360° Material - [Chapter 17]

Translator - Sarah
Proofreader - Macka

Chapter 17: Conflict

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The chapter begins with Mio leaving the sports assembly while texting Taki: “The assembly just ended. How about you?” After sending it, she runs into Marui, who seems happy she came to the assembly. Mio tells him that she had some free time, then says, “Speaking of which, Marui, you were so cool!” Marui seems surprised, but Mio prattles on saying it's the first time she's seen Shii-chan's too. She continues saying that everyone looked so cool in their uniforms. Marui turns his head to the side and mutters, “Ah, the uniforms...” Meanwhile, some of the girls from Akane's class call her over to ask how she knows that guy from the basketball team. And ask her if they went to middle school together. One of the girls adds that she saw them coming to school together this morning, and another backs her up. Akane starts to say, “We didn't go to the same middle school...” but is interrupted. The girl in the front of the group exclaims, “No way, is he your boyfriend!?” Blushing, Akane firmly denies it, looking over at him talking to Mio. She turns away, saying, “Honestly... that's impossible...” and rushes off, ignoring the girls asking her to wait.

Mio gets a reply message from Taki, telling her that he'll be out in about ten minutes. Mio lights up and exclaims that that was a pretty fast response, coming from Taki. Marui asks where Taki is, and Mio explains that he was recruited by Ichii for some sort of work. Marui asks if she's waiting for him, and Mio tells him she is. It'll be about ten minutes, so maybe she should contact him again. Marui tells her that, if she has some free time, she should come out with him. He needs to go buy some equipment [for the basketball team]. Mio isn't sure if she has the time, but Marui assures her it's not far. He just needs to change clothes and tells her to wait by the gate. Mio thinks that if it's just down the street, she can be back soon enough, but will it be all right? She texts Taki that she's going out to buy something, and hears some girls on the other side of the gate calling, “Marui-senpai.” The girls tell him that he was great in the assembly, and he thanks them. After the girls say good bye, Mio teases him from behind the gate, singing, “Marui-senpaiii....” Mio tells him that it's nice, being called, “Senpai.” It seems simultaneously happy and embarrassing. Marui offers to call her, “Ootaka-senpai,” and Mio recoils. It needs to come from an actual underclassman... But, Marui suddenly seems awfully popular. Marui comments that he's probably just fresh in their memories after that demonstration. Speaking of which, Shimizu was also being swarmed by girls earlier. Mio exclaims that of course Shii-chan was that popular! She's so tall and pretty... Marui then turns around and asks Mio why she's lining up behind him like that. Mio explains that she doesn't want to give anyone the wrong idea that she's his girlfriend. Blushing, Marui asks who she's talking about, and Mio points out the girls who are looking at them. He tells Mio she doesn't need to worry about that, but Mio suggests that his future girlfriend might be in that group. He just responds, “She isn't.” Mio scolds him that he's far too hung up on looks, and he gives Mio a look over. He tells her that's going too far, and she just seems confused. His last two girlfriends were both extremely cute. He starts to say it wasn't really just that, but trails off, falling silent. Watching the traffic lights, Marui thinks that he's never been the one to tell someone that he likes them first... The wind picks up, and a leaf blows into Mio's hair. Marui pulls it out, thinking, “First love, huh?” Then he says out loud, “It's valuable.” Mio sees the leaf, and has no idea what he means. The light changes, and some of Marui's teammates call out to him from across the street. He crosses, and Mio looks around, thinking he can't have meant that leaf was something valuable. She can't seem to move; the atmosphere suddenly changed... Marui yells back at her, telling her the light will change, and Mio runs across the street.

Back at school, Taki is checking his watch, and Hatano asks if he's worried about the time. Is Ootaka waiting for him? He tells her yes, and Hatano tells him that she heard Ootaka was with Marui yesterday after school. Hatano heard from her friend, the manager of the basketball club, that Marui was missing from practice. He was talking to Ootaka the whole time. Noticing how angry Taki looks, Hatano says, “Ah, I guess you didn't know? Sorry, maybe I shouldn't have said anything!?” Taki replies, “...It's fine...” while aggressively clicking his pencil. Hatano points out that that isn't a mechanical pencil then notes that those two seem pretty close. Taki replies that they went to middle school together. Hatano wonders aloud if they went to grade school, or maybe even kindergarten, together. Taki tells her that he doesn't know that much, and Hatano smiles at how flustered Taki is by the conversation. She says, “Hmm... I wonder if they decided on a high school together too?” At that, Taki knocks over his stack of papers, and Hatano decides to take it further. She points out that Marui seems to be pretty popular. She wonders if maybe Ootaka and Marui aren't really only friends... Like, they were friends, but before they knew it, they were more... Yesterday, too, maybe they were really meeting up while Taki wasn't there... Taki cuts her off by slamming his hand down on the desk. Glaring at her, he says, “Shut up. You don't know what you're talking about, so don't say nasty things about Mio!” Then, Taki goes back to picking up the papers, as Hatano stares silently.

At the drug store, Mio is helping Marui buy his supplies for the basketball club. As they leave, Mio tells him that she hadn't expected to see him [acting responsible] like this today. He tells her it was sort of a change of pace, being helpful... They stop, noticing a crowd of people, and Mio wonders what happened. As they start to move in for a closer look, Mio's phone rings, and she tells Marui she can't come. Taki is finished, so she has to go. Marui thanks her for going with him today, then leans back against the fence, muttering, “Ch…, damn Taki...” He points his finger at her, then pulls back, thinking, “What am I doing?” He points back at her and “shoots,” but is surprised when she actually stumbles as he does it. (She seems to have stepped on a rock?) He bursts out laughing, and Mio continues down the street.

Mio sees Hatano leaving, and is glad to see Taki isn't with her. She tries to go on, but Hatano calls out to her. Hatano tells her that Taki is surprisingly manly. Blushing, she says she didn't think she'd see him do something like that... Well, it was because of Ootaka... Mio wonders what she means, and tries to ask Hatano what happened, but she's already gone. Mio thinks that she doesn't quite know, but just now, was she trying to make her jealous? So then, most likely, she... Mio runs up to Taki, and yells, “Taki-kun, what happened earlier?” He doesn't know what Mio is talking about, and she goes on to ask if he lifted something heavy or protected someone. With a very confused look, he tells her no, and Mio goes back to wondering what happened. Maybe it was something he did without thinking, something trivial... Mio tells him that, up until now, he's been having normal contact with Hatano, and she's been patient, but... She doesn't like it. Thinking that, if Hatano likes Taki, it's a different story, Mio tells him that she can't stand to see him being unnecessarily friendly with Hatano. Taki stares at her, and Mio is uncomfortable with the silence. She then wonders if she went too far. She starts to apologize...and adds that it's not like she's saying he should be cold to people, or that she wants him to be concerned about normal interactions... Did she say some weird things? She apologizes for being annoying. Mio explains that she wasn't going to say anything, but when she ran into Hatano earlier... She looks up, and Taki starts to laugh. Mio asks if he's in shock, and he tells her it's not that. He just realized that's why she would talk to Marui about it, and not to him. Mio asks who told him that she was discussing this with Marui... Then asks, “What did Marui tell you!?” She doesn't know what he heard, but it was supposed to be between friends... Seeing how flustered Mio is, Taki asks, “Can I hug you?” Mio asks him to repeat that, and he says, “I really want to hug you right now. Can I?” Mio thinks there's no reason he can't, and tells him to go ahead. Mio wonders why, after suddenly grabbing her on the train before, he's asking now... Her heart is pounding so hard, she can hear it. Taki slowly pulls her into a hug, and Mio puts her head on his chest, noticing that the sound of their hearts beating is overlapping. The rhythm is ticking faster than usual. Mio giggles, and wraps her arms around Taki, listening to the comforting, precious sound of their overlapping heartbeats.

Translator’s Comment: There's a cute omake at the end of Volume 4, in which Mio is remembering when she first met Marui in grade school. He was trying to put up a poster, but was too short to reach. Since Mio was taller than him back then, she offered to help, but ended up offending him by asking what grade he was in. He stormed off, and the teacher Mio complained to about it told her that they're in the same grade. So, they've apparently known each of other since around fifth grade, but were not exactly friends until middle school.

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