School Festival

The main gate of Tachibana High School seemed to have transformed overnight.

A banner reading “The XXth Annual Tachibana School Festival” hung down from the top of the school building, and the cherry blossom trees on both sides were adorned with hand-painted colorful flags and lanterns made by the students.

A massive archway had been erected at the school gate, decorated with a row of colorful balloons, while several members of the student council stood beside it, handing out festival guides to visitors.

It was not even eight o'clock, yet a queue of people waiting to enter had already formed at the gate.

Outside visitors dressed in casual clothes, alumni taking photos with their cameras, and a few people who looked like journalists clearly there to gather material mingled in the crowd.

Qiluo stood under a ginkgo tree just inside the school gate, her schoolbag slung over her shoulder, gazing at a campus that looked entirely different from her memory.

The sound of the brass band tuning their instruments drifted from the sports field, and vendors were already setting up stalls at the flea market in the courtyard.

Girls from the home economics club carried a pot of freshly cooked curry past her, the air thick with a delicious aroma of curry, takoyaki, and roasted chestnuts.

But that was her old way of thinking.

“Tian Gong-san!” Rei's voice called out as she ran out of the school building, clutching a stack of program pamphlets.

She had styled her twin-tails beautifully today. Qiluo could tell she had put a lot of effort into it, with two star-shaped hairpins clipped to the ends of her hair.

Stopping right in front of Qiluo, she stuffed the pamphlets into her hands and said between breaths, “You're just in time! Help me hand these out. I still need to go to the dessert table to double-check the final ingredient list. Oh, by the way, the cosplay outfits have already been delivered to the changing rooms! When are you going to change?”

“...In a bit.” Qiluo shifted the pamphlets slightly to hide the awkward expression on her face.

Rei didn't notice anything unusual. She stood on her tiptoes and looked around behind Qiluo. “Where's Kizuna? Didn't you two agree to come together?”

Last night, Kizuna had been lying on her stomach in bed, her fingers tapping rapidly on her keyboard.

After replying to the last message, Kizuna put her phone by her pillow, curled up under the covers, and closed her eyes.

A moment later, she opened them again, reached for her phone to make sure there were no new messages in the chat window, and only then did she truly fall asleep.

It wasn't until morning that Kizuna replied, “Sorry, something unexpected came up. You don't have to wait for me, Qiluo-chan.”

Qiluo had been utterly bewildered.

“She was taking her time with her sister at home. She should be here soon.”

Just as she finished speaking, a minor commotion arose at the school gate.

An understated black sedan pulled up by the curb. The door opened, and Kizuna hopped out of the back seat, turning around to wave at whoever was inside.

Rei was about to say something more when the phone in her pocket began to vibrate furiously.

In a flurry, she shoved the remaining pamphlets into Qiluo's arms and answered the call. “Hello? Class rep? What? We're short on cream? But I clearly left it in the classroom yesterday! Okay, okay, I'm coming right now!”

Hanging up, she stuffed the phone back into her pocket and bolted. After a few steps, she spun around and shouted back to Qiluo, “When Kizuna gets here, tell her to find me at the dessert table! You too! Don't forget to change into your cosplay outfit!”

Before her voice could even fade, she had already rounded the corner of the school building and vanished.

Kizuna waved to Qiluo through the crowd and ran over with light, brisk steps. When she stopped in front of her, the hem of her skirt was still swaying gently.

She was wearing light makeup, with a subtle shimmer at the corners of her eyes, and she was slightly out of breath as she spoke. “My sister insisted on seeing me off, so we ended up lingering in the car for ages... Oh, she asked me to give you this.”

Kizuna pulled a beautifully wrapped small box tied with a light green ribbon out of her handbag.

“She said she's been wanting to find an opportunity to thank you for taking care of me. I have no idea when she prepared it, she just shoved it into my hands right before I left this morning.”

As Kizuna spoke, she pulled out a folded card from her bag. “And this ticket is for the VIP seats at Meruru's next concert, if you're free—”

“She's too polite.”

Qiluo accepted the box and looked up at Kizuna.

Kizuna was twirling the end of her hair with her finger, her gaze drifting toward the leaves of the nearby ginkgo tree as if she were just bringing it up casually. However, the faint pink blush on her earlobes gave her away.

She was already very cute on regular school days, but today she had clearly put a lot of effort into her appearance.

The light makeup suited her perfectly, and the subtle shimmer at the corners of her eyes made her look exceptionally bright and lively.

Since she had gone to such lengths to dress up, it would be downright criminal for Qiluo, as her desk partner, not to offer a compliment.

“You look beautiful today.”

Qiluo's gaze lingered on Kizuna's face for a moment, as if confirming some detail, before she nodded in approval.

Kizuna, who had been twirling her hair, seemed entirely unprepared for such a direct compliment.

She wanted to offer some modest, polite deflection like “No way” or “I just threw it together.”

Yet, the words never left her mouth.

“...Thank you.”

She averted her eyes from Qiluo's face and looked down at her shoes.

“I really did put some thought into it today. Maybe... because I wanted you to see a different side of me.”

Rewinding to earlier that morning.

“Sis—” Clutching her makeup bag, Kizuna pushed open the door to Yuzuki's bedroom and dragged a half-awake Yuzuki Asakura out of her blankets.

Rubbing her eyes, Yuzuki leaned against the headboard, watching her little sister line up various bottles and jars from the makeup bag on the vanity. Then Kizuna spun around to rummage through the wardrobe, pulling out one skirt after another and holding them up against herself.

“This one is too plain... The color on this one is too dark... Sis, wake up and help me look!” Kizuna tossed the skirts in her arms onto the bed, finally dragging Yuzuki completely out of her sleepiness.

Yawning, Yuzuki walked up behind her sister, took the light purple knit cardigan from her hands, and glanced at the pile of discarded options on the bed. Suddenly, she understood.

Leaning against the wardrobe door, the corners of her mouth slowly curled upward. “Alright, spill. Who are you meeting today?”

“I'm not meeting anyone! It's just—”

Kizuna untied her hair tie in front of the mirror and tied it again, her fingers twirling the ends of her light flaxen hair. “It's the school festival. Isn't it normal to want to dress up nicely? All my new classmates will be there, so I can't exactly wear my school uniform, can I?”

“New classmates,” Yuzuki repeated with emphasis. “You only just transferred, and you already have a 'new classmate' you want to show off your casual clothes to?”

Kizuna didn't answer. Instead, she shoved the comb into her sister's hand and sat down on the chair in front of the vanity, her back perfectly straight.

“Braid my hair. I want to try that side ponytail you did for me last time.”

Yuzuki took the comb and gently brushed out her sister's long hair, strand by strand. The mirror reflected Kizuna with her eyes closed, the corners of her lips curled slightly upward.

“What kind of style are we going for today?” Yuzuki's fingers moved nimbly through her sister's hair, and the shape of the side ponytail gradually began to form.

“...Just, you know, not too try-hard, but something that catches the eye.” Kizuna opened one eye to look at her sister in the mirror, then quickly shut it again.

Yuzuki let out a soft laugh. She picked out an ultra-fine eyeliner from the makeup bag, had Kizuna tilt her head up slightly, and lightly traced a few strokes at the corners of her eyes. Then, she retrieved two star-shaped hairpins from her jewelry box and clipped them to the ends of Kizuna's hair.

“Alright, all done. The girl standing before me now is the school festival limited edition Asana Kizuna.”

Kizuna stood up and stared at the mirror for a long time, touching the hairpins and blinking, almost unable to believe her eyes.

She spun around and threw her arms around her sister's waist, burying her face in Yuzuki's shoulder and rubbing against it affectionately.

“Thank you, Sis! You're the best!”

Yuzuki patted her sister's hair, gently pushed her back, and held her by the shoulders, looking her over from head to toe once more.

“Go on, have fun. And by the way—” She picked up a small box from the vanity, slipped it into Kizuna's hand, and then fished a ticket out of a drawer, tucking it under the box's ribbon.

“Bring this to your new classmate for me. Thanks to her taking care of you, though I've never had a proper chance to thank her myself.”