It was the day of the cultural festival. The crowd applauded at the Wind Ensemble Club that ended its showing of the second half of the stomp performance on the stage of the gymnasium. It wasn"t like all prepared chairs were filled, but since it was like that every year it couldn"t be helped.

I turned into the direction of the audience while I tidied up the tools.

Nozomi waved her hand and Koizumi-san clapped his hands a little with a sulky expression.

At the wing of the stage, Kusakabe-sensei was surrounded by cla.s.smates and the female senior club members. Their voices were cheerful. Humph. They"re still kids. Their "like" is in a different dimension than my "like". Together with Sensei I put effort into gathering club members and continued to watch beside him, that"s why I am able to say that I "like" him. It was very much unimaginable that a refined announcement like today"s could have happened before the summer holidays. The qualification of sharing that pa.s.sion together with Sensei is something I have.

However, there was a miscalculation.

I wasn"t the only one who put effort into gathering club members and had come to like Sensei. There is another.

After coming down the stage, my eyes caught something in the audience. All members of the Biology Club were there. Everyone in the executive committee and the students of the cultural clubs who heard of the rumor contributed and gathered 20.000 yen for the cost of the medicine. It is said that the diseased blue damselfish narrowly escaped death.

That cla.s.smate quickly bowed her head. As if offering up a prayer, she didn"t raise her head for a long time.

It felt painful. I became known as the person who distinguished herself by solving this case. Owing to that everyone acknowledged my superiority.

The one who truly solved the case --

I turned around.

Haruta stared at Kusakabe-sensei with a dazed look in his eyes. I had the impression that he was there in body, but not in spirit.

Looking back at it, I think that Haruta"s behavior was impeccable the day before he refused to go to school. Even though he was jeered at by everyone in the cla.s.s, he didn"t deny it with a single word or an excuse. He just went silent, looked downward and simply stood.

I"m not able to do that.

Haruta is a boy, but sometimes I get anxious that he may end up stealing Sensei away. That kind of thing will absolutely not happen -- I want to believe it won"t happen, but... there are times when I have scary imaginations and can"t even sleep at night.

I spontaneously got gooseb.u.mps. It"s an unimaginable love triangle. I absolutely don"t want to accept it, but if it"s Haruta, there are times I can somehow allow it.

That"s because Haruta is my greatest rival.