Tonari no Seki no Satou-San chapter 60

It’s time for a trip arc!

Enjoy!

Translated: Butter

Edited: Butter

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Title: Our School Trip Revenge (1)

Unexpectedly, the suggestion came from Satou-san.

“Hey, Yamaguchi-kun. Can we go on another school trip?”(S)

But the way the proposal itself was, in a way, just like Satou-san as usual.

It had been four months since we graduated from high school. I had started attending university and Satou-san was working at a company, so the opportunities for us to see each other had decreased dramatically. I didn’t have the same opportunities to see her every day as before. Fortunately, Satou-san’s work was off on weekends and holidays, so I didn’t miss her every day, but the fact that I couldn’t see the things I used to see every day had the effect of upsetting my life cycle and, by extension, my mental state when I was alone. To put it bluntly, I mean, I miss her. The phone calls and emails had no power to make up for the time we were apart, but rather, they were more difficult to deal with after a passing conversation. After all, it’s no match for the effectiveness of meeting in person, and I don’t think I could do it without seeing each other often. My university life is seemingly going by without a hitch, thanks to Satou-san, who makes time for me every weekend. It’s not always easy to say this to her. So, to show my appreciation, and also for my own benefit, I was thinking of taking a trip during my summer vacation with her. Maybe today, when we met. I didn’t expect her to beat me to it.

“Sh….”(Y)

I was about to give up, but Satou-san was staring at me from the counter table to my right with a serious look on her face. The counter seat at the coffee stand I happen to enter is too high for me to sit at, and if I hadn’t been paying attention, I might have slipped off. But I like the counter seats because I can sit next to her. Satou-san tilted her head slightly, holding a cup of sweet-smelling iced coffee mocha in her hand.

“Is that kind of weird?”(S)

If you call it weird, what Satou-san says can be weird quite often, so I was already used to it in the two years we were classmates. ……..I thought so. However, that might have been just an assumption. The ‘usual Satou-san-like’ proposal was enough to blow my mind. What are you talking about, I thought.

“Why a school trip?”(Y)

Still, the words I asked back were gentler than my heart. I asked for an explanation, and Satou-usan, looking just a little uncomfortable saying it, said

“You know, if we were going on a trip, it would be better to go on a school trip.”(S)

“I’m sorry. It just doesn’t make any sense.”(Y)

I gave up kindness in thirty seconds. I’d prefer to be praised for having thirty seconds.

“Why would me and Satou-san call it a school trip? It’s as if we’ re going as part of a class.”(Y)

I don’t want you to forget this, but Satou-san and I are no longer just former classmates, we’re dating as ordinary people. There’s no need to call it a school trip; I think it’s okay for the two of us to go on one. In fact, even friends wouldn’t say, ‘Let’s go on another school trip’ after graduation. It’s obvious, but Satou-san is strange to me. Well, if I were to guess Satou-san’s true intentions, she might want to say that she wants to go to see shrines, temples, castles and other such things, right? That kind of trip sounds like a school trip, but it’s somehow unrefined for a place to go with a guy you’re going out with, but I feel like ‘unrefined’ suits her because it’s typical of Satou-san. In fact, it’s not a surprise to me that she says she’s always been interested in visiting historical sites.

Satou-san looked down as if she was thinking about it, so I couldn’t help but try to regain the gentleness I had once thrown away.

“Do you like to visit temples and stuff?”(Y)

“…What?”(S)

“Isn’t that why you said it’s a school trip?”(Y)

At my words, Satou-san blinked a couple of times and then

“Oh, it’s not that. I don’t hate it, of course, but that’s not what I meant.”(S)

She shook her head. She doesn’t hate it after all. But that’s not what I’m talking about–

“Well,”(S)

Satou-san continues with an unusually hesitant and confused look on her face.

“We went on a school trip last year, didn’t we?”(S)

“Yes.”(Y)

“At the time… you know, I didn’t get to spend much time with you, Yamaguchi-kun.”(S)

When she said that much, she looked at me and scowled.

“So if we were going to travel together, I wanted to redo the school trip first.”(S)

Satou-san was good at gouging out my old wounds. Even though I knew she didn’t mean it, I couldn’t help but chuckle at the memories I didn’t want to remember.

Last spring, when we went on a school trip, we got into our first fight on the trip. That was the only time we could call it a fight so far. Since then, we only had some petty arguments. No, even then, we rarely argued. I’m not going to be able to tell you what to do, but I’m going to tell you that I’m sorry. –I’m not bothering anyone. I can understand now how Satou-san felt when she said that. I know that the reality for her at that time was that the person next to her was closer to her than the one next to her, a person whose face she didn’t know, though it is frustrating. But I want her to understand why I couldn’t say kind words to her at the time. The only time I ever had a school trip in high school was only a bitter memory because of that event. It’s just a consequence theory that we are the way we are now because of that event, but in reality, it’s just a memory that we would like to forget if we could, even now that we’ve somehow settled down. I am troubled by Satou-san’s relentless efforts to dig up such memories.

“But you’re not going to have to go all the way to Hokkaido.”(S)

Satou-san, who probably misunderstood my reaction, smiled bitterly as well.

“But I don’t mind doing what I couldn’t at the time. I wanted to make fun memories with Yamaguchi-kun, too. What about you, Yamaguchi-kun?”(S)

“It’s the same for me.”(Y)

I shrug my shoulders and answer for now. Of course I feel the same way, but I also want to forget about the events of my crush on Satou-san because I want to make happy memories with her. I don’t need to go to the trouble of bringing them back to life, but I’m still uncouth about it.

“I’m glad to hear that. Then let’s go somewhere else.”(S)

Anyway, I could see that Satou-san was pleased with herself, so it was a good decision to just agree with her. I’m not pleased with the name of it being a school trip, but that doesn’t change the fact that the two of us are going on a trip together, so this time we can make some fun memories. I’m going to try to be positive and change my mind.

“Then the important thing is where to go.”(S)

“Where do you want to go, Satou-san?”(Y)

As soon as I turned the tables on her, Satou-san made a difficult face that didn’t look good and began to think.

“Ummm….I don’t really have a place in mind…”(S)

“What about a temple or a castle?”(Y)

“Oh, I don’t mind that kind of thing. You know, it’s more of a…”(S)

So she laughed, heh, and said

“I want to get on the train and eat some snacks together or something.”(S)

I swallowed the words that were going to come out of my throat, ‘It doesn’t have to be a trip’. No, this is a matter of mood. You’re in the mood for it, and I shouldn’t ruin it. To tell you the truth, I want to say it very badly, but I want to go into it thoroughly.

“And isn’t it like a trip to walk around with a map and get lost in it?”(S)

We’ re assuming we’ re lost.

“Also, I’d like to have some good food with you.”(S)

And it’s more food than romance.

“I’d love to take a picture of us and stamp it or something. What do you think?”(S)

“Well then, I guess you could say it’s travel-like…”(Y)

I’m thirsty as I swallow one wild ramble after another. I made a vague agreement and then drank the iced coffee I had left for a while. The ice had completely melted and it just tastes watery. And then.

“And when you say school trip, there has to be a pillow fight.”(S)

A mouthful of coffee from Satou-san’s remarks casually enters my windpipe. I groan, but I can’t help but check.

“Well, the pillow fight…?”(Y)

“Yeah. Isn’t that standard?”(S)

Satou-san nodded, and immediately afterwards, ”But wouldn’t it be a lot of fun if it was just the two of us?’ What a misguided thing to be doing. Wrong. That’s not the point. How can you be so inconsiderate, Satou-san? You can’t do the pillow fight without a pillow. –There were idiots in Class C who tried to throw seat cushions or quilts or worse, remove the bedding and throw it, but that’s not just the same thing.

“When you say pillow throwing, you can’t do it unless you stay overnight.”(Y)

When I pointed this out to her, Satou-san finally seemed to notice and spoke up.

“I see. Our budget is going to go up.”(S)

It’s not that. That’s actually an important issue too, though!

“When you think about the money, it’s difficult to stay overnight. If that’s the case, I guess we’ll have to do a day trip.”(S)

I was a little weak in the face of Satou-san, who said it was inevitable. Do you think that by saying such a thing, you would have been willing to stay the night if you had the budget? I was just thinking that, in fact, Satou-san would be in trouble because she would be seriously involved in throwing the pillow. Maybe I was wrong in expecting her to be a little bit sexy, because she’s still doing this even after she’s entered the workforce. However, if I really had had to do the pillow fight, I would have had to deal with the hassle of dealing with my athletic-tone-deaf girlfriend – but that’s okay this time. You can take a day trip to get revenge on a school trip.

“Then let’s go to a bookstore and think about it while looking at a guidebook.”(Y)

“Yes! Let’s have a fun trip, Yamaguchi-kun!”(S)

Satou-san, who smiles without a care in the world, doesn’t seem to have changed at all since her high school days. I’m probably the only one who still thinks that face is cute.

In the end, I didn’t care where we were going, either. If I said that to Satou-san, it seemed like we’d never decide on a destination, so I didn’t tell her.

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Notes:

Based on the title I thought this was going to be a set of prequel chapters or Yamaguchi (Since he is the only of the two in post secondary which could be consider a school) going on a University trip or something, but lone behold the title was a bait for a stupid reason to call it a school trip. 

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