In the early morning, Aoi Hasegawa stared at her phone, an extremely troubled expression on her face.
Last night, Yuna Suzuki had first agreed to her request, but then turned her down, and after that, none of her messages received a reply.
This made her a bit worried. Was it that something serious had happened to junior Shiina?
At this thought, she felt a little dejected.
They had clearly promised to climb the mountain together before.
Last night, the reason she wanted to find Yuna Suzuki was mainly to discuss today’s mountain climbing activity with her.
With that in mind, Aoi Hasegawa glanced at the key hanging beside her backpack.
It was a replica key to “Katsuragawa Manor,” one she had bought with a small sum from a rival inn.
At first, she thought Yuna Suzuki might be imprisoned there, so she planned to use the simple-minded business rivalry of these merchants to rescue him at night.
Then she’d drag him to camp halfway up the mountain, which would save half the journey.
She believed that in that situation, even if Yuna Suzuki protested, he’d be forced to agree to her plan.
However, Chisa Shiina’s sudden illness had completely ruined her plans.
So last night, she had no choice but to slink back to her own place, sleep for the night, and wait for the climbing event to begin.
To her, it felt like waiting for an execution.
Seeing the teachers already starting to give orders, and looking again at the towering mountain before her.
Aoi Hasegawa instantly felt a headache.
For this school trip, they were to climb Amagi Mountain, and the route they would take was the traditional Azalea Route. The whole trip would take about five hours.
This had been decided after careful consideration. By normal standards, any healthy young person should be able to handle it.
But clearly, Aoi Hasegawa was not in that group.
Having holed up in the club room for a whole year, at this point, let alone climbing, she was already out of breath after just a few steps.
If Yuna Suzuki were here, maybe she’d have some help and wouldn’t have to worry about falling behind.
But unfortunately, this junior had his own things to take care of now, and she couldn’t insist.
Thinking about this, she had no other way out and could only grit her teeth and walk forward.
As long as she took it step by step, she should be able to manage, right?
Her thoughts were optimistic, but reality quickly taught her a lesson.
After about an hour of walking, Aoi Hasegawa’s steps began to slow, sweat beading at her temples, all her energy drained.
Watching the group in front gradually pull away, she immediately gave up on keeping up.
She grabbed a tree trunk beside her for support and took a long, deep breath.
“Haa… Seriously, why is it so hard? Am I really going to have to wait for someone to rescue me again this year?”
Thinking this, Aoi Hasegawa plopped down on a reasonably flat rock by the side of the path, puffed out her cheeks:
“Damn… damn Suzuki Yuna…” she muttered weakly, her voice barely louder than a mosquito’s hum, “We promised to go together, but you left me alone here again… Stupid junior… Scumbag…”
Then, as if remembering something else, she mumbled again:
“Didn’t you tell me you don’t have any agreement with junior Shiina anymore? So why do you still take such careful care of her…”
The more she spoke, the more aggrieved she felt, but she quickly realized her thoughts were wrong and slapped herself.
Her mind began to wander.
“Come to think of it, did the junior really sign those agreements just for money? If that’s the case, he didn’t have to get involved with such dangerous people, right…”
She even wondered why Yuna Suzuki hadn’t come to her first.
“Could it be that he wanted to experience what love feels like?” The thought sprang to her mind, but she immediately shook her head.
With that guy’s face, if he really wanted romance, he wouldn’t have to go to all that trouble.
Aoi Hasegawa couldn’t figure it out, but she had one strength—if she couldn’t make sense of something, she wouldn’t bother thinking about it.
Except for music, she was perfectly content to accept that she was a bit of an airhead.
So her thoughts quickly drifted elsewhere:
“Speaking of which, when I was on stage with him, he’d really improved a lot. At the time, I was just testing him, but I didn’t expect he’d actually keep up…”
Thinking of performing with Yuna Suzuki, and their daily training together, she suddenly broke into a smile.
She’d actually been pretty happy these days.
Now, she wished more than anything to return to the music club and continue her banter with that junior.
But just then, a worrying thought crept up on her.
After this school trip, what if Yuna Suzuki was taken away by junior Shiina?
From what he’d described, if the other party recovered, would he… still be able to come back to the music club?
That thought was like a bucket of cold water, making her just-smiling face collapse.
While she was lost in thought, something cold suddenly pressed against her cheek.
“Yah!”
The sudden chill gave her a fright, making her sit up straight. A can of still-cold sports drink hovered before her eyes, held by a very familiar hand.
Stiffly, she looked up, only to see Yuna Suzuki’s slightly helpless face.
“Hey, Club President,” his voice came from above, breathless as if he’d just been running hard, “How did you end up like a dried-up salted fish by the roadside?”
Aoi Hasegawa’s mind froze for a full three seconds. She blinked, then blinked again, confirming that the person in front of her was not a hallucination caused by exhaustion.
A surge of mixed grievance, joy, and embarrassment instantly exploded inside her.
“You—!”
She grabbed the sports drink, lightly thumped Yuna Suzuki, and scolded:
“You stood me up! Do you have any idea how tired I was walking all this way!”
Seeing her looking so small, pitiful, and helpless, Yuna Suzuki scratched his head and explained:
“Sorry, sorry. Things were a bit tricky over there, but it’s settled now. Senpai, looks like you held out longer than I thought—not as hopeless as I expected.”
With that, he pulled a towel from his backpack and tossed it onto Aoi Hasegawa’s head, roughly wiping the sweat from her brow.
Letting him fuss over her like that, Aoi Hasegawa calmed down, offering no resistance and letting him wipe her sweat, then quietly asked:
“How’s junior Shiina doing…?”
“Oh, she’s a bit better this morning, but still sleeping. Ms. Kobayashi brought a few doctors to treat her.”
Yuna Suzuki thought for a moment, then added:
“There shouldn’t be any problem. Since the teachers thought I was in the way, they kicked me out. The first thing I thought of was you, so I ran over here as fast as I could. So? Touched?”
“Not a chance!”
Seeing the mischievous grin on Yuna Suzuki’s face, Aoi Hasegawa puffed up in protest.
But in her heart, she was genuinely happy.
She didn’t know why, but the moment she saw Yuna Suzuki, all her earlier bad mood seemed to disappear.
At that moment, Yuna Suzuki reached out his hand to her and said:
“Come on, if we don’t hurry up, we won’t make it to the summit before dark.”
Aoi Hasegawa hesitated for a moment, then her eyes sparkled as she happily placed her hand in his.
However, the moment she stood up, her legs—long since on strike—went weak, and she toppled forward uncontrollably.
“Careful!” Yuna Suzuki spun quickly, catching her and pulling her into his arms.
“Mmm…” Aoi Hasegawa’s face was buried against his chest.
Feeling his warmth and the firm outline of his muscles, her cheeks flushed red.
Slowly, she looked up, her smile a little awkward as she gazed at Yuna Suzuki and asked:
“Um, junior, my legs have given out. Could you carry me?”