Chapter 54: Inner-Club Union Meeting
In the end, Fujiwara Chika still managed to get a photo of Sakurai Saki wearing the cat ears.
Who told him to always indulge her, anyway?
Just like Shirogane Miyuki often said, only Sakurai Saki was always willing to go along with Fujiwara Chika unreasonable demands.
Unable to refuse Fujiwara Chika's pouting, that was exactly Sakurai Saki's state when facing her.
...
The final class of the afternoon was art class.
In the art room, Sakurai Saki put away the landscape painting he had just completed. This time he painted quite quickly — the assignment the teacher gave could technically be left for the weekend, but Sakurai Saki didn't like dragging classwork into the weekend.
Leaving the classroom, he neatly organized his belongings.
Sakurai Saki headed to the student council room. Shirogane Miyuki had arrived there a step earlier; his last period today was literature, and after class, he went straight over.
"Let's go." Shirogane Miyuki patted Sakurai on the shoulder, taking a deep breath.
As soon as the words left his mouth, Shirogane Miyuki's entire demeanor sharpened, and his gaze became notably more intense.
The two of them were preparing to head to the meeting room in the club building.
In the hallway, students passed by continuously.
Sakurai Saki held the documents in his hands, skimming through them as he walked. This time, the main player was Shirogane Miyuki — he was the general; at most, Sakurai Saki was just the deputy.
The meeting with the club presidents was originally for Shirogane to negotiate personally with the club leaders. Sakurai Saki was at most an assistant — simply put, a secretary.
Once they reached the ground floor, they changed into their outdoor shoes.
As the two left the main school building, they happened to run into three of the four Nakano sisters.
With only about 600 students at Shuchiin, running into each other was completely normal.
"Sakurai-san!!!" Nakano Yotsuba cheerfully waved at him.
ヾ(＾ ∇ ＾).
Nakano Itsuki also nodded at Sakurai, seriously saying, "Sakurai-san, good afternoon. Please reconsider the proposal I gave you last time!"
(*ᴗ͈ˬᴗ͈)ꕤ*.ﾟ
Nakano Miku didn't say anything — she just silently glared at him with a sulky look.
(ᓀ‸ᓂ)
"I'll stop by next Monday. Sorry, I have matters to attend to with President Shirogane right now; we'll discuss the tutoring later." Sakurai Saki spoke with a blank expression, then left together with Shirogane Miyuki.
…
Pushing open the meeting room door on the top floor of the club building.
Shirogane Miyuki felt his footsteps grow heavy.
You couldn't blame him for feeling such pressure — anyone would. Though they were all the same age, their backgrounds and family circumstances were completely incomparable.
Beside him, Sakurai Saki, holding the documents, appeared perfectly relaxed.
At the moment, there was no one else in the meeting room. Shirogane Miyuki was taking the chance to mentally organize the points he would present.
A short while later, a short-haired girl wearing a beret entered the room — it was Ryuju Momo, who had briefly served as the student council treasurer last year.
"Oh? Shirogane, you're early today." Ryuju Momo casually plopped herself into the chairman's seat.
She then shot a glance at Sakurai Saki, teasing: "Yo, isn't this Shirogane's bodyguard?"
(¬ᴗ¬)
"Aren't you the one who lost to me?" Sakurai Saki instantly shot back.
"Hmph." Ryuju Momo let out a cold snort.
"What, are you so proud of defeating a girl like me?"
"Defeating a loser isn't something I'm proud of," Sakurai Saki retorted with his usual unfiltered mouth.
He calmly added, "Your kendo skills aren't even as good as that Kojima guy."
"What?" Ryuju Momo hated most being compared to that guy.
ʰᵘʰ (ꐦ○_○）✧
"In a real sword fight, you wouldn't last three moves against me — he can last five," Sakurai Saki didn't bother to hold back today.
"Sakurai, stop," Shirogane Miyuki quickly intervened, seeing the two about to come to blows.
"Tch!" Ryuju Momo clicked her tongue in frustration.
(¬_ ´¬ )
She wasn't really skilled at kendo anyway; she only practiced at home for fun. This was an era where guns existed — who even used swords to fight anymore?
Besides, maintaining a real sword was a hassle. Even though her family had katanas... a lot,, she had never planned to use them.
Though annoyed, she knew full well her sword skills weren't as good as that Kojima guy, which left Ryuju Momo without grounds to argue back.
But thinking about it again — Kojima had trained in kendo for so many years, and yet he was only two moves better than her.
From that perspective… maybe she was actually stronger than him?
...
After a while, the sound of footsteps echoed outside the door again.
"Hmm?" A long-haired black-haired girl with sleepy eyes stepped in.
Atenbo Yume, president of the Paranormal Phenomena Research Club, from a family with religious ties.
"Sakurai General Affairs, have you been followed by any female spirits lately?"
Hearing this, Sakurai Saki nodded, "Umu, a white-haired, gray-eyed JK ghost, a bishoujo."
Today, he found himself unable to lie.
"Ara~" Atenbo Yume slightly opened her sleepy eyes, and just as Sakurai Saki thought she was about to say something shocking—
She murmured: "Make sure you take care of your health, Sakurai General Affairs~ Even though ghosts can't get pregnant, you should still show some restraint~"
( ∩´͈ ᐜ `͈∩)
It was indeed shocking… but in a very different sense.
"Ahem." Shirogane Miyuki cleared his throat, reminding her: "Atenbo-senpai, this is the meeting room."
"Shirogane-san, you should also get more rest lately, or you might drop dead. But looking at your current state, you probably won't die anytime soon." Atenbo Yume squinted her eyes again.
She sat down on a seat nearby.
"Thank you for your concern, senpai," Shirogane Miyuki thanked her.
After receiving a response, she shifted her target—
"Eh? Isn't this Ryuju-chan~? Have you found someone you like yet~?"
(˵ •̀ ᴗ - ˵ ) ✧
Faced with this sexually harassing question, Ryuju Momo chose to stay silent.
"Looks like not yet~ Well, that's no surprise, Ryuju-chan isn't very good at socializing, after all~"
As soon as the words left her mouth, someone outside the door picked up the conversation.
"The person who'd fall for her probably hasn't been born yet."
Kojima, the president of the Kendo Club, entered, glanced at Ryuju Momo, then sat down beside her.
Ryuju Momo clenched her fist, feeling an urge to punch him.
"Hey! Sakurai! For the Gyokuryuuki tournament and this year's high school sports championship, our kendo club is short a vice-captain! Want to join?" Kojima called out.
He was referring to the kendo tournaments in Japan, all usually held during the summer holidays.
"Not interested," Sakurai Saki replied flatly.
These days, his time was already completely filled with student council work and his part-time job — if he also had to train daily with the kendo club, it really might kill him.
"When the tournament time comes, I'll come call you," Kojima said as if it were a given.
"If you feel interested then, just let me know. Adding a temporary member is easy enough."
Ryuju Momo glanced between the two of them.
She didn't quite understand the friendship between boys. From what she heard, last year Kojima and Sakurai had some private disagreements, and after discussing it, they decided to settle things through kendo — the result was… Kojima lost.
At first, with that outcome, everyone thought the two would become enemies. But looking at the situation now, their relationship had unexpectedly improved.
...
After waiting a bit longer.
The meeting room gradually filled up.
Not everyone was physically present; many joined through electronic devices, participating via live video projection.
"Everyone, today's meeting is the inner-club union conference. The agenda is to discuss this semester's club funding issues…"
Shirogane Miyuki's fluent voice sounded in Sakurai Saki's ear, though Sakurai's expression barely changed.
He glanced toward a corner of the meeting room — that person… seemed to be Kashiwagi Nagisa, president of the Volunteer Club, with short hair and an orange-red hair clip on her left temple.
How did he know? Because she ranked fifth among the second-years at Shuchiin.
And who was ranked fourth?
Ah… that was probably Shijo Maki.
Normally, people rarely remembered those ranked beyond the top three.
Unless… she was always in fourth place.
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