★ Culture Festival, New Year, and Winter Camp ★
Chapter 250: A New Beginning
The school trip had ended.
By the end of November, the weather was gradually turning colder, to the point that Sakurai Saki even thought about wearing a scarf.
While jogging that morning, he came across quite a few high school girls living nearby, hurrying off — probably to participate in club activities. Wearing skirts, some even deliberately shortening them a lot; he wondered whether they weren't afraid of the cold.
For the sake of beauty, girls really could do anything.
Camouflage (makeup), reconstructing their bodies (plastic surgery), altering dimensions in another space (photoshop)… just the thought of it gave Sakurai Saki chills.
Luckily, he was a boy — male in appearance, male in gender identity — so he didn't need to worry too much about looks. Saki was the type who shone brightly even with a bare face. Honestly, these days, how many guys would spend tons of time putting on makeup just to step outside?
Sakurai Saki pushed open the door of his rented apartment, ready to head out, when the cold wind slapped him in the face. Winter was approaching. Recently, the temperature had dropped quite a bit, but since it hadn't stayed below ten degrees for ten straight days yet, it wasn't considered the real start of winter.
Shuchiin's culture festival was to be held on December 18 and 19. At first it was only one day, but thanks to Shirogane Miyuki's efforts, it had been extended to two.
Holding a culture festival so close to winter really was puzzling — after all, just a week after the festival, December 25 would be Christmas.
Christmas. Sakurai Saki was still wondering who he would spend it with. Honestly, anyone was fine. After all, Hayasaka Ai had already broken free from that "cage." She had even shouted out, "Sayonara! Cage!" to celebrate her freedom.
The Shinomiya family no longer placed too many restrictions on Hayasaka Ai. Although Shinomiya Kaguya still hadn't fully forgiven her betrayal, the relationship between the two had shifted from mistress and servant to friends.
Sakurai Saki figured the reason was because that day he had displayed a little of his power in front of the Shinomiya family, which made them much more obedient.
Leaving the apartment building, Sakurai Saki saw Hayasaka Ai waiting at the entrance.
Blonde hair, Bluetooth earphones, wearing Shuchiin's winter uniform, with a light gray knit cardigan on top — she actually looked quite cozy.
"Good morning, Ai-chan."
(ᵔᗜᵔ)੭
"Darling, I've been waiting for you for several minutes already." Hayasaka Ai pulled out her phone, showing him their message history.
The last LINE message between them was just one minute ago.
"You're not going to school with Shinomiya-san today?" Sakurai Saki held her hand, the cold wind suddenly warming a little.
For the past week, the two had chosen to walk to school together.
But today was Monday, and usually Hayasaka Ai would go to school with Shinomiya Kaguya. The two girls had even arranged it that way.
"Kaguya? Doesn't matter anymore. Yesterday she invited me to sleep over, and we ended up talking about you the whole time. She even said the reason she didn't win in the midterms last week was because she got careless." Hayasaka Ai spoke while leaning close to Sakurai Saki, resting her cheek against his shoulder.
Like this, it was hard to walk properly.
"Ai-chan… if you're like this, how am I supposed to walk? And why is it that just because she mentioned me, you won't go with her anymore?"
"Because~ it seems like she likes you already." Hayasaka Ai's voice was cool.
Hayasaka: (◣ ˰ ◢)੭▬ι═ﺤ
"I won't be interested in her… besides, she doesn't actually like me anyway."
"Look at you, you even switched from calling her 'Kaguya-san' to 'Shinomiya-san.' That alone shows you have something in your heart."
"Avoiding suspicion." Sakurai Saki only said those two words.
Hayasaka Ai clung to him as they walked for a few steps, but soon realized it really was too difficult, so she let him go.
"Setting Kaguya aside for now, what about Chika?" As soon as Hayasaka Ai said that, Sakurai Saki was left speechless.
He could only sigh inwardly — Hayasaka Ai after breaking free from Shinomiya Kaguya's control was truly frightening.
The possessiveness she had suppressed before was now exploding intensely.
Recently, Sakurai Saki hardly went to the student council at all; after school, he would just go home with his girlfriend.
He almost missed the old Ai-chan, who at least knew how to be a bit tsundere.
Old Hayasaka: (*ᴗ͈ˬᴗ͈)ꕤ*.ﾟ
New Hayasaka: ლლლ(ಠ益ಠ)ლლლ
"Are you planning to ride two boats at once?"
"…Can't I?"
"What do you think? Of course not." Hayasaka Ai ruthlessly crushed his illusion.
Previously, when she had no time, she allowed Chika — the pink cat who loved to sneak around — to "sneak into the house" a few times. Now that she was free, did that cat still dare to have such thoughts? No way!
Hayasaka to Chika: (♡ˊ͈ ꒳ ˋ͈)っ /̵͇̿̿/'̿'̿ ̿ ̿̿ ̿̿ ̿̿ (,,>﹏<,,)
"The more I love you, the less I want to share you with any other girl. My possessiveness is really strong, you know."
After saying that, Hayasaka Ai fell silent for a few seconds, then slightly compromised:
"If five years from now, she still likes you, then giving her a chance wouldn't be impossible."
She didn't believe Fujiwara Chika could like her boyfriend for five whole years.
Besides, with that girl's grades, whether the two of them could even attend the same university was still uncertain.
"…Ai-chan, you know what? What you just said, normally people call that setting up a flag."
"Hm?" Hayasaka Ai stopped walking, tilted her head and looked at him. "If there really is someone who can like you for five years, then I wouldn't mind if there were a few more people."
"I would mind." Sakurai Saki replied seriously.
Words like that from a girl, don't take them seriously.
"Consider it as you passing the test." Hayasaka Ai smiled mischievously.
Hayasaka: (≖⩊≖)
She took one of her Bluetooth earphones and put it into Sakurai Saki's ear.
"Just in time, a fitting song came up. Listen to it."
As soon as the intro played, Sakurai Saki felt a chill run down his spine.
Kanashimi no Mukou e (To The Other Side Of Sorrow) — The song played during the credits of School Days' bad endings and during the climax of the anime's final episode.
Sakurai : Σ(°ロ°)
What did Ai-chan mean by this?
Seeing his confused face, Hayasaka Ai's lips curled up, her delight reaching its peak.
"Don't you dare cheat, Saki-chan~"
"I will always love you~" Sakurai Saki's voice trembled.
"Eh, that sounded so fake, clearly you were scared." Hayasaka Ai's crisp laughter rang out along the roadside, making passersby turn to look. But when they saw her face clearly, they all froze in awe of her beauty.
The rows of ginkgo trees lining the street had already shed their leaves, signaling a late autumn morning stepping into winter.
The two of them held hands and walked together toward the school.
...
That afternoon after school, Sakurai Saki had to go to the student council to discuss matters related to the cultural festival with Shirogane Miyuki.
"Sakurai, why are you here today?" Shirogane Miyuki was surprised — recently, Sakurai had rarely come to the student council.
Many students had already seen him and Hayasaka Ai going home together; the Media club even added a special section in the school magazine, writing several hundred words about the matter.
"Shirogane, dating is really exhausting." Sakurai closed the door, then dropped heavily onto the sofa.
He leaned back, his voice filled with doubt about life: "Turns out, these past six months, what I thought was dating wasn't dating at all."
"Huh?" Shirogane put down his pen, not understanding what the hell he was talking about.
"Being a scumbag is hard." Sakurai looked up at the ceiling, sighing endlessly.
How to become a successful scumbag like Shishio? Truly a philosophical question.
In novels, that so-called peaceful harem is all fake! In reality, no girl would willingly share her boyfriend.
Don't be fooled by Fujiwara Chika's smiling face, in truth she didn't want it either. Previously, she had flatly rejected his suggestion of "two-timing."
Only Nino — that adorable little devil — showed she didn't mind, but Sakurai didn't dare to guess what she truly thought in her heart.
"Then don't be a scumbag anymore. Wait, what did you say to Hayasaka?"
"I told her I wanted to 'two-time'."
Shirogane: ∘ ∘ ∘ ( °ヮ° ) ?
Shirogane blinked a few times, took several seconds to confirm that he hadn't misheard.
"She didn't slap you and break up with you, that's already extremely generous."
"I think so too."
...
...
Yo guys, I have a small announcement.
Tomorrow I have to attend my cousin's wedding, and I'm pretty sure I'll come home drunk—no, no, I'm not even sure I'll make it home at all or just sleep right there…
So tomorrow please let me take the day off, my apologies.
Bye bye, have a nice day~.