Chapter 12
Subaru: Well then, thanks a bunch!
Fufu, the shopkeep said they’ll deliver the shirts and hankies to the school for us. That’s a big help!
Mao: ......
Subaru: Sally? Don’t ignore me! I get all lonely when people ignore meeee!
Mao: M–my bad. I’m a little sleep deprived, so I guess I’m kinda out of it.
Subaru: Sleep deprived? Oh, I get it! Did you stay up late playing games like Ukki or something?
You shouldn’t cut into your sleep time with gaming, though. One hour of gaming per day!
Mao: Ahaha... I wasn’t up playing games, no. I was just thinking about something, and the night just slipped away.
Subaru: Hmmm. Can I ask what it was?
Mao: What? You’re always so pushy about things, so it’s weird to see you showing restraint about this.
Subaru: I care about you too, yanno! Or I guess it’s better to say I’ve started caring more.
Oh whoops, we’ve been talking so much we almost passed right by the store. We can get everything we need at the art store, right?
All righty, comin’ in~!
Mao: (That guy... he just barged into the store. It’s a relief he didn’t hound me for answers, but I still feel guilty because it’s kinda like I’m keeping secrets from him...)
(Or more like l am keeping secrets, then Makoto found out in the worst possible way.)
(But since he hasn’t told Subaru or Hokuto about it, and there’s not much time left ‘til Sunflower Live, I might be able to scrape by without them ever knowing.)
(But there’s also no guarantee they won’t find out. And is it really okay to let things stay awkward between me and Makoto?)
(Makoto’s pissed at me, Ritsu’s run out of patience with me—and I still haven’t learned my lesson? Are you really gonna repeat these same mistakes, Isara Mao...?)
A few minutes later
Subaru: All righty...! We got everything we wanted to buy, so we can go back to school ☆
Mao: Subaru.
Subaru: Mm? What’s up, Sally? You look so serious...
Mao: I want you to hear me out, okay?
You asked me before if the President had any conditions for us to borrow money.
And yeah, there’s one other thing aside from being the best at Sunflower Live.
...Which is that we also have to have top sales in merch.
And if we don’t manage both of these things, I basically have to give myself up to Hibiki-senpai for the rest of our summer vacation.
I’m sorry for not saying anything...! I just didn’t want you to worry for no reason.
Makoto accidentally overheard me while I was talking with Ritsu... and he got mad at me and asked why I didn’t tell him.
Subaru: Huh, really... I thought you two were acting weird, but now it makes sense. I get it.
Mao: Uh—huh? You’re not mad at me for keeping secrets? Even though we’re friends?
Subaru: I’m sure Ukki was mad enough for the both of us. Besides, I’m the one who wanted to do Sunflower Live so bad.
I can’t exactly be mad at you for doing what you had to do to make it happen.
So that’s that! Oh, but tell Hokke when we get back, ‘kay?
If we get number one in sales, then you get your summer vacay back, right? Then we should be doubling the effort instead of getting mad!
Ahaha, now I’m getting even more fired up! Woooo, let’s do this thing! ♪
C’mon Sally, you too!
Mao: Sure. ...Thanks, Subaru.
Woooo, let’s do this thing ♪
Hokuto: ...Mm? Anzu?
Hmm. You came to school to work on the costumes we’ll wear at Summer Live?
Hm? Are we alone? Yeah, Akehoshi and Isara are out shopping. Yuuki and I stayed behind to work on the designs.
We were just thinking about the T-shirt designs, so if you wanted to give us advice, we’d appreciate it.
Sunflowers for Sunflower Live...? Hang on, I’ll try drawing some sunflowers now.
~... ♪
Makoto: That’s amazing, Hidaka-kun~ It looks so lifelike ♪
But maybe a little too lifelike? It’s going on shirts, so people would be happier with a more stylized illustration, right?
What is it, Anzu-chan? You want to try drawing your own?
...Wow, you’re good too~! It’s so cute, I’m sure our fans would love it!
Hokuto: It really is good. I’ll make sure we get a clean copy of it later, but let’s go ahead with this as the design plan.
Makoto: I bet there’ll be sunflower-themed products for sale at other booths... Should we try to make ours stand out with some Trickstar flair, maybe?
Huh—we could put each of our colors on the petals, you think?
Oh, let’s do it! I’ll text Akehoshi-kun and have him get us some ink!
Tap tap tap tap... and send~ ♪
Hokuto: You’re so fast at texting. If I had to do it, I’d have taken several times as long.
Makoto: I use my phone for research a lot, so I got used to it~
...Ahaha, I’ve already got a reply from Akehoshi-kun ♪
Hmm hm... He said, “Got it. The shopkeep sent shirts and hankies over to the school too, so go get ‘em!”
Oh, there’s another message: “We’re almost done shopping, so we’re heading back.”
Hokuto: Let’s have our design finished based on Anzu’s idea by then.
It’s just like I said: It’ll be a design that really feels like us. I’m looking forward to their return.