— — — — — —
Tuesday. The sun was shining bright.
Unfortunately, Oikawa's mood was nowhere near as bright.
Wearing a mask, he rode his bike to school, then immediately collapsed face-down onto his desk the moment he got to class.
He'd already made up his mind. Aside from Shizuka-sensei's class, he planned to sleep through every lesson today.
At that moment, Yui suddenly turned around in her seat.
"Oikawa, have you decided what event you're doing for the school sports festival yet? I was talking with Hina yesterday, and she said she had a pretty good idea."
"From what she described, it sounds like a pole-toppling match? But apparently they toned down the competitive part and made it more team-oriented."
Pole-toppling was similar to capture-the-flag, except way more violent. It mixed elements of rugby, sumo, and martial arts, and the goal was to knock down the opposing team's pole as quickly as possible. It was a staple event at Japanese sports festivals.
And by "competition," they really meant chaos.
Grabbing, shoving, tackling, headbutting… pretty much anything went.
As for Ebina's "less competitive version," Oikawa honestly had no idea what that was supposed to mean.
Then suddenly, he recalled that legendary disaster of a musical adaptation of The Little Prince. The "century-defining BL stage play."
He shuddered violently.
At this point, even ten years later, Sobu High probably still wouldn't have forgotten it.
"Let's wait until after the meeting this afternoon before deciding." Oikawa turned her down as tactfully as possible.
Yui nodded thoughtfully, "But, why are you wearing a mask? Don't tell me you caught a cold?"
"Cough, cough… yeah, I'm a little sick." Oikawa faked a few coughs.
"Are you okay? I've got medicine if you want some. It's the season for colds right now, so you really shouldn't take it lightly. If it gets worse, you could end up seriously sick."
Yui hurriedly pulled out a sheet of capsules, probably standard cold medicine.
"I'm fine. I just need some sleep. It's not that bad. I've just been sneezing a bit. I already took medicine."
"Okay then… make sure you rest."
After that, Oikawa stopped talking, and Yui turned back around.
A few minutes later—
Kawasaki appeared at the classroom door.
She hesitated there for a long time before finally walking in.
The entire time, her head stayed lowered.
Like a startled kitten, she hurried back to her seat and immediately buried herself in her workbook.
The atmosphere felt strangely awkward.
And just like that… Until lunchtime, Oikawa stayed slumped over his desk, while Kawasaki never once looked up.
The lunch bell rang.
Most of the students headed to the cafeteria or the bread shop.
Then, slowly, a bento box was pushed onto Oikawa's desk.
A note was attached to it. —{The pork cutlet and tamagoyaki you wanted. I also fried some fish for you.}
Oikawa picked up the note.
On the back, he wrote. —{My lip's busted. Can't eat this. At this rate I'll probably be stuck on liquid food for half a month. This is all your fault.}
Then he shoved both the bento and the note back.
"W-Who told you to suddenly kiss me like that?! I just reacted instinctively! I didn't mean to bite you that hard!"
Kawasaki lowered her voice as much as possible, clearly terrified someone might overhear them.
"Kawasaki, are you part dog or something? Last time you bit my hand and it still left a scar. This time you could at least show some mercy!"
Behind every moment of happiness lurked pain.
Yesterday, after he kissed Kawasaki, things had been fine at first.
Then suddenly, she bit down hard.
Absolutely merciless.
By the end of it, Oikawa's mouth was full of blood.
Half a month was probably exaggerating, but healing properly would definitely take at least a week.
A whole week of porridge and noodles.
Honestly, that sounded worse than death.
"I… I wasn't thinking…"
Kawasaki sounded aggrieved. "When I got scared, I just instinctively used force."
"Then how are you planning to compensate me?"
At this point, even Oikawa felt like he'd become a complete scumbag.
He was the one who forcefully kissed Kawasaki, and now he was actually asking for compensation.
Yeah. Certified trash boyfriend behavior. But he liked it.
"How do you want me to make it up to you? But I'm warning you first, don't ask for anything weird. I-I'm not doing that with you! We're still not—"
Kawasaki lowered her head, her face so red it looked ready to drip juice like an overripe peach.
"Then let me…" Oikawa leaned close and whispered his condition into her ear.
"C-Couldn't you pick something else?"
Kawasaki bit her lip, her face full of hesitation and conflict.
"If you're this unwilling, then forget it." Oikawa turned away.
"…Fine. I'll do it. But you have to promise me too. Only once." Kawasaki quickly nodded.
Oikawa grinned from ear to ear.
He genuinely hadn't expected Kawasaki to agree so easily.
Guess getting his lip bitten wasn't for nothing.
"Hiss—!"
The grin pulled at the wound on his lip, and the pain nearly killed him on the spot.
Man, life was hard.
...
..
The sun slowly sank below the horizon. Inside the Service Club, the atmosphere was utterly miserable.
The discussion felt less like a meeting and more like a battlefield.
You reject my idea. I shoot down yours.
Back and forth without end.
Thankfully, though, they finally managed to settle on a theme and roughly decide on the events for the sports festival.
The theme Oikawa proposed ended up winning out: a fun sports festival where participation mattered more than rankings.
And on top of that, everything would be organized by class as a whole.
That avoided excessive competition between classes while also preventing the instability that would come from grouping people by clubs instead.
As for the events, they'd tentatively settled on a few: Tug-of-war, cavalry battles, full-contact bumper ball, and "crossing the river together."
Bumper ball was exactly what it sounded like. You strapped on giant inflatable bumper suits, entered the arena, and then rammed, shoved, squeezed, and bounced people around with every trick you could think of until your opponents got knocked out of bounds.
"Crossing the river together" was a four-person team event.
Each team would prepare an inflatable raft, and neither their bodies nor equipment could cross the starting line before the signal. Once the referee gave the command, they had to "cross" a designated twenty-meter zone without touching the ground.
All of them were sports that emphasized teamwork, but in a loose, fun way rather than a strict competitive one.
Honestly, the events sounded pretty entertaining. The biggest problem, however, was equipment.
Finding all this stuff wasn't easy. Buying it outright would cost a fortune, so their only real options were borrowing or renting.
The funding Sobu High provided wasn't nearly enough to purchase everything.
Which meant the responsibility landed squarely on Oikawa's shoulders.
And that was also why the events still weren't fully finalized yet.
If they couldn't secure the equipment, they'd have no choice but to replace the events entirely.
"Do your best. I'll stick with you the whole way." Before leaving the clubroom, Yukino looked at Oikawa seriously and said that.
If it had come from another girl, he probably would've mistaken it for a confession. But coming from Yukino, she meant it literally.
As in: she'd accompany him when he went around searching for rental suppliers.
"Yeah. I'll contact you then."
Oikawa planned to go home and look up places around Chiba City that might have the equipment they needed.
Running around town blindly like a headless chicken would just waste time and energy.
"Oikawa-kun, good luck!" Yui pumped her fist in encouragement.
Her bright, energetic smile really did have a healing effect. For a moment, it felt like all your worries could disappear.
Some people just naturally had smiles that were contagious.
"I'll do my best."
After replying, Oikawa slung his bag over his shoulder and walked out of the club building.
The evening glow painted the entire school crimson.
That same reddish light fell across Oikawa's upturned face.
After getting home, Oikawa threw together a quick bowl of noodles for dinner, then sprawled out on the sofa under a blanket and turned on the TV.
Some time-travel drama was playing.
Apparently the protagonist had traveled back to some samurai era or something.
Oikawa had zero interest in it.
Just as he picked up his new PS5 and was about to boot up NieR: Automata, his phone rang.
It was Chris Yamada.
"Oikawa-sensei, the message you sent earlier… you said you could finish Clannad within half a month. Were you serious? If your schedule's tight, it's honestly fine if we don't release it during winter break. We could always push it to spring break instead. It might even sell better that way."
Chris was genuinely shocked.
Producing a light novel over a hundred thousand words long in only half a month, while still maintaining high quality—It was hard not to be amazed.
At the same time, though, he couldn't help feeling worried. What if Oikawa sacrificed quality just to chase speed?
That would completely defeat the purpose.
"Don't worry, Editor Yamada. I guarantee the quality of Clannad won't be any worse than the chapters I already sent you. As for the release date, let's stick with winter break. I don't want to drag this out too long."
Quality?
Hearing that word almost made Oikawa laugh.
If he really rushed, he could crank the whole thing out in a single day.
The reason he was taking half a month now was specifically because he cared about quality.
He planned to polish Clannad properly. After all, Clannad had originally been a game first. Turning it into a light novel meant some details might not translate perfectly, so Oikawa wanted to refine things a little before sending over the full manuscript.
"Alright. We'll do it your way, Oikawa-sensei."
"Then we'll begin preparing the promotional campaign on our side. I'll also send you some illustrator profiles later. You can just pick one from the list."
Chris Yamada answered decisively.
Since Oikawa sounded that confident, there was no reason to keep doubting him.
The moment he brought Oikawa into Full-Drive Bunko, Chris had already decided to trust him completely.
"OK."
Oikawa was just about to hang up when Chris suddenly spoke again.
"Um… Oikawa-sensei, could I ask you for a few signed copies of Your Lie in April? Some people in the editorial department are huge fans of yours."
Oikawa froze for a second.
He hadn't expected that to be the request. But naturally, there was no reason to refuse.
"Sure. I'll buy a few copies, sign them, and mail them to Full-Drive Bunko."
"No, no, there's no need to go through all that trouble." Chris sounded almost flustered. "I can just stop by on Saturday when you're off. You really don't need to trouble yourself. I also want to talk to you about the anime adaptation."
"That works too." Oikawa agreed.
...
..
Meanwhile, online—
A rumor suddenly began spreading through light novel forums and social media.
"Author Copycat Transmigrator is starting a new series, and it'll debut under Full-Drive Bunko!!"
The news didn't completely explode, but within light novel fan circles, it spread fast.
Before long, all kinds of comments started appearing.
["There were already rumors before saying Copycat-sensei's next book would release through Full-Drive Bunko. So this basically confirms it?"]
["Holy crap, that guy writes fast. He's already starting a new series?"]
["Bet he's back to make us cry again."]
["Haha. Bringing pain to the readers while keeping all the happiness for himself."]
["Does Copycat-sensei's inspiration seriously never run dry? He's writing this fast… can the quality really still be guaranteed?"]
["Copycat-sensei, please stop writing. I'm seriously running out of money."]
...
Ayame Kagurazaka was reading through the comments too.
Her expression was unbelievably complicated.
Regret. Envy. Bitterness. Anger.
And a faint sense of loss.
Clearly… Clearly Oikawa-kun had once been her author.
But now, things were completely different.
Kagurazaka suddenly wanted someone to vent her frustrations to, yet she didn't even know who she should blame.
Miki Kazuma? He'd already paid for his mistake by leaving Dengeki Bunko.
In the end, the person Kagurazaka resented most was herself.
If only she'd been more forceful back then… would things have turned out differently?
...
..
Night deepened—
Just as Oikawa was about to sleep—
A message from Utaha Kasumigaoka popped up.
"Senpai, writing is so hard… I have no idea how to start volume two of Love Metronome."
"Do you ever get writer's block too? Like the kind where you just sit in front of the computer for hours with a completely empty brain and no clue what to write next."
Truthfully, Oikawa didn't really suffer from that problem.
All he was doing was copying and polishing.
Still, after thinking about it, he replied sympathetically, "Yeah, I run into that sometimes too. When that happens, I watch a very special kind of video, let spirit and desire blend together, release everything in one explosive burst, and afterward my thoughts suddenly become clear again."
Utaha stared at the message, seemingly trying to process what he meant.
Then, as if imagining something inappropriate, her pretty face instantly turned bright red.
Biting her lip, she furiously typed back, "Oikawa, are your thoughts seriously filled with nothing but dirty things every single day?"
"??? If I remember correctly, half the lewd pictures on my phone came from you. And you're calling me dirty?"
Oikawa felt mildly offended.
He could tolerate Kawasaki and Yukino calling him shameless.
But Utaha?
What right did she have?
The two of them were obviously cut from the same cloth.
"Senpai, I simply appreciate beauty. You're genuinely shameless."
"Heh. Utaha, I appreciate beauty too."
The two of them argued back and forth like little kids, neither willing to back down.
At some point, sleepiness suddenly washed over him.
Oikawa closed his eyes and drifted off.
Meanwhile, on his phone— after several unanswered messages piled up, all marked unread… A message arrived a while later.
"Senpai, I think I like you!"
But almost immediately, the message was withdrawn.
In its place came: "Senpai, sweet dreams!"
After that, the phone stayed silent for a long while.
Right when it was practically ready to sleep too, someone woke it up again.
"Oikawa, what do you want to eat tomorrow? I'll bring you rice porridge tomorrow. And pickled plums too."
"Oikawa, are you asleep?"
"Oikawa, are you still mad at me? I really didn't mean it. Didn't I already agree to do that thing for you? So stop being angry, okay?"
A moment later, that message was withdrawn too.
And replaced with: "Goodnight. Sweet dreams. See you tomorrow!"
.
.
.