It's the Summer Festival! Everyone Gather!

"I didn't do any of it myself...I let others do all the planning for me and still, I gave up in the end..."

- Bertolt laments his situation

It's the Summer Festival! Everyone Gather! (夏祭りだよ全員集合) is the 4th chapter of the 3rd volume and the 20th chapter overall of the Attack on Titan: Junior High manga, written and illustrated by.

Overview
Bertolt is given a plan by his friends in Class 3 on how to get Annie to notice him instead of Eren during the festival. However, Eren has unknowingly brought his friends along and Annie also begins to compete with Mikasa over Eren's attention. With these unexpected developments, Bertolt disappears on his own and everyone starts looking for him. Annie guesses where he could have gone and finds him at a cookie cutting booth. Shortly afterward, the two watch fireworks and Bertolt asks Annie if they can participate cutting together.

Summary
After school, Bertolt is confronted by Reiner, Krista and Ymir about his inviting Annie to the festival. Bertolt nervously confirms this and is surprised when Reiner pulls out a date plan he made for Bertolt and Annie several years ago. Bertolt asks how long they have known and Krista mentions how it is a main gossip topic among the girls in their class; this makes Bertolt feel even worse than before. Reiner calms him down, telling Bertolt to be optimistic and just act naturally. While Bertolt appreciates Reiner's efforts, he feels that Annie will invite Eren and it will all be for nothing; Krista promptly slaps Bertolt and tells him to man up, saying that the three of them will help with his efforts. Hearing that they will all be on his side, Bertolt's confidence returns and agrees to give it his best try.

The day of the festival, Reiner gives Bertolt a final pep-talk and they notice Krista, Ymir and Annie arrive; noticing how pretty both Krista and Annie look, Reiner and Bertolt are unable to speak at first. As Bertolt is about to compliment Annie, Eren arrives and remarks on how pretty she looks. Then (unbeknownst to anyone else) Mikasa, Armin and many of Eren's classmates from Class 4 suddenly appear as well. When Bertolt asks why everyone else is here too, Eren merely responds they heard he was going and they invited themselves; Bertolt confides in Reiner that it is falling apart already, but the latter tells him to just keep going. However, both Annie and Mikasa begin a series of one-upmanship for Eren's attention and ignore Bertolt completely.

As the night goes on, every time Bertolt tries to get Annie's attention, Eren unknowingly outdoes him. Bertolt's confidence drops lower and lower and eventually leaves the group, going off by himself. While the others go look for him, Annie finds him at a cookie cutting booth crying. Annie watches from behind and Bertolt eventually notices her there.

As they walk back, he apologizes for wandering off. Annie surprises Bertolt by saying that she does not really like festivals too much and asks why he invited her; as he stammers for a response, he also asks why Annie invited Eren. Annie replies that it was Bertolt who told her to invite someone from Class 4. As he broods over this, Annie tells Bertolt that if he had not invited her, she would have gone home early. Confused, he learns that Annie appreciates how she does not need to feel forced to talk when Bertolt is around. They watch fireworks for a while and then, finally gathering up his courage, Bertolt asks Annie a question.

The next day, Bertolt tells his friends he told Annie how he felt and that she said yes to his question. While they all applaud his efforts, their reactions quickly change when it is revealed Bertolt merely asked Annie to go back with him to the cookie booth and not if she wanted to become his girlfriend. Krista calls Bertolt a dumb-ass and starts slapping him again.