With only one week left until the Ginkgo Festival, preparations within the school were progressing steadily.
One class was doing a cafe.
Another was doing a haunted house.
Another was doing food stalls.
In the midst of all that, our class had decided to do a Japanese-style Cafe.
The interior of the classroom would be decorated in a Japanese style, and the servers would basically wear Japanese clothing like kimonos.
The Japanese clothing was provided by Rio’s family home.
They had provided a large amount of Japanese clothing that they had lying around and weren't using.
Moreover, they had been modified in various ways so that they could be changed into with a single touch. Really, they’ve thought of everything.
And now, we were making small items by hand for the day of the event and thinking about the layout.
“Hey, what should we do with this?”
“Boys, give us a hand for a bit!”
“Hey, is anyone going out to buy supplies?”
Well, it’s great that everyone is so motivated.
“You should help out too.”
“Ouch!”
Ow, ow. Who was it that hit me on the head? I’m getting a little annoyed.
I turned around with a grumpy face.
There stood Riran and Rio, holding pieces of wood and hammers in their hands.
I grasped the situation in a fraction of a second.
I immediately put my hands up.
“We can talk about this.”
“I wonder if you want me to say, ‘No questions asked’?”
That’s unreasonable.
“Now, now, you two, don’t flirt. Akito-kun, can you help us make the sign?”
“Hmm? Ah, I see. Got it.”
I spread out a blue tarp and began nailing pieces of timber and boards together on top of it.
Ton-ten-kan, ton-ten-kan.
I actually like this kind of simple manual labor.
“Heh, you’re pretty good at this. Here, a nail.”
“Well, I can do at least this much. Thanks.”
I took the nails from Riran one after another and hammered them in.
Rio watched us with a grinning face.
“What is it?”
“Nothing. I just thought it looked like a married couple working together.”
“Pfft!?”
Gasu! “Gwaaaaargh!?”
“Wait, Akito, are you okay!? Rio, don’t say weird things!”
“Sorry, it just slipped out.”
Don't just say 'it slipped out,' you idiot!
Fortunately, I didn’t hit it that hard, so my fingertip is just throbbing!
While sucking on my finger, I asked something that had suddenly occurred to me.
“It’s a bit late to ask, but what’s the design for the sign like?”
“As for that, I’ve left it to Neika-san, Hiyori-san, and Suwabe-san.”
I looked where Rio was pointing.
Suwabe-san was writing ‘1-5 Japanese-style Cafe’ on a piece of poster board with excellent penmanship, and Neika and Hiyori were decorating around it.
Suwabe-san’s handwriting is incredibly skilled.
However, it was surrounded by Neika’s cute illustrations and Hiyori’s heart marks, making it a rather surreal sign.
“We’re going to stick that onto this board in the end and lean it up in front of the classroom.”
“I see.”
In the blink of an eye, a fancy, chemical, and pastel-like sign was being completed.
Elegant calligraphy paired with cute illustrations.
I really wanted to ask where exactly the Japanese element was in that.
“Even so, the school festival is in just one week, huh...”
“I feel like I’m spending the most intense year of my life so far. It might be because I can see the ‘Red Thread of Fate.’”
True. To begin with, since I started living with Riran, my lifestyle has completely changed, and the flow of time feels slower.
It’s not painful or anything. It’s fun, so I want to enjoy this time even more.
Then, Rio spoke up, saying, “By the way.”
“An interesting hypothesis regarding the red thread has come out recently.”
“A hypothesis?”
“To explain it simply, it seems that when your fated person is nearby, your perceived time slows down so that you can stay together longer.”
Hoho. So you can stay together longer, huh?
There are still many things about the ‘Red Thread of Fate’ that haven’t been explained.
Things like the hypothesis Rio mentioned probably do exist.
“You know how a year felt so long when you were a kid? It’s like that lasts for a lifetime.”
“A lifetime?”
“It seems that 80 years without your fated person nearby and 80 years with them nearby feels about 1.5 times different in perceived time.”
So that means... it would feel like being together for about 120 years?
I suddenly looked at Riran.
By chance, Riran looked at me at the exact same moment.
Our thread isn’t a normal color. It’s Dark Scarlet.
If that hypothesis applies to red, peach, vermilion, and scarlet... then maybe for Riran and me, the perceived time would be about double?
Perhaps Riran was thinking the same thing, as her face turned bright red and she looked down abruptly.
Seeing Riran like that, I also involuntarily looked away.
I mean... right? Even if someone tells you something like that out of the blue, it’s just embarrassing...
“My, my, tee-hee-hee. You two are as innocent as ever, no matter how much time passes.”
Shut up.