Chapter 237 Advice for a Friend (1)

Its late, what are you doing here, Maki-kun? Are you still waiting for Umi?

Amami-san ran over to me with a smile on her face.

There were blue and white paints in her right hand and a brush in her left. It seemed like she was still working at this late hour.

Mhm. It seems like shes going to take a little longer Wait, she just texted me.

When I checked my phone, Umi texted me.

[Umi: Itll be done soon.]

[Umi: Wait for a bit, okay?]

[Maki: Okay, good luck.]

[Umi: Thank you. Give me lots of love later, okay?]

[Maki: When we get home, yes, sure.]

[Umi: Hehe, Ill look forward to it.]

I promised to meet her in front of the stairs, then I put my phone back into my pocket.

Hehe, are you done talking with Umi?

Ah, yes. Sorry for cutting our conversation like that.

Its fine, its fine. I dont mind watching you with Umi. You are always smiling so happily.

Eh, really? I was being careful

Your mouth is twitching a lot, so I could tell~ Ninacchi also knew about it. Its actually obvious that you are trying to hold back from smiling~ Pfft

Maybe she remembered something that happened in the past, she suddenly broke into laughter.

Even though we were in different classes, I still texted Umi regularly. To hide my expression, I always tried to put on a poker face or hide my mouth. The gesture was enough to fool the teachers and my other classmates, but it didnt work when it came to Amami-san and Nitta-san

A-Anyway, Amami-san Youre doing this on your own? Wheres the rest of your team?

Ah, yeah. Well, weve finished our work for today, so everyone went home a little earlier, but theres still something thats bothering me, thats why Im here.

Can I see it?

Sure. Im still not done yet though.

The backboard was basically a big wooden plank that everyone painted something on.

From the unfinished work, it seemed like they were trying to paint a big blue dragon on it.

This is the rough sketch. The others showed me a number of powerful creatures like demons or Raijin, so I used those as reference for this piece (T/N: Raijin is the thunder god of in shintos belief. There are a lot of depictions of him in statues or paintings. He is usually depicted together with Fujin or the wind god, in those pictures, he is the one carrying drums behind him. Fun fact if youre a pokemon player, Thundurus incarnate form is based on him.)

Woah.

I involuntarily let out that cry when I saw the sketch.

If I were to describe it, it was a picture of a giant waterfall being split in half by a blue dragon. The blue dragon was facing upwards and roared toward the sky. Despite the picture being only painted on a piece of paper, I could already feel its oppressive atmosphere.

Because she was the one in charge of sketching for our previous festivals exhibit, some people knew about her artistic sense. And now, she was showing it in full force once again.

Sometimes, theyd recruit some people from the art club for the backboard team, so there were cases in the past where one stood out compared to the rest. Seeing Amami-sans work though, made me think that those works felt inferior.

But this was only a rough sketch.

And so, we decided to work on the finer details first. Currently, were working on the face of the dragon and the parts surrounding it, but when we were working on it, it deviates from the sketch somehow Can you step back a little, Maki-kun? Ten steps from here will do. Compare our work to the sketch.

Uh Here?

As instructed, I moved away from the board. From where I stood, I compared the painting she was working on with the sketch.

What do you think?

Hm I dont think theres any problem with it

I noticed that there was something off with it, but it was only a small part of it, not enough to make a fuss about.

It would be difficult to maintain a high quality work while working in the middle of the summer heat, but as long as they could finish it properly, the outcome should be good enough.

Huh? You dont think theres any problem with it? Hng But

But, it seemed like Amami-san had a different opinion than mine.

I dont know how to explain it, but it feels like it doesnt look as good as the sketch. Thats why Im thinking of adjusting it myself like this

She then changed the shade of blue they were using for the dragon. Because of that, the dragon had a different impression than before.

Since painting on a big wooden plank and a piece of paper was different, it wasnt wrong that there was a need to give some adjustment for the work from time to time. In fact, Umi and I did the same thing last year.

But

Amami-san.

What do you think, Maki-kun? Dont you think it will look better this way? You understand what Im trying to do, right?

Sorry, Amami-san, but I dont think you should do something like this

Huh?

Her expression hardened when she heard my answer. Probably because she didnt expect that kind of answer.