Chapter 159 – Invitation to the Festival

“Speaking of which, there’s a summer festival today. Shall we go for it?”

One week till the end of summer vacation, and Chitose suddenly showed up, asking.

“…Say, you should have asked that a day ago at least.”

Her words were too sudden, what would she have done if Amane had plans?

Furthermore, they would need to prepare to go out for a festival. She should have informed them beforehand.

Luckily, Amane and Mahiru had no plans, and had not decided on what to eat for dinner, so they could easily amend plans.

“Sorry sorry. I heard from Ikkun that you two are rather busy, so I didn’t want to bother you two, until the day itself.”

“Well, I’m conflicted by you saying this now, but you should have said this earlier, you know? And it’s a little too sudden today.”

“I apologized already. I did inform Mahiru beforehand, you know?”

“Though that was 10 minutes before you appeared…”

Mahiru wryly quipped as she served iced barley tea to Chitose.

“Chitose-san is coming.” Mahiru suddenly told Amane, which obviously troubled the latter. There were moments when Itsuki would suddenly visit, but Amane never expected Chitose to do the same.

Chitose probably came over with the confidence that Amane was at home, but he hoped she would have said so a little earlier.

Amane sighed as he saw Chitose happily drink the chilled barley tea, and glanced aside at Mahiru.

It seemed Mahiru was not opposed to visiting the festival.

Amane wanted to bring Mahiru out to distract her, having considered that she was a little distraught about her father. He might appear again, but Amane hoped she would forget about it for the time being.

“Hm, we can go…what do you think, Mahiru? Yukata for you?”

“Eh? No, I do not have any with me.”

“No, erm…I do. I think we have one that fits you.”

“Why?”

“Mom.”

Amane reminded Mahiru of Shihoko’s existence, “Ahh…” who seemed to have understood immediately. To Mahiru, Shihoko was probably one who would want to put any cute clothing on Mahiru, and she would be right to assume so. Amane really could not laugh at this.

When they returned from Amane’s hometown days ago, there were obviously a few pieces of clothing mixed with the delivered Amane should not be wearing.

“Do get Mahiru-chan to wear them when you have the chance. I’ll leave the photos to you.”

This little slip of paper was stuffed together with the yukata and stuff, and Amane recalled himself being stunned speechless back then.

“Eh, you’re wearing a yukata, Mahirun? I wanna see~!?”

“Are you not wearing one?”

“Don’t wanna. It’s cute, but it’s not easy to move in it, and I might not be full with the sash tied around me.”

“That’s just you being a glutton.”

“Hey you’re rude.”

Chitose really did not like clothing that bogged her down, and she was the gluttonous type. Thus, she did not wish to wear clothes that required much grace, like a yukata.

“Anyway, where’s Itsuki?”

“Hm? Ikkun’s coming over. He’s planning to meet us there.”

“You’re making it sound like we’re definitely going…”

“Fufufu, I think Mahirun won’t refuse me.”

“Man, think about how it’ll inconvenience us…though we really got nothing.”

“Sorry sorry.”

Amane narrowed his eyes to a clearly unapologetic Chitose, but that was to be expected.

After all, he did notify Itsuki the past few days that they had nothing to do, and this was probably the reason why they were invited.

Amane hoped that Chitose would have invited them before dropping by, but it was important to change their mood, and he was grateful for her invitation.

“So, what about you, Mahirun? Are you wearing a yukata?”

“…Will I not stand out too much if I am the only one wearing it?”

“If you don’t like being alone in wearing that, I can wear it…”

“Eh, you have one, Amane-kun?”

“Mom’s smart enough to put mine together with yours.”

Shihoko probably planned for Amane to wear them to the festival. He had completely forgotten to check if there was any summer festival because of Mahiru’s father, but in hindsight, Chitose’s invitation might be really appropriate.

Mahiru clearly faltered once she heard that Amane would be wearing a yukata, and Amane muttered quietly to himself that there was nothing to be happy about a man wearing a yukata.

He was not being humble; a female would look glamorous wearing a yukata, but not a male. Perhaps there would be a vibe suitable for the occasion, but Amane did not think it would be to a point where he could marvel at it.

Mahiru however was glancing at him, seemingly implying that she wanted a look. Well, he was fine with wearing one if his adorable girlfriend wanted one. A yukata on him might look fancy if he was to walk next to Mahiru with one.

“I’ll wear it if you want to see.”

“I-I want to see.”

“That’s a quick response. Sure, but you don’t have to be too hopeful about it. My yukata’s really normal.”

His yukata was a deep blue, with no pattern, a red bean colored sash, a simple color scheme, nothing too fancy.

Despite that, Mahiru looked really eager. “I’ll try my best to look good in it.” Amane wryly noted as he patted Mahiru’s head.