Chapter 25: School trip.
Morofushi Sora'aki has always been open to reading anything, and Nozaki Umetarou mastered this skill of befriending him at the beginning of the school year. Coupled with their inexplicably harmonious and straightforward thought processes, the two unexpectedly developed a very good relationship.
The only thing that bothered Morofushi Sora'aki was that he had to crane his neck every time he spoke to Nozaki Umetarou. At nearly 170cm tall, he wasn't short for a typical first-year high school student, but next to Nozaki, who was almost 190cm tall, Morofushi Sora'aki looked quite petite, almost a whole head shorter.
So Morofushi Sora'aki stood up straight, compared his height with that of Matsuda Jinpei who was yawning, and was satisfied.
This time it was Matsuda Jinpei's turn to be unhappy.
The curly-haired boy standing on the school rooftop looked over with a sour expression: "What do you mean?"
"Haha, has Sora'aki-chan reached the age where he cares about his height now?" Hagiwara Kenji chimed in, adding fuel to the fire. "As for me, I've never had to worry about that~"
"...What do you usually eat behind our backs?" Matsuda Jinpei asked, squinting his eyes.
When they were in junior high, things were fine, and the gap between them wasn't that big. But recently, Hagiwara Kenji has been growing taller, and his appetite has also increased a lot.
"Don't you all know what I eat? Besides, don't you often come to my house for meals, Jinpei-chan? We don't eat much different things, do we?" Hagiwara Kenji said.
Morofushi Sora'aki, biting on the straw of his drink, comforted him, "It's okay, I still have Jinpei-chan to keep me company."
"...Well, normally you should say 'I'm here with Jinpei-chan' at this point, right, Sora'aki-chan?"
"Oh, then I'll stay with Jinpei-chan."
"Who needs you to do this kind of thing?!" Matsuda Jinpei declared fiercely, "Don't even mention you, I'll definitely grow taller than Hagi!"
"Then I look forward to it." After saying that, Morofushi Sora'aki looked at Hagiwara Kenji.
Hagiwara Kenji nodded: "Yes, yes, there's nothing wrong with the context. It's fine to say that when someone is provoking you."
Matsuda Jinpei: "..."
Matsuda Jinpei: "I've been wanting to ask you this since earlier, what are you guys playing now?"
"Haha, can't you tell?" Hagiwara Kenji said, his eyes crinkling.
"That's why I asked, because I could tell." Matsuda Jinpei took a bite of his yakisoba bread. "Raki isn't a primary school student anymore. You don't need to teach him this kind of conversation, do you?"
"Besides, isn't it Hagi who handles these things?" Matsuda Jinpei choked a little. He took a sip of plum juice, frowned subconsciously, and commented, "Next time, buy carbonated drinks."
Morofushi Sora'aki: "Okay."
"...I'm so touched." Hagiwara Kenji blinked, as if tears were about to well up in his eyes. "I never expected you, Jinpei-chan, to believe in me so much!"
"Your expression is disgusting." Matsuda Jinpei said mercilessly.
Morofushi Sora'aki, who was about to repeat himself, looked at it carefully and denied it, saying, "I don't think so."
According to Matsuda Jinpei, Hagiwara Kenji's expression at that moment was even more disgusting.
"Haha, I'm done playing." Hagiwara Kenji waved his hand. "How should I put it, Sora'aki-chan and Jinpei-chan are still a little different on your side?"
"After all, we go to and from school together every day, our homes are close, and you often eat at my house. But as for Sora'aki-chan… well… well… let's just say, I can be sure that I can be there for you anytime, or rather, that I can appear by your side in time, but I can't guarantee that I'll always be by Sora'aki-chan's side," Hagiwara Kenji said bluntly.
In a friendship between three people, there will always be a situation where two of them get along better, while the third is overlooked.
However, the relationship between the three of them is a bit more special.
Regardless of who gets along better with whom, purely in terms of personality, Matsuda Jinpei and Hagiwara Kenji both intentionally or unintentionally take care of Morofushi Sora'aki more.
Under these circumstances, Hagiwara Kenji's words naturally did not imply that, and the other two did not pay much attention to this point either.
"After all, Sora'aki-chan's family isn't with us, and Sora'aki-chan has his own social life. I can help with school, but when we're not around, Sora'aki-chan will have to manage on his own." Hagiwara Kenji waved his finger. "So we need to be prepared that we won't be able to be together all the time~"
"I hadn't considered the possibility of us separating," Matsuda Jinpei said.
"Haha, we're only in our first year of high school—why are we thinking about this?"
Hagiwara Kenji also took a sip of plum juice, then gave a similar expression to Matsuda Jinpei: "...Hmm, Sora'aki-chan, try a different flavor next time."
"Matsuda just said that carbonated drinks...won't carbonated drinks stunt growth?"
"..."
"..."
"Pfft!" Hagiwara Kenji immediately burst out laughing: "That's right! Sora'aki-chan, remember to buy milk! From now on, Jinpei-chan's only drink will be milk!"
"Get out! Shut up!!"
Height seems to be a topic that boys of this age pay attention to. Morofushi Sora'aki gestured and said, "My older brother is over 180cm, so I should be too."
Hagiwara Kenji also said with a smile, "If Sora'aki-chan's goal is to be 180cm tall, I'm almost there, aren't I?"
Morofushi Sora'aki recalled his older brother's two close friends from the same period and nodded: "Chairman Hagiwara is 190cm tall."
"Huh? You have such high expectations of me? Well, I'll try my best!" Hagiwara Kenji was even happier.
"Matsuda, 179.9cm." Morofushi Sora'aki said again.
"Why do you deliberately omit that 0.1% when it's my turn?! Raki, are you serious?!"
"The remaining 0.1 is curly hair." Morofushi Sora'aki casually touched Matsuda Jinpei's soft curly hair: "So Matsuda cheated."
"Hello!!"
"And what about Sora'aki-chan? How tall do you think you can grow?"
"I don't know, but you have to be taller than Matsuda."
"Hmm? Why?"
"Because if I'm short, Matsuda will laugh at me."
"I am this kind of person—" Matsuda Jinpei instinctively wanted to refute, but after realizing that the person he was talking to was Morofushi Sora'aki, his tone changed, "Ah, I am indeed this kind of person, then it's alright."
Hagiwara Kenji was laughing so hard his stomach hurt.
This high school wasn't anything special; Matsuda Jinpei and Hagiwara Kenji chose it simply because it was close to home and convenient to commute. Morofushi Sora'aki even came to this high school because of their choice.
The three were lucky enough to be in the same class. As always, Hagiwara Kenji attracted the opposite sex and got along well with everyone in the class. In addition, he also developed relationships with people from other classes and even outside the school.
In response, Matsuda Jinpei remarked, "Hagi really knows how to attract attention."
"Although I really want to say that Matsuda used the wrong idiom, I also feel like I didn't use it wrong." Morofushi Sora'aki, who is quite sensitive to this kind of vocabulary under the influence of his older brother who is quite fond of Chinese culture, said.
"No, I know what you mean, that's just how I feel." Matsuda Jinpei propped his chin up and took the seat in front of Morofushi Sora'aki. Morofushi Sora'aki noticed that the student in front of him looked troubled when he came back. He didn't dare to say anything directly and pitifully gave up his seat, planning to come back during class.
Now that the other party had left, Morofushi Sora'aki no longer intended to remind Matsuda Jinpei, who hadn't seen him at all.
"I have a feeling that Jinpei-chan's reputation has gotten worse again."
"Huh? Why are you talking about me again?" Matsuda Jinpei looked a little confused.
"—I have a feeling you two are talking about me behind my back again!" Hagiwara Kenji finally finished his conversation with the other classmates. "By the way, where do you guys want to go?"
"What?" Neither Matsuda Jinpei nor Morofushi Sora'aki understood what Hagiwara Kenji meant for a moment.
"Ah—you guys don't know yet!" Hagiwara Kenji immediately smiled and said, "Then I'll keep it a secret for now."
"But seriously, while freshmen shouldn't know the time, haven't you all noticed the atmosphere on campus lately?"
The two, who didn't care about such things, exchanged a glance, their two pairs of blue eyes, each a different shade, meeting Hagiwara Kenji's gaze.
Hagiwara Kenji, who had originally wanted to keep it a secret: "..."
"...I'm really defeated by you two." Hagiwara Kenji sighed, "Although there hasn't been any definite notification yet, the school trip should be sometime this month."
"Huh? They're available in the first year of high school? Shouldn't it normally be the second year?"
It's not that there are no school trips in the first year of high school, but most schools arrange them in the second semester of the second year.
"Yeah, I was surprised too. According to what the senior said, our grade should be choosing between Okinawa, Nagasaki, Kyoto, Osaka, and Nara, right?"
"From what you're saying, isn't it ultimately the school's decision?"
"...While that's true, isn't it good to have a little bit of expectation?"
"Boring."
"I'm not bored at all! I've been saving up for ages!" Hagiwara Kenji was genuinely looking forward to it: "After all, we've never traveled anywhere else with Sora'aki-chan before, have we?"
Matsuda Jinpei paused, glancing out of the corner of his eye at Morofushi Sora'aki, whose expression was no different from usual: "So... Morofushi, do you know the process of a school trip?"
"I read about it in a book." Morofushi Sora'aki recalled for a moment, "But the book said that you can choose for yourself?"
"Normally—it's still arranged by the school, right? In the books you've read, is the school one of those elite private schools? Where you can freely choose where to go, including options like studying abroad?"
Morofushi Sora'aki hesitated and nodded. Hagiwara Kenji patted Morofushi Sora'aki's shoulder heavily: "If Sora'aki-chan wants to travel abroad, he still needs to work hard on his own. Don't expect our school to arrange it."
"..." Morofushi Sora'aki: "School is so useless."
Hagiwara Kenji: "..."
Matsuda Jinpei: "..."
"Be a little kinder to the school, Morofushi." A student who happened to be passing by exclaimed with genuine feeling.
"At a time like this, you should say, 'Never mind, at least the school still has the ability to arrange activities.'" Matsuda Jinpei said coldly from the side.
"Wait? Jinpei-chan, wait a minute—don't corrupt Sora'aki-chan!!"
"And what you said is even more outrageous, isn't it?!" Hagiwara Kenji said with utmost sincerity, "Even if the school is useless, there's no need to say it out loud. At least give it a chance to change!!"
"Hmm, it sounds inspiring, but don't you think you're the one who's really going too far?! Hagiwara!!" A classmate who couldn't leave after passing by shouted, "You're just a combination of Morofushi and Matsuda's words, aren't you?!"
Hagiwara Kenji stuck out his tongue: "Eh?"
"Don't act cute at such an unnecessary time!"