Chapter – 03
“Hmm. So basically, we just need to recruit two more members, right?”
“We’re already past that stage. After pulling something like that, do you really think there’s still a chance the club can survive?”
“The student council is bureaucracy, for better or worse. As long as we meet the requirements, they can’t shut us down.”
If Kadzuki were the student council president, she would probably use what had just happened as grounds to force the club to disband. But Shioi, apparently not considering that possibility at all, had already returned to talking about recruiting members as if nothing had happened.
“Kadzuki, as club president, I order you.”
“The president isn’t actually that important, so I’m not taking orders.”
“Then will you listen if I ask nicely?”
“Depends on what it is.”
Shioi strode forward. In reality, she was wearing the school-issued indoor slippers, so the only sound was a light pat-pat. Yet somehow, whenever she walked, it felt like she should be clicking down the hallway in heels.
In any case, she advanced with purpose.
“D-Don’t come any closer. Stop. Stop right there!”
Kadzuki ended up sounding like she was giving commands to a pet dog, but Shioi didn’t stop.
In no time, Kadzuki found herself cornered in the landing of the staircase.
Shioi placed her right hand against the wall, cutting off Kadzuki’s escape route. The left side was completely open, so she could probably run if she wanted to. But she would just get caught immediately anyway.
There was no point wasting energy on a futile struggle.
It was probably safest to just listen.
Normally, Shioi’s silence gave her the aura of a cool beauty. So when someone like her was pressing another student against the wall in a busy hallway, there was no way it wouldn’t attract attention.
A crowd of curious onlookers quickly gathered.
Still, nobody dared approach too closely. They only watched from a distance.
“I want you to help recruit members.”
“I already told you that sounds like a pain, so no.”
“Of course I’m not asking for free. I know you admire me. That’s why you joined the club, right? You didn’t seriously think I hadn’t noticed, did you? Hmm?”
She leaned in so close that, from an outsider’s perspective, it might look like they were about to kiss.
Shioi’s breath brushed against her face, and Kadzuki quickly looked away.
“If you help me, I’ll reward you. Whatever you want, I’ll give it to you. Not a bad deal, right?”
Shioi brushed Kadzuki’s bangs aside and flashed a mischievous smile.
“And besides…”
“If the club gets disbanded, you won’t be able to spend time with me anymore.”
To be clear, Kadzuki was not a lesbian.
She did not view Shioi romantically in the slightest.
In fact, she had been dating a boyfriend for six months.
Still, she couldn’t deny feeling a certain admiration for Shioi’s beauty—or perhaps fascination with her as a fellow human being.
For some reason, however, Shioi seemed convinced that Kadzuki was completely infatuated with her.
To Kadzuki, Shioi was more like a work of art.
No matter how beautiful the woman in a painting might be, very few people would look at it and think, I want to marry her.
“I don’t really mind that part, though.”
“Huh?”
“I’m not one of those people who needs to be alone with you in the clubroom or anything. It’s really not a big deal.”
“W-What? That’s not how this was supposed to go! According to my calculations, if I cornered you like this, you were supposed to blush and agree immediately. Like a dog obeying its owner.”
Had Kadzuki ever acted that obedient?
Perhaps Shioi’s image of her had somehow been rewritten inside her own head.
“Anyway.”
Kadzuki brushed Shioi’s hand aside.
“If you want members, recruit them yourself.”
Honestly, whether the Contemporary Art Club survived or not made little difference.
The fact remained that Shioi would still be attending this school for another year.
Art was probably best appreciated from a slight distance.
When viewed from too close, you missed the bigger picture.
Maybe they had been too close all this time.
If the club disappeared, perhaps they could finally maintain a healthier distance.
That was assuming Shioi didn’t get expelled first because of all her repeated confrontations with the student council.
“Traitor! Heartless monster! Scumbag!”
“The last one is just an insult.”
“Ugh. If only you’d listened to me, I might have agreed to be a model for one of your artworks.”
“A model?”
Kadzuki’s eyebrow twitched.
“You’re completely uninterested in contemporary art, but you do care about art itself, don’t you? You said you like drawing.”
“Well, yeah…”
“I saw that portrait you drew. The one displayed outside the classroom. It was quite good, technically speaking. But it didn’t feel like you enjoyed painting it.”
Shioi folded her arms confidently.
“That’s because the model was mediocre, so you couldn’t get excited about it. Am I right?”
Calling the model mediocre was a little rude, but Shioi wasn’t entirely wrong.
The subject of the portrait from art class had been one of Kadzuki’s classmates.
It wasn’t that her friend was unattractive.
She just didn’t have any particularly striking features.
And faithfully reproducing that appearance on canvas had resulted in a piece that felt rather unremarkable.
What kind of painting could she create if Shioi were the model?
Kadzuki had wondered that once and even asked Shioi to pose for her.
She had been rejected immediately.
Afterward, Kadzuki had tried secretly taking photos instead.
Apparently she had been caught, because the very next day smartphones were banned in the clubroom.
“If you recruit members, I’ll be your model. Well? Deal?”
Kadzuki weighed the annoyance of recruiting members against the opportunity to paint Shioi.
She thought long and hard.
Then she gave her answer.
“Alright. I’ll do it.”
“Yes!”
Shioi clenched both fists in victory.
The gathered spectators gasped.
It was a side of Shioi they never saw.
“Good. Then let’s get moving! Time is precious. The deadline is…”
She paused to calculate.
“Uh… We need at least four members by the start of the new school year, so…”
Her face went pale.
“We only have one week left! Damn it! If only I’d started sooner!”
Why hadn’t Shioi known that clubs failing to meet the requirements would be disbanded?
Watching her clutch her head in despair now made it difficult to feel much sympathy.
“Go ask somebody right now!”
“It’s already after school.”
At some point, the crowd had dispersed.
The hallway was nearly empty.
The sounds of practice from the Pancreas Studies Club drifted in on the wind, mixed with the soccer club’s shouts.
Nobody remained in the classrooms anymore.
The day was effectively over.
“Then start first thing tomorrow morning. Got it?”
“Tomorrow’s the closing ceremony, though.”
“Ah.”
Today was March 24.
Once tomorrow’s closing ceremony ended, spring break would begin.
It was a short break.
And when it ended, the new school year would start.
In other words, their deadline was practically already here.
Shioi collapsed onto the hallway floor.
“This is terrible. We’re heading straight toward disbandment.”
The back that usually seemed annoyingly confident had completely slumped over.
Even Kadzuki started to feel a little sorry for her.
She gently rubbed Shioi’s back.
“Come on, cheer up. Maybe we’ll somehow recruit someone. A miracle could happen.”
She knew perfectly well that such a thing was almost impossible.
Still, she offered the words as comfort.
“Ooooooooooooooh…”
Shioi’s mysterious wail of despair echoed through the corridor, glowing red beneath the evening sun.
