Summer Vacation Arc: 63 The Prince and Cheering Up

Summer Vacation Arc
63 The Prince and Cheering Up

Meru was walking alone along the main street. She didn’t have any errands in particular, but she felt like she wanted to get outside.

“Good weather. It seems like today’ll be a good day.”

The weather was so good that she carefreely spoke to herself.
However, a few minutes later, Meru took those words back.

“Oh? Isn’t that Kusuhara-chan?”

Meru stopped as a voice suddenly came from behind her. No, it was more accurate to say she froze.
It was a familiar voice, one that suddenly gave her the chills.
Knowing who was behind her, Meru began to break into a dash to run away without looking back.

“Now wait just a second.”

She was caught before she could run. If she ran, she probably could have gotten away, but it was impossible when her arm was held so tightly.

Meru reluctantly looked behind her and flashed a face full of smiles.

“Long time no see, Minohara-san. Excuse me. I have something to do, so could you let me go?”

Seeing Meru’s usual attitude, Shin smiled playfully.

“Hmm. What d’you have to do?”
“Um, I’m having lunch with my friend.”
“Ohh, you have friends?”
“I’ll return those words to you.”
“But if that’s the case, I wanna tell that friend that I’m borrowing you, so let me meet them. That’s if you’re really meeting someone, though.”

Shin said and gave her his hateful smile. Her lie was completely exposed.

“Well, in any case, let go of me. I won’t run away.”

Meru said, narrowing her eyes.
Shin’s hair was bright and his clothes fashionable, though showy. And on top of that he had a face like Fuuga’s that girls loved.
He was naturally drawing attention from the women walking down the street.That kind of guy grabbing the hand of an unwilling girl drew even more attention on top of that.

“What to do. It’s fun to see your unhappy face, too, though? I’m good like this.”

Shin cackled, looking like he was truly having fun.
On the other hand, Meru’s face said that she was fed up.

“Can’t be helped, so I’ll let you go.”
“Hah? Wa…!”

He suddenly pulled her arm in. Then, a gentle feeling remained on her right eyelid.
Shin laughed enjoyably seeing Meru’s dumbfounded expression.

“What an idiotic expression! I’m satisfied seeing that. Well then, come with me.”

Meru shook her head, calmly opposing Shin’s one-sided words.

“I won’t go with you. Even children know not to go along with dangerous people.”
“Who here is dangerous?”
“Give it some thought. People who suddenly kiss the eyelid of someone who is only their acquaintance in public are dangerous.”

A faint smile showed on Shin’s face when Meru said that with a straight face.

“Aren’t you glad I stopped with your eyelid? Be grateful.”
“You just didn’t want to kiss my mouth, right?”

Seeing Meru replying with a sigh mixed in, the smile disappeared from Shin’s face for just a moment. But his usual unreadable smile soon returned.

“Well, that’s true, but? What? Would you have preferred that?”

Shin grinned and moved closer once more, but Meru forcefully pushed him away.

“Don’t be stupid. If you have somewhere you want to take me, hurry up and do it.”

When Meru sighed, Shin said, “If you’re going to come along in the end, listen to what I was saying from the beginning,” and cackled.
He was, after all, an unpleasant guy. Meru followed after him while thinking about that.

“How’d it come ta be that you and Shin’re together?”

Brought along by Shin, Meru arrived at the condo where Seiya lived alone.
It was the top floor of a high class condo. It was very much a place where ordinary people wouldn’t live.

Coming out from his room, Seiya seemed to have just gotten up, but his appearance was as prince-like as usual without any sign of disarray.

“It’s a strategy for you to cheer up so that you’ll go to the party.”

Seiya looked at Shin, who was making a V sign with his fingers, with a fed up expression.

“Well, whatever. In any case, come in.”
“Um, I’ll excuse myself h–“
“Yeah, yeah. If you don’t want what happened before to happen again, get inside.”

With Shin having said that, Meru unwillingly entered Seiya’s place.

“Thanks for havin’ me~”
“…Excuse me for intruding.”

Barging past Seiya, Shin sat down on a stool in the spacious living room while Meru stood by the window furthest from him.

“What’re ya doin’? You. Sit here.”

Seiya sat on the soft sofa and beckoned to Meru. Using wanting to see outside as an excuse, Meru did not budge from the window.

“So, even if ya brought Meru, I’m not goin’ to tha evenin’ party.”

Seiya said moodily. Seeing him like that, Shin heaved a heavy sigh.

“If you don’t go, I’m seriously in trouble.”
“It’s a pain. I’m tired.”
“Can you do something about that? The board chairman even requested it of me, ‘Bring Seiya.'”

Shin said, but it didn’t seem like he was really persuading. Particularly in regard to the request from the board chairman, to put it bluntly, he was probably indifferent. The only things Shin needed to listen to were Shin’s wishes.

“Ahh, would you come if Kusuhara-chan also told you to go?”

Having been suddenly brought up, Meru let out a startled sound. Shin cackled once more hearing that.

“Uh, this evening party is…?”
“To put it simply, it’s a standing buffet party for the wealthy sponsors of La Faust Academy.”
“Ahh…”
“I was busy with work until late last night, too. With that, why tha hell would I go to a party where I’m just gonna hafta deal with bothersome suck ups?”

Seiya said and massaged his eyelids.
Meru could tell that he was truly tired.
Anyway, it was completely impossible for Meru to understand why she had to be brought here.

“But…ah!!!”

Looking at Meru who was thinking about that, Seiya grinned seemingly having thought of something.

“What if Kusuhara-chan comes too?”
“”Hah?””

Meru and Seiya both let out a foolish sound at the same time. Shin responded to that by continuing to speak as he chuckled.

“I mean, she was at La Faust once. She’s not an outsider, right?”
“No, I’m…”
“We can have Kusuhara-chan wear a dress and put makeup on.”
“I said, I’m not go–“
“…If it’s like that I’ll go.”
“Ehh…”

Meru really wanted Seiya to explain what exactly was going on in his head.

“Then it’s decided.”

Shin smiled as though he had been waiting for this. This was probably his aim from the start. He was a pointlessly sharp-witted guy.

Like that, Meru ended up heading to the La Faust Academy evening party together with Seiya and Shin.

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<TLN>
They’re baaaaaack. Which means my head gets to hurt for a bit again. Siiiiighs.

Also I’m currently screaming cuz I just realized WordPress has been messing up a l l the layouts of my posts and they haven’t been properly spaced. I’m so sorry. This stupid new update they did is the actual worst. = = For some reason, nothing is sticking, code-wise or normal editor-wise. I’ll have to spend some time looking into it when I have free time, so it might be a second. Until then, I’m sorry for the inconvenience and weirdness. 😦

22 chapters left in the summer vacation arc!

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October bonus chapters funded: 0/3 ($0/$30 to the first one!)