CH 85

Chapter 85 – Social Window XYZ

After we were done with our tasks, I grabbed my bag and went to Arina’s class. It was currently after school, so we were free to do whatever we liked.

When I got there, I saw Arina shivering at her desk. From the way her legs wobbled, it felt like there was a localized earthquake at her exact location.

“Oi, let’s go.”

When I called out to her from the door, she opened her eyes, quickly slung her bag over her shoulder and stood up. She looked determined as she walked up to me in haste. I was about to feel impressed by her action, then she just had to open her mouth and said,

“Let’s go quickly. The heater is broken, I can’t take it anymore.”

So that was the reason why her class felt a little bit colder than mine. Poor girl.

She shivered and started walking at a quicker pace. It was interesting since her speed was barely passable to not be accused of running in the hallway.

When we arrived at our destination, the journalism club’s clubroom, I knocked on the door before opening it. Warm air leaked from inside the room into the hallway and Arina let out a strange voice from her mouth before bouncing like a sparrow while entering the room. She even opened her arms wide to express her joy.

Wait, no, this was her way of indirectly telling me to not get inside the classroom, wasn’t it?

‘What? Do you want to enter? Standing in front of the hallway is not good enough for a rat like you? Isn’t this better than standing in a drain? Just stay there obediently.’

She was probably thinking about something like that. Or worse.

Screw that. I tried to twist my body to slip into the gap between her hand and the door frame. I wanted to feel that warmth too. Even a rat like me wanted to dry my fur while gobbling up some cheese in bliss.

But Arina stood her ground. She didn’t move an inch from her spot. I decided to take a drastic measure and grabbed her hand. I already had enemies surrounding me, doing something like this wouldn’t change a d*mn thing. Entering the room was my priority, even if this girl called me a pervert, I didn’t care. I tried to move her hand away, but she remained steadfast, unmoving like a rock.

“Sakaki Sui is molesting Hiwa Arina. More scoop for us, boss.”

“Oi, stop writing! No, don’t you dare take any pictures!”

One of the club members started to say something ominous before writing something down, so I yelled at him. Imagine what kind of chaos would ensue if that kind of rumor circulated around the school. Not only would it endanger my school life, Arina’s fans would also kidnap and torture me.

Perhaps, she got tired of resisting me, Arina put her hands down and walked toward a chair inside the room.

“Add this for my statement section, ‘It was so scary, I will never forgive him for what he had done to me.’”

“The school will definitely expel me if you do that, please don’t!”

*   *   *

After I regained my composure, Asakura Toma, the president of the club, began to speak.

“I invited you here because I need your help!”

Yeah, I know. You wouldn’t need to invite me to your clubroom if you wanted to bury me in the school yard.

“First thing first, do you know what will happen next month, Sui?”

“Valentine’s Day?”

“Huh??”

What was that reaction? I was right, stop looking at me like that.

“If I recall correctly… The anniversary of Sakaki Sui’s death.”

“I’m still alive.”

“Not that, but you’re close!”

That wasn’t even close! Why was I surrounded by a bunch of idiots! Why were you spouting nonsense like that, Arina?! Also, why did you humor her, Toma?!

“The ninth graders will take their exams next month!”

“Come to think of it, we took our exams around the same time, huh?”

Our exam back then, huh?

Let me try to remember what happened two years ago. I vividly remember the day when I took the entrance exam to this school.

Unlike my middle school, this school had a bigger building that left an impression on me. The examination hall was filled with students in various uniforms. I remembered that everyone looked like a genius except for me and I received a huge emotional damage before the exam even started. I had to depend on Shirona and my other friends from middle school for mental support, but ironically only Shirona and I passed the test.

As I was lost on a trip down my memory lane, Arina poked me.

“Are you listening? Are your ears still working properly?”

“They are! Sorry, I was thinking about something.”

Toma cleared his throat before continuing.

“The student council saw this as an opportunity to advertise our school and asked me to make a flier about our school for the day of the exam! Even though we’re short-handed, they still asked us anyway! Seriously, we’re still working on our new school year projects! God d*mn it, student council!”

As Toma’s complaints became more vulgar by the second, one of the club members handed him a pen and he slowly began to calm down. It seemed like you could calm him down by giving him a pen. If only Arina’s temper worked the same way…

“In short, we need your help. I know that you guys are dependable from the last time you helped us. Please, you guys are the only ones we can count on!”

“Sure, I don’t mind helping you out.”

“Really?! Thank you very much!”

I had no reason to refuse him and if I ever did, he would probably cry.

I assumed that Arina shared the same opinion as me, then I saw her chuckling at Toma. I was about to scold her for mocking someone who was showing his sincerity, but then Toma’s window to society came to my view. (T/N: 社会の窓 literally means ‘social window’, it’s a slang for men’s fly. It’s a dead slang though since no one uses it anymore. A funny thing that I found is, the slang for women’s fly was called 理科の窓, literally meant science window. Use this information wisely.)

Oh god…

The bird was rarin’ to go. Should I point it out to him? But there were girls inside the clubroom, if I were to tell him, wouldn’t it tarnish his honor as a man? The girls didn’t notice it, right? Then his honor probably could be saved– Never mind, they were staring at it without blinking. Sorry buddy, it was game over for you. Your fault for not noticing it.

I decided to leave everything to the guy next to him and made him sit down. Even if he didn’t, this will hide his window to society in a blind spot.

Of course the guy didn’t point it out.

D*mn it, Toma, notice it already! You were wide open!

“The flier will be one page long! The content will be an overview of our school, from facilities, club activities, curriculum and many more! We also have to spare some space for the student council’s greetings, so be mindful of that!”

After saying that, he stood up again before scribbling something on the whiteboard. Seriously, Toma, you were wide open!

Naturally, everyone here was freaked out when he stood up. The boys were holding the urge to tell him not to stand up but in the end they didn’t say anything. Meanwhile, Arina was forcibly holding her laughter. I became her other victim because she hit my arm while she was doing so.

After he finished writing everything down, Toma gave the whiteboard a nice slap. Stop it! You’ll leave yourself even more vulnerable, Toma!

“That’s it! By the way, on the back of the flier, we’re going to put a picture of the school building and you two as models wearing the school uniform!”

“What? What do you mean?”

“You know, the pictures you often see in school pamphlets! I want you two to help with it! The student council requested it!”

I immediately suspected that Tsuru was involved somehow. I wasn’t particularly fond of people taking pictures of me, so this was a red flag for me already. Meanwhile, Arina was having a hard time trying to hold her laughter.

Toma sat down again and the atmosphere became relaxed again. Some of the club members breathed a sigh of relief because the previous atmosphere wasn’t conductive enough to call him out.

Afterwards, someone showed us an old flier for example. Back when we helped the club for the first time, we only provided them with materials but, this time, we actually had to write something in. Everyone carefully explained everything to us down to the minor details. There was actually something more important for them to note about, but since by this time, it was too late to do anything about it, I decided to shut my mouth and listen to their explanation earnestly.

Arina, on the other hand, was expecting Toma to stand up again and had been sending a glance toward him. Seriously, there was something wrong with this girl’s brain.

Since there was no way that Arina and I could write everything by ourselves, Toma offered his help. Like he said, the other members were busy writing for both their monthly articles and their new school year’s specials, so they couldn’t help us even if they wanted to. We divided our workload before starting our work. I relaxed my thoughts and started to think about what to write, meanwhile Arina seemed to be unable to concentrate, probably because Toma’s… was still open…

Until the end of the day, no one mentioned anything to Toma, but everyone seemed to get used to it as no one made a fuss about it anymore. Well, except for Arina.

It was getting late, so we decided to call it a day before leaving the clubroom. We told them that we’ll stop by again tomorrow before saying our goodbyes.

After we walked a distance away from the clubroom, Arina immediately burst out laughing.

“I can’t! I can’t hold it anymore! Haha!”

The devil’s laughter echoed through the deserted hallway. Forgive me, Toma, I couldn’t preserve your honor after all. If I was more resolute, none of this would have happened.

“Give him a break. Please don’t tell anyone about this, for his sake.”

“Of course I won’t, but I can’t help it if everytime I see him I’ll remember this and laugh at him.”

“I don’t think it’s appropriate for a girl your age to do something like that.”

“Shut it, it isn’t my fault. You shoulda told him if you noticed it.”

“It’s really hard to tell a pervert off, huh? From now on, stay away from Ugin, you’re a bad influence for her.”

“I got her number though.”

“You got that illegally didn’t you?! I’ll protect her innocence even if it’s the last thing I’ll do!”

When we arrived at the stairs, we ran into the members of the student council. They were the new president, vice-president and Tsuru. What the hell were they doing loitering around the school at this hour? Hanging out idly while we were working our a*s off?

“My my, what are you two doing staying at school at this hour?”

“Helping out the journalism club.”

“Wow, that’s the first time I’ve heard of that!”

“We’re writing something for the flier and doing some modeling.”

“That’s a perfect job for Arina!”

I knew it.

She looked like a d*mb girl who couldn’t even memorize the multiplication table to save her life, but she was a sly fox underneath that facade.

I agreed that this was a perfect job for Arina, but why the hell did she get me involved in this? There should be plenty of better looking guys than me out there.

“The taller the model the better– Whoops, I slipped up.”

“I already know that you planned all this, don’t give me that sh*t!”

“C’mon, it isn’t all bad~ You’ll be popular among the new students, wouldn’t it be cool?”

“And the older students will mark me as their enemy, I don’t want that!”

“It’s tough to be pretty.”

“Arina-kun, shut up, you’re the cause of all this!”

Anyway, thanks to my sacrifices, I succeeded in raising Arina’s sociability to this level. If it was a few months ago, she would still have that murderous gaze in her eyes everywhere she went. I was halfway to fulfilling Akakusa-sensei’s wish, or rather, the other Arina’s wish. It was just a matter of time for us to end this.

Suddenly Arina glared at me. Did she read my thoughts again?

“Stop acting like my guardian.”

“How about you stop reading my mind?! The evil researchers will come to find you if you keep doing it!”

“Is that so?”

She decided to go home with Tsuru, so we parted ways at the entrance to the school building.

The student council members also parted ways with me at the same spot and watching their figure walking away from me made me feel melancholic. I wouldn’t be seeing them anymore next year. In a year, I wouldn’t be seeing this scene anymore.

I sat down below the stairs to the entrance before opening my can of tomato juice.

“I wonder what will happen in the future?…”

I couldn’t imagine what would happen after I graduate. My anxiety started to crept up inside me and made my chest tightened. What I wanted to do, really? All my friends had their own dreams and goals, meanwhile, I only wasted my breath doing nothing while drinking my tomato juice. I lost nothing by doing this, but in return, I gained nothing. Was it because I decided to be a going-home club member? If I joined a proper club, would I gain something?

People told me that I was a funny guy because I kept making funny jokes, but truth to be told, if I were to stop doing that, I would be no one. I was happy that they liked me, but at the same time, it made me felt like a piece of sh*t because I only did this to hide my true self.

I almost emptied my can, so I stood up.

“Huh, Sui? What are you doing, at this hour?”

I turned around to see Namiki Shirona in her tennis uniform.

No one else was there.