Hyouka - Volume 03 - The Kudryavka Sequence - Welcome to KANYA FESTA! (1)

"It is tough. Since nobody else was willing to contribute."
I was originally planning to congratulate her for her hard work, but all of a
sudden her gaze suddenly became sharp. Oops, looks like the conversation is
headed in the wrong direction. For the Classics Club manuscript to arrive so
late, no matter how one looks at it, I couldn't offer any excuse. So I decided
to change the topic.
"Ah... so, Mayaka, you'll be with the Manga Studies Club all day then?"
Though she didn't look pleased that the topic was changed, she nodded.
"Will you be stopping by the Classics Club?"
"Nah, it's probably impossible for me to leave the Manga Club in the
morning. And besides, it's not worth it for me to just stop by... I really ought
to have followed things through."
I deepened my smile and patted Mayaka on the back.
"Try not to think too much about it! It can't be helped once you wake up from
it!"
Mayaka gave an ambiguous smile and nodded at my words. No, this doesn't
look right. Such a grey-looking smile wouldn't be what makes Mayaka look
great.
Even though Mayaka said she's fine with it, there are occasions when
Houtarou expresses doubt at my evasion of her advances. Well, Houtarou
was never one to flatter people. I could tell him the reason, but I wasn't sure if
he would understand even a tenth of it. To begin with, this is a problem
between me and Mayaka alone, so it doesn't matter whether Houtarou
understands it or not.
Before we realized, we had arrived at the school gates. I turned to have a look
at the gates, which had huge, colourful flowers hanging over them. This was
the hard work of the General Committee, made to welcome visitors to the
Cultural Festival. A banner hung from the outside of one of the windows of