As expected, the little expectations I had were completely crushed on that day.
On a poster crammed full of notices, was a poster that held the information of the contestants. Their class, name, and even a picture… There was the picture of when Christine-sama was advertising for the drama club. Other contestants had pictures that drew out their charm points. Only my picture was like a normal ID picture. Yep, it was the picture for my student handbook.
In contrast to me, who wanted to just grab my head and scream, Keito was calm as usual. I didn’t want to go see the board alone because I might have gotten disheartened and started crying. It might have been better to have asked Primera and Eru instead. They would be kinder.
However, I don’t want to talk about the match between Christine-sama and me. I don’t think Primella or Eru would spread rumors, but I might become paranoid. This way, I can avoid feeling that way. After all, even walls have ears. I don’t know where or when someone could be leaning against the wall eavesdropping.
“There are more contestants than I expected.”(Maria)
“Yeah… Ten people, huh.”
Even if I hadn’t been selected, there would have been plenty of participants. Give me back my peaceful school festival!
I didn’t recognize any of the names besides Christine-sama’s, but as expected, all of them were beauties. Just by looking at the bulletin board, you could tell everyone was sublime. Right now, there were still some white spots on the poster, but they would soon disappear.
When I was contacted about the festival, I received numerous “necessities” handouts. I had thought, “what’s necessary for a festival?” Reading through all of it would have been troublesome, so I just skimmed it.
One thing included was an artificial flower to be used for voting. Using the flower, students were supposed to stick it by the picture of the candidate they liked most to keep the voting results obvious. Students even bet on the contests. Of course, unofficially.
“As expected, Christine-sama will win overwhelmingly.”
“She is the poster girl for the drama club… Though, this is my first time seeing her.” (Keito)
The ten contestants had the same amount of space on the poster and it had just been put up. Even so, under Christine-sama’s name, there were already red roses placed here and there.
“These flowers are really well made. They aern’t losing their shape at all.” (Keito)
That’s probably not the impression they wanted you to have. I had thought Keito was looking at Christine-sama’s face with a serious expression since it was his first time seeing her, but his gaze was actually directed towards the artificial flowers.
He was that impressed.
“Do you think I can keep this if I don’t vote?”
“They don’t plan on collecting them, so I think it’s fine.”
You’re not supposed to be wondering about that. As an adolescent boy, shouldn’t you be thinking of other things? Even though there are so many pictures of beauties lined up on the board… Or is that just my own bias?
I wonder if I should be reassured that he hasn’t changed at all.
“This will last a long time and the color is just like the real thing.”
“Come to think of it, you also tried making these sometimes.”
“I was only my dad’s helper though.”
Basically, Ikebana [flower arrangement with living flowers] is quite common, however, there are more instances where artifical flowers can be used. You can send it to people who are allergic, you can use it as permanent decoration, and so on. It can’t be helped that an imitation has more uses than the real deal sometimes.
“What are you going to do…”
“After the festival, I’ll give mine to you, too.”
“Ooh, thank you.”
Keito was acting as usual, so I found myself relaxing. Well, it’s within my expectations for him to be the same as usual… Although he was slightly different from what I thought it would be like.
Well, if Keito did become Christine-sama’s fan, I think I would have mixed feelings about it.
“As a contestant, what are you going to do?”
“We have a meeting with the contest committee.”
“Today?”
“After school.”
“Then, I’ll wait for you. There isn’t anything going on with the gardening club, as usual anyway.”
It seems like the gardening club has various things going on for the festival, but it’s mostly tending to the flower bed. It’s not different from what they normally do, well at least not for Keito.
I heard that they also decorated the arch for the festival but… It had the same feeling of usual. The gardening club has guts to do that. You could say they’re cheeky.
“I’ll just go to the flower bed then?”
“Yeah, the usual place.”
“Got it.”
After the meeting, I’ll definitely be fed up the contest, but at least I’ll be able to look forward to walking and talking with Keito afterwards.
Keito probably knew I’d feel that way, so he brought it up. I knew that Keito isn’t as straightforward about being kind to me after all.
“Then, see you after school.”
“Yeah, work hard in class.”
“Maria, too… Don’t sleep in class.”
“I-I don’t sleep!”
After tapping the area around my eyes a couple of times, he waved goodbye and turned to leave. I watched as his back grew further and further away before he finally rounded a corner. Then, I also rubbed the area around my eyes.
My eyelids felt heavier than normal, but my eyes weren’t bloodshot, nor did I have dark circles under my eyes. My complexion wasn’t poor and physical condition looked fine.
When I checked my face in the mirror this morning, I looked the same as usual.
“… Did he find out?”
That I couldn’t sleep much last night.
Were the dark circles forming under my eyes now? Thinking they might have been, I took out my compact mirror to check. Do I look different from my picture… even though it was my own face, I wasn’t sure.
“How’d he know…”
How does Keito see me? He really is mysterious. Maybe my attitude was different and I just didn’t realize it, or something about me was different that I didn’t notice.
In the end, no one else besides Keito pointed out my fatigue.