Inter-high to Kase-san

The chapter starts off with “This is what happened at the start of the summer holidays”

A lady (I’m guessing it’s Yamada’s mother) tells Yamada to quickly go to bed because there would be a parent-teacher conference the next day. Yamada says okay, in a while. The next panel has Yamada’s mother asking “what is this? Information about universities?”, to which Yamada replies yes. Yamada’s mother asks, isn’t it already decided?” Yamada looks a bit nervous as she says, “yes, but…. There’s still some stuff I want to check for a bit.” Yamada’s mother asks, “What stuff? You can’t be thinking of wanting to change your mind only now!?” She continues, “Since you started your first year in high school, haven’t we already agreed that you would go to a local girls’ college?” (Sorry, I have no idea what the name of the college is in Japanese.) Yamada: “……..” “Yes…..”
The door closes, and Yamada’s mother leaves the room. Yamada thinks “The first choice is the literature department of the girls’ college. This was already decided with my parents in my first year. Mother had also graduated from that college ----“ The next panel shows her typing the following terms on Yahoo! Japan - “University”, “gardening course”, “Tokyo”. Yamada then thinks, I definitely can’t go… even if I look (at the info), it’s no use…!”
[If Kase-san wins a prize at the Inter-High tournament next week, she will get a scholarship to a university in Tokyo or Osaka] – text in the background as Yamada sighs and lays her head on her laptop, thinking “if it’s Tokyo…..”
(The next page) “If it’s Tokyo, my parents will never agree…” Yamada opens her flip phone to a photo of Kase thinking, “Next year ------ if Kase-san goes to somewhere far away, I guess she will definitely completely forget me…. the me who has only dated her for a while -------“

Yamada then puts in new search terms: “Relations between girls” “beyond kissing” and clicks “search”. She then gets wide-eyed and blushes – the next panel shows a little logo of a website only being for people aged 18 and above, with Yamada thinking “after this is…”

And Yamada’s mother walks back in and is all “Yamada??” resulting in a very flustered Yamada slamming down her laptop screen and saying “I got it!!! I’m going to sleep!!!”. More thought bubbles of Yamada going “That scared me to death….!”
The next page is a Yamada thought bubble “Relations between girls will also involve things that boys and girls do together……!!?” above a background of their school. The next panel shows Yamada’s two choices for her universities, with the teacher saying “If it’s the local girls college, I think she should be able to get in, but it would be better if she improved her English grades.” Yamada’s mother says “Really? Looks like you need to work hard, Yamada!” and she and the teacher kind of laugh. But Yamada looks a bit sad…

Yamada then walks out into the school, pulls on her gardening hat and starts filling a bucket with water. Someone calls her name and it’s Kase. Yamada greets her and asks if her parent-teacher meeting is over. Kase says it’s over and asks if Yamada has decided where she would study. Yamada kind of pulls her hat down and says, “Yes… it’s decided that I will go to a local university.”
Kase pauses, puts her hand to her head, sort of looks away and says “Ah… is that so…” There is a kind of a pause and Yamada says “Yes… it’s the local women’s college. My parents say travelling from home to college will be very convenient ----- I also… have always been discussing it with my parents but suddenly wanting to go to another region…. It’s a little difficult. That’s why…..”
(I’m a little confused as to whether this is Kase or Yamada speaking -) “Yes… now that you mention it. I feel that this is a very good choice.”

Kase smiles and says “I feel that the local women’s college is very suitable for Yamada! That area is also full of greenery!”
Yamada thinks “Ah…. I feel like crying” as tears well up in her eyes a little.
Kase continues, saying “Next week, after the Inter-High competition, can you come over? On that day, I will work hard. At night, can you wait for me at the train station? I will buy you a local souvenir! After that, we’ll look for a place to have tea? Something like that shouldn’t be a problem, right?” Yamada says “Yes….”, with her hands kind of clenched. Kase says “Okay, it’s a date then. About our meeting time, I’ll use LINE to let you know!” before running off.

Yamada starts tearing up and thinks “It’s obviously something that I had earlier decided… to cry at this moment, it’s really too strange…” “There’s obviously still half a year to go…. to cry now, it’s really too strange ------“
The scene shifts to Yamada walking with Mikawa, who asks/comments that Yamada has indeed chosen to go to a local university. Yamada asks Mikawa about her choice, to which Mikawa says “I’ll go to whichever university that will accept me!”, with Yamada being all shocked and saying “That’s amazing! You’re actually being so casual about this???” Yamada then kind of deflates, and Mikawacchi asks “what’s the matter?”

Yamada says, “if even Mikawa will not be here… will I be able to live/survive on my own nextr year…” Mikawa says, “Don’t worry. We didn’t take the same path here in the first place! Haven’t you forgotten? We only became friends in our first year of high school, and before that we never even met. Haven’t things like this happened since elementary school? So there won’t be a problem!”
Yamada thinks “So it’s like that… come to think of it, during middle school I also had similar worries -----“
The next page opens with Yamada gardening, thinking the Inter-High competition will be starting soon. Mikawacchi then appears, calling out to Yamada. Mikawacchi says, “You’re at school after all!” Yamada says yes, and that she keeps feeling like she can’t calm down.

Mikawacchi then whips out a new tablet, saying “Tada! We can watch today’s Inter-High Competition!” Yamada’s eyes goes super round as Mikawa says “It’s actually being broadcasted live on the Internet! We can watch Kase’s running!” Yamada exclaims that it’s awesome and they sit down on a bench to watch the competition. The broadcast shows up on the tablet and Yamada is enraptured (there are sparkles) as she (or Mikawa) notes how clear the image is.

The next panel has Kase looking all serious (with her tanlines and abs showing…) while they announce that the next race is the 400 metres final. Mikawa comments that the distance is pretty far and the race starts! But Yamada suddenly stands up and runs away??
Turns out that Yamada has run to the row of taps and is running her head under water as she thinks, “Kase-san…. Kase-san will leave soon…..!” (She also has a flashback to when Kase ran her head under the water when they first met.) The scene shifts to some buildings and a Japanese Rail station with the words [After half a year, she will leave…..!]

Kase exits the turnstiles shouting “Yamada, I’m back--------!” with Yamada waving to her cutely. Kase then looks shocked as she asks “Wow, what happened to your face!!!” to which Yamada replies that she’s okay while her eyes are all swollen up. She then thinks “I already put ice on my eyes, but they still swelled up!!!”

Kase looks a bit dumbfounded and is all “…….” while Yamada says “Congratulations on getting first place Kase-san! I saw your LINE message. Congratulations on getting third place in the 100 metres race……” Kase perks up and does a cute V-sign as she thanks Yamada. She then gives a box of senbei (rice crackers) to Yamada for her local souvenir present, before she suddenly notices that Mikawa is there too and is like “Oh no, I didn’t buy your share!”. Mikawa says that it’s okay, Kase doesn’t need to bother about her (and thinks I don’t need senbei anyway…)

Kase then asks for Yamada to wait for her for a bit as she needs to say hi to the coaches and advisers first. As Kase runs over, Mikawa comments that Kase is in high spirits, and when Yamada agrees, Mikawa says that “Well, it’s the last inter-high competition after all!” Mikawa then asks if Yamada is okay. Yamada is rubbing her eyes as she says “Yes, I’m okay, Mikawacchi… Thanks for accompanying me here…..”

The next panel is Kase and the senpai from earlier greeting each other happily, with their palms up and touching. Mikawa notices and goes “Ah… That person…. I’ve seen her before! It’s that person, Yamada!” Yamada looks confused and Mikawa adds, “The person who has dated Kase before!”

As they show Kase waving bye to that senpai, Mikawa says “Up till last year, she was Kase’s senpai! She’s a senior one grade above us. I often saw her and Kase going home together!”
The senpai then calls out to Kase, saying that she has forgotten to take something. Kase turns and catches the box of fruit drops.

Yamada looks on, a bit shocked as she thinks, “The girl who took the shinkansen (bullet train) back with her…. is the melon-flavoured drop person.”

**end**