CK 51

Chapter 51…

Encounter at the Science Museum

Excuse Me!

Bookmark inserted

“Wow, the line is pretty long~”
“Yeah~ Maybe because it’s a day off?”
“Since it’s raining, maybe some people came here because there’s nowhere else to go.”

When we arrived at the science museum, we lined up to buy tickets for the planetarium.

As the three of them had guessed, the line was quite long.
It was easy to imagine that we’d have to wait a few minutes.

Out of boredom, I casually looked up at the monitor above the ticket counter.
The monitor displayed three different showings.

That’s when I realized there was one more important thing I hadn’t been told.

“…What are we going to watch?”
“The ‘Guidance of the 12 Constellations.’ I thought it might be useful for future reference.”
“Yeah, that! I thought it would be educational!”
“I was invited by Yui, so I thought ‘perfect timing.’”

…These guys really have incredible ambition.

Yui and Shirou went back to chatting casually.
Meanwhile, Hanayama and I remained silent, just waiting for our turn.

The line slowly moved forward, and we gradually advanced.

Along the way, I noticed something on the ground.
I picked it up to see what it was.

“This is…”
“A student handbook. And it’s from Seibou High School.”

It was a deep blue pass case with “Seibou High School” written on it, distributed by the school to hold student handbooks and IDs.

At that moment, it seemed someone noticed us talking.
The two people in front turned around.

“What’s that?”
“Is that… a student handbook?”

I replied to them, “Yeah, I just picked it up.”

“Uh… shouldn’t you check the name inside or something?”
“That’s personal information. We should just hand it to reception and leave it to them. It’s not our responsibility.”

Hearing that, Yui said, “That’s true, but…” and looked forward.
Shirou seemed to offer some kind of follow-up.

We’d just hand it in as lost property when buying our tickets.

Thinking that, I waited for our turn.

Finally, as our turn was approaching, the reception area became a little hectic.

From the voices I could catch, it seemed someone trying to buy a ticket had lost something.

At the same time, Yui looked our way.
I pointed to the student handbook I was holding and said, “Could it be… that one?”

“I don’t know.”
“‘I don’t know’?! Let me see! I’ll go get it!”

Without hesitation, Yui took the student handbook from my hand and left the line.

☆☆☆

“Finally got the tickets!”
“Yeah! But we still have a little time… What should we do?”
“What should we do…?”

We had finally bought the planetarium tickets.
While listening to Yui and Shirou talking, we left through the exit next to the reception.

We moved a little and discussed what to do next.
I thought we could just wait, but…

Yui suggested, “Shall we check out the shop!?”

…The souvenir shop should probably be last.

At that moment, a woman approached, saying quietly, “Um…”
Yui noticed and said, “Ah! You’re the one from earlier!”

…Ah, she’s the person we heard about at reception earlier.
I remembered Yui had returned and said, “I managed to return the student ID!”
So this must be the owner.

Yui then asked, “What happened?”

“I didn’t properly thank you earlier. Thank you so much.”

The woman bowed her head.
She had low twin tails, glasses, and looked about our age.

“No, no! I just handed it over. This person here found it!”

Yui pulled me in front of the woman.
I wanted to say, “Why don’t you just let Yui take credit…”

The woman, however, bowed her head again and thanked us, not caring about my presence.

“By the way, that handbook… it’s from Seibou High, right?”
“Yes… Are you also from there?”
“Yes! I’m first-year Shirakami Yui!”
“I’m also a first-year, Hirahara Shirou!”

Why is there a self-introduction now?
We already gave her what she needed, that should have been enough.

As I silently complained to myself, Yui tapped my shoulder.

“See! Now it’s just your turn, Maa-kun.”
“…Hanayama?”
“Already did it.”

…She hadn’t heard anything.
I don’t really want to expand my connections, but… leaving now would be rude.

Seeing no way out, I said, “I’m also a first-year, Insei Masato.”

“I’m a second-year, Mikagami Miyu. You’re all my juniors. Nice to meet you!”
“Oh… you’re a senior! My apologies!”

Yui bowed and gently pushed me forward.
I tried to resist, saying, “Stop it,” but Yui insisted, “You can’t act like that toward a senior!”

Seeing us, Mikagami-senpai smiled slightly and spoke.

“I don’t care about hierarchy, so you don’t have to do that. By the way, did you all come here because you like constellations?”

Thanks to Mikagami-senpai’s words, Yui finally let go of my hand. I immediately straightened up.
Yui also raised her head.

But the four of us were at a loss for words.

It wasn’t so much that we liked constellations; we came because it was necessary for fighting.
I’m sure everyone had the same reason.

But we all seemed to understand that it was best not to say that.

Still, we knew staying silent would be rude.
…What should we say?

As we hesitated, Yui spoke up, “Ah, well…”

“We do like them, but we did poorly on our science midterms…
So we were told to research something as extra credit. I thought I’d research constellations and submit it!”

As a quick excuse, it wasn’t bad.

Although I was slightly annoyed that it implied I also did poorly.
But well, Mikagami-senpai seemed satisfied, so that’s fine…

At that moment, the speaker announcement was heard throughout the museum.

“The planetarium show ‘Guidance of the 12 Constellations’ will now begin admission.”