Maria-sama ga Miteru:Volume24 Chapter5 4

First Year Camellia Class is Normal. Part 4

– I wonder if she's okay.

Yumi-sama's words rang in her ears.

So when she took another look at her class, a couple of things caught her attention.

Touko ate her lunch alone.

She was alone during breaks too.

After school, when she didn't have club activities, she'd sit in her seat and work on her poster, but not a single classmate approached her. Even if they didn't help, they could at least have taken a look.

Touko was isolated.

Like a single drop of oil in water. She didn't mix with anyone in class.

"Ah, I asked her if she wanted any help once, but she turned me down."

Kanako-san said. Noriko had called out to her during a break and they were talking in the hallway.

As for why she was talking to Kanako-san, that was because she alone possessed an aura that was different to everyone else.

"You called out to her?"

Kanako-san immediately answered, "Pretty much."

"But it was only once. I'm not a fan of high-pressure sales tactics, where you keep going after you've been turned down. Plus I've been busy with my club activities. Of course, I'd still help out if she asked me to."

"Thank-you."

This elicited a smile from Kanako-san.

"I haven't done anything to earn your thanks, Noriko-san."

Still, thank-you. Noriko bowed her head in Touko's stead. In her position, she couldn't help Touko even if she wanted to, which made her all the more grateful.

"And I told you she turned down my offer … besides."

Kanako-san had a somewhat serious expression.

"What?"

"I don't think she'll ask for help."

"Yeah."

Noriko felt she might be right too.

"Hey."

Suddenly, Noriko wanted to hear Kanako-san's opinion.

"Why do you think Touko's acting like that?"

"I'm not sure but … faith? That's not quite right. But I get a vague feeling it's something like that."

Vague though it may be, Noriko thought Kanako-san's reasoning was on the right track.

"She doesn't want to be a bother to anyone, wouldn't you say? That's why I decided to leave her be."

Indeed. Maybe that was all she could do for now.

The strained relationship between Touko and her classmates was brought into the open through a trivial incident one day during recess.

"Does Touko-san really hate Yumi-sama that much?"

Touko had continued to pointedly ignore the election chatter, but this new approach caused her to unthinkingly raise her head.

"Now, I'll admit that Yumi-sama doesn't have the sort of good looks that make Ogasawara Sachiko-sama so hard to approach, nor does she exude intelligence or dignity. We probably shouldn't expect her to gain these any time soon either. But she more than makes up for that with her likeability and warmth. I'd like that kind of Rose. I think the future Roses should look for more people like that too."

This girl was a fan of Yumi-sama's.

"You can't accept Yumi-sama so you're pulling this crazy stunt of running in the election. Do you think you're any better?"

As a passionate fan, with her blood rushing to her head, she could only see what was on the surface.

What did she think she was going to achieve by telling Touko about Yumi-sama's appeal at this point. It had already progressed well past the stage for such an elementary argument. Touko wasn't that simple.

"Say something."

Yumi-sama's fan was getting more and more enraged as Touko sat there staring at her and not saying a thing.

The way Touko hadn't talked to her classmates, or offered any excuses, or done anything except sit alone and silently work on her campaign materials had obviously stuck in this girl's craw, leading to her current explosion.

She couldn't tolerate that Yumi-sama's rival was one of her classmates. Her friends tried to get her to stop but she shook them off and kept going.

"You were the one responsible for the temporary falling out between Rosa Chinensis and Yumi-sama at the start of summer, weren't you, Touko-san? But despite that, you pretended not to know and acted in the Yamayurikai's play for the school festival. You cozied up to Yumi-sama because you wanted to be a Rose, but now you're turning your knife against her?"

Ah, so that was it. Noriko understood now. She was envious. Of the deep connection Touko had to the Red Rose family. This impromptu protest was because she didn't know how to handle the envy she felt for the way Touko flitted about inside the Yamayurikai at will (or appeared to).

Did she understand her classmate's feelings or not? Either way, Touko laughed scornfully and spat out a single sentence.

"So, what?"

This antagonized not only the classmate that had been complaining to Touko, but also the other students around her.

Noriko watched all this unfold from a distance, judging that the situation would only deteriorate further if she tried to intervene, but even she could see that Touko was acting like a fool.

– I wonder if she's okay.

Yumi-sama's words echoed in her ears once more.