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REIKA-SAMA – 106
It was finally here. The day of Tomoe-senpai’s graduation.
As the Student Council President, naturally Tomoe-senpai was the one giving the address. Aahh. This would be the last time seeing Tomoe-senpai in his uniform. Goodbye, first love of mine. 
Just kidding. I just felt like being a little extravagant.
First I congratulated the graduating Pivoine members as a fellow member. After that I made my way towards Tomoe-senpai. Around him was a huge crowd of other graduates. It was a little nerve-wracking.
“Congratulations on graduating, Tomoe-senpai!”
“Thanks, Kisshouin-san.”
Uu, being so close was making me teary
 It’s going to be so lonelyy.
“Thanks for the chocolate the other day. Kasumi was overjoyed too.”
“Yes!”
Ah, he just said Kasumi. Was that okay now?
I looked at him questioningly, and he smiled and nodded.
“Kasumi!”
Kasumi looked up with a start amidst her group of friends a distance away.
Seeing us, she walked over and then wrapped her arms around his shoulders and dropped her bombshell announcement.
“Everybody, we’re dating!”
As the former Student Council President and a member of the Pivoine, the news caused quite a stir.
Both the Student Council and the Pivoine had taken quite a shock.
I was moved though, and began clapping passionately. Uwaah, uwahh, this was the world of shoujo romance that I admiredd!
After graduating they didn’t really have much to with the Pivoine or StuCo, right! Now they could walk happily through university with their hands held, right!
Influenced by my own clapping, other people began to follow. The applaud grew louder and louder.
Tomoe-senpai smiled and waved, but Kasumi-sama had turned beet red. She seemed happy though. Aaahh! Kasumi-sama was crying! Oh no, now I was crying! I’m so happy for you, Kasumi-sama! You’ve had to hide it for so long. It must have hurt not being able to tell anyone.
The two of them slipped out of the crowd of shocked onlookers and came to where I was.
I gave them another clap of the hands.
“Thank you, Kisshouin-san.”
“Thank you, Reika-sama.”
“Cob-, cobgrajul-, leshonss!!”
Oh no, my nose was all stuffy from the crying.
I pulled out a handkerchief and stealthily wiped away the mucus along with my tears. 
Phew, I could finally breathe again.
“I am so glad for you, Kasumi-sama. You can finally love each other in public.”
“Thank you for everything, Reika-sama. I was really happy to have somebody like you to talk to.”
“Kasumi-samaaa~!”
And now I was crying again. And she was too, as we held hands. Oh, no, Kasumi-sama, this handkerchief has my snot on it

“Kisshouin-san, I’ve always thought of you as a cute little sister as well. Thanks for everything. I hope you and Kasumi will stay close even after we’re gone.”
“Yes. I will always wish you two well.”
Tomoe-senpai rubbed me on the head. Uwaaan! Are you really okay with this good-for-nothing as a sisterrr!?
Oniisama, Imari-sama, and now Tomoe-senpai. I was blessed by wonderful Oniisamas all around!
*
*
After seeing them off, I realised that my tears had finally stopped.
It was a little embarrassing to have bawled like that, so I found an abandoned corner of the school building. I was finally alone. Pulling out some tissues, I blew my nose hard. Aahh, finally clear!
Hahhh. It was amazing how much better I felt now.
But Tomoe-senpai really was amazing. Even once would do, I wanted to experience having somebody profess their love to me at graduation like that!
While bells were ringing in my head, somebody tapped me on the shoulder. Mn?
I turned around to find Kaburagi, standing there looking sorrowful.
What on earth was he doing here?
“Umm
 is something the matter?”
It was a completely reasonable question.
Hand still on my shoulder, the sorrow on Kaburagi’s face deepened before he spoke.
“You’re amazing
”
“Eh?”
Amazing? At what?
“You’ve liked him all this time, right? The Student Council President.”
“Eh?”
“It must have been tough being told that you were like a little sister to him
”
“Eh? Ah, well
”
Kaburagi had a knowing look on his face as he slapped my shoulder a few times. That hurts, damnit. And stop misunderstanding things on your own. Seriously, what the heck was this guy saying.
“I’m in the same position as you, so I know. Being told that you’re a sister by the person you love
!”
Kaburagi gripped my shoulder as he was overcome with emotion. Oww oww owwww!
“But you were amazing. You even smiled as you congratulated them. You did great.”
This time it was my back that he was smacking. That hurts, goddamnit!! I’m not a sumo wrestler so stop hitting me already!
“Kaburagi-sama, might you be misunderstanding something?”
I casually put some distance between us and escaped the reach of his hand. But this time he grabbed me by both shoulders.
“Don’t worry. I won’t tell anyone. Seeing you really encouraged me. The way you watched those two
! You’re so amazing, Kisshouin! After watching you, I realised that I wanted to follow your lead and start facing forwards as well
 So I don’t let yourself lose to a broken heart either!”
Grind, grind, grind. Oww, oww, owwww! He was pushing me into the ground!
My shoulders and my back hurt so much that I was starting to tear up, but then Kaburagi saw and started tearing up as well.
“If it gets to be too much, come talk to me. We both have to try our best
 We can both get over this, I know it
”
Kaburagi turned away from me to hide his tears as he wiped his face.
“Don’t do anything rash,” he said, before leaving.





What the hell was that?
And what do you mean rash? Did you think I was going to go on a journey as well? Um, I’m really not, okay? Toujinbou is freaking cold.
But wow, did Kaburagi have some strong ideas about things. Arbitrarily getting the wrong idea about Tomoe-senpai and I, too. That was ages ago. And it was a bit troublesome how because of the little sister comment he started thinking of us as comrades or something.
Sometimes I called people idiots in my head, but just now was the real deal.
My shoulders still hurt

*
*
The next day I went to school with some analgesic strips on my shoulders. When I got to school, Kaburagi silently handed me a poem anthology.
‘Eh-, I don’t want this,’ I thought and tried to hand it back, but he slapped me on the shoulder again so I nodded.
“Our feelings are in this book
”
What do you mean ‘our’
 I told you to stop lumping us together.

Heine was the one who said ‘love is always a kind of madness.’
You spent all that time reading poems, but you didn’t learn a thing, did you Kaburagi.
“Also, Kisshouin, take care about your crying face. You look pretty horrible.”
“
Hah?”
Apparently having said everything he wanted to, Kaburagi left for his own classroom with a satisfied expression.
Enjou, looking extremely pleased with himself, came over and spoke to me.
“Because of you, Masaya’s looking a lot better now. Thanks.”

Haaah!?
Don’t feel better by making out other people as heartbroken rejects! And sorry for being ugly when I cry! Instead of bringing me a poem anthology, bring me some heat strips instead! Odourless ones!
Since people were watching I couldn’t exactly throw it away, and so I was left bringing it back with me.
“Kaburagi-sama gave Reika-sama a love poem anthologyy!” they squealed as I entered the classroom. God, could this get any worse
!?
“Giving a girl a poem anthology!? He’s so sensitive and dreamy!” some other girl pitched in. You think so? I’m not happy at all.
The thing was an anthology of poems read over two months by some sobbing reject. Just having it in my bag felt like it was harming my love fortunes. It was like a mass of bad luck!
*
*
*
When I got home and slammed my bag down, the head from a Japanese doll fell off.
“love is always a kind of madness”
Apparently the original and full quote was,
Die Liebe ist immer eine Art Wahnsinn, mehr oder minder schön
for any of you Huns out there. I don’t read German unfortunately, so I can’t verify that it actually was Heinrich Heine who said that. I’d like to learn German one day, but the genders just make it soooo haaaard