Alisa completely lost interest in the boy who sat next to her after that. It wasn't until the school festival in September when that all changed. This would be the last middle school festival for the third-year students.
While some of them were busy preparing for their high school entrance exams, Seiren Academy was an escalator school. This meant most students would automatically enter the academy's high school next semester, so there wasn't too much pressure to study hard.
In fact, Takeshi, who was on the school-festival committee, suggested that his class do something huge for their last school festival, so they decided to do a haunted house. They were only highly motivated in the very beginning, though.
Everyone had been excited during the planning phase, but their motivation dropped significantly when they discovered how mundane and difficult actually putting the haunted house together was. Alisa recognized this and was fully prepared to take on most of the work.
"Ouch!"
Alisa was still in the classroom after school and had started making the costumes all by herself when she suddenly pricked her finger with the needle and dropped everything. As a drop of blood emerged from the tip of her finger, she placed it in her mouth, sanitized it, then applied pressure until it stopped bleeding.
Alisa then placed a bandage over the wound so as to not get any blood on the costume she was making. This wasn't even the first prick. She already had five bandages wrapped around her fingers because she was inexperienced at sewing. And yet she continued working as she fought through the throbbing pain. She wasn't going to let something as insignificant as this stop her. If she was going to do it, she was going to do it right. That was what gave her the determination to pick up the needle once more and continue her task.
"Oh, hey. I figured you'd still be here."
The door to the classroom rattled as it suddenly opened. It was Masachika, who had almost immediately disappeared after homeroom was over.
"Kuze… What are you still doing here?"
"Eh. You know me," he replied evasively, glancing down at the documents in his hands. Alisa curiously followed his gaze, but she couldn't figure out what the documents were.
"Anyway, Kujou, you can go home now. We can finish that up tomorrow with the others," he added with a shrug, which slightly annoyed Alisa.
We're not going to finish in time if you keep putting it off like that. Besides, I wouldn't have to be doing this all by myself if everyone else actually helped.
"Don't worry about me. I'm going to work a little more on this before going home." Alisa sternly refused, letting her irritation get the best of her.
"Oh… All right. Cool."
After Masachika took a seat at his desk and his eyes wandered a bit, he scratched his head a few times and casually said:
"I talked to the handicraft club, and they agreed to help make the costumes, so we should let them take over from here."
"Huh…?"
"And check this out."
Masachika handed Alisa the documents he was holding while she sat in a daze.
"I got permission to use the boarding house. I figured if we made it into an overnight event, it'd help motivate our classmates who are kind of losing steam."
"…?! But how did you…?"
"I talked to the student council. I used to be the vi— Ahem. I know the former president, so I asked her for a favor."
Alisa shot him a quizzical gaze as he corrected himself, but Masachika continued talking before she could ask him about it.
"Anyway, I promised to have a few of our guys help the handicraft club with some manual labor, so they agreed to help us. There are plenty of guys eager to show off to all those girls, so I'm sure we'll be fine there. Now, about preparing for the overnight workshop… Well, I suppose Takeshi can take care of that stuff."
"Huh?"
"Anyway, just go home already, okay? There's no point for you to be working hard all by yourself like this."
Masachika's casual comment caused Alisa's pent-up emotions to instantly explode.
"There's 'no point' ? Excuse me?"
Alisa was extremely stressed out after working so hard sewing, despite being a novice. She felt as if all her hard work was being made light of after Masachika, a slacker she looked down on, suddenly provided her with a solution. It tore down the barrier protecting her heart.
Before Alisa realized it, she had slammed the half-made costume in her hands onto her desk, swiftly stood up, and glared sharply at Masachika.
"If I—! If I'm going to be a part of this, then I want to do a good job! I don't want to go to the school festival with a half-assed haunted house! And I don't want to compromise no matter what!"
Even Alisa realized she was mostly just taking her anger out on him, but she couldn't stop herself.
"But…but I know this is me being selfish! I know nobody takes things as seriously as I do! That's why I'm working twice as hard to make up for it! Are you trying to say I'm wrong for wanting to do a good job?!"
She snapped at him as she allowed her feelings to get the best of her. It was the first time she had done something like this since elementary school. She was expressing raw emotion—something she usually hid.
Masachika's eyes widened before he bluntly replied:
"You're dumping all your effort in the wrong places."
"Huh…?"
Alisa was taken aback by his unexpected, straightforward objection.
Masachika looked her right in the eyes and quietly continued:
"You don't prep for the school festival on your own. You work together as a team, yeah? If you wanna contribute something good, then you don't just give up all because no one else seems motivated. You think of ways to get them motivated, y'know?"
"…"
Alisa instinctively wanted to look away from his unwavering gaze and indisputable argument, but her pride would not allow her. Instead, she glared right into his soul as if she wasn't going to back down. Before she could say anything else, however, Masachika swiftly averted his own gaze.
"…Uh, I guess I could've phrased that better. Sorry if I upset you. I know you've been working hard, and I'm not trying to downplay that at all."
"Ah…"
When Masachika slightly lowered his head, Alisa no longer knew what to do with her anger. He responded to her misdirected fury with an apology, leaving her raised fist with no place to go. But what strangely flooded her with emotions and took her breath away was that single phrase: "I know you've been working hard."
"…I'm going home."
Those were the only words she managed to get out before she grabbed her bag and briskly left the classroom.
I can't… I can't believe him!
She desperately tried to suppress her countless whirling emotions as she headed for the school gate…and she pretended not to notice the grief, regret, and the hint of joy in the depths of her heart.