I Became Friends with the Second Cutest Girl in My Class

T/N: Thanks Takoyaki for the coffee! Really appreciate it!

After the announcer gave out the cue, the first firework was shot into the sky. It marked the start of the festival.

A bright red fiery flower lit up the dark sky before spreading out and disappearing. Almost immediately, an explosive sound reached us on the ground.

Everyone around us marveled at this sight.

“W-Woah…”

The sound was so loud that it made my ear ring, but I didn’t find it unpleasant.

Up until now, when it came to fireworks, I had only seen the smaller kinds, specifically the stick variants and the sprinklers that my parents used to buy me. This large-scale firework had only been something that I could only see from the distance at best.

That was why, when I saw the colorful explosion in this close proximity, I was overwhelmed by awe.

While I was in that state, right before the next batch of fireworks were set up, Umi poked me on the cheek.

“Your mouth is half-opened, Maki~ I know the fireworks look amazing and all, but you’ll look silly if you don’t close your mouth properly~”

“Huh? S-Sorry, it’s my first time seeing them this close…”

“Hehe~ Well, since you seem to be having fun, I’ll let you off. You know, when you got lost, I actually regretted my decisions. I thought that I should have gone with our original plan.”

“Is that so…? Well, it doesn’t matter in the end. We get to enjoy this moment together with everyone… Ah, the next batch is coming.”

“…Mhm.”

Once again, we held each other’s hands tightly and shifted our gazes to the sky.

According to the ads, they planned to set off more than seven thousand fireworks tonight. After the first shot, fireworks of various colors and sizes decorated the night sky, creating a dazzling light that shone upon us.

Everyone in our group had stopped eating and raised their heads in fascination. From Riku-san, to Reiji-kun, all of them.

When the fireworks were set off, the place got even more crowded than before. I couldn’t see any gaps between the people around me. But, everyone, me included, didn’t seem to care about this. Instead, we were just enjoying the continuous explosions of the fireworks.

It seemed like they had taken the audience’s convenience into account. The first batch of the fireworks, consisting of four thousand fireworks in total, wasn’t fired in one long sequence. Rather, there were intervals here and there so that the audience’s neck wouldn’t get sore from looking up for too long. After they fired everything, they announced a twenty minute break and notified us that the second batch with the remaining three thousand fireworks would be fired simultaneously.

“…Mom, I want to pee…”

“Oh my… Rikkun, do you know where the toilet is?”

“I remember seeing it near the entrances, but there should be more than that… Right, there’s one nearby, I’ll go with you. You guys will be fine without me, right?”

“Yes, Reiji-kun should be your priority, Bro, we’re fine here. Also, Maki, just in case, you don’t need to go to the toilet, right? You don’t need to hold it.”

“True, don’t hold it, Rep! If you were to go in the middle of the fireworks showers, we won’t be able to accompany you!”

“I don’t need this much babysitting… I’ve finished all my business before coming here to begin with…”

I was going to ask Umi and Amami-san the same question, but I held myself back. Yeah, that would be too insensitive of me to ask that kind of question to girls.

Guess I could pat myself in the back for this. If it was the past me, I’d definitely ask them without much thinking.

“…Sorry, I think I’m the one who has to go. I’ve been tending to Rocky before coming here. When I got home and got ready for the festival, I was in a hurry, so I didn’t get the chance to do anything else.”

“Well, since Yuuchin is going, I’ll be going too. If I wait after the festival is over, the place will definitely get crowded. I don’t want to hold it back until I get home! What about you, Umi?”

“Me? …Um…”

Umi glanced at me and tugged at my yukata. Like me, she had already finished all her business before coming here, but I guess the anxiety she felt when I was lost changed the game a little.

Well, while I didn’t mind her following me to the toilet, the opposite seemed rather inappropriate. If we were at each other’s houses, it wouldn’t matter at all, but we were in a public place.

“I’ll be here with Nozomu, so you can go with everyone. Nitta-san was right, it won’t do you any good to hold it in.”

“…I guess you’re right. Alright, I’ll join Yuu and Nina then. Seki, I’ll leave him in your care.”

“Okay! Don’t worry, I’ll keep a close eye on him so that he won’t run off somewhere!”

“I told you guys I don’t need that much babysitting… Jeez…”

And so, everyone else left for the nearest toilet, leaving Nozomu and I behind.

The group of lively girls left the place and it suddenly became a lot quieter. Well, I could appreciate the quiet atmosphere, besides, I liked spending my time alone with Nozomu like this— No, there wasn’t any strange meaning behind that sentence.

“Come to think of it, it has been a while since we were left by ourselves like this. We used to do this a lot back when we were in the first year, didn’t we?”

“Yeah, well, we aren’t in the same class anymore and you’re too busy practicing. It was a shame that the previous tournament didn’t go too well, though. You think you can win the current one?”

“Well, we won our first match at that one, so that’s that. I don’t know how far we’ll go, though, but if you were to ask me, I really want us to win the nationals. Then we’ll get to senbatsu in spring and koshien in summer.” (T/N: Both are annual baseball tournaments.)

Nozomu had already inherited the ‘ace’ position from the third-years and he had been working to be the center of the team. He might often be the butt of the jokes in our group, just like me, but he was actually a really talented baseball player. The kind that would gather attention from people inside and outside the country.

My life was truly blessed. Not only I had Umi as my girlfriend, but I also had someone as amazing as him as a good friend. The number of my friend circle was small, but they were all good people.

“I see. Guess, you’ll be busy with your club for a while longer, huh? Good luck with that. I’ll try to come up with something to get you closer with Amami-san, so you don’t need to worry too much about that.”

“…Amami-san, huh? Right…”

“Hm? Nozomu?”

Since I figured that this was something we could talk about, I brought up the topic, but the moment I mentioned Amami-san’s name, his face lost its previously bright expression.

There should be no change between those two’s relationship. At least, I haven’t heard about it from Umi or Nitta-san. From the way they acted around each other, it didn’t seem like something big had happened too.

“…Maki, I don’t know if this is the right place for it, but I need advice.”

“Is this about Amami-san?”

“Well, yeah…”

Then he showed me his phone. There was a picture of him in his uniform, smiling awkwardly, and Amami-san, who was wearing a gentle smile.

The picture could suggest a lot of things, but there just wasn’t enough information to confirm anything.

“Maki, you see… Amami-san and I were—”

“Huh?”

The thing that he told me afterwards was something that distracted me for the rest of the festival.