Volume 1 | Chapter 4: June – Part 1
June 1st was a Saturday and a holiday. In other words, let’s get over to the church and explore it!
The church holds service every Sunday, so I’ve been avoiding that day. You did a good job of remembering that, me!
I made sure to wear my school uniform so that I can make excuses when I run into a staff. If I tell them I’ve forgotten something, they would let me enter. I can’t help but wonder, is there really any point in having a gate for our academy?
Well, the sport clubs were working hard. As such, there was a surprising number of students coming in and out on the weekend.
I relied on my memory to cut through the school grounds and buildings, to quickly make my way. It didn’t take long before I reached the church.
There was a piece of paper on the door saying ‘Students are forbidden to enter except on Sundays’. What’s this? I thought they weren’t blocking people and allowed entry again. Also, did the workers properly work on this church? I couldn’t see any difference with this church after a glance of the entire building. Maybe they fixed something inside.
If I was going to give up with just a notice, I wouldn’t have bothered to come to school on a weekend. In other words, I didn’t pay attention to it and approached the entrance. Before I snuck in, I noticed the door was already opened. Maybe the pretty boy was here again, I thought with expectation in my chest.
Quietly, I peeked in.
I glanced around but couldn’t find anyone.
“I’m coming in~” Not that there was anyone who will refuse my entry. I still muttered those words out loud — but in a small voice since it’ll be bad if someone heard me — and stepped inside.
Just like how I saw the church last time, I noted it was designed in a simple manner. There was an altar straight down from the doors and stained glass behind it. The afternoon’s sun shone the entire building, making it bright.
My eyes caught the sight of a door by the wall beside the altar. It was slightly opened. This explains why the front door was opened then. It was because of whoever was beyond the second door.
I covered my mouth with my hand. I tried my best not to make a sound as I approached the altar. Even if I knew someone was here, I didn’t feel like retreating. All I have to do is make sure they don’t find me. If someone comes by, I can just run. If I keep quiet and have my eyes and ears open, I should be able to tell if they come by.
On top of the altar was a candle stand with no candle on it. The pedestal had a cross and seven hollow dents. I guess this was the design of the pedestal. The hollow dents were large enough like you could place some round orb into it.
As for the cross decorating the pedestal, it was in a Gothic design and was quite beautiful. I can’t help but feel I’ve seen this design somewhere.
“It’s nice, don’t you think?”
Someone called out to me. I flinched. I didn’t feel their presence at all! I definitely didn’t hear a sound of someone coming in from the door! I turned around with such thoughts in my head.
However, troubling enough, there was someone properly behind me. And it was someone I recognized too.
“Desi….. K-Kamura-kun……?”
It was Designer-kun who transferred to my class in May.
Both of us were trespassing in a building we shouldn’t. Since Designer-kun was also a mere student, I didn’t have the right to criticize him. This is why I decided to look the other way.
“What do you mean by nice?” I asked.
“The cross. To tell you the truth, when I first saw this cross, I felt like I heard God’s voice. That’s why I use this as a reference in my designs. It’s also cause this church is here that I transferred to this academy~” He told me lightly.
“Really? ……That’s kind of strange, you know?”
“My family’s Christian to start with~ I personally don’t have much faith though but I do have a baptismal name too.”
“Why are you here? Today’s a holiday, isn’t it?” I asked him.
“Aren’t you doing the same too? Niimi-san…… Nah, I can call you Shiori-chan, right?”
“Huh?”
“We’re good friends who met in a church that forbids entry~ You can call me Ryou-chan, if you want?” Designer-kun said.
“No, I rather not.”
“Hey, hey, Shiori-chan~ And so—”
“I didn’t give you permission to call me by my name either.”
“My business here is with this pedestal.”
This man has no intention of listening to me at all.
I sighed, giving up. I didn’t want him calling me by my first name, but here I am calling him Designer-kun in my heart anyways. The both of us called each other whatever we wanted.
“This pedestal has seven dents, doesn’t it?” Designer-kun pointed out. “Don’t you think this is just about right to fit in?”
He took out something from around his neck — it was a pendant. It had a motif of a cross, which I can’t help but think it looked really cool. However, it also looked really heavy. Right in the middle of the pendant was a small stone. It was red in colour.
“Ruby?” I asked.
“Who knows? At least I don’t. I had it the moment I was born. It’s a protection stone.”
“……!?” I heard that phrase before. I felt my eyes were about to snap wide — I hurried to place a mask on my face. “Is that so~”
“Ah, you’re not interested at all, right~?” Designer-kun laughed before he put his pendant back. “Well, basically it looks like it’ll fit. I was also baptized at this church, so I kind of feel… fate here, I guess~? When I heard my dad was transferring here, I followed him,” Designer-kun told me as he continued to smile carefreely. “And that’s the end of my story~ And, why are you here, Shiori-chan? And in your school uniform too.”
Now that Designer-kun has said it, I noticed he was in casual clothes.
“I forgot something, so I came to school to get it,” I told him.
“And you went out of your way to the church?”
“It’s just by chance I came by the church. ……You know how you can hear a violin from here once in a while, right? I’m interested in it but they forbid entry here, so I can’t come in normally. ……Since I came to school on the weekend, I thought I’ll peek in. I’m planning to go home now.”
“Ah, come to think of it, sometimes you can hear it after school. The violin came from here, huh,” Designer-kun noted. He then took one step closer to me. “Hey, Shiori-chan.”
“What?”
“That was a lie.”
“……How so?”
It was a lie, but it wasn’t completely a lie. It was a lie that came infinitely close to the truth.
“Shiori-chan entered through the gate and came here without taking a detour. If you did forget something, you’ll head to our classroom first, am I right?”
“How did you—”
“Ahahaha~ I was bluffing and got caught in my trap~ Shiori-chan, you’re pretty honest,” Designer-kun told me with a laugh. Just what exactly is this guy trying to do……? “You want me to keep it a secret that you came in here today?”
“Well, yeah……?”
“Then let’s pinky swear on it,” Designer-kun said and took my hand without permission. He locked our pinkies together and started singing, “Finger cut-off~”
I couldn’t follow this turn of events and stood dumbfounded.
Before I knew it, he completed the pinky swearing ritual. Actually, what am I supposed to keep a secret? Like if I keep it a secret that I met him here today in this church, he won’t mention how he saw me too? I didn’t want to get scolded for entering somewhere I wasn’t supposed to, so I’d greatly appreciate it.
“If you lie, I’ll kiss you instead of making you swallow a thousand needles okay?” Designer-kun said with amusement in his voice as he dropped a kiss on our locked pinkies. His eyes peered into mines, like they were searching for something.
“……H-Huh?”
“Shiori-chan, you know, you look like you have your guard up all the time but you’re actually pretty defenseless.”
“……Eh, ah……. Huh?”
I heard a small bang. It seems I retreated back subconsciously. I must have bumped into a bench or desk. But because our pinkies were locked, I couldn’t put a distance between the two of us.
“You’re really cute~”
A shiver.
Something like chills ran up my spine drove me — I quickly shook his hand away. Our pinkies separated much easier than I thought as I stepped away from Designer-kun as quickly as I could.
“P-Pervert! If you get any closer to me, I’m going to tell our teacher, okay!?”
“Whoa, that sure hurts. ……But I see, Shiori-chan is the kind of girl who isn’t used to guys and gets panicky with just a kiss on her fingers. Mhm-hmm~ I learnt something good.” Designer-kun was smiling frivolously even now. He was the kind of man that didn’t get agitated by anything.
I carefully, carefully stepped backwards until I retreated to the entrance. For the time being, I was able to find out what the altar was like so that was enough. To be honest, I wanted to know what the room beyond the door near the altar was like, however……
Let’s retreat for the day. Yeah. I can’t help but feel like I don’t want to be here anymore!
I fled at full speed. In the end, I didn’t find out why Designer-kun was in the church and what he was doing there either.
Two days passed and it was now Monday.
I planned on grabbing Iinchou and Yumi-chan to scheme right away…… But I was way too busy that I came to the conclusion that I needed to give up this week.
First things first, I need to get the student council elections over with. If I didn’t, it would be impossible! I don’t have time for Maria-jou! She may be triggering some event in the church, but I don’t have! A little bit of time! To even check!!
“Niimi-san, please take this to the student council room!”
“Hieee! Why is there so much!?”
“You can use the push car!”
“Ah, sorry, someone took the push car to the auditorium already~ Sorry, but you’ll have to carry it with your hands~”
Uwaaaaaaahh!!!
The elections will be held at the auditorium. As such it was day after day where we would endlessly make round trips between the auditorium, student council room, and our meeting room. We had to check the state of candidates in each class, sum up materials for each student council role, and explain the rules of the election to the candidates.
As the rumours whispered, Mizusaki-senpai was indeed running for student president while Kaneshiro-senpai was running for vice president. However, Tanaka-senpai stood up to run for student president as their rival. It became quite a hot topic among the students.
Tanaka-senpai was the current general affairs manager and Tsukishima-senpai gave his approval for her abilities and character. Slowly, the support for her was rising. Tanaka-senpai had kept her marks in the top 5 since she was in her first year. Thus her name was unexpectedly known.
On top of that, I gave her a secret plan. I had her turn her glasses into a pair of glasses with no frame. Her features were good to begin with, but her aura of an intellectual was brought out even more with no-frame glasses.
Naturally, Mizusaki-senpai’s fanclub didn’t stay down. They appealed how amazing Mizusaki-senpai was to everyone and helped out with his campaign everyday. Apparently, the academy hasn’t seen such a lively student council election for the past several years.
The student council contains the president, vice president, accountant, secretary, and general affairs manager. Tanaka-senpai’s current role was the general affairs manager. To put it simply, it was a role where she did ‘everything and everything else’. It’s related to all the activities of the student council, so it’s actually a position where many of the next generation student president candidates were in.
The total number of candidates were 2 for president, 1 for vice president, 10 for accountant, 20 for secretary, and 3 for general affairs. However, if the votes for the student president candidates were close, the one who losses will become the next vice president. In that case, the vice president candidates will move to become an accountant candidate.
There were only two candidates from our current student council, Tanaka-senpai and a student who announced he was running for secretary.
As for why there were so many candidates for accountant and secretary, it’s because of the girls from the fanclub.
Lastly, the teachers gave their recommendations to 1st years they managed to persuade as the teachers were looking at the future with expectations for next year and beyond. They added up one number to each of accountant, secretary, and general affairs positions.
The preparations were so tough that I was exhausted. When I was about to carry up one of cardboard boxes stacked in front of the meeting room, someone stole it easily from my side.
“…!?” A shadow looked down at me while I was surprised.
There was a male student who was much taller than me. He looked familiar — he was able to carry the cardboard box I could barely handle without a sweat. That’s right, it’s Katsuragi-kun. I haven’t seen him since Sports Day.
“Where should I carry it?” He asked as he easily carried the box. Could it be, he was going to carry it for me? When I realized what his intentions, I couldn’t help but smile.
I think you should obediently accept kindness from someone with muscles!
There were still cardboard boxes. I took a lighter one into my arms before following after him. “You’re a lifesaver~ It needs to go to the student council room. I’ll guide you there, so thank you!”
From the meeting room to the student council room. In the end, we had to do two round trips. During the whole time, Katsuragi-kun helped me carry things without a word.
“Thank you very much! For helping me,” I thanked him.
“No…” Katsuragi-kun shook his head before opening his mouth again. “Name.”
“Hm?”
“I was thinking I didn’t ask your name during the Sports Festival.”
“……Could it be you were trying to find the right time to ask my name?”
Katsuragi-kun nodded his head to say yes. Really, he was a natural airhead.
“I’m Niimi Shiori,” I introduced myself. “From Class B. Once again, thank you!” I gave him my gratitude cheerfully and soon Katsuragi-kun went off.
He sure went through a lot of trouble just to ask for someone’s name. Nonetheless, I was saved by him, so let’s end it like that.
“Huh…….? Niimi-san, were you friends with him?”
“He’s an acquaintance, I guess. That being said, I only introduced myself today.”
When I came back to the meeting room, Hayashi-kun called out to me. I gave him a simple explanation but he still tilted his head, questioning.
“You see, Katsuragi is really bad at remembering faces of girls and their names,” he explained to me. “Did you know? There were these girls who got harassed by seniors back on the first day of school. There was this whole incident where he saved them and princess-carried one away.”
Yup, I know. I saw it too. But I didn’t tell him that and went “Is that so~” with nods.
“Apparently, the girls were Aikawa and Matsuri. The next time they met, he didn’t remember them at all. Matsuri was really angry.”
“Oh-ho~”
When exactly was this ‘next time’? Come to think of it, Katsuragi-kun should have met Maria-jou during GW.
“Surely he remembers them by now. He’ll know who Aikawa-san and Kyouko-chan are if they meet now, right?” I questioned.
“Well, two months have passed since the opening ceremony,” Hayashi-kun said.
“And, so, Hayashi-kun. I understand wanting to take a break but could you not get me mixed up with your gossip? We won’t be able to go home early, you know?”
My comment hit the bull’s-eye. Hayashi-kun gave me a pathetic-looking face.
Incidentally, Hayashi-kun somehow manages to make time on Wednesday to go to his band practices. It would be pitiful if he couldn’t go even though he finally managed to capture Kazu-nii. With such thoughts in my mind, I thought I wouldn’t mind going into his place if he’s forced to his election administration committee duties with no escape.
Anyways, it was just so busy right now that I don’t want to get involved with Maria-jou. However, I spotted Maria-jou from one of the windows in the centre building’s corridor. She was heading to the west building; I couldn’t just leave it be.
I quickly took my cell phone from my pocket to send a message.
[Target, heading to west building.]
Usually he would answer me right now. Yet it was just today that I didn’t receive any response. ……I have a bad feeling.
While I was waiting for an answer, Maria-jou disappeared into the west building. I checked my surroundings before I jumped into an empty classroom. I hid myself behind the teacher’s desk and pushed the call button after making sure no one was looking.
Prrrrrr, prrrrrr, prrrrrr — my cell phone rang.
We were only allowed to send messages within the school grounds. If a teacher saw me making a call, they will confiscate my phone. As such, even if Kazu-nii realized his phone was ringing, he wouldn’t take the call. However, if his phone was on silent mode, a call should make his phone vibrate longer than a message.
I prayed Kazu-nii would notice. I continued to call him for a while until eventually my phone stopped.
[I woke up. You saved me.]
A short, concise message came. I was relieved. Like I thought, he was sleeping.
From what I heard from Kazu-nii, the next event will happen in the student council room. Kazu-nii, as the advisor of the student council, was often in that room during the elections. I don’t know what kind of event it was; but from my experience of GW’s CD shop, as long as you were in a different room, the event shouldn’t happen even if Maria-jou was nearby.
Anyways, I was quite relieved and was about to put my cell phone away. That’s when I realized there was a shadow on me, so I looked up.
“I saw you~”
There pretty boy Tsukishima was with his lips curved up in a wicked smile.
Tsukishima-bishounen in front of my eyes didn’t have an aura of a meek sheep like he did when I saw him at the west building sometime ago. His eyes had a colour of composure, like one would when they held someone’s weakness in their hand.
“You were trying to call someone just now~” That smile transformed Tsukishima-bishounen from an angel to a devil.
When I recalled his interaction with Maria-jou long ago, this devilish face he had might be closer to his real nature.
“Won’t it be bad if the teachers found out~?”
This is bad. I hid my cell phone with my hand and tried to devise a way to escape from him. Right now I was hiding behind the teacher’s desk. And I had thought no one saw me when I came into this empty classroom.
Tsukishima-bishounen crouched down in front of me, blocking my exit.
“Ugh……!”
Tsukshima-shounen had a small stature. Even with my physical strength, it might be possible to push him away if I used all of my force. However, in the case I didn’t succeed, I can’t deny the possibility of him snapping.
“I don’t know who you are but you know you’re trying to do something bad, right?” Tsukishima-bishounen raised his finger, stretching it to my forehead.
“W-What do you want from me?” I tried to run away from the finger by shrinking back. The words that came out of my mouth were ones you would hear from someone who lost against blackmail.
“Nothing~? Since I was at it, I thought I might as well make you cry.” He must have noticed I was scared. A smile graced his face as though he was now certain he had power over me. “But dealing with an ugly girl like you is stupid too. ……I let you go with a hundred thousand.”
Huuuuuuuh!?
Tsukishima-bishounen held out his hand to me. Apparently, he was saying hand over money. If I didn’t, he’d tell on me to the teachers. And I’ll get my cell phone confiscated by them. You understand, right?
In the first place, there’s no way anyone would carry 100,000 yen1, a huge sum of money, in their pockets and walk around with it!
“If you can’t then give me all that you have. It’s cheaper, you know? It cost a lot to restart a contract from scratch,” Tsukishima-bishounen told me.
Yes, that was true. And the teachers might check what’s inside my cellphone. When I think about it this way, I won’t regret giving him 100,000 yen……. Maybe. But, however! However!
“……Tsukishima-kun,” I uttered his name lowly.
He was surprised. “Why do you know my name……”
“I didn’t plan on comparing you with your big brother, but what kind of attitude is this!?”
I slapped the hand in front of me and slammed my head against his forehead. I made my way around him while he recoiled and stood up.
“Hand over money? Do you understand? That is a crime. A crime of extortion! Don’t take things so lightly just because you are a minor. Anyone can tell with one look whether a school rule that can only be applied in school or the criminal law is more important. What are you, stupid!?”
My head freaking hurts but I can’t bother to care right now.
“In the first place, what the heck are you doing in an empty classroom at such a busy time!? You’re free, aren’t you!? You’re just wasting time away, aren’t you!? Ahh, jeez! If you have time to be lazy and do things a shitty human being would then help us out! You were born with a good face! If you come to help out then those big sisters would lend us a hand too!”
I talked on and on with one breath. In the end, I grabbed Tsukishima-bishounen’s arm. Just like that, I dragged him out with me. He couldn’t keep up with the sudden development and obediently got pulled away by me.
This pretty boy is really, really light. I think he might even be lighter than me. It made me even more pissed off.
“You should just obediently play the violin at the church…… Money? Yet you ask for money!?” I grumbled under my breath before I threw him into the meeting room.
“This person said he’ll help us out, so please run him into the ground!”
Everyone in the meeting room welcomed the pretty boy tossed in warmly. We were at the point we would even borrow a cat’s help. If a human being will help out, then, well, they’ll be even more enthusiastic.
Just like that I went off to tackle my next task and left the meeting room. I didn’t check on how he was doing afterwards. However, while he was pampered by the 2nd year committee girls since he was a pretty boy, they had him work quite hard.
Notes
Around $900 USD
Volume 1 | Chapter 4: June – Part 1
June 1st was a Saturday and a holiday. In other words, let’s get over to the church and explore it!
The church holds service every Sunday, so I’ve been avoiding that day. You did a good job of remembering that, me!
I made sure to wear my school uniform so that I can make excuses when I run into a staff. If I tell them I’ve forgotten something, they would let me enter. I can’t help but wonder, is there really any point in having a gate for our academy?
Well, the sport clubs were working hard. As such, there was a surprising number of students coming in and out on the weekend.
I relied on my memory to cut through the school grounds and buildings, to quickly make my way. It didn’t take long before I reached the church.
There was a piece of paper on the door saying ‘Students are forbidden to enter except on Sundays’. What’s this? I thought they weren’t blocking people and allowed entry again. Also, did the workers properly work on this church? I couldn’t see any difference with this church after a glance of the entire building. Maybe they fixed something inside.
If I was going to give up with just a notice, I wouldn’t have bothered to come to school on a weekend. In other words, I didn’t pay attention to it and approached the entrance. Before I snuck in, I noticed the door was already opened. Maybe the pretty boy was here again, I thought with expectation in my chest.
Quietly, I peeked in.
I glanced around but couldn’t find anyone.
“I’m coming in~” Not that there was anyone who will refuse my entry. I still muttered those words out loud — but in a small voice since it’ll be bad if someone heard me — and stepped inside.
Just like how I saw the church last time, I noted it was designed in a simple manner. There was an altar straight down from the doors and stained glass behind it. The afternoon’s sun shone the entire building, making it bright.
My eyes caught the sight of a door by the wall beside the altar. It was slightly opened. This explains why the front door was opened then. It was because of whoever was beyond the second door.
I covered my mouth with my hand. I tried my best not to make a sound as I approached the altar. Even if I knew someone was here, I didn’t feel like retreating. All I have to do is make sure they don’t find me. If someone comes by, I can just run. If I keep quiet and have my eyes and ears open, I should be able to tell if they come by.
On top of the altar was a candle stand with no candle on it. The pedestal had a cross and seven hollow dents. I guess this was the design of the pedestal. The hollow dents were large enough like you could place some round orb into it.
As for the cross decorating the pedestal, it was in a Gothic design and was quite beautiful. I can’t help but feel I’ve seen this design somewhere.
“It’s nice, don’t you think?”
Someone called out to me. I flinched. I didn’t feel their presence at all! I definitely didn’t hear a sound of someone coming in from the door! I turned around with such thoughts in my head.
However, troubling enough, there was someone properly behind me. And it was someone I recognized too.
“Desi….. K-Kamura-kun……?”
It was Designer-kun who transferred to my class in May.
Both of us were trespassing in a building we shouldn’t. Since Designer-kun was also a mere student, I didn’t have the right to criticize him. This is why I decided to look the other way.
“What do you mean by nice?” I asked.
“The cross. To tell you the truth, when I first saw this cross, I felt like I heard God’s voice. That’s why I use this as a reference in my designs. It’s also cause this church is here that I transferred to this academy~” He told me lightly.
“Really? ……That’s kind of strange, you know?”
“My family’s Christian to start with~ I personally don’t have much faith though but I do have a baptismal name too.”
“Why are you here? Today’s a holiday, isn’t it?” I asked him.
“Aren’t you doing the same too? Niimi-san…… Nah, I can call you Shiori-chan, right?”
“Huh?”
“We’re good friends who met in a church that forbids entry~ You can call me Ryou-chan, if you want?” Designer-kun said.
“No, I rather not.”
“Hey, hey, Shiori-chan~ And so—”
“I didn’t give you permission to call me by my name either.”
“My business here is with this pedestal.”
This man has no intention of listening to me at all.
I sighed, giving up. I didn’t want him calling me by my first name, but here I am calling him Designer-kun in my heart anyways. The both of us called each other whatever we wanted.
“This pedestal has seven dents, doesn’t it?” Designer-kun pointed out. “Don’t you think this is just about right to fit in?”
He took out something from around his neck — it was a pendant. It had a motif of a cross, which I can’t help but think it looked really cool. However, it also looked really heavy. Right in the middle of the pendant was a small stone. It was red in colour.
“Ruby?” I asked.
“Who knows? At least I don’t. I had it the moment I was born. It’s a protection stone.”
“……!?” I heard that phrase before. I felt my eyes were about to snap wide — I hurried to place a mask on my face. “Is that so~”
“Ah, you’re not interested at all, right~?” Designer-kun laughed before he put his pendant back. “Well, basically it looks like it’ll fit. I was also baptized at this church, so I kind of feel… fate here, I guess~? When I heard my dad was transferring here, I followed him,” Designer-kun told me as he continued to smile carefreely. “And that’s the end of my story~ And, why are you here, Shiori-chan? And in your school uniform too.”
Now that Designer-kun has said it, I noticed he was in casual clothes.
“I forgot something, so I came to school to get it,” I told him.
“And you went out of your way to the church?”
“It’s just by chance I came by the church. ……You know how you can hear a violin from here once in a while, right? I’m interested in it but they forbid entry here, so I can’t come in normally. ……Since I came to school on the weekend, I thought I’ll peek in. I’m planning to go home now.”
“Ah, come to think of it, sometimes you can hear it after school. The violin came from here, huh,” Designer-kun noted. He then took one step closer to me. “Hey, Shiori-chan.”
“What?”
“That was a lie.”
“……How so?”
It was a lie, but it wasn’t completely a lie. It was a lie that came infinitely close to the truth.
“Shiori-chan entered through the gate and came here without taking a detour. If you did forget something, you’ll head to our classroom first, am I right?”
“How did you—”
“Ahahaha~ I was bluffing and got caught in my trap~ Shiori-chan, you’re pretty honest,” Designer-kun told me with a laugh. Just what exactly is this guy trying to do……? “You want me to keep it a secret that you came in here today?”
“Well, yeah……?”
“Then let’s pinky swear on it,” Designer-kun said and took my hand without permission. He locked our pinkies together and started singing, “Finger cut-off~”
I couldn’t follow this turn of events and stood dumbfounded.
Before I knew it, he completed the pinky swearing ritual. Actually, what am I supposed to keep a secret? Like if I keep it a secret that I met him here today in this church, he won’t mention how he saw me too? I didn’t want to get scolded for entering somewhere I wasn’t supposed to, so I’d greatly appreciate it.
“If you lie, I’ll kiss you instead of making you swallow a thousand needles okay?” Designer-kun said with amusement in his voice as he dropped a kiss on our locked pinkies. His eyes peered into mines, like they were searching for something.
“……H-Huh?”
“Shiori-chan, you know, you look like you have your guard up all the time but you’re actually pretty defenseless.”
“……Eh, ah……. Huh?”
I heard a small bang. It seems I retreated back subconsciously. I must have bumped into a bench or desk. But because our pinkies were locked, I couldn’t put a distance between the two of us.
“You’re really cute~”
A shiver.
Something like chills ran up my spine drove me — I quickly shook his hand away. Our pinkies separated much easier than I thought as I stepped away from Designer-kun as quickly as I could.
“P-Pervert! If you get any closer to me, I’m going to tell our teacher, okay!?”
“Whoa, that sure hurts. ……But I see, Shiori-chan is the kind of girl who isn’t used to guys and gets panicky with just a kiss on her fingers. Mhm-hmm~ I learnt something good.” Designer-kun was smiling frivolously even now. He was the kind of man that didn’t get agitated by anything.
I carefully, carefully stepped backwards until I retreated to the entrance. For the time being, I was able to find out what the altar was like so that was enough. To be honest, I wanted to know what the room beyond the door near the altar was like, however……
Let’s retreat for the day. Yeah. I can’t help but feel like I don’t want to be here anymore!
I fled at full speed. In the end, I didn’t find out why Designer-kun was in the church and what he was doing there either.
Two days passed and it was now Monday.
I planned on grabbing Iinchou and Yumi-chan to scheme right away…… But I was way too busy that I came to the conclusion that I needed to give up this week.
First things first, I need to get the student council elections over with. If I didn’t, it would be impossible! I don’t have time for Maria-jou! She may be triggering some event in the church, but I don’t have! A little bit of time! To even check!!
“Niimi-san, please take this to the student council room!”
“Hieee! Why is there so much!?”
“You can use the push car!”
“Ah, sorry, someone took the push car to the auditorium already~ Sorry, but you’ll have to carry it with your hands~”
Uwaaaaaaahh!!!
The elections will be held at the auditorium. As such it was day after day where we would endlessly make round trips between the auditorium, student council room, and our meeting room. We had to check the state of candidates in each class, sum up materials for each student council role, and explain the rules of the election to the candidates.
As the rumours whispered, Mizusaki-senpai was indeed running for student president while Kaneshiro-senpai was running for vice president. However, Tanaka-senpai stood up to run for student president as their rival. It became quite a hot topic among the students.
Tanaka-senpai was the current general affairs manager and Tsukishima-senpai gave his approval for her abilities and character. Slowly, the support for her was rising. Tanaka-senpai had kept her marks in the top 5 since she was in her first year. Thus her name was unexpectedly known.
On top of that, I gave her a secret plan. I had her turn her glasses into a pair of glasses with no frame. Her features were good to begin with, but her aura of an intellectual was brought out even more with no-frame glasses.
Naturally, Mizusaki-senpai’s fanclub didn’t stay down. They appealed how amazing Mizusaki-senpai was to everyone and helped out with his campaign everyday. Apparently, the academy hasn’t seen such a lively student council election for the past several years.
The student council contains the president, vice president, accountant, secretary, and general affairs manager. Tanaka-senpai’s current role was the general affairs manager. To put it simply, it was a role where she did ‘everything and everything else’. It’s related to all the activities of the student council, so it’s actually a position where many of the next generation student president candidates were in.
The total number of candidates were 2 for president, 1 for vice president, 10 for accountant, 20 for secretary, and 3 for general affairs. However, if the votes for the student president candidates were close, the one who losses will become the next vice president. In that case, the vice president candidates will move to become an accountant candidate.
There were only two candidates from our current student council, Tanaka-senpai and a student who announced he was running for secretary.
As for why there were so many candidates for accountant and secretary, it’s because of the girls from the fanclub.
Lastly, the teachers gave their recommendations to 1st years they managed to persuade as the teachers were looking at the future with expectations for next year and beyond. They added up one number to each of accountant, secretary, and general affairs positions.
The preparations were so tough that I was exhausted. When I was about to carry up one of cardboard boxes stacked in front of the meeting room, someone stole it easily from my side.
“…!?” A shadow looked down at me while I was surprised.
There was a male student who was much taller than me. He looked familiar — he was able to carry the cardboard box I could barely handle without a sweat. That’s right, it’s Katsuragi-kun. I haven’t seen him since Sports Day.
“Where should I carry it?” He asked as he easily carried the box. Could it be, he was going to carry it for me? When I realized what his intentions, I couldn’t help but smile.
I think you should obediently accept kindness from someone with muscles!
There were still cardboard boxes. I took a lighter one into my arms before following after him. “You’re a lifesaver~ It needs to go to the student council room. I’ll guide you there, so thank you!”
From the meeting room to the student council room. In the end, we had to do two round trips. During the whole time, Katsuragi-kun helped me carry things without a word.
“Thank you very much! For helping me,” I thanked him.
“No…” Katsuragi-kun shook his head before opening his mouth again. “Name.”
“Hm?”
“I was thinking I didn’t ask your name during the Sports Festival.”
“……Could it be you were trying to find the right time to ask my name?”
Katsuragi-kun nodded his head to say yes. Really, he was a natural airhead.
“I’m Niimi Shiori,” I introduced myself. “From Class B. Once again, thank you!” I gave him my gratitude cheerfully and soon Katsuragi-kun went off.
He sure went through a lot of trouble just to ask for someone’s name. Nonetheless, I was saved by him, so let’s end it like that.
“Huh…….? Niimi-san, were you friends with him?”
“He’s an acquaintance, I guess. That being said, I only introduced myself today.”
When I came back to the meeting room, Hayashi-kun called out to me. I gave him a simple explanation but he still tilted his head, questioning.
“You see, Katsuragi is really bad at remembering faces of girls and their names,” he explained to me. “Did you know? There were these girls who got harassed by seniors back on the first day of school. There was this whole incident where he saved them and princess-carried one away.”
Yup, I know. I saw it too. But I didn’t tell him that and went “Is that so~” with nods.
“Apparently, the girls were Aikawa and Matsuri. The next time they met, he didn’t remember them at all. Matsuri was really angry.”
“Oh-ho~”
When exactly was this ‘next time’? Come to think of it, Katsuragi-kun should have met Maria-jou during GW.
“Surely he remembers them by now. He’ll know who Aikawa-san and Kyouko-chan are if they meet now, right?” I questioned.
“Well, two months have passed since the opening ceremony,” Hayashi-kun said.
“And, so, Hayashi-kun. I understand wanting to take a break but could you not get me mixed up with your gossip? We won’t be able to go home early, you know?”
My comment hit the bull’s-eye. Hayashi-kun gave me a pathetic-looking face.
Incidentally, Hayashi-kun somehow manages to make time on Wednesday to go to his band practices. It would be pitiful if he couldn’t go even though he finally managed to capture Kazu-nii. With such thoughts in my mind, I thought I wouldn’t mind going into his place if he’s forced to his election administration committee duties with no escape.
Anyways, it was just so busy right now that I don’t want to get involved with Maria-jou. However, I spotted Maria-jou from one of the windows in the centre building’s corridor. She was heading to the west building; I couldn’t just leave it be.
I quickly took my cell phone from my pocket to send a message.
[Target, heading to west building.]
Usually he would answer me right now. Yet it was just today that I didn’t receive any response. ……I have a bad feeling.
While I was waiting for an answer, Maria-jou disappeared into the west building. I checked my surroundings before I jumped into an empty classroom. I hid myself behind the teacher’s desk and pushed the call button after making sure no one was looking.
Prrrrrr, prrrrrr, prrrrrr — my cell phone rang.
We were only allowed to send messages within the school grounds. If a teacher saw me making a call, they will confiscate my phone. As such, even if Kazu-nii realized his phone was ringing, he wouldn’t take the call. However, if his phone was on silent mode, a call should make his phone vibrate longer than a message.
I prayed Kazu-nii would notice. I continued to call him for a while until eventually my phone stopped.
[I woke up. You saved me.]
A short, concise message came. I was relieved. Like I thought, he was sleeping.
From what I heard from Kazu-nii, the next event will happen in the student council room. Kazu-nii, as the advisor of the student council, was often in that room during the elections. I don’t know what kind of event it was; but from my experience of GW’s CD shop, as long as you were in a different room, the event shouldn’t happen even if Maria-jou was nearby.
Anyways, I was quite relieved and was about to put my cell phone away. That’s when I realized there was a shadow on me, so I looked up.
“I saw you~”
There pretty boy Tsukishima was with his lips curved up in a wicked smile.
Tsukishima-bishounen in front of my eyes didn’t have an aura of a meek sheep like he did when I saw him at the west building sometime ago. His eyes had a colour of composure, like one would when they held someone’s weakness in their hand.
“You were trying to call someone just now~” That smile transformed Tsukishima-bishounen from an angel to a devil.
When I recalled his interaction with Maria-jou long ago, this devilish face he had might be closer to his real nature.
“Won’t it be bad if the teachers found out~?”
This is bad. I hid my cell phone with my hand and tried to devise a way to escape from him. Right now I was hiding behind the teacher’s desk. And I had thought no one saw me when I came into this empty classroom.
Tsukishima-bishounen crouched down in front of me, blocking my exit.
“Ugh……!”
Tsukshima-shounen had a small stature. Even with my physical strength, it might be possible to push him away if I used all of my force. However, in the case I didn’t succeed, I can’t deny the possibility of him snapping.
“I don’t know who you are but you know you’re trying to do something bad, right?” Tsukishima-bishounen raised his finger, stretching it to my forehead.
“W-What do you want from me?” I tried to run away from the finger by shrinking back. The words that came out of my mouth were ones you would hear from someone who lost against blackmail.
“Nothing~? Since I was at it, I thought I might as well make you cry.” He must have noticed I was scared. A smile graced his face as though he was now certain he had power over me. “But dealing with an ugly girl like you is stupid too. ……I let you go with a hundred thousand.”
Huuuuuuuh!?
Tsukishima-bishounen held out his hand to me. Apparently, he was saying hand over money. If I didn’t, he’d tell on me to the teachers. And I’ll get my cell phone confiscated by them. You understand, right?
In the first place, there’s no way anyone would carry 100,000 yen1, a huge sum of money, in their pockets and walk around with it!
“If you can’t then give me all that you have. It’s cheaper, you know? It cost a lot to restart a contract from scratch,” Tsukishima-bishounen told me.
Yes, that was true. And the teachers might check what’s inside my cellphone. When I think about it this way, I won’t regret giving him 100,000 yen……. Maybe. But, however! However!
“……Tsukishima-kun,” I uttered his name lowly.
He was surprised. “Why do you know my name……”
“I didn’t plan on comparing you with your big brother, but what kind of attitude is this!?”
I slapped the hand in front of me and slammed my head against his forehead. I made my way around him while he recoiled and stood up.
“Hand over money? Do you understand? That is a crime. A crime of extortion! Don’t take things so lightly just because you are a minor. Anyone can tell with one look whether a school rule that can only be applied in school or the criminal law is more important. What are you, stupid!?”
My head freaking hurts but I can’t bother to care right now.
“In the first place, what the heck are you doing in an empty classroom at such a busy time!? You’re free, aren’t you!? You’re just wasting time away, aren’t you!? Ahh, jeez! If you have time to be lazy and do things a shitty human being would then help us out! You were born with a good face! If you come to help out then those big sisters would lend us a hand too!”
I talked on and on with one breath. In the end, I grabbed Tsukishima-bishounen’s arm. Just like that, I dragged him out with me. He couldn’t keep up with the sudden development and obediently got pulled away by me.
This pretty boy is really, really light. I think he might even be lighter than me. It made me even more pissed off.
“You should just obediently play the violin at the church…… Money? Yet you ask for money!?” I grumbled under my breath before I threw him into the meeting room.
“This person said he’ll help us out, so please run him into the ground!”
Everyone in the meeting room welcomed the pretty boy tossed in warmly. We were at the point we would even borrow a cat’s help. If a human being will help out, then, well, they’ll be even more enthusiastic.
Just like that I went off to tackle my next task and left the meeting room. I didn’t check on how he was doing afterwards. However, while he was pampered by the 2nd year committee girls since he was a pretty boy, they had him work quite hard.
Notes
Around $900 USD