Maria-sama ga Miteru:Volume32 Chapter5 1

Sweet Bun Feast. Part 1.

She wasn't sure who it was that initially proposed the idea of having a sweet bun feast.

Was it Minori-sempai, or had she proposed it herself – Ayane pondered this as she ran her pencil across her sketchbook.

It must have came from one of them.

It came from one of them, but that proposal had been taken up and now looked like it was going to happen. Why? Because they had been searching. Searching for an excuse for the two of them to spend some time together.

Two o'clock in the arts room, awaiting tomorrow's graduation ceremony.

Until last week, the walls had been filled with oil paintings made during class, but these had all been returned to their creators. In contrast, the plastic busts that usually looked down from the shelves, the watering cans used for still-life pictures, dried flowers and other such things were casually piled on one of the tables in the corner. The floor looked as though someone had cleaned it, but there still remained a streak of charcoal about ten centimeters long.

The first thing you noticed when you walked into the art room was the smell that was composed of a number of things – the oil paints, the chemicals for developing photographs, glue as well as a number of lesser smells – but after a while you'd get used to it. 'Just like the smells in the toilet,' was how Minori-sempai liked to phrase it, although Ayane didn't really approve of that.

The art club's farewell party took place about a week ago. After school, their faculty advisor had bought cake sets for each of the club's members from a local cafe which they ate here. It was the first time she had ever had cake delivered to her but, regrettably, it smelled of oil paints. (Incidentally, last year when they had ramen noodles at the farewell party, the smell was unaffected.)

So the farewell party was quickly wrapped up. The third years all retrieved their belongings from the club room and the preparation room and went home. The ceremony for saying goodbye was over, but Ayane felt as though there was still something that hadn't been done.

She hadn't been able to properly say 'Goodbye' to Minori-sempai. That thought was rattling around in her head.

So when she heard about the half-day holiday on the day before the graduation ceremony and the idea of having a sweet bun feast with just the two of them came up, it seemed like fate. – ahh, how wonderful. Parting was still too difficult for the two of them, she thought.

Needless to say, there were no club activities today, so after school the two of them were free to paint whatever they wanted in the art room.

Ayane would often eat bread crusts. When she sketched with charcoal, she used the white part of bread in place of an eraser, so the crust would always be left over. Not wanting to let it go to waste, she'd pop the crust into her mouth.

That's right, it was because she didn't leave anything behind that the conversation turned to eating bread, which led to today's sweet bun feast.

Unfortunately, they weren't taking food around to the classes today so she couldn't put in an advance order. It would be a disaster if they were sold out. She had planned on rushing over to Milk Hall after homeroom and cleaning, but one of her high-spirited group mates had said, 'Tomorrow's the graduation ceremony so let's do this thoroughly,' and she hadn't been able to easily slip away.

Ayane had arranged with Minori-sempai that whoever got there first would buy the buns. When Ayane got to their meeting point, in front of the drink vending machines, she didn't see Minori-sempai so she ran over to the bread counter and bought four buns. Just as she was collecting her change, someone tapped her on the shoulder.

"What should I do with these?"

When Ayane turned around, Minori-sempai was standing there grinning wryly as she held six buns she had just purchased.

"I called out to you three times. Didn't you hear me?"

Minori-sempai said she hadn't called out a fourth time because she was making such a spectacle of herself. The short senior had been hidden amongst the crowd of people.

So that was why the table in front of her currently held six buns.

Four of them had already been eaten.

Even so, it was remarkable that among the set of ten they didn't have two of the same item. It may just be her sense of style, but Ayane found the multicolored packaging, as well as their contents, aesthetically pleasing.

Because the goal of this wasn't just to eat pastries in the arts room, they didn't feel like leaving once they had eaten their fill.

"Since we went to all that trouble, why don't we sketch the buns?"

Minori-sempai took two sketchbooks from the shelf and handed the one that had 'Ayane' written on it to her.

"Oh? Sempai, you haven't taken your sketchbook home yet?"

"Nope."

The sketchbook that her senior had placed down for her own use had 'Minori' written on it.

"I was going to take everything home, but I felt like I'd have to come back here for something. So I took a chance and left it here."

"Hmm."

Ayane understood, somewhat. It was the same as her – Minori-sempai probably felt like she still had something left to do.

"So I'm going to take it home today."

It was at that time that Ayane realized this really was the end. But what could be a more appropriate way to end it than this.

"I'm sorry, but can I borrow one of your pencils, Ayane-chan?"

Minori-sempai had only left her sketchbook here, so she didn't have any pencils suitable for sketching.

"Sure."

Ayane retrieved her plastic case which contained about 15 pencils from the shelf. Opening the lid, she said, 'Take whichever you want,' to which Minori-sempai said, 'Any one is fine,' and picked out a 2B pencil without looking.

"Any one but that."

Ayane split her kneadable eraser in two and tossed one of the parts to her senior.

Right, right.

Despite having all these buns, they didn't have any plain white bread so today they wouldn't be able to do charcoal sketches.