abcnovels
Chapter 105: Chaos Summer Festival
Chapter 105: Chaos Summer Festival
Chapter 105: Chaos Summer Festival
The long-awaited Saturday.
The day had come for me to go to the festival with Minato Naoya, a first-year junior.
But in the morning, she contacted me directly, suggesting postponing our appointment by just one day.
[Senior! Sorry! My mom suddenly scheduled an important casting-related appointment, so today seems difficult! How about tomorrow instead?]
Well, what could I do?
I said it was okay, but I couldn’t bring myself to tell her that I couldn’t meet tomorrow because I already had another appointment.
And then…
[Kim Yu-seong, if you’re okay with it, would you like to go to the festival tomorrow? I’ve already invited Karen, and though she was reluctant at first, she agreed to come when she heard you’d be there.]
Sasha’s sudden invitation to the festival.
In other words, it was not just double but triple booking.
And as a result,
“Senior!”
“Ryu-chan!”
“Kim Yu-seong!”
The three people, each having contacted me separately, ended up meeting at the same place.
“……”
How did this happen?
Summer Festival.
Every year, in the hot months of July and August, it was common for shopkeepers to reserve a nearby shrine and hold a festival.
Typically, it was an annual event held throughout Japan, so the specifics varied from region to region or neighborhood to neighborhood.
However, one common feature was the various street stalls and rows of lanterns hung overhead, culminating in a grand fireworks display at the end.
It was truly a festival for friends, family, and lovers to enjoy together.
But despite the joyous occasion, I found myself swallowing nervously, overwhelmed by the tension.
The cause was the power struggle unfolding right in front of me among the three girls.
“You had promised to meet me first, Senior. Maybe you should step aside.”
“Ryu-chan agreed to go around the festival with me! And who are you?”
“Rika, I’m disappointed. You proposed an alliance with Karen, yet here you are trying to monopolize him.”
Should I call it a three-way battle?
“Waaaa!”
Excluding Karen, who didn’t know what to do in the back, the three girls were at an impasse.
…Was this my karma?
To an outsider, this would be the perfect situation to label a man as trash.
And as I suspected, people around us were whispering as they looked at us.
“That guy must be the high school student acknowledged by the famous yakuza around here…”
“He’s a hero in love and war, but how many girls does he have…?”
“I wonder what that guy is like in bed.”
Silence.
Honestly, all the fault lay with me for not refusing any of the invitations, so I humbly accepted the sharp criticism directed at me.
Eventually, perhaps thinking that fighting among themselves wouldn’t resolve anything, the three girls looked at me simultaneously and asked,
“Senior! Make your choice!”
“Ryu-chan! Choose!”
“Kim Yu-seong, make your choice!”
“Is it her or me?”
At that moment, when every choice seemed to lead to destruction, I used my wits to offer a third option.
“…Since it’s come to this, how about we all go together?”
Honestly speaking, my suggestion was nothing but a stopgap measure.
But it seemed like a relatively reasonable choice for the three people who were in a situation of mutual restraint.
As the five of us moved together in a group, Minato suddenly asked,
“Senior, how do you like my yukata?”
It was then that I finally turned my attention to the yukata she was wearing.
A black yukata adorned with vibrant red roses.
As one of the top three beauties of the academy and a celebrity known as the nation’s little sister, her yukata attire was quite beautiful.
“Oh? Pretty.”
Then, as if competing, Rika, next to her, asked,
“Ryu-chan, what about me?”
I turned my head to look at Rika’s green yukata.
The yukata with a diamond-shaped pattern seemed to truly reflect her interest in fashion.
“Rika, you too.”
Then, not to be left out, Sasha proudly displayed her blue yukata, adorned with morning glories.
It was the yukata that I and the President had chosen during Golden Week.
“It’s good to see you happy, Kim Yu-seong. You’re the first person to see me wear a yukata.”
“That’s quite an honor.”
But it seemed unnecessary to mention it, so I quietly moved on.
“How about me, me?”
The last to ask was Karen in a white yukata.
Contrary to her usual tough appearance, the girlish look she occasionally showed left a strong impression.
“You’re pretty too, Karen.”
“…Thank you.”
Doing this, I felt like a compliment machine.
Was it because I was the only guy here?
I was contemplating this when…
“Ah! Kim!”
I encountered an unexpected ally.
“Sakamoto!”
It was Sakamoto Ryuji, the protagonist.
In a typical harem love comedy, it would have been Sakamoto Ryuji, the protagonist, who would be struggling in a situation like this.
But perhaps it was fate’s trick, as most of the heroines, except for Yaguchi Maiya, who was originally a childhood friend, and my close younger sister Yuika, got involved with me, turning the situation around.
“Meeting here, what a coincidence.”
“Hello, brother.”
“Hi, Kim.”
I didn’t know what happened, but Sakamoto Yuika and Yaguchi Maiya, each clinging to one of his arms, looked at us and bowed their heads.
Sakamoto, seeing our group, asked playfully,
“Are you on a date? The gender ratio seems a bit off.”
“If you know, why don’t you join in and help balance it?”
“I’m already overwhelmed with the flowers in both my hands.”
As Sakamoto said that with a sly grin, the two people clinging to his arms blushed.
Actually, I thought it wouldn’t be appropriate for Yuika, his younger sister, even if Yaguchi was okay, but I decided to understand it as part of the love comedy universe.
After all, Scramble Love was for all ages.
Anyway, it was a pity to part ways immediately, so we decided to walk together for a while.
Honestly, it felt like I could finally breathe a bit easier now.
It was probably because having at least one other guy made conversation easier than being with only girls.
While climbing the stone stairs leading to the shrine, Sakamoto asked,
“What were you doing before you came here?”
“Me? Just working out at home before coming here.”
“It looks like Kim doesn’t skip a day of exercise.”
“If you rest during vacation, you lose muscle, right?”
“Haha, that’s true.”
Then, the foreign ghost who was following behind us chimed in,
“It’s good to emulate. Contractor. Daily training is very important for a warrior.”
Trying my best not to pay attention to him, I decided to ask,
“By the way, Sakamoto, what kind of exercise do you do? Your movements were extraordinary when you were playing volleyball before.”
Sakamoto, looking a bit embarrassed, scratched the back of his head and answered,
“Nothing special. I’ve been learning Jujutsu since I was young at Yaguchi’s father’s dojo. It’s an old school called Mujin-ryu, and it’s really helped with my physical strength.”
Mujin-ryu, huh?
It seemed that the battle material drift wasn’t done for nothing.
I never expected such a plot twist in the background of Yaguchi, the true heroine.
“Ryuji, why aren’t you mentioning the Pharaoh martial arts I taught you?”
“Oh, come on!”
Losing patience with the constant chatter, Sakamoto said that and waved his hand towards the foreign ghost.
But since I had to pretend not to see, I could only ask in the most bewildered voice I could muster,
“Ryuji, why are you acting like this all of a sudden?”
Then Sakamoto looked at me and said, “Huh?”
“Ah, there are quite a few mosquitoes around. Ahahahaha.”
Seeing his awkward laugh, I thought he must be having a hard time too and let it go.
“But did I allow you to use my first name?”
“Huh?”
Realizing what Sakamoto pointed out, I belatedly understood that I had called him by his first name, not his last name.
This was all because of that ghost.
“Ah, sorry. I called you by your first name without realizing it.”
“No, I wasn’t trying to point that out, um. I just feel like we’ve gotten a bit closer now, Kim. Until now, it felt like there was some kind of wall between us.”
Sakamoto said that with a shy smile.
“From now on, you can call me Ryuji, and if it’s okay, can I call you Yu-seong instead of Kim?”
“…Do as you like. Honestly, I don’t mind being called either way.”
Unlike the Japanese, who placed great significance on calling each other by first name, as a Korean, I was more accustomed to being called by my first name rather than my last name.
Of course, I respected the cultural differences between the two countries.
As we walked and chatted about trivial things, we soon arrived at the shrine grounds, lined with street stalls.
“Come! Come! We have takoyaki! Six pieces for 300 yen!”
“Buy candy apples! We also have octopus skewers!”
“Delicious yakisoba here!”
The street stall owners attracted passing customers by calling out loudly.
Honestly, the quality of food sold at these places was not that high.
The prices tend to be inflated, but people often get swept up in the atmosphere and buy anyway.
Perhaps because it was a gathering of high school students in their prime, we couldn’t just pass by the feast of various street foods that caught our eyes and ears.
“Shall we eat something too?”
As I said that and turned around, everyone nodded in agreement.