Maria-sama ga Miteru:Volume29 Chapter5 3

Santa's Refreshments. Part 3.

There was a guest waiting for Yumi in the Rose (not Rice) Mansion.

"Gokigenyou, Yumi-san."

Her exams were over and Tsukiyama Minako-sama was coming back to life, like an animal waking from its winter hibernation.

"Go – gokigenyou."

Yumi studied Touko's face to try and determine what was going on as she took a seat beside her. Their guest was still standing, but that wasn't a problem. Noriko-chan, Yoshino-san and Shimako-san were all in the room. It was inconceivable that no-one had offered her a chair already, so Minako-sama was probably standing because she wanted to.

"What's the matter?"

Touko was silently working on something, so Yumi asked Shimako-san who was closest to her on the other side.

"That's …"

Mindful of Minako-sama's presence, Shimako-san spoke softly. To summarize, Minako-sama had come to the Rose Mansion because she had a job for Touko and was waiting for Touko to finish because she wanted it as soon as possible.

"And then."

Shimako-san half-rose from her seat and whispered in Yumi's ear, being mindful of Touko.

"Touko-chan said she shouldn't just suddenly ask for this, and they had a bit of a quarrel. But in the end …"

Apparently Minako-sama had used her position as a senior to twist Touko's arm.

Yumi peered at Touko's hands to try and determine what kind of work she was doing. Then, without staying her hand, Touko said:

"I'm proofreading for the Lillian Kawaraban."

This week's edition was the special feature on the dates that the Valentine's Day event winners had with the next Roses. Touko was checking over the report that she had submitted and making corrections on the test print with a red pen. Yumi had done a similar thing last week, however unlike the extra edition that contained hardly any writing, it looked like this was taking somewhat longer.

"Hey, what are you going to do?"

Yoshino-san inquired, from the seat opposite.

"There's not a lot I can do."

If Yumi had been here while they were having their dispute then perhaps she could have done more, but now that Touko had already started working it was a bit late for her to be butting in.

Yumi opened her lunch-box and started to eat. Noriko-chan poured her a cup of tea and brought it over. Minako-sama was also offered tea, but she declined, saying she wasn't going to be staying long.

Ordinarily, all visitors to the Rose Mansion were offered tea, however they had decided to suspend that practice for this week as they expected there would be a large number of students coming and going. But they would still make the offer if they themselves were drinking tea, and if requested would of course serve their guests.

Just as Yumi was finishing her lunch, Touko stood up beside her.

"Here. It's done."

Touko walked over to where Minako-sama was standing and gave her the Lillian Kawaraban test print. Always the actress. Her face didn't show what was in her heart. Knowing that she was really sulking just made it all the more frightening.

Yumi closed her lunch-box and stood up. Ready to support Touko, just in case. Yumi felt that, as Touko's grande soeur, she couldn't let this go unacknowledged.

"I'm so sorry to have made you wait."

"Not at all, I apologize for rushing you."

Touko then said, "Excuse me," and walked away, leaving Yumi standing there. Touko then started heartily biting into her half-eaten rice balls, although it was unclear whether she was trying to insinuate something or just hungry.

"Still, for a third-year to come all the way out here, Minako-sama … "

It would be reading too much into this statement to interpret it as sarcasm, as in, "Have your juniors turned you into their errand girl?" Unfortunately, Yumi didn't have that sort of skill on tap, so the only meaning was what the words themselves contained. Yumi had thought that Minako-sama's involvement in last week's extra edition was some kind of exception, but perhaps she was still fully participating in all newspaper club activities.

"My juniors are all busy, so I volunteered to help. Or, should I say, I talked them in to letting me do this."

So it appears that this Tsukiyama Minako-sama isn't sensitive to such barbs, for she took it as stated and provided a normal answer. Peace and tranquility. Yoshino-san and Noriko-chan had both pricked their ears up, their hearts racing, but, of course, they went unnoticed.

"I want to be part of the Lillian Kawaraban, in whatever way I can."

Minako-sama spoke those words with pride, and there was something to admire about her unfaltering dedication to the school newspaper.

Having no reason to stay now that she had received the corrections to the test print, Minako-sama farewelled everyone with a, "Sorry for bothering you," and walked towards the exit. Thinking she should see her off, Yumi followed Minako-sama, but was stopped at the doorway by Minako-sama saying, "Here will be fine."

"Anyway, hey, did you hear?"

Minako-sama said, with her hand still on the doorknob, as though she had just remembered something.

"Sachiko-san's completely stopped her eccentric behavior."

"Eccentric..."

Is that really the kind of word you'd use to describe someone who doesn't usually cram for exams working through a book of problems?

"So, what was it all about?"

Minako-sama leaned up against her.

"I told you, I don't know."

Yumi herself had never actually seen Sachiko-sama while she was apparently cramming for an exam. So, now that she heard that Sachiko-sama had suddenly stopped, it made her doubt the validity of the earlier rumors entirely.

"At any rate, it doesn't concern me."

Yumi bundled Minako-sama out the door, sending her off with, "That's enough for today." Though she heard Minako-sama say, "Can't you do something about it?" Yumi kept pulling on the door knob so that Minako-sama couldn't open it, and eventually she heard the sounds of someone descending the stairs. Perhaps she had remembered that she didn't have any time to waste.

Touko watched carefully as Yumi returned to her seat, relieved.

"Rosa Chinensis' eccentricities, do they have anything to do with Suguru onii-sama?"

That was a curious question to ask.

"Why would you mention Kashiwagi-san?"

It seemed quite a leap. After all, Minako-sama had said 'Sachiko-san' but she hadn't mentioned 'Kashiwagi-san' at all.

"It might be unrelated, but I heard that, recently, Suguru onii-sama has been going over to the Ogasawara house every day."

"Every day? I wonder what for."

Still, that's what you'd expect from a blood relative. Touko heard conversations that Yumi wasn't even aware of.

"I don't know. But perhaps he has some business with Sachiko-sama's father or grandfather that requires a daily visit."

"Well, who knows."

Still, there was a chance that he was going there to see Sachiko-sama. Well, it felt like that was actually the most likely possibility.

Sachiko-sama had said she had things to attend to, and then went home early every day. Yumi hadn't even imagined that it was because she had an appointment with Kashiwagi-san.

"Hmmmm."

Yumi didn't know the answer. If Touko, who just gave this report, didn't know, then Yumi didn't know either. And if Yumi didn't know, then chances are no-one else here knew either. All they could do was look at each other and think about it, although that felt like a waste of time.

And then.

"Excuse me. I'm from the story-telling club – "

"I'm from the candy-making club – "

They had to deal with a steady stream of visitors like these, and didn't have any spare time to dwell on the matter.