All Beautiful Girls Want to Stick with Me

”Are there even breakfast stalls at the cultural festival?” Yui Yuigahama asked, still a little confused.

”Dummy. There are tons of snack stalls—whatever you want to eat, you can find it. No need to worry about the food being bad either. Any class planning to sell food at the festival would’ve already picked students who can actually cook.”

Kotomi Izumi gently tapped the dumpling’s little head and said lazily, sending a reply to Utaha Kasumigaoka at the same time.

The reason she had such confidence in Sobu High School’s food stalls was because, recently, students planning to open stalls had already begun setting them up in advance—and had invited their friends over for test tastings.

Naturally, Kotomi Izumi had been among those invited to participate. She’d tried every single stall.

There were many students in Class 1-B in charge of grilling sausages, and among them was Kiyoko Matsumatsu.

To support her good friend, Kotomi made sure to taste the sausages Kiyoko had made.

Class 1-B sold two types of sausages: starch sausages and pure meat sausages. Kotomi liked both, but the chili powder Class 1-B prepared was simply too spicy. Kotomi, wanting to try the spicy version, asked Kiyoko to sprinkle some on her sausage after grilling.

Kotomi could usually handle spicy food pretty well, but that day she was nearly speechless from the heat. It took two bottles of iced water before she could recover.

It was the first time in her life she had eaten something so fiery that she began to suspect Class 1-B’s chili powder had a personal grudge against her.

Thankfully, today was a perfectly clear and sunny day.

When it had rained earlier in the week, everyone worried that it might affect Friday’s festival.

Luckily, the weather turned out beautifully. Kotomi hoped the festival would go smoothly.

Colorful balloons of all shapes and sizes floated in the air, while the opening performance from Sobu High’s Brass Band echoed across the grounds.

By the way, since seven years ago, Sobu High’s brass band had consistently ranked just below Kyoto Tachibana High School’s band—nicknamed the ”Orange Devils.”

If Kyoto Tachibana was first, then Sobu High was second.

The cultural festival’s executive committee chair took the microphone and stepped onto the stage set up in the central courtyard.

”Year 2025, Chiba Municipal Sobu High School’s Cultural Festival… officially begins!”

The cultural festival could be said to be one of the oldest and largest school events in every Japanese middle and high school. People often said that a high school life without a cultural festival was an incomplete one—a major regret in life.

The event encouraged students to break away from their ordinary school routines and spend three days expressing themselves in their own ways.

The first and last days—when the most events were scheduled—usually attracted the biggest crowds.

Even at the nearby train station, large crowds had already gathered.

At Sobu High’s main gate, long lines formed like those at a popular attraction. Although tickets weren’t sold publicly, students could still invite friends or family to attend by using their own connections or methods to get tickets.

Under the condition that tickets couldn’t be bought directly, students had to use every possible means to obtain one—this was considered a small test set by the school.

That little ”test” was the idea of the school chairman, who said:

”Nowadays, students’ social learning is rather thin. Those who only know how to study, who can’t socialize or even hold a proper conversation—well, to put it harshly, they’re nothing more than learning machines. They might be top students in high school, but once they reach university, they’ll despair upon realizing they can’t do anything beyond studying. They won’t know how to make friends—and might even find themselves outperformed academically. That doesn’t align with Sobu High’s educational philosophy.

”Is there really a school in this world foolish enough to train students to only bury their heads in books?

”Education isn’t just about teaching knowledge—it’s about guiding students to understand the unspoken rules of society, to grasp what it means to interact with others and navigate the world when their own strength alone isn’t enough. And when you can’t rely on your own strength, you must learn to borrow the power of others to achieve your goals.”

”Kotomi, who did you invite?” Yukino Yukinoshita asked while adjusting her electronic keyboard. With only a few hours left before their performance, it was best to have all instruments ready to avoid any last-minute panic on stage.

Since it wasn’t possible to move a full piano onto the stage, Kotomi had listed Yukino’s position as ”Keyboardist: Yukino Yukinoshita” when they submitted the band’s lineup.

”I invited my parents, my little sister, and Iroha.”

Kotomi didn’t mention Hidari Okumuro or Yukki—mainly because it would be hard to explain why she was acquainted with two officers from the First Investigation Division.

Well, technically speaking, Hidari Okumuro was now a private detective. So, in precise terms, she’d be inviting one private detective and one police inspector.

If she actually said that out loud, it would probably shock people. Why on earth would someone invite a detective and a police officer to a high school cultural festival?

”Who’s Iroha?” Yukino instantly caught on to the unfamiliar name.

Yui Yuigahama, who had been drinking water to warm up her throat, immediately lifted her head—only to choke and cough several times.

”Her name’s Iroha Isshiki. She’s my sister’s friend, a third-year in middle school. She’s taking her high school entrance exams in February and plans to apply to Sobu High,” Kotomi explained. It was better to introduce her now so it’d be easier to make introductions later when they met.

”I see.” Yukino nodded slightly. Once she heard that the girl was Kotomi’s sister’s friend, she didn’t think too much of it. For a moment, she’d suspected that maybe it was another girl close to Kotomi—but since it was her sister’s friend, the relationship was probably nothing special.

”Yui, who did you invite? And seriously, how do you even manage to choke while drinking water so calmly?”

”Cough, cough... I just drank too fast. I only invited my mom and my little sister. Originally, I wanted Yuka to come on Saturday instead, but when she heard I’d be performing on stage, she insisted on taking a day off from kindergarten to come watch.”

”Well, it’s kindergarten—taking a day off doesn’t matter much,” Kotomi said with a soft laugh, sounding like a doting mom.

”What about you, Yukino? I remember you got three tickets. Who did you invite?” Yui asked curiously.

Yukino shook her head. ”I wanted to invite my parents, but they’ll probably just say they’re too busy, so I didn’t call. The third ticket was supposed to be for my sister, but I’ve been so busy with rehearsals lately that I forgot about it.”

”Eh... if you invite her now, do you think she could still make it in time?”

”Don’t worry about her. She’s the editor of a popular author now—always busy like some big shot. Even if I call her, she’ll just laugh and say, ’A high school cultural festival? How childish. No way I’m going.’”

Sorry for keeping your sister so busy... Kotomi thought with a silent chuckle.

Yukino didn’t seem bothered at all about not having given away any of her tickets. She simply took the three unused tickets from her bag, placed them on the table, and said:

”If either of you have more people you’d like to invite, take them. Otherwise, they’re just going to waste away with me.”

”The people I wanted to invite already have tickets—my mom and my sister. That’s enough for me. What about you, Kotomi?”

”Most of the people I wanted to invite have already gotten their tickets too. A few others wanted to come, but since today’s a weekday, they couldn’t make it.”

Kotomi glanced at the three tickets on the table. Throwing them away would be a waste. Suddenly, an idea popped into her mind.

”How about we keep these three tickets as souvenirs? One for each of us. After all, this might be our first—and last—cultural festival performance together.”

”Keeping one ticket each as a memento? That actually sounds really nice!”

Yui Yuigahama loved Kotomi’s idea. She’d been wanting something to remember this cultural festival performance with Kotomi and Yukino, and using their tickets as mementos felt just right.

Every year, Sobu High’s cultural festival tickets had a different design—one new style each year. Rumor had it that an alumna had collected every single ticket design from her time at school. It really did make for a meaningful keepsake.

Years later, when the three of them saw these tickets again, would they smile fondly at the memories of their shared performance?

”I agree,” Yukino Yukinoshita said, nodding.

And so, instead of returning the three extra tickets to Shizuka Hiratsuka, the trio decided to keep them as souvenirs—a symbol of this special festival.

”The crowd’s getting bigger. We should head down soon and look around the festival before our performance starts. But before that...”

Yui glanced out the window, her expression sparkling with excitement—like a child on a school trip, eager to reach the destination. But just as she was about to finish her sentence, she paused mysteriously.

”What is it?” Kotomi Izumi asked curiously.

”Before the performance starts, let’s take a picture together!” Yui said enthusiastically, holding up her phone.

”Good idea.”

”Let’s put your phone on the desk and prop it up with a bag. Set it to a timer shot.”

Yui quickly adjusted her phone, setting a five-second delay, then hurried to stand beside Kotomi and Yukino.

They hadn’t discussed where to stand, but by pure coincidence—or perhaps fate—Kotomi stood in the center, Yukino on her right, and Yui on her left. The three of them stood before the window, smiles of varying warmth and shyness gracing their faces.

Click.

Outside, the sky was a clear blue without a single cloud. A gentle breeze drifted through the open window, softly lifting the white curtains.

The camera captured that moment—Kotomi Izumi, Yukino Yukinoshita, and Yui Yuigahama’s first photo together.

Their smiles, and the bright scenery behind them, looked like a tender, soothing melody—clear and transparent, like divine sighs carried through the air. It felt like a timeless breeze that flowed endlessly onward.

Would that endless breeze ever reach its destination? Maybe. Maybe not.

No one knew where the end lay—or when it would come.

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