Maria-sama ga Miteru:Volume28 Chapter4 5

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On Monday, I ate lunch alone at my desk then left the classroom. I was walking down the hallway, on the way back from Milk Hall, when I bumped into Chisato-san.

"Got a minute?"

Chisato-san pointed towards the courtyard.

"Sure."

Thinking she just wanted to have a chat, I nodded my head and we walked outside together.

Even though we were in the same class, the only thing I had said to Chisato-san all morning was "Gokigenyou."

As soon as the lunch break started, Chisato-san had been surrounded by our fellow classmates barraging her with questions about her half-day date with Hasekura Rei-sama on Sunday, so there had been no opening for me to approach her.

"What happened to all the people you had glued to you?"

"I kept telling them that I couldn't say anything until the report was published in the Lillian Kawaraban. Eventually they got the message."

"I see."

This place had seemed like a frozen winter garden back when we walked around here searching for that hair-clip. But now, with the sun overhead, it felt so warm it was like a completely different place.

It had only been a matter of days since then. I suppose that meant spring was just around the corner.

"So? How was your date …. oh."

I trailed off mid-sentence. Chisato-san had just said that she couldn't talk about it until the report was published. Nonetheless.

"That was just an expedience. There's no gag-order, or anything like that."

Chisato-san stuck her tongue out cheekily.

"I just didn't want to talk about it. But there was something I wanted to tell you, Mayu-san... See, because of what happened, I've changed the way I've been thinking about things."

"What?"

"You told me to split them apart, right?"

"You're talking about Rei-sama?"

I asked, even though I had said that.

"While you were the one who said it, in truth, I'd been thinking it as well. After all, I'd cherish Rei-sama so much more than Yoshino-san does. I thought that if I could just get close to her, then she'd see that there were other girls out there that were so much nicer. That was my honest expectation. For our date."

"And? Your expectations were dashed?"

I asked, and Chisato-san's response was, "Not quite."

"Rei-sama was even more wonderful than I expected. But then I realized, somewhere within that wonderful Rei-sama was Yoshino-san."

"You mean in her thoughts?"

"That's not it. I don't really know how to explain it, but a part of Rei-sama's charm existed because of Yoshino-san. Let's say I managed to snatch Rei-sama away from Yoshino-san. I think I'd feel like there was something missing from that Rei-sama. What I like is the Rei-sama that's mixed with Yoshino-san. And so … "

"I get it."

I said, and Chisato-san's eyes widened in surprise.

"Really? From an explanation like that?"

"Yeah, I get it. Because I've been thinking something similar recently."

This time it was my turn to tell the story.

"Sakae-sama has a petit soeur."

"… So I've heard. The girls in the tennis club were all making a fuss about it."

"And her partner, a masterpiece. Koiso Akemi-san. It's like, geeze, I give up. Well played, Maria-sama."

Chisato-san apparently didn't appreciating my attempt at humor because she had a sullen look on her face.

"I mean, Sakae-sama looked to me like a wonderful lady."

"A wonderful lady?"

"Right, a wonderful lady. And I was shocked to think that I had broken up with such a wonderful lady."

But the thing that shocked me the most was how happy I felt after seeing them together. It was funny the way the sense of utmost regret turned to acceptance of what seemed inevitable.

"It was Akemi-san that made her such a wonderful lady. Again, a complete defeat for me. But that complete defeat was really refreshing."

"Yeah. That's how I felt too."

As we walked around the courtyard, we rubbed shoulders and laughed. Each of us with the knowledge that the one who best understood our feelings was the friend beside us.

"Ah, so that's where it is."

Chisato-san suddenly squatted down and said, "My hair-clip."

"Really? So you didn't find it earlier?"

I leaned over and followed Chisato-san's gaze.

"Wait, look. That's got to be somebody's prank, right?"

The silver hair-clip, decorated with flowers, had numerous pieces of clover growing through the part that holds on to the hair. The whole thing looked as though the clover was hair that the hair-clip was fastened to.

"Wouldn't it just grow naturally like that because of all the warm weather we've been having?"

I gently stroked the leaves of the clover that had been bunched together by the hair-clip. Clumped together as they were, it looked like there were five- and six-leaf clovers, never mind just three- or four-leaf ones.

"Maybe."

Chisato-san extracted her hair-clip from the bunch of clover.

"Even though I've finally found it, I won't have any use for it soon."

I looked at Chisato-san, uncomprehending, and she said:

"I was thinking of getting my hair cut short. Just like that."

My friend smiled as she made a chopping motion across her shoulder-length hair. She'd probably look good with short-hair. But I, with my shorter hair, couldn't drastically change my hair just by cutting it.

So I decided to ask Chisato-san for that hair-clip for which she would soon have no use.

"Sure. It's only a cheapie, though."

As she said this, Chisato-san stepped behind me, gathered the hair from the side of my head and clicked the hair-clip in place.

And with that, the lie that I had told Sakae-sama and Akemi-san had been turned into truth.

Freed from the hair-clip, the three-leaf clovers fluttered in the breeze.

"It's beautiful," I thought.