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17. Plan to go out
I went home and sent a message to Makoto, Rie, and Yuuto.
「I’m home now」
Chat-style SNS was also in this world.
Called “Kite Messenger”.
The name “Kite” came from a kite transmitter, since interestingly, here, the internet was compared to “sky” rather than “ocean”.
When in middle school, I formed a group within the messenger with Makoto, Rie, and Yuko, and remained till now.
As soon as I sent the message, I started receiving replies.
「Welcome back」
Immediately,
「How was the entrance ceremony?」
「How was the atmosphere of the class?」
「Was it scary?」
「There was no problem, right?」
Many more of such texts flowed.
It seemed they were really worried.
I laughed bitterly and replied,
「I think I can get close to the boy who’s in the same class」 (Me)
「Really? You aren’t overdoing yourself?」(Makoto)
「See, as I said, it’s gonna be okay. But, neither Mako nor Yuu believed me」 (Rie) [TN: Rie used “Boku” to say “I”, which is usually used by men, so she might be a tomboy?]
「I’m relieved」 (Yuuko)
Yuuko seemed to have been worried about me the most.
After that, the three girls continued to talk with each other.
When I followed the content of the talk with my eyes, they were talking about the plan after enrollment that they made while I was away.
It seemed that they were worried a lot during this spring break.
They talked that they would be going to keep accompanying me to go to school from now on, and they even said that perhaps they should pick me up from school. They were treating me as if I was still a kid. At least that was how I felt.
I was only keeping an eye on the conversation, but to be honest, I wanted to tell them clearly, that I would have no problem going to school and going home alone.
Above all, if they kept doing that, it would definitely be a rumor, so I decied to stop it.
「In the first place, if you do that, you may be late」
But even if I told them so, I felt that the three were likely to continue to do it.
As I told so, the heated-up conversation between the three people had settled down, so I immediately typed another.
「I want to meet everyone, how about we all go somewhere together next weekend?」
For some reason, the conversations stopped completely.
Since it was written “read” on the display, they must have read it.
…..why do you shut up all at once?
After waiting for a while, a reply came.
「How about the fountain park in the eastern district」
Apparently, they were discussing behind the scenes, and all three seemed to reach a conclusion.
My house is in the eastern district, so the fountain park should be nearby…
When I searched my memory, I found that I went there on a “walking trip” when I was in elementary school.
Usually, people would want to go to arcades, shopping malls, and commercial facilities such as theatres, coffee shops, and restaurants.
So, I didn’t expect them to say a park, even more, they even specified the park, but this must have been their consideration.
Perhaps they thought that it would be better not to take me to a crowd of women.
「Thank you. Alright, let’s go there. I wonder if someone will make a lunch box on the day?」
When I texted so with the intention to have a little mischief, the reply was delayed again.
And this time… it was quite long.
Couldn’t wait, as if putting more oil on the flame, I texted,
「The lunch box, I’m looking forward to it.」
Maybe this is how it feel to be popular…
◇
At night, when I was watching TV in the living room, Mom sent me a message.
She said that she would come back late, so she wanted me to be sure to close the door and prepared myself for tomorrow.
As expected, yesterday, Mom probably forced herself so she could leave early.
Working in the special ward must be hard, right?
Sis said she would go study and went into her room.
She would be taking the university entrance exam this year. So, she would be studying hard from now on.
Unlike high school, there was no men’s university. Only Co-ed universities or women’s universities.
Therefore, male university students were forced to be in a situation of doing “MSA”.
That aside, Sis could live in the special ward because I was in the family.
The special was designed so that men could live without stress, and as part of this, family members could live in the special ward unconditionally.
However, adult females must have a job, and minors must attend university.
In other words, no matter how many male relatives were in a family, adult women couldn’t live as a NEET.
If a girl decided to get a job after graduating from high school, she would be treated as an adult individual.
Therefore, it might be possible that they wouldn’t be able to live in the special ward.
Thus, Sis was desperately preparing to go to a women’s university in the special zone.
By the way, the reason why she didn’t plan to go to a co-ed university, was because the difficulty to get in was too extreme for her.
In a world where the male and female ratio was so broken, the difficulty to get into a co-ed university was hundred times harder than co-ed high school, since people from all over the country would come to aim for it.
When I asked Sis to give it a try, she laughed bitterly, saying,
“No matter what, it’s just impossible for me.”
The situation was different for boys. They could enter almost any university they wished for.
The school’s argument was that, just because you lack the academic ability, as long as you had the motivation, no one should not close the path.
Well, this applied only to men.
However, logically speaking, if you lacked academic ability, it would be better not to enroll, right? Well, at least I thought so.
Until I realized that, if there were no men who strive to be teachers, doctors, counselors, etc., there would be no one who understood men the best, to care for men, so in a sense, those who were motivated should be actively hired.
“By the way, the fountain park… the last time was when in elementary school. I guess, it’s better if I look it up.”
When I searched on my smartphone, it came out immediately.
As far as I read, the fountain park was a fairly large place.
There was a botanical garden, and on the special stage, seasonal events were frequently held.
It seemed that the maintenance cost of the park came from the taxes collected in the Special Ward.
The entrance fee to the botanical garden alone is not enough?
I feel like was a zoo with free entrance in the original world.
Well, I guess, it may not be possible to have such a facility with high maintenance costs unless the government gives some money.
“Take-kun, what are you doing?”
Sis who had been studying in her room came down from the second floor.
“Next weekend, I decided to go to the fountain park with the members of the group I was in middle school. So, I’m searching for some info.”
“What a nostalgic name. When I went there, I played with other, ate lunch with others, just that, and then came back home, but it was a lot of fun.”
Sis’ eyes looked so dead.
If I’m not mistaken, she also had a good male friend, and once invited him to our house…
Well, perhaps, that memories came to her mind…
“Really… It was so good back then …”
Looking away from Sis, I left her alone and started searching more about the fountain park with my smartphone.