Editing Maria-sama ga Miteru:Volume22 Chapter3.5

===Part 5.===

Yoshino thought the same thing last year, but even this year, when she saw Rei-chan and Shimako-san's joint effort, the Bûche de Noël, she could not help but find it tasty-looking.

Yoshino couldn't leave her seat while eating, so she had nothing to do but talk to the people around her. She did nothing but spear her cake constantly. The more she speared, the faster her cake would finished, was the logic. If someone saw through her plan, it would be bad.

It was obvious that Yoshino-san wanted to go over and meet Nana-san.

But really, Yoshino-san herself was the only person aware of what she was doing. Everyone else was caught up in peaceful conversation. To her right, Touko-chan seemed to be deeply involved in a serious conversation with Shimako-san, and didn't seem to want to be disturbed.

Yoshino slid her gaze around the room, until she happened upon Kanako-chan turning toward Sachiko-sama and telling her something. It didn't seem as if they were talking about very serious things, but sadly their seats were far away from hers, and Yoshino was not close enough to understand what they were saying.

Yoshino let it go and turned to her right. There was Tsutako-san, who had quickly finished her cake, and had jumped into preparing her camera. She seemed very happy. Did Tsutako-san know that she was humming?

Next to her, Noriko-chan, Rei-chan, Yumi-san, and even Nana seemed to be caught up in some group conversation.

That Nana.

"Wow, really?"

Really, what?

(Ahhhh.)

Yoshino wasn't happy. How could Nana be alright without her, or something like that.

For that matter, what were they all so excited about?

Now that she thought about it, maybe she should pre-empt Tsutako-san and stick her head into the conversation. It was a bit of a shock for them.

Soon, Yumi-san turned toward her and said "Yoshino-san...."

It wasn't Yumi calling Yoshino over, but rather something in the flow of the conversation, like "Do you know Yoshino-san?" or "You should listen to Yoshino-san too". Basically, Yumi was creating a pretense for Yoshino to join in.

So if Yoshino-san wanted to enter the conversation, this was her only chance.

But what happened next made Yoshino twist around, and let go of the outstretched hand that her friend had given her. Yoshino felt it would have been better had she not tried to enter the conversation in the first place.

A large voice had boomed through the room "Who wants seconds for tea?" or something like that.

In an instant, everyone's conversation died down, and echoes of "I will!" or "Please let me have some" bounced into the air. Hand shot up.

After which, Yoshino expected the happy conversations to start again, but then Nana said "I'll help you", turned toward the sink, and left Yoshino behind. Noriko-chan too had stood up, but when she saw Nana take the job, she sat back down again.

"This party is so much fun."

Yoshino-said, and recognized it as an expression of bitterness. But Nana who seemed not to notice the bitterness, laughed and said "Yeah, a lot of fun".

"Great huh. Is it really a good idea to help out when you're having so much fun?"

Her bitterness dripped and oozed out. It refused to stop. It seemed to Yoshino as if she were playing the role of saboteur.

"But, I wanted to talk, and so I thought this would be a good chance to."

Nana carelessly said, as she took Yoshino's cup in her hands.

"Huh?"

"Because, Yoshino-sama had been sitting so far away from me, right?"

"You wanted to... talk with me?"

When she heard Nana say what she really wanted, Yoshino's thorns felt caught up in a spider web.

Just what was this exhilarating feeling?

Nana wanted to talk? Yoshino-san had been sitting so far away? That means, Nana had been focusing her attention on Yoshino the whole time.

But suddenly Yoshino stopped. No no, she could not let herself get intoxicated by Nana's words.

"Mmhmm. I wanted to talk to Yoshino-sama."

Nana herself didn't realize, but she was incredibly good at building up someone's happiness, and then letting it all crash down.

"When do you want to talk to Hasekura Rei-sama about what we were talking about before?"

--- Oh no.

She really had to talk about it, didn't she?

Yoshino violently put some tea leaves into the teapot.