Summer Vacation Arc: 67 Clock Tower and Meeting

Summer Vacation Arc
67 Clock Tower and Meeting

On a day at 10:00a.m., Meru was standing under the clock tower in front of the station.

She was standing at the meeting spot alone, but the truth was that she was waiting for someone.

However, that person didn’t show up even when the appointed time arrived.

Since she didn’t have anything in particular to think about, Meru recalled the incident last night.

“Mom, can you get the phone?”

Last night, the phone rang in the Kusuhara house. Since Meru was in the middle of making dinner, she asked Mariko to pick up instead.

“Hello, this is the Kusuhara house. Oh my, good evening. Um…geez, you’re too good with your flattery. …Yep, she’s here. Hold on for a second. Meru-chaaaan.”

After having fun talking with the person on the line, Mariko held out the phone and called Meru.
It seemed that it was a call for Meru, but when she asked who it was, Mariko just grinned.

“Hello?”
“Hello, Meru-chan!?”

The caller’s voice was so loud, Meru held the phone away from her ear. The caller, Fuuga, went on to say things like, “We haven’t seen each other in a while! Are you doing okay!?” “I thought I was going to die because I couldn’t see you,” “I haven’t met with any other girls, okay!”, continuing to talk on his own, not leaving any room for Meru to get a word in edgewise. She could hear him even holding the phone away, so he seemed to be really excited.

“…And, Rengetsu-kun. What’s wrong?”

When the voice on the line calmed down, Meru returned the phone to her ear and asked Fuuga helplessly.

“Ah, right, right. Are you free tomorrow?”
“I’m free, but… Why?”
“I want your help with my homework!”
“Homework? There are still two weeks left in summer vacation, so work slowly and steadily from now on.”
“I won’t make it if I do that! If I don’t finish my homework, he won’t let me participate in the student council training camp that’s starting the day after tomorrow! That demon…Hayate-kun, that is!”

Hearing that, Meru thought it was very Hayate-like and smiled half in exasperation.

“Okay, sure.”
“Eh!? Really!?”
“What’s with that reaction? It’s fine if I don’t go, too.”
“No, no, no! I didn’t think you would agree so easily… I was really surprised, so I just…”
“Well, it’s fine. Where and what time?”
“Ah…um, then, 10:00a.m. in front of the station!”

Fuuga said enthusiastically. After that, he forgot that he was still on the phone and began to cryptically talk to himself again, saying things like “I’m so nervous. What should I do…” “I’m so happy I’m about to burst,” “What should I wear tomorrow…” and “I wonder what Meru will wear,” so Meru hung up the phone in exasperation.

“Meru-chan, it’s a date.”

Mariko said next to Meru as she grinned. Meru said, “Not you, too…” and sighed.

And that’s how she came to be here.
She thought about that to kill time, but the person she was waiting for didn’t show up at all.

“I guess he wouldn’t have overslept.”

It was Fuuga. It wouldn’t be strange if he showed up at the meeting place thirty minutes early for Meru. Meru felt that way very normally, though not from conceit.

“Thinking about it…”

Meru swept her gaze around the area.
Won’t there be a crowd around there shortly?
No sooner had she thought that then a showy group of girls appeared from around the corner in her line of sight.

“Ahh, so that’s it.”

Meru said, catching sight of a slightly taller male surrounded by the group.
Since they were still quite a ways from where Meru was, she couldn’t confirm that it was him, but despite that, she was confident that the one being surrounded there was Fuuga.

“Hey! Isn’t that the guy who was in that magazine the other day!?”
“It really is!”

Saying so, the women who were a few meters in front of Meru ran off toward the group.
In that manner, the crowd grew in might.

“I should probably go pick him up, huh.”

She’d probably get pushed around on the way, and she’d probably be done in by the girls’ gazes when Fuuga noticed her. However, if she were to keep waiting here, it would probably take an hour for Fuuga to arrive. There was no difference between waiting here and wasting time. Meru thought for a little bit and moved out from under the clock tower with an “Alright.”

“Sorry! Could you let me pass?”

In the middle of the crowd, Fuuga earnestly bowed to the girls around him.

“Ehh! But don’t you always say you’re busy recently, Fuuga-kun? Even though you hung out with us so much last year.”
“Umm, I’m really busy this year…”
“You worked part time short-term as a model, right? I know. I’m properly keeping up with you. But you being here today means that you’re off, so come hang out with me!”
“Ehh! No, with me!”
“Me!!”
“No, that, um…”

A familiar sight was taking place in the middle of the street. Fuuga had a troubled expression, but he didn’t strongly reject them. That was both a good point of his and a bad.

As expected, Fuuga didn’t notice Meru at the edge of the group. She wanted to ask if they were at an idol’s live concert with how the people around her kept shouting, “Fuuga-kun, look over here!”

She circled around the group once and began to think of it as amusing in a sense as she called out to Fuuga playfully while he was pushing his way through the crowd.

“I have an important promise to keep, so…”
“Fuuga-kuuuun, hurry and come over here.”

She tried saying something similar to the other voices.
Of course, he wouldn’t notice. Or so Meru thought.

“Eh, ah, but…Meru-chan!?”

Fuuga shouted as he looked all around in disbelief.
The surrounding girls made a fuss, saying, “Who is Meru?” as the person in question was currently dumbfounded, not knowing how he’d recognized her.

“Ah, there you are!”

Finally pushing through the crowd and, finding Meru, he directed a smile that reached his eyes toward her that previously was not on his face. He likely subconsciously smiled like that upon seeing her.
Before everyone could turn their attention to Meru, Fuuga grabbed her hand.

“Meru-chan, I’m sorry! Run!”
“Yeah, well. That’s the safest choice.”

Meru spoke carefreely, allowing Fuuga to pull her as they ran full steam through the streets.

They took a sharp turn at the corner and lost Fuuga’s fans. Just a few minutes after meeting, Fuuga made Meru run out of breath, so he had a truly apologetic expression.

“If you’re going to make that face, then it would have been better if you wore a disguise or if we met up in an inconspicuous place.”
“I mean, that…”

Meru tilted her head, looking at Fuuga who wasn’t speaking clearly. Seeing Meru like that, Fuuga couldn’t stand it anymore and, while hiding his red face, spoke quietly.

“Meeting under the clock tower… It’s like a date, so…”
“But you’ve met up with other girls there before, right?”

If he simply wanted to try doing something date-like, he’d dated plenty of other girls in the past, even if they weren’t Meru. There was no need for him to do so especially with her today. Meru’s genuine words stabbed Fuuga’s heart like a sharp thorn. Facing those words, Fuuga’s shoulders dropped and he began to lament while giving off an extremely gloomy aura.

“Meru-chan…don’t say that. It’s the truth, but if you say that, I can’t recover.”
“Eh?”
“I wanted to do something date-like with you!”

Having become desperate, Fuuga said that in a rather loud voice before saying, “Ahh, I’m so uncool!” as he made a variety of expressions by himself.
Meru wondered why Fuuga was so fixated on her. She didn’t really understand, but in any case, the current Fuuga was extremely comical.
Meru held back her laughter and tugged on the bottom of his shirt.

“Let’s go?”

Meru was shorter than Fuuga. That’s why, even without trying, she always looked at him with upturned eyes when they talked.

“…Meru-chan. That’s…illegal.”
“Eh?”
“Nah, don’t worry. It’s nothing.”

Fuuga said so, so Meru promptly began to walk toward the library.

“Rengetsu-kun, hurry up.”

Having been called by Meru, Fuuga suddenly raised his haid as though he had remembered something.

“Hey, Meru-chan.”
“Hm?”
“Did you call me by my name earlier?”
“Ahh, yeah. Everyone was calling you that way, so I tried blending in and calling you, too.”

When Meru confirmed that, Fuuga’s eyes sparkled even more.
She had a bad feeling.
At the moment she thought that,Fuuga grabbed Meru’s hand.

“Call me that one more time!”
“Yeah. I figured you’d say that. What a pain…”
“Please!”

Fuuga brought his hands together and pleaded with Meru. Meru wondered if he really liked being called by his name that much as her thoughts went way off the mark. Calling him by name couldn’t really be called a request or anything like that. It was something simple.

Meru acknowledged him with a sigh and spoke out his name.

“Umm…Fuuga-kun.”

It was embarrassing to consciously say his name. Looking at Meru who was a little shy, Fuuga covered his own mouth with his hand and looked down.
“… Ahh, ahh, ahh. Yeah, this is no good. Meru-chan, please keep calling me by my surname from here on after all.”
“Hah? Eh, ah…sure.”

With a question mark hanging above her head, Meru replied with a “Got it.”
On the other hand, coming around the corner, Fuuga muttered his unsettled worry to himself: “I wonder if I’ll be able to survive until the end today…”

And so the two of them headed toward the library like that.

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<TLN>
Fuuga needs bodyguards. Come on, Rengetsu-family!

18 chapters left in the summer vacation arc!