I play the wind instrument in Hokkaido.

Page 429

"Teacher Kitahara."

Nagasawa Miyabi braced her buttocks against the corner of the table, placed her hands on the table for support, and sat down with a thud, gently swinging her legs as she spoke.

“If it were before, she would definitely have used her charm and tried her best, but now she is unusually quiet.”

The sunlight streaming in from the window fell on her thighs, making the shadows beneath her skirt appear even heavier.

"Does getting the results in advance change how you treat someone?" Goto Yu said softly as he squatted on the ground picking up confetti from the fireworks.

Nagasawa Miya tilted her head, and upon careful consideration, she realized that this was indeed the case.

"What's the rush for this child? She's just a high school freshman," she muttered with some dissatisfaction, as if she were the one who had taken the action.

Kirishima Mai remained silent, her gaze fixed on Goto Yu, who was squatting on the ground. (The last sentence appears to be an unrelated fragment and has been omitted from the translation.)

She was trying to pick up a piece of colored confetti stuck to the ground, but no matter what she did, she couldn't lift it up, and she kept repeating the process.

"Mai-yi," Kuno Tachibana's voice came from beside her ear, "You eat this."

Looking up, I noticed she was holding a paper plate with the name "Kuno Tachibana" written on the white chocolate cake on it.

"Thank you."

"fine."

Nagasawa Miya crossed her arms, raised her eyebrows slightly, and said, "Hey Tachibana, aren't you going to help me and Yuuki?"

Kuno Tachibana lifted his chin and said:

"I don't have that many hands, and this isn't written according to the phonetic chart, so it's too troublesome to find."

"Didn't you notice that the names are arranged according to voice part? I'm definitely in clarinet."

"Oh, I see."

"Whoa, no way."

Nagasawa Miya slumped her shoulders in frustration, because Kuno Tachibana stared wide-eyed in surprise, seemingly not pretending to be stupid.

How offline is it exactly?

"Kitahara-sensei, please have this!" Akamatsu Sayaka called out loudly, holding a cake with Eri and Amemori's names written on it.

Kitahara Hakuba accepted the cake without hesitation. For him, eating the cake from the two girls who took it was probably the safest option.

Of course, Sakurako and others could also do it.

Chapter 318, Section 317: Eri Wants a White Horse as a Gift (4K) >>

He was well aware of this; it was best not to eat those girls with whom he had some entanglements.

That's what he thought, and that's what the girls thought too.

Saito Haruka quickly found her name and wanted to exchange it with Isomoto Yuka, but then she saw that Nagase Tsukiyo was alone.

In this setting, eating a cake with your own name on it would likely be ridiculed.

The cheerful chatter of the club members kept reaching his ears, and Saito Haruka could fully feel the tension clinging to Nagase Tsukiyo.

"Moonlit night."

Before she could react, Yuka Isomoto, who was beside her, had already stepped forward and handed her the cake, saying,

"Shall we switch?"

After a while of busy work, Nagase Tsukiyo was indeed a little lost while everyone around her was exchanging name cakes.

She had intended to swap cakes with Eri, but Eri took the initiative to get Kitahara-sensei's cake, leaving her all alone. The other members didn't dare to come up.

The second option is to hope that Kitahara-sensei will notice me. If it were him, he would definitely be able to observe my loneliness.

The idea was wonderful, but reality was cruel.

Kitahara Hakuba was in the center of the crowd, and countless female club members wanted to offer him cakes. Just politely declining them was enough to keep him busy.

The third option was to get Sakura's attention, believing that with her position as department head and her "motherly" abilities, she could surely help him escape the "dangerous situation."

But the girl with the three braids was already busy arranging order, so she didn't have time to observe her.

"Is it okay? Where's Harutori?" Nagase Tsukiyo blinked repeatedly to hide her nervousness.

Saito Haruka stepped forward, pretending not to notice her odd behavior, and said with a smile:

"Just give me yours, and I'll give mine to Yu Xiang."

Yuka Isomoto flashed a youthful, radiant smile, her tone extremely sincere:

"You treated me to a lot of cakes before, and although this time it's on the company's dime, I'll still make do with this."

"Thank you, Yuka." Nagase Tsukiyo pursed her lower lip slightly.

"It's fine."

Kitahara Hakuba had actually noticed Nagase Tsukiyo alone a while ago, but it would be too conspicuous to look after her in front of more than ninety club members.

He felt like he was giving her special treatment. If he were a student, he definitely wouldn't have missed this opportunity to show off, but unfortunately, he wasn't.

"Yuka is such a good girl," Kitahara Hakuba thought to himself, taking a bite of cake.

The cakes are all the same and there is no difference in taste. Both the Rain Guardian and the Eri cake are delicious, but the Rain Guardian cake has more cream and the Eri cake has more cake base.

It's not bad to eat them together.

"wait a minute!"

While they were eating, Sakurako Yukawa suddenly shouted out.

"What's wrong? Why are you so startled?" Akamatsu Sayaka said.

Sakurako Yukawa clenched her fist and said excitedly:

"Where are the flowers for Kitahara-sensei?! What happened? Weren't we supposed to serve the flowers first, then the cake?!"

"Oh, right, Tenkai-senpai?" Akamatsu Sayaka turned her gaze to the side.

The boys were playing a cream-smearing contest, with each boy's face covered in pure white cream.

Tianhai Cang's face, hair, and clothes were covered in spots of cream. They had been laughing and joking, but they fell silent when the senior girls pressed them for answers.

Is there really such a thing?

"Of course that's true. Since you like me, you should keep my words in mind," Akamatsu Sayaka said with feigned sigh.

The fact that Amami Sou confessed her feelings to more than ten senior female students after the conference was no longer a secret within the club.

The girls were all kind-hearted and wouldn't complain to his face.

But their private complaints are even more outrageous.

"It's alright, it's alright, we can make another one." Seeing that her junior, Tenkai, was embarrassed, Yukawa Sakurako quickly said, "What about the bouquet?"

"No need, no need, this is already very good," Kitahara Hakuba said with a gentle smile. "I am already very touched."

At that moment, Suzuki Yoshie returned from the practice room next door, carrying a large bouquet of flowers in her hands.

The flowers were so large they covered her entire upper body. There were three large sunflowers, six carnations, and eleven champagne roses, surrounded by small flowers and green leaves, making her look vibrant.

Kitahara Hakuba had never received such a large bouquet before; he had only ever seen them in street-side flower shops, and sometimes he would think about it—

"Is it really necessary to send such a large bouquet? It would be better to send something practical, since withered flowers are just trash anyway."

But my previous thoughts have suddenly changed after experiencing it firsthand today.

That is, he knew that whether it was flowers or practical items, once they were given with sincerity, they would turn into mountains of gold and silver.

"It's a little clumsy, but it should be fine. The flowers smell nice too," Yukawa Sakurako said with a slightly embarrassed smile.

When Kitahara Hakuba received the bouquet, a warm feeling welled up in his heart. The petals were brightly colored, and when he lowered his head to smell them, they had a fragrance reminiscent of peaches and plums.

Kitahara Hakuba was somewhat relieved that the sudden addition of Tenkai Sou and others had disrupted the flow of the story; otherwise, he might have been moved to tears.

Looking at his team members, he felt an unprecedented sense of accomplishment. His original intention as a mentor was to help them break through their limitations and reach a higher stage.

Now everything has come to fruition, but words linger on my lips, unable to form a coherent sentence.

Kitahara Hakuba let out a deep breath. Although they probably wanted to see him moved to tears, he held back.

"Thank you everyone. This bouquet moves me even more than when I won the national gold medal. It feels like all my hard work this year has paid off. It's wonderful."

A moment after he finished speaking, applause broke out in the classroom again, and every now and then you could hear girls complaining, "It didn't work well!"

To avoid making Tenkai and the others feel guilty, and also to adjust his own mood, Kitahara Hakuba said directly:

"Today is the retirement ceremony for the third-year students, and I also have a gift to give to them."

He winked at the boys, and they immediately left the first music classroom to carry the gifts.

After a while, boxes of all sizes were stacked several layers high on several tables, leaving the members speechless with astonishment.

"What are these?" Sakurako Yukawa asked, staring at the "gift wall" in front of her.

She had expected that Kitahara-sensei would give her something like a diary, pen, classic book, or snack bag, or at most some affordable cosmetics.

Because that's how it was when I graduated from junior high school.

But to everyone's surprise, what he sent was...

"Laptop computers and tablets?" This was the only one that Yukawa Sakurako could think of, because she didn't know the specific models.

Oh, she does recognize the brand of this tablet—an apple with a bite taken out of it. It's very expensive; her current phone is this one, given to her by her mother when she was a retired worker.

Kitahara Hakuba said with a smile:

"Yes, I'm not very good at picking things that everyone likes, since everyone has different tastes, so I thought I'd keep it simple. When you all go to university, or some of you will choose to go straight into the workforce, you'll definitely need something useful. So I'm giving each of you a laptop and a tablet computer, hoping you can study and work well."

Chapter 319, Section 318: Eri's Five Minutes (4K)

Kitahara Hakuba met the eyes of the girl in front of him, and upon hearing those words, he felt an even stronger unease.

He didn't know when it started, but the Eri he knew was no longer the girl he used to be, someone who would be content with just gentle words and a pat on the head.

What is he so hung up on? Wasn't he the one who said, "I allow you to call me White Horse in private"? That's why he's in this situation today.

But that superficial pride continued to sway Kitahara Hakuba, as if building a barrier between them. He spoke:

"So, what does Kanzaki-san want?"