“We have enough already! Totsuka-senpai, thank you very much,” Isshiki said.
“Ah, sure. Thank you too, like really.” Totsuka made a sudden smile and answered back, having been depressed while hugging his knees and sitting on the floor.
By all means possible, I wanted to capture that smile of his in a photo, but with Isshiki reeling me in by my sleeve, I wasn’t granted the wish of consecutive or spectacular shots. At the very least, I turned his smile into a photographic memory to be stored in the album of my heart.
× × ×
Isshiki dragged me along by my sleeve and before long, we were at the Soccer Club.
The fields the Soccer Club practiced on was right beside the tennis courts, so it wasn’t very far. I might as well add that I didn’t have all that much interest in the Soccer Club, either.
I figured we could just be on our way after two or three shots of them, but Isshiki wouldn’t allow that.
“Ohh, please focus a shot on Hayama-senpai over there. Oh, right there, right there!”
Isshiki tapped my shoulders and designated specific moments for a shot. After taking the pictures, we checked over each picture one by one.
“Please let me see… Oh, some of these have Tobe-senpai in them, so I’m gonna delete them, okay?” she said, and deleted the pictures. She then pushed the camera back to me.
Oh, come on, what’s the big deal? It’s just Tobe… No one’s going to care if he’s there or not, you know?
This continued on for a little longer, so we weren’t making much progress.
“Hey, this is enough, right? There’s no more memory…”
“And whose fault do you think that is?” Isshiki puffed her cheeks and glared at me with a sidelong glance.
Not much I could say against that. Ultimately, I was forced into taking pictures of the soccer mini-game until it ended.
Once it finally finished, Hayama walked over to us.
“Hayama-senpaaaai!” Isshiki yelled out while waving her hand.
Hayama lifted his hand back. “So I heard from Yui that you’re making a free newspaper of the sort? You’re doing whatever you’re asked to like always, huh?”
Hayama made an invigorating smile while being subtly astonished.
“I already told you that’s just how our club works. I don’t want to hear that from someone going out of his way to stop practice early just for an interview. Sorry for bothering you.”
“That’s a funny way to show your gratitude.” He shrugged his shoulders and smiled. Then, he looked towards the courtyard. “It’s cold here, right? How about we do the interview over there?”
“Oh, sure.”
Since the pilotis area of the courtyard was surrounded by the school building, the winds didn’t pass through. With a happy smile, Isshiki led the way towards a good spot. The spot she went to had a vending machine with a simple bench on the side. Isshiki took a seat and patted the seat next to her, motioning for us to come over. How sly…
I let Hayama go first while I went to buy a can of black coffee and black tea from the vending machine. As I juggled the hot cans hand to hand, I sat across Hayama.
“Just say random stuff. You’re pretty good at that, right?”
I tossed him the canned coffee as I spoke. When Hayama accepted it, he looked at it in surprise. He then briefly sighed and made a strained laugh. With a mocking tone, he said, “Are you being sarcastic?”
“Just praising you. I don’t really care, but we’re counting on you.”
“…Well, I’ll try to meet your expectations to the best of my ability,” Hayama said, and smiled. He raised his hand at me and faced Isshiki.
“Okaaaay, let’s begin the interview!”
Isshiki started the voice recorder on her smartphone and set it aside her tea. I took two steps away from them and readied the camera. The Hayama beyond the viewfinder was, as I thought, the Hayama Hayato that everyone knew. However, the joking and wryly smiling Hayama from just a moment ago felt slightly different.
× × ×
We wrapped up our interview and photo shoot with Hayama. Afterwards, we visited all the other clubs, subsequently finishing them up as well. We even managed to get a shot of Hayama opening his hands upwards, so quality wasn’t a concern.
Yuigahama and Yukinoshita should’ve been about done on their end with female clubs, too. The remaining job was to take photos of Isshiki Iroha for the front cover of the newspaper.
As per the request of the model Isshiki, we relocated to the library for the photo shoot.
We went through the front entrance from the courtyard, changed into our indoor loafers, passed by the faculty lounge, and entered the library.
In the later hours of after school, the library was rarely used by students. A peaceful atmosphere permeated the room.
“So, why the library…?”
Isshiki surveyed the library and walked around to find a suitable place for photos. When I asked her from behind, she turned around. “Isn’t the library, like, very intellectual?”
“What an unintellectual thing to say…”
“That’s fine. This is a matter concerning my image.” She turned her face away and began walking, making several stops. And finally settling on a spot, she took a seat at a table with her back against the bookshelves. Then, she took out her compact mirror and started fixing up her appearance.
The tall bookshelves loomed over Isshiki as a protector of the sort, and the dark-colored book spines contrasted with Isshiki’s gaudiness. The lights were bright in the library in the evening, a form of consideration to make it easier for readers, and they served to show Isshiki’s white skin imbued with a slight color of warmth.
I didn’t know very much as an amateur, but I felt Isshiki’s appearance could make for a pretty picture. That’s what you could expect from Isshiki Iroha; she was fully aware of how to exhibit her charm.
“Alright, I’ll take some shots.” I called out to Isshiki. She answered by resting her cheeks in her hands and her elbows on the desk.
Her moist eyes and her long eyelashes in her inviting upwards expression was impressive and despite the innocence in her somewhat elated smile, her cherry lips glazed softly.
Even though I had the lens directed at her, I had forgotten to press the shutter. It’s only after I heard a cough that I came back to my senses.
I pressed the shutter several times and lowered the camera. As I checked over the photos I had just taken, I spoke to Isshiki in a way to cover up my earlier moment of absentmindedness.
“You seem pretty used to taking pictures…” I said.
Isshiki was about to change her pose and looked into her mirror while thinking. After facing the mirror, she tilted her head. “Really? Isn’t it normal to take pictures all the time?