Chapter 55
The academy was packed with people.
Current students and visitors from outside alike were getting swept up in the lively atmosphere of the cultural festival.
Although the sun was still blazing, the huge crowd left barely enough room to put one foot in front of the other, but things grew quieter once I passed the main gate and headed toward the gymnasium.
Bzzz-!
When my phone vibrated in my pocket, I took it out and pressed the call button.
“Yeah.”
-Did you make it?
“Just now. What am I supposed to do now?”
-Masako should be waiting for you. Listen to her explanation, then start checking tickets when the time comes.
“Where are you?”
-I'm in the dressing room getting my makeup done right now. Take care of things, then.
“Got it.”
Having ended the call, I took in the exterior of the gymnasium, which had been transformed into a haunted house.
Fake vines had been wrapped here and there, and the door had been painted dark, with skull decorations attached on either side.
It had all the right trimmings.
It had to be thanks to Miyuki and the vice class rep, who had been working even harder after the sparring match.
I slowly nodded and looked around the gymnasium,
“Um... Matsuda-kun.”
A tiny voice came from behind me.
I turned around and grinned at Masako, who was holding a bag of bread.
“Hello, Bread Girl.”
“H-hello...!”
“You're my partner?”
“Yes... You just have to check tickets with me... W-want some bread...?”
She cautiously held out a melon bun.
I snorted and shook my head.
“No. You eat it yourself. But why aren't there any customers?”
“Ah... Well... We haven't even started operating yet... People start flocking to haunted houses around sunset...”
“I see.”
“Yeah...”
“You were thinking I was an idiot just now, weren't you?”
“N-no I wasn't...! Cough!”
“The fact you're coughing means I'm right, doesn't it?”
“Kehk! Cough! N-no... Cough!”
I let out a hollow laugh, then helped Masako, who was hunched over and kept coughing, into a chair.
Once she had calmed down, I held out the carton of milk sitting on the folding table.
“Th-thanks... Ahem...!”
“Do you have asthma or something?”
“N-no... I'm healthy... I just get like this when I'm flustered...”
“What do I do now? Start checking tickets?”
“You can start at ten... If the kids in costume need something... go inside and bring it to them...”
“You want me to run errands?”
When I furrowed my brow sharply and lowered my voice, Masako hurriedly waved her hands.
“N-no...! I'll do that, so you just check tickets...”
“You can't take a joke. Fine, I'll do it.”
“Ah, okay... And the tickets look like this...”
Masako held out a haunted-house ticket to me.
A cute admission ticket featuring a chibi-style ghost.
Judging by the art style, Miyuki had obviously drawn it.
“Not scary at all.”
“That's the point... They say you'll be startled when you go in after thinking it'll be easy...”
“Have you gone inside?”
“Yeah... It was really scary. The set was no joke either... The others worked so hard...”
I hadn't done any work at all and had just loafed around...
My conscience wasn't pricked in the slightest, but I should at least hand out some snacks on a weekday next week.
**
Riiip.
I tore along the perforation and handed over the remaining stub. The two couples, their faces filled with anticipation, cautiously headed for the entrance.
Creak...
The door opened with an eerie sound.
A blast of cold air blew out from inside and touched my back.
Nice and cool. The people in costume must be pretty cold in there.
After welcoming our first customers, I asked Masako beside me,
“Do those customers just go straight in? Don't they get some explanation of the situation or something?”
“Ah... There are two people at the entrance who explain the concept. They'll take care of everything.”
“Pretty thorough.”
“Right? It's all thanks to Miyuki.”
So she had earned the class's unwavering trust.
The sight of a woman whom everyone else admired to no end acting cute and fawning in front of me...
A porn video practically made itself.
So I stood with Masako in front of the entrance and checked tickets.
Once noon passed, people gradually began to crowd in.
There were hardly any families; most were couples or friends of the same gender.
-Aaaaaah!
-Aaaaaaaaah!!
Hearing the customers' faint screams from inside the gymnasium, the women waiting in line and whispering about how cute the tickets were turned pale.
The expressions of the groups of men pretending to be unfazed also stiffened.
I had been enjoying the reactions as I studied the customers' faces, but as the actors' break time approached, I asked Masako if I could step away.
Then I hurried over to the yakitori stall run by the kendo club.
“Goodbye! Huh? Matsuda, junior!”
Chinami, who had been serving customers with a broad smile, waved brightly at me.
Renka was... grilling skewers with her usual expressionless face.
I could see her eyes twitch when she spotted me.
“Hello.”
“Oh! Matsuda, you came?”
The kendo club members treated me much more casually after the sparring match.
It wasn't because I'd shown talent in my match with Renka, but because I'd put on a funny pose and clowned around before the match.
The opinion of me, which had been gradually improving as I quietly worked as the manager and showed decent manners, had skyrocketed after that day.
Welcomed by the members who hadn't participated in the class tournament, I walked up to Chinami and said,
“Six chicken-thigh skewers, please.”
“Six thigh skewers? That's too few for you, junior. Buy eight.”
“Are you forcing a sale on me?”
“I'm joking. Is the haunted house going well?”
“There are quite a lot of customers even this early.”
“That's good to hear. I guess it's break time now?”
“Yes. But how much is it?”
“2,400 yen.”
At 400 yen each, they were expensive for a place that wasn't even a professional yakitori restaurant.
Getting ripped off was practically a festival-stall tradition.
After paying for the yakitori, I chatted amiably with Chinami while waiting for the skewers.
Before long, Renka called out to me.
“Matsuda, they're ready. Take these.”
Renka held out a pretty takeout box.
After checking how many skewers it contained, I asked,
“There are seven?”
“On the house.”
“On the house?”
“When club members order, we give them one extra as a service. It doesn't mean anything else.”
“Really? Then I'll order one thigh skewer five more times. Give me ten.”
.....
“Just kidding around. I'll enjoy them. Stop by the gymnasium during your break and have some fun.”
Grinning, I gave her a quick bow, then waved enthusiastically back and forth with Chinami before heading to the gymnasium.
**
Ding-! Ding-! Ding-ding-ding...
The eerie sound of a string instrument.
[Ooooooh...!]
Then came eerie monster cries from the speakers installed inside.
After entering the haunted house, I tensed up a little at the rather frightening atmosphere.
Miyuki had really gone all out. The quality was excellent for a student cultural festival.
As I walked along the maze-like path, trying hard to ignore the background music,
“Gueeegh...”
As a monster approached, drooling something that might have been saliva, and gently waved its long claws, I trembled as though I were about to have a seizure.
“Aaargh! Fuck!”
“Kyaaah!”
And the monster screamed too, startled by my sudden shout.
The high-pitched voice, completely at odds with its appearance, calmed me down somewhat. Clutching the yakitori box I had nearly dropped, I said,
“What the hell are you...?”
“M-Matsuda-kun...? What happened...?”
“I came to tell you it's lunchtime. It's break time, so why are you still acting?”
“No... Well... I thought you were the last customer... Sorry.”
“Didn't you get the message telling you to eat in the waiting room?”
“Ah... I turned my phone off... Can I go now?”
“Yeah.”
“Thanks.”
“Don't thank me in that makeup. It makes you even scarier.”
“Okay.”
Maybe my reaction had amused her; my classmate giggled.
The incongruous sight gave me goosebumps, so I quickly left and went around telling the remaining actors to return to the waiting room.
After that, I stopped at the Snow Woman section where Miyuki was.
A place even colder than the others.
With the fog machine running too, it was extremely eerie.
The set was so well made it felt like I had come to some snowy mountain range.
When I stepped into the area, I saw Miyuki crouching in a kimono adorned with ornate, old-fashioned decorations.
In the fog, she was wearing a snow-white wig.
Her makeup was so white it didn't look human, and she was even wearing red contact lenses—who knew where she'd gotten them. She looked so beautiful that I nearly lost my senses for a moment.
No wonder the people who came out after enjoying the haunted house said the Snow Woman was incredibly beautiful.
“Matsuda-kun.”
After seeing Miyuki greet me in an intentionally cold voice, I switched off the fog machine and let all the remaining mist disperse.
Then I closed the door and began blocking it with nearby props.
Confused by my actions, Miyuki moved her bright-red lips.
“What are you doing...? Why are you blocking the door...?”
“Wait a second.”
After roughly moving the props into place, I checked that the door was properly closed, then crouched in a corner.
“Sit down. Let's eat yakitori.”
“Yakitori?”
“I bought the chicken thighs you like. Eat them before they get cold.”
When I opened the box and held it out to Miyuki, she sat demurely beside me and picked up a skewer.
“When did you buy it?”
“Just now.”
“Only mine?”
“Yeah.”
Was she happy that it was food bought just for her?
Miyuki beamed and bit into a yakitori skewer.
She began eating her late lunch and said around her mouthful,
“Matsuda-kun. I heard everything when you swore earlier.”
“You did?”
“Your voice was incredibly loud, so of course I couldn't help hearing...”
“You can swear a little when you're startled.”
“You sounded so cheap.”
It had been a while since I'd heard someone call me cheap.
Sauce was smeared at the corner of Miyuki's mouth as she scolded me.
An idea occurred to me, and I brought my face close to Miyuki's.
When Miyuki opened her eyes wide and tried to pull her head back, I grabbed the nape of her neck to hold it still, stuck out my tongue, and licked the sauce off the corner of her mouth.
“W-what are you doing...!”
She recoiled and shuddered at my sudden action.
I grinned and said,
“You had sauce on you.”
“Y-you could've wiped it with a tissue, so why...!”
“Aren't you cold?”
When I slyly changed the subject, she bit her lower lip while the hand holding the skewer trembled.
“A little...”
Miyuki bit down hard on the skewer as though trying to hide her awkwardness.
I embraced her body and slipped a hand inside her kimono.
Miyuki's shoulders jerked, and she reacted intensely.
“Gah!”
Miyuki's body was warmer than usual.
A freezing room, and a warm, soft body...
Hugging Miyuki tightly and sleeping in winter would probably feel something like this.
“Matsuda-kun...! That's why you blocked the door, isn't it...!?”
“Shut up. Is a snow woman really allowed to be this warm? Aren't you supposed to freeze people to death? At this rate, you'd even save someone freezing to death.”
“.... I-it's okay... I look cold on the outside, at least...”
“Guess you won't get to tour the cultural festival today?”
“The haunted house... has to stay open until late... I'm sorry...”
By the time the haunted house ended, the band club's performance would be reaching its climax.
Normally, we would watch the band club's performance together as the cultural festival's highlight, but my relationship with Miyuki had long since strayed from that conventional progression.
A major event that couldn't even be compared to the band club's performance was waiting for us, so there was no way I could waste time watching something like that.
I lightly kneaded Miyuki's waist and said,
“I'll head out first when we're done, so just contact me during the after-party.”
“Okay... But my yakitori...”
“Eat.”
“You have to let me go if I'm going to eat...”
Even as she said that, Miyuki was hugging me tightly as if she had no intention of letting go.
She had even left the yakitori she had been eating in the box.