Chapter 3

Naturally, being surrounded by people from morning until now had left him feeling mentally exhausted.

(In the classroom alone, there are as many people as during the festival.)

Although he was invited to have lunch together, he excused himself, saying he would look for the cafeteria while taking a stroll, and slipped out of the classroom.

“…Ugh.”

Arriving at the cafeteria, which was a bit late compared to the surrounding areas, he was taken aback by the peak of the crowd, a level of noise that was incomparable to the classroom.

(I should probably start bringing my own lunch…)

Sighing as he finally managed to get his hands on a margarine-coated bread, he thought it might be a blessing that it at least had some volume, even if it didn’t seem very appetizing.

Hawk, thinking he wanted to eat in a quiet place without people around, wandered around the school building, looking for a place where he could be alone.

However, such a place was hard to find.

Even when he went around to the back of the school building, there were unknown female students there.

“Hmm, that’s….”

Just as he was about to leave, he noticed something very familiar. It was something you wouldn’t see in the city, which is why it caught his interest.

The short, curly-haired female student moving about in front of it reminded Hawk of something.

So, even though it wasn’t like him, he was drawn to her.

“Ugh, the fruits aren’t growing well… Is it the fertilizer? Or—”

“Is that zucchini?”

“Eek!!”

“Sorry for startling you. But that yellow flower is zucchini, right? The purple one next to it is eggplant, and the white one is shishito pepper… There’s also corn, right?”

“Huh?! Y-Yes, that’s right!”

It was a flower bed.

Surrounded by bricks, the soil was mounded in the center, forming ridges where vegetables were planted.

Hawk, who was not the type to initiate conversations with girls he didn’t know, would have passed by without saying anything if he didn’t know what to talk about, like Nijou would.

But he couldn’t help but speak up.

“Are you pollinating? Zucchini won’t grow big unless you pollinate the female flowers.”

“Eh… Ah!”

“You should also cut off extra flowers on the eggplants and prune some branches on the shishito peppers to get more fruit.”

“Huh….”

The female student, upon receiving Hawk’s advice, hastily took out a notebook from her skirt pocket and flipped through it. Her face turned red as she alternated her gaze between the flower bed and the notebook.

Incidentally, Hawk’s knowledge was at the level of a child who helps with farm work in the countryside. It wasn’t something to boast about.

“You’re quite knowledgeable.”

“I often helped with farm work in the countryside… Is this the gardening club?”

“Y-Yes, it’s the gardening club.”

“Why vegetables in the gardening club?”

“W-Well, is it strange?”

“No, I think it’s fine. Tomatoes were originally ornamental, and I like the flowers of vegetables too.”

“…!”

In fact, Hawk preferred the flowers of vegetables, which signaled the harvest season, over the flowers you see in flower shops.

(I used to get pocket money for helping with farm work.)

Thinking about this and smiling, his response seemed to surprise the female student, who blinked and panicked.

Her behavior, which resembled a small animal, made Hawk think of something and relax his cheeks even more.

“What are you doing?”

A bell-like voice came from behind him.

However, the tone of the voice contained a hint of exasperation.

“Ah, …Nijou-san.”

“Mikage-san, the fertilizer you applied for has arrived at the club building.”

“Eh, ah, yes! I’ll go now, thank you, Nijou-san!”

The one who spoke was the beautiful girl from the neighboring seat—Nijou.

The female student from the gardening club, upon hearing Nijou’s words, sprang away from the scene.

After watching her leave, Nijou placed her hands on her hips, glared at him with a squint, and leaned in close.

“Hmm, hitting on girls on your first day of transfer? Really, I wonder if you like girls like that, Kirishima-kun!”

“N-No, that’s not it!”

Being so close to her very proper face made him flinch. Not only that, but her strange intensity made him step back.

Her familiar words and attitude, which were like a cat that had been thrown aside, only added to his confusion.

“It’s not hitting on her, it’s just that she looked similar…”

“Similar? To who?”

“…The sheep at Genji’s place.”

“Ah, the sheep they raised to eat weeds but only showed interest in vegetable seedlings and got scolded.”

“Exactly, those curly-haired sheep and the way they loitered in front of the vegetables… I just—”

“Pfft… hahaha, hahaha, hahaha, hahaha!!”

Suddenly, she burst out laughing.

Then she started pounding his back.

“Really, to think you’d call out to someone because they looked like Genji’s sheep, you’re a real one, Hayato.”

“It hurts, cut it out, Haru…ki…?”

For some reason, those words slipped out. The end was clearly in question form.

He didn’t know why he said it.

He stared at her intently.

“Ah, Nijou-san, over here! Can I talk to you for a moment?!”

“Yes, what is it?”

“Hey, hey!”

But the girl, who was suddenly called, put on her cat-like demeanor again.

“Shh!”

Then, as she left, she turned back and, as if to say it was a secret, put her index finger to her lips and smiled mischievously.

“…What’s going on?”

Various pieces of information raced through his mind, and Hawk’s heart was in turmoil.