Golden Time:Volume5 Chapter2

Status: Incomplete

8% completed (estimated)

   

Golden Time 5: Chapter 2

Chapter 2

All things considered, this summer was definitely that.

To himself, he wondered if he hadn't been cursed... it was such an idiotic thing, but he had thought about just a little bit seriously.

Banri was standing by himself, sustaining himself against the dusty, rough handrail of the veranda, absentmindedly watching the road below.

It was getting on to seven in the evening, and though the sun had not yet set, the sky was dark blue with smelly, thick exhaust fumes. Covering the whole town, the sultry hot air spread around him without any wind, carrying to the ground the noise and dampness of a mid-summer's evening in Tokyo.

All of ten minutes ago there came a message from Kouko, "I'm coming up in a bit." Since then Banri had been like this, watching the base of the apartment building while waiting for his girlfriend to arrive.

Saying to himself 'she should be showing up any time now,' he rested his chin in his hand for moment. He realized too late that his skin was soaked with seat. When he tried to touch his nose, he found it greasy. The back of his neck, too, and all his hair was wet. Rats, he thought. If he was going to look like an idiot, then perhaps it would be a good idea if he took a quick shower to refresh himself. No matter what, even if he did nothing else, it was one day to take it easy.

Like this, the whole day long, Banri had had free time.

In truth, he should have met up with Kouko today before noon, and with nowhere else to go, they would probably have taken the train downtown. He wondered if by now they would have gone to eat dinner, tired of walking around.

There was a special summer vacation event with no entrance fee taking place today only at the botanical gardens, and Kouko seemed to want to go there. Banri had been eagerly setting up plans... searching on the internet for the best lunch shops nearby and checking for likely coffee shops to take their breaks in... between this and that, he had been looking forward to the two of them being together. Since all they did normally was lazily kill time in Banri's room or in the area nearby, he had said, "Let's go out on a date once in a while, like a couple."

Even so, since last night Kouko's relatives had suddenly arrived to pay them a visit, and she said the whole family had to give them a warm welcome. Kouko had apologized, saying "Sorry, the night will be okay so let's have dinner together, okay?"

If that's how it was, then it couldn't be helped, and Banri cheerfully adjusted today's schedule.

In the end, with it turning out he had nothing at all on his schedule until Kouko came, nor had he anything else to do, he found himself alone. He passed the whole day uselessly, a complete bum. Surfing the net, sleeping, waking, watching television, munching snacks, eating good-for-nothing leftovers for lunch and going to the convenience store without his wallet to cool off. Well, it might have been better to have done a bit of tidying and taking out the trash. But in the end, he just absentmindedly waited for his girlfriend to arrive.

"...I sure am a guy with time on his hands..."

If he'd thought back on it, what he found to do was a little pitiful: talking to himself. Even if nobody else pointed it out, he saw himself as a guy with time on his hands. He wondered if that was a good thing for a nineteen year old.

And it wasn't confined to just today. Even if the feeling that he was cursed with free time was just an idiotic suspicion, his schedule this summer, to Banri's point of view, had absolutely nothing in it.

Up to the day of the Awa Odori festival, it seemed to him his days had been filled up.

There were club practices, and after practice there were drinking parties. That's right, Hosshii-senpai and the fourth years were invited too, and would show up for us. They were all under so much stress they were losing weight, burnt out from job hunting, looking just like they'd been reduced to starving monks. Each of them was behaving suspiciously, and they made Banri and Kouko feel nervous.

Incidentally, as for the Omaken fourth years, none of them as yet had been extended tentative offers. They knew from the start, of course, that things would be getting difficult, and yet, the reality was nevertheless harsh. "Though I think a festival bum is needed in the Japanese economy, particularly now..." Hosshii-senpai murmured without energy.

At the end of the last period, they'd had a few more reports to do. Unable to avoid the language tests, they had studied unusually diligently. And after the tests were over, they had yet another drinking party they referred to as "The Launch."

Having finished with the above, there was that Awa Odori performance on the scorching street in Saitama. What with Kouko dying, and then the mysterious excitement forcibly bringing her back, one way or the other we finished the festival. Once it was all over, it was one really fun day. As for Banri, there was plenty of food and drink at the after-party, and it felt good, in the end he drank too much, ate too much, got thoroughly drunk, and he returned alone earlier than usual to his room.

It was clearly from around then.

From the very start, his summer schedule was "not much", but from what he could see, it had disappeared entirely.

The big thing should have been a three day, two night Omaken Club training camp, but the college seminar house they'd selected had suddenly closed down from equipment failures or somesuch, so as things were everything was cancelled.

They'd spoken with their seniors about rescheduling for another time, but they'd not heard back. Since there had probably been other clubs trying to use that seminar house and having the same painful experience, it appeared that college facilities would be difficult to obtain from here on out. As it was, it looked like there wouldn't be a training camp this summer.

<~~8% Completed~~>

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