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It’s finally break time and I’m finally free from that weird and embarrassing outfit. It was pretty popular among customers, but it felt like I was being stared at and it made me feel restless. I’m really impressed my classmates kept their cool.

「I feel like people are still staring at me.」

Despite changing back into casual clothes, I still feel seen. I even have my hair up in my usual ponytail. I’ll try not to be bothered by it. After all, it’s the school festival right now.

「Excuse me, is Kaori in?」

I came to Kaori’s class to invite her for breaktime, but theirs is the classic haunted house, huh. It’d be too narrow for a classroom, but it seems like they managed to get a wide area in cooperation with other classes. Even from the outside, it’s got an impressive atmosphere.

「Um, are you a family member?」
「A friend.」

Why exactly am I treated as a family member? I know I haven’t interacted much with Kaori’s class, but they should have been informed about me. What exactly went wrong? I started thinking, but then Kaori came out. In her regular clothes.

「Oh, it’s just Kotone. They said it was an older friend of mine, so I was really confused.」
「They asked me if I was a family member first.」
「Ahh, your casual attire look isn’t really that familiar after all, so I guess it can’t be helped. Since you do look more mature.」

Is that how it is? While it might be true that I look older when I’m in my casual clothes compared to when I’m in my uniform, is it really different enough to cause this much confusion? Or maybe it’s just because there’s a large number of various types of people right now?

「Still, a haunted house?」
「It got a bit too large-scale for just one class. But on the other hand, we really put in a lot of effort in quality.」
「You’re not going to scare people, Kaori?」
「We decided on our roles by lottery, you see. And I pulled the odd jobs duty.」

With the number of people they’re working with, I guess it can’t be helped. Still, they likely wouldn’t have made it this good if they weren’t motivated. From how I can hear occasional screams from the inside, it must be pretty scary.

「Want to go inside, Kotone?」
「By myself?」
「I’ll go with you. I’m not scared since I know everything inside, but are you?」

She’s trying to taunt me, is she? From the big grin on her face as she’s pulling me by hand, I can guess what she’s thinking. It’s common knowledge that Kotori is shy and easily embarrassed, but as for her being fearful, that’s another story.

「We can try it.」

And so, the two of us entered the haunted house, but this clearly isn’t a school festival-level exhibit. The lighting has been dimmed as much as possible, but the path is still easy to see. It’s hard to tell where and what could pop out and that fans anxiety.

「It has quite the chilling atmosphere.」
「I’m pretty proud of it.」

However, the two of us are walking relatively normally. Since the small props don’t scare me and Kaori knows everything, we’re spoiling the atmosphere quite a bit.

「I really thought you’d get scared.」
「I did get a bit scared. Who wouldn’t be surprised when something suddenly jumps at you?」
「That’s not what being scared is.」

A person in makeup and costume suddenly appeared from the side, then what I thought to be a statue was actually a person, and so on the intricate performances continue. They really put in a lot of effort.

「Ah, good work.」
「Stop it. That hurts the worst.」

When I normally praised the ghost that came to scare us, Kaori stopped me. I’m doing it intentionally though. On the contrary, shouldn’t they expect some people to try this?

「Yup, that was fun.」
「Yeah, for you that is. Everyone’s pride got torn to shreds, though.」

On the flipside, that means they put a lot of heart and effort into it. The screams of the people that just entered really don’t stop, though. Yup, yup, this is how a haunted house should be.

「I’ve been with you for more than half a year, but I still can’t get a good grasp of you.」
「I don’t think there’s anyone that can understand everything. After all, everyone has at least one or two things they keep to themselves.」
「Hmm, that’s true and all, but…」

Everyone has something they want to keep secret. In my case, there’s also a high chance that no one would believe me. My step-mom believed me for some reason though. Still, I don’t feel like talking about it to my current mother.

「Where do we go next?」
「Let’s drop by and see Kotori. Since I need to show up either way.」

It’ll be a problem if she asks me at the end of the day why I didn’t show up. Was told that Kotori and her classmates were selling crepes at the stall area, so I’m going to have to step into such a crowded place.

「Still, they’re doing incredibly well. I didn’t expect this many people to be here.」
「It’s just how it is every year. There’s a lot of parents that use their paid leave to attend as well.」

It’s a day for them to see an unexpected side of their sons and daughters, after all. It was the same for my school festival in the far past. However, I clearly remember the usual fools being fools.

「Have you told those people about today?」
「There’s no way I would. I know that they’ll definitely come if they did.」

If someone as renowned as them came, it’ll be sure to cause panic and with their assertiveness, they might even do a guerilla live. If that happens, then they’ll end up stealing the spotlight from the school festival.

「It’d be really nice as an event, though.」
「Definitely no. I can already see them dragging me into the live stage.」
「I’d personally like to see that, though.」
「I absolutely refuse.」