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“Yesterday, that Takamichi Wakaba girl caused problems again, I see.”
The President stopped to enjoy a sip of tea.
“Because of that one girl the entire school has been thrown into chaos and ill-discipline. Don’t you all agree?”
Her allies agreed and their dislike of Wakaba-chan showed in their expressions.
I just smiled and stayed silent.
Since yesterday I had been terrified that she would call me out on defending Wakaba-chan and I could tell the moment was here.
The moment I arrived in the salon after school today, the President called me over for some tea.
My heart hadn’t stopped thumping since. This wasn’t going to be a problem was it?
There was an urban myth that mammals were born with a set number of heartbeats. I hoped I wasn’t using mine up.
“What do you think, Reika-sama?”
I knew it!
“Not much, but I
”
“From what I hear, you stopped a group of girls from confronting Takamichi-san?”
Ueegghh, there were little waves in my teacup from the shaking

Come on, Reika! You’re an actress right now!
“Yes. I was told that there was a disturbance so I went to investigate, only to hear something that I could not accept and, well
”
“My
”
“Even if Takamichi-san herself has problems, I cannot agree with insulting her family as well. It would hurt me deeply if anybody disparaged my own family
” I said as I placed a hand to my chest and tried my best to look sad.
The people around began to sympathise with me, because “Everybody knows how close Reika-sama is with her family
”
“You’re a kind person, so no wonder you couldn’t overlook that. Insulting family is certainly classless.”
“Yes
”
“But if we examine the root cause, this was all because Takamichi-san earned the enmity of so many people by failing to understand propriety. If it wasn’t for her lack of consideration, Reika-sama would never have had to have been hurt.”
“Eh
”
Everybody voiced their agreement.
“Poor Reika-sama.”
“Why did Reika-sama have to suffer for a girl like that?”
“Without even knowing how it ends up hurting Reika-sama, Takamichi Wakaba continues to have the Student Council President wait on her hand and foot. How very convenient for her.”
“With the way the Student Council have been spoilt it’s little wonder that that girl has been getting ahead of herself,” complained one of the boys.
“Very true,” agreed the President. “Because the current Student Council has been pushing their luck, that girl has felt no reason to reform.”
The President took my hands into hers.
“Reika-sama. I know full well how kind you are. But kindness is not enough for the President of the Pivoine. There are times when we must be harsh as well. If not, the Student Council will only grow more impudent.”
“No, but as I mentioned earlier, I am not capable enough to
”
“The current Student Council is truly an aggravating. It appears that they even harbour ambitions of supplanting the Pivoine.”
“Umm
”
After that the conversation turned to their latest skirmish with the Student Council.
Aahh, so they still hadn’t given up on making me president

I quietly left my seat and headed for my usual sofa by the wall.
I suppose I can at least consider having dealt with the repercussions of yesterday? Ahhh

Around the time that I was on my second cup of tea, Kaburagi and Enjou finally came along.
They had no idea about how other people suffered!
Perhaps my displeasure was oozing from my body because Enjou spoke to me.
“What’s wrong, Kisshouin-san? You seem worn out today.”
I am!
“The end of the year is a busy time.”
Recently it was one worry after another.
I was actually checking for white hairs you know.
Well, given all the scalp massages I was getting from both the beauty salon and myself, I think it was in pretty good shape though!
On days like this I just wanted to head to my club and begin knitting already. You can really lose yourself in knitting, after all.
I bade the two of them goodbye and left the salon.
*
The Handicrafts Club was heaven!
Everyone happily knitted as we discussed the tea party on the last day of club activities for the year.
Since I was only a (provisional) member last year I didn’t get to participate, but this year I could boldly do so. Wahh, so happy.
“When I mentioned the tea party to Kotou-san she said she wanted to join in.”
“My, my, that would simply not do, Minami-kun. Tell her that if she wants to participate then she should join the club.”
Geez, that Ririna is so spoilt. Even a (provisional) member like me wasn’t allowed to. The road to the end-of-year tea party is that tough, you know. Definitely not a party that just any outsider can join in on.
“Are you making a neck warmer, Reika-sama?”
“Uhuhu, that is a secret.”
I couldn’t admit that it was meant to be a belly warmer yet
 If I screwed it up, I could always give it to the tanuki. A nice, cute pink one for him!
*
*
After the conversation between Sakura-chan and Aoi-chan the other day, I was starting to feel anxious about cooking.
Were girls just supposed to know? If so, that was bad news for me

I casually asked the girls in my group, and a lot of them couldn’t cook either. Plenty of them had employees to do that after all.
It wasn’t enough to set me at ease though. I couldn’t say for certain that I’d never have to cook, after all. Like what if there was some day when I had to cook for a boy I liked!?
In the past I tried teaching myself through experiments a few times, but I got bored straight away. Maybe learning under an expert was the right idea after all?
While I was thinking about it, I suddenly thought of Akimi-san. I thinkshe might have said something about becoming a cooking teacher?
Just between you and me, I actually don’t know a whole lot about cooking. I would probably have to start with the basics of the basics.
I had the feeling that Akimi-san would be a gentle teacher to a clumsy person like me.
In the end I sent her a message about it. Ooh, I hoped that she’d say okay.
She immediately replied that as long as I was fine with her. She even asked me to try her cooking to see if I was okay with her sense of taste first. Yaaay!
Now even I was going to be able to cook for my future boyfriend! Wait for me, my yet unknown love!
Since it wasn’t set in stone yet, I only told Oniisama that I might be learning how to cook. He gave me a strange look. Why? I even told him that I’d be giving him the most of my cooking.