Editing Maria-sama ga Miteru:Volume4 Chapter3 3 (section)

===<noinclude>What do you think? </noinclude>Part 3.===

Onee-sama sighed.

Secretly.

Staring at something in the air.

"Onee-sama, would you like another cup of tea?"

"I've had enough."

But she'd been rubbing her finger along the edge of the empty cup for some time.

"Shall I massage your shoulders?"

"No need, they're not stiff."

Nevertheless, she was massaging her own shoulders.

Sachiko-sama had been strange as of late.  She didn't know how she was during class, but when Sachiko-sama sat in the Rose Mansion, she was always spaced out.  Like she wasn't being responsible for her own words or actions.

Her mind was wandering.  –That phrase fit this Sachiko-sama perfectly.

Ten more days until the election.  Right after registering candidacy, she'd made the election posters and submitted them to the election management committee, answered interviews for the newspaper club, and did other things in her packed schedule, so she might have been finally showing her exhaustion.  At least, that's what Yumi assumed, at first, but when this continued for four or five days, it was clearly more troubling than just exhaustion.

"If you have anything you want."

Unlike a government seat, or a mayoral election, street, or school speech presentations were forbidden.  Which meant once you finished everything you needed to do, the candidate and her supporters were all left with simple boredom.  The submitted posters would be put up by the election management committee, and the flyers with candidate public commitments were created and distributed by the election management committee.  Of course, the candidate registration deadline hadn't passed yet, so they didn't seem to be in any hurry, yet.

As a result, the only thing Sachiko-sama could do with regard to the election was to write a draft for her election speech.  But, what a heavy sigh.  Her draft seemed to be progressing well, but in the blank spaces, it was like she'd been doodling while speaking on a phone, with random spirals and flowers having been drawn.

"Do you have any concerns?"

Despairing, Yumi asked.  Yoshino-san and Rei-sama were still in the midst of creating their posters, so they were off in their own little world, shoulders hunched together.  Shimako-san had still not come.

"It would be of no use telling it to you."

Sliced in two with one swing.

On top of admitting that she had something bothering her, Sachiko-sama said Yumi wasn't worth discussing it with.

Of course, she had no confidence whatsoever she could help out with that concern, but she thought she could at least be a listener, so it was a shock.

"Shimako's pretty late."

Rei-sama mumbled, looking at the clock.

"She doesn't feel comfortable being with us.  Every time she sees our face, she feels like she's being pressured to register for candidacy."

Sachiko-sama expressed a little bit of interest in that topic.

"Yumi.  How's Shimako in class?"

"She didn't seem to look any different."

Sachiko-sama sighed heavily, this time to Yumi's answer.

"I see.  I wonder what she's thinking."

And then everyone went silent.

Yumi didn't know what Sachiko-sama was thinking, either.

At least she might have been able to help with making the posters, but Sachiko-sama finished it all at home.

Sachiko-sama's mechanical pencil made meaningless motions on top of the draft page.  What was she thinking?

Was she thinking about Rosa Canina, or something else?

With nothing to do, Yumi spun her cup around.  They hadn't moved from their seats, but Sachiko-sama seemed further and further away.

Loneliness from not seeing each other, and loneliness by sitting next to each other.

What you can see, and the mind you can't see.

Yumi might be more heavy-hearted at seeing Sachiko-sama than Shimako-san.

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