My Youth Romantic Comedy Is Wrong As Expected

Page 238

"This isn't necessarily a bad thing. Forcing someone to accept something they dislike will only lead to unhappiness for both parties."

"Sigh...it seems that my brother's marriage will be even more difficult..."

Komachi sighed in despair. "Hey, what kind of attitude is that? I didn't say anything weird. Besides, I know very well that getting married is extremely difficult for me, could you please not say it outright?" To avoid that situation, her brother has been hypnotizing himself every day, deeply implanting the idea of ​​a stay-at-home dad into his subconscious.

I am a respectable man, and I will not compromise my principles for the sake of marriage.

People should not hide their true selves; differences in values ​​are inevitable between people.

Different upbringings inevitably lead to differences in likes and dislikes. If one cannot accept these differences and forces themselves to compromise just to be with their partner, can such a marriage be happy?

As one thought after another flashed through my mind, I still couldn't resist savoring the omelet. Mmm, so delicious.

"Brother, there's ketchup."

I'm eating an omelet, of course I'll add ketchup. Wait, I seem to remember you usually add mayonnaise, so are you a mayonnaise fan? Or a Shinohara fan (Note 3: The original text adds "-er" after the noun "mayonnaise" to indicate its supporters. Here, Shinohara refers to Tomoe Shinohara, who sparked a trend from 1996 to 1998; "Ultra Relax" was her last single). "Ultra Relax," right? I know.

I looked up from my nostalgic thoughts, which Komachi probably wouldn't understand, and our eyes met.

Komachi stared at me, then leaned out and touched my cheek with her finger.

I was wondering what she was going to do, but it seems I got ketchup on my face. Can't you just say it? Your face is too close, it's so annoying, so embarrassing, like a newlywed couple. Can you please go back to your seat? I gave Komachi a protesting look, but she didn't seem to care and even smiled at me, showing her teeth.

"This will give Komachi a boost."

"It's a pity that it was ruined by that last sentence."

Then, I started eating the salad.

My sister is really not cute at all. If it weren't for her constant rambling, she'd be quite adorable... Thinking about this, I couldn't help but smile bitterly. Perhaps that's why the tomato in my mouth tasted even more bitter.

In short, just as I know Komachi's strengths and weaknesses very well, Komachi also knows my personality very well. It's a good thing that there are no barriers in the interaction between family members.

Conclusion: Even if I don't get married in the future, having a younger sister is enough. If manufacturers want to bundle their main products with CDs in the future, they should just include a younger sister; that would definitely sell like hotcakes.

× × ×

After the usual morning routine, it's the usual school life, and the usual school dismissal time.

If there's anything different, it's that the Service Society received an unusual request.

The person who made the request was Ms. Hiratsuka. She entered the club office and threw a bunch of things onto the table.

Yukinoshita and Yuihama approached, examining the pile of magazines and documents. Yukinoshita frowned, looking troubled; Yuihama stared blankly, as if her mind had gone blank.

Those things might be related to Hiratsuka-sensei's request, so I peeked out from behind them to see what was going on.

The magazine in front of Yuihama featured familiar scenery and words, along with the large characters for "Chiba." It was probably a local gazetteer. Since it was a gazetteer, it must contain a lot of special offers, right? I'd like to subscribe; who should I contact?

As for Yukinoshita, the document she was reading had the word "Plan" prominently displayed in the title bar, indicating it was a proposal for some kind of event.

"Hmm... 'Love Marriage Chiba Wedding'. Huh..."

Yui read out the title, seemingly curious about the project's content. But what's with this title? Why does it sound a bit like "The Legend of the Love Angel"...? The words sounded rather fantastical, so I cautiously looked at the document.

The words that met my eyes indeed radiated a blinding glow of happiness, brimming with romanticism, causing me to instinctively take three steps back. Utterly wrong! Marriage can never be purely a wonderful thing!

"A special feature on young people getting married..."

I spoke with a hint of helplessness.

Professor Hiratsuka, however, did not hold any pessimistic views and raised his index finger to begin explaining in detail.

"That's right, this magazine is part of revitalizing the Chiba region. They collaborated with the local government, nearby wedding planning companies, and hotels with wedding ceremony venues to carry out this project in order to help young people understand the meaning of marriage."

Hmm, so this is one of those official-private collaboration projects that magazines often hold. It seems Professor Hiratsuka brought these things for us to reference.

Yukino listened to the teacher's explanation while quickly scanning the contents of the proposal. Finally, she pressed one hand to her temple and placed the documents back on the table with the other, tapping them lightly a few times.

"...Then why did the teacher show these things to us?"

She glared at Hiratsuka-sensei after several seconds. The teacher let out a groan, stammered, and awkwardly looked away.

"No, no, it's just that... the school's higher-ups asked us to provide some form of assistance, and I was assigned to be their 'negotiator'..."

Under the intense, scrutinizing gaze of the snow-covered figure, Hiratsuka-sensei managed to squeeze out an answer.

"Why should our school... no, we should be the ones providing assistance..."

I sighed and complained as well. Hiratsuka-sensei blinked a few times, then suddenly changed her gaze to look into the distance.

"The reason? Hmm... It's an order from higher-ups, so of course I can't ask for a reason. That's just how the job is."

"I don't want to hear it... I really don't want to hear that kind of talk..."

My desire to work was already pitifully low, and now, after what the teacher said, it's completely gone... But strangely enough, after losing the desire to work, my desire to marry (roughly equivalent to the desire to be dependent on others) actually increased significantly. It seems that as long as everyone holds the idea of ​​being dependent on others, the marriage rate will naturally increase.

As I was internally welcoming the arrival of the Fuyo-class battleship, Yukinoshita coughed softly.

"My question is, why entrust this task to us?"

"Ah, indeed. This should be Hiratsuka-sensei's job..."

Yuihama, who had been engrossed in the magazine, suddenly looked up when she heard Yukinoshita say that, and looked at Hiratsuka-sensei with a puzzled expression.

Their eyes held no malice, and under the pressure of those gazes, the teacher became increasingly flustered, finally speaking in a trembling voice.

"Waaah... Because... because... I have absolutely no experience with marriage..."

Her eyes were full of tears, and she looked like she was about to cry.

Sigh...you guys made the teacher cry...

I looked at Yuihama, and Yuihama looked at Yukinoshita.

"Xiao Yukino..."

Wait a minute, Yuihama is also partly to blame... In any case, under the combined attack of the sobbing Hiratsuka-sensei and the innocent-looking Yuihama, Yukinoshita finally sighed and surrendered.

"Sigh... Although we don't know much about it either, we're willing to help."

"...Yes, thank you."

Ms. Hiratsuka sniffed, wiped away her tears, and thanked us shyly. She looked so adorable, completely unlike her actual age.

Please, whoever it is, hurry up and marry the teacher! Otherwise, I'll have to take her in!

× × ×

We brewed a cup of tea to help Professor Hiratsuka calm down so she could start reading the proposal.

Simply put, the magazine offered us a few pages to write some reports.

"But how do I write it?"

Yuihama crossed her arms and murmured in thought.

There was nothing we could do; we were suddenly asked to write a report, and we didn't know where to begin. Professor Hiratsuka was probably just as clueless, which is why she came to the Service Club for help.

Moreover, I've heard that the magazine's content has already been finalized, so it's impossible to request cancellation now.

In this way, what we need to do is quite clear.

"Anyway, just write something to fill the space, right? I think we should just resell those pages as advertising pages. That way, we can solve the problem and earn some extra money at the same time. Wouldn't that be perfect?"

"Bichon, that won't do..."

Professor Hiratsuka looked defeated and shook her head, rejecting my proposal. "It's not okay... I think it's a pretty good idea. Selling the space to a third party without authorization sounds like something an advertising agency would do."

"The deadline is a big issue. How much time does the journal allow us?"

Yukinoshita put down her teacup and looked at the calendar. Hiratsuka-sensei followed her gaze.

"The manuscript is due next week, and proofreading needs to be completed the week after next."

"It's really rushed."

Yukino looked at the teacher with a reproachful gaze, and the teacher gave a weary, bitter smile.

That's how work is; it's easy to forget about it if you're not careful. This is especially true for tricky tasks...

"Ah, I can understand."

Yes, yes, I understand perfectly. When faced with work that doesn't inspire us, we always procrastinate. Therefore, the more we dislike something, the faster we should deal with it to feel more relaxed. The world is filled with these terrifying jobs that make you want to just rush through them, and what's even more terrifying is that some people actually make money from them. I absolutely don't want to do this kind of work, so it's best not to go out and work at all.

That being said, although we wrote the reports for the magazine, we didn't receive a single penny, and they didn't specify any particular level of quality...

"Or, how about I just make up an article?"

Yukino shook her head, indicating that it was not feasible.

"Even if it's fabricated, it's still very difficult to fill those pages."

"Use some layout tricks to get away with it."

Even with just a few words, the magic of layout can make the page look quite substantial. For example, isn't this often used in animation? Like using stylish text or narration to fill time—a trendy technique. Although I highly doubt whether it was simply a last resort due to urgent production deadlines, given the well-designed text effects, I'll tentatively interpret it in a positive light.

"Given enough time, this approach could indeed be feasible, but it may face implementation difficulties at this stage. Besides, with our limited expertise, do we really have the ability to make blank space look aesthetically pleasing?"

"We have some past samples here, how about we just find a few and piece them together?"

For a fleeting moment, Yukinoshita seriously considered the suggestion. Yuihama, unable to keep up with the conversation, trembled and gently tugged at Hiratsuka-sensei's sleeve, saying:

"T-Teacher, those two people are so scary..."

"Don't you think they're quite reliable? Although they don't seem like high school students at all..." Hiratsuka-sensei said with a wry smile.

After reaching a conclusion, Yukino put on an "I can't stand you" expression, pressed her temples, and sighed.

"Sigh, your mind only works incredibly fast when you want to slack off..."

"That's called efficiency."

"No matter what, it won't work. The requirement is to write a report at a high school level."

Well, what Yukinoshita said makes a lot of sense. If the magazine wanted a professional report, they wouldn't have approached us in the first place.

Getting back to the main point, what exactly is meant by "high school student level" in the minds of high-ranking officials in government? Is it as refreshing as high school baseball? Or as flashy as today's high school girls?

I briefly reflected on my life, then took a closer look at Yukinoshita.

"There's no way around it, neither of us are high school students."

"...That makes sense."

Yukino lowered her shoulders in agreement and looked away.

"Most people think about the topic of the report first, but you guys think about how to fill in the blanks first. You seem really experienced..."

Hiratsuka-sensei's tone was a mixture of helplessness and admiration. Yukinoshita and I both knew this, and we both sighed in unison.

No, wait a minute.

Wasn't there someone there who looked like a high school student? — I suddenly remembered and quickly turned my face towards that person.

"Yuigahama, your chance to shine has come!"

"That's an infuriating statement!"

Yuihama looked furious, but Yukinoshita asked seriously as well:

"Yuihama-san, could I ask you for a favor?"

"I have such mixed feelings about being asked to do this kind of thing!"

Having finally gotten her chance to shine, Yuihama groaned with tears in her eyes. However, in my personal opinion, her ordinariness is quite valuable; at least, it greatly saved Yukinoshita. So, there's nothing wrong with being ordinary.

"Ughhhhh~" Despite Yuihama's reluctance, she couldn't resist Yukinoshita's silent gaze and finally made up her mind.

First, she crossed her arms over her chest.

Then, she put her hands behind her head.

Finally, her eyes went blank.

Yuihama's mind must have been working too hard, causing her soul to leave her body; I could almost see smoke rising from the top of her head.

Suddenly, she tapped her palm.

"Ah, how about we publicly solicit wedding dress designs!"

"I think there aren't many people in this school who can draw up design sketches."

I've also considered this plan, but it's difficult to implement. Just finding someone capable of designing a wedding dress would take a lot of effort. Besides, there's no extra time to ask everyone individually, "Should we wind it up? Or not?" (Note 4: From the plot of "Rozen Maiden".)

Yuihama listened, then continued to circle her head with her hands, and then, as if remembering something, leaned forward.

"Hmm... how about a wedding dress beauty pageant?"