Chapter 105: The Chaotic Summer Festival
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 105: The Chaotic Summer Festival
The long-awaited Saturday.
The day I had promised to go to the festival with the first-year student, Minato Nao, had arrived.
However, she called me first thing in the morning to ask if we could postpone our plans by a day.
[Senpai! I'm so sorry! My mom suddenly scheduled an important meeting about a casting offer, so I don't think I can make it today! Would tomorrow be okay instead?]
What could I do when she put it like that?
I told her it was fine, but I couldn't bring myself to say that I already had plans for tomorrow and wouldn't be able to meet her.
And then—
[Kim Yoo-Sung, if you're free, would you like to go to the festival tomorrow? I've already recruited that Karen girl. She refused at first, but when I told her you were coming, she said she'd go too.]
—an unexpected festival invitation from Sasha.
Surprisingly, the festival that Minato, Rika, and Sasha had all invited me to was the exact same one.
In other words, this wasn't just a double-booking, but a triple-booking.
And as a result…
"Senpai!"
"Ryu-chan!"
"Kim Yoo-Sung!"
The three separate groups, who had all contacted me individually, ended up meeting in the same place.
"..."
How did things turn out like this?
*
The summer festival (夏祭り).
Every year in July and August, when the days grow hotter, it's common for the people from the shopping district to rent out a nearby shrine and hold a festival.
It's an annual event held all over Japan, so the specific details vary by region and neighborhood.
But if there's one thing they all have in common, it's the various food stalls, the rows of paper lanterns hanging overhead, and the grand finale of a spectacular fireworks display.
It was truly a festival for friends, families, and lovers to enjoy together.
But despite it being such a wonderful day, I was swallowing hard against a suffocating tension.
The cause was the war of nerves unfolding right before my eyes between the three girls.
"I had plans with Senpai first, you know? So why don't you back off?"
"Ryu-chan was supposed to go around the festival with me! And who are you, anyway!"
"Rika, I'm disappointed. To think you'd propose an alliance to Karen only to try and snatch him all for yourself."
A three-way battle, I suppose you could call it.
"Ah-wah-wah-wah!"
Aside from Karen, who was panicking behind them, the three girls were locked in a standoff.
…Is this my karma?
To an outsider, this was the perfect situation for a guy to be branded as trash.
And as if to prove my prediction right, people around us started whispering as they looked our way.
"I think that's the high schooler who was acknowledged by that famous yakuza around here…"
"They say heroes love beautiful women, but just how many does he have…"
"I wonder what that guy's like in bed?"
I was speechless.
Honestly, all the blame lay with me for being unable to refuse and accepting every invitation, so I humbly accepted the sharp criticism directed my way.
Eventually, as if deciding that fighting amongst themselves wouldn't solve anything, the three girls turned to look at me in unison and asked.
"Senpai! Choose!"
"Ryu-chan! Choose!"
"Kim Yoo-Sung, choose!"
""Her or me?""
The moment I was presented with a choice where every option seemed to lead to ruin, I thought on my feet and proposed a third option.
"...Since it's come to this, why don't we all go together?"
*
To be honest, my suggestion was nothing more than a stopgap measure.
But for the three of them, who were all keeping each other in check, it must have seemed like the most reasonable choice.
As the five of us were moving in a group, Minato launched a surprise question.
"Senpai, what do you think of my yukata?"
Only then was I able to turn my attention to the yukata she was wearing.
It was a black yukata with vibrant red roses.
As one of the top three beauties of our school and a celebrity known as the nation's little sister, she looked absolutely stunning in it.
"Oh? It's beautiful."
As if in competition, Rika, who was next to her, asked.
"What about me, Ryu-chan?"
I turned my head to look at the green yukata Rika was wearing.
The yukata, with its diamond pattern, seemed to perfectly reflect the personality of someone so interested in fashion.
"You too, Rika."
Then, as if not to be outdone, Sasha proudly showed off her blue yukata, which was adorned with morning glories.
It was the one the President and I had picked out during Golden Week.
"You should be pleased, Kim Yoo-Sung. You are the first person I have ever shown myself to in a yukata."
"I'm truly honored."
I didn't think it was necessary to mention that, so I decided to let it pass quietly.
"H-how about me?"
The last to ask was Karen, dressed in a white yukata.
In contrast to her usual tough demeanor, the occasional girlish side she showed left quite a strong impression.
"You look pretty too, Karen."
"...Thanks."
Doing this, I felt like some kind of compliment machine.
Is it because I'm the only guy here?
Just as I was pondering this…
"Ah! Kim-kun!"
I ran into some completely unexpected reinforcements.
"Sakamoto!"
It was the protagonist, Sakamoto Ryuji.
*
In a typical harem rom-com, the one suffering in a situation like this would have been the protagonist, Sakamoto Ryuji.
But in what could only be called a twist of fate, most of the heroines, excluding his childhood friend Yaguchi Maiya and his actual younger sister Yuika, had become involved with me, completely reversing the situation.
"Fancy meeting you here."
"Hello, Oppa."
"Hi, Kim-kun."
I wasn't sure what had happened, but Sakamoto Yuika and Yaguchi Maiya, each clinging to one of his arms, bowed their heads at us.
Sakamoto looked at our group and asked playfully.
"On a date? The gender ratio seems a little off, though."
"If you know that, how about you help me out?"
"I've already got my hands full with these two flowers," Sakamoto said, feigning nonchalance, causing the two girls clinging to his arms to blush.
Honestly, I could understand Yaguchi's reaction, but I felt his younger sister Yuika probably shouldn't be blushing like that. Still, I decided to accept it as part of the rom-com world.
Scramble Love was rated for all ages, after all.
In any case, since it felt like a waste to part ways immediately, we decided to walk around together for a bit.
Frankly, I finally felt like I could breathe.
It's much easier to have a conversation when there's at least one other guy around, rather than being surrounded only by girls.
As we were climbing the stone steps leading to the shrine grounds, Sakamoto asked.
"What were you up to before coming here?"
"Me? Oh, just working out at home."
"Looks like you never skip a day of exercise, Kim-kun."
"If I rest just because it's vacation, I'll lose my gains."
"Haha, you've got a point."
Just then, the foreign ghost who had been trailing behind us chimed in.
"You would do well to learn from him, Contractor. Daily training is of the utmost importance for a warrior."
I tried my best to ignore him and took the opportunity to ask a question of my own.
"By the way, Sakamoto, what kind of exercise do you do? When we were playing volleyball before, your movements were pretty impressive."
Sakamoto scratched the back of his head shyly and answered.
"It's nothing special, but I've been learning jujutsu at the dojo Yaguchi's father runs since I was a kid. It's an old-school style called Mujin-ryu, and it's really helped build my stamina."
Mujin-ryu, huh.
It seems the drift into a battle story wasn't for nothing.
To think there was that kind of foreshadowing in the background of the main heroine, Yaguchi.
"Ryuji, why do you not speak of the Pharaoh Martial Arts I have taught you?"
"Ugh, seriously!"
As if his patience had run out from the constant chattering, Sakamoto waved his hand toward the foreign ghost.
Since I had to pretend I couldn't see anything, I had no choice but to ask in a bewildered voice.
"Ryuji, what's wrong all of a sudden?"
Sakamoto looked at me with a start. "Huh?"
"Ah, there are just a lot of mosquitoes. Haha, hahahaha."
Seeing his awkward laughter, I thought, You're going through a lot, too, and let it go.
"By the way, did I give you permission for yobisute?"
"Huh?"
At Sakamoto's comment, I belatedly realized I had called him by his first name instead of his last.
This was all that ghost's fault.
"Ah, sorry. I called you by your first name without thinking."
"No, that's not what I meant. It's just… yeah. It feels like we've gotten a bit closer now. I always felt like you had a wall up before."
Sakamoto said this with a bashful smile.
"You can call me Ryuji from now on. If it's okay, can I call you Yoo-Sung instead of Kim-kun?"
"...Do as you like. I don't really mind what people call me."
Unlike Japanese people, who place great significance on calling someone by their first name, I, as a Korean, was more used to it than using surnames.
Of course, I respected the cultural differences between our countries.
As we walked and chatted about trivial things, man to man, we soon arrived at the shrine grounds, which were lined with stalls.
*
"Hey! Hey! Get your takoyaki here! Six for 300 yen!"
"Apple candy for sale! We have octopus skewers too!"
"Delicious yakisoba right here!"
The stall owners shouted at the top of their lungs, trying to attract passing customers.
To be honest, the food sold at places like this isn't usually high quality.
If anything, the prices tend to be inflated, but you can't help but get caught up in the atmosphere and buy something anyway.
And perhaps because we were a group of high school students in our prime, we found it impossible to simply walk past the feast of street food that captivated our eyes and ears.
"Should we get something to eat?"
When I turned back and said that, everyone nodded in unison.