Chapter 40: CH 40

“See you later, you two!”

“Sorry, Akito and Mizutani! We’ll enjoy ourselves, you go enjoy the festival!”

Waved by Shuji and the other, Mizutani and I left the yakisoba stand.

Yamamoto was beside them, looking in the wrong direction with a scowl on his face.

I couldn’t read his thoughts…but I don’t think he wanted to leave Mizutani and me alone, right? Yeah, maybe I was overthinking it. He simply didn’t want to work with me.

But what were those good smiles on Shuji and Ogura’s faces, even though they should have been made to suffer? I would never be able to imitate their positive attitude toward life.

“For now, do you want to find a decent place to sit?”

“…Sure.”

I responded briefly to Mizutani as she looked at the plastic bag containing the yakisoba.

Food must be eaten while it was still warm.

After walking for a while, we found a suitable bench.

We sat down side by side and put the plastic bag between each other.

Mizutani took the salt yakisoba and I took the sauce yakisoba.

““Thanks for the food.””

I cracked the disposable chopsticks with a snap and clasped my hands together.

When I opened the plastic packet, the smell of sauce wafted through the air.

“Yours smells stronger.”

Mizutani, who was making the same move next to me, looked at the sauce yakisoba in my hand and said.

“Sorry, do you not like that one?”

“No, it’s not like that. I’d rather have the sauce one.”

“…Do you want to trade a little later?”

When I fearfully asked, Mizutani’s expression brightened.

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah. I wanted a little some of the salt one, too.”

“I see. Sure then.”

After slurping my yakisoba for a while, I exchanged it for Mizutani’s salt yakisoba.

Both tasted better than normal, perhaps because of the magic of the summer festival.

“Where do you want to go next after we finish our yakisoba?”

“I don’t really mind where. What about you, Mizutani?”

“I…”

Mizutani’s eyes, looking around, stopped at one point.

Following her gaze, I saw a goldfish scooping stall there.

“I want to try that.”

“Okay.”

We finished our yakisoba, stacked the two packets on top of each other, and threw them in the trash.

After getting up, Mizutani and I headed to the goldfish scooping stall.

First, Mizutani got a net and tried her hand.

But the net was soon torn. Mizutani’s eyebrows furrowed.

“…This net is more fragile than I thought.”

“Hahaha, is this your first time to scoop goldfish? If the nets were not so fragile, we would not be able to do business. I’m sorry, nee-chan.”

The man at the stall who was watching Mizutani gave a pleasant smile.

He turned to me with a smile on his face.

“You want to try? Come on, you gotta show your girlfriend how good you are.”

“Okay, just once.”

This time I pay the money and got a net to scoop with.

Well, it had been a while since I’d scooped goldfish.

It wasn’t something I was good at, but…

“Eh, amazing.”

When I started scooping goldfish, Mizutani sounded genuinely surprised.

The man praised me for doing such a good job. After scooping about four goldfish, the net broke and the man handed me a plastic bag containing the goldfish I had scooped.

“How did you do that?”

Mizutani asked me, staring at the goldfish in the bag.

Her face, which was rather serious, is a little funny.

But it would be rude to laugh at her.

She was being serious.

With this thought in mind, I opened my mouth.

“Just when you are sure you can scoop it, you have to quickly put the net in the water. It will break sooner than you think.”

“I don’t understand how you can be so sure you can scoop it.”

“That’s something you get used to.”

“So I can’t scoop these little ones now?”

Mizutani looked at me with sad eyes.

With eyes like that, I almost misunderstood the meaning of “scoop.”

“…I think you can do it.”

There was no way to that Mizutani, with eyes like a lost puppy dog, I could clearly say, “You can’t scoop one.” Fortunately, the goldfish scooping stall was not crowded at the time, and Mizutani’s challenge continued for a while longer. Finally, on her fourth try,

“I did it…I finally scooped one.”

Mizutani succeeded in scooping goldfish.

The goldfish Mizutani scooped was placed in a plastic bag given to her by the store owner.

Mizutani gazed at the goldfish with delight.

“Good for you, you got one.”

“Yeah. It’s worth all the effort. It looks so delicious.”

“That’s right. …eh?”

I involuntarily looked twice at Mizutani’s face as she smiled with satisfaction.

What did she just say?

If I’m not mistaken, I think she said, “It looks delicious”……

After carefully explaining the handling of the goldfish to Mizutani, who was about to turn it into a roasted goldfish if I left it. Mizutani had requested it again, and we had come to the target shooting stall. Mizutani pointed to a small doll with a funny face in the upper right corner of the platform.

“That one’s cute.”

“….Is it?”

“…Is it not?”

“It’s nothing like that to me.”

“…..”

When I gave my honest opinion, Mizutani silently glared at me.

Why? You can’t blame the fundamental difference in our perceptions.

“It’s called a blobfish. It’s a deep-sea fish.”

“Really? So you’re going after it?”

“Yeah.”

I forgot whether it was a blobfish or a blabfish, but whatever it was, Mizutani decided to go for that doll. After paying the owner, she loaded the cork gun with bullets and held it ready to fire. But the way she held the gun was very amateurish.

“Wait a minute.”

“…What is it?”

Mizutani looked up from her gun and looked back at me with a puzzled look on her face.

“Mizutani, have you ever done this before?”

“”No, but…”

“…Can I show you how to do it first?”

“…Please.”

After waving to Mizutani, who lightly bowed her head, I teach her how to hold the gun.

Tighten your armpits, hold the handle of the gun firmly against your cheek, pull the trigger with your non-dominant hand, etc.

After quickly going through the instructions, Mizutani held up the gun again.

She looked much better than before.

She was given three bullets.

The first bullet missed a little to the right of the doll.

The second hit the doll, but it was just a little out of target and did not fall.

And the last bullet of fate…

“I did it.”

“Ohh, that was good, miss.”

The bullet hit the target solidly, and the “Whatever Fish” doll fell down.

Mizutani stared at it as the shopkeeper handed it to her.

“…Cute.”

To be honest, from my point of view, I still had no idea about the cuteness of the doll.

But Mizutani’s face as she gazed at the doll was…definitely cute.