Shuchiin’s student council room was busy as ever today.
Rather than the usual atmosphere of people working, it felt more like a cheerful party setup, with snacks, drinks, and balloons being prepared.
"Oww..."
Shirogane groaned, clutching his ribs while getting the drinks ready.
"President, is something bothering you?"
".........Mm."
He couldn’t exactly say that he’d been beaten into the dirt by his best friend under a sky full of beautiful stars, so Shirogane gave a vague excuse.
"I just fell off my bike a little yesterday."
"That’s terrible! We should call Shinomiya’s family doctor right away—!"
"No, really, I’m fine..."
Truth be told, he felt like rolling around from the intermittent pain stabbing through him, but he didn’t want to do anything so unmanly in front of Kaguya.
"If it was a bicycle accident, then there’s nothing to worry about! I once fell off while riding with Pess in the basket."
Fujiwara slipped into the conversation in her usual bright tone. Pess was the dog her family kept.
Shirogane was already feeling awkward because the whole story about falling had been a lie in the first place, but since he’d said it, he decided to play along as best he could.
"Oh? So Fujiwara, you’ve had a mishap like that too?"
"Yep! After I fell, Pess got scraped along the ground and ended up with a bald spot on his head, but I was totally fine! So the president will be fine too!"
"...First, when you get home, make sure you apologize to Pess."
By the time the preparations were finally finished, the student council room door opened with a creak.
**
The very next day after I joined the student council with 1% of my own will and 99% of someone else’s,
I let out a long sigh and opened the student council room door.
Boom! Boom!
Party poppers exploded from both sides. Amid the shower of confetti, I spotted a small banner.
[Congratulations! Welcome, Suzuki Hotaro, to the student council!]
I stood there blankly for a moment, too stunned to react, before finally managing to speak.
"...What is this?"
"It’s a party to celebrate Suzuki-kun joining the student council! A party!"
"Since this is the first time since the student council was established that someone has joined, we put quite a lot of effort into it."
"Welcome, Hotaro."
A party for me?
My parents were always overseas, and my only younger brother was cold as ice, so even if I’d received gifts, I’d almost never had a party before.
I was hit with a strange feeling at the sight of something I’d never experienced before.
"...Thanks."
It wasn’t easy to put into words.
Still, it didn’t feel bad.
**
We chatted quietly while eating the snacks in front of us, which were the fancy kind that came in cylinders instead of bags.
"Tastes good..."
As I was thinking that money really was what mattered, Fujiwara clapped her hands and asked a question.
"Oh! Right. Suzuki-kun, have you thought about what role you want in the student council?"
"I don’t even know what’s available in the first place."
I only got into the student council because of yesterday’s mess, so there was no way I’d researched it ahead of time.
"Is that so...? Then I’ll explain."
Shinomiya set down her teacup and began explaining.
"The student council positions are divided into six in total. You know the president, vice president, and secretary, yes?"
"Yeah, I know your positions well enough."
"The currently vacant positions are general affairs, accounting, and auditing."
"Just hearing the names makes it feel like the options are narrowing..."
"Well, it’s true that Hotaro isn’t exactly good with numbers, so taking on an accounting-related position might be a bit much."
Just like Miyuki said, I was bad with numbers. As for grasping the point of a text, I could only do that when there was context to read from. A pile of numbers? The point of that?
If a math problem got even a little complicated, I’d mark multiple-choice questions as 3 and written questions as 0 without hesitation. Accounting was absolutely impossible for me.
"Then I guess..."
"By elimination, that leaves general affairs."
"...Mm."
Fine, having a conclusion was good. That part was fine.
"What does general affairs do?"
There was no way I’d understand if they threw administrative jargon at me like it was obvious.
Miyuki scratched his head and started explaining.
"Well, it’s a position often called general affairs. Does that give you a sense of it?"
"I mean, if you just look at the kanji, doesn’t it basically mean you do a bit of everything?"
"Exactly. It’s easier to think of it as an all-rounder rather than someone specialized in one task."
Multiple kinds of work, in a student council suffering from a manpower shortage?
I said goodbye once again to the energy-saving lifestyle I’d parted with yesterday.
Looks like I wouldn’t be seeing it for a while...
"The three of us will teach you everything you need to know, so don’t worry. Anyway, I’ll be counting on you from here on out."
"Hehe, if you don’t understand something, feel free to ask anytime."
"Now, now~ Let’s raise a toast to celebrate Suzuki-kun joining the student council general affairs team! Cheers, cheers!"
Well, once I’d come in here, all I could do was do my best in my own way.
Clink
The glasses met with a cheerful sound, and my eventful student council life began.
**
About a week after I joined the student council, one day...
It was almost time to go home, so Shinomiya and Fujiwara had already left, leaving just Miyuki and me in the student council room.
As I was packing my bag to head out, Miyuki spoke to me with a serious expression.
"Hotaro, I have something serious to tell you."
"What is it?"
"What do you think about my relationship with Shinomiya? I mean, what I’m trying to say is..."
Miyuki trailed off, looking a little embarrassed.
"...Do we suit each other?"
"Ohhh..."
So this was finally coming.
There had been plenty of voices around saying the two of them looked great together, or asking if they were dating, and even from what I’d seen up close, it was obvious there was something going on.
I figured he was finally working up the courage to do it.
"People around you are always saying you two suit each other, and I think so too... Are you planning to confess or something?"
The reaction I’d expected was for him to blush and admit it, but—
"Confess? Nah, why would I do that?"
He immediately waved both hands.
No, then why the hell did you ask?
"Listen, Hotaro. Shinomiya is definitely..."
"...?"
"In love with me."
What...?
Was he insane?
Honestly, I was dumbfounded, but he wouldn’t say something like that for no reason.
"What’s your basis for that?"
"If I had to say, it’s intuition."
"Wow..."
The intuition of a guy who’d never had a girlfriend, huh.
I sincerely hoped he wasn’t already thinking about grandchildren.
"And so, I’m going to get Kaguya to confess to me."
"I see, that’s how it is."
After hearing one piece of nonsense after another, my responses were starting to lose their soul.
The next thing he was going to say was obviously...
"So, maybe..."
"Yeah, sure. Do whatever you want, whether it’s getting confessed to or whatever. Anyway, I’m off—"
He was definitely going to ask me to help him. Handle it yourself.
It was always like this. The moment he showed me something cool, he’d inevitably do something stupid right after.
"Wait a second, Hotaro."
"Is there more I need to hear?"
"...Honestly, I expected this reaction. I also thought it would sound ridiculous."
If you knew that, why did you do it?
"But I can’t let it be me who confesses. Getting into the top spot in the school, becoming student council president..."
"...?"
"It was all to become a man worthy of Shinomiya."
"...What?"
I was genuinely shocked. I really hadn’t known that. I’d thought he’d just suddenly gotten his act together one day and his potential had burst out.
"In the spring of our first year, I fell in love with her. But I was from a poor family, my grades were mediocre, and as a transfer student, it wasn’t easy for someone like me to approach someone as perfect as her."
"...Well, Shinomiya was incredibly cold back then, too."
I thought I’d put up walls in middle school, but Shinomiya’s atmosphere back then was on a completely different level.
"There was only one choice for a timid, unimpressive guy like me to create a weapon that could stand beside someone who had everything."
"...?"
"Study more than anyone else. Spend even more time than anyone else. Then use the status I earned to act as arrogantly as possible. That was all."
"...."
"I’m afraid. If I confess and fail, the fragile balance I’ve built so far might collapse. I’m afraid I might never be able to stand back up again."
Who could have imagined that the guy who ranked at the very top of the country’s best high school and even became student council president would be such a mass of complexes?
Even I, who had been right next to him this whole time, had no idea.
"So I want Shinomiya to confess to me. I want to complete everything by having her confess that all my efforts were never in vain, that they had value."
"...Haa."
I let out a deep sigh. It was always like this.
At first it sounded like nonsense, but then the backstory made it impossible not to understand.
"...What exactly do you want me to do?"
Only then did Miyuki’s serious expression soften into a grin.
"I’m not asking you to help out of nowhere. Just give me a little support when all four of us are together in the student council room."
"Hmm."
"Saying Shinomiya is in love with me is half bravado, but half serious."
"So there is some basis for it?"
Miyuki nodded at my words.
He wasn’t the kind of guy who missed the signs, so if he felt that way, Shinomiya probably did have some feelings for him.
"Yeah. So I’d like your help creating situations where she has no choice but to confess to me, or at least where she’d want to."
"You want me to provide some proper backup, huh. Well, if it’s just that much."
As always, things would probably end up bigger than I expected, but what could I do? I’d already said I’d help.
"I feel like I’ve been leaning on you a lot lately. I’m always grateful to you."
"...Cut the unnecessary talk."
I was used to him flustering me with lines like that after working me to the bone every time. At this point, I wished he’d stop using them.
I figured the conversation was wrapping up, so I stood up, stretched, and said,
"I’ll help, but I don’t want to have a tiring romance like yours. Seriously."
"Try it for yourself. You think that’s something you can control? You’ll be the same once you like someone."
"Oh, really."
How hard could it be?
I knew myself best. No matter what situation came up, I was a pretty indifferent guy.
That wouldn’t change just because a woman was involved.
Even if, by some one-in-a-million chance, that kind of situation ever came up, I’d just confess like a man. What was the problem?
"Don’t worry. That’ll never happen."
I said it with complete confidence.
At the time, the subject of love simply didn’t feel real to me at all.
**
On the day I was thinking that, it was already too late.
Because I had no way of knowing that the moment I said that, the gears of fate had already started turning.
And that the first one to be caught in them would be me.
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