CH 30

Come to the student council room – that’s what the classmates start buzzing about when they hear the school announcement.

Of course, I’m not that popular and I’m not the class mood maker, so most of them don’t seem to be interested in me. Oh, I guess I’m famous in the sense that I have a bad reputation, at least. Sad.

Some of the boys teasingly asked, “Did you do something?” I don’t know exactly what happened, so I can only nod my head and say, “I don’t know.”

Kohinata, who had been tapping the blackboard eraser with her hand outside the window, stopped and stared in my direction.

The cleaning was over, and it was almost the end of the school assembly.

Less than ten minutes later, my classmates seem to have easily lost interest in the school’s public address system. The only people still scratching their heads are those involved. If I go bald from stress, who should I claim the compensation from?

“Actually, it could be something completely unrelated.”

I put my chin on the desk and mutter my wish in my slack-jawed state.

“I don’t think so,……, since it seems that both Tomoki and that one were looking at each another.”

The “over there” that Keiichi refers to is, of course, Kohinata. I’m sure it’s still Kohinata related stuff.

I put my cheek on the desk and then turned to face the direction of Keiichi. He seemed to be in the process of stuffing his textbooks into his bag, but I spoke to him without concern.

“The troublesome pattern is a situation like Saejima’s, where she doesn’t listen to me and says, ‘You bad guys, get away from Kohinata!’. And the other pattern is that she simply doesn’t like the fact that Kohinata and I are together.”

For the former, I’ll have to do my best to prove it, but for the latter, I think it would be quicker if Kohinata made her intentions known. I mean, older or not, don’t meddle in people’s relationships–that’s my honest feeling. And even using the school’s internal broadcasting system, …… is a gross abuse of authority.

I turned around to see a familiar expressionless girl standing there on a stick. When her eyes met mine, she began to shake her head side to side with an angry look on her face.

“Ah ……perhaps you heard me?”

Kohinata nodded her head. In explaining this operation to her, I had softly said, “Because I’m feeling some strange stares,” but …… that was a bad idea. At any rate, I had to explain something in my defense.

“That was just a possibility–or rather, a fantasy of mine–so don’t worry about it, okay? See, Kohinata is popular with both men and women alike.”

I try to praise Kohinata based on the fact, but her negative aura doesn’t subside at all.

“Ah,…… that one, that one, maybe they heard a bad rumor about me and wanted to make sure it was true, since it’s called the student council. If there were any strange students, they would want to be careful.”

I’m going to say my prediction that ignores the fact that the student council people were also looking at Kohinata. I felt that Kohinata’s negative aura increased even more.

I kind of feel like a husband who has been caught cheating on his wife. …… Of course, being a high school boy with no girlfriend = age, I have no such experience at all.

“We won’t know exactly what’s going on until he goes, and Kohinata, let’s stay in the classroom with me and Saejima. If Tomoki seems to have made false accusations or said something strange, we’ll go protest to the student council ourselves.”

Keiichi offered a helping hand. Kohinata nodded broadly when she heard those words.

Is it safe to say that everything was settled?

☆ ☆　☆　☆　☆

Saejima asked, “What do you mean!” during the end-of-school assembly. I left the three students with anxious expressions on their faces in the classroom and headed alone to the student council office on the first floor of the school building.

I was nervous as could be.

I was so nervous because all the members of the student council seemed to be women, and as a traumatized man, I felt like walking away from them right away. But in order to greet the Golden Week with a clear mind, I want to end this troublesome matter today.

I took a few deep breaths and knocked on the room with the “Student Council Room” plate. I called out through the door, “I’m Sugino, a second-year student,” and a dignified voice replied, “Come on in.”

Fearfully, I opened the door to find two women there. There were fewer people there than I had expected, and I let out a quiet breath of relief.

Directly in front of the room is still glass. A wooden work desk was set up in front of it, and there was one person sitting at what looked like the CEO’s seat with her hands folded and her mouth covered. And one woman standing in front of the whiteboard on the right wall of the room.

That person sitting in that pompous-looking seat is the student body president. I have seen her several times.

Another person with intellectual glasses standing on the right side of the room was walking right and left in front of the Class 2C students earlier.

“Sugino, second-year student, please take a seat first.”

“Understood.”

The president of the student council urged me to do so, and I obeyed. The way she calls me by my name is very peculiar.

In the center of the room, there is a long desk with three chairs facing each other. I sat down in the middle chair on the left side.

“Let me start by introducing myself, I am Ikaruga Iroha – I am the student council president from this school year.”

The president of the student council, Ikaruga Iroha, said in a serious tone of voice while keeping her hands folded in a posture.

Long black hair, slit eyes, and well-defined facial features – her appearance is probably one of the factors that create the current atmosphere.

Just hearing her name, there is a sense of oppression that makes you unconsciously straighten your posture.

I didn’t think anything of it when I was listening to her speech at the student council meeting or at the school assembly. …… Is that how serious the content of this talk is? So is the story is about my bad reputation?

As I listen to my heartbeat, which is louder than usual, and feel the cold sweat running down my cheeks, Ikaruga continues to introduce herself,

“–I am the president of KCC — ‘Kohinatan chuki Club’ — again this term, as I was last year.”

(TL/N: Of course you guys know what KCC means right?)