Information Gathering

It was the next day and Arata was still in shock over the revelation from yesterday. He felt like such an idiot for not noticing sooner. The boy was starting to empathize with those harem protagonists who seemingly don't realize the number of girls in love with them. Or are even unaware of the feelings of specific ones in the first place.

"I really hope that there's no one else." He muttered to himself as he headed towards the library once more. Though, he didn't want to make any assumptions. There was no point in overthinking things now that someone else revealed who they really were. Especially now with something else more important in his mind. That being to meet with Yurime for a little bit of a secret meeting. "I need your help with something." Those were the first words out of his mouth the moment he stepped inside.

"Wh… Arata, what are you doing here?" The girl was caught off guard as she leapt up a bit from the fright he gave her with his arrival.

"I was wondering if you could come with me on a little bit of… Journalist investigation?"

"You won't help us with our campaign. Why should I be helping you right now?" She was busy, and time was of the essence. However, he was certain that he could give her a good reason that involved her as well.

"Surely you'd like to check out the competition too, right?" He put out a compelling case for her to want to do this, as it was beneficial for both parties. "Plus, I kind of wanted to talk with you privately about… You know who."

"You do?" Her heart tightened when she heard him mention their common friend. It made Yurime wonder what his decision was going to be. "Then, I have a little bit of time I can spare." The two of them left the library to head to the destination of Arata's desire. This time, it would be heading down to the lower floor to check on some of the 1st years. Particularly in search of a certain candidate running for student council president. While doing so, he also took this time to talk about the elephant in the room.

"So, I'm taking it you already knew." He brought up the subject first. "How long has it been like that?"

"I can't say for certain when it really started." She answered. "But, I can tell you it became clear to me shortly before the Christmas party we all took part in." Now that he was thinking of Ichiri's behavior with a new lens, it made more sense. "She confided in the two of us officially when she came to the decision to run for president." Though at that point, the two other members of the library committee were already aware. Unfortunately, that news wasn't taken very well.

"And let me guess, she wanted to run so that she could get me to fall for her." Somehow, despite that girl's brains. She was incredibly naive when it came to courting a boy. "That's silly, if I cared about that sort of thing. I'd already be dating Misei."

"Because that girl likes you too, right?"

"What? How did you…" Arata was dumbfounded that Yurime spoke with such confidence in knowing that fact.

"I can tell from the way she acts around you." She answered his inevitable questions. "Actually, I'm a lot more aware about the girls' feelings than you even know." That certainly brought an interesting perspective to his situation. Of course, it takes one to know one, and there's a good reason why she seemed to be able to notice these types of things with the rest of the girls. "If that's the case though, what are you gonna do?"

"I should've just rejected her for pulling this stupid stunt." He answered her honestly. "But, I've only ever seen her as my junior. So I can't say for certain what my feelings are until I think about it harder."

"It looks like you've been doing a lot of that lately." He couldn't argue against that. It had been several months since Hifumi, the first girl to make her feelings clear to him, confessed to him. Back then, he kind of rejected her, but maybe things were a little more different when he gave it more thought.

"I guess I should be doing less of that, and more thinking with my heart." That was easier said than done though. His heart was also aware of how much heartbreak would be caused with accepting to go out with one of these girls, which would obviously mean rejecting the rest.

"Just try to make sure you do what's right for you." She told him. "I'll support you no matter what." There was a hint of hurt in her voice, that his ears were able to pick up on. It made him wonder, was there was person she didn't want him choosing? It was fine for her to have her favorites, in fact it was probably Ichiri herself. So he didn't think too hard on it.

"Hold on." He stopped them in their tracks. They had found their prey. Syari was sitting all by her lonesome under a tree just outside the school during their lunch break. She didn't seem to be doing much else beyond just eating.

"So, we just go up and talk to her?" She asked.

"No." He explained to her his plan. It involved Yurime walking up and chatting with this girl. All the while, Arata would be listening in from a hidden location. This girl was an enigma to him. She didn't seem to have any friends around here, so there was no one to go to in order to figure out her reasons for running.

"Seems a bit convoluted, don't you think?"

"Maybe, but I doubt I could get her to tell me anything." He defended his reasoning. "For some reason, she doesn't seem to like me all that much."

"Okay…" With this plan set into motion, Yurime approached the girl to strike up a conversation. "Hello, it's Syari Gun, right?"

"I have no intention to be chatting with my competition right now." Immediately, there was a cold response.

"Oh, well I know that we're technically running against each other." Considering that Ichiri was part of the equation, it was clear who Yurime was rooting for. "But, if I win vice president, and you win the presidency, then we'll have to work together, right? I figure I should get to know you a little better just in case. Especially since I'm already familiar with the others."

"Very well then." She took the bait. "If you wish to talk, then I do have a few questions of my own."

"Great." Yurime sat down besides her. "Go ahead."

"It would be nice if you could tell me a little bit about Kashimura." She asked about Arata. There was something about him that she couldn't understand. The ball, the play during the festival, and even his involvement with the student council. He had quite an eventful time for his second year as a high schooler. Which made little sense to her, since he was apparently a loner before all that. "So why the change?"

"Maybe he had a change of heart?" Yurime knew the real reason, but there was no way she'd ever consider telling this girl. Especially since that included the negative bit of what she did to him as well with the blackmail. "He could've just realized how important his youth was."

"Perhaps…" She responded slowly. "Or maybe the boy himself can tell us that." Syari revealed that she was very well aware that this was a ploy from the two as she turned her head towards Arata's hiding place. "So please, can we stop this ridiculous charade and just talk to me like a normal person?"

"Okay, I'm sorry." He revealed himself and walked towards the pair. "But, it's just that you didn't seem to want to talk with me. I wasn't sure if you'd tell me things I wanted to know."

"I hope that not all of our student council members are this devious with trying to spy on people." Now that he thought about it, she had a good point there. "If you were so desperate to ascertain my motives, perhaps you'd be fine with me asking you some questions of my own?"

"As long as you tell me about yours first."

"That's fine with me." She stood up and faced him, as if this was a one-on-one ignoring the girl besides them. It was a little silly that she appeared to be squaring up against him, when even with his short stature, she was at least a head shorter than him. "Because my motivation is related to it."

"Why would that be?"

"Because I'm highly suspicious of you." He wasn't wrong about her disliking him. But at no point did he think she considered him to be a bad person. "One year, you're this loner kid that wants to hang out with no one. Then all of a sudden, you're at the center of all this attention. Not to mention how everyone except for me who's running in this election has a relationship with you."

Is this really how people on the outside looking in thought of him? Sure, Arata was aware that his actions seemed to conflict with his own character. However, it seemed that most people just accepted it since they were all young, and most of them didn't care anyway. "There's just something about you that I don't like. I'm getting the feeling that you're up to something, and I'm going to put a stop to it by running."

What she was telling him was horrible to hear. Though on the bright side, he at least learned of her motivations. "Trust me, when I win this whole thing. I'll expose you for the person you really are." With that, Syari marched off from them. He had no words to say back to her with how crazy things had turned out.

"This is going to be bothersome." He said as Yurime got back onto her feet.

"Heh… Yeah, I guess you could say that." Her response sounded very detached. Her mind was on something else caused by the declaration that girl just made. He figured that she was worried about the incident of her attempted blackmail on him coming out to the school. Just another lesson to him to never try and do wrong to someone, because it'll become a dark cloud hanging over your head for a long time to come.

Hopefully, this dark cloud wouldn't bring a storm their way.