Finally, I can post this. Sorry guys, had some issues, was getting an error every time I tried to make a post.
I walked down the noisy corridor.
The time was 12.30 P.M.
It was precisely the time for lunch.
Like stitching the space between the students, I smoothly proceeded through the gaps between them.
It was that rare lunchtime when I moved to another place, to have my lunch.
Sometimes, I would be walking around like this, looking for a place where I could have a change of pace. However, I still haven’t been able to find a place that I could consider to be an appropriate candidate for that purpose.
It wasn’t because the classroom with all the famous people of our school, Yuuto, Shizuku and Kirasaka in it, was noisy, or since I wanted to escape Shizuku and Kirasaka’s gazes, seemingly eyeing a prey, I had departed from the classroom after giving them an appropriate excuse……nothing of that sort.
However, no matter where I looked at, there were only students, more students, and groups of even more students. I couldn’t find a place which could put my heart at ease.
Whether it was the rooftop, the school cafeteria, or the courtyard, all those places were popular lunch spots. It was harsh for people like me, who liked quiet places.
The Kaede-deluxe bento in my hand swayed to and fro as I walked into the passage that connected to the school playground. There, I saw the student council president, Hiiragi Akane-senpai and the vice president, Koizumi Shouichi, engage in a deep talk about something.
“Well then, let’s make this tree into the background for this year too”
“True, if it’s from this angle, it will look nice”
I exited the school building for a moment, and found the two of them talking, while looking at a large tree.
Is this a Sakura?
[TN – Sakura is “cherry blossoms”, can’t believe I am really appending this note]
By listening to the contents of the conversation, I couldn’t understand what they were talking about.
So as not to be drowned in the bustle of the lunch break, I called out to them and decided to talk to them about twenty per cent more than usual.
“What are you talking about?”
“Ohh, is that you, Shinra”
“Good, good morning Shinra-kun!”
Koizumi had a photo in his hand.
The president and Koizumi were in that photo too, but there were several others, whom I didn’t recognize.
That picture had been taken where the three of us were standing, with the large Sakura in the background. The angle was a bit different, though.
“……Are you going to take photographs?”
“That’s right. The leaves have a nice shade of green too. We were thinking, maybe it was time we took this year’s student council picture”
Was it that? Photographs of the student council that would often be on the graduation photos?
In which case, it didn’t seem like I was unrelated either.
The two of them were looking at the large tree. I, too, raised my line of sight to look at it.
Its size was clearly different from the other trees in the vicinity. It stood majestically towering over its surroundings. It was a common usage of words, but an apt way of going about describing it.
If I were to draw an analogy, it was like Yuuto. It was one of its kind and had a different style.
It would seem that the student council had been taking photographs every year under that tree.
The Sakuranogaoka School Student Council tradition, or customary practice, I guess.
Both seemed to have similar connotations. It was something that prevailed in every school. These photographs were commemoratives which embodied the memories and traces of those students who had once worked as representatives of the student body.
Every time I had a photograph taken, a human with dead-fish eyes would be projected on to the photograph. Every time I looked at those, I wanted to sigh. I was really bad at this stuff, however, this time, it was a compulsory event. There was no room for evasion.
Somewhat giving up at the inevitability of the situation, I retired to the fate of a member of the student council. Despite saying all that, I was staring fixedly at the place where the photograph was going to be taken while imagining everyone from the student council standing together.
“Why this place?”
It was a natural doubt.
Certainly, if the photograph was taken with the Sakura in the background, the photograph will come out nice, but it was also plain.
In this day and age, people care about looking attractive even in SNS.
After all, there were many students who possessed single-lens reflex camera.
It would have been more student council-like, if they took the photograph with the school building or the school gate in the background. To this question of mine, Koizumi replied.
“O, our school council has been taking commemorative photographs at this place for generations. I have heard that the school principal at the time of the school founding, planted this Sakura tree”
The president added a few words.
“That’s why we have been taking the photographs here, while also recording the growth of this Sakura, since its sapling days”
“Heh……”
That is what it was.
Towards this new information, I let out my voice, as I looked up at the tree one more time.
Before I entered the student council, I didn’t have much interest in my own school, so there were a lot of things that I didn’t know about it. However, even schools in the countryside had various episodes.
“In that case, President, I will submit the documents to Sudo-sensei”
“Thank you. Much appreciated”
Koizumi received some documents from the president, bowed, and left this place.
He must have been heading towards the student counselling room, where the advisor to the student council, Sudo-sensei, was.
I recalled my mission of finding a place for my lunch. I had completely forgotten about it. So, I too was preparing to depart, but then, the president said this to me.
“What do you say? Do you want to have lunch together?”
“Eh? No, well, I will eat by myself, so——”
“Well then, shall we have our lunch in the student council room?”
The president didn’t even let me express my opinion to her proposal, as she led me by my hand and started walking.
It’s fine to be dynamic, and although she was a senior, for someone who held the position of the student council president, I had thought that she would listen to what a student had to say until the end.
[TN – guess the concept is your senior is not gonna wait for your consent]
This tendency to not hear what the other party has to say……is this in craze amongst the popular girls of our school or something?