VOLUME 4

Chapter 1: Part 6

And then, Sat.u.r.day arrived. I can’t remember who suggested it, but this year’s school festival would be held at night, and would go from three in the afternoon to ten at night.

We students had to be at school in the morning to prepare, but what was Haruna going to do? Was she going to come as early as someone who was involved with the school, or was she going to come later like a normal partic.i.p.ant?

I changed into my uniform and peeked into Haruna’s room without knocking.

It used to be my little brother’s room, but since then, it had been completely transformed into a girl’s room.

The floor was covered with cookbooks and fas.h.i.+on magazines. There was a mountain of “Great Divine Detective Conan” manga there too, and the sheets and curtains had been replaced with ones in brighter colors.

Haruna might not have gotten a single wink of sleep yesterday, since she still seemed to be sleeping. She looked fast asleep, but I could hear her groaning from underneath the covers.

It really seemed as if she had gotten so excited that she couldn’t get to sleep.

Though she really didn’t look too cute sleeping like that&h.e.l.lip; Anyways, should I wake her or should I let her sleep?

Or maybe I should take a look at her face while she was sleeping?

I wanted to see what her ahoge looked like while she was sleeping, at least a little, so I peeled back her blanket a bit and took a look&h.e.l.lip; And then I saw a girl with tears streaking down her bright-red face.

Her ahoge was completely limp.

“Haruna&h.e.l.lip; Did you catch a cold?”

Geez. She got so excited she got a cold&h.e.l.lip; What irony.

“A-am I&h.e.l.lip;”

She put a hand on her forehead and groaned as she tried to say something with her hoa.r.s.e voice.

So those groans weren’t actually sleeping sounds&h.e.l.lip;

“Going&h.e.l.lip; to die?”

Her voice shook as she spoke weakly. It was a pessimistic statement that I could never imagine coming out of Haruna’s mouth.

That was when I realized that what was happening here was much more serious than a simple cold.

END CHAPTER 1

TRANSLATOR’S NOTES