I Became Friends with the Second Cutest Girl in My Class

After Umi and I returned to our homes, changed from our uniform to our casual clothes, we went out together.

Usually, we’d board the train whenever we’d be going on a date, but this time, it seemed like we’d be boarding a bus.

A lot of students in our school commuted by bus since their places were close enough from school, but it wasn’t the case for the two of us since the school was within a walking distance from our places. This would be the first time in a while we’d be boarding a bus, so we both felt a little nervous.

“Maki, do you have an IC card app on your phone— Nevermind, pretend I didn’t ask that.” (T/N: You know, Japanese people usually would scan a card whenever they board a train or bus or whatever? Yeah, that is an IC card.)

“…I mean, it isn’t like I’d have a lot of chances to use it.”

Well, I should consider installing it on my phone since there should be more opportunities for me to go out with Umi in the future.

After taking the numbered ticket from the bus’ entrance, we boarded the bus together. Although around this time should be the rushing hour, the bus was relatively empty. We could freely choose where we wanted to sit.

“Where do you want to sit, Maki?”

“Anywhere we could sit together… How about at the back?”

“Hehe, you’re such a child~”

“Shut it. Just hurry up and sit down.”

“Sure~”

We sat down at the very back, on a five-seater. I chose to sit next to the window. After we were seated, the bus slowly departed towards the next bus station.

Honestly, I felt anxious because I tend to get carsick easily, especially when I could faintly smell the bus’ exhaust while having to experience its slight shakings. Still, since we wouldn’t be here for too long, it should probably be okay…

“Can you tell me where we’re going now, Umi? I need to prepare the money and all…”

“You’ll only need 290 yen for the ride.”

“…I guess you won’t be telling me anything then? Fine, I’ll find out when we get off anyway.”

“Yes, just trust me on this, okay~?”

Since I decided to take up on her words, I leaned back to my seat and tried to enjoy the window view—

“Umi.”

“Yes~?”

“Stop poking me on the sides. On the cheeks too. It tickles.”

“I can’t hear you~”

“Stop it…”

I just wanted to spend my time in peace, but I couldn’t because of the (rather frequent) assaults by Umi.

My hand was still holding hers, obviously. We also had enough fun flirting while waiting for the bus to come. But it seemed like she thought I hadn’t fawned on her enough.

Who was it that called me a ‘child’ again?

In any case, I couldn’t keep letting her do something like this.

“By the way, Umi, have you submitted your career choices to your homeroom teacher yet?”

“Now, that’s really out of nowhere. Well, it isn’t like I had many choices, so I wrote that I want to go to college and submitted it. Based on the mock exam the other day, I should be able to go to my third university choice.”

“I see. You did it quite early, huh?”

With the summer vacation ending, our topic of conversation inevitably went in that direction. Next month, the school will be holding a parent-teacher conference, so those among us who were having poor grades like Amami-san, Nitta-san and Nozomu, wouldn’t have it as easy as Umi and myself.

“You haven’t submitted yours yet? Well, I know I am your first choice.”

“That’s one hell of a way to put it, but yeah, I’ve written my first choice at least.”

Obviously, I didn’t write ‘Asanagi Umi’ as my first choice. What I wrote down was the same university that she picked as her first choice. What stumped me were the second and third choices, and the fact that I still didn’t know what kind of work I wanted to have in the future.

I had been talking with my mom about this and she agreed to let me go to the same university as Umi as long as I actually managed to get there. But the thing with the whole career choice was that I also wanted to write some realistic options in it.

“If you had to get a job, what kind of job do you want to do, Maki? Do you want to work for a company? Or do you want to work as a freelancer while trying various things?”

“The most realistic option is the first one since that’s what my parents are doing to earn their money…”

I never even had a part-time job, so I didn’t really have the right to say anything about this, but… Seeing my parents up close, working seemed like a hard thing to do despite it being something that other people commonly did…

My father worked for a well-known company that everyone should have heard its name at least once in their lives, and managed to have a financially stable life. But in exchange, he had to sacrifice his time with his family. The same thing happened with my mother, who was working hard to earn money for both of us.

I couldn’t give my thanks enough for them, but… Should I really follow their life choices and live just like them?

“I know things like a job, money and so on are important… But, there’s something that I value more than all of that…”

“Something that you value more…? Could it be…?”

“That goes without saying, isn’t it?”

Saying this, I squeezed her hand tightly.

Even if in the future, I found a job that I really wanted to do, I wouldn’t prioritize it more than Umi. As long as my goal, ‘to live a happy life with Umi,’ was fulfilled, I wouldn’t care for anything else.

“To summarize, you want to work in ‘a workplace that would make you have enough money for a living while having as little overtime as possible.’ Hm… The only thing I could think of is either you work in a really, really white company or you work as a civil servant.” (T/N: White company is the opposite of black company basically. A company with reasonable working hours, good working conditions, healthy work culture and all those stuffs. Well, that’s pretty much a myth.)

“Quite a narrow choice, isn’t it?”

“Yeah. As far as I know, only Hayato-san— Yuu’s dad, who is working in that kind of environment. Even so, he usually gets back home late.”

Amami Hayato-san. I haven’t met him yet, but I heard he was working at the prefectural office.

I’ve seen how he looked when Amami-san showed me a picture of her family on a trip before. He wore glasses and he gave me the impression that he was a serious man. From what I’ve seen, it seemed like they were just like the Asanagis, a very harmonious family. Still, I wonder what kind of person he was?

It roused my curiosity a little.

“Anyway, let’s think about that later. Why don’t we enjoy our little date today? It would be a waste if we were to spend it talking about something like that.”

“True.”

There would be more opportunities to talk about it, yes. Like she said, I should focus on spending my sweet time together with my sweet girlfriend at the moment.

‘The next stop is the shrine. Next stop, the shrine. Passengers getting off at this stop, please prepare to disembark.’

“Oh, we’ve arrived. Press the button, Maki, we’re getting off.”

“Ah, okay.”

I did what Umi told me, pressing the button, paying the fare and getting off the bus. The next bus station was still a distance away, but it seemed like most other passengers of the bus were also getting off here.

“Over there, Maki. We’ll be having our date there.”

“Huh? Really…?”

Just like what the announcer said, we stopped right in front of a torii. But, even though it was nighttime, the path to the shrine on top of the hill was brightly lit. The reason was because of the various floating lanterns on the way. There were also various stalls along the way.

“…Um, so does this mean that we’ll be having a date at this festival?”

“Mhm! We’ll also get to see a preview of tomorrow’s Fireworks Festival! C’mon, stop dawdling, we’ll get left behind by everyone~”

“Okay, okay…”

Actually, the Fireworks Festival was supposed to be held on the riverbank, quite a distance away from here— You know what? I’ll just follow her for the time being.