“Not all the time.”
I felt it was only during extraordinary events like field trips or events that I would take pictures that could be left as commemorations and as memories. At least, that’s how it had been for my entire life so far.
But Isshiki was saying something entirely else. She closed the compact mirror and glanced at me. Even though the camera wasn’t focused on her, her smile was soft.
“Memories are important, don’t you think?”
That was something normal to Isshiki Iroha.
She was saying that even the typical scenery that never saw any change and didn’t distinguish between what was normal and extraordinary was a memory to be cherished.
“…I suppose,” I answered briefly, and I positioned the camera again. Now then, let’s think. Will these photos be the memories of what’s ordinary, or the memories of what’s extraordinary? I thought as I pressed the shutter.
× × ×
Having amassed most of the material for the paper, we began working. A few days had passed since then. The club introductions and the spot guide proceeded forward smoothly and the interview article was mostly finished. The design was making favorable progress and we filled in each page one by one starting from the first.
As for all the articles, just a few caption and header adjustments and they were more or less done. Featured comments from the club presidents had their wording revised and that, too, was almost finished.
Progress was good. It should’ve been good.
We also made sure to flavor the articles featuring the clubs, recommended spots, and interviews with Isshiki lingo. We received confirmation from every club for their photos as well. We even humored Isshiki’s sudden desire to fix the front cover which went by without a hitch.
Yet. Yet, despite all of this, my writing had yet to end.
“How did this even happen…?”
Was it because I was taking this seriously? Indeed, I was working seriously; not only did I do the writing for the normal articles, I helped Yukinoshita, and I went to the Game Club for their comments in place of Yuigahama.
For someone like me, I worked pretty hard, spending the the past few days up until today being very busy. Maybe that’s why… When you got too busy, you’d end up forgetting about your other jobs…
I had an entire column to write, to the point where it was “two days until the deadline!”
As I held my head in my hands, Isshiki stood next to me. She then poured me some tea from a bottle.
“Here you go, drink this. Please do your best,” she said. She put away the bottle inside the mini-fridge that was under the table. Afterwards, she took a seat at another desk that was diagonally opposite from mine.
The tea, the desks, the seats, and lastly, the room were all different from the usual.
Presently, I was confined to the Student Council Room, forced to write the rest of the magazine column all the while being under surveillance. Because our clubroom’s heater was still broken, the Student Council Room arranged by Isshiki was offered as the alternative for my confinement.
I glanced at the window and it was already sundown. Normally, I’d use my cellphone instead of a watch to check the time, but I didn’t have the means because my phone had been confiscated. I surveyed the room and stumbled upon a table clock, its hands pointing at cruel numbers.
I was brought to this room immediately after school and had yet to take a foot outside since then. That’s because the deadline was tomorrow.
Oooooooooooooh crap… I haven’t written a single thing… I can’t imagine me finishing on time at all…
I mashed the keyboard in an attempt to get something down only to erase it all because it wasn’t to my liking. I went through many iterations doing just that. Crap, craaaaaaaaaaaap. At this rate, we’re not going to make it in time, ahhhhhhhhhhhh!
As I flailed around at my desk, Isshiki looked at me while backing away. Her expression looked like she wanted to say, “Ugh…” as she shook her head. Then, something caught her attention and she began sifting through her blazer’s pocket.
“Senpai, phone,” she said, and took out my cellphone from her pocket, trying to hand it over to me.
However, a call right before an upcoming deadline was never anything good. In the first place, if you’re going to make demands like that, there wouldn’t be any need for anime recaps. Postponing the release date because the author said so didn’t exist either.
That’s why at times like these, it’s best to check the caller and then ignore the call.
“…From who? The editor?” I asked.
Isshiki sighed in disbelief. “If an editor’s the first thing you think of, the situation must be bad… Umm… Oh, it says ‘Mom.” Maybe it’s from your mom?”
“…The editor’s… mom…? Are they keeping watch over me under the guise of family?”
“No, why would you even think of that? It’s senpai’s mom, I think.”
“Right. Just leave it, I’ll call her back later.”
“Oh, if you say so.”
Isshiki answered back briefly and placed the cellphone back in her pocket. She then flipped and checked over a good stack of papers, perhaps for the fiscal year-end, occasionally stamping them.
Having her working on the side only made me feel like I should actually get my work done… Reluctantly, I began tampering with the keyboard.
And so, another period of time passed by.
It was already dark outside the window, nearing the time for when students should head home. I stopped hearing the sound of stamping, not noticing that Isshiki had already finished her work. I glanced over at her and she was staring at her smartphone.
Can I stop here for today, too…? There’s still tomorrow. And I can just try harder tomorrow. I’ll be done by then…
The instant the thought ran across my mind, my concentration vanished in a puff of smoke.
“I’m done, I just can’t write anymore today. I’m not going to get much written when I’m panicking like this. I guess the only thing I can do now is go home and get some sleep.” I declared, loudly.
Isshiki lifted her face from her smartphone and looked at me. After sighing in disbelief, she made a kind expression. “Right, well, I guess that might be a good idea.”
“I know, I know. It’s okay if we miss the deadline by a little bit, right?”
Is this what you’d call writer’s high? Burdened with excess stress right before the deadline, exhausted from continuous labor, and the mysterious feeling of exaltation from trying to escape reality, I found myself letting out a nefarious chuckle.
Isshiki then made a stiff look. “…Huh? You’re not going to make it?”
“W-Well, I’m not sure…”
But really, this column only had to be about a couple thousand of words at best, so if I just did my best today and tomorrow, I had the feeling I could finish. But it wasn’t that simple since I only managed to get several hundreds of words in a few hours.
I was hesitant to say that out loud. The reason being, Isshiki was holding her head before I could even explain it to her.
“Oh no… That’s not good… Umm, isn’t that, like, really bad?”
Isshiki groaned and fell forward on her desk. She slowly turned her head towards me and her eyes were slightly cloudy. Right after, she murmured in a small voice, “The expenses! The discount! The extra charges! Over the budget! The account expenditures!” and shook.
Her reaction told me everything. Isshiki expected us to finish in time for the discount plan and accounted for that in the budget. And she had likely already noted it in her financial report.
Of course, it should still be possible to make revisions to the report.
But this was the consequence of the pride of Somethingaya Somethingman; despite his grandstanding of how he’d get something done in a few days, he kept putting his work off while going, “No worries, no worries, I can do it super fast.” It’s not good to be prideful…