There are quite a lot of people here.”

“It’s an old high school with many alumni, and it’s located in the city center, so it’s easy for people to drop by.”

“That makes sense. I wouldn’t really feel like going all the way up to a school on a mountain.”

He nodded in agreement with Wakui’s opinion as they headed towards the second-year classroom.

“Welcome!”

Greeted by the enthusiastic voices of the Senpais, they entered the handmade udon shop, which was just as bustling as the “Matsuri-ya”—perhaps even more so, given that it was past lunchtime and nearly full.

After a short wait, Wakui and Sōma sat down at a table in the corner, facing each other.

“Two servings of kake udon, please.”

Since the only item on the menu was kake udon, they ordered two servings, and in less than five minutes, steaming plastic bowls were brought to them.

“This looks delicious.”

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“Yeah. Let’s eat.”

They both snapped our chopsticks and started slurping the udon.

Unfortunately, the noodle soup seemed to be made from a cheap store-bought variety, tasting overly salty and not very delicious.

However, the udon itself had a firm texture and was quite satisfying to eat.

It seemed they had invested all their money, effort, and time into the noodles.

“These noodles are pretty good.”

“Yeah. They’re dozens of times better than the cafeteria udon.”

“Don’t even compare them. That’s an insult to the people here. The cafeteria ones are seriously bad. I tried them once during the first semester and swore I’d never eat them again.”

“I also tried it just once, and I thought it was definitely a no-go. They actually charge money for that—It’s crazy.”

While making light of the awfulness of the student cafeteria, we slurped up the noodles, and the udon was quickly gone.

“Thanks for the meal. It was pretty good. If you hadn’t told me, I would have missed out on this udon.”

When Sōma bowed his head, Wakui blushed slightly and giggled.

“Ichinose, you always say thanks a lot. You did the same with the baby castella arrangement, and now too. I really didn’t do much though.”

“Is that strange?”

If it had been just Sōma, he wouldn’t have thought of arranging the baby castella variations, nor would he have been able to eat this hand-made udon.

He felt grateful to Wakui, so saying thanks seemed natural.

As he put down his chopsticks with a puzzled look, Wakui shook her head slowly with an uncharacteristically gentle smile.

“It’s not strange. But… if anyone should say thanks, it’s me. Thank you, Ichinose.”

“Huh? Did I do something?”

He had no idea what she was referring to.

“I guess you don’t remember,” Wakui said with a wry smile as she began to speak.

“Actually, I didn’t want to come to this high school. It was my safety net. I wanted to go to another one.”

Wakui revealed, mentioning the name of a university-affiliated high school.

“It’s a school known for academic advancement.”

“My ultimate goal was that university. I went to their cultural festival when I was in junior high, and I really liked the atmosphere. I thought I wanted to go there. But to be honest, my grades weren’t good enough. My plan was to use the affiliated high school as a stepping stone to the university.”

“The escalator system, huh? I heard it’s easier to get into the university that way.”

Generally, universities tend to favor their own high school students for internal advancement over general admissions.

“I thought I could manage the high school entrance exam, so I worked hard, but I failed.”

Remembering the time she was rejected, Wakui grimaced in pain and started fiddling with the tips of her hair.

“I studied really hard, you know. It hit me hard because I had tried so much. It felt like my chances of getting into the university I wanted were almost gone. To be honest, since I enrolled here, I’ve been rotten and really irritated――nd then, I noticed this weirdo in our class, always reading a pastry recipe book and nibbling on homemade sweets. I knew right away, ‘Ah, this isn’t his first-choice school either.'”

“Me?”

When Sōma pointed to himself, Wakui laughed it off, saying, “Guess who I’m talking about?”

“To be honest, it pissed me off. Here was this amateur, teaching himself to make sweets, which seemed pointless. Like, go to a vocational school first, I thought. It looked like nothing more than self-satisfaction. Or maybe he was just being narcissistic, thinking, ‘Look how cool I am trying so hard.'”

That was a common criticism.

What’s the point of doing something that’s barely a hobby?

Why not wait until you’re in an environment where you can learn how to do things ‘properly’?

Sōma has been gently discouraged countless times. And he’s been mocked for bragging about having a dream.

“Remember orientation? When we were touring the school and going to the library, that guy went straight to look for dessert recipe books. There’s no way a regular high school would have anything great. But he was checking so desperately. I got so annoyed that I told him, ‘You know, you look really lame.’ And guess what he said?”

Sōma couldn’t remember being told such things by Wakui at all.

But whether it was half a year ago or now, Sōma’s answer would be the same.

“Let’s see, maybe something like, ‘It’s lame to slack on your dreams.'”

“Exactly right.”

Wakui grinned.

“When you said that, it hit me hard. True, if someone doesn’t practice singing or dancing at all but says, ‘My dream is to be an idol,’ that person looks really lame, and you wonder what they’re even talking about. You know, those who talk big but never move a muscle. Compared to them, maybe that sweets idiot over there looked cooler.”

She slowly lowered the fingers that had been playing with her hair.

“Watching that sweets idiot made me think about myself. ‘Aren’t I being really lame right now?’ Sure, my chances of getting into the university I wanted had dropped a lot. But it wasn’t zero. If I just sulked about failing and thought my life was over, those chances would keep dropping. That’s just slacking off on my dreams, right? Don’t you think so, Ichinose?”

“…Maybe.”

Giving up and rotting away is easy.

Sōma himself had been greatly disappointed when he faced opposition from his parents and couldn’t go to a pastry school.

When he graduated from high school, they would probably push him to go to university. But that didn’t mean he wanted to give up so easily.

He wanted to do what he could now.

He hated regrets.

“So, I decided to do what I can at this high school.”

She said while looking straight at him.

Her sparkling eyes reflected his image.

Perhaps embarrassed by their eye contact, Wakui giggled and stood up.

“Sorry for suddenly getting all serious. Anyway, what I wanted to say is that it should be me thanking you, Ichinose, not the other way around.”

“Honestly, I don’t remember at all, so it’s hard to be thanked.”

“That’s okay. As long as I remember what happened then, that’s enough.”

Sōma also stood up and left the classroom of 2-1 after saying thank you for the meal.