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#i rlly tl'd like 4 different scenes that ended up appearing in the short film
thenon-fictiondays · 8 months
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Hirano to Kagiura light novel translation 4-4
Chapter 4: Fall.
Part 4
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At long last, tomorrow is the day of the cultural festival.
He’d thought they’d definitely stay late after school to prepare on the eve of the festival, but by rule of the student council, everyone had gone home at the same time today.
It can be said that this policy, which makes no allowances for the classes that were unable to finish their preparations in the time allotted, is typical of a school that values autonomy.
Even the culture clubs’ practices are restricted, and extracurricular activities are also entirely forbidden.
Thanks to that, Kagiura has been on pins and needles. Even though he’d tried to study in his room to suppress his flighty nerves, he can’t make himself focus on English vocabulary at all. Numerical formulas are somehow even more impossible.
Such being the case, he has since been reading a basketball magazine he subscribes to.
“Hey, you like cookies?”
At the sound of Hirano’s voice, Kagiura’s head snaps up.
“Yeah, I like ‘em!”
“Cool. I’ve got some left over that we made in home ec today; you want one?”
As he passes over a cookie, he adds, “I forgot all about them.”
Kagiura would’ve thought it’d just be the round type, but it’s the type of cookie with two colors so you can break it into pieces cleanly. It’s amazing. It looks especially good. 
“Sure, I’ll take it!”
Male students’ homemade sweets are even more of a rarity than their homemade cooking.
Kagiura had made drop candy in his elementary school cooking class, which was his one and only experience in the subject.
“It’s all yours. There was one that Sasaki made, that he made look like a cat’s face, kind of like a tuxedo cat? It was super fancy. Should’ve taken a picture.”
“Did you make this one?”
“Yeah. We used the same dough, though.”
“I think yours is beautiful.”
“Huh? …Oh, haha, thanks. I kinda feel like you’re saying that to make me feel better, but I wasn’t trying to fish for compliments.”
“...Can I eat it now?”
It’ll be dinnertime soon.
“Ah…well, it’ll be our little secret. I’ll eat some, too.”
To Kagiura’s surprise, he puts a finger to his lips in the universal shh gesture.
Gguhh, Kagiura chokes on the cookie he’s already put in his mouth.
“What’s wrong?!”
From hanging out together for half a year, he should know that Hirano’s a soft person by nature, but he still can’t get over it.
“Th- the cookie got into my organs…”
“The fuck?!”
He likes him…maybe.
It shouldn’t leave the realm of maybe yet.
“Th- they were so tasty I kinda ate them too fast…”
Hirano bursts out laughing at his attempt to save face.
This guy laughs so much!
“Hahaha…Gotcha, I’m glad then, ahahaha.”
“Jeez, it’s not that funny!”
He covers his face with the open magazine, protesting that he’s already embarrassed enough, but Hirano’s still laughing as he apologizes.
“Damn. You know, if I ever get married, I hope I find someone who wears their heart on their sleeve like you do.”
At that moment, it’s as if time has stopped.
“.......?!”
Kagiura freezes, the basketball magazine falling from his hands.
“Oh, it’s dinnertime. Let’s go.”
Does he not realize what he just said?
No respect for the fact that he’s just taken Kagiura out in one hit.
Still in shock, Kagiura heads out for dinner slightly behind.
*****
On the long-awaited festival day, the skies are so clear it’s almost too hot.
Inside, the school is teeming with people.
As one would expect of the one day when even current students are allowed to wear casual clothes, there’s color everywhere you look.
Kagiura is wearing the original T-shirt his class had ordered.
The orange uniform, printed with the word “yakitori” and a drawing of meat skewers, stands out quite a bit for its simplicity.
Even as he’d listened to his classmates complain that they didn’t know what kind of casual clothes to wear at school, Kagiura had just figured “it’s hot, so a t-shirt is the only way to go”. But on the day of, he sort of understands how they feel.
The school where they spend all their time in uniforms is suddenly awash with all sorts of outfits. Just this fact is enough to make the vibe a little jittery, like they’re cutting loose.
Even Kagiura, who’s used to wearing casual clothes in the dorms, feels that way, so the students who commute from home probably feel even more out of place.
This time last year, Kagiura, whose choices of cram schools hadn’t been few, had not yet decided his future plans. As a result, he didn’t come to last year’s cultural festival, although it had been a perfect day to visit the school.
Everything he’s seeing is new to him, and although he’s been watching it all come together, each new wonder just deepens his excitement.
And of course, all of the food looks delicious.
Before noon, when he goes to visit Hirano’s class, cultural festival pamphlet in hand, Hirano soon appears, dressed in his favorite white T-shirt.
He lets Kagiura decide their itinerary, since “it’s my second year at this”.
They walk past someone holding up a sign that reads “Cheesy yakisoba in the courtyard!!”
He may be a rival in the Courtyard Stall battle, but Kagiura plans to go buy from them later.
The line for the yakitori stand is quite long; it’s grown from the time Kagiura was managing the stall in the morning.
After they get through the line and are handed a cup of yakitori, Kagiura takes them here and there, tugging at Hirano’s arm.
*****
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✨ANNOUNCEMENT✨
As I've been winding down work on the novel, seeing all yalls comments and support made me super emotional, and I wanted to do something to show my thanks. So I've decided to host a lil giveaway for everyone who's been following along with these updates and sharing your thoughts and reactions with me! I'll make a separate post with more details but I wanted to talk about it on one of the updates since I figured a separate post would just get buried lmao
And as always a very heartfelt thank you to my reading list members @jeizet, @jujupanic, @massyworld, @umbreonwolfy, @acidsuzanne-blog, @neoday, @lary-the-lizard, @tsmginc much love as always ✨
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