My Youth Romantic Comedy Is Wrong As Expected

Page 179

"But I still want to give it a try."

Yuihama slumped her shoulders dejectedly, her steps slowed, and she kicked away fallen leaves with a "whoosh".

"We can't do too much, lest we offend Ebina."

"Is that so..."

"If she herself has even a hint of that kind of intention, the impact could be enormous."

"Um……"

She answered absentmindedly, but I'm serious, it could cause a lot of trouble later.

As we walked and talked, we looked ahead and saw that Ye Shan and the others were waiting for us. It turned out that we had arrived at Ryoan-ji Temple.

After purchasing tickets and entering the temple, the first thing visitors see is a huge pond. This pond, called "Kagayō-ike," covers nearly half the area of ​​the entire temple. It is said that during the Heian period, nobles enjoyed boating on it.

The path to the pilgrimage site is lined with low bamboo fences, and we walk up the stone steps.

Upon entering the Abbot's Hall, the front courtyard is the renowned Rock Garden.

A rock garden is a dry landscape garden, meaning that water is not used in the garden and it is filled with stones and the like.

Ah, I see. The white sand is meant to represent the surface of water; and the concentric circles around the rocks look a bit like ripples... I guess so.

After we got tired of walking, we found a place to sit down and stared blankly at the stone courtyard.

Just as I was about to sit down at the very end, the person next to me made room for me. I slightly raised my hand and nodded to express my gratitude. Suddenly, the person spoke:

"Oh, what a coincidence!"

I turned around in confusion and realized that the person was Yukino Yukinoshita.

"Oh, you guys are here too."

"right."

Looking to the side, I saw several elegant and graceful girls sitting there, who seemed to be in the same group as her. But the way they looked at me made me feel a little uneasy... Well, from other people's perspectives, it was indeed a strange sight to see me sitting with someone as incompatible as Yukinoshita.

However, from my perspective, the snow under the snow is even more peculiar than usual.

Regardless of whether those girls were friends with Yukinoshita, it turns out she also managed to act with a group. Although those girls weren't like Yuihama, able to joke and play with Yukinoshita without any barriers, they seemed to be watching her from a distance with admiring eyes.

Different viewpoints can influence our impression of the same person.

For example, in this stone garden, no matter the angle, it's impossible to see all fifteen rocks at a glance. As the viewing angle changes, some rocks will suddenly appear or disappear.

The person who designed this courtyard may have poured grander philosophical concepts into it, but someone as superficial as me can only come up with such a clichéd feeling.

From the meaning behind this stone courtyard and the true nature of humanity to how people actually interact, there are so many things in this world that we don't know.

Lost in my own thoughts, I stared blankly at the courtyard. Just then, Yukinoshita from next door stood up, then sat down again.

Why did she suddenly stand up? Yukinoshita noticed my gaze and explained to me:

"The Stone Garden is also called 'The Tiger Cubs Crossing the River Garden' (Note 54 comes from the story 'The Tiger Leads the Tiger Across the River' in Zhou Mi's 'Miscellaneous Records of Guixin' written during the Yuan Dynasty in China. The mother tiger made three and a half trips back and forth to safely help her three cubs cross the river, which symbolizes the hardship of the meditation process.)' I want to see where it resembles a tiger."

Oh? You're only interested because tigers are also felines.

Tiger is crossing the river... I also stood up, wanting to find where there are tigers.

Oh, I see. I had no idea.

Yukinoshita seemed to have gained some kind of insight, and calmly looked at Ishigami.

Should we use "profound" to describe this? On the other hand, why do I feel that the feeling of "profound" is incredibly superficial?

We continued to watch Shi Ting for quite some time.

"Ah, Yukino."

Before we knew it, Yui appeared. She noticed Yukino and prepared to join us.

Yukinoshita stood up with a wry smile.

"Let's go somewhere else."

"Okay, let's talk over there."

She brushed her hair aside, turned around, and told her group members:

"Excuse me, I'll be back in a little while. You can go ahead, it's fine."

The girls in Class J nodded, their eyes sparkling as they looked at her with admiration. Their relationship resembled that of an upperclassman and an underclassman from a prestigious girls' school, though it wasn't quite as close as one might expect.

I was halfway through thinking about her relationships with her classmates when a voice popped up above me.

"What are you still doing? Hurry up."

Ah, I guess I'll have to go with them. When I stood up, all the girls in Class J stared at me; it was kind of scary. What if they kill me when I get back…? Looks like starting tomorrow, I'll have to stuff a copy of *Weekly Shonen Sunday* in my clothes.

I followed the two of them out of the stone garden and toured the courtyard.

"How is the commission going?"

"Hmm...it's difficult."

Yuihama briefly explained the current situation to Yukinoshita, who lowered her gaze with a sense of guilt after listening.

"I see. I'm so sorry, you've been put in charge this time."

"No, don't worry about it."

She smiled with relief when she saw Yui wave gently in front of her chest.

"Although it may not be considered compensation, I've given it some thought."

"What are you thinking about?"

Look over here from beneath the snow.

"We can provide the girls with some Kyoto attractions they might like as a reference for their free time tomorrow."

"Oh, as expected of Yukino! Ah, let's go together tomorrow!"

"With the Ministry of Revenue and them?"

In that case, I don't think there would be any difference from today.

"It's not quite the same. We can follow behind and see how we can help."

"That doesn't sound like good news..."

Sneaking around and observing others is hardly something to be praised for.

"Alright, let's not worry about whether we can keep up or not. As long as we recommend those tourist spots to the Ministry of Revenue, they'll definitely go. If anything happens, we can meet up again."

So, you want to help the Ministry of Revenue plan the meeting route first? That makes sense. If the Ministry of Revenue encounters difficulties and we are nearby, he can quickly contact us, and perhaps we can be of some help.

"While we can't guarantee a high chance, there's no other way."

In short, this is the plan for tomorrow. We have absolutely no idea how to proceed, let alone how to help the Ministry of Revenue.

At this point, we've completed a loop around the courtyard and returned to the mountain gate.

We're going to Kinkaku-ji (Golden Pavilion) in a bit.

"Well then, I'll head back now."

"Okay, see you tomorrow."

"See you tomorrow."

After saying goodbye, we went back to meet up with Hayama, and then headed to our next destination.

The group walked on a gentle slope leading to Kinkaku-ji Temple. There were many winding roads along the way, and they also passed Ritsumeikan University.

After arriving at Kinkaku-ji, we visited the temple until closing time.

It was past 5 p.m. when we waited for the bus at Kinkaku-ji Temple to go back to our hotel.

Ye Shan first called his advisor to inform him that they would be late. By the time they returned to the hotel, the boys' bath time had already ended.

As a result, I could only take a shower in the hotel bathroom the next day.

It's okay, don't worry, there's still a third day, I won't give up!

× × ×

At dinner time, the grand banquet hall was packed with students.

Why is it that when high school boys go on graduation trips, they always recite the story from "Japanese Anecdotes" and pile the rice into a small mountain?

Thanks to your greed, the rice bucket was empty before it even reached us.

Right now, there's probably a huge mahjong tournament going on in the room. During dinner, everyone was talking about what they did the night before. From what I overheard, almost every room was filled with people playing mahjong.

Therefore, tonight will be the battle for the strongest throne.

Going back to your room now will only get you dragged into the battle, and you definitely won't be able to take a shower anytime soon. If you can't take a shower, then the subsequent unexpected incident with Totsuka is even less likely to happen.

Since that's the case, let's just wander around outside for a bit first.

I decided to wander outside the hotel to find something to eat. I'd definitely get a scolding if I was caught leaving the hotel without permission, but no worries, this is exactly when my optical camouflage (which I prepared myself) came in handy.

I managed to get to the convenience store around the corner without being noticed by anyone.

As is my usual habit, I first browsed through the magazine rack.

SundayGX Monthly Magazine... Where is SundayGX Monthly Magazine...?

Halfway through the search, a powerful voice entered my ears.

"He's an autistic person."

I haven't found the SundayGX magazine that I really like but have always forgotten to buy, but someone else has found it for me first.

The way the other person addressed me was offensive, so I looked at them with gloomy, dead fish eyes.

However, that person—Mitsuko Miura—simply continued reading her magazine, not even glancing at me. If that's the case, why bother calling me in the first place…

Perhaps in Miura's mind, my existence is equivalent to a natural phenomenon. When people see it raining outside, they naturally say, "Ah, it's raining." Her statement just now might have been based on that same logic.

This distance is fine; it won't put pressure on me. If the other person doesn't care about me, I don't need to care about them.

I ignored Miura and picked up SundayGX to read it.

"I'm asking you, what exactly are you doing?"

Miura suddenly threw out a question, which startled me so much that my shoulder jumped.

This person's tone is so terrifying, it's really annoying... I turned my face away and saw Miura still picking out fashion magazines by himself.

She noticed I was looking at her and continued talking.

"Could you please stop harassing Hina?"

Miura's eyes never left the magazine in her hands; she had clearly forgotten all the basic manners she was taught in school, such as "looking at the other person when you talk to them."

With a "snap," she turned a page of the magazine.

Are you listening?

Although I really wanted to reply, "That's what I should be asking," I thought about it carefully and realized I hadn't even said half a sentence yet, so I spoke instead:

"I heard you. But we weren't harassing her."

"It's obvious, anyone with eyes can see it."

Miura closed the magazine and finally spoke to me seriously.

"That's looking for trouble with her."

She reached into the next magazine, carefully untying the rubber band to open it. That's not right, is it...? Even so, my own behavior wasn't much different, so I had no right to criticize her. Besides, I wouldn't dare say something like that to Miura.

"Really? But some people want us to do that. It's perfectly normal for one side to benefit while the other suffers. You should give up on that. Besides, you're not directly harmed."

"What?"

After a childish conversation that hardly qualify as a dialogue, Queen Miura finally looked at me properly for the first time. Her eyes were full of hostility.

"If this continues, I will be the one who suffers."

"..."

This unexpected answer made me hesitate slightly. Since it was Miura, I had expected her to use a strong tone to complain about how much trouble she was currently experiencing. In that case, I could have easily refuted her point by point, silencing her and making her storm off in anger.

As it turned out, I was wrong. I never expected her to answer me with a hypothetical scenario about the future.