If Her Flag Breaks Volume 1 Chapter 3

Flag 3: Exploring and Rebuilding the Stronghold of the Fellowship

“Um… My dorm room. What about it…?”

As the school day in which they became friends with Akane ended, when Souta slung his school bag on his shoulders, Akane asked, “Souta-kun, where do you live?” After Souta answered thusly, she nodded, seeming to understand but not actually understanding.

“Can we go play there?”

“No.”

Hearing Souta’s answer, Akane said “Oh~”, about to cry, and her friendship flag broke in reply.

“He’s still as rough with the flags as before…” Nanami watched the conversation with her peripheral vision, putting her pencil case and other stationery in her school bag.

“That kind of place is not suitable for inviting girls.”

“Like the boy’s bathroom?”

“Which dorm is that?!”

Souta had a strong desire to rebuke Akane’s question.

“Is the room in a stall?”

“Even prisoners live in better places than this, right…?”

No, since it’s Miss Rich Girl, the toilet in her mansion might be quite big. With this train of thought, Souta decided it was pointless to hide it, so he told the truth.

“How do I put this? It’s because my dorm is messy, messy as hell.”

“Then we should come and clean it! Don’t look at me weird, but I love cleanliness!Mm-hmm!

As usual, another one of Akane’s friendship flags was erected immediately. Regarding this, Souta’s feelings had already begun to gradually move from fear to admiration.

Although Akane enthusiastically proposed this, Souta still crossed his arms and contemplated with an “Uhhhh…”

On the other hand, Akane was really motivated, inexplicably wiping an imaginary window with exaggerated movements like she was practicing boxing. Although, even if she was wiping a window, it was more like ‘Wax on! Wax off!’

“Huh?! Huh?! Souta and Akane, why did you suddenly become so close without the consent of Big Sis?!”

Kikuno, who didn’t know what happened during the lunch break, protested with a weeping expression and blamed Souta with an appearance a little like they were at odds with each other.

“Does this also require consent…?”

Nanami, now a bystander, murmured with a small smile:

“We just ate together during the lunch break, they’re actually not as close as you said…”

Kikuno puffed her cheeks angrily, not nearly as cute as a one year old. Souta explained what had happened while comforting her.

After listening to Souta’s explanation, Kikuno nodded with a slight smile, seemingly understanding but not actually understanding.

“Really? Akane is a really good kid, Big Sis strongly agrees that you should be friends!”

It seems consent has been acquired.

Kikuno turned and faced Akane with a deep bow.

“Sou-kun will be in your care.”

“Y-you don’t have to do that, Okiku-nee…!”

“Yeah, Kikuno-senpai, I’m not an outsider.”

“Huh?! You’re already family?! Sou-kun, why didn’t you talk with Big Sis first?! Big Sis feels lonely!!”

It seems consent hasn’t been fully acquired.

“Huh, what do you mean…?”

Big Sis’s logic was too unpredictable and Souta was at a loss, but Akane, at the topic’s center, was smiling.

“... Speaking of which, Akane just referred to Okiku-nee as ‘senpai’, right?” Although Kikuno was supposed to be a year older than them, it’s still strange to call a classmate ‘senpai’.

“Ah, um. Senpai guided me when I entered this school last year. Since she was Senpai at the time, it’s a bit weird to change it now…”

“Ah, but, at the time, I already knew I would become a first year a year late.”

The senpai in the same grade was a little shy.

It’s unknown whether this resolved the subject, but Akane, who wasn’t especially paying attention, returned to the original subject.

“Then, since we got the sister’s approval, we should go to Souta’s dorm! Mm-hmm!”

“... Did she approve?”

“Big Sis also wants to go! Mm-hmm!”

Doing things her own way at a level higher than Akane, Kikuno raised her hands with this declaration, blocking Souta’s question.

Confronted with mysterious enthusiasm, Souta was now patted on the waist from behind, startling him.

“!?”

He turned to look, but there was nobody behind him… Then he found that it was from below.

To the 170 cm (5’7’’) Souta, the other person was a young girl 50 cm (a little more than a foot and a half) shorter than him. Not only her height, but her appearance looked young. Although she looked like an elementary school student, her uniform revealed her to be a student in the same grade. That said, the other students called her ‘baba-sama’ during the lunch break, even asking her for advice.

“Give up, young Souta.”

“Young?!”

The young girl who seemed to be wearing nothing on her lower half used an experienced tone to treat Souta as if he was a little carrot or demon, making it so that Souta couldn’t help but raise his voice.

“Young Akane has a disease where she can’t just leave pitiable beings alone, you could say she’s in a critical condition. If you continue having a pitiful aura like this, you’ll always be stuck with her, okay? Plus, young Kikuno is very stubborn.”

The young girl chuckled and went on her way home.

Akane followed the silhouette with her eyes, and told the dumbstruck Souta:

“She is Tsumugi-baba-sama.”

“‘Baba-sama’...? … Is she an old lady?”

It is said that humans will gradually shrink when they pass a certain age, perhaps she was like that? But whether it’s her soft, elastic skin or her facial features, she looks like a young girl. Or is she just an old-fashioned young girl who skipped a few grades? The mysteries surrounding her identity increased.

“She is the living dictionary of this school. It is said that our school does not have students who don’t listen to the words of Tsumugi-baba-sama.”

“What happens if you don’t listen?”

“You’ll be cursed.”

“That’s not the same as a living dictionary, right?!”

Akane was pretty much just saying random things, but Souta didn’t know whether to take the rumor seriously or lose to Akane’s enthusiasm or think that Tsumugi’s advice made sense. Anyways, Souta sighed deeply and said, smiling bitterly, to Akane:

“Never mind. Since you think that way, if you want to come, come, but it’s no joke that the dorm is messy, alright?”

“Mm-hmm!! I can take the chance to show my skills! It’s the first time in my life that I get to clean a boy’s room!!”

“Big, Big Sis also wants to clean!!”

“Let’s team up!! Team up to attack!”

They actually want to attack…? At the same time Souta’s mood was a bit gloomy, he looked at the ‘Inexplicably motivated’ flag sticking up on Akane’s head with a bitter smile.

“It really makes people look forward to it, right, Nanami?”

“Eh? Why ask me?”

As Nanami zipped up her school bag, she suddenly received the topic thrown at her by Akane, and she frowned in suspicion.

“Because we are going together~”

“Why…?”

“I’ll tell you after we get there.”

“There’s literally no point in telling me after we get there!!”

Nanami somehow discovered Akane’s trap. Mahougasawa Akane… How did you think the other person wouldn’t notice?

“... Nevermind, I have nothing to do anyways, plus the older sister doesn’t watch over her charge. Giving the kind of guy Souta a chance to be alone is dangerous, so making me accompany thou would do no harm.”

“After all, Souta-kun would explode.”

“Am I really that dangerous?!”

This required a Level 5 hazardous substance management license. In other words, nitroglycerine people; or, perhaps, human nitroglycerin? There’s no difference anyways.

In this way the four-person group of Akane, Nanami, Kikuno, and Souta was formed, heading towards the dorm where Souta lived.

Outside the gigantic campus of Hatagaya Academy, there were mounted monorail trains encircling it. There are a total of four stations, namely, Yoyogi Uehara Station to the southwest of the academy, Yoyogi Park Station to the southeast, North Hatagaya Station to the northwest, and North Hatsudai Station to the northeast.

The high school was near the Yoyogi Park Station while Souta’s dorm was next to the North Hatsudai Station

Although it was a distance crossable by foot, students of Hatagaya Academy can freely get on and off these four stations as long as they present their student IDs, so of course they choose to take the trains.

“I thought the dorms were all concentrated on the avenue. It turns out there are some here as well.”

“Yep… For the sake of carefulness, I’ll confirm once again: the dorms are really messy, are you guys sure you want to come?”

“Hey Souta, thou only transferred for two days, and your room is already messy enough that it’s not to be seen by others…?”

“Don’t come if you have any problems with it…”

Before Nanami could counter Souta’s already exhausted words, Akane interjected cheerfully:

“It’s definitely that the luggage hasn’t been sorted and is in a messy pile, right? Just leave it to me!”

Akane’s enthusiasm flag was still strong.

The four got off at the academy’s North Hatsudai Station and, after walking a short distance, gradually saw farms and pastures.

“... What is this? The countryside?” Nanami asked.

“If I remember correctly… this is the farm of the Agriculture, Forestry, Seafood, and Horticulture Club.”

“Horticulture…?”

The landscape looked bucolic from a distance, and it felt quite large. Nanami frowned, wondering if it was part of the avoidance plan adopted by farmers afraid of losing production.

After passing through the farm, there was a dense area of trees, actually more like a forest than trees, where one felt like appreciating nature upon entering.

“... There’s a dormitory in this kind of place?”

“Awesome, you have a home in a forest.”

Compared to Nanami’s unhappy expression of “there should be a limit to how remote this is”, Akane had the smile she always had, thinking while facing forward.

Souta, who was leading from the front, had an attitude different from the two and kept walking.

And then, in a small clearing in the forest--

A building stood sadly, still and quiet.

The edge of the roof had fallen, and not only was part of the wall collapsed, it was also covered with ivy. The door was decaying, the windows were broken, and the surrounding area was overgrown with weeds.

Even if the standards were set low, it still looked like…

“Ruins…?”

“What the… What’s going on with this dilapidated dormitory…”

“Are these not ruins? Souta, thou didn’t go to the wrong place, right?”

“Didn’t I tell you? You see?”

Souta showed the dorm’s certification page in the student handbook. It said ‘Quest Dorm’. Nanami looked at the moldy door and frowned.

“This is indeed a ‘Quest Dorm’...”

“So you live… here… right?”

Akane was stunned, and her eyes lost their brilliance. However, Souta nodded, smiling with a hint of self-deprecation.

“For a lonely, poor person like me with dead parents, what can I expect? I have nowhere to go, and no home to go back to… The academy not only gives me shelter from the elements, but also a scholarship. If I ask for too much and get kicked out, wouldn’t I be even more unbearably pitiful?”

“But… even if it’s like that, living in this kind of place is…”

“After all, I’m in this type of circumstance, so they might think I’m somebody easily bullied. But by taking in somebody like me, it makes it easier for the academy to raise money… Although, the fact is that they would only need to take me in, nobody would care how it’s handled afterward.”

“How can this be… That’s too excessive…”

It might be because of all his tragedies that Souta had a hopeless attitude. This attitude, coupled with his situation, made Akane even more worried.

But before Akane’s broke out, Kikuno’s tear glands had already let loose.

“It’s too much… It’s too much… It’s actually like this… Sou-kun actually has to live in this type of place…!!”

Kikuno’s tears streamed down her face as she cried. Souta was extremely surprised.

“Hey… Wh-why does Okiku-nee need to cry? It… It doesn’t really matter.”

“Anywhere is fine… Souta-kun is too sad…”

“Why is even Akane crying?!”

Next to Kikuno, Akane followed suit, her tears pouring down like a waterfall. The atmosphere indicated that Souta was already in no position to prevent this.

“... Souta, did thou plan to let the invincible Miss Rich Girl clean this place? Instead of cleaning it, is it not faster to raze it to the ground and rebuild it again…?”

At least Nanami wouldn’t want to step foot into this dorm.

“Why… Why did Sou-kun have to meet this kind of treatment…”

“Waaah~ It’s too much… It’s too unjust…”

Kikuno and Akane, who erupted into tears, and Souta, who had been struggling to deal with Akane, didn’t hear Nanami speak at all.

Especially the always indifferent Souta - although he didn’t care about hurting himself, when he met girls who felt sad for him, he didn’t know what to do. Since he was no use comforting Akane, he looked to Nanami for help, almost crying himself.

Nanami, who had never encountered such mayhem, retreated on the spot.

“Uh…! … This… E-enough! Crying for what? Think of a solution instead! No matter what is done, it’s better than this!”

Nanami already stopped holding back, pretty much challenging an enemy to battle at this point. Akane stopped crying, showed a blooming smile, and hugged Nanami.

“Nanami really is a good person!”

“Wow… Hey! Stop hugging, stop sticking to me! Souta, save me!”

Nanami, who couldn’t stand Akane rubbing her cheeks, issued an SOS signal, but Souta said in ridicule:

“Isn’t this great? I think you guys as friends are closer than as friends with me, yeah?”

Souta, who originally had a sad smile, didn’t have any malicious intent when he said this, but Kikuno, facing the wrong direction, felt her super-sensitive Sisterly Love Radar receive the wrong radio wave at the moment and rushed over to Souta.

“R-rest assured, Sou-kun! Big Sis will help you ask Akane to be your friend! You don’t have to feel lonely!”

“Eh…? No… Okiku-nee, what are you…!”

“Akane, please also be friends with Souta!”

Kikuno, ignoring Souta’s attempt at stopping her and maximizing her sisterly doting, pleaded with sincerity.

Akane, receiving the pleading, felt her frequently used loneliness sensor go to the max, let go of Nanami, clasped Souta’s hand, and said:

“I’m sorry, Souta! I’m a friend, but I let you feel lonely; I’m unqualified as a friend! You are my good friend, though! Please don’t feel lonely! Akane and Nanami and Kikuno-senpai and Souta-kun are a very close four-person group!”

Akane made Kikuno hold the hands of Nanami and Souta, taking the two’s empty other hands for herself, forming a circle. The four started spinning circles, but only Akane emitted the laughter of “Ahahahahaha!”

After spinning for a while, Akane, albeit dizzy and unstable, faced Souta and said:

“Look! I also can’t let poor Souta go uncared for!”

“Souta is on the other side, Akane.”

Because she was dizzy and unstable, she didn’t face Souta.

“Mother once said, ‘Close friends are magic staffs’ and ‘That’s the magic that makes you feel like you can do everything’. Souta-kun and Nanami are wonderful, bright magic in my mind.”

Akane clasped Souta’s hand again, smiling. As if infected by the poetic lines, Nanami smiled slightly and added a sentence of her thoughts:

“Put simply, Akane is a magician specializing in summoning gentle fairies~”

“Nanami, you’re a poet!”

“Huh?! D-doesn’t count! W-what I just said doesn’t count!!”

Nanami was shocked and thought she said something embarrassing and shameful, her face heating up.

“I want to hear more of Nanami’s poems!”

“Do not mention poems!!”

“It doesn’t matter, this is the privilege of youth! Everyone, let’s abuse the privilege together and run around the seaside finding trouble at dusk!”

“Do not waste youth, nyaa!”

“The atmosphere’s getting better and better…” Souta thought as he watched Akane and Nanami with a wry smile. He then inadvertently looked at the top of Akane’s head…

“Souta-kun also needs to waste youth with us.”

Akane’s ‘Can’t leave pitiful people alone’ attitude was completely switched on, and friendship flags overwhelmingly stood wildly.

Seeing the flags stand haphazardly, Souta thought, “Is it me?! Did I do something wrong?! God… please, don’t do this anymore.” and he couldn’t help but take three steps backwards. Unfortunately, he didn’t find a bunch of pink love flags in the pile of friendship flags…

“... Then, what should we do to fix the dorm?”

“That’s what I want to ask!”

Triumphantly following the original road and turning around, Akane, sitting on a tram, skewed her neck and asked, and Nanami yelled as she felt a bit shocked.

The group consisting of Her Royal Highness the Princess who was a little ignorant of the world and Miss Rich Girl, plus the newly transferred Souta, crossed their arms and looked to the sky in deep thought.

Watching the group of young people with a smile, Kikuno chose the right timing, raised her index finger, and said:

“When there is difficulty, the saying goes that if ginger is old, it’s spicy.”

These are only rumors, so it’s unknown whether it refers to the ‘old’ ginger, the person who looks like a young girl and sips green tea at the Tea Ceremony Club.

“The dorm is dilapidated? Quest Dorm? After all, it was built when the academy was founded. It feels like even if it’s sorted out it still wouldn’t become clean.”

It was the living dictionary of the academy. After listening to Akane and company speak, Tsumugi put a rice cake in her mouth, and said:

“Would it not be faster to rebuild it from the ground?”

Although Nanami claimed that her joke earlier wasn’t in the middle nor far away, Tsumugi poured a bowl of cold water after taking a sip of tea.

“I heard that because of the declining birthrate, the school management is in dire straits. Are they willing to pay for it?”

“Can’t we… think of a way?!”

“Recent students are too dependent on their hearts. They don’t even understand taking matters into their own hands…”

Seeing Tsumugi enter preaching mode, the four all had stiff smiles on their faces, inching back slowly.

“Speaking of which, although they were a little worn out, they immediately lost heart, proving that recent young people lack perseverance. It’s not like old people love saying this…”

Akane and the others quietly opened the paper door of the Tea Ceremony Club. Meanwhile, Tsumugi was still ranting with her eyes closed.

After leaving the Tea Ceremony Club, they sat down on the benches on the sidewalk, hopelessly sipping on juice boxes.

“Hey, would we get scolded if we rebuilt without authorization?”

“It would be surprising not to…”

The relatively less hopeless Nanami voiced her thoughts and was immediately rejected by Souta.

“Then there’s no other way… Souta, please get scolded.”

“You’re planning to secretly rebuild?!”

Souta was scared silly.

“Rest assured, Sou-kun! Big Sis will be scolded on your behalf!

“How can you be spoiled like this…!”

The sisterly love the elder sister gave to the younger brother made Nanami retreat.

Souta worried about Akane, whose tears had gradually filled her eyes to the brim.

“... Every time I watch ‘‘Princess Sara’’ or ‘‘Dog of Flanders’’, I always can’t stop crying, can’t stop crying, I can’t bear to keep watching! When I think of Souta like that… in a dilapidated dormitory, in a snowstorm… dying… I just…”

Akane’s big tears streamed down her face again.

“Don’t make others cry!!”

“S-sorry… Dont, don’t worry. See~ Speaking of which, I should actually be more like Perrine or Aurelie.”

“You’re more like an animal…”

“Sou-kun, you’re so cute!”

“Souta-kun, you’re actually a beast!!”

Disregarding the discrepancy in opinion between sister and friend, Souta grieved at being called a beast.

“It doesn’t matter whether it’s a beast’s house or a dog’s house. The main point is that, even if you want to remodel, you have to overcome the problem of financial inconvenience.”

“Nanami called her friend a beast or dog, that’s too over-the-top!”

“Thou said it first, thou obviously said it first!!”

As Akane and Nanami conversed, Souta, in a way only a young person could, realized that being called a beast or dog by girls really hurt.

“Souta, do you want to try begging? Since the other person is a rich girl, she could definitely provide funds.”

“Huh?! Souta, you want to beg me?! That’s more than I could wish for! It’d be the first time a boy begged me! Do it, do it, please! Mm-hmm!”

“......”

Seeing Akane move her like a wrestler before a match, showing enthusiasm by bringing both elbows in front of her chest while breathing heavily, Souta couldn’t help but twitch the corner of his mouth.

If Souta refused to beg Akane now, Souta’s pitiful circumstances would not be resolved, Akane would continue to be sad, and Nanami would continue blaming Souta for making Akane sad. In this spiral of sorrow and pain, it was Souta who would be pained most in the end.

In addition, he also thought that the most important thing was avoiding the haziness of Akane’s expectant smile. So after thoroughly preparing himself, Souta finally said:

“Akane, please build a new dorm.”

“Huh-- how normal--”

“Couldn’t thou have acted more flattering, Souta?”

Reprimanded by the two girls, the young man lost his foothold.

“Sou-kun, do you want Big Sis to help you beg?”

With this said by the doting sister, even getting a tip-of-the-toe-hold was unthinkable, not to mention a foothold.

At this time, Souta steeled himself, forcibly flashed a dazzling smile, and said to Akane:

“Could you please help poor me build a new dorm, beautiful Akane? You are my heart’s angel, the only one I can beg.”

“Souta-kun, you’re such a pretty-faced young man.”

“Souta, thou is absolutely rotten.”

“It was you two who told me to say it, it was you two who told me to say it, though!!

Souta was hit hard, hugging his thighs on the bench and shouting at his knees.

“Big Sis knows, Big Sis’s Sou-kun is not that kind of child!”

The doting sister’s trust was pointlessly heavy.

“But, if there is no way to respond to a boy’s whole-hearted plea, then one can’t be called a woman. I want to do something for him… however--”

“However?”

Seeing Akane stop talking, Nanami was puzzled.

“I, don't have money…”

“Huh? Aren’t thou Miss Rich Girl?”

“In truth… When I came here to live in a dorm, I accepted my family’s condition: unless it’s an urgent emergency, I must do my best to try to deal with it without depending on my family. So…”

“Oh, it’s like that. Allowing freedom, but requiring self-sufficiency… It’s like that no matter where it is.”

Nanami had a ridiculous smile, firmly holding her flat, empty juice box.

“Huh?”

“It’s okay. However, this is a headache. Our principality is also very poor… It’s impossible to ask for money…”

Akane and Nanami left Souta aside and started a discussion, and this allowed Souta to suddenly regain his senses.

“Excuse me… That said, what was the reason I just did that for…?”

“Souta’s efforts will not be wasted. One day that effort will bear fruit, and its harvest will be sold in a store as food.”

Although he felt he was gradually being taken for food, because Akane’s coy laugh of “Heeheehee” was really cute and he didn’t feel any malicious intent from Akane, Souta could only deal with it with a sigh in the end.

“Before Souta-kun is taken for food, we must do our best to help him, Nanami!”

“Huh… I need to too…?”

Nanami, being held in both hands by Akane, frowned, troubled.

Although, Akane just seemed like the uncommonly used phrase ‘food’, so she really wanted to use it.

“There’s also Big Sis too, Sou-kun!”

What the sister would do afterwards was unclear.

In the end, they did not think of a good idea that day, so the meeting was adjourned… The next morning--

Souta entered the classroom and sat down in his seat. Nanami turned, sitting on the side of her chair, and said good morning while getting into the topic.

“I asked the housemasters at my dorm, and it seems that the boy’s dorms are full to the point it’s about to burst?”

“Well then… I’ll be put there, maybe not entirely out of malicious intent.”

Looking closely, while Souta’s uniform and school bag were obviously brand new, they seemed to be covered with a layer of dust.

“You might as well live in a tent.”

“Maybe…”

“Are you guys planning to go camping without inviting me?! It would be my first time living in a tent. I always live in a villa, homestay, or vacation apartment and such!”

Akane popped in between the two.

“Thy head is only filled with thoughts about playing…”

Nanami smiled lightly, and Akane continued to ask her, “Are you going to the mountains? Or the beach?”

“Thou misunderstood. We are talking about Souta’s dorm.”

“Oh… Everyone should forget about the dorm business, and go play together?”

“Thy positivity is too exaggerated!!”

Incidentally, when you get tired of playing and go home, there is a trap of ‘remembering reality and falling into despair’ waiting for you.

“Hey~ What’s wrong with the dorm?”

The classmate with blonde hair and pierced ears who gave Souta his seat earlier heard the exchange asked with a frivolous tone.

After Souta explained, he looked at the sky with an “Umm--”, and, after a long while, he said:

“Would you like to come to our dormitory? I think it’d be okay as long as you explain everything. Although crowding a room meant for four with a fifth person might be a little tight.”

“It’s obviously a frivolous guy who would cheat girls everywhere, but he’s still kind regardless…” The surrounding students sighed that such people really aren’t attractive.

But, Souta looked at the frivolous classmate’s head, and immediately replied:

“I can’t sleep if I’m not alone.”

“Really? Then there’s no way.”

He gave up and walked back to his seat.

“I said that thou are not allowed to break flags!”

Nanami saw everything, and mercilessly awarded Souta a hand chop.

“Flag…?”

Akane tilted her head suspiciously, and Souta hurriedly covered it up with a “Nothing, nothing.”

However, perhaps because it wasn’t covered up correctly or that Souta’s agitation wasn’t very natural, Akane felt that there was something not right with Souta’s series of actions.

“What’s going on… Is he clumsy? Or… afraid?... Just like that time… like me… if it’s really like that… if it’s really like that… then there’s even more reasons why I can’t just leave him alone!”

Akane’s mind strengthened Souta’s sorry impression, and flags stood up more fiercely on her head.

Souta saw this and tiredly exhibited a bitter expression.

… At this time, petite classmate Ryuukishibara Tsumugi and Kikuno walked into the classroom with a young girl wearing a uniform with a strangely colored bow tie, equipped with shoulder pads and arm guards, dressed quite strangely.

“Ah, Kikuno-senpai… and Baba-sama.”

“You few, you left yesterday without finishing listening to my words?! Recently, young people are really…”

“Okay okay, Baba-sama, pointless ramblings don’t really count.”

The female classmate brought by Tsumugi issued a heroic laugh of “Bwahahahahaha!” and stopped Tsumugi’s rant.

“You just said something silly…”

“Excuse me, Baba-sama… This person is…?”

Akane asked this, and saw the mysterious girl catch everyone’s attention by flipping her hair pointlessly and stepping forward.

“I actually waited for someone to ask to introduce myself, that was really oolong… Correction, it was really disrespectful. I am Hatagaya Academy’s student president, Seiteikoji Mimori!”

“The student president…”

“This academy attaches great importance to the students’ autonomy. Seek the Student Council if you are in need of assistance. In fact, the Student Council is also responsible for dormitory affairs, and I am the person in charge.”

“Eh?! So she’s the culprit who put Souta-kun in that kind of dorm?!”

Akane’s and Nanami’s gazes were mixed with some hostility.

“I was accidentally on autopilot and put him in an empty dorm~ But I hear it’s very shabby, right? I’ll observe the situation after school, and we’ll go from there. And Baba-sama asked me to do what I can to help!”

“Huh… Didn’t Baba-sama say that we were too dependent on our hearts yesterday…?”

“I did say to take matters into your own hands. But I never said I wouldn’t help? The short-temperedness of young people isn’t good.”

Tsumugi crossed her arms and pursed her lips. Purely in terms of appearance, she looked like a pouting young girl.

But, her raised arms exuded so much senseless good intentions that Akane happily put her hands together.

“Baba-sama is so reliable!!”

“Although it should be that I am more reliable!!”

Mimori was meaninglessly and unreasonably unwilling to show her weakness, making Nanami laugh.

“The student president is so childish…”

“... And, since young Kikuno was full of sisterly love and cried and begged, it can’t be helped. You have such a good sister, young Souta.”

Although, said sister was, infact, just a neighborly sister who lived nearby and loved to take care of people. However, in this kind of atmosphere, Souta couldn’t say anything about that.

“Thank you, Okiku-nee.”

“Why so formal? For Sou-kun, it’s expected that Big Sis helps!”

But, those who knew the truth smiled wryly. The only person at the scene who wasn’t smiling wryly but still smiling was Akane.

“Great, Souta-kun!”

“I don’t really care… but, since Akane and Okiku-nee won’t be sad, then so be it, I guess?

Regardless of his real thoughts, Souta revealed a natural smile as he said this, making Akane ecstatic and feel as if all her pores had opened.

“Souta-kun’s smile… is so charming…! I want to see it more!”

Seeing the flag on Akane’s head flutter and wave, Souta’s smile instantly clouded over, and Akane nearly cried.

Translator notes and references

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